The last home game of the month was against promotion hopefuls Bath. We played well in front of our own fans again, the first half was entirely ours but we failed to create clear chances. I sent in new signing Carol Domondi at half time (a Romanian right winger) and he instantly repaid my confidence by scoring with a placed finish. Bath were unable to cope with our creative play upfront and we scored another one to wrap up the game.
The last game of the month came only two days later, I was curious to see if my players would be able to keep a good fitness level in such circumstances. Well, they were not. Usually some milk for breakfast can’t do anything bad to your body. My impression while watching the game was that my players had a whole cow for breakfast, they were looking incredibly slow and tired. Basingstoke easily put three goals past our immobile defense and they should have scored more but I guess they showed a bit of mercy. I couldn’t even recognize my players on the pitch but I guess it was all because of the fatigue, they are not used to such intensity.
Anyway, we were sitting third after 7 games, I guess that’s not too bad. Dover are top of the table although they didn’t impress me during our direct game.
So far fitness was my main problem because I chose to implement the Notts County tactic and that system requires the players to press their opponents ceaselessly. Obviously the lads that I have in the squad are not used to something like that. Well, I’ve got some bad news lads: the tactic is not going to change, you have to change! I want to push these boys to their limits, that’s the only way they could become better players. Until then it was quite obvious that I needed better squad depth, some injuries have already started to appear. So I brought in another 9 players, four on loan from higher leagues, three Romanians and two other players, a right back and a left back.
I released a few more players and when I looked at the squad I noticed that there were only two players left from the original Dorchester team. The best transfer of this second batch is undoubtedly Darren Barnard, a 37 year old Welsh left back with bags of experience. He really knows how to strike a football, that’s a rare thing in the division from what I’ve seen so far. He was raised at Chelsea and even played quite a few Premier League games in the early 1990s, he will surely help us a lot this season.
That’s how our busy month of August was, I’m satisfied with how it went. We will have only four games to play in September so my tired lads will have some time to recover unless there will be some cup matches that haven’t been scheduled yet. Thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to finding out your views about my debut as manager of tiny Dorchester Town.
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Calum
10 мая, 2010 at 20:14
Great start to the season Johnny, keep it up!
Matthew
10 мая, 2010 at 20:16
Thats a great start but its too early to start predicting where you will finish. Good luck though and I hope you get promoted first time.
Laxeyman
10 мая, 2010 at 20:20
Hi Johnny, really good start to the season, well done! Your team looks to be playing quite well, although if they have poor fitness then that might be worrying in the busy stages of the season. I think you can achieve at least a play off spot, hopefully more, good luck!
Johnny Karp
10 мая, 2010 at 20:25
@Calum
Thanks mate, I hope we will.
@Matthew
I agree, it’s too early to predict. Thanks for the good luck wish.
@Laxeyman
Thanks a lot. That’s why I brought in a few more players, the fittest will survive :) The others will just be released on free transfers I guess :)
ravenie
10 мая, 2010 at 21:13
Out of curiosity I am on the Transfer List and instead of Price Tag everybody is on alphabetically. Anybody help lol?
Ana Garcia
10 мая, 2010 at 21:31
Your knowledge of your home county’s players has really helped you!
Really good start to the season, but as people have said far to early to judge where you will end up.
Good luck!!
Kevin Mayo
10 мая, 2010 at 21:32
Hi Johnny
Good start to life in the Blue Square south but not too happy baout beating my home team Bath (: LOL!
It looks like you’ve imported some good talent from Romania and if you can get the fitness improved you should do really well in your first season.
Rob
10 мая, 2010 at 21:52
Hi Johnny
Good starting month and I hope you can continue to do well. Good luck :).
Johnny Karp
10 мая, 2010 at 23:11
@Ravenie
I don’t understand exactly what you mean.
@Ana
Thanks. Most of those players are unknown even to me, I had to do a lot of searching and comparing to sign them.
@Kevin
Thanks, sorry about Bath :) «Talent» is a pretty strong word to describe the players that I brought in but they surely are better than the ones I had at the club.
@Rob
Thanks for the good luck wish, I hope we’ll continue to play well and maybe see those defensive errors less frequently.
dami
11 мая, 2010 at 00:01
Good start to the season…if you can keep up this form I’m sure you’ll be pushing for a play-off spot…
though it’s a pity that the players will probably be realesed at the end of season.
Majk
11 мая, 2010 at 00:19
With a team that hasn’t played togheter for more than a few pre-games, and are still adapting to a new lifestyle in Britain I’d have to say that you’re doing wonders so far. The fatigue is really a problem and there really isn’t much to do about it expect adding more players to offload.
The other way is to play with a more relaxed training schedule because you’ll certainly not keep hold of the players you have at the moment anyway.
But still, Great work! It’ll be fun to follow.
/Majk
Deano
11 мая, 2010 at 01:34
A massive weldone so far Johnny! I don’t know how you do it…your whole-sale squad changes seem to pay off! Based on what your team has shown you so far, where would you rate yourself in your current league? Oh and one more thing, Callum Mcnish is a great player. And if you can, I highly suggest getting Lee Molineux in from Southampton.
Johnny Karp
11 мая, 2010 at 08:33
@Dami
Thanks, I hope we can keep it up. I think that some players will be released at the end of the season but surely not as many as there were this season. I’ll evaluate all of them then and see who deserves to stay and who doesn’t.
@Majk
Thanks for the training suggestion, I’ll keep that in mind.
@Deano
Indeed, McNish is my best midfielder at the moment, I hope to extend his loan until the end of the season (he’s here for three months right now). I think I tried to get Molineux on loan but he went to another team. It’s too early to rate my team, I guess we’ll know more in a couple of months.
Lye
11 мая, 2010 at 10:49
Hi mate the players need few more games to gain match fitness and recover quickly. You have done really well in getting the best out of your countryman. I hope that you will get promoted when season ends.
You always manage to get your team promoted every season in your past stories. In one way or another you have set a very high expectation so we are not used to it if you can’t get promoted:) With the new additions in for bigger squad depth your team will only get better.
Johnny Karp
11 мая, 2010 at 10:58
Thanks Lye but I didn’t get promoted EVERY season, I had a few non-promotion seasons in the past. Not too many, but there were some with the Blyth Spartans and also with Chester if I remember correctly. It’s too early to consider promotion as a target, we’ll see how things unfold.
warren
11 мая, 2010 at 11:54
Excellant start Johnny. You have had a good start to the season and the influx of foreign players seems to have helped you not hindered you.
good luck
warren
Johnny Karp
11 мая, 2010 at 11:57
Thanks Warren.
Majk
11 мая, 2010 at 16:05
I’ve started up a new game with Basingstoke in your league Johnny! I was so intruiged with your decision to clean out your whole squad and head on on the market to sign players for free.
Although I got mostly brithish players (English, Scottish, Welsh) I did find a few gems from other regions.
Alexis Nikolas from Cyprus
Dan Keat from New Zealand
Mark Raymond from Cyprus
and the amazing Chris Rodd from U.S.A
But I’m leaning towards going on with this story and put my Caen-save in the grave. What do you think?
Johnny Karp
11 мая, 2010 at 16:17
@Majk
I tried to sign that Alexis Nikolas too, unfortunately he chose to go elsewhere… About the Caen game, it’s your decision and if you feel that you need a new challenge then go for it!
ravenie
11 мая, 2010 at 19:19
Johnny you know on the Transfer List how the Highest Valued player is at the top normally and bottom ect. Well my Transfer List suddenly went to peoples surnames and now I can’t tell who is for sale and would like for it to return to normality.
Johnny Karp
11 мая, 2010 at 20:12
@Ravenie
I think you can select from various view modes, it’s a menu on the top right side of the screen just above the list from what I remember. I guess that would solve it.
Mariano Vagator
11 июня, 2010 at 09:59
Good start for the new season, yes, it´s still too soon to predict, but you it looks promising!
good luck!