Veikkausliiga week 9 - RoPS draw blanks again

Some Friday night lights this week, with five fixtures and plenty of tension. Here's what happened... Plus your patience will be rewarded with two howlers in the final game by KuPS to gift MYPA three points.

RoPS struggling again (photo via Eetu Sillanpää)

Lahti 2-0 TPS

A decent start for Lahti continued with the most regulation of home wins over bottom club TPS. Goals in each half, a volley from Loorents Hertsi (18') and Rafael's bustling finish (80') secured three points - and condemned TPS to a seventh league defeat in nine games. Lahti sit in fourth place, four points from third. TPS have six points from nine games, and only four goals scored.

SJK 0-1 Jaro

Jaro continue to rule the Ostrabothnia mini-league after a win at SJK to add to their previous win over VPS. The game was sealed early, Shahdon Winchester heading in from the edge of the box after just fifteen minutes, his third of the season. SJK's fans were noisy and created quite the atmosphere, but it wasn't enough. SJK are ninth with nine points from eight games. Jaro are third, with nineteen points from ten matches.

VPS 2-0 RoPS

Another blank for RoPS, and their fans are wondering where the next goal in coming from as they're now goalless in four, and missing Boris Kokko. A deflected effort from Keithy Simpson opened the scoring on 32 minutes, and Timi Lahti scored his first for the club after 55 minutes, following tremendous work from captain Strandvall. VPS are fifth with fifteen points, RoPS sit eleventh with seven points.

Honka 2-2 IFK Mariehamn

Alas Honka manager Shefki Kuqi took centre stage again with his antics, overshadowing a tense match. Ilari Äijälä's strike (38') took the hosts into the break with the lead, but Brazilian Diego Assis scored at the far post just after half-time to equalise. Top scorer Roni Porokara restored the lead after a corner in the 81st minute, but the lead was short lived, as Lucho Solignac punished poor defending three minutes later to secure a point. 

Kuqi meanwhile is under the spotlight, for kicking a bottle and ranting after Porokara was booked - Inter coach Job Dragtsma received a touchline ban last year for the same thing. Honka are sixth, with 13 points from ten games. Mariehamn are seventh, with eleven points from nine games.

MYPA 2-0 KuPS

MYPA returned to the top of the table by inflicting a first defeat on new KuPS coach Marko Rajamäki. The first goal will belong to the finest blooper reels - after 21 minutes, KuPS keeper Tomi Maanoja came out to clear a long ball, only to kick it at his own defender Omar Colley, and the ball rolled perfectly into the path of Stefano, who rolled the ball gratefully into the empty net for his fourth goal of the season. The second goal was another Maanoja howler, substitute Aleksi Ristola chased a long ball deep into injury time, played it past the on-rushing keeper and into the empty goal. MYPA go top, twenty points from ten matches. KuPS stay tenth, with eight points from nine games.

Highlights of Friday's games

Dogging in Finland

Excuse the somewhat sensationalist headline, which is no doubt bound to attract plenty of the 'wrong' sort of visitors, or maybe even a certain Mr Collymore. But nevertheless...

Myself and Mrs ETS are planning a longer stay in Finland in Summer 2015, which would give us an opportunity to bring young Woodstock along, our very lovely Labrador, who'll be three years old by then. Since he joined us in 2012, our visits to Finland have been limited, and shorter in length (from a weekend to just over a week), and the cost of flying with a large dog are incredibly prohibitive, with BA charging a price per kilogram - as he weighs over 40kg, we've left him with a boarder.

Woodstock

So what for next year? Well assuming I can get a larger car, and the time off work, the plan is to drive from London (via Denmark and Sweden), booking a holiday home for 2-3 weeks, and setting up camp. Mrs ETS hails from Kuopio, while there are family dotted all over from Helsinki to Kalajoki and in-between. My football travels will take shape from there, although I'm not planning on just visiting Veikkausliiga grounds, but any club which will host me and the boy, who is very much a fan of Finland and Arsenal.

On a visit in 2013, we took in the sights of Pietarsaari to see Jaro 3-0 JJK. One of the more intruiging sights of the day, other than the number of Manchester United jerseys, was an elderly lady watching the game with her dog. Now I know in England that most grounds would bar entry to our canine friends, but is this true of most Finnish clubs?

Jaro supporting dog

Seeing as the majority of clubs follow me on Twitter, it'd be nice to get an idea of whether we'd be welcome to visit in 2015. I wouldn't expect him to be appreciated in food serving areas etc, but at least within the complex to watch the game? At the moment we don't know where we'll be staying, and it's unlikely we'll get as far north as Rovaniemi. This autumn we're visiting Turku and Tampere, so there may be clues there.

All help is gratefully received, as we'd love to visit as many different clubs as possible, and make plenty of new friends. Thanks!