Politehnica Timisoara ended a season like we never want to see again. In the last round of League II, the white-violet team lost 0-5 at home against Metaloglobus in the capital.

Two of the match referees, the central referee Andrei Țiții and the assistant Constantin Cantemir, who were in their last match in this level, received plaques from Nicolae Grigorescu, the former famous assistant referee.

A moment of silence was held in memory of the great footballer Adrian Orza, former vice-mayor of Timișoara, who died yesterday at the age of 54.

The fans in the “South Lawn” constantly cheered their team, held several banners with suggestive messages and celebrated 10 years since the founding of the “Frenetic” group. Plus a superb pyrotechnic show.

Paul Codrea started again in that unusual 3-4-2-1, with Marincu as left wing player. The first half ended goalless, after a good performance from both sides, with a few scoring chances.

Honciu (52) opened the scoring with a perfectly executed free-kick, the ball hitting the bar and going into the net. Just four minutes later, following a corner, Neacșu shot from the edge of the box to increase the lead. In the 73rd minute, a superb move by Zakir is followed by the junior Liș, who finishes from the penalty area into the far corner. 0-3, the dice were finally rolled. One minute later, Zukanovic makes it 4-0 with a shot from the penalty area. He also scores the double three minutes before the end, a goal from the penalty box.

Poli said goodbye to Alin Ignea, the veteran of the squad, introduced during the match, who announced his departure from the club before this match. Coach Codrea gave Marco Lazăr and Bogdan Bratu, both from the youth group n. 2007, the chance to make their debut in the second division, while two other juniors, Balica and Macovei, remained on the bench.

Metaloglobus will go to the play-off because Slatina beat Baia Mare.

Politehnica: D. Moldovan – Vlaicu (77, M. Lazăr), Porumb (60, Ignea), Taub – D. Radu, T. Călin, Târșa (68, E. Adam), Marincu – Gîdea, Bîrnoi (60, M. Oprea) – Gavra (c) (68, B. Bratu) Reserves: Balica – Macovei. Coach: Paul Codrea

Metaloglobus: Gavrilaș (c) – Neacșu (75, Milea), Dima (54, Caramalău), Chatziterzoglou, A. Olaru (75, Goge) – Liș (81, Ad. Sârbu), Al. Gheorghe, Honciu, Zakir – Zukanovic, Huiban (46, A. Sava) Reserves: Nedelcovici – A. Răuță, Cazan, Ciuciulete. Coach: Eusebiu Tudor

If, indeed, we still care and we still want something from Timisoara football, we’ll see you all in Victory Square on 25 May!

After the match, Paul Codrea said:

“Very drastic defeat, we are very sorry, honestly I didn’t expect it, after the first half where the match was very balanced, maybe we even led the game a bit. I didn’t expect it in the second half. Unfortunately those goals came with executions, the first one very nice, the second one with little chance, maybe our mistake. And there unfortunately the guys mentally broke down unfortunately. We’re sorry, we apologize, but I think the boys could do as much as they could at that moment, they gave as much as they could, I have nothing to reproach them for.

I’m glad about that, but the senior boys who played are also to be congratulated. They have worked these months in very difficult conditions, with pressure all the time, it’s not easy to play for the last place team. They came in the winter many of them. I don’t think they are to blame for what has happened now. What we’re going to do from now on, that’s the most important thing. If we manage to create a good team and build something more long-term. Because that’s how we see that it’s not the perfect recipe.

I think after the second one we fell, after the first one the second one came quickly, if it didn’t we were in the game. But everything changed after the second goal and we saw that by the end we were no longer a team. There were 11 guys wearing the same shirt, but we weren’t a team.

From what we have been told, yes, there are financial resources, but you can see that it is difficult to attract good footballers to League 3, because we can’t compare with the salaries in League 2, where you have teams like Metaloglobus, like Chiajna, funded by the municipalities… Our goal is to make a team as good as possible, to stay as little as possible in League 3. Let’s make the most of our youngsters that we have in the academy. We want them to be regular starters, not to come in sporadically, and I think there are a few of them. I liked Marincu for example, he played left-back today, he did quite well. Vlaicu has become a certainty, now of course they are children, Vlaicu is 16 years old, Marincu 17, Marco Lazăr is 15. What should we ask of them? To win our matches. The point is that we have a good future ahead of us, if we have patience and the supporters understand us a little, I say that if we have peace of mind we’ll build nicely… This is who we are at the moment, people must understand that we’ve had a hard time lately, Bocșan and Oanea got injured, Onni and Milos left, we’re down to nine seniors in training, but we haven’t complained about that. On the contrary, we saw an opportunity for youngsters and we tried to take advantage of it. I say that two youngsters have remained regular starters, Vlaicu and Marincu have earned their place. Mada and Boariu, suspended for picking up a red card in the juniors. Murariu will stay a week, we’re waiting for the doctor’s verdict. We’re still on the move until the end of the month. Of course we’ll slow down the pace of training a bit, because we’re running out of goals. But the holiday is too long, four months, we can’t give them that much.”