That was a special night for TamU-K, and exactly what the supporters needed right now. The match against ViiPV drew our record crowd in Kaukajärvi, and the team took care of business on the field with a convincing 2-0 (0-0) win. More than 150 people around the field got to enjoy some great football on a sunny evening.

This is where promotion is well and truly on the line. Tonight we’ll face Viialan Peli-Veikot (ViiPV), who are second in the table two points behind TamU-K. If we win tonight, we will be five points ahead of the team who looks to be our main contender for direct promotion, and we will have a game in hand to boot. This would be a great way to go to the short Midsummer break, and to make things even better, other contenders would be nine points behind, which seems very comfortable in terms of at least finishing second in the table and getting to the promotion playoff match.

The away match against Vesilahden Visa (VesVi) turned out to be just as difficult as I anticipated. The first half was particularly difficult, and indeed for the first time in our Vitonen season we went to the half with a deficit, as VesVi had scored the only goal from a counter-attack.

The away match against the bottom-dwelling Vesilahden Visa (VesVi) on Saturday afternoon comes between two big matches, and this has me a little worried. It would be easy to look past this match in the anticipation of the top-of-the-table clash against Viialan Peli-Veikot just two days later. On the other hand, TamU-K goes into the match with a record number of absences, which might also complicate things. The unusually early kickoff time at 2 pm might be a worry too.

Tuesday night was just as fulfilling as I had hoped it would be. The intrigue of the cup brought out the best from the supporters and the team alike, and the result was a convincing 4-1 (2-0) win over the visitors from Jyväskylä. Lohikosken pallokerho fought hard but did not get any shots on goal besides the penalty that gave them their lone goal. In contrast, TamU-K had a couple shots that hit the woodwork in addition to the four goals.

Let’s face it: cup competitions are awesome, and they get a bit more awesome each time you advance to the next round. Success in Finnish Regions’ Cup does nothing to advance our main

goal of getting promoted to Nelonen, yet most supporters that I have talked with are very excited about tonight’s match. Getting into the last 16 is a tantalizing proposal, and then who knows how far we could go.

The long awaited decision from the disciplinary committee finally came on Friday. This was concerning our recent match against TahVe, where TahVe started with just seven players. Merely seconds after kickoff a TahVe player faked an injury, and almost immediately the referee decided to abandon the match because TahVe did not have enough players for the match to go on. Yesterday the disciplinary committee ruled the match as a 3-0 victory for TamU-K.

Perhaps it was the anticipation of the Regions’ Cup match on Tuesday, perhaps it was the hot weather, or maybe even a combination of the two, but the primary impression of last night’s 2-0 (2-0) win over Sääksmäen Sopu is that it was a bit of a lazy match. There was no doubt who were the better team, but getting that to show on the (imaginary) scoreboard was more difficult than it might have been under different circumstance. It all seemed a bit too easy when Petri Vadén scored on the second minute, and come to think of it, that early goal probably contributed to how the match played out. It was not a bad match from the team, but the killer instinct was missing most of the time, and at times the work rate was a bit lacking too.

It looks like injuries and absences are an issue of the past for TamU-K. The fact that Adnan Omerovic is fit and available, but did not make the squad for Saturday’s league match against Sääksmäen Sopu is a good indication of that fact. Timo Kauppinen is back after his red card suspension, Jesse Kupiainen and Anssi Saiha have healed their injuries, and even Ahmed Lakra and Otto Pitkänen are close to a return. The only negative to report in the injury front is that Kemal Dedic re-aggravated his knee in the second team match earlier this week.

The away trip to Pirkkala on Sunday was quite exceptional. We had more than 40 supporters in our section, most of whom had arrived by our charter bus. The result on the field was equally impressive: 0-2 at the half and 0-4 full time. This was the first easy victory this season. The entire time everybody could feel confident of victory, everybody on the supporter side of the field anyway. PJK’s second team was not a bad team at all, but they simply were no match for us in our current form. At 0-2 it was evident that they had had this realization too.