Hello dear friends, I am back, finally! I missed you all quite a lot during my long, extremely long, trip. I’m back in one piece, terribly tired but eager to continue playing Football Manager 2010 and to share my stories with you. I missed playing the game a lot too, I couldn’t even remember the players and everything that was going on at the club when I left. Anyway, I tried to do my best in the first month after the long drought, let’s see how it went.
My Dorchester Town dropped to second place in the Blue Square South at the end of November after a not so brilliant run of results mainly due to injury problems. I was hoping that the team could pick up and return to the good form they showed earlier this season. The first game of December was at home against 11th placed Lewes and we got off to a nightmare start as one of my midfielders played a perfectly weighed through ball for… the opposition’s striker! The lad politely said thanks and banged it past my keeper. The team reacted well and we got back level only a few minutes later. We continued to pile on the pressure until half time but we had no luck. The referee felt bad about it and awarded us a penalty kick right after the break, striker Almani coolly slotted it home. We continued to play well and maybe deserved to score more than the one goal that we did eventually. Anyway, it was a good win and I was pleased with the fightback, the team really showed good determination.
We had another home game coming up, this time 10th placed Hampton & Richmond were coming to visit. This time we got off to a good start as centre back Ryan Carolan headed home a corner kick eight minutes into the game. The match became a lot easier for us and we deservedly banged in another two goals to settle the dispute. I was quite impressed with the team’s strength, I guess the players wanted to give me a nice «welcome back home» gift.
There were some players that were disappointing until then though so I decided to attempt to sell them. I offered three of my fringe Romanian players to other clubs and guess what, I got 2.500 pounds for the bunch! With that money I tried to buy one of the players that I wanted to bring in right from the start, Romanian striker Marius Dabu. His club wanted 1.500 pounds for him and I was glad to spend that sum, this lad seems to be much better than any of my other strikers.
Back to the matches then, our next fixture was the FA Trophy game against Havant & Waterlooville. The game was rather boring and even until the first goal, unfortunately we hit the woodwork and our opponents hit the net. My boys were unable to react and we conceded a second goal during injury time to wrap up a disappointing performance. We’re out of the FA Trophy, we’ll try to do better next year.
I tried to sweeten the disappointment with another transfer, young left back Tom Wynter from Gillingham. They agreed to let him go on a free and I was pleased with that, he should solve our left flank problems. This might well be the season’s last transfer since I’m a bit over the wage budget now.
Back to the league then, the next game was away at 8th placed Chelmsford. They were predicted to be title challengers at the beginning of the season but they were rather disappointing. They looked like a good team though, we were forced to defend in the first half. We did it well though and striker Sergiu Jivan netted his 10th goal of the season on a counter attack. We got a bit carried away though and got punished right before the break. The first half wasn’t over yet, Jivan was keen on being the hero of the day as he broke through the offside trap and gave us the lead a few seconds before the half time whistle. We kept things under control well in the second half, our defense looked unbeatable and we even had one more good chance to strike on a counter attack. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Matthew
6 июня, 2010 at 20:07
Hi Johnny
Well done great month there. Good to now that you had a safe trip :)
Matt
Calum
6 июня, 2010 at 20:26
Good to see you back Johnny, and well done on that good month Johnny. :) I am on holiday during the final stages of the World Cup so unfortunately I cannot take part. Good luck with Dorchester!
Thanks,
Calum
jake c
6 июня, 2010 at 20:40
Good to see you back Jhonny hope you can keep up th good form and win the league
Handy Fernandy
6 июня, 2010 at 20:56
welcome back JOHNNY KARP
I always read your posts about notts country
very inspiring
Johnny Karp
6 июня, 2010 at 21:04
@Matt
Thanks mate, I’m happy to be back.
@Calum
Thanks for the good luck wish. You can take part even if you won’t be able to submit predictions for every single game, you still could earn enough points to win the prize. If you’ll be available during the group stage then you definitely have a chance.
@Jake
Thanks, I hope so too.
@Handy Fernandy
Thanks, I’m happy that you found that story inspiring.
Kevin
6 июня, 2010 at 21:10
Hi Johnny
Welcome back, I know we’ve all missed you these last three weeks. Great to see that you haven’t lost your touch whilst away and have ended the year with Dorchester back at the top with a nice little four point lead. Looking forward to more updates :)
Sears
6 июня, 2010 at 21:39
Hello Johnny, hope you had a nice trip.
That was a great month, your 4 points clear with a game in hand. If you keep picking up wins you’ll win the title easy, well done. Looking forward to the update about the World Cup!
jake c
6 июня, 2010 at 22:24
Could you tell me what players you sold
Lye
7 июня, 2010 at 04:45
Hi Mate, its been long waiting for you to be back.Your Dorchester team should had no trouble winning the BSS title after such a great month. I am pretty excited regarding the contest or should i say i can’t wait for the world cup to get started. It is such a big event for us soccer fans.
Just one small suggestion or to add some spice to your contest, probably you can add a poll for prediction on who will be the winners for this year World Cup.
Johnny Karp
7 июня, 2010 at 08:33
@Kevin
Thanks a lot, I’ll try to keep the updates flowing steadily from now on although that might be a bit difficult in the next few days.
@Sears
Thanks mate, I wouldn’t call the trip «nice» but it surely was useful. The World Cup update will come no later than tomorrow.
@Jake
The players sold were Marian Chis (RB), Alin Steiner (ST) and Alexandru Ignat (CM).
@Lye
Thanks Lye, I’m quite eager to see the World Cup too. Thanks for the poll suggestion, I’ll see what can be done.
Laxeyman
9 июня, 2010 at 19:09
Hi Johnny, good to see you back just as the World Cup starts! Another good month with Dorchester, hopefully you can make that lead even bigger in the coming months, good luck.
Johnny Karp
9 июня, 2010 at 19:19
@Laxeyman
Thanks mate.
Ana Garcia
9 июня, 2010 at 23:06
A little late, but welcome back!
A great month and you now have a real shot at promotion!
Good luck, I have my fingers crossed for you! :)
Johnny Karp
10 июня, 2010 at 09:36
Thanks Ana, I hope that the players won’t feel the pressure in the late stages of the season.
Mariano Vagator
11 июня, 2010 at 10:39
Doing very well,hope your players don´t get too complacent……
The teen team owners must ve very happy!