And Then There Were Two...

Venezia 2-1 Sangiovannese

Okay, the title isn't particularly accurate - This league is still as close as ever, but for now, it's just us and Pisa sitting at the top of the tree.

Before I get to the match report, I should mention the events in Italy over the past couple of weeks. As some noticed (martinobhoy, I'm looking at you), I haven't posted since the last match. After the events in Catania I was going to put up a post with my thoughts on the matter, but decided against it for the simple reason that everyone has written and commented on it. I'll therefore limit my comments to this: It good change finally seems to be happening, and it is unfortunate that it took Raciti's death for this to happen, but I do think there is a danger in getting carried away with the whole thing. Every country has their problems with this, and every country needs to try and deal with it in their own way. As Ginkers said in his blog, the sanctimonious crap that much of the media over here has been spouting is not helpful, not to mention downright irritating. Here's hoping that we can actually make big strides to dealing with our own problem so the English media need to look elsewhere for their digs at foreigners.

Sorry, rant over! Anyway, back to the game - and by the sounds of things, I think it was the best performance since the new year. In particular, Romondini seems to make a big difference to the team with his creativity, having a hand in both goals (scored in each half by Moro and Pradolin). Sangiovannese grabbed a late goal back from the penalty spot, but we had a third disallowed shortly after, supposedly for a foul on the keeper.

Encouraging signs, then. But we could certainly do with going on a run to try and put some daylight between us and the other promotion contenders. I say this because I have again just looked at our run in at the end of the season, when we play Grosseto (currently the form team, with 5 wins out their last 5 matches), Lucchese, Sassuolo and Pisa in the last four weeks of the season; all of them our direct rivals for promotion. If we've not got a bit of a buffer between us and at least some of them, it will be a nervy four weeks! Next up, and away game at Pistoia - a game we should be looking at winning, although given our recent away form, I hope that is not asking too much!

Serie C1/A:

1. Venezia P 21 W 10 D 7 L 3 GF 27 GA 17 Pts 37
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2. Pisa P 21 W 9 D 10 L 2 GF 17 GA 8 Pts 37
3. Grosseto P 21 W 9 D 9 L 3 GF 28 GA 18 Pts 36
4. Lucchese P 21 W 9 D 7 L 5 GF 28 GA 14 Pts 34
5. Sassuolo P 21 W 9 D 7 L 5 GF 26 GA 17 Pts 34
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6. Cittadella P 21 W 8 D 9 L 4 GF 27 GA 19 Pts 33
7. Monza P 21 W 8 D 8 L 5 GF 24 GA 19 Pts 32
8. Novara P 21 W 8 D 6 L 7 GF 25 GA 26 Pts 30
9. Pro Sesto P 20 W 7 D 6 L 8 GF 14 GA 15 Pts 27
10. Sangiovannese P 21 W 7 D 6 L 8 GF 27 GA 32 Pts 27
11. Padova P 21 W 7 D 5 L 9 GF 21 GA 19 Pts 26
12. Massese P 21 W 5 D 10 L 6 GF 20 GA 21 Pts 25
13. Pistoiese P 21 W 5 D 9 L 7 GF 16 GA 19 Pts 24
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14. Cremonese P 21 W 5 D 7 L 9 GF 22 GA 26 Pts 22
15. Pro Patria P 21 W 5 D 7 L 9 GF 17 GA 29 Pts 22
16. Ivrea P 21 W 6 D 3 L 12 GF 15 GA 26 Pts 21
17. Pavia P 21 W 4 D 6 L 11 GF 20 GA 33 Pts 18
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18. Pizzighettone P 21 W 3 D 8 L 10 GF 13 GA 29 Pts 17