Dorchester Town Story – February and March 2015

Here we go folks, a bit later than I would have wanted but the new update to the Dorchester Town FM 2010 story is finally here! As you know our impressive form continued in January 2015 and we were proudly sitting 6th in the Premier League table at the end of the month with high hopes of hanging on to that place. However, there were bad news as well: my best player, defender Petre Micu signed a contract with Hoffenheim a few hours before the transfer deadline so we had to get by without him.

The first match in February was away at 10th placed Sunderland, a solid team that beat us 1-0 in September. There’s not much to say about the game, it was our worst performance of the season up to that point and I really couldn’t understand why the team played so badly. The two goals were conceded following errors from Vasile Popa, the man who I chose to replace Micu, but apart from that I was unable to figure out why our passing game was not going anywhere near what it was in the previous months. We even had a one man advantage for more than half an hour in the second half but my players were unrecognizable, Sunderland were in control of the matters throughout the game. And as if things were not too bad already winger Laszlo Tamasi got injured and was going to be out for three weeks.

Next up, the FA Cup fifth round game against Birmingham, one of our rivals for the European spot in the league. The first half was almost an exact replica of the Sunderland game, we were uninspired upfront and way too shaky in defense. Brimingham were deservedly leading 1-0 at the break but my lads started to play a bit better after the interval. We missed a pair of chances though and Birmingham sealed the game with one of the many good counter attacks they had in the second half. There were quite a few errors in our defense again and also lots of passes straight to the opponents in midfield, I was beginning to worry…

The next game was away at Aston Villa, a team that was having a disappointing season as they were lying in the relegation zone. Their form was showing good signs of improvement though and they were on a three straight wins run before the game. I was a bit worried by their pace upfront with Delfouneso in the middle and Milner and Young on the flanks so I chose to start with the strategy set to «counter» in order not to leave too much space behind the defense for them to exploit. That choice seemed to be the right one, our defending was much better although we didn’t enjoy too much ball possession. And we had some luck this time, centre back Arturo Bahamondes gave us the lead with a powerful corner kick header and we were much more optimistic at half time. Aston Villa came out of the dressing room with much more determination though and they missed two good chances early in the second half. We managed to hang in until the hour mark when a poorly taken corner kick turned into a counter attack for Aston Villa and they drew level. I was hoping to hold on to that point as we defended pretty well until four minutes from time when a corner kick cross found Warnock unmarked right in the middle of our penalty area and that was that, we lost our third game in a row!

The last game of the month was at home with 10th placed Everton, a very difficult game considering our dismal run. I tried to encourage the players and told them that I believed they could win the match although I really wasn’t feeling too confident about it. The team was looking a bit better though, we enjoyed a good start to the match and took the lead on 20 minutes when Dacian Varga rounded off a good team move with a well placed finish. The score was level again only nine minutes later, a corner kick header and Everton were back on track. My boys were playing well though and it took us only two minutes to get back in the lead, an excellent team move brought the ball inside the box to Iulian Marin and the midfielder smashed home. Unfortunately he had to be stretchered off the pitch a few minutes later but I was happy to be in the lead at half time. We continued to show a fairly solid display after the break but there were no more clear chances for us. Everton were not having chances either but my defenders decided to gift a goal again 12 minutes from time… The team tried to react but our best chance was denied by a great save from Tim Howard so we ended the month without a win and with only one point out of three league games.

Bad news were piling on: Omar Koroma‘s injury was quite serious and he’s going to be out for the rest of the season as it will take three to four months to recover. Sean Scannell was fit again but he was struggling to find the type of form that he showed early in the season before being ruled out by a similar injury. Anyway, luckily we were still sitting 6th because Birmingham were not in great shape either…

We had three games to play in March, at home with fifth placed Man City, then away at high-flying Tottenham and at relegation-threatened Burnley. Not the easiest schedule by any means but I was hoping to put an end to the poor run. Go to the next page to see how we did in March.

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

Just before our game against Man City their board sacked manager Javier Aguirre and the media were speculating that I was among the favorites to take his job. I told them that was not the case but I was hoping that we could have a better chance to beat Manchester City given the circumstances.

I still remembered that they demolished us at the City Of Manchester Stadium in November, that game ended 5-1 with Adebayor scoring two or three goals. This time he was not in the starting eleven but we still had Tevez and Robinho to worry about. However, I chose to start with my standard attacking and aggressive set up hoping that we would manage to score at least once. The starting minutes of the game were quite entertaining for the neutrals, goalkeeper Davide La Rocca saved us twice before Liam Parker missed a huge chance of our own. He did much better on 33 minutes when Fran Merida played a great ball for him inside the box, he took it on the bounce and smashed in! The crowd was roaring and my lads were looking full of confidence, especially Parker who doubled the lead nine minutes later by powering it home after robbing a defender. We were leading 2-0 at half time but I was quite worried because I had to replace three players that were on the brink of total exhaustion. One of the substitutes was 17-year old defender Raul Munteanu who replaced Bahamondes, it was going to be a tough test for the youngster. Things were not looking too bad though, we were still intercepting lots of balls in midfield and creating chances on counter attacks. Unfortunately striker Jonathan Ezquerro missed two chances one on one with the goalkeeper and, as usual, we paid the price for that as Robinho and Tevez found the back of the net. The last minutes of the game were spectacular, both teams were trying desperately to score the winning goal and it could have gone either way but it remained level. Our winless streak in the league stretched to four games but the team’s performance gave me some hope for the future.

The next game was another very difficult test, away at 3rd placed Tottenham. We managed to beat them 1-0 in November but we were quite lucky I remember, they were down to 10 men but still dominated much of that game. The game was fairly quiet until the half hour mark but then Tottenham woke up and started to push forward so they took the lead six minutes before the break and could have added another one on the stroke of half time. We had some good moments after the break and with a bit of luck we managed to draw level when Dacian Varga converted a penalty kick on 63 minutes. We only enjoyed that for two minutes though, Jermain Defoe easily went past my two centre backs and Tottenham were back in the lead. Our reaction was weak, the attacks were easily handled by the Spurs and Defoe could have added another goal to his tally on counter attacks. Five games without a win, that was the most difficult situation I’ve had to handle all season.

The last game of the month was our best chance to end that poor run, we were playing away at 19th placed Burnley, a team that was having a similar run to ours but theirs was even worse: five straight defeats. I was not feeling very confident though and I thought that starting the game with a counter strategy would be the best option, I was hoping to let Burnley attack and steal the three points on the breakaway. The first half was quite boring as a result of my tactical choice because Burnely were not really attacking so there were no gaps behind for us to exploit on counters. I wanted to change the strategy at half time but I figured I could stick to it for a few more minutes to see what happens. Nothing was happening though and just when I was preparing to switch to the usual attacking strategy Ryan Carolan played a poor back pass, it was intercepted and Burnley took the lead! From that point on the game was all fireworks, I made the switch to attacking and it worked right away: Iulian Marin showed great vision to find Packie Doolin inside the box and the Irish winger powered it in on 70 minutes. We continued to push forward and five minutes later Fran Merida played a good through ball for Jonathan Ezquerro who slid it past the keeper to hand us the lead. Burnley switched to a kamikaze 4-2-4 formation but we were hanging in well and could have wrapped it up on a counter attack. We held on to the lead until the 89th minute when a shot from the edge of the area beat my keeper, I was desperate… The referee indicated five minutes of additional time, there was still hope and both teams were trying to score the fatal blow. The clock was ticking without mercy, four minutes went by before Fran Merida found another exceptional pass, a 40-yard pass that found Liam Parker with some space inside the penalty area and the striker kept cool and put it away! Phew, we won it…

Parker was chosen Premier League Young Player of the Month, he surely deserved the honor. I don’t know what we would have done without him…

Birmingham’s poor form continued, they slipped into 8th place with Sunderland climbing up behind us in 7th. Manchester United beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup final so we can be sure that finishing 6th would grant us a place in next season’s Europa League, we just have to hang on to that spot…

The last seven games of the season will make or break our European dreams and we don’t have an easy schedule at all.

Last season Aston Villa finished 6th with a total of 64 points so we would need another 15 to match that total. That would be five wins and I doubt we’ll get that many considering the poor form that we’ve been showing lately. However, there is still hope so we will fight for our chance as it all might go down to the very last game which will see us play Birmingham at home. That’s about it for now, thanks a lot for reading this update.