Hi there!
Well it’s been a while since I entered a post on FMS, about 2 weeks I think, thanks to some computer issues but they’re all fixed so on with the story. Last time I left you we were sitting top of the league with a nice gap between ourselves and Burnley, so, did we manage to keep the gap there or did Hull experience an almighty collapse and blow it…
February Results
February Scorers
As you can see not a bad month. A couple of disappointing draws against Bristol City, Sheff Utd, and Derby (who seem to be my bogie team), but other than that nothing to worry about. This is the bit where I’d usually go into more detail but unfortunately I can’t really remember what happened in these games. Abeid got his first goal for the club to equalise against Sheffield but that’s all I know…
March Results
March Scorers
Not a great month, you know things are bad when you can’t deliver a beating to Scunthorpe! They’re my rivals too which makes things even worse. After that I wanted to pick ourselves up against Forest, but instead we went on to blow the lead twice! Abeid scored a beautiful lob for our first but that’s the only positive in this game. After Forest things only got worse! McLean put us ahead only for us to completely fold in the 2nd half, it was a little bit pathetic to be honest. That defeat led to me changing my tactics (again) and taking away the ‘more expressive’ instruction from my team, which is a shame considering we have the best technical ability and highest flair in the league. Anyway that change seemed to work as we bossed Norwich and used the ball much more wisely to record our first win in a month! This stat from the Nottingham Forest game sums up our March performance:
Yeah, not good…
But one good thing did come out of March, Corry Evans won Young Player of the Month and then went on to say how much he loved everything about Hull City, me thinks a permanent deal could be on the cards next season :)
So with Atila Turan and now Corry Evans joining the Hull band wagon hopefully I’ll be able to bring them to East Yorkshire on a more permanent basis next season. Anyway, I’m sure you’re wondering about team ratings so here they are…
As you can see our recent poor form has kind of crippled morale but we have an ‘easy’ run of games coming up, I say ‘easy’ because Derby and Scunthorpe should have been ‘easy’ but they turned out to be tricky games. We’ll start at the bottom of the list, Matt Duke is still yet to play and he shouldn’t hold his breath whereas it would be a brave man that bet on Koren to be at Hull next season. Cooper has disappointed at Kilmarnock only getting a 6.4 so far after playing 10 games for Hull and gaining a 7.1! Abeid is quite low down the list but is starting to show flashes of genius in the trequartista role while Harper will join Koren on the bus out of Hull at the seasons end. Solano and Barmby will be released and Mannone will return to Arsenal, not much to say there, and pretty much Joe Lewis and everyone above is safe, unless they single handedly bring down our title push.
Player of the Post
A strange one this time. Since none of the players at the club deserves this prestigious award I decided to give it to one of my loanees…
Firstly look at his rating for the last 5 games, he has 4 goals in 5 games and has racked up a 7.2 rating since joining League 2 MK Dons. However it gets more impressive…
I’m starting to see why he’s labelled the next Michael Owen, he seems to have great finishing ability. This is proved by the fact he was on loan at Colchester before January for 3 months and reached double figures for them too. Hopefully his attributes will increase enough to push for a first team spot in the future.
Now onto the Championship table…
So with only 7 games to go we’re sitting top by 5 points which isn’t ideal but it’ll do. Doncaster are making a real attempt at 2nd place too which is more than impressive and Burnley could actually be top if they didn’t just mimic whatever result my team got. I would say promotion is probably a 3 horse race now, Hull, Burnley and Doncaster the only teams with a real chance of automatic. Leicester are there too but I think they may be just behind the pace a little too much.
Since it’s so late in the season I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the bottom 5 of the Premier League to see who I could potentially be replacing next season…
Well Newcastle aren’t doing too well, but WBA find themselves in exactly the same situation, 4 points from safety with 8 games remaining, not looking good. Wigan are down there too but have a much better chance of surviving whereas Birmingham and West Ham could easily be dragged into the mire.
Now just one more thing, and it’s the ever more depressing financial situation…
We’ve got just under £5million left in the bank account and I’m starting to doubt the chairman’s philosophy of paying the debt off quickly. If he doesn’t start putting money into the club then we’ll be skint by the end of the season!
Well that’s all for now, my next post will be a season round-up where we’ll finally see if Hull City can win the npower Championship for the first time in their history!
Thanks for reading!
vaibhavc
7 сентября, 2011 at 16:06
Hey Dan
It has been a while. You still are top of the table, but the gap is enough for now. You just need to convert draws to wins. Make sure you maintain your position. Good luck!
Dan
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:49
Hey vaibhavc,
I’m happy enough with a 5 point gap since it gives us enough security just in case. We do have a problem with cutting edge up front and there’s nothing I can really do until my strikers start hitting the net again.
Laxeyman
7 сентября, 2011 at 16:19
Good to see you back Dan, and although your sides form has dipped a little, its still decent enough and you should get promoted now, the 9 point gap between you and Doncaster is a large one and it would take a disasterous end from you for them to catch you up. Good luck!
Dan
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:51
Hi Laxeyman,
I’m used to my sides form dipping now, we’re not exactly the kings of consistency but it shouldn’t damage us too much since Burnley and Doncaster are even less consistent than us, if anything Leicester are the most consistent side at the moment.
George Dobson
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:11
well done Dann gret results you should win te league unfortunate about the finances ut hopefuly that will change if you get into the prem
George Dobson
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:12
sorry about the writing my keyboard is not working propely
Dan
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:54
Thanks George,
I’m really hoping the chairman will dip into his pockets at some point and bail the club out, I’m finished the season now and things have got real bad in the finances department.
Don’t worry about hte writing I made sense of it eventually ;)
Darren Smith
7 сентября, 2011 at 19:59
Despite the poor form you have maintained top spot and still have a cushion. Win your next three or four games and the title should be wrapped up. The finances are always going to decrease through a season outside the EPL as there is little TV revenue and you attract far less crowds. Anyway, I think you’ll get the title and hopefully a decent budget to play with next season.
Dan
7 сентября, 2011 at 21:04
Hey Darren,
I’ve finished the season now and while I’m not going to let you know what happened in the league ;) I can tell you that our finances are screwed! I don’t know what to do and I’m not sure where the board is getting the money from but the club is rolling on as normal, hopefully once the debt is cleared everything will repair itself.
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:15
Hi Dan
Welcome nback mate and fine style too. Great job at keeping your top spot and i’m going to check out this Mark Cullen guy. Keep up the good work!!
Dan
8 сентября, 2011 at 12:00
Hey Kevin,
You should definitely get Cullen if possible although I think the computer might choose to keep him rather than loan him out, if you can get him though he will score goals.
Johnny Karp
8 сентября, 2011 at 09:32
Welcome back Dan, I guess I can already congratulate you on the promotion! ;) Well done mate, looking forward to seeing you and the Tigers in the Premier League!
Dan
8 сентября, 2011 at 12:01
Thanks Johnny,
It’s been a roller-coaster ride but hopefully we’ve finally gained a big enough gap between us and 3rd place to go up. The gap between Hull and Burnley isn’t too bad either! :)
celticman
10 сентября, 2011 at 19:21
Glad to see your back, though it took me a while to read this. Despite the slip-ups it doesn’t seem to have affected your league position if anything its strengthening. Good to see you are developing a relationship with the loan players too — when you get into the premier league you’ll need to get a few of these kind of players on loan again and successful loan spells make clubs more willing to loan to you again, and the players to accept your offer.
How would you feel if Newcastle got relegated in your game? I’d image they’d sack their manager leaving a position open…