Our next match is the biggest of the season so far as on Saturday we meet Pelikassit, the team at the top of the table that has not dropped any points so far. This preview was supposed to be about how we need to win this match due to two reasons: firstly, if we do not win, we can forget about catching Pelikassit and earning direct promotion, and secondly, if we do not win, we no longer control our own fate in the race for the promotion playoff berth.

However, as it turned out, Ikurin Vire lost their match against AC Darra on Thursday night, and therefore a win against Pelikassit would actually allow us to move past Vire in the table. This would mean that we would not have to rely on winning the last match of the regular season against Vire. It is indeed tempting to start moving our focus to the race to reach Pelikassit rather than the race against Vire.

And talking about Vire, they seem to be in some sort of a crisis. Not only did they lose today, but they have also lost one of their key players Jussi Näppilä to a four match suspension. This comes at a bad time for them: they already lost to AC Darra, and their next two matches are against some of the better teams in our subdivision (YlöR/2 and TaPa 2). Moreover, reports from the Darra match say that they were totally dependent on Samuli Salminen, and when things didn’t go their way, Salminen got extremely frustrated, destroying any changes for Vire to win that match. Seems that without Näppilä Vire are very vulnerable.

But enough about Vire as we need to concentrate on our own business ahead. The fact that Vire is having problems right now gives us a little margin of error and for the supporters it means a little relief on the nerves. However, the team cannot think the same way, because if they do, that margin of error will be eaten up very quickly. Right now we need to prevent that from happening by winning Saturday’s match against Pelikassit. In order to accomplish that, we need to make sure that we do not play like little boys among grown men like we did in the 2-0 away loss against Pelikassit in the spring. The fact that we now not only have Mika Suonsyrjä available for the match, but also have the new signing Sami Kriikkula as another physical player, should help enormously in this regard. And I do think the rest of the team too learned their lesson in that dreadful match in the spring. We wont be bullied around again, I can guarantee that.

It all boils down to this: we really need those three points in order to stay ahead in the race against Vire and also to keep our hopes alive about reaching Pelikassit and direct promotion. The match kicks off at Kaukajärvi on Saturday at noon. The early start time could be a factor on and off the field, but I think there is no doubt both the players and supporters will be ready as the ball kicks off. Hopefully we will have a large crowd again, because this match deserves it. Indeed, winning Pelikassit seems to be very important to everybody in our club. Even if we cannot reach them in the table since we need help from other teams to achieve that, we want to show that at this point in time we are the best team in our subdivision, and preferably by a large margin to boot.