Dorchester Town Story: End Of Season Number 4

Hello friends, welcome back to the Dorchester Town story. I decided to post one last update for the fourth season because I felt very confident that we would win the League One title after holding a good 10 point lead at the end of January. You know that usually I tend to be more cautious rather than confident but this time things were different for some reason that I can’t really point out.

Anyway, let’s fast forward the next three league games. First we were produced below par performances and were held to home draws by Notts County and Plymouth. Then Peterborough brought our second league defeat of the season but we had an excuse since several important players were injured.

We had to pull ourselves together and play better in the next game, the second leg Johnstone’s Trophy South final against Plymouth. We had a slight advantage after getting a 1-1 away draw in the first leg but I was hoping to win the game without too many headaches. We had a decent first half but our attacks were not nearly incisive enough, we were unable to find killer passes and flowing moves in the last third. Our unconvincing attacking display continued after the beak and Plymouth nearly took the lead with a shot from distance but fortunately the ball hit the crossbar. We started to show more of our skills during the last half hour and we finally broke the deadlock on 71 minutes when Omar Koroma smashed home a penalty kick. Plymouth were unable to react so we were going to Wembley! The final was going to see us playing against League Two side Oldham Athletic!

We gained some momentum after that cup win and brought some of that enthusiasm into the following league games, we won the next couple of games against promotion contenders Swindon and Millwall.

With those two victories our lead was up to 11 points on Coventry and 18 on Millwall, things looked as good as over although there were 12 more games to play. I was quite sure that we were not going to miss out on promotion though mainly because our opponents were good but not good enough to produce tremendous runs and win 12 games in a row.

We also had a great chance of settling the dispute with second placed Coventry right away as we were going to travel to the Ricoh Arena for the next league game. My goal was to get a draw and preserve that 11 point cushion but the team started the game with great determination and wasted a couple of chances early on. We finally took the lead four minutes before half time when Omar Koroma fired it in from just inside the area. We failed to hang on to that lead though, Coventry scored a special goal with a free kick shot from 30 yards out and things were all square at the break. We had our own special goal after the interval, right winger Tiberiu Paduraru made a surprise move and dribbled straight through the middle of Coventry‘s defense, he was clean through after some great footwork and powered it past the keeper. Five minutes later a splendid team move brought the ball into the six yard box and Peter Singh just had to push it into the back of the net. We appeared to be in control but a poor pass in our defense was intercepted and Coventry were back into the game with 19 minutes left to play. We found ourselves under a bit of pressure until the final whistle but my lads stood firm and claimed a well deserved victory that extended our lead to 14 points. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

We had a mixed bag of results in the next four league games but to be honest I was only thinking about the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final :)

And that day finally came, we were back at Wembley after losing last year’s final to Peterborough. Last season we were coming from League Two, now Oldham were the surprise package of the competition. They were almost certain of getting promoted to League One though as they were leading the League Two table quite comfortably. The game started and we took charge in midfield, we were dominating but wasted a good chance early in the game. Three minutes after the half hour mark things got a bit problematic for us as striker Omar Koroma was forced to leave the pitch on a stretcher, it was quite a blow and a bad sign. Oldham were displaying some skill on counter attacks and they managed to draw first blood five minutes before half time on a quick breakaway. My lads reacted furiously, we started pouring forward and managed to score the equalizer just before the break when Tiberiu Paduraru blasted one right between the keeper and the near post. The first 20 minutes of the second half were rather boring, both teams were quite cautious (I’m responsible for our more balanced display since I was quite afraid of Oldham‘s counter attacks). Our major problems appeared on 66 minutes when centre back Alin Ratiu had to leave the pitch injured… I had already made all the three substitutions and we were down to 10 men. I had to make a choice and since Oldham were employing a 5-2-3 counter attacking setup I felt I had to have four men at the back. So I made an improvised defense with right back John White moved as a centre back and left winger Revy Rosalia in his place as a right back. I kept one striker and moved the other one in a wide forward position and also switched the strategy to «counter». Oldham were looking more and more confident though, they were pushing forward but my improvised defense stood firm and took the game into extra time. I was hoping to survive until the penalty shoot-out but the players were getting more and more tired, mistakes were being made by both teams. Just when I was starting to think about who to pick for the shoot-out my players managed to craft a good looking counter attack, the ball was squared for Simon Ferry rushing in from midfield and he powered it right in! I have to admit that we shamelessly ran down the clock during the last minutes of extra time but we won it!

So, we added another piece of silverware in our shabby trophy cabinet…

Then I started to give some of the backup players more chances to play for the first team but that’s not the only reason for our poor performances during the last seven games of the season. We lost three of those seven games but it didn’t matter too much anymore…

… we won another title, our fourth in a row!

Coventry finished second just 7 points behind us and Millwall managed to win the play-off and get promoted.

Now you can have a look at the players statistics for the season, sorted by average rating. Omar Koroma was our main man, he scored 22 goals and played 14 assists. Our wingers did a lot of hard work as you can see from the distance covered/90 minutes column while the loaned players were among our top performers.

I already started to think about next season, we have to prepare for the Championship as it won’t be easy at all. I already arranged the selling of two of the current players, Alin Ratiu and Mimoun El Kadi but also managed to sign four new players that will join the club on the 1st of July! Let me introduce them one by one.

The first one is Mexican midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos, Giovanni’s younger brother. He was contracted to Barcelona but the Catalan club released them so I thought that he might add some South American flavor and creativity to our midfield.

The next signing comes from Spain too, his name is Javier Vila and he’s a midfielder that is playing for top flight Almeria. He appears to be a good prospect at the age of 20 so I hope that he will develop his skills at Dorchester and maybe make a step forward in his career.

I was trying to bring in only young players, mostly under 21 and under 23, but when I saw Mohammed Tchité on a free transfer I couldn’t resist. He is a very fast striker from Rwanda but he also holds a Belgian passport after playing for Standard Liege and Anderlecht for several seasons. He might do a good job for us in the Championship, his pace could make a big difference on counter attacks.

Last but not least, my personal favourite: 19 year old Irish winger Packie Doolin (I love the name!). He was released by the Shamrock Rovers for some reason but from what the scouts told me and from what I can see this lad has got a great deal of potential that could really take him to the world’s top clubs. He has good pace, great determination and good technique, I really hope that he will develop into a good player for us.

These are all the transfers that I could manage to arrange before the season ended and I fear that I won’t have too much money during the summer. As you can see from the table below we had one of the lowest average attendances in League One but it was impossible to make that much better because our stadium’s capacity is only 5009 places! I am pretty sure that the board will be looking to expand the stadium and that might take out all the money that they might have.

Oh, by the way: our club’s balance is around 300K in red right now due to all the bonuses that we had to pay the players for winning the league and the JPT so things are not looking rosy. Anyway, I’m going to enjoy this success and start looking for young prospects that could help the team grow in a season or two. But you’ll know more about my strategy in the next post, thanks for reading this one :)

P.S.: Don’t forget to enter your scores in the Predictions Contest, I just submitted mine :)