This time we met the manager Jani-Hur in Metsänkulma at Pallo-Peikot office.
Q: What is your overall rating of the season ?
"Out main goal was to avoid relegation, and that we archieved even it was at the very last moment. With a bit more luck we could have secured our position earlier than last round. But you have to work hard to get fortune your side."
"In Cup we managed as far as round 4 that was great. We archived all our season targets, so this was again a very positive season."
Q: How the economics then ?
"A quite stable. The fans were a quite neutral, but sponsors told us we're a just fine. We had no problems to continue the existing sponsor agreements."
"The player salaries were also a quite stable, except for Jyrki and Henk of course. With them we've a special contracts that takes into account their rapid skill development. For the others the wages vairies a lot but the total salaries paid by Pallo-Peikot for outfielders increased by almost 10%."
Q: Would you like to elaborate any players. How the training program was executed ?
"The training programme has been a success. Last season was a brilliant one for Henk and formidable for Jyrki. Henk has improveed enormously and is a candidate for MVP of the series. From Jyrki's point of view it's a pitty that Henk has dominated his post all the season. There hasn't been too many opportunities for Jyrki to show his abilities. I hope we'll strike gold in Cup next season. That would give also Jyrki a showcase."
"Otherwise everybody have played very much on the expected level. During long season you have good form, bad form and injuries, but that is something you have to be prepared. We've a broad material and every player can decide the match. As an example I'd like to mention Iikka Jalonen whose first goal saved Metsis from qualification."
FC Metsänkulma's off-season party will be arranged next Saturday on O'Connells. Be there or be square !
Narva Sports Field 25.9.2004 at 20.00
Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot – Jortsumestarit 2 – 2
Two equalisers saved Metsis from qualification when Funky Punky lost all points to FC Pomo.
Thrilling season for Pallo-Peikot fans ended to faint celebration in heavy rain after season's last match at Narva Sports Field.
The match wasn't a brilliant football mainly because the soaking wet pitch, but the atmosphere was flavored by the importance of the game.
Pallo-Peikot dominated the both halves, but couldn't turn the domination into scoring opportunities. Meanwhile Jortsumestarit hit twice from the left on 27th and 38th minutes. But two equalizers by Leif Olsson and Iikka Jalonen enabled the home side to grap a necessary share of the spoils. The draw was no more than Pallo-Peikot deserved for their possession.
Narva Sports Field 4.9.2004 at 20.00
Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot – Team_Hannus 5 – 1
Two Aaro Tainio goals helped Metsis record a comprehensive win against Team_Hannus in round 11.
Metsis gained possession from the kick-off and the ball was quickly worked to Hermanni Kupari, who gave Metsis lead in the first minute with his season's 2nd league goal.
The visitors showed some good morale and were able to test home side's defence a couple of time before on 38 minutes Aaro Tainio confidently shot in from middle of the box. Team_Hannus didn't give up but only 2 minutes later Daniel Taylor reduced the score to 2-1 giving the visitors hope of salvation. This optimism was short-lived, thought, as Andrey Krasnov on next minute broke through on the right and put Metsis again two goals up.
On second half Team_Hannus was not able to challenge Metsis at all, but only some great saves by Vinjard Gásadal saved the visitors from complete humiliation. However, he was unable to block Aaro Tainio's penalty on 71 minutes and Päivö Anttalainen's shot from the short distance on 78 minutes.
"We never expected the match to be so easy," admitted Metsis' coach Blair Pearson. From what we had seen of Team_Hannus we expected a much better team but tonight Metsis was in a class of their own. Our strikers were quick enough to beat the offside trap set up by the Team_Hannus defence - that's why we scored so many goals."
Bajenland Stockholm 28.8.2004 at 20.00
STHLM Södra – Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot 3 – 0
As expected, the STHLMs went on the offensive straight from the kick-off. Within 9 minutes Kjeld Vadstrup coolly slotted the ball low into the net after a cross pass from the right.
After the goal the home side gained even more zip and doubled their lead. A corner from Mattias Örnkvist on the left was met by Arto Hartikainen at the back-post and his downward header found its way over the line.
Metsis came out of their defensive shell at start of the second half and was able to mount several counterattacks but all effort deflected wide.
John Clarke tested Metsis goalkeeper Henk Pleijers on 71 and 76 minutes with powerful shots from just outside the area, but the Belgian made two spectacular saves.
The icing on the cake came with Borislav Attik's goal four minutes from time after a superb jinking run by Kjeld Vadstrup.
The first entries to the open-ended Pallo-Peikot logo contest have arrived. You can have a look to the top-left corner to find the first winning logo by Hippy McCarthy.
The works are accepted in electronic format all the time and all winning works will be presented in FC Metsänkulma web site. The winners will receive products from the FC Metsänkulma sponsors.
Below is the suggestive description what the logo could look like. Please note the description only suggestive and the contestants are engouraged to use their artistic imagination.
The main character in the logo is big troll with big club on his shoulder. One of his feet is on top of football and he's smoking a cigar. He is wearing FC Metsänkulma team shirt where in the chest is O'Connells' logo. The troll is big and strong, and looks bad and mad.
In the begin of season 23 Player Assosiation and Hattrick team managers have agreed to cut players salaries to restrain a bulge in cost of labour.
This is a dramatic cut e.g. for many FC Metsänkulma's outfield players. According to Manager Jani-Hur the cost of labour is now (in the begin of season 23) with the new agreement 13 135 €, when it used to be 20 393 € (in the end of season 22). That is 36% decrease in the comparable salaries (outfield players only).
All FC Metsänkulma players have refused to comment the agreement.