Cascadia Head Coach James Nichols was a happy man after watching his side beat Western Armenia 4-0.
He had seen his players bounce back from defeat before after the opening loss to Ellan Vannin, with a hard won victory against Barawa, but this was different.
The 3-1 loss to Karpatlaya meant elimination and one night have expected heads to go down and players to lose interest.
Instead, in the first game in the lower bracket for teams already eliminated, Nichols’ side played very well even with some new players thrown in to give them minutes. Both the tactics and the attitude gave the coach cause for joy. Looking back on the comfortable win over Western Armenia, he said:
“I was really pleased with the performance yesterday. We made changes and knew what to expect from Western Armenia.
“We knew it would be a physical battle and that our players had to stand up to this. I thought we grew into the game as it went on and after the sending off we controlled the game very professionally.
“The spirit in the camp is brilliant and the players who missed out were desperate for the boys who came in to do well.”
Their last game will decide if they finish 5th or 6th.
The opponents are the Panjab, who beat Barawa 5-0 yesterday and look a very strong team. Nichols has done his homework:
“Tomorrow we have Panjab who we have studied on videos of their previous games. We know that Panjab will look to control possession and are a strong side but i think if we approach the game correctly then we will give ourselves a good chance of a positive result.”
Despite his green card against Armenia, striker Calum Ferguson is available for selection hoping to add to his three goals. He is in a tie for the Cascadian ‘Golden Boot’ With Yuri Farkas.
However, there are some players who have very few minutes such as Nikko Stokes, Sofien El-Mehrik and Julius Lansiquot who have all played a few as a substitute but little else. If it doesn’t risk the win, they may be given time although El-Mehrik has left the squad to attend his uncle’s wedding.
Panjab are a decent side with two wins and a draw from their five games and a goal difference of 14-4, the same number of goals scored as Cascadia.
Kick off is at 3pm at Fisher FC in Bermondsey.
