Dorchester Town Story — End Of Season #3

Hello folks, a new Dorchester Town update is finally ready after the busy last few days. At the end of February my Magpies were proudly sitting top of the League Two table, 17 points clear of the second placed team. Since you all said that the title was already ours I guess there’s no need to go into too much details about the next league games, we’ll just focus on our trip to Wembley for the Johnstone’s Trophy Final.

So, we had four league games before that final and things didn’t go too well, on the contrary. We started with a good win over Morecambe but then went on to record three consecutive draws, two of them goalless. I was beginning to worry about our striking force but promotion was secured at the end of the Burton game, we were sure of stepping up to League One with seven games to spare!

I didn’t go into the final with too much confidence though, we were on a poor run of three games without a win and our opponents were strong League One side Peterborough. It was the first final in the club’s 132 year history, I urged the players to give their best and make it a memorable afternoon for the fans. The game was fairly quiet during the first 20 minutes, we were holding them off pretty well in midfield. But there was nothing we could have done to avoid their first goal, a stunning curling shot from 30 yards out left my keeper wondering what had happened… The players were not disheartened though, they showed good determination and striker Omar Koroma had a good chance to make it all square but was denied by the goalkeeper. We were 1-0 down at half time but I was hoping to get back into the game after the break. Unfortunately a corner kick scuffle went wrong in our penalty area, my defenders were unable to clear the ball and it eventually landed into the back of the net. It was all over, my lads were down and out as Peterborough were controlling the game in midfield. We had to admit that we got beaten by a better side, now we’ll have to make it to the final again next year and do better to win it.

The last seven league games were not important anymore, I just watched them like you watch a football game on TV. We managed to secure the title after the Wycombe defeat, with five games to spare…

The fans were proud and I was too, we managed our third consecutive promotion!

Exeter, Stockport and Wycombe eventually got promoted too. As for us, I guess 104 points is not a bad total to have ;)

Captain Ryan Carolan was our best performer yet again, he is becoming a club legend and he totally deserves it. The two strikers also did well, Koroma and Kazmierowski netted 45 goals between them. There are quite a few players that won’t make it into the team next season though, I plan to sell at least five players but it will all depend on how many better players I’ll be able to bring in.

I would like to single out winger Aleksandar Mladenov, the Bulgarian that came to the club last summer as a backup player but managed to end the season with 14 goals and 9 assists to his name. He also was very reliable and hard working on both flanks, he intercepted and tackled a lot of balls.

In case you were wondering just how he managed to net 14 goals, I’ll show you the typical king of action that brought him to scoring this season. Mladenov is the one with the blue line next to him and that blue line tries to indicate his movement off the ball. You notice that he avoids the offside trap as Koroma receives the ball. Koroma makes a quick turn and passes the ball along that red line, Mladenov is clean through and fires it in at the far post!

This type of movement was made by Mladenov time and again this season, both on the right and left flank. He will surely stay in the team next season, I can just hope that he’ll score as many goals in League One too :)

I was curious to see how the club’s finances were at the end of the season. The balance was no longer in red, the club had 144,000 pounds in the bank but that surely doesn’t guarantee a good transfer budget. It is a good sign of progress though and I intend to keep a close watch on the financial health of the enterprise.

With all that money I figured that the board would finally agree to relay the pitch, it’s in a shameful state of «mudness» at the moment. They agreed and I’m looking forward to see my footballers playing football on a grass surface again.

That’s how our season ended, we can celebrate another promotion but I am already starting to think about the better sides in League One and the tremendous amount of work that I’ll have to do during the summer transfer window. I think that we need at least 10 new players to make the squad solid enough for League One so I can only hope that the board will give me a decent wage budget to accommodate all those new contracts.  Thanks for reading, see you in the comments box :)