Dorchester Town Story: December 2014

Hello my friends, I’m happy to bring you another episode of the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! I had a few busy days lately so I have not been able to get as much FM time as I would have liked but I managed to go through December 2014 eventually. A quick recap of where we were: our position was 10th at the end of November, safely in the middle of the table with relegation looking quite far away. Let’s see if we managed to consolidate that position in December.

Before starting the league games we had a pretty important Carling Cup game to play, the quarter final clash with Championship side Swansea. The Swans were not having a good season, they were 12th in the Championship, so I decided to rest a few of the important players and sent in some backup players instead. We had a good chance of advancing to the semi finals and the lads played a pretty good first half in which we scored the only goal of the game, centre back Francesco Tosto hit the net for the first time this season with a corner kick header. Then Swansea tried to react but their best chance finished against the post after that respective shot was palmed away by backup goalkeeper Gabriel Nicolau. It was not an impressive performance from us but I was delighted that we went through while resting some players in the process. The semi final will see us facing Arsenal in a two-legged encounter, we have a pretty slim chance of reaching the final but we’ll surely give it our best shot.

Our first league game of the month was at home with 12th placed Wolves, an important mid-table battle. We got off to a perfect start as Omar Koroma was brought down inside the box and Willo Flood converted the penalty kick nine minutes into the game but then Liam Parker hit the post from a great position. Then Wolves started to push forward and Doyle scored a fabulous equalizer after being denied by our keeper a few minutes earlier. We took control of the game after the break but Parker went on to miss another couple of chances, I was already thinking about taking him off when centre back Petre Micu netted a quickfire double from corner kicks to put us comfortably ahead. Wolves missed a good opportunity to get back into the match 10 minutes from time but then Fran Merida wrapped up the game in style, he fired in a great free kick shots from 30 yards out and celebrated his first ever goal for the club. The score didn’t really reflect what happened on the pitch, I have to admit that it was an even game.

Next up, a very difficult away game at 6th placed Birmingham. I expected it to be a tough test for my lads and I was very curious to see how they would cope with in-form Birmingham. My players impressed me right away, they managed to test the opposition goalkeeper twice during the first 40 seconds of the game! The game continued to be quite entertaining and we finally broke the deadlock on 22 minutes when Liam Parker hit the net on the breakaway a few minutes after missing yet another clear cut chance. Our joy lasted only 13 minutes though, Birmingham reacted and leveled the game. We continued to play well though and we had a golden opportunity to take the lead again just before the break, a penalty kick. Willo Flood was not on the pitch so Dacian Varga had to take the shot and, as I feared just before seeing the shot, the keeper saved it! I was afraid that the missed penalty would demoralize the lads but it really didn’t, the second half was a cracker! I had to replace Omar Koroma after half time because he was tired and I sent in young Jonathan Ezquerro but the youngster looked really fired up as he created a chance for himself right away. It wasn’t his lucky day though but he still managed to make a big impact, he played the assist for Liam Parker‘s second goal of the game 15 minutes from time! Then we had to defend but Birmingham were unable to cause any real trouble while Parker could easily have scored a third goal on a counter attack. It was an excellent result and a great performance too, we had all the reasons to be happy since the three points saw us moving up into 6th place!

We had a good chance to consolidate that position too as our next game was away at bottom of the table Newcastle. They were having a rather poor season so I was hoping to get a win. We had a terrible start of the game though, Newcastle created no less than 3 clear cut chances during the initial 15 minutes of the game! Luckily they missed those chances and then we took control of the game and kept pushing forward until the final whistle. We missed our fair share of opportunities though, we just couldn’t hit the net and the closest we came was when one of our many shots thundered off the woodwork. We should have won the game but things could have gone a lot differently if Newcastle would have converted one of those early chances.

The next game was a lot more difficult, defending champions Manchester United were coming to meet us at our temporary home, St. Mary’s Stadium. I was hoping to hold on for a draw but it seemed to be all over by the 20th minute, Rooney and Berbatov appeared to be having lots of fun with my young defenders. Omar Koroma gave us some hope one minute before the break when he rounded off a team move and the team started to play better after the break. We never looked like pushing Man United into the ropes and another quick exchange between Berbatov and Rooney led to their third goal. Petre Micu hit the net with a corner kick header again on 81 minutes but United proved to be too strong for us. I might have made a mistake in choosing to play offensively against them, I could have tried a more cautious approach but who knows, maybe they would have scored even more then. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Our last game of the year was away at Anfield Road against Liverpool, the team that we beat 1-0 at home in the opening day of the season. The Reds were in 9th place before the game and they were surely looking to get revenge for that surprising defeat. We got off to a dream start though, Petre Micu climbed above his marker yet again and scored with a powerful corner kick header five minutes into the game! Then we had to withstand some pressure but my defense did pretty well to cope with it and when they didn’t we had Davide La Rocca between the sticks to save the day («la rocca» means «the rock» in Italian, quite a good name for him). We managed to hang in until half time and then we struck again 10 minutes into the second half, Chris Cohen played a lovely through ball for Dacian Varga and the left winger powered in his first ever goal for the club to make up for that missed penalty against Birmingham. I thought about pulling back to defend the lead but I decided against it, we remained aggressive in Liverpool‘s half and that proved to be the right choice. Liverpool were unable to react, we were outplaying them and hit the crossbar twice while they had no more clear chances until the final whistle! I was very pleased to beat Liverpool for the second time this season, they seem to be our regular customers :)

We are 6th at the end of 2014, much more that I would have dreamed of. Now I can be certain that we will not get relegated and who knows, maybe we can pull off a great surprise and grab an Europa League place!

Here are the player stats halfway through the season, I’m quite satisfied with most of the lads. Parker, Koroma and Sean Scannel hit the net quite often, too bad that Scannell got injured though. I am trying to sell two of the backup players, Jonathan Dos Santos and Eddie Kelly, because their contracts will expire in July and the wage budget does not allow me to renew them.

I guess you agree that our hero until this point was Petre Micu, the Romanian centre back that I brought in last summer for 2.5 million pounds. He has been very good at the back and also scored no less than seven goals, his jumping surely made some victims from corner kicks. I hope that I’ll be able to keep him though, several clubs are already chasing him, including West Ham, Wolfsburg and Marseille.

We’ll have an action-packed January in which we’ll get to meet Arsenal three times! Eight games during a single month might be too much for my squad, I’m quite curious to see if we’ll manage to survive this schedule.

That’s how it was folks, an exciting month for the club that surely gives us the certainty of surviving in the Premier League. We are under no pressure at all at this point so the second part of the season could be quite entertaining :) Thanks a lot for reading this update, I’m looking forward to your comments.