Another one of those difficult away matches it was not. The circumstances ahead of the away match against Sastamalan Woima certainly favored us. The home team had had difficulties getting a team together for this match, and eventually were able to do so only by fielding a large number of players that had not played in Nelonen for them this season. Even if they were able to find a full eighteen-man lineup, it was no match to our fourteen players that were able to play in this match. Indeed, the difference in quality on the field was just as big as the 0-13 (0-4) scoreline would suggest.

Today we go on the second away trip of the season. The first one was a success in the stands as we brought about 50 supporters to Valkeakoski, but unfortunately the result on the field was a 3-1 loss against VaKP. Today we ought to be able to reverse the course on the field, because the opponent Sastamalan Woima (SW) is the team currently holding the last place on the table with just four points from six matches, while we’d be able to move to the top of the table with a high-scoring win. However, results from around Nelonen this season have shown it is not as simple as that.

Simply put, that was the best TamU we have seen this year. Especially the first half-hour where we scored three goals was deadly. Indeed, when Mika Kytöviita scored the 2-0 goal, I was 100 % sure we would win. The saying goes that 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football, but I laughed when I thought of that. Everything was just clicking on the field, and there was nothing that could change the result. When Andrea Milanti scored the 3-0 confirmation by a beautiful strike from a free-kick, the evening was truly done. The only thing that could have changed at that point was the number of goal we’d score, but in the end 3-0 was the final score as well.

Nelonen this year is very different from what we have had in our two previous seasons in Vitonen and Kutonen. Now that teams have played five to eight matches, there are as many as five teams near the top with the same number of points dropped. All of VaKP, TamU-K, TP-49, FC Melody and LeKi-futis have dropped seven points (two ties and one loss each), and occupy spots 1 and 3-6 on the table. Add NePa into the mix, currently taking the second spot on the table with four wins, two ties and two losses, and you have a group of six teams where all of them are still in a great position to fight for promotion. Clearly, there is no need to underline the importance of Sunday’s match against TP-49.

It always feels weird playing an away match at our home stadium in Pyynikki. Yesterday was made even weirder by the fact that we played against the local rival Ilves, but pretty much nobody cared about the home team. This was not surprising at all – but nevertheless it gave a really odd feeling to the whole event. Some called it a derby ahead of the match, but is it a derby when only one of the teams gets any support? In fact, even the overall attendance was significantly lower than just a few days earlier in our match against the nondescript FJK.

Tomorrow’s match is against a club with whom we could have the biggest derby in Finland one day. You see, we play against the club that was a founding member of Tampere United, and whose spot in Ykkönen (second division) Tampere United originally inherited for the 1999 season. This club is of course Ilves. Our histories are intertwined in ways that are quite unusual and intriguing.

For a pessimist such as myself, yesterday’s match against FJK had all the markings of a huge disappointment. It was a match that we were expected to win, but those are sometimes the most difficult ones. Among the supporters there was definitely a feeling of looking ahead to more exciting matches down the line, and I even feared that the overall attendance might be low because this match did not have anything special going on around it. The two previous matches had been greatly hyped, but this one felt like average.

It would be very easy to fall into the trap of underestimating our next opponent FJK. They were very close to getting relegated last season – in fact they were only saved by a series of wins during the last third of the season – and this year they started with three straight losses. Last weekend they finally ended their bad streak by beating Sastamalan Woima, now the only team to have lost all their matches.

I almost feel like the tile should be the entire contents of my match report, but I think I will elaborate a bit. And no, do not get me wrong, the 3-1 loss against VaKP was a huge disappointment, but somehow through the feelings of despair something exceptional came to life. Maybe it was the realisation that it is a miracle that we even have a club to support, let alone one fighting for a third straight promotion, but somehow the last 20 minutes of support last night was some of the best we have ever delivered on an away trip. And we only needed one simple song for that.

Today’s fixture is one of the toughest ones in our calendar this year. We travel to the neighboring city of Valkeakoski to play against the local team VaKP. Last year they finished second on the Nelonen table, just five points shy from promotion and as many as nine points ahead of the third place team, after having lost just once in their primary home, Apia Stadium. This year they have again started out strong, and are at the top of the table with 10 points after four matches played.

A victory tonight would put TamU-K on top of the table, and even a draw would be a very positive result in terms of staying near the top of the table. It’ll probably take a few more weeks before we can tell who will be the top contestants on the table this year, but both teams playing today would surely like to think they’ll be there.