PREMIER DIVISION, SEASON 2
MATCHDAYS 36-37
When we last left off...
A stay of execution was granted, effectively, for the chasing pack of Straton FC (it really was just Straton now -- somehow they'd recovered from their slump early in the season with an extremely impressive run of form, and were now on track to finish second. Serrapince and Nantwich were looking to not drop off once more -- after all, Lakewood United still had a chance (albeit an extremely slim one, given that they were four behind Serrapince and two behind Nantwich) to overtake the two clubs. Having run into a mixed bag of form, of course, everything was still possible to play for.
Lower down the table, more and more clubs confirmed their survival -- Macarthur, both Ridgewell Clubs, Clark, Sturrey, Carter, Glenmont and the already-doomed Ricci were in the fight for the three relegation spots. Two, really, since Ricci were already confirmed to be heading back to the second tier next year. Of the seven, Ridgewell United and Glenmont were currently in the hunt to survive -- but punters would give Glenmont a higher chance of survival than Ridgewell United or even seventeenth-placed Carter United, since Carter had one point from their last five games -- while Glenmont were on an upswing of form.
With just three matchdays and nine points left to play for, there were still positions to be made up, points to be won, and leagues to be survived in.
Premier Division Standings
Team Pts Max Highest Lowest
1 Lakewood City 81 90 1st 2nd
2 Straton FC 73 82 1st 2nd
3 Serrapince FC 71 80 2nd 5th
4 FC Inter Nantwich 69 78 2nd 5th
5 Lakewood United 67 76 2nd 6th
6 Couno Rangers 59 68 5th 8th
7 Clyde Park 55 64 6th 10th
8 Columbia City 51 60 6th 11th
9 Kingsbury United 49 58 7th 12th
10 Hesham FC 47 56 7th 13th
11 West Couno United 45 54 8th 14th
12 Fraser Valley FC 41 50 9th 16th
13 Macarthur City 38 47 10th 18th
14 Ridgewell Rovers 36 45 11th 19th
15 Clark City 35 44 12th 19th
16 Sturrey Athletic 32 41 12th 19th
17 Carter United 30 39 13th 19th
18 Glenmont AFC 30 39 13th 19th
19 Ridgewell United 28 37 14th 19th
20 Ricci Ironworkers 16 25 20th 20th
Welcome back to the Premier Division.
MATCHDAY 36
Sturrey Athletic 1-0 Carter United
Clark City 0-1 Clyde Park
West Couno United 2-1 Straton FC
Macarthur City 1-1 Columbia City
Kingsbury United 1-1 Serrapince FC
Lakewood City 4-0 Couno Rangers
Hesham FC 0-0 Ridgewell United
Lakewood United 1-1 FC Inter Nantwich
Glenmont AFC 2-2 Ridgewell Rovers
Ricci Ironworkers 2-5 Fraser Valley FC
Sturrey's victory over Carter United meant that Glenmont had a chance to advance out of the relegation zone and into the fresh air of safety -- a chance that they duly took with a last minute goal by Sam Watson, that ever-present right winger, finishing off a free kick on the edge of the box. That result meant that Glenmont would advance to 17th, with a valuable, valuable one-point cushion over the next two games. The draw, incidentally, also meant that it was their fourth match without a loss, something that provided great hope to Glenmont supporters, while Carter United dropped into the relegation zone for the first time in about seven years.
Elsewhere in the relegation battle, Clark City fell by a solitary goal to Clyde Park -- while points and positions had been dropped, Kedar now believed his team had enough of a cushion in the last two games to see himself through to the next season, where substantial investment had been promised by the team's major shareholder. No doubt it would be a sense of relief, though with his team hanging on the balance in 16th, surely he'd have preferred to win as many games as he could before the end of the season in two matchdays time. Ricci, unsurprisingly, lost to Fraser Valley, but many were surprised that a side as languid in attack as FV would hit five against a side. Then again, however, it was Ricci.
Macarthur drew level with Columbia, in a match that not many people really were paying much attention to -- but the fact that Columbia were in 8th, as the best of the rest, and Macarthur were in 13th, showed how strong their seasons had been -- Chromatik midfielder Eli Apt had flown under the radar, and they were looking to bring in more assets from the relegated clubs
Further up the table, Hesham were held to a goalless draw by Ridgewell United, which kept the Salmons on two points from safety but dragged Hesham down a place to 11th, while WCU regained their 10th place courtesy of a win...
...against Straton FC. It was the stuff of legends in the west of Couno, with Straton playing out of their skin to try and get their team back in the game after an early Almar Hussein headed goal put the Senators behind. While Vázsony Sallay, that ever-present figure for Straton, hit one back after the break, a dramatic 85th-minute volley by Scott McIntyre outside the box went clean through the entire defence and through Graham Dodds' fingers. And suddenly, they were done. It was a fantastic goal, well controlled by the Licentian; but the result meant that unless Lakewood City lost their match to Couno Rangers (which was always possible, given how Couno always seemed to have a few tricks up their sleeve).
Lakewood City disappointed by winning their match 4-0, courtesy of a Vaughn brace, Morgan finish and Phil Cole goal -- and a stellar performance by the LCFC backline to deny Couno any real opportunities to fire back. The win, in simple terms, meant that with 2 matches remaining, and 6 points to play for, Lakewood City advanced to an 11-point lead in the league.
They'd won their second league title in as many years, and their fifth in six seasons. An era of dominance, really, that was about ten years in the making. Whether anyone would be able to import enough talent (or nurture their own, some observed more cynically, hoping that the influx of new talent wouldn't kill the carefully constructed culture of nurturing Tumbran talent) was up to anybody's guess, but the smart money would be on LCFC doing the threepeat next season, especially if they decided to once again strengthen themselves in the transfer market.
And that was that for the league champions. The fight was now on to see who would occupy the IFCF spots - LUFC could conceivably knock out one of the teams currently occupying an IFCF spot -- but the smart money was on Straton, Serrapince and Nantwich.
MATCHDAY 37
Carter United 1-1 Clark City
Sturrey Athletic 2-0 West Couno United
Clyde Park 2-0 Macarthur City
Straton FC 1-0 Kingsbury United
Columbia City 0-2 Lakewood City
Serrapince FC 3-2 Hesham FC
Couno Rangers 0-4 Lakewood United
Ridgewell United 1-1 Glenmont AFC
FC Inter Nantwich 3-2 Ricci Ironworkers
Ridgewell Rovers 2-1 Fraser Valley FC
Successive 4-0 defeats to both Lakewood clubs did no good to Kiggwe Siakam's hopes of hanging on to his job after this season, with the team dropping to 7th once more after a humiliating defeat in the Tumbran Classic. Though, realistically, this match held less gravitas than previous years -- while the Classics of old were top-of-the-table, pride-granting, physical clashes, this one was rather more subdued -- after all, it was the team in fifth versus the team in sixth. Not much to be written about, there.
Either way, however Cameron Keyes scored two, Bernard Brown one and Adam Herlinger provided the final goal as Couno were forced to reckon with the prospect that their entire team would need an overhaul if they were to break into the top six ever again. Would Siakam be at the helm for this rebuilding project? Some argued he should, given that he was never really given a proper chance to build the squad in his own image. Some argued that he shouldn't, given that he had one transfer window to make changes...and yet he never did.
Straton breezed past Kingsbury, a welcome return to form after the loss against WCU, keeping yet another clean sheet as Vázsony Sallay scored the outfit's hundredth goal of the season -- a remarkable attacking output, regardless of the circumstances. The result also meant Straton secured second in the league, and the second CEdC spot in the league. Serrapince also secured third, and with it, Challengers' Cup football; their win against Hesham, a 3-2 win in which both clubs went full on attacking (and with Markus Strand scoring a brace), but Serrapince's quality coming out on top. While Serrapince had experienced Cup Winner's Cup football earlier in the season, going up against Krytenian teams, this would be their first full taste of international football -- entering the behemoth that was the Challengers' Cup.
Nantwich were held to a surprisingly narrow victory against Ricci, requiring a controversial Andrew Fischer penalty to keep Nantwich ahead of Lakewood United. Barring any mistakes from them on the final matchday, however, they were odds-on favourites to secure IFCF football, marking a dramatic upswing of fortunes from the previous season, when they finished 7th.
In the relegation battle, all four clubs still involved in the relegation battle played each other -- and both matches came out to a draw. Carter's draw against Clark, giving them a solitary point, was all they needed to excuse themselves from this season's relegation conversation -- more belatedly than they'd like, of course, but survival was the main objective for Clark this season, and they'd achieved it. The fight for survival, now, then was between Ridgewell United, Carter United and Glenmont.
Elsewhere in the league, Clyde Park defeated Macarthur for their second consecutive win, putting one hand on 6th -- while Sturrey surprised many by winning against West Couno, who couldn't seem to keep their form up after the win at Straton. The champions would win against Columbia; though any matches won now really were just diamonds atop the seven-layered cake that they'd baked for themselves.
So -- heading into the final matchday, there wasn't much to fight about for glory or otherwise. With 3/4 of the top spots filled, and 1/3 of the relegation zones filled, most attention would be on the relegation battle -- though many would be paying attention to Nantwich and Lakewood United's matches, too.
Premier Division Standings
Team P W D L For Ag +/- Pts Change Form Achievement
1 Lakewood City 37 27 6 4 90 31 +59 87 -0 DWDWW Champions; CL; CEdC
2 Straton FC 37 24 4 9 100 49 +51 76 -0 WWWLW ChC; CEdC
3 Serrapince FC 37 23 6 8 71 45 +26 75 -0 LWWDW ChC
4 FC Inter Nantwich 37 20 13 4 62 35 +27 73 -0 DWDDW
5 Lakewood United 37 21 8 8 75 42 +33 71 -0 WLWDW
6 Clyde Park 37 17 10 10 66 45 +21 61 ▲1 LDDWW
7 Couno Rangers 37 16 11 10 64 56 +8 59 ▼1 WLWLL
8 Columbia City 37 13 13 11 44 47 -3 52 -0 WDLDL
9 Kingsbury United 37 14 8 15 43 48 -5 50 -0 LDWDL
10 Hesham FC 37 13 9 15 47 57 -10 48 -0 LWDDL
11 West Couno United 37 12 12 13 32 42 -10 48 -0 DDLWL
12 Fraser Valley FC 37 11 11 15 58 61 -3 44 -0 WLLWL
13 Ridgewell Rovers 37 9 13 15 35 52 -17 40 ▲1 DDDDW
14 Macarthur City 37 10 9 18 38 61 -23 39 ▼1 LLLDL
15 Sturrey Athletic 37 8 14 15 29 42 -13 38 ▲1 DLLWW
16 Clark City 37 8 12 17 44 61 -17 36 ▼1 DWWLD
17 Glenmont AFC 37 6 14 17 35 68 -33 32 ▲1 DWWDD
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18 Carter United 37 7 10 20 23 50 -27 31 ▼1 LLDLD
19 Ridgewell United 37 4 18 15 26 39 -13 30 -0 DDLDD
20 Ricci Ironworkers 37 3 7 27 35 86 -51 16 -0 WLLLL Relegated
All changes are from previous table posted; which is to say, MD35. Form takes into account the last five matches; which is to say, MD33-37.
