The long winter break in Finland leaves a lot of time to be filled and apart from arranging a number of friendlies to try to keep the players in reasonable condition, we also took the opportunity to re-jig the squad. Over a dozen youngsters were released but this was balanced out by the promotion of another ten or so graduates from the Academy, although several of those were also released. We strengthened the backroom staff as well with the eldest of the
Paatelainen brothers,
Mixu, joining as one of our new coaches. We brought in half a dozen new players as well, but none were major signings as we spent just over £30K.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Position | Nat | Age | Value | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Henri Sillanpää | GK | FIN | 29 | £110K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tatu Niskanen | GK | FIN | 28 | £7K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jarkko Ollikainen | GK | FIN | 29 | £6K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kari Järvinen | GK | FIN | 21 | £0 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jarno Tuunainen | SW/D C | FIN | 31 | £45K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kalle Sorja | D RC | FIN | 26 | £18K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Niklas Heiman | D C | FIN | 23 | £12K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Ari-Pekka Roiko | D/DM RLC | FIN | 33 | £4K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jani Sarajärvi | D/DM L | FIN | 29 | £100K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Heikki Pulkkinen | D/DM L | FIN | 27 | £12K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Timo Marjamaa | D/DM C | FIN | 32 | £35K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Juha Pasoja | D/DM C | FIN | 32 | £24K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tero Karhu | DM C | FIN | 29 | £10K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Matti Timonen | AM R | FIN | 21 | £12K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tuomas Haapala | AM RC | FIN | 30 | £18K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Teemu Salo | AM RC | FIN | 19 | £22K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jussi Vasara | AM LC | FIN | 21 | £9K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jussi Heikelä | AM C | FIN | 23 | £14K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mikko Innanen | AM/F RLC | FIN | 26 | £45K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Dritan Stafsula | AM/F RLC | ALB | 27 | £130K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Peter Sampo | AM/F C | FIN | 34 | £0 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Adriano | AM/F C | BRA | 30 | £65K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Markus Paatelainen | F RC | FIN | 26 | £55K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jaakko Juuti | F C | FIN | 21 | £35K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mikko Paatelainen | S C | FIN | 28 | £200K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| | Marko Koponen | S C | FIN | 18 | £120K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Our first competitive action finally takes place in late April with a visit to non-league
TePS in the 4th Round of the Finnish Cup. We totally dominate the game and the
Paatelainen brothers plunder six goals in out 7-0 win,
Markus getting four and
Mikko two. Five days later we have Cup action again with a trip to
TUS and new signing
Jussi Heikelä excels in our 2-1 win, scoring the opener and laying on the second for
Juha Pasoja, another new arrival. Our first league match is a televised encounter at home to HJK, one of the teams expecting to be challenging for the title, and despite the presence of the cameras it is a rather uninspiring 0-0 draw. Within a few days we are in action again as we travel to
KuPS but the game is marred when midfielder
Dritan Stafsula gets a second yellow card after half an hour. The Albanian has been in sparkling form thus far and we struggle without him, eventually falling to a goal in the 83rd minute. We also lose
Markus Paatelainen with a shoulder injury but thankfully it is not too serious and he should soon be back.
A combination of ill-discipline and harsh refereeing caused us major problems at home to
Inter Turku when we had two players dismissed. Firstly,
Teemu Salo was shown a straight red on 35 minutes when a yellow would have sufficed. By that time we were a goal down but we recovered well to equalise though
Jussi Heikelä early in the second half. We then lost
Markus Paatelainen to injury before
Jarno Tuunainen was dismissed with ten minutes remaining for what the referee described as a “professional foul”. Unbelievably we took the lead five minutes later through substitute
Marko Koponen but faced intense pressure in the closing stages and conceded a late equaliser for a 2-2 draw. Markus is diagnosed with a fractured wrist and will require a four-week layoff and not surprisingly my appeals for the two red cards are dismissed out of hand.
We are straight into midweek action at
FC Haka with quite a few enforced changes and a dire display sees us lose 5-0, our heaviest defeat since my arrival. To say that I am unhappy with the players is an understatement and to be honest by the time I have let them out of the changing rooms after the game they are none too happy with me either. I worked hard to lift the players before the trip to
KooTeePee but we travelled without keeper
Tatu Niskanen who had been injured in training. I had been considering replacing him anyway so this made the decision for me. After an early goal from
Jussi Heikelä we looked like a different team and
Marko Koponen scored two more before half time. The home side pulled a goal back before the break but a late strike from substitute
Peter Sampo gave us an excellent 4-1 win, our first victory of the league season.
Henri Sillanpää had a fine game in goal and looks likely to remain as number one for the moment.
May ends with a visit from
FC Lahti and with both
Marko Koponen and
Jaakko Juuti on international duty with the Finland U-21 squad, I call
Adriano into attack. This time we concede an early goal but we recover superbly with
Jussi Heikelä squaring the game and
Mikko Paatelainen getting a brace before the break.
Mikko Innanen and
Adriano are both on target late in the game to give us a resounding 5-1 win and we end the month in 7th place in the league.
Our first game in June comes at
GBK and we have three first-teamers missing through injury and suspension. A gaol down inside the last ten minutes we equalise in stoppage time through
Mikko Innanen to snatch a draw but it is a bruising encounter with half a dozen of our players receiving a yellow card. Next up is a midweek visit from
FC Jazz and once again we grab a late goal to secure a point through
Adriano. At the weekend we face runaway league leaders
FC Haka in the 6th Round of the Finnish Cup with injuries and suspensions leaving us bereft of any defensive cover. A surprisingly even game is still without any goals after extra time and we show some nerve to win the shootout 4-3. However we pay a heavy price as a series of further bookings means that we have five players suspended and with another four injured we have to bring in three lads from the U-20 team for the midweek trip to
TPS. In the circumstances I am delighted with our gutsy 1-0 win, especially as we had goalscorer
Marko Koponen sent off when he received a second yellow card after an hour. I was able to restore some familiar faces for the visit of
MyPa and the team responded with an excellent 3-1 win. Midfielder
Jussi Heikelä scored twice as his excellent form continued – in fact all of our first choice midfielders have been playing really well and this is definitely the strongest area of the team. A demanding month continues with a home game against
Tampere United and goals from
Jussi Heikelä and
Mikko Paatelainen give us another good win with a 2-1 scoreline. In that game our Brazilian forward
Adriano set a new club record when he made his 163rd appearance. But he had little time to celebrate as we faced our final game of a hectic month at
VPS, suffering a disappointing 1-0 defeat.
With the mid point of the season fast approaching I am quite happy to see the team sitting in a reasonable 5th place in the table. Having won their first 9 games,
FC Haka have had a couple of recent setbacks but still maintain a comfortable lead, although if
HJK can win all of their games in had then it could get more interesting.
TPS are adrift at the bottom and they will have their work cut out to survive.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | FC Haka | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 7 | +19 | 28 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Inter Turku | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 23 | 11 | +12 | 21 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | MyPa | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 11 | +6 | 20 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | KooTeePee | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 20 | +4 | 20 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | AC ALLIANSSI | 12 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 15 | +4 | 19 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | KuPS | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 16 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | HJK | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 5 | +5 | 14 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | GBK | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 14 | +3 | 13 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | FC Hämeenlinna | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 13 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | FC Jazz | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 16 | 20 | -4 | 11 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | FC Lahti | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 11 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | Tampere Utd | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 10 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | VPS | 11 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 22 | -14 | 8 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | TPS | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 20 | -13 | 4 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
July begins with a visit from
FC Hämeenlinna with both
Adriano and
Dritan Stafsula suspended. We took the lead early on through
Jussi Heikelä but conceded an equaliser almost immediately afterwards. After an hour we fell behind but thankfully
Teemu Salo came up with a late goal to give us a 2-2 draw. League leaders
FC Haka are our next visitors for a Thursday evening match and despite being outplayed for periods of the game two goals from
Adriano and another from
Jussi Heikelä give us a superb 3-1 win to lift us, at least temporarily, into second place. Our next match is a televised trip to
HJK on Monday evening and we have to withstand some early pressure before
Adriano gives us the lead after 20 minutes.
Mikko Paatelainen doubles our advantage in stoppage time at the end of the half and an impressive second 45 minutes sees us maintain our lead for a superb 2-0 win.
Adriano seems to be relishing playing up front,
Jussi Heikelä is in outstanding form in central midfield and the performances of keeper
Henri Sillanpää are beginning to attract interest from other clubs in the division. The only bad news was an injury to
Mikko Paatelainen who suffered broken ribs and will miss several weeks of action.
Our next match at home to
KuPS ends goalless as we struggle to convert possession into goals and we slip down into 3rd place in the table. We travel to second place
Inter Turku for our next match and score inside the first minute through
Adriano. But despite playing against ten men when an opponent is sent off after 22 minutes we can’t find our way past an inspired keeper and contrive to concede a late goal for a disappointing 1-1 draw. By the end of the month
HJK have played most of their games in hand and have moved steadily up the table.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | FC Haka | | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 36 | 17 | +19 | 36 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | HJK | | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 11 | +7 | 30 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | Inter Turku | | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 29 | 15 | +14 | 29 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | KooTeePee | | 17 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 33 | 26 | +7 | 29 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | AC ALLIANSSI | | 17 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 27 | 19 | +8 | 28 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | MyPa | | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 24 | 16 | +8 | 28 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Dritan Stafsula is suspended again for the visit of
KooTeePee who are a point and a place above us in the table. We fall behind early in the first half but a goal from
Markus Paatelainen in the 63rd minute salvages a 1-1 draw. However given the chances we created if feels like two points dropped rather than one gained. A series of four matches against lower-table opposition begins with a trip to
FC Lahti and my hopes of picking up points are dashed with a poor 2-0 defeat. We make a trip to
FC Jazz next and having taken a two-goal lead through
Markus Paatelainen and
Dritan Stafsula it is a real blow to allow the home side to recover and gain a 2-2 draw. Having
Teemu Salo sent off after being booked twice certainly didn’t help but we have now drawn two more games than we have won and have slipped to 6th place. We also lost defensive midfielder
Tero Karhu for a fortnight with a twisted ankle although
Mikko Paatelainen is now back in full training. I expect us to recover with a win at home to struggling
GBK but a rash of minor injuries robs us of several first choice players and in the end I am grateful to take the 1-0 win that
Mikko Innanen’s goal gives us. For the second game in succession we have a player sent off for two yellows -
Tuomas Haapala the victim this time – and with 7 yellows shown to our lads in total I am less than impressed with the general standard of refereeing here in Finland.
We are more or less back to full strength for the visit of
TPS and two goals from
Adriano give us a good 2-1 win. The Brazilian was within seconds of being substituted after a poor first-half display when he scored his opener but went on to be the match winner. Disappointment follows in our midweek trip to
Tampere United as we suffer a narrow 1-0 defeat and then we lose by the odd goal in five at
MyPa. With just two games remaining our hopes of a possible top-three finish have now evaporated, 5th place now our realistic target. Even that objective looks out of reach after a frustrating 1-1 draw at
FC Hämeenlinna when their keeper wins Man of the Match honours and we concede a late equaliser. At least our league campaign ended on a positive note with a 2-0 win at home to
VPS and with other results going our way we did manage to achieve a 5th place finish. I am pleased to see
Mikko Innanen take the Player of the Month award for September, as the 27-year-old has been a key player for us this season. In addition he joins
Kalle Sorja and
Jussi Heikelä in the Team of the Season and is runner-up in the Player of the season award.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Inf | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | FC Haka | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 52 | 24 | +28 | 54 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Inter Turku | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 45 | 28 | +17 | 47 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | MyPa | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 38 | 24 | +14 | 44 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | HJK | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 32 | 26 | +6 | 43 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | AC ALLIANSSI | 26 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 38 | 30 | +8 | 40 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | KooTeePee | 26 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 43 | 39 | +4 | 39 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Tampere Utd | 26 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 35 | 37 | -2 | 39 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | KuPS | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 29 | 30 | -1 | 36 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | FC Lahti | 26 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 33 | 38 | -5 | 33 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | FC Hämeenlinna | 26 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 35 | 44 | -9 | 30 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | FC Jazz | 26 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 30 | 46 | -16 | 22 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | TPS | 26 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 25 | 41 | -16 | 22 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | GBK | 26 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 30 | 38 | -8 | 21 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | R | VPS | 26 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 38 | -20 | 21 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
My hopes of extending our season by progressing in the Finnish Cup come to an end in the 7th Round as we lose 3-0 at
Inter Turku after the home side are awarded two penalties in the first half.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Apps | Gls | Ast | MoM | Pas | Tck | Drb | Sh T | Av Rat| | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jarkko Ollikainen | 0 (1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.00 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mikko Innanen | 23 (1)| 4 | 5 | 5 | 76% | 2.41 | 4.56 | 29% | 7.88 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jussi Heikelä | 26 | 9 | 11 | 5 | 79% | 1.25 | 0.74 | 44% | 7.85 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Dritan Stafsula | 24 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 78% | 2.79 | 2.31 | 37% | 7.46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Teemu Salo | 12 (7)| 1 | 3 | 1 | 79% | 3.17 | 2.25 | - | 7.32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kalle Sorja | 20 | - | 1 | 1 | 73% | 3.85 | 0.51 | - | 7.30 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Heikki Pulkkinen | 25 | - | - | - | 68% | 3.29 | 0.49 | - | 7.28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Henri Sillanpää | 24 (1)| - | 1 | 3 | 49% | 0.04 | - | - | 7.28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Markus Paatelainen | 15 (3)| 7 | 2 | 1 | 82% | 0.79 | 2.64 | 58% | 7.28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tero Karhu | 25 | - | 1 | - | 77% | 3.50 | 0.54 | 31% | 7.20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mikko Paatelainen | 19 (2)| 7 | 2 | - | 78% | 0.54 | 2.71 | 46% | 7.19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Juha Pasoja | 12 | 1 | 1 | - | 76% | 2.58 | 0.08 | - | 7.17 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jani Sarajärvi | 5 (2) | 1 | - | - | 78% | 3.67 | 0.50 | - | 7.14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jakob Thomsen | 7 (1) | - | - | - | 65% | 4.52 | 0.28 | - | 7.13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Ari-Pekka Roiko | 5 (3) | - | 1 | - | 67% | 3.33 | 0.32 | - | 7.13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Timo Marjamaa | 10 (1)| - | - | 1 | 80% | 1.58 | 0.19 | - | 7.09 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Janne Järvinen | 17 | - | - | - | 74% | 2.59 | - | - | 7.06 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Niklas Heiman | 22 | - | - | - | 73% | 2.43 | 0.23 | - | 7.05 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Adriano | 20 (5)| 8 | 5 | 1 | 78% | 0.99 | 2.13 | 50% | 7.04 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Marko Koponen | 5 (10)| 4 | 2 | - | 83% | 0.61 | 2.44 | 50% | 7.00 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jaakko Juuti | 0 (2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.00 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jussi Vasara | 1 | - | 1 | - | 69% | - | - | - | 7.00 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Peter Sampo | 3 (6) | 1 | 1 | - | 72% | - | 0.91 | 77% | 7.00 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Matti Timonen | 1 (4) | - | 1 | - | 68% | 6.86 | 2.57 | - | 6.80 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tuomas Haapala | 1 (4) | - | - | - | 76% | 2.29 | 4.01 | - | 6.80 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Tatu Niskanen | 6 | - | - | - | 45% | - | - | - | 6.33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Jarno Tuunainen | 2 (1) | - | - | - | 65% | 2.93 | 0.37 | - | 6.33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
Our 5th place finish was the best the club had achieved for five seasons and I am pleased with our performance. Our midfield trio of
Innanen, Heikelä and
Stafsula have excelled but I am slightly disappointed that no one made it into double figures on the goals front. We have made a decent profit financially and I feel that the club is in a good position for next year.
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