Blyth FM 2009 Story — October 2011

So, the Blyth Spartans Football Manager 2009 story continues… After playing 8 games in League One we were lying in 12th place, with 3 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats. We didn’t lose any of the matches we played in September but unfortunately we only won one of them.

I decided to switch to the new 4-4-2 tactic on a regular basis starting with the first game in October, away at Rochdale. And the results were good right away: we dominated the game but we only managed to win thanks to two corner kick goals scored by our new Spanish centre back, Daniel Sanchez Ayala. Our strikers seemed to have very low confidence as they were missing unbelievable chances to score.

The next game, at home against Carlisle, was much more difficult and after a hard fought battle I can say that the draw was the fair result. Both teams created a lot of chances and we just couldn’t cope with their pace upfront. The good thing was that we were still unbeaten although our position in the League One table didn’t improve much.

Charlton, our next opponent, were having quite a rough time, they didn’t get a win in the last 8 games! It was a golden chance for us to get three points in the bag and we played very well to get them. We dominated the game for the whole 90 minutes, not giving our opponents any real chances to score.

We were on a 9 games unbeaten run before the away game against Southend. They were 5th in League One and we were in 7th place. They were strong favorites to win the game and although we had a better possession we couldn’t avoid defeat. We were beaten quite clearly, 2-0, our third defeat in League One.

Fortunately for us the next game seemed to be quite easy, Cheltenham were 20th in League One and we looked capable of winning the match without too many problems. And we shouldn’t have had any problems after leading 2-0 at the break with a missed penalty kick in the 20th minute. After half time we made life difficult for ourselves after conceding a stupid goal and after my left winger got sent off for a crazy foul in midfield. We were able to control the game with only 10 men and we won 3-1, things were beginning to look better.

The last game of the month was going to be quite difficult, away at 11th placed Shrewsbury. After a whole month of getting used to the new 4-4-2 tactic my team finally seemed to get the most out of it, they played the best game of the season so far. My Bulgarian striker, Atanas Apostolov, scored a superb double as we absolutely dominated the game from the beginning until the end. A superb win that gives me great hopes for the future.

We were in 7th place in  League One, just outside the playoff positions, but with one game in hand because one of our matches was re-arranged due to international call ups.

I guess I can say now that we seem to have the strength to fight for another miraculous promotion. My main concern is that our finances are not too good, we are 100K in debt right now and things might get worse. We have a chance to get some money by playing a few rounds in the FA Cup and get some prize money and maybe some TV money. In the first round we are going to meet York City, a League Two side, so I expect to go through to the next round. But you never know how these cup games turn out… Stay tuned to find out, the FA Cup game will be our first match in November!