Season 71 - Week 4

[talisman]

Palace teams report, Monday...

The first part of the day was the Palace Casuals show, two matches in three hours showcasing all that is good in 'Palace teams world' at the moment - not!

Champions League Group stage, Round 4, at home. The team that were effectively trolled two days ago turned up and was fielding the same squad in the same formation (?) - only this time they got on the score board first, but Ben De Wree arrived in the area to head in an equaliser from a Artem Garaev corner. Two more goals for the visitors followed before half-time, and they started after the break looking for more. That they did not get them is down to some pretty solid defending, led by De Wree, and right-back Sergey Fetisov gave the Casuals some hope by finishing off a move started by striker Liam Cashman, heralding a fruitless last ten minute press for an equaliser. Final score a 2-3 defeat, but Casuals, by some quirk, stay in second place in the Group. Left-winger Omar Hansen joined his 'flying winger' partner Johan Shaqiri in the Casuals '200 Club' today:

Omar Hansen - 200 appearances, 99 goals, 24 assists.



Three hours later, and a home League match beckoned - most of the first team were still tired and the Management had decided enough was enough in the League and they were going to use this season to rest and rebuild (ie Tank...). So a virtual reserve squad were put into the field, and they performed a minor miracle in escaping with a point in a 1-1 draw. Having failed to score a goal in his 200th match, Omar Hansen did score the goal to make him the first member of Palace Casuals '100 Goal Club' in this game, heading home the equaliser from a free-kick by striker Reda Mourad.

Desert Rats FC followed up the senior team's efforts with a mid-afternoon Champions League Group match and leapt up into second place with a 4-0 win. Alex Woolley, Albert O'Toole, Lorcan Ivory and Jose Carlos Matias scored the goals, but Woolley was not to last long after his effort as he became the latest member of the injury set.

Palace Terriers had an away League match in an early evening slot, and narrowly won a war of attrition between two defensive sides 1-0. Zdenek Krajca scored the decisive goal in the 20th minute.

Desert Rats late evening away League match was nearly a disaster. Having scored the opener in the 5th minute, the home side were coasting against a much superior Terriers squad, but were the architects of their own downfall when they suffered a double sending off (one for professional foul, the other for malicious expectoration). Playing against 9 men, Terriers had trouble settling to a rhythm, but a late penalty opportunity for Vinnie Taylor put them on the right track and Taylor's second goal at the death sealed the 2-1 win.