shannon2007

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Man of the Match: Catherine (Laval)
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Man Only the French eh.

The sackings thing is ridiculous tbh I've seen that so many times.

Mike..

It was a strange feeling for Ed, at the start of the season – much like in their previous campaign – he would’ve been more than happy with their current position, but the fact that they had started so well was still in the back of his mind.

With six games remaining he had come to a decision, when the summer came around he would be looking to carry out a major overhaul of the squad, and of their style of play. Whilst their strength, and the often astounding talent of Nicolas Cami, gave them the edge going forwards, when they were on the defensive they were just too vulnerable on the flanks – one way or another he would need to look to widen their structure.

From what information he could obtain he would be in a strong position financially, he was spending only forty percent of the funds set aside for salaries, and the huge boost from TV revenue, and increased gate receipts, meant that the bank balance was looking particularly healthy. He just hoped that, when the time came, the chairman would be ready to share his desire to consolidate their position.

For now there were games to play though, and he really needed to get his players back on song – for the sake of their own confidence as much as anything. It was a fine line to walk, he could count genuinely poor performances for the season on the fingers of one hand, whilst they might be suffering a dip in form, that dip was from a peak that had been above what they could have reasonably expected.

Mike..

A heavy defeat at Ajaccio and Ed finally conceded that, as a competitive force, their season was just about over. Given the lack of depth in the squad he was out of options and it seemed like there just wasn’t enough left in the tank. All that he could ask now was for the players to keep plugging away, grind out a couple of results, and try and hang on to tenth place – but with yellow cards mounting up there was a very real possibility that things could be about to get a lot worse.

-----

The card-count continued as they played host to Laval again, this time in the league. By the end of the game five cautions had been dished out to Pau players, all for arguing with the referee or supposed diving, not one of the opposition players receiving more than a warning for their indiscipline. The game had produced a point, although Ed felt sure they’d deserved a win for the determination they’d shown in trying to find the goal. With Bédani withdrawn, nursing a knock, Kangu had handed the ball to Séga for a second-half penalty – for a moment Ed had sensed disaster but, for just the second time in his twenty-odd appearances, the striker tucked it away comfortably. Laval, of course, seemed to wake up for the last third of the game, and with Pau legs starting to tire Ed could only hope – in vain as it turned out – that they could hang on to their narrow lead.

With only one league win in nearly three months they would be going into their final televised game of the season as definite outsiders, their hosts making a desperate bid to sneak into the promotion places and they having to be wary of the six first-team starters who were a single caution away from suspension.

Mike..

“Thank you Gerard, I’m down in the tunnel with Edgar Allen of Pau. Ed, how do you see today’s game going?�

“Well it’s been a long season Laurent, and we’ve already achieved our goal of survival. That’s not to say that we won’t be trying today, but the truth of the matter is we’re a small squad, and the lads are all about out on their feet�

“So is it safe to say you’re expecting a tough game?�

“Oh yes, very much so, with the run they’ve been putting together I’d be surprised if Amiens don’t get promoted when it’s all done and dusted�

As usual he’d tried to keep the pre-match comments short, sweet, and honest. It was true that Amiens had been on a late season charge, and with his team’s recent form he had to back the bookies who had their hosts as firm favourites for the game.

The nightmare didn’t take long to take shape, having broken through the defence early on Séga was accused of making a meal of matters when he was muscled off the ball, receiving a booking inside five minutes, his reaction to the caution saw the attention-seeking Ref reach for a second yellow immediately. The TV cameras clearly zoomed in on the look of horror on Séga’s face as he was sent for the earliest of baths.

The game was going to end up in disaster, Ed knew it and it seemed that half of the players did too, suddenly afraid to put in a tackle they backed off and let Amiens come at them, the goal came quickly and then the home side piled on the pressure, if nothing else the TV coverage would act as a great shop window for Valverde who pulled off save after save. With only one man up front the chances were few and far between for Pau, but when the next goal came it was an emphatic strike and it was for the under-pressure visitors. Kangu lofted a ball into midfield and Aernoudt, on for the exhausted Cami, spotted Bindi in space – the makeshift playmaker touched it on first time and Tchami raced into the box to slide the ball under the advancing keeper. It was a dangerous way to celebrate, it would cause much debate on the TV summary later, but four or five Pau players ran straight to the bench and saluted Séga before blanking the Ref as he tried to get the game restarted.

When Kangu put Pau ahead, inside the last ten minutes, Ed actually began to think that they might pull off an upset, a strong shot from the edge of the area took a massive deflection, but it didn’t matter how it went in, just that it did. Suddenly Amiens looked shaky, their dominance had produced a single goal and was now waning, and with the minutes ticking away Ed was on the touchline willing his team on as the few travelling supporters screamed at the Ref to blow the whistle.

The fourth official indicated three added minutes, not ideal but Ed thought they could hang on. He made his last change and settled in for the final push. Bonnel came close to slipping his marker, almost breaking free to go one-on-one with the keeper, but most of the action was back in Pau’s third of the pitch again. When Gardan produced a perfect tackle to send the ball out Ed breathed a sigh of relief, 92 minutes and 58 seconds on the clock, they’d done it, just the corner to contend with. It was swung in and Bédani hoofed the ball deep into the Amiens half – the noise from the Pau support was growing, actually drowning out the home support who had already started to file out, whistles and yells of abuse at the Ref who seemed oblivious. The ball was passed around in midfield several times before being pushed through to Fahid Ben Kalfallah – Ed couldn’t believe what he was seeing as the midfielder ran at his defence, from twenty-five yards out he launched a rocket that left the otherwise brilliant Valverde stranded – forty-five seconds into the fourth of three added minutes, the young Tunisian grabbed a point for his side.

As Ed followed his players down the tunnel the reporter from the covering TV station stepped out in front of him.

“Edgar, how do you feel that went?�

Ed didn’t even break stride, pushing past the puzzled correspondent with probably a little more force than was really necessary.

-----

Writer’s Note: What REALLY winds me up is that I’ve had the Ref blow for full time when my team are about to TAKE a corner!

Mike..

APRIL 2006 SUMMARY

Ajaccio 3 (Allou 12, Zarabi 31, Terrier 42)
Pau 0
Man of the Match: Zarabi (Ajaccio)

Pau 1 (Séga pen 64)
Laval 1 (Paulo 86)
Man of the Match: Nattes (Laval)

Amiens 2 (Kalfallah 13, 90+)
Pau 2 (Tchami 73, Kangu 81)
Man of the Match: Valverde (Pau)
News: Séga (Pau) sent off 7

retired_embartl

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>

truth of the matter is we’re a small squad,

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Edgar Allan of Pau or David O'leary, who can tell?

retired_jgirl87

Just a general KUTGW from me, flippers.

I am really enjoying this story. :cool:

Mike..

Sometimes the truth just has to be told Bri, just 'cos i's a cliche doesn't mean it's not the case

Cheers Spav :thup:



There was nothing left to play for now, Ed would normally have added ‘but pride’ to the end of that thought but he was beginning to doubt that anything they did would make any difference anyway. He’d not felt this down in some time, strange considering that his side still sat in tenth place, but he could honestly say that he just wanted the last three games out of the way. The results were inconsequential as far as he was concerned, the last great hope he had of any late-season revival was the visit of an old friend – Stéphane Millereau.

Millereau’s Créteil were as good as relegated already, and the striker himself was only just finding his scoring touch after his move, but that was a dangerous combination as far as Ed was concerned – only a win could save the visitors and he’d seen far too many cases of players returning to former clubs and causing upsets. Sure enough, after the game had started quietly, and very much in Pau’s favour, the visitors began to apply some pressure and Millereau kept finding himself with opportunities – a couple of poor efforts should have been enough to have the alarm bells ringing but the former Pau man was completely unmarked when he headed home a deep cross, shortly before the break.

Ed tried to accept that it was just dumb luck, nothing more than that, but when the usually reliable Bédani had a penalty saved, and then Bindi hobbled off, he had to fight that corner of his mind that was yelling to the world, telling it what a bÃ*tch fate could be. His players were dragging themselves on pure willpower by the end, knowing that they had just a couple more games to go, and then – out of nothing – he watched as Bédani somehow wrapped his foot around the ball and smashed it goalwards, deep in injury time. The keeper dived, as he had for the penalty, and got a hand to it, but he could only push it onto the post and in. For what seemed like the first time in weeks they’d got the slice of luck they’d been after.

The Créteil players looked shell-shocked as the sides left the pitch, they knew that Bédani’s dramatic equaliser had killed off any last chance that they’d had of retaining their League Two status. Ed made a point of finding Millereau and offering his commiserations.

The last gasp equaliser had kept Pau in tenth place, but only just, there were still a handful of teams who were just a win away from overtaking them and that included their hosts for the penultimate match of the campaign.

Mike..

Ed climbed aboard the coach after the Nancy match and tried to figure it out. He’d not said a great deal different on the journey here, or during the pre-match, but his team had suddenly looked like their former selves on the pitch. Maybe it was the knowledge that the end of the season was close, or the fact that they knew the threat that the hosts posed to their league position, whatever it was it had worked… at least for most of the game.

They’d come out firing on all cylinders and what’s more, they’d come out firing on target. Bonnel had them ahead early on and Leyti doubled the tally with a fine header from Cami’s corner. By half-time they’d been cruising and when Cami made it three, just after the restart, it looked like there was only one winner. The turning point came on fifty minutes, Tchami already looked to be nursing a knock when Bonnel clashed with his marker and went down hard. Not wanting to jeopardise their final match, and with a healthy lead, Ed had withdrawn both, putting Testas alone up front and bulking out the midfield.

Nancy still looked lost but they were at least getting out of their own third of the pitch now, pushing up a little, and a 79th minute strike gave them the momentum. For the last ten minutes it had suddenly become backs to the wall, Kangu twice made superb tackles to take the ball off David De Freitas’ foot on the edge of the area, but when Eli Kroupi made it two-three the alarm bells had suddenly started to ring. Thankfully this Ref’s watch was working, and the second goal had come too late, Ed was taking his side back home with a big win and, suddenly, an eighth place to defend.

He would, however, have to wait and see if Tchami and Bonnel could recover in the seven days before the season’s finale.

Mike..

For the last few days he’d been feeling pretty rough, he couldn’t put it down to anything in particular – probably just his body trying to tell him to slow down – but that hadn’t been an option. By the night before the closing game of the season he’d been really struggling, and his mood hadn’t been helped by the fact that he was trying to put together a front line from his second-string and reserves.

In the end Testas and Sartolou had lined up and the lack of regular competitive action had been the telling factor as they failed to make any inroads into the Istres defence. For most of the game it had looked like the phrase ‘bore-draw’ was written all over the game, but it was to be a cruel end to the season for the Pau faithful. With less than ten minutes remaining Moussa N’Diaye, Istres’ highly rated winger, had driven home what turned out to be the winner.

With results elsewhere not being kind Pau, the team who had climbed from tenth to eighth just days before, finished up the season in eleventh place. With everything done and dusted Ed had wanted nothing more than to go home, unplug the phone, and sleep for three days straight – he had a tough few weeks ahead of him and he really wanted to clear his head first.

If he could have got out of the end of season events he would have done, but consistent nagging from both Catherine, and the chairman, had made it clear that he would get no such freedom just yet. As well as the French FA’s annual awards dinner in Paris, Le Coadou had decided to host another club get-together to recognise their achievements, which were impressive after all. Grudgingly Ed had accepted that he had to be present at both, but he made a mental note that after that he was taking a few days to himself.