HFA DJ LEAGUE SUSPENDED

All matches have been suspended starting this week due to the u/23 telekom cup tournament.

League will resume again on the 11/12/007 and matches played untill 22/12/007, when teams will be released for x-mas break. League will resume again in the second week of Jan 2008.

This is likely to affect all teams as players will be heading home for x-mas.

We have notified HFA about this in advance to stop all matches by second week of December 2007, but they decided to ignore our request.

From JAK (27/11/007, 11:18 am, SI).

New soccer ball with Benjie's assistance

Benjamin Aitoroi assisted with some funds to enable Santos obtain another soccer ball today. Benjie comes from Maroupaina in East Are' Are and works as Management Accountant at SIEA.

The ball costing $48 was bought from POMA shop today.

Thanks Benjie on behalf of Santos FC management and players.

From JAK - (26/11/007, 2:50pm, SI)

2 SANTOS FC PLAYERS IN THE CENTRAL SHIELDS TEAM

Two Santos FC players are in the Central Shields Squad currently in Honiara taking part in the Our Telekom Cup National Under 23 Tournament. The players are Leslie Haikau and Michael Hui. The two named players featured in the Central Shields first 11 lineup in their opening match against the Avaiki Chiefs on Saturday 24th November 2007. Central Shields comfortably won the match 4-2 with both Leslie and Michael proving to be players to watch in this tournament. Michael Hui scored two of Central Shield's four goals whilst Leslie was always at the forefront for breaking the Avaiki Chief's defence on the right flank and setting up the goals.

There were surprise upsets caused by two Provinces on two Honiara teams on last Saturday during the opening games. The Makira-Ulawa (Our Kakamora U23 Team) proved too good for the Central Honiara in outplaying and outscoring their opponents by 3 goals to 1. The Guadalcanal Honnets was also too good for the West Honiara side winning the match by 2-0.

The 3rd Honiara team (East Honiara Lions ) plays the Malaita Eagles team this afternoon at Lawson Tama - the match is expected to be a thriller and an exciting one to watch.

Due to the current national U-23 tournament, the remaining games and catch up matches in Division 1 of the 2007 HFA DJ League have now been postponed to recommence on 11/12/2007 until 22/12/2007 and again in the second week of January 2008. The same also applies to the Division 2 matches. Santos FC has three (3) catch-up matches for Island Brothers FC (now Eastern Knights), Lau Valley and Kolei United FC.

Santos 4 - EKU 0

Santos won comfortably yesterday. I only witnessed the last 10 minutes and so have nothing much to say on the game.

But as for preparation the team (Management and players) have been working hard for one week and that team effort paid off yesterday.

We now have 3 games remaining.

Thanks From - JAK (23/11/007, 8 am).

A P.N.G LAWYER ASSISTS SANTOS FC WITH SISBD$150.00

One lawyer from wantok P.N.G namely Mr. Malaki Unagui has donated the sum of $150.00 today (20/11/07) to the President of Santos FC Mr. Henry Kausimae at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Honiara in Solomon Islands. This donation came after the club President Mr. Kausimae has appealed on behalf of the club to Mr. Unagui for assistance with soccer balls.

With the said $150.00, one new soccer ball costing $99.00 was purchased today. Santos FC now therefore currently has a total of eight (8) balls. The balance of $51.00 is being retained by the club president until 29/11/07 (next week). The club president will top up this leftover money ($51.00) on 29/11/07 and purchase another new ball next week.

In the meantime, another lawyer from wantok PNG namely Mr. Nicholas Mirou has also indicated his interest to assist Santos FC with soccer balls following the club president's appeal to him last week. Our readers and members will be updated as soon as that assistance finally comes in to hand and received from Nicholas. We expect a few more new balls to flow in before the close of this season.

Both Malaki and Nicholas are prosecution lawyers who are currently working with the Santos FC President (Mr. Henry Kausimae) in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Honiara in Solomon Islands under RAMSI (You can see Malaki's and Nick's images in our pictures section below).

On behalf of the Santos FC, the club management would like to sincerely thank Malaki and Nick for the assistance that has already been offered or will be offerred to our club in the future. May God continue to bless you and your families both here in the Solomons and in PNG.

Santos now has 7 soccer balls

It has taken us longer than expected to have enough soccer balls. But thats the reality of managing soccer clubs in Honiara, where owners have to dig deep into their pockets to finance club needs.

I know other clubs who have one or two soccer balls as well. We are expecting two more balls from Jeff Rahari in New Zealand in the coming weeks.

If my wallet can permit, I hope to get two more next week.

From JAK (15/11/007, 11:18am, SI).

Edwin not available for hand over ceremony

Edwin will not be available this afternoon as he lives in Suva, Guale plains and commutes to town daily. He asked me to relay his message to the boys that soccer balls will be coming next year. And that he's happy to assist Santos.

I asked Edwin for $70.00 to buy one soccer ball. He gave me $100.00. So I put another $50.00 on top and bought two soccer balls, at a bargain price ($150 for the two balls). The normal price is $78.80. It is not normal to bargain in Chinese shops in Honiara, but thank God this is the second time this week for me to get this special price.

From JAK (15/11/007, 10:35 am SI).

Edwin Awaoli donates $100.00 to Santos

The above who owns EN Digital Printing Technology ltd (formerly Southern Star Printers), donated $100.00 to assist Santos acquire two soccer balls today.

I personally know Edwin as we went to Rokera high school on Small Malaita in the late 1980's. It is encouraging to see that he is now becoming an entrepreneur.

Santos is grateful to Edwin for realizing his social responsibility and for assisting his young Southern fellow men engage in worthwhile social activities. Edwin comes Eliote village, South Malaita.

I will try and arrange for a hand over ceremony this afternoon and have the pictures posted later.

Thank you Edwin.

From JAK (15/11/007, 10am SI).

Santos back to training today (15/11/007)

Boys were given a day off yesterday and are expected back to training this afternoon.

We have one week to prepare for the game next Thursday against EKU. If we can win against EKU it will give us a high chance of making the four top places in the league to qualify for the knock out next year for the three Honiara reps for the Solomon club championship.

From JAK (15/11/07, 8am SI).

Santos 1 - DMP 0

The above was the result of today's game (13/11/07). Guylard Kaotara scoring the critical goal 15 minutes into full time.

The game was evenly contested, and playing without our deadly striker Mr. Mark Wate (sick), finishing became a real problem. However the boys did well to defend the goal to the end.

Guylard for the second time earns the critical goal award prize.

We play EKU next Thursday. Now that exams are almost over for most of our boys, we expect good turn out in the coming weeks for collective training.

From - JAK (13/11/007, 10 pm SI).

Santos has 5 pool games remaining

Including the one this afternoon, Santos has 5 games remaining for 2007 HFA DJ league.

The league this year will be played for one round only, with the four top teams from each division playing a knock out early next year to determine Honiara's 3 places in the Solomon club championship to find out Solomons club champion for 2008 OFC O league competition.

Santos a team dominated with students, we have had difficulties with lack of committment to training. The last month or so and particularly the last 2 weeks have been heavy for our student members. Form 6 exams finishes this week. But again, we could not ask for more, knowing that their education is the priority.

Wish our boys best of luck in their exams.

From JAK - 13/11/007.

Santos 2- Telekom 0

Santos won last Saturday (10/11/07), in a game where Mark Wilson could have scored a hatrick, had he been careful. The third chance was classical. He beat the defenders and the goalie and with the open goal mouth, he wanted to do something fancy, and the ball went outside wide in the open goal mouth. He could have simply kicked the ball slowly into the net as the goal mouth was WIDE OPEN before him.

First half the boys did not play according to game plan. In the second half they did and they scored from ground ball build ups from midfield.

Backline was solid and Telekom did not threaten our goal mouth in any drastic way.

Tommorrow the boys play against DMP at 3:30 pm.

Sorry folks, this posting is coming late as I am having internet problems here at SIEA network.

Thanks - JAK (12/11/007).

Santos second loss

Santos lost the game yesterday 3-2 in favour of Toba Kings. It was an equally contested game.

Santos was leading 2-1 at half time. But Toba kings came back strong equalising and scoring the winning goal 10 minutes into full time. Santos played a much improved game but it was apparent that fitness was not there. Boys could not sustain strenght for 90 minutes.

I do not blame them as most of our boys are students facing exams, and their school is the priority.

We next play Telekom next Saturday (10/11/007).