8th season - FC Birkenhead in Elite

"ELITE DIVISION - IT HURTS!"

FC Birkenhead has now finished one fifth of the new season. It begun in
Kakstaden Arena with a tight 2-3 loss to Hot Cookies, followed by FCB's
first victory ever, 2-1 over Fresh Start Club and 3-3 at Bayern Münich.
So far, so good.

In the second Mega Consbox game, Black Mountain SC exposed the weakness
in a rookie goalkeeper (FCB's Ivan Valentin) and scored four times, 1-4
total score.  Eintracht Sydney followed with a 2-1 win over Birkenhead,
when Nievale got injured and FCB now faced the first cup round vs Algae
United from Second division. Birkenhead finally managed to reach second
round after some extra time (2-1), and went back to regular season play
with some hope to break the negative streak.

Without a clue, eh? Regular followers of FCB might know this was one of
the very first teams they played in a friendly preseason tourney. Since
that 0-0 draw, Birkenhead always has lost big-time to WAC. Today's game
was to show nothing had changed.

In front of a mediocre attendance of 44930, Neil Joyford opened in 10th
minute with a corner kick to Andrew Gloscage's header past the keeper's
fingertips; 1-0 followed by some FC Birkenhead stalling for 14 minutes,
when Rick O'Shea equalized for WAC. It was the beginning of the end, as
WAC scored 1-2 and 1-3 before half time.

Eight minutes into the second half, Without A Clue gets a penalty kick,
and 1-4 is a fact. Ten minutes later, Jan Helenek of FCB went down with
a pulled muscle, which weakened the team further. Although the game was
another big loss, the shot count was 12-10 (2 fk - 1 pk) to Birkenhead,
which is a sign the team might be heading the right way after all?

Final score: FC Birkenhead - Without A Clue 1-4 (1-3)

Stars awarded: *** Greta Wall,  Without A Clue (GK)
	        ** Rhett Arded, Without A Clue (MF)
    	         * Nate Ural,   Without A Clue (FW)

"ELITE DIVISION - WE LOVE IT!"

With two games to go, FC Birkenhead was fourteen goals ahead of Canucks
FC into safety zone, and thus could play for fun in the unusual game on
Sunday against Morons and Dunces, who in their turn plays for the title
of WEFS champion.

A generous amount of fans, over 94,000, was at the Stadium Park and saw
Cecil Zamboni give Birkenhead a lead only after 12 minutes of play. Ten
minutes later, MAD however turned the game with 2 goals within the same
fantastic minute. Yet 12 minutes later, FCB had an opportunity to score
as they were awarded two free kicks in a row, both unfortunately lost.

As the second half opened, MAD scored 3-1 and the game seemed lost. Not
until the 82nd minute, Zamboni managed to score again, assisted by Neil 
Joyford, followed by another MAD goal to make the score 4-2. With a few
minutes left, FC Birkenhead was given a third free kick and now Joyford
finally scored.

As the only team threatening FCB, Canucks FC, also lost their game, the
3-4 defeat did nothing to the standings - FC Birkenhead stays in Elite!
We really love it, don't you?

Final score: Morons and Dunces - FC Birkenhead 4-3 (2-1)

Stars awarded: *** Cecil Zamboni, FC Birkenhead     (FW)
	        ** Long Distance, Morons and Dunces (DF)
    	         * Neil Joyford,  FC Birkenhead     (DF)