Season 69

[talisman]

Palace teams report, end of Week 3...

Casuals have only lost once in the League this season, but have drawn 10 out of the other 18 matches, earning themselves the 'Draw Kings' appellation... Wednesday's match was the ninth draw of the season, Anthony Petrovski providing the goal in a 1-1 draw, midfielder Mike Christie suffering injury in the last minute of the match. Thursday saw the visit of the League basement club and they went home smarting from a 6-0 thrashing, Petrovski finding the net again; Valentin Ndjengue (2), Freddy Jones, Suhail Kamal and David Zhelev completing the scoring. A second home League game running saw another draw, Petrovski and Johan Shaqiri scoring, but the defence leaking equalisers as the visitors escaped with a point. The Management decided that enough was enough in the conceding goals department, so used their accumulated tokens in raiding the Scout list for a couple of defenders, who made their debuts in today's away game. The defence conceded again, but was much more resilient, which gave the strike force the confidence to attack more, and the result was a 5-1 win for the Casuals. Set-piece specialist Omar Hansen found his scoring boots again with a couple of direct free kicks, Petrovski keeping up his recent scoring run with another goal, Zhelev and Ben De Wree being the other contributors. Current League table:



After their exit from the Champions League, the Cup remains the only other competition for Casuals to tilt at. Carrying a slender 1-0 lead to the away Leg, Reda Mourad scored the opening goal in a 1-1 draw for a 2-1 aggregate win and progression to the Semi-Finals.

Terriers suffered a dramatic 1-3 loss, in which their entire available central midfield was injured or dismissed. Sergey Dolgoborodov scored the opening goal, before becoming the first player injured. Eko Sinegal was then injured, and Ondrej Kadlec dismissed for two yellow cards, leaving the central midfield positions in the hands of DMC Paul Hartnett and attacking midfielder Xabier Moran, while the home side scored three goals from their only three on-target shots in the entire match. Defender Aad Roemgens and midfielder Dolgoborodov were attended to by the Medical team to get them fit for the next match, a 2-1 win in which Ben Atkins and Harry Cambridge scored the goals. The same two players added goals in Friday's 3-0 win, Moran scoring the third, but striker Matt Hall was injured in this game. Saturday's game was at home, and the Terriers fell behind early on, and struggled to find an effective counter for the visitors' lop-sided formation. A couple of second-half substitutions finally did the trick and Nicky Jones and Cambridge scored late on to secure a 2-1 win. Terriers now find themselves in 3rd place with a comfortable-looking 5 point gap separating them from 4th place:



Terriers competed in the Champions League Quarter-Finals, getting a stylish 2-2 draw at a slightly more powerful team, Kadlec and Moran scoring, but suffered a 0-2 defeat in the home Leg to exit the competition 2-4 on aggregate. You know that it isn't your day when usually deadly strikers think the target is in row Z of the stand and hitherto surefooted and robust defenders are made to look like Year 1 Academy players...

Having achieved a 4-2 victory in the 1st Leg of their Cup Quarter-Final, Terriers were entitled to be a little relaxed in the home Leg, and a 1-1 draw was sufficient to progress 5-3 on aggregate, Kadlec scoring, but Aad Roemgens being injured during the match.

Desert Rats FC have run into a purple patch recently, and enjoyed four convincing victories, scoring 19 goals and conceding 2, Steve Haddou and Lorcan Ivory being the chief contributors with 4 goals, including a hat-trick, each. Francisco Pelissier scored three, Alex Woolley and Michael Attenborough two each and there were also goals from Vinnie Taylor, Sebastien Valeri, Plamen Atanasov and Matt Pierre. Current League table:



Injury Stats:
Palace Casuals - 8 injuries, 27 days
Palace Terriers - 13 injuries, 51 days
Desert Rats FC - 8 injuries, 33 days