They even beat us in the match report writing...

Since there has been a serious lack of match reports lately, here's one from the Raiders:

Raiders 2 - 0 Uni Stallions.
Another excellent win and the Raiders roll on. There were nervous times (mainly for me) in the leadup, with a few injuries about, but we got 10 on the pitch for kickoff. Jolly (forgot shin pads), Guy (working hard, no doubt) and Matt (fill in) came along eventually and gave us the numbers.
Stallions are not a bad team, I know this from playing them plenty in the past. But, apart from a couple of decent players and a few good periods, they didn't trouble us much on Wakefield last night.
Iain and myself had a lot of time in the midfield, with our opposites misdirecting a lot of passes. Our defence also gave us plenty of good ball, everyone across the back played very well and Karl was assured in goal. I think he had to make one save all night, the Stallions' forw...ards weren't up to much.
It was 0-0 at the half but about 10 minutes into the second spell Iain laid on a superb ball for Andy T, who got square of the goalie and dinked it over him. 1-0 was only what we deserved and then the Raiders kicked into gear. The last 30 minutes was ALL Raiders - we could have had a few more goals, but Iain's effort from outside the box, that hit the underside of the bar (goalie was completely stranded) made it comfortable.
They weren't in the same league as us and it reflected our confidence. The backs moved the ball out of their lines with ease, the midfielders linked well with wide players, and Andy T and Jules were dangerous all night. Jules had a couple of good chances but it just wasn't his night; he and Andy came back for the ball a lot and gave great options.
I've never been grabbed so much at corners or battling for headers (my marker at corners insisted on linking his arm through mine), the Stallions were quite handsy and bullish off the ball. Maybe they should have been concentrating on what their feet were doing instead of touching us up...
Matt and Pavel were excellent subs. Jolly managed to hurt himself landing after a screaming header, and Guy and Grant are in doubt for Saturday. It's getting to that part of the season where people are getting niggles, but we'll get there.
Superb effort all-round. Bring on Suburbs!

Marx claiming offside

So, we've done all the soul searching, philosophising and hypothesising, and still come up with with a 2-0 loss to the raiders. Maybe we're better off leaving it to the experts?

Raiders Tomorow Night

Ok, so last game they squashed us in midfield, ran riot up front, and their backs easily closed down any attack we could muster. Its going to be different this time. Lets turn to the archive for lessons:

http://unistallions.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/bull-bear-stallions-3-v-uni-raiders-2.html

Clearly, we need Lister firing at goal, G-Mann charging down the middle, and can't afford to let Jason play any fancy football at the back. And mud, lots of mud. God, old match reports are always funny. I can now fess up that yes my pinpoint pass to Tristin was a shanked shot. I feel better getting that off my chest.

Funniest moment is in the comments when Panda celebrates Liverpool signing Joe Cole for 3 years. Ha!

Crazy

Western Suburbs:
Goals for: 80
Goals Against: 25
Goal Differential: 55

Fantasy Update

Yeah, umm, its taken a while, but I have finally updated the Fantasy points. Missing a lot of games and relying on some match reports (some non-existant ones even) doesn't help much, but hopefully there are not too many inaccuracies in this.  So here is the current grand totals (not counting the Inter match which we are still relying on some other mvp points nominations). Few nominations the week before either so I just gave 3 to Paul - the whole 2 people who nominated suggested he deserved them.  Perhaps this is all getting a little too boring and we should stop?

Anyways, here are the totals - not surprising is the runaway leader, and good to see the the D is slowly climbing up the ladder. Obviously this season still remaisn a tough one for the D fantasy wise ...

Rauru	97
Logan	47
Lloyd	47
Paddy	46
Aaron	44
Panda	35
Tom	32
Graham	30
Robin	29
Tangihaere	24
Paul	20
Mike B	13
Spencer	12
Joe	11
Jason	11
Corey	5

The worst start in Stallions history?

God, 14 seconds, not a stallion touched the ball. I'll leave the rest for the pony (can't remember whether it was Lloyd or Tangihaere). Great comeback, relegation banished.

Ok assist help, Rauru provided Glen's 2nd, Paddy the first? Did Tim's have an assist or was it a defensive error?

Righto, only one nomination for mvp points last week, so we need a few for this game - more fun when you win too. Assuming none for Glen, I would probably be thinking Lloyd (3), Paul (2), Robin (1). Damn Robin played well. Great team effort all round, Tristin held up play beautifully, Paddy offered so many more options from the back and still managed to pull off his best shot of the season. Come on, we need a few people to nominate.

The slide continues

Can't comment on the game, but our pony can. Sources tell me it played out like this:

Stallion : Paul - a couple of good 1 on 1 saves, kept us in the game
Pony: Paddy - a 1 on 1 of his own at the other end, ever so gently passed back to their keeper (and a candidate for miss of the season).

Close second: G-Mann with a self imposed Rhino injury (was there a squeel of pain?)

Alright, have finally updated the last few weeks of fantasy points (not much to talk about really), but need some mvps from this game.  Suggestions? Sounds like Paul is a contender.

Inter on Wed - time to set this right. Lets think back to the brilliant free flowing football we played against them in the first round. Can't take them lightly though - they have had some good results the last few weeks.

So this week is a must win. What do we have to do? What's gone wrong?