Hello folks, welcome back to the Dorchester Town story! As you know we had a fantastic run of five consecutive wins in January, all of them without conceding a single goal! Thanks to that good run we were topping the Blue Square South table, 9 points clear of the second placed team with a game in hand so we had one hand on the title. It was entirely up to us to fight and not let it slip away.
The first game in February was the most difficult too, at home with in-form 4th placed Bromley. They were unable to stop us though, especially striker Sergiu Jivan. He started things off with a solo effort nine minutes into the game and then continuously tormented Bromley‘s defense. He finished the game with a fine hat-trick and centre back Ryan Carolan scored his fifth goal of the season with a corner kick header. The scoreline does not really reflect what happened on the pitch though, we had a terrible second half and Bromley could easily have scored a few goals. Anyway, I was happy with the win but a bit concerned about those last 45 minutes.
The next game was away at 14th placed Welling. The game got off to an entertaining start with chances on both ends. Then some clumsy defending from my lads gave the home side the lead and we were unable to react until half time. I made three substitutions right away hoping to see more from my lads after the break. Unfortunately we got hit again right away, we were 2-0 down and the second half had just started. The team looked confused but the referee gave us another chance by sending off one of Welling‘s central midfielders. We slowly started to build up the pressure and striker Marius Dabu banged one in after missing a huge chance a few minutes earlier. Ten minutes later right winger Abu-Iebda cut inside and unleashed a left footed shot, straight in! We were back level and still had 20 minutes to fight for the win. We continued to keep our opponents under pressure and it finally paid off as striker Sergiu Jivan unleashed the celebrations with a last minute header! It was another great fightback from my lads with a bit of help from the referee.
Back at the Avenue Stadium for the next game, we were welcoming 20th placed Bishop’s Stortford. The board picked the game for a fan day so I told the players to play for the fans and try to entertain the crowd. We were all over our opponents right from the start and centre back Bosko Visatovic scored his first ever goal for the club to give us the lead. Then it was all downhill for my team, we scored another three goals in five minutes! The second half was all about striker Marius Dabu, he completed his second hat trick for the club in nine games! I guess the fans were happy with the display and I hope to see more and more of them in the stands to cheer for us.
The last game of the month was at home with 10th placed Woking. The game had a pretty boring start but once my strikers got going it was all over. Sergiu Jivan and Marius Dabu scored two goals each and left Woking no chance of walking away in one piece. The win extended our run to nine consecutive wins, that’s something I wouldn’t have dared to dream of at the start of the season.
I have to praise striker Marius Dabu again, he scored 13 goals in 10 appearances for us, absolutely outstanding. I am so happy that I decided to spend 1,500 for him, a fortune for the club!
Dover had a pretty poor month so our lead was extended to 14 points with a game in hand!
I guess we only need four more wins to secure the title, I hope to get those wins as soon as possible and then relax and start preparing the next season.
That’s how February was dear friends, thanks for reading. Sometimes I feel like this Dorchester side is coming out of a dream, it’s an unbelievable run…
Laxeyman
11 июня, 2010 at 19:18
Hi Johnny, 14 points points clear, wow… Your team have been fantastic, and Dabu has been amazing, what a signing! Good luck for next season, and hopefully you’ll secure the title as early as possible.
ravenie
11 июня, 2010 at 20:28
Johnny I have a question. How do you get your players to close down and tackle? I ask them but they don’t seem to bother. Sheff Utd is still a nightmare for me because of the fantastic movement
ravenie
11 июня, 2010 at 20:30
Ive just realised how terribly off topic my previous post was, sorry. Great run Johnny, that Dabu is doing it for you :)
Sears
11 июня, 2010 at 23:21
Johnny, what a fantastic run.Your side truly deserve the title.How do you keep so many clean sheets! My team never seems to keep one!
Johnny Karp
11 июня, 2010 at 23:27
@Laxeyman
Thanks mate, Dabu is my Guilherme at this level!
@Ravenie
Don’t worry, it wasn’t off topic. Simply set closing down to often and tackling to hard. But if the team closes down a lot then I would suggest having a «short» team, with the defense pushing up in order not to leave gaps between the lines for the opposition to exploit.
@Sears
Thanks. I guess we had so many clean sheets because the opponents didn’t get too many chances to shoot on goal, my keepers are anything else than world class.
burak_gs
12 июня, 2010 at 00:24
great run as i read so. by the way just curious but cant figure out;
at the Bromley game, how can be 4-1 when you have 3 shots on target without any o.g. ?
is that a bug or i am missing something ?
Lye
12 июня, 2010 at 07:20
What a fantastic run mate. Nine wins in a row and 14 points ahead. Your team is absolutely unstoppable, you can start preparing for BSP football now as the promotion is basically confirmed. It’s just a matter of time.
Johnny Karp
12 июня, 2010 at 08:40
@Burak_gs
I didn’t notice that error in the stats. There were at least four shots on goal, I watched the game and seen all those for go into the back of the net. I have noticed such errors in the stats before concerning mainly the clear cut chances count. It’s a mystery…
@Lye
Thanks mate, I’ll start evaluating the squad as soon as we’ll have secured promotion.
Kevin
12 июня, 2010 at 09:28
Hello Johnny
Well I’m glad you put up a picture of Dabu as he sounded fantastic and does have pretty good attributes for that division. Being 14 points clear at this stage you have nothing to wory about other than playing out the season. Great stuff!!
Johnny Karp
12 июня, 2010 at 09:47
Thanks Kevin, Dabu surely deserved a screen shot. He has some experience in the Romanian Second Division so I guess this level is still low for his qualities, I’ll be looking forward to his performances in Blue Square Premier.
ravenie
12 июня, 2010 at 13:14
Don’t worry, it wasn’t off topic. Simply set closing down to often and tackling to hard. But if the team closes down a lot then I would suggest having a “short” team, with the defense pushing up in order not to leave gaps between the lines for the opposition to exploit.
___________________________
No clue how to do that lol :|
Johnny Karp
12 июня, 2010 at 13:30
@Ravenie
There’s a lot to talk about then… I’d suggest reading the tactical guides over at FM-Britain, they are very helpful if you want to understand how tactics work.