Terk

February 2008 Results:

(National unless otherwise stated)


Châteauroux 3 – 0 Pau
(Bikoyoi (OG) 4”; Ajouaou 45+1”; Costa 56”)

Pau 3 – 0 Martigues
(Kébé 33”; Bounayre 70”; Sekour 77”)

Terk

“Keep this up and we might just escape.” Jacques Le Coadou, the club chairman, had paid another visit to my office to express his delight at victory gained by his side. After thumping Martigues, we had travelled to Mezzavia to face GFCO Ajaccio, a team who could easily find themselves dragged into the relegation battle.

There were no changes to the side that had done so well against Martigues, and we continued to look a far better side with Bah at right back and Labat on the left side of defence. Cami remained our main creative threat, and it was the midfielder who struck us into the lead with a nineteenth minute penalty after Anthony Peralta had fouled Bounayre, and ten minutes later our superiority was confirmed when a wonderful move involving Cami, Christophe Walter and Yahia Kébé ended with the loan striker easing his shot past Emmanuel Rayer in the home side’s goal.

In truth, we could and probably should have had six or seven more in the second half, we simply ran riot at the Stade Ange Casanova and there was absolutely nothing the hosts could do to stop us, save pray that our finishing remained as wild as it had been. We finally did add a third to our score, the very least that our play deserved, four minutes from time, Aernoudt finding Walter unmarked in the penalty area and watching as the midfielder rocketed a shot into the roof of the net. The result left us just two points shy of Paris FC and the safety of sixteenth place.

--

“Any news on the offer we put to Marcel?”
“He signed. No hesitation.”
“Excellent.” I had hoped that offering fifty-seven year old club physio Marcel Lassus a two year extension to his deal which was due to run out in the summer signalled my intention to stay well past the end of the relegation battle we found ourselves in, and that was exactly the way it had been taken. Monsieur Le Coadou had, however, been a little hesitant at my request to sit down and talk about a long contract.

“Take your time, Stephen. Don’t commit yourself to something more than you’re willing to give. You’re a quality coach, a big team will come in soon and I want you to be able to make the decision purely on your own. Maybe we can talk about a rolling deal in the summer.”

My chances of landing such a deal were only increased when we scored our third consecutive three-nil victory, and with it moved out of the relegation zone. Paris FC had stood just above us when play began at the Stade du Hameau, but by the final whistle we had vaulted them in the table and shown them just how determined we were to emerge from battle successful.

Yahia Kébé had become something of a quick crowd favourite in his short spell from Bordeaux, already netting three times in his first six games – the first two of which had been late substitute appearances – and he enhanced his reputation in the tenth minute of the match against Paris, latching onto Bounayre’s through ball and rounding goalkeeper Steve Mandana before sliding his shot home from a tight angle.

By half time the game was won without doubt, Walter having crossed for Bikoyoi to double our advantage in the seventeenth minute and then Lionel Bah, deputising at right wing for the injured N’Zif, arrived at the back post to convert Faivre’s cross with a well-placed side-foot shot past Mandana.

Terk

“Nicolas, do you want to risk it?”
“Let me out there, boss.” Cami had picked up a slight ankle knock in the warm-up for our game against Toulon, and as such had been forced to make do with a place on the bench for the first eighty minutes of the game; watching on as we struggled to deal with the side tenth in the league. Somehow though, we were still holding strong at 1-1, thanks mainly to an incredible shift from goalkeeper Jacques Leglib, and with ten minutes to go I was willing to risk anything for three points which would be huge in our battle for survival.

--

“A masterstroke, Stephen.”
“Nicolas scored the goals.”
“But you had the guts to risk him. I think you can claim some credit for yourself.” Of that there was no doubt, within seven minutes of Cami’s appearance on the field, he had turned Walter’s shot into the net, and a minute into injury time he sealed a win we had no right to claim, stealing the ball off Toulon goalkeeper Thomas Trochut and walking it into the net. With Châtellerault relegated after their 0-1 defeat to Viry and ourselves now sitting two points clear of the relegation zone, things were looking a lot brighter as we edged towards the final days of March.

We had a much more difficult times of things in our home game against Racing 92. Despite the fact that Toulon had caused us serious problems all game, it had always looked like we could nick a goal on the break, but back at the Stade du Hameau, we were simply never in the game. From the first whistle to the last, Racing had our number and we managed only a solitary strike on target, though admittedly it did force a superb save from Willy Grondin in the visitor’s goal.

Racing claimed the single goal they needed for victory with five minutes remaining before the interval, Moustapha Keita netting from the penalty spot after Tchami had handled in the area when under no pressure at all. It was a bad way to loose a bad game, and certainly forced a cautionary note of reality into an otherwise superb month.

Terk

March 2008 Results

(National unless otherwise stated)


GFCO Ajaccio 0 – 3 Pau
(Cami pen 19”; Kébé 29”; Walter 86”)

Pau 3 – 0 Paris FC
(Kébé 10”; Bikoyoi 17”; Bah 36”)

Toulon 1 – 3 Pau
(Paillères 23”; Walter 33”; Cami 87”, 90+1”)

Pau 0 – 1 Racing 92
(Keita pen 40”)

Terk

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Châteauroux | | 33 | 17 | 7 | 9 | 54 | 37 | +17 | 58 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Rouen | | 33 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 49 | 34 | +15 | 55 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Wasquehal | | 33 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 41 | 33 | +8 | 52 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Angoulême | | 33 | 15 | 7 | 11 | 46 | 35 | +11 | 52 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Clermont-Ferrand | | 33 | 14 | 8 | 11 | 46 | 38 | +8 | 50 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Racing 92 | | 33 | 15 | 5 | 13 | 43 | 40 | +3 | 50 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Cannes | | 33 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 48 | 42 | +6 | 49 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Cherbourg | | 33 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 46 | 40 | +6 | 48 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | GFCO Ajaccio | | 33 | 13 | 7 | 13 | 38 | 44 | -6 | 46 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Valence | | 33 | 13 | 7 | 13 | 35 | 34 | +1 | 46 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Toulon | | 33 | 13 | 7 | 13 | 45 | 43 | +2 | 46 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Libourne St-Seurin | | 33 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 39 | 38 | +1 | 45 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Pacy | | 33 | 13 | 6 | 14 | 41 | 43 | -2 | 45 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Louhans-Cuiseaux | | 33 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 42 | 48 | -6 | 45 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Noisy-le-Sec | | 33 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 40 | 41 | -1 | 42 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Pau | | 33 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 42 | 39 | +3 | 41 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Viry | | 33 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 35 | 44 | -9 | 39 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Paris FC | | 33 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 39 | 51 | -12 | 38 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Martigues | | 33 | 8 | 8 | 17 | 31 | 52 | -21 | 32 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Châtellerault | | 33 | 4 | 10 | 19 | 28 | 52 | -24 | 22 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Terk

the return :eek:

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I spent my two weeks off between the defeat to Racing and the visit to already relegated Châtellerault doing very little indeed. I walked around town, enjoying the fact that no one really knew me yet and I could be just another face in the crowd. I also caught up with what was happening in the English game, and whilst Chelsea were walking away with the title, my former charges in Nottingham were on the verge of dropping out of the league. If they failed to beat Portsmouth at the City Ground then they would be relegated with three games remaining – perhaps the fact that they hadn’t bought a single player since I left contributed to their downfall.

I was determined that Pau wouldn’t suffer a similar fate, and a win at the Stade de la Montée Rouge would go a long way to ensuring that. Unfortunately, we played one of the poorest halves of football I’ve ever seen in the first forty-five. Thankfully the home side weren’t able to make too much of our inadequacy and had only a Wilfried Niflore penalty to show for it. There were changes made at half time and instructions reiterated, and whilst our improvement wasn’t massive, it was enough to win a penalty which Cami converted in the fifty-first minute and enough then to hold onto a point which we scarcely deserved.

In relegation battles, it is so often the games against those around the drop zone which determine whether you stay up or not, and so with a visit from 18th placed Viry following our trip to Châtellerault, we felt it important to claim the three points. However, the form we had shown throughout March seemed definitely to have fled as the visitors had the better of the game.

A Gilles De Oliveira goal had Viry in front at half time, but we got a boost five minutes after the break when Halil Toraman was shown a straight red card for an horrific challenge on Bah, which left the defender with a horrible gash on his leg. Suddenly the momentum of the game had swung, and finally when Faivre swung in a corner, Kébé headed into the corner to at least bag us a point.

With three games now remaining, the situation was horribly tight. Between Viry in eighteenth and Louhans in thirteenth, there was just a five point gap. We sat sixteenth, a single place and a single point outside the relegation zone, although being the only side with a positive goal difference gave us a little extra breathing room.

Terk

April 2008 Results

(National unless otherwise stated)


Châtellerault 1 – 1 Pau (Niflore pen 24”; Cami pen 51”)

Pau 1 – 1 Viry (De Oliveira 9”; Kébé 71”)

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“It’s not looking good, Jacques. We’ve got Clermont and Angoulême next, they’re both fighting for promotion. I wouldn’t say this to the players, but it’s going to be very difficult to keep us up.”

“You could jump ship.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m serious. Nottingham Forest have approached me about your situation. They want you back.”

“Not interested.”

And it was true. English football, and Forest in particular, held no interest for me now. I had settled at Pau and was eyeing success in France. My more immediate concern, however, was a visit to face Clermont-Ferrand, a side who were just two points off the promotion places. In truth, throughout the game they were better than us, Jacques-Desire Périatambée gave them an early lead, but there was a fight about the players that gave us hope. Nicolas Cami was our one player of true, unquestionable quality, and whilst he was on the pitch we always had a chance. It was Kébé, however, who won us a penalty in first half injury time, though it was Cami who converted it.

Clermont were not going to let us steal points off us that easily though, but we did give them a helping hand, Mourad N’Zif putting through his own goal just after the hour mark to give the home side the lead once more, but we kept fighting and fighting and with four minutes remaining, Walter played Cami in behind the Clermont defence and he lofted a shot over the ‘keeper to secure a third consecutive draw for us.

Results elsewhere meant that we remained a single point above the relegation zone, but we would have an even harder challenge against Angoulême as Bikoyoi, Cami and Faivre were suspended as a result of three yellow cards. And in the end it told on us, I was convinced that Cami would have won us at least a point, but as it was, Dimitri Bernard’s penalty in the sixty-first minute settled the match, and all of a sudden it was five without a win as we sat still a point ahead of Paris FC and just two above Viry.

Terk

Louhans-Cuiseaux had made themselves safe over the previous two games, points gained had lifted themselves into tenth place and so I felt slightly heartened that they would have nothing to play for and perhaps their eye would be off the ball. Furthermore, we were at full strength for the game, which would be my two hundredth in management, and all we had to do was make sure that we claimed a victory.

Having been outplayed for many of our recent games, it was nice to see us start a game with a high tempo and plenty of ball. The suspicion that Louhans wouldn’t have their head in the game was well placed, but there was plenty to praise us for, in particular Faivre was causing huge problems down the wing. Indeed, it was Faivre who provided the cross for our opening goal, his ball from the left clipped home by Cami. It was a vital goal as word had already reached us that Paris were leading at home to Cherbourg, and it was followed up quickly with one which gave us a cushion, Faivre again providing the cross, this time with Walter with the finish.

The second half was all about holding onto what we had, there were no intentions to score a third, and though there was momentary panic when Marchndé put the ball past Leglib, but the linesman’s flag was raised high, we coasted through to the final whistle and a place in the National league for the 2008-09 season.

Terk

May 2008 Results

(National unless otherwise stated)


Clermont-Ferrand 2 - 2 Pau
(Péritambée 15"; Cami 45+2", 86"; N'Zif (OG) 65")

Pau 0 - 1 Angoulême
(Bernard pen 61")

Pau 2 - 0 Louhans-Cuiseaux
(Cami 23"; Walter 29")