Mike..

With Cami out for ten days Ed once again asked Bindi to take the creative role in the centre of the midfield trio, Le Mans were their hosts and had been showing good form, a win would be another huge boost but probably too much to ask for. Tchami was still out, and when Bakayoko clashed heads early in the game – resulting in him being brought off - it didn’t bode well for Pau.

What followed was one of those games – not good for the managers, or the dedicated fans, great for the neutral. Any concerns Ed had about the front line were soon dismissed as Séga launched a long pass into the path of Testas – the 21-year-old raced onto the ball and slid it across the keeper into the far corner. Twelve minutes later Bindi lashed home a free-kick, a quick response saw Le Mans pull one back and then Bindi restored the two goal margin inside sixty seconds… for a whole seven minutes. With 42 minutes on the clock there were five goals on the board and three times as many chances saved or missed.

After the break things calmed down a little but if Ed had hoped for an easy ride he was disappointed, although the number of chances reduced they were all going to the home side and Valverde had to be on top of his game. He was just beginning to dare to think that the points were in the bag when a Le Mans corner saw a scuffle in the box and, the next thing he knew, Monsieur Ruffray was pointing at the spot. Two minutes on the clock and Ed saw the maximum points slipping away, until Valverde dived at full stretch and parried the ball out to Kangu.

Another two places gained but the pay-off was Bakayoko’s fractured cheekbone that would rule him out for three weeks at least. Leyti was added to the injury list a couple of days later and Ed found himself wondering if, once again, they were going to find their season marred with injuries and suspensions (he had Bédani suspended and seven players on the verge of joining him) – not a problem for most teams, but most certainly for a small scale squad like Pau.

Mike..

It was only natural he supposed, in fact he was surprised that it had taken so long for such a situation to arise. After Wednesday morning’s training session Ed had pulled Khalifa Ba to one side – the defender had looked less than enthusiastic during the 5-a-sides and it was obvious that something was on his mind. He hadn’t been entirely surprised to find out what that had been, when he’d finally signed full-time papers with the club Ed had made it clear that he was a key part of the defence – now, some way down the road, he was seeing less action and he’d wanted clarification on his position.

To Ed the youngster still had a lot to offer, the problem was that more recent arrivals offered more. All he had been able to do was promise to give Ba as much match time as possible, and not stand in his way should the player decide that he needed to explore other avenues. He would have to bide his time a little though, with the table toppers in town there was no question of Ed playing anything less than his strongest available line-up.

Ajaccio were yet to taste defeat in the league, fifteen games with eleven wins and four draws, in fact they hadn’t even conceded a goal in the league competition for two months – after less than a quarter of an hour that record was on the way out as Séga bagged Pau’s opener in what turned out to be an amazing game for the home fans. Cami’s deep corner did the damage, with the Senegalese striker rising to head back across the keeper, and though the scores were level by the break, the second half was a whole different story. A clever ball from Testas put Bindi in to restore the lead shortly after the restart, and Di Bartolomeo added a third from the penalty spot minutes later. True to his word, Ed gave Ba the nod to take to the pitch as first Kangu, and then Séga, found the net to kill the game off. In the space of ninety minutes Ed had watched his team put more goals past Ajaccio than the rest of the league had done in the preceding fifteen games.

Naturally things were on a high after the demolition of the league leaders and while a number of managers were subjected to the early season merry-go-round, including Jacques Santini’s dismissal at St Etienne, Ed took his side to Lorient for a televised game. The previous season had seen two defeats at the hands of their hosts, and the TV pundits were backing Lorient all the way.

Tchami was back in action, although Bakayoko was still on the treatment table, and Ed was looking for the established man to take the game to their hosts but it was Séga who got in on the act and extended his scoring streak – a run that Ed had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity. After the problems that he’d had in getting settled last season, and the emergence of Bakayoko, Ed had started to question Séga’s worth to the team but here he was making it four for the season. Lorient responded well, creating a great spectacle for the cameras as Boutruche levelled before their constant threat – Suffo – put them in front.

Before the break Kangu fired home from the edge of the area, putting Pau back into contention again, and shortly after half-time Séga showed exactly why Ed maintained confidence in him, hitting Lorient on the break to put his side in front once again. Certainly it would be a game that the TV audiences would be revelling in, but the longer it went on the worse it felt to Ed. Suffo was on fire, running at the defence time and again, and predictably it was Cameroonian who popped up in stoppage time to rescue his side’s pride with a last gasp equaliser.

With Lorient on the fixture list in the imminent Cup game, Ed found himself praying to unknown gods for Suffo to lose suffer a loss of form, an injury, lost boots, anything!

Mike..

OCTOBER 2006 SUMMARY

Pau 2 (Bindi 2, Kangu 75)
Dijon 1 (Heitzmann 5)
Man of the Match: Benon (Dijon) [DC]

Grenoble 1 (Kioyo 72)
Pau 1 (Séga 90)
French Cup
Man of the Match: Mawéné (Grenoble) [D RC]
News: Pau win penalty shoot-out 4-1

Le Mans 2 (Buengo 34, Foxe 42)
Pau 3 (Testas 14, Bindi 26, 35)
Man of the Match: Valverde (Pau) [GK]
News: Fanchone (Le Mans) missed penalty 88 (saved)

Pau 5 (Séga 12, 90+, Bindi 49, Di Bartolomeo pen 53, Kangu 69)
Ajaccio 1 (Deranja pen 43)
Man of the Match: Bindi (Pau) [MC]

Lorient 3 (Boutruche 24, Suffo 32, 90+)
Pau 3 (Séga 11, 58, Kangu 35)
Man of the Match: Morel (Lorient) [AM/F LC]

retired_emsta12

5-1? Maybe promotion's on the cards? How many teams go up? Is it automatic or playoffs? Could I ask any more questions?

Mike..

After a stupidly long delay can confirm that there are three automatic promotion spots and no play-offs.

I have my reasons for the delay, but nothing that would justify it to you guys just lots of busy time at work and the fact that I've just joined a golf club :p



Ed was due into the office early, the first Monday of the month was always review day with the boss, but his usually reliable Audi had broken down half way to Pau. Standing by the side of the road he dialled up on his mobile and got his secretary

“Good morning Catherine, can you let monsieur Le Coadou know I’ll be in as soon as possible”

……

“No, nothing important, just my car broke down, I’ve got someone on the way to sort it”

……

“Yeah, I know, but I just like it up there”

……

“Well maybe you’re right, maybe I’ll look into it sometime, but I just don’t have that time at the moment”

……

“No, don’t be silly, there’s no need to do…”

……

“I’ll think about it when the winter break comes, or maybe in the summer. Okay I’ll see you later”

She was right of course, seventy-odd miles wasn’t a long commute but it would make sense to move nearer to the club now that he was in charge. It wasn’t the first time he’d considered the idea but a part of him didn’t want to think about leaving the villa, he thought that it was the same part of him that didn’t want to admit that Sonja wasn’t coming back. Catherine had offered to look into available property but he didn’t want to get into the hassle of it while the season was in full flow – he would think about it later, it would be good for him, but it wasn’t a priority at the moment.

-----

Eventually he got into the office, a couple of hours late. The chairman was in fine mood, understandably with the team putting together a two month unbeaten run that had lifted them into seventh place. With three games coming up against struggling opposition they were in a great position to push for a high placing for the run up to the break.

Mike..

For the Angers game Ed found himself with a dilemma, but a pleasant one. The squad was fully fit again, that meant Bakayoko back in action, and two weeks ago his pairing with Tchami would have been a dead certainty but now Séga’s form was worthy of his inclusion. He weighed the pros and cons for quite some time and decided, in the end, on a compromise – Bakayoko would start on the bench and join whoever looked better after the break – that would give the starting pair a chance to fight it out for the second spot going forward, a fact that he made them both fully aware of.

A few months ago he would have been surprised when Séga put in the stronger performance, but not now. Admittedly Tchami was only recently back from injury himself, he’d worked hard and shown that he was up for the challenge, it was just that his strike partner obviously wanted it more and proved the point with a goal. Once Bakayoko came on the old spark was immediately evident, however hard his other strikers worked Ed couldn’t deny that the man from the Ivory Coast just oozed class and never stopped running – his own hard work won him a penalty that he converted late on and, despite a quick response from Angers, the win was in the bag and Pau’s unbeaten run was up to eleven games.

It was the stuff of dreams, after the struggling start to the season Ed had really expected a nightmare but once they’d got their confidence back his team had shown exactly the sort of form that had saved them from an immediate return to the National League last May. True to his word he let the strikers know that it would be Séga and Bakayoko starting the next game.

-----

As it turned out the decision was taken away from Ed anyway, Tchami pulled up in training a few days before the Cup tie with Lorient and, on the advice of the Physio staff, was sent to a specialist to take a look at his back problems. With Tchami out of the loop again Testas returned to the bench.

Lorient had become, in Ed’s mind at least, something of a bogey team. It was probably just the sight of Patrick Suffo that did it, waltzing through the defence like they were statues, and there was a sense of resignation when the striker’s early cross found a free man to head the visitors into the lead. What did surprise him was how physically Lorient had decided to play the game, from the off there were elbows flying and strong tackles going in, and the referee clearly had little choice but to dismiss Gragnic for two calculated fouls late in the first half. Despite the man over Pau struggled to make their mark though, Testas came on for a poor Séga and hardly got into the game – reduced to long shots, whilst Bakayoko forced a couple of late saves out of the keeper.

It was another French Cup disappointment in the end, with Lorient maintaining their undefeated record against Ed’s side, but he refused to be downbeat about it – realistically their efforts had to be focussed on the league.

retired_Brandon Scott

keep em coming Flip (and good luck with the golf-lol :thup

Mike..

Frédéric Robin was in Africa, once again Ed had decided to check out the quality of the youngsters in the continent with a view to the future strengthening of the squad – he also had it in mind that he would be trying to change the shape of the starting line-up again in the summer – making another attempt to add width to the midfield. The recommendations were fewer this time, something that he hoped was down to the fact that the scouts now knew that they were shopping for a team aiming at top-half quality.

One name that had passed muster was that of São Toméan midfielder, José Guillherme Cabral. The 20-year-old had come for a two week trial and ended up signing papers at the end of it, in training Ed had been particularly struck with how the winger never seemed to stop running, and that was something that he valued highly. There would be no place in the first team this season, not unless things got out of hand, but the youngster would certainly have his chances in the future.

After the player had signed his contract Jacques Le Coadou had pulled Ed to one side

“Another free signing? You don’t want to dip into the transfer budget you’ve accumulated?”

“To be honest Jacques, I’ve tried, but no-one with a current contract wants to come here. Anyway, it must make the books look good?”

“It certainly does, I’ve been checking them and I’m amazed, do you know that in your time here you’ve spent less than three hundred thousand Euros, that's under half a million pounds I reckon?”

That had surprised him, he was sure that there were more money signings than that, yet when he tried to think of any he simply couldn’t – with the exception of Valverde he had hardly touched the bank balance at all. Still, if he could keep generating these sort of results on a similar strategy he’d be more than happy.

Whilst Pau’s form was good there were plenty of teams that weren’t doing so well, probably most notable was the relative failure of Monaco who, under the guidance of Jean Tigana, were sitting in eighth place in the top flight. After a string of defeats Tigana was shown on TV arriving at work through a cordon of protestors, his job was apparently on the line and, for the first time, Ed idly wondered whether it would be worth his while to apply, should the manager be shown the door. It wasn’t a thought he dwelt on for long though, reminding himself that he had not even finished three seasons in a management role yet.

retired_Brandon Scott

hehehe-tempted aren't ya-will be interesting to see what you do if they offer it ya......

retired_ashlia80

we miss flippers :thdn: