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Valencia fans protest in favour of Peter Lim's takeover

As Valencia beat Cordoba 3-0 at home on Thursday night to go top of the early La Liga table, hundreds of Los Che supporters called on Bankia to drop its resistance to Singapore businessman Peter Lim's takeover of the club.

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Goals from Paco Alcacer, Jose Gaya and Sofiane Feghouli saw Valencia up to 13 points from their first five games, and move ahead of Barcelona and Sevilla on goal difference atop the Primera Division standings.

Before the game around 500 Valencia fans had protested outside the stadium, with banners calling on their fellow fans to pressurise the publicly bailed-out lender to agree to the generous terms Lim requires for his takeover of the club to go through.

The long-expected deal remains deadlocked with Bankia reportedly concerned about "asset-stripping" of the club and the possibility it will never get its money back should Lim and Jorge Mendes use it solely as a shop window for players owned by their 'third-party' investment fund Meriton.

Nuno, who has admitted he spoke to Lim before taking the job and is a long-term client of Mendes, did not comment on the protests at his post-game news conference, but did praise Los Che supporters for providing the atmosphere which had driven the team on to their fourth consecutive victory.

"In the dressing-room we felt that Mestalla has won this game," Nuno said. "We appreciate the fans a lot because with this atmosphere we began 1-0 up. The important thing is that the fans know they can count on a team which will give everything for them."

The former Rio Ave boss cautioned against too much euphoria -- saying it would be difficult for the team to match La Liga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid over a full campaign.

"It is good to be up here, but la Liga has only begun," Nuno added. "It is great for the fans to enjoy it, but we are thinking about growing and improving as a team.

"To fight against Barca and Madrid we must work very hard. We have another game on Sunday against Real Sociedad, with one day's less rest, where we must show the same level of performance."

New Spain striker Paco Alcacer, who scored his fourth goal in four games with a superb header, said in the Mestalla mixed zone that unity within the squad had driven the team towards such early season heights.

"I am very happy to keep scoring goals and helping the team," Alcacer said. "You have seen that this Valencia is like a family, very united in the dressing room. We need to keep going like this, to keep working. We are having a very good start to the season, we must just go game by game, and try and pick up all the points possible."

Earlier this week in-form midfielder Andre Gomes, who has impressed since being loaned to the club during the summer by Lim's investment group, admitted in AS to being concerned about his own future should the takeover not go through.

"Nobody has told me anything," Gomes said. "I know I belong to Meriton, but I do not know what is happening between Valencia and Peter. All the people of Valencia want Peter to come.

"I am waiting because I need to know about my own future. My case is the same as Rodrigo's. If Peter buys Valencia, I will be a Valencia player in every way. When it is all decided we will know if we are just loans or if we belong definitively to Valencia."