We were now past the halfway stage at the 2011 Mallorca Tournament and the teams really needed to press ahead to stake their qualification claims. The team representing Ecuador, Olimpico, had only managed a point from three games but had shown in their play they were not to be taken lightly. Askeaton FC were in 4th but could easily have been top had decisions in their Round 2 game gone in their favour.

That was all history now and it was what happened in the next game that would go a long way to deciding their fate. A win would put the Irish top but things did not start well for them as Cristian Cabeza put the home team 1-0 ahead. It was looking as if Olimpico might get the result their play during the day deserved when they doubled the lead through Brayan Toro to hold a 2-0 advantage at the break.

Askeaton FC had shown their fighting spirit in the previous encounter coming from a goal behind and they gave themselves hope when Steve McNamara reduced arrears to 2-1. A second successive comeback was complete when Michael Griffin scored his second of the competiton to make it all square at 2-2. That's how it finished as Askeaton FC remained in 4th and Olimpico remained in 6th . A result that did not massively help either and you wondered how the draws would hurt these teams in the final shake-up.

So, for the second game running the CSF played the team at the top of the table at the start of the round – 3 Lions. The CSF had produced the shock of the tournament and had their tails up, they were buzzing. The 3 Lions needed to knock their opponents down and win to join Policia Local de Palma at the top following their win against the Midway Northerners.

The 3 Lions looked like doing exactly that as James Day scored a first-half brace to establish a 2-0 lead by half-time. The CSF had been here before last game when they overturned a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3. Could history repeat itself? For long periods of the second half it didn't look like it but then late on Alex Thomas scored to make it 2-1. In a matter of minutes everything the CSF did turned to gold and the 3 Lions were suffering the same onslaught as the Policia. In barely the blink of an eye the 3 Lions had gone from 2-0 up and looking to go top to being 3-2 down. Alex Thomas scored all 3 for the CSF with what must have been the quickest hat-trick of the day.

In another barnstorming performance the CSF had followed up 2 defeats with 2 wins. They were joint 2nd with 3 Lions and only goal difference was keeping them out of the Cup qualification places. They were the team on fire in this tournament at the moment – watch out everyone else.