Hello once again, and welcome to another Friday with the Aces. Last week we swept aside Castel Di Sangro in the Copa Italia, stunned Juventus, walloped Sampdoria in their own back yard, and became the first team to get a result from Lazio. Let’s see what thrills and spills await us this week.

We begin with the next round of the cup, and we’re away to Roma, who are doing surprisingly poorly in the league in 16th, with just one win in their seven games so far. I revert to two up front for this game, so Klompe makes way for Tsigalko, and N’Diaye returns for Said. Balbo puts the hosts ahead after 26 minutes, which isn’t a great start for us, and to make things worse, Madeira is injured 2 minutes later, and Samba, his replacement has an instant impact, equalising on the stroke of half time.

Samba must have been chomping at the bit having only made a few substitute appearances this season, and he carries on his scoring in the second half as he puts us ahead on 56 minutes. Balbo gets his second to level the match once more, before Samba completes a remarkable hat trick on the hour. Di Biago squares the match again on 64 and it finishes 3-3, which sends us through on away goals. What a day for Samba, the loan spell at Wigan last season clearly helped him.

The draw for the quarter finals is made, and we’ll face either Hellas Verona or Bologna, I’ll take that!

Chiotis has finally had enough of warming the bench, and hands in a transfer request, but with no signings allowed unless absolutely necessary, in the words of Hall and Oates, no can do.

Madeira is out for a couple of weeks with a strained neck, which is bad, but not as crushing a piece of news as it might have been had Samba not produced his brilliant hat trick last match.

It’s Napoli at home next, and like Roma, they are struggling and rock bottom of the table. Samba starts for Madeira in our only change. Not much goes on in the first half apart from one or two chances either way, but Napoli take the lead right before half time.

We take a battering early in the second half, so I take off Tsigalko for Prutton, with N’Diaye dropping back into defence, which seems to do the trick as we look more solid. Selakovic scores the equaliser, and it finishes 1-1. I agree with the board when they say it’s a poor result.

It’s Bologna who we’ll play in the quarter-finals of the cup, after they played Verona on Wednesday night and ironically went through on away goals after a 3-3 draw, just as we did.

The board are still delighted with my performance, but there’s some unwelcome news as Källström is our for 3 months with a hip injury.

Our next opponents are Piacenza, who are doing well in 4th place, and on a 4-game unbeaten run, which started with a win over AC Milan, so we can’t take them lightly. We’re unchanged from the draw with Napoli. There’s really not much to report here, we had way more shots at goal than them, but did everything but score in a goalless draw, which is the first competitive game we’ve failed to score in this season.

So with that last game one to forget, we’ll go straight to the next one, and Brescia pay us a visit. When looking through their transfers, I see that Jonathan Binotto joined them from Verona for £1m in January, and left for Parma for £1.5m in October after just 7 appearances. I guess that’s one way to make a quick profit. Madeira is 87% fit, so only makes the bench for us.

Aghahowa gets us off the mark on 8 minutes, and Brescia are reduced to 10 men not long before half time. Lundén is injured, so on comes Moukoko. Victory makes it 2-0 before a Samba brace around the hour mark. Madeira makes a cameo for Tsigalko for the last 10 minutes, and it’s another good win, and more goals for man of the match Samba.

The win puts us 6th, which the board are satisfied with. Lundén is out for a few days with a thigh strain.

I list Robben and Bakircioglü for loan to get some game time elsewhere, and a loan approach for Risp from a team in one of the loaded leagues finally comes in as he joins Verona, so hopefully he’ll excel for them and come back a better player.

Another home game, and Fiorentina are next to visit. They are 8th in the table, which is surprising for a squad containing Kanchelskis, Bakayoko, Batistuta, Amoroso, Edmundo and Shevchenko (or Sevchenko, if you prefer). Luckily for us, the latter 3 aren’t even in the squad, but this will still be a tough game. Samba keeps his places after his recent goals, so Madeira is in for Tsigalko, who hasn’t scored since the 7-0 win over Sampdoria, 6 games ago.

We go close a few times, and all seems to be going well until Hofland is sent off 6 minutes before half time. N’Diaye drops back to centre back, and I switch to a 4-3-2 formation, bringing Kerr on for Lundén. We’re defending well in the second half, but our resistance is finally broken on 71 minutes by Batigol. Madeira ensures the Argentine isn’t celebrating for long as he smashes home the equaliser just 4 minutes later to share the points.

Besides Kerr’s broken leg last season, we’ve actually done well in terms of avoiding injuries, so you can imagine my disappointment when I see this…

Back to the cup, and the first of a two-legged quarter final against Bologna. We were unlucky not to beat them in the league, so let’s see how we fair against them this time. They’ve just signed Johan Micoud, who starts on the left wing. I decide to go with Moukoko to replace Aghahowa, but as he’s not naturally left-sided, Robben is among the subs in case Tonton struggles.

It’s a goalless first half, with just one effort on target from each side. Tsigalko is on for Samba on the hour, and as the second half minutes evaporate, I grow more anxious of not getting an away goal. Mohammed Kallon putting the hosts ahead doesn’t help matters, but Madeira and the boy from Belarus turn what was looking like a disastrous day into a rather successful one as we win 2-1.

Straight back to the league we go, and it’s another one of our fellow promoted sides, Padova. They’re rock bottom of the table, and their biggest name summer signing was Andre Cruz from AC Milan, who starts at centre back. After his cup heroics, Tsigalko is back in for Samba in our only change.

Moukoko is clearly loving his new role on the left, and puts us ahead on 25 minutes, and despite plenty of chances and 5 more efforts on target, it remains 1-0 at half time. It seems that Tsigalko needs to be dropped every now and again to give him a kick up the proverbial, and he fires in a brace to cap a convincing 3-0 away victory, a good result according to the board, who are still delighted with my performance.

The final match this week is a visit from another struggling side in Vicenza, who are 15th in the table. They’ve sold eventual Chelsea forgotten man, Gabriele Ambrosetti to Bologna, so I wonder if they’ll miss him. Victory and Hofland are both suspended, so Okoronkwo and Klompe start. It’s a good start, as Madeira puts us in front on 25 minutes. West gets sent off on 38 minutes, and we survive a few Vicenza changes to go in 1-0 up at half time.

The pressure from the visitors continues in the second half, and they’re level just before the hour through the Uruguayan, Marcelo Otero. The bad news keeps coming, as Lundén is injured, so I move Moukoko into the centre and bring on Robben on the left. It looks to be heading for a draw, which I’ll take given the circumstances, but Di Carlo snatches a late winner.

Lundén is out for a few weeks, so that means I’ll have to shuffle things around a bit more.

So at the end of this instalment, we find ourselves in 5th place, which is pretty good I’d say. Goals aren’t a problem, and the defence isn’t doing terribly either. We’ve only lost 3 matches, which isn’t bad going in comparison to the teams around us, and we’ve done well against the bigger sides, but it’s the draws that are costing us.

So that concludes part 3. Join us next week when we’ll face our toughest run of fixtures yet, including the second leg against Bologna, and matches against Roma, Inter, Parma and Juventus. Will it be Aces high or low after those games?