Helstad satisfied with his stay so far. Perry thinks Rosenborg had deserved a victory. Espen feels bad. Read all about it!

Helstad satisfied
Thorstein Helstad likes to play at home nowadays. In two games as a substitute he has scored four goals. It should have been five ...

The attacker secured a point against Djurgården. This night was also his, by equalising twice against Panathinaikos.

"Yet again, Thorstein comes in and scores great goals. He proves that he's a goalgetter," Per Joar Hansen smiles.

The lad from Hedmark, who came from Austria Wien hours before the transfer window closed this summer, is well pleased with everything.

"I have settled down well, both in the club and in the city. So far I haven't gotten to play too much, but I hadn't expected that either," Thorstein Helstad says.

Hidden forward
Tonight, he got slightly less than one half. The first minutes, he played centre forward with Frode Johnsen behind him, but then the two switched places. That worked.

"He seems to like it as a hidden forward," Perry states.

Helstad agrees.

"We have changed the positions a bit, and play more or less with two forwards. That suits me perfectly," the 27-year old smiles.

Should have had hat trick
1-1 came when heeling in a pass from Stensaas. 2-2 when he headed another Stensaas pass at the keeper, who gave a rebound that Helstad put.

Two minutes before time, Helstad could and should have won the match for Rosenborg. Frode Johnsen sent through a long pass down in front of his colleague-forward's feet. It was a rather hard pass tough, and when Helstad fired away, the ball shot high above the goal.

"The ball came too fast for me. I hit it maybe too well. If I had fumbled the kick, it probably had hit the net. That's bitter," Thorstein Helstad says.



Perry: "We had deserved to win"
Per Joar Hansen still has no victories as a Rosenborg coach. "Today we had deserved three points," the new boss feels.

"We showed good morale by coming back twice, after two cheap backwards. In the end we could have had 3-2, so if you ask me, we had deserved to win," Perry said during the post-match press conference.

Much was said, in the corridors of Lerkendal, about the 1-2 scoring that followed Espen Johnsen's miss. Per Joar Hansen was equally dissatisfied with the 0-1-goal.

"They were allowed to pass between the middle defence and the back, ran straight through and scored. That's just too cheap and simple," the new Rosenborg coach stated.

RBK has not been skillful enough during this autumn's Champions League. Merely two points in five games says it all.

"Things have gone up and down. We have been close in all the games, and especially for the Panathinaikos games we have had bad luck. But all in all, we haven't had the quality to get three points," Hansen admitted.

Thursday next week awaits an away match against Esbjerg in the Royal League, before the 2004 season ends with a big match in London.

"Arsenal need to beat us to enter the next stage, so this will be a challenge for us - one of the greatest imaginable," Per Joar Hansen ends.


Espen: "Feels bad"
Espen Johnsen made a mistake prior to the 1-2-goal against Panathinaikos, and wasn't pleased.

The goal came when the Rosenborg keeper missed when trying to box the ball. On the flooded grass the ball was left lying on a plate for Rudolf Skacel, who easily scored on an open goal.

"When a goallie makes a mistake, it gets bad results," Espen Johnsen ascertained when he met the press after the game.

In the latest home game as well, against Djurgården, the goalkeeper ended up in trouble after episodes uncertainty and bad skills.

"Now I have played two games I am dissatisfied with. It's a shame that these two happens so close to the end of the season, because then they are remembered very good. I don't have a very good feeling now," Johnsen admits.

Per Joar Hansen agrees that Rosenborg's number one hasn't managed to follow-up last years's great season.

"Espen knows that he's had a season that's been up and down. But many of the players have experienced this. They share one thing: their lowest acchievements must have a higher standard," Perry says, who now gives the goalkeeper a pause:

"It has long been decided that Ivar Rønningen plays against Esbjerg. He needs to get himself tested."

Still, in the last game of the season, against Arsenal on Dec 7th, Espen Johnsen is back between the goal posts. After this, a short Christmas holiday awaits, before the preparations to the 2005 season starts.

"Espen will have to work with the use of his feet, the skills out in the box, and communication," Per Joar Hansen states.