Blyth Spartans First Premier League Season — March 2014

Hello my friends, thanks for following the Blyth Spartans Football Manager 2009 story! We’re getting closer to the end of our first season in the Premier League and my Spartans were in 5th place at the end of February with a good chance to fight for an Europa League place. The good results were in the shadow of the board takeover news though, the new chairman announced that he will decide whether to bring a new manager or not.

Everybody expected the decision to be made public after the away game at Middlesbrough and I had to focus on the game and think about my job after the final whistle. We defeated Middlesbrough 2-0 in October and they have been quite disappointing this season. Last season they qualified for the Europa League, now they were fighting to avoid relegation in 16th place. The first half was quite even but Middlesbrough were 1-0 up at the break thanks to a goal by Stewart Downing. We dominated the second half and Roman Pavlyuchenko ended his goal drought in style with a great double! A solid away win and now I could wait for the new chairman’s decision in peace…

And that decision came a few days later, it was the normal decision that everybody expected: I was allowed to continue my career at Blyth!

I was happy and relieved, now I could concentrate on my football. In the meantime Arsenal won the Carling Cup after a thrilling extra time victory over Chelsea.

We had a difficult game coming up, a home clash with our local rivals, Sunderland. They were performing well in the Premier League, safely in 9th place. We won the away game 2-1 in November and I expected a tight game this time too. We dominated the first half but we had huge problems with their quick counter attacks. And one of these counter attacks produced a penalty kick for Sunderland, they were leading 1-0 despite the fact that we played pretty well. Midfielder Mickey Wordsworth finally found the moment to score his first goal for the club, a perfectly placed shot just before the break! We continued to push forward in the second half and Sunderland were threatening us on counter attacks. Dejan Stankovic stepped up again and scored another decisive goal for us, a great shot from outside the penalty area. It was a great result but it came at a pretty steep price: Nicao and Stankovic were injured during the game and we had to play without them for 3 weeks!

And we had very tough games coming up… Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool! Chelsea were in 5th place and showing good form lately. We snatched a 2-2 draw at home in October and Chelsea were probably seeking revenge for that. The game began perfectly for us, Chelsea were not producing much and we were playing quite well. Pavlyuchenko headed home a perfect cross from the right wing and we were 1-0 up in the 27th minute! Chelsea reacted furiously and we were under siege until half time. John Terry scored one from a corner kick and 5 minutes later they were awarded a penalty kick! Frank Lampard stepped up, he usually doesn’t miss, but this time the keeper parried it! It was 1-1 at the break, not bad! We played better in the second half, Chelsea were not creating as much pressure as they did in the first 45 minutes. It seemed that we could hold on to the draw but guess what, reserve Portuguese midfielder Leandro Pimenta decided to prove himself in the 81st minute and banged in a shot from 20 yards out! Michael Essien replied immediately with a powerful shot, it was 2-2. We stood firm in the last minutes of the game and walked away with a precious point! I guess a win would have been similar to a highway robbery :)

We received great news after the game, our next match, away at Arsenal, was moved to the 9th of April due to international call-ups. I was quite happy with that, it gave us some space to breathe in a very difficult period of time with many injuries in my squad. So, the last game of the month now, at home with 2nd placed Liverpool. They won the previous game with ease, 3-1 back in November.

They were having injury problems too, Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher were out. We played an almost perfect first half, Liverpool only had a few shots from distance. The most important thing is their defense looked weak and we took advantage of that. Linas Urbsys scored the first goal and two minutes later left winger Tom Chapple pushed in a far post cross from the right wing. We were perfectly in control in the second half too, we even created a few more chances to score. The game was beginning to look peaceful but suddenly there were another four goals in the last 15 minutes, two for each team. Cristian Suarez scored from a corner kick and young English right winger Farai Chilufya scored his first goal for the club. Liverpool‘s goals were scored by Serbian attacking midfielder Miralem Sulejmani, he practically scored both of them on his own, by dribbling through my defense. Anyway, it was a great win over one of the main title contenders!

We were still in 5th place but the table was pretty tight at the top, anything can happen in there… We have 7 more games to play, I guess that with 4 wins out of seven we could hang on to an Europa League place…

Sounds easy, but if you look at the fixtures it might not seem that easy anymore. The first four games in April will be extremely tough, all of them with teams placed in the first seven. The good thing is that the ones with Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, our main contenders for the Europe place, will be at home. The last game will be easier, away at already relegated Hull. Then there will be two more games in May, with Wigan and Newcastle…

Well, what do you say? Can we make it?