Blyth Spartans In The Premier League — September 2013

Hello folks and welcome back to the Blyth Spartans Football Manager 2009 story, a fairytale that continues in the Premier League. The squad went through the first matches of the season pretty well, we got two wins and a draw in the Premier League, not bad for a debut. That made us feel more optimistic and confident but the next games were going to be very tough, starting with the first one, away at Tottenham.

Tottenham are one of the best teams in the league, they finished 6th last season. I wasn’t hoping for too much before the game but I was a bit disappointed with our performance. Tottenham were in full control of the game from the first minute to the last and I can say that we were happy to go home with only one goal conceded. Our first defeat this season and a lesson for my young players.

The next game was another difficult one, at home with Everton, a good team that finished 10th last season. The game started badly for us, Everton scored in the 8th minute with a lucky shot from 25 yards out. We reacted quickly and 5 minutes later Nicao was dribbling inside Everton‘s penalty area. Yobo tried to stop him but his murderous tackle brought us a penalty kick. Pavlyuchenko didn’t miss, we were looking good again. In fact we played very well in the first half, created a lot of chances but the first 45 minutes ended all square. We continued to push forward after the break and we finally scored in the 63rd minute when left winger Sandor Vaida passed the ball into the net, a goal created by Nicao and Pavlyuchenko. It was a deserved win as we played very well indeed, we could even have won this by a bigger margin.

Next up, the Carling Cup 3rd round clash with Sunderland. It was a home game but in fact it was away because we were playing at Sunderland‘s Stadium of Light until the expansion of our own Croft Park would be completed. It was an even game in the first half but we had a bit more luck, left winger Tom Chapple sent in far post cross from the right, so we were up 1-0. Unfortunately central midfielder Mickey Wordsworth showed his lack of experience and received two yellow cards before the break :( The second half was tough, we were down to 10 men but Tom Chapple made it a lot easier by pushing in another far post cross from the right. Sunderland tried to put us under pressure but we did well with and with a lot of help from our keeper we managed to hang in and go through to the next round.

We were a bit unlucky with the Carling Cup 4th round draw, we will play Manchester United :( The Red Devils were our next opponents in the Premier League, unbeaten in 5 matches. I was expecting a good game from my lads at Old Trafford, we had to play well even if the defeat seemed inevitable. Three minutes after the first whistle and we were in dreamland: Vaida passed from the left wing, Nicao picked it up inside the penalty area and aimed for the far post. And it went in! Manchester United reacted furiously, they were shooting from everywhere but with a bit of luck we were still leading. Just before the break the inevitable happened, Diego Forlan scored, so the first 45 minutes ended 1-1. United came out very determined in the second half, we had to withstand heavy pressure but we were able to create a few chances on counter attacks. Sandor Vaida made another run on the left in the 71st minute, crossed inside the box and Nicao was there again. And he scored! Sweet mother of all saints, we were leading 2-1 at Old Trafford!

The Red Devils were pushing us to the limits but fortunately Rooney was missing his chances. Our keeper, Itumeleng Khune, was flying and parrying almost anything that came at him. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do about Fabio‘s fabulous shot from the edge of the area, so it was all square again. My players were heroic in the injury time and somehow managed to keep the result, a great one for our morale!

The Premier League table was displaying something out of a dream, we were 4th with 11 points earned in 6 games! Title holders Liverpool are looking unbeatable but we don’t care about that :)

Next month we’ll have three out of four games at home, one of them against Chelsea… It would also be interesting to see what we’ll be able to go with our fellow newly promoted teams, Portsmouth and West Brom, we had lots of trouble with them last season if you remember.

So then, we’re looking good so far, don’t we? I still can’t believe that we’re in 4th place but it’s too early to get optimistic after 6 games, there’s a long way to go and anything can happen in any of the future matches. The good thing is that my youngsters look very determined out there and they try to do their best every time. Of course, sometimes they make foolish errors, but there’s no way to avoid that. And let’s not forget that most of the points were earned entirely thanks to our fabulous Brazilian forward, Nicao. He scored 11 goals in 6 league games… I don’t even dare to imagine what would happen if he would get a serious injury, there’s nobody in my team that could do what he does.