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.
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!