Dorchester Town Story: December 2012

Hello dear friends, a new chapter of the Dorchester Town FM 2010 story is ready for you, I hope you’ll enjoy it. We managed to stay unbeaten in November but due to a few dropped points Coventry closed in on our leadership of the table, we had no more points over them but only a slightly better goal difference. We were still top of the table though and I was hoping to preserve that status through December.

The first game of the month was at home with mid-table side Bradford, I was hoping to take advantage of the home ground and get the three points. We had a decent first half but we were not nearly incisive enough to do some damage in the opposition box. Things changed dramatically after the interval and I had it was all thanks to loanee striker Craig Carlisle, he netted a hat-trick in less than half an hour to hand us the victory. He also played an assist for Aleksandar Mladenov while our last goal was scored by Matt Richards with a great 20 yard free kick shot. Bradford scored a late consolation goal with a long shot but that couldn’t ruin our celebration, the team enjoyed an outstanding second half.

We had another home game coming up and it was supposed to be an easy one since the opponents were bottom of the table team Carlisle. We were all over them right from the first second of the game and it didn’t take us more than 13 minutes to score the opening goal, Omar Koroma sent the ball in with a perfectly placed finish from inside the penalty area. Carlisle were defending in numbers despite being one goal down and things got even worse when one of their midfielders was sent off just before the break. Young centre back Stefan O’Brien doubled our lead after the interval with a corner kick header and we could have scored a few more. Carlisle netted a late consolation goal and it was a beautiful one too but the three points were ours.

Our only away game of the month was coming up next, 15th placed Southend were going to test their skills against us. The first half was painfully boring, no shots on target at all and no entertainment for the crowd. I was hoping for a better second half but things got complicated for us on 58 minutes when midfielder Al Bangura made a reckless late tackle and was deservedly sent off. I would have taken him out myself if the referee wouldn’t have sent him for an early bath! Things got worse only two minutes later, just when I was thinking about how to approach the rest of the game Southend made the most out of a corner kick and took the lead. The one man disadvantage proved to be too much to overcome but the team produced a decent reaction and we could have gotten the equalizer through Revy Rosalia but his good shot hit the post a few minutes from time. It was our first league defeat of the season, our unbeaten run was over. We also lost the top of the table spot to Coventry, they were one point ahead of us after that game.

We had two back to back games against Brighton coming up next, the first one in the Johnstone’s Trophy South semi final. We took the lead on 14 minutes when some poor marking allowed midfielder Mimoun el Kadi to head in a corner kick cross, his first goal of the season. We were safely in control of the game but Brighton scored one against the run of play with a thunderous 20 yard drive. We were unable to get past their well organized defense so I thought that some fresh ambition would do well: I sent in Jonathan Obika to replace Omar Koroma on 65 minutes. Obika had been out of contention for more than four months and he was not yet fully fit but I hoped that his determination would make a difference. And it did, he rounded off a team move with a powerful finish from close range, I was extremely happy for him.

Brighton came back to the Avenue Stadium three days later for the League One game, they were having a disappointing first half of the season and were down in 19th place. The game was completely in our hands but we only managed to score once through Peter Singh who capped a good team move with a powerful finish. We could have scored at least one more but it was a well deserved win that took us back on top of the table because Coventry drew 1-1 at home with Plymouth!

Blackpool were the next team to visit our Avenue Stadium, they were sitting 14th before the game. I guess many of you watched Blackpool‘s thrashing at the Emirates Stadium yesterday, it’s quite curious how they ended up in League One in my game. By the way, nobody got that score right in our predictions contest :) Back to the game, we took the lead five minutes before half time when Omar Koroma sent one in to wrap up a solid team move but Blackpool got an injury time equalizer when their striker beat the offside trap an slid it past our keeper. We started piling on the pressure after the interval and hit the woodwork twice before Tiberiu Paduraru headed in a great cross from Fabio Daprela. Blackpool were still on their back foot but a quick counter attack brought them another equalizer! I should have pulled back after the second goal, now we had to push forward to get the win. We resumed the siege on Blackpool‘s penalty area and the reward came just a few seconds before the final whistle, captain Ryan Carolan banged in another corner kick header just when we needed that the most! 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 game of the year saw us welcoming 12th placed Preston at the Avenue Stadium, I was expecting a win to send our supporters home happy. Craig Carlisle hit the crossbar only 50 seconds into the game but he got the shot right a few minutes later to give us the lead. We kept the game under control with ease despite being down to 10 men during the last eight minutes of the game. I was pleased with the three points and also with the way my team dominated the game, Preston had absolutely no chance to go anywhere near our net.

So, we’re top of the table at the halfway point of the season, I surely wasn’t hoping for such a good run at the start of the season. Coventry are just one point behind us but the great thing is that we have no less than 10 points on the third placed! As you know, the top two teams gain automatic promotion to the Championship so I surely am hoping to hang on to that 10 point lead.

Here’s how our players performed so far, the stats are sorted by the average rating. Captain Ryan Carolan was our most consistent performer yet again, nothing new there :) Omar Koroma fired in 12 goals and I hope that Jonathan Obika will also resume his goal scoring once he’ll be back in shape. I am considering selling two or three players in January to balance our wage budget, the most likely candidates to leave the club are Hristu Chiacu, Szymon Kazmierowski and Chris Herd. I will also terminate the loan deal for centre back Tom Thorpe in order to be able to extend Craig Carlisle ‘s loan until the end of the season, the boy scored five goals in seven games!

Our sensational young goalkeeper Gabriel Nicolau seems to be attracting a lot of interest on the transfer market with several top tier clubs monitoring him, including Premier League club Queens Park Rangers. I received only one offer for him so far, Toulouse offered around 200,000 pounds but I rejected it. I won’t let him go for less than 1 million pounds, maybe not even then :)

Captain Ryan Carolan is now listed among the club’s icons and he surely deserves all the praise. His career has «Dorchester» written all over it since he didn’t have any league appearances before joining our club in 2009. He played 134 league games so far and scored no less than 24 goals, most strikers might envy those stats :) I decided to keep him at the club as long as he’ll want to stay, even if I might not need him anymore if we get promoted. I will not sell or release him unless he wants to, that’s a promise :)

We’ll have two very important games in January, the first leg of the Johnstone’s Trophy South final against Plymouth and also a tricky away game at 4th placed Rochdale. But we’ll also have to do our best and not drop any points in the other four games against lesser opponents, consistency is the key!

That’s how it was folks, thanks a lot for reading. We’re top of the table, not unbeaten anymore but that doesn’t matter too much. We’ll have to work even harder from now on though because being the league leaders means that we’re the team to beat and that surely motivates the opponents to give their best against us.