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| Musical Chairs Completed |
Prag Vec 2 (0 - 1) 1 AC Fiorentina Viola
Cargofleet Cavaliers 0 (0 - 0) 0 Penguin Bad Boyz
PVFC 3 (1 - 0) 0 Rapid Rangers
St. Louis Steamers 5 (4 - 0) 0 Cochanito FC
Having extracted themselves from the possibility of relegation with last week's win over Cochanito FC, Viola went into today's match at the Stadion Andrej Kvasnák with relatively little at stake beyond attempting to improve DVs amongst some of the younger members of the squad.
There was still an outside chance of automatic promotion, should leaders Cargofleet Cavaliers slip up at home to Penguin Bad Boyz, who had the spectre of relegation hovering over them, as indeed did Prag Vec, PVFC and St. Louis Steamers.
Prag Vec also retained the possibility of leap-frogging Viola into the runners-up slot and the play-offs, but needed a victory by at least three clear goals to overturn the goal difference deficit, whilst hoping that the Bad Boyz didn't also beat the Cavaliers.
Going into the final day, the top six looked as follows:
1 Cargofleet Cavaliers 25 19:3 +16
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2 AC Fiorentina Viola 24 20:7 +13
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3 Penguin Bad Boyz 21 24:8 +16
4 Prag Vec 21 22:15 +7
5 PVFC 20 16:9 +7
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6 St. Louis Steamers 20 13:7 +6
And within just seconds of kick off, there was a massive shake-up on the cards, as 18-year-old defender Mattio Rimedio headed Viola into the lead (1') to put them top of the in-play standings.
Soon afterwards, the Steamers lived up to their name and followed suit, going into a 4-0 lead by the 20th minute and doing everything in their power to try and stay up, which was at that point the case with other results going their way and Prag Vec falling into danger.
It got worse for the latter as PVFC went two-up at the Arena through Lubomir Cihak (31') and Cristiano Eder (50') and the Steamers made it 5-0 shortly afterwards, but then the next big twist arrived when Prag Vec equalised against Viola through Richard Svejdik (61').
However, with the Bad Boyz remaining at 0-0, Prag Vec were still staring at relegation by dint of goal difference. PVFC simultaneously extended their lead to 3-0, but were still looking over their shoulders at events elsewhere.
A nervy twenty minutes then enused before the final goal of the gameweek - and of the entire three-month campaign - was netted. It came from the head of Kieran Hapgood in the 82nd minute, sending the home fans at the Andrej Kvasnák into raptures, the 2-1 lead being enough to save their side provided that the Bad Boyz couldn't follow suit.
Following the interminable wait for the final whistle of referee Michael Steen, it was confirmed that it had ended in stalemate at Pallister Park and that the final table looked like this:
C Cargofleet Cavaliers 26 19:3 +16
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q AC Fiorentina Viola 24 21:9 +12
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3 Prag Vec 24 24:16 +8
4 St. Louis Steamers 23 18:7 +11
5 PVFC 23 19:9 +10
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R Penguin Bad Boyz 22 24:8 +16
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