Dorchester Town Story — End Of Season #2

Hello folks, welcome back to the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! This update will wrap up my second season in charge of the Magpies so you’d better not miss it! :) As you know we were top of the table at the end of February, 12 points clear but second placed York had a game in hand. We were also on our way to reach the FA Trophy final but we had to get past a two-leg semi final against Cheltenham. Do you want to know if we got promoted to League Two? The answer is coming up…

The first game of March was away at 20th placed Tamworth, a good opportunity to grab another three points. Things didn’t look so well during the first 20 minutes though, our opponents were unlucky to see a good shot hitting the crossbar. Then we took control of the game but wasted a couple of good chances until half time. We came out of the dressing room with more determination and it showed right away, striker Marius Dabu powered one in to give us the lead. We kept control of the ball after the goal but we were less incisive and could have been punished for that during injury time, Tamworth had a pretty good chance but goalkeeper Catalano did very well to pull off a save.

Next up, a much more difficult game: at home against 5th placed Luton, a team that beat us 3-2 in October (that was our first defeat of the season!) We got an unexpected push towards victory this time though, one of Luton‘s centre backs got sent off only five minutes into the game for a horrible tackle on Marius Dabu. Fortunately my striker survived that murderous attack and we were pushing forward to take the lead. We were unlucky though, two good chances ended up by hitting the woodwork. Luton were relying on corner kicks and free kicks and they had a couple of good opportunities from such set pieces. We resumed the attacks after half time and veteran striker Leonardo Biagini finally gave us the lead by rounding off a flowing team move. The Argentinian marksman doubled his tally from the spot seven minutes before time and we recorded a very important win.

The first leg of the FA Trophy semi final was coming up next, we were playing at home against Cheltenham, 4th in the Blue Square Premier table. We got off to a flier as backup striker Alexandru Almani powered one in only a few minutes into the game, then it was all easy. Captain Ryan Carolan had a great day, he headed in two corner kicks to bring his season tally to 10 goals, not bad for a centre back! Marius Dabu and Leonardo Biagini brought the score line to an unbelievable 5-0 but we conceded a goal 15 minutes from time, it was a great goal too. However, we had a four goal advantage to take into the second leg and I was quite sure that we wouldn’t let the final slip away.

Back to the league for the next game, away at 17th placed Kettering. We got off to a fantastic start again, captain Ryan Carolan scored with a corner kick header only three minutes into the game! Left winger Alexandru Gheba and striker Marius Dabu hit the net too and we were leading 3-0 at half time! We continued to play well after the break but the finishing was rather wasteful. And we could have lived to regret that, Kettering clawed one back from a corner kick seven minutes from time and then things got even more serious when they scored the second goal in the 89th minute. Luckily my lads woke up just in time and gave the opponents no more chances to get close to our penalty area.

The second league of the FA Trophy semi final was just a formality, I was sure that we could defend the solid four goal advantage. I decided to send in the backup players to give my first team regulars a well deserved rest and the game was fairly quiet even though Cheltenham scored in the very first minute of the game. Irish centre back Stefan O’Brien managed to score his first ever goal for the club and we walked away unbeaten. We were going to Wembley! The final was going to be played at Wembley on the 7th of May and we were going to meet… York. Our league rivalry was going to continue in the cup too…

We still had the league to worry about until then, the play-off spot was already secured but I was surely wanting more than that. We only needed a few more wins to wrap up the title chase. The next game was away at 14th placed Barrow and we had a very poor first half. Some relaxed defending gave the opponents the chance to score and we didn’t show too much in attack either. I guess the lads celebrated the FA Trophy qualification a bit too enthusiastically. The team looked a bit better after half time and substitute right winger Carol Domodi latched onto a great through ball from Dabu and fired it home. We kept on pushing forward and finally got our reward four minutes from time when left winger Alexandru Gheba scored the winning goal. A quick look at the table showed that we were no less than 17 points clear of 2nd placed York, so we only needed two more wins to secure the title! Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

I was hoping to get the first of those two wins right away, 3rd placed Ebbsfleet were coming at the Avenue Stadium. The crowd got to see an action packed first half with no less than three goals! Unfortunately two of those goals were scored by our opponents, the first with a fabulous shot from distance and the second as a gift from my generous defense. We played pretty well in the second half but wasted quite a few good chances so we had to postpone the title celebrations.

The next game was at home too but only three days later and most of my players were very tired. We produced a good display though and right winger Jason Mycoe gave us the lead 21 minutes into the game. 12th placed Stevenage got back on level terms a few minutes later, a nice 25 yard drive went past my keeper. We got back in the lead five minutes before half time when striker Alexandru Almani rounded off a nice team move with a powerful shot from inside the box. We continued to play well after half time but a mistake made the score level again. We gave the ball away in midfield and Stevenage punished us with a quick counter attack. It was a bit frustrating because we hit the woodwork no less than three times until that moment but we managed to clinch the win eight minutes from time when Mycoe made a good run and squared the ball for Almani‘s clinical finish.

The great news came after the final whistle, York lost 2-1 at Mansfield and we were champions! The fans were quite happy and as you can see they are considering dedicating a statue to me outside the stadium! Well I’m not too excited at the thought of pigeons crapping on top of my head but as long as it makes the fans happy… :)

We had a bitter pill to swallow after all that champagne though, centre back Bosko Visatovici suffered a terrible injury in training and he will be sidelined for between 10 and 12 months, that made everybody at the club very sad. The next day another piece of bad news from the physio, centre back O’Brien was going to be out for 7 weeks! I had only two fit centre backs for the remaining games of the season but the bad news kept pouring in: left winger Gheba will be out for 6 months, striker Jivan for 6 weeks! Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Anyway, we managed to get through the last five league games with a considerably reduced squad, we recorded three wins and two draws.

We ended the season with a good total of 109 points, I guess the League Two teams shouldn’t underestimate us ;)

The most important game of the season was coming up, we were going to Wembley for the FA Trophy final. The interesting fact was that we never managed to beat York in the previous games, we recorded a 1-1 draw at home in September and got beaten 2-1 away in February. We had to change that poor record and we had a slight advantage as York were still involved in the promotion play-offs so we had a few more days of rest compared to them. The game finally began and I had a bit of a shock when I saw the pitch, perfect like a snooker table! I hadn’t seen such a pitch in a while, most of the Blue Square Premier stadiums are quite… muddy. We started the game with a positive approach, we were trying to attack but York‘s defense was solid as a rock. We got lucky though, a through ball into their box was cleared by a defender but the ball hit another defender in the back and went straight past the surprised keeper! York reacted very well and we had some defending to do until half time. We didn’t defend too well though, York had two clear cut chances to score the equalizer but they missed them. The second half showed a much better attitude from my players and right winger Jason Mycoe missed a huge chance only two minutes into the half, he was one on one with the keeper but didn’t find a way past him. The most important moment of the game came a few minutes later, we were on a quick counter attack and playmaker Juanje played a beautiful chip past York‘s defense… Substitute left winger James Marwood beat the offside trap and volleyed the ball home, we had one hand on the trophy!

York were unable to react after that goal, we took control of the game and captain Ryan Carolan wrapped up his fabulous season with another winning corner kick header. The trophy was ours and we received a nice bonus from the FA for the win, 50 thousand pounds! The club’s financial situation was much better now, we were still in debt but that went down from more than 200 K to 46,000 pounds.

Here are the player stats for the season, sorted by the average rating. I’m quite pleased with most of the players, some of them really played much better than I was expecting them to. I think that around five or six players will leave the club at the end of the season but I will probably have to wait and see the wage budget for the next season.

Our hero was undoubtedly captain Ryan Carolan, he is a role model to both his team mates and the fans. He scored no less than 12 goals this season but the most important thing is that he was always pretty solid in defense apart from some mistakes now and then. I always felt confident when he was in the starting line up and he will surely be our captain next season too.

Along with Carolan another two players were picked in the Blue Square Premier Team of The Season, Dutch midfielder el Kadi and Romanian striker Jivan.

That’s how the beautiful season ended, another promotion for my Dorchester and another challenge ahead of us, surviving in League Two. I doubt I’ll have a transfer budget so I guess I’ll be looking for bargains again but the thing that worries me is that two of my players have really bad injuries that will keep them on the sidelines until autumn or even more. I’m quite curious to see the wage budget for next season, I hope that the board will be a bit more generous. And I also hope they will finally find me a parent club…

Thanks a lot for reading this rather long post my friends. I will be away for a few days, the plane is leaving in a few hours… I will have access to a computer though so I will be able to reply to your comments and emails, just not as quickly as I usually do.