Dorchester Town August 2009

Hello dear friends, it’s time for some lower league football! As you know my career as manager of Blue Square South side Dorchester Town began with a Romanian invasion during pre season and an overall clear out of the squad. More than 30 players were released from the club and I guess it was a risky decision but I felt that I had no choice. Now let’s see if the new players managed to impress the fans.

The first game was at home with St. Albans, a team that was predicted to finish somewhere in the middle of the table. 418 hardcore fans were curious enough to watch the new team, I expected a few more to be honest. Anyway, we had to stick to our game plan and play football in order to bring the fans to the stadium. We got off to a good start and took the lead 10 minutes into a game thanks to Romanian striker Valentin Fritea, he coolly finished off a counter attack move. We didn’t hand on to the lead too much though, four minutes later we gave the ball away in midfield and got punished instantly. My defense was looking shaky and it took the opponents only six minutes to strike again. The team reacted fairly well though and we managed to score the equalizer before the break, our left winger latched on to a through ball and placed it in. The second half was a spectacular display from my lads, we created loads of chances and striker Valentin Fritea earned a hat-trick on his debut!

I guess his performance earned him a screen shot too, here’s our first hero of the season: Valentin Fritea. His preferred role is as a left winger but since I don’t have too many good strikers I employed him upfront. His career never went past the Romanian third league and I doubt it will go beyond Blue Square Premier, we’ll see.

On to our first away game then, we were going to meet Staines, a team that was predicted to finish just above the relegation spots. My boys played pretty well again but we failed to show the same attacking skills as in the first game. We controlled the match though but my strikers wasted two good opportunities, one per half. The three point goal came only two minutes from time, centre back Sorin Secelean (a Romanian too) headed home a corner kick to give us the second consecutive win.

Next up, a much more difficult game at promotion candidates Dover. We started the game well, we were keeping possession and dictated the rhythm of the game but Dover scored against the run of play. I wanted to see a good reaction from my team but my lads were unable to express themselves in attack. Dover put another two goals past our keeper, both from dead ball situations (a corner kick and a free kick). The marking was absolutely shocking, my players were marking anybody else than their opponents and that made it very easy for them to score. I guess we didn’t deserve to lose it but when you don’t mark your man during a corner kick chances are that he will score if he’s not blind.

Our next game was another difficult one, at home with promotion contenders Newport County. We got off to a flying start when striker Sergiu Jivan placed one home five minutes into the game. As it happened before, we got pegged back only four minutes later: my defenders gave the ball away inside our box, Newport‘s striker said thanks and banged it in. That didn’t disrupt our attacking play though, Newport found themselves under pressure and Jivan headed in his second goal of the match three minutes before half time. The second half was entirely ours but we wasted quite a few chances again.

The next game was away at Bromley, a team that was predicted to finish 13th this season. The first half showed a rather poor game from both sides but luckily we did enough to score a goal, Alexandu Almani (yes, another Romanian striker) dribbled past his marker and placed it in. I was forced to make all the three substitutions at half time because some of my players were exhausted. That backfired though when right winger Buari got injured, we had to play the rest of the game with 10 men. I pulled the team back to defend the lead and hoped for redemption on a counter attack. Bromley were pushing forward and leaving gaps behind, the perfect situation for Jivan who finished off a quick counter attack. We defended surprisingly well throughout the game, I was impressed :) Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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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