Hello dear friends, welcome back to another chapter of the Dorchester Town FM 2010 story! Our first season in the Championship was going quite above our expectations since we were sitting 6th at the end of January! We had a play-off spot but the question was whether we had enough strength to hold on to it until the end of the season.
I also had to balance the wage budget and just before the end of January I managed to bring in a young midfielder on loan, Fabrizio Alberti from Liverpool. This signing allowed me to offload Al Bangura, he was sold to Spanish side Alaves for 150,000 pounds. These two moves concluded our winter transfer window, we were still over the weekly wage budget but only by around 5,000 pounds.
The first match of the month was away at 21st placed Sheffield Wednesday, I was hoping to grab the three points. We had the perfect chance to make the game easy six minutes into it but Mancini‘s penalty kick shot was saved by the goalkeeper. We continued to push forward and missed a few chances before Mancini latched onto a great pass from Jonathan Dos Santos and smashed it home on the volley. The second half was fairly quiet and that was good enough for us, we needed the three points.
The next game was at home with 18th placed Scunthorpe, I was expecting another win. The first half was absolutely perfect: first Mancini rounded off a team move, then Liam Parker netted a good header and last but not least centre back Francesco Tosto scored with a corner kick header. We were leading 3-0 at the break and the players got complacent, Scunthorpe ran us ragged in the second half. Luckily Matt Richards managed to score our fourth goal and settle the game.
We had a much more difficult game coming up, away at 5th placed promotion contenders Swansea (we were sitting 4th before that game). We got off to a fabulous start, Liam Parker gave us the lead three minutes into the game after converting a great counter attack run. Swansea scored the equalizer only eight minutes later, straight through the middle of our defense. We were playing well though and Liam Parker hit the crossbar a few minutes later. It was just a rehearsal for Mohammed Thcite‘s goal, a magical goal from the experienced striker who skipped past two defenders before placing the ball home. Tchite continued his great performance after the break but his good shot hit the post two minutes into the second half. He got lucky a couple of minutes later, he tried his luck from 20 yards and the ball got deflected past Swansea‘s keeper. We were playing incredibly well, moving the ball around with great ability and also scoring freely: Liam Parker rounded off a team move to make it 4-1! I couldn’t imagine losing the three points then even though Swansea clawed one back on 63 minutes with a superb strike. Nine minutes later we conceded another goal, a huge corner kick marking error and Swansea were suddenly back into the game. We could have settled things again but my boys wasted a couple of great chances before we finally got punished two minutes from time. We dropped two very important points but I noticed that even Manchester United can succumb to such blunders as they did yesterday at Everton.
Back at home for the next game, another tough one against 3rd placed Derby County! We were still sitting 4th and the game was fairly even during the first half, the two teams appeared to be equally strong. Fortunately we had a man that was able to make a difference, Omar Koroma rifled in a great shot from 20 yards out, the ball went through the air like a missile, hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced into the net! We were gaining momentum and Liam Parker made the most out of our dominance a minute before half time when he rounded off a team move to record his 10th goal of the season. Things got even better right after the interval, Derby were down to 10 men! We didn’t have too much time to rejoice though, Derby caught us on a counter attack a couple of minutes after the sending off and then we were down to 10 men too because our left back had to be taken off. We kept things under control though and managed to settle the game with a beautiful late goal from young Packie Doolin, he whipped in a free kick shot from 35 yards! That was his first ever goal for the club and we leapfrogged Derby, we were sitting 3rd!
The last game of the month was away at bottom of the table Reading, we were quite confident of getting the three points. We might have been too confident though as Reading got off to a good start and managed to take the lead on 13 minutes. Things got severely complicated two minutes later when left back Angelo Rossini was justly sent off for an unnecessary late tackle. We tried to regroup and could have scored the equalizer just before half time but Mancini missed the target. Reading had lots of space to counter but we put on a good second half display despite the one man disadvantage. We created a couple of chances too but it just wasn’t our day…
We could have been 3rd at the end of the month but that defeat at Reading sent us back in 5th. The good thing is that now we have a margin on the 7th placed, six points!
We’ll be quite busy in March, seven games to play and three of those will be against play-off contenders Huddersfield, Ipswich and Leeds.
I am satisfied with our run in February overall but I think that we should have grabbed at least two more points at Swansea, that game was at our mercy… Anyway, we are playing far above my expectations and I hope that we’ll be able to keep it up. Thanks a lot for reading and for your support.
Before wrapping it up, Hils wanted to see how the Premier League shapes up in my game so here’s the screen shot, as promised:
Kevin Mayo
12 сентября, 2010 at 12:22
Hello Johnny
Greta month overall and now you are neatly placed in a play off spot with a six point gap over 7th place. Amazing game against Swansea and I like the United reference. I’m still upset :( Looks like you are playing team lower in the table next month so hopefully you can strengthen your position. Great stuff !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:37
Thanks Kevin. I’m sure you’re still upset about United yesterday, I couldn’t believe it myself, two goals during additional time. I guess our slip up against Swansea was not as bad as that one!!! :)
Lye
12 сентября, 2010 at 12:39
Hi mate,
Very unlucky against Swansea but i think the play-off spot is secured as long as your team performed normally for the rest of the season. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:38
Thanks Lye. I guess our «normal» performance would be somewhere in between the poor start in August or September and the solid form in December or January so I don’t know if that would be enough.
Laxeyman
12 сентября, 2010 at 12:42
Well done Johnny, your side are on a good run, and you’ve pretty much secured a play off spot now. Good luck for next month!
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:39
Thanks for your optimism Laxeyman.
Darren Smith
12 сентября, 2010 at 12:45
Hey Johnny, what a month! The five point gap from seventh will give you some breathing space and the season is nearing its end. You just need to keep up the fantastic form for a few more months. Well done mate and I reckon we’ll be in for an exciting play-off! Goodluck
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:40
Thanks Darren, I hope it will be exciting and successful too :)
Vinners
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:08
Reading are a good side so don’t be too disheartened about losing ;) Another good month! The premiership looks alot closer now
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 13:40
Thanks Vinners, I’m happy that at least we managed to pull up your beloved Reading from the bottom of the table :)
hils
12 сентября, 2010 at 14:37
Thanks for the screenshot. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 15:14
No problem Hils and thanks for the good luck wish.
Sears
12 сентября, 2010 at 18:02
Well done Johnny, another solid month has passed. Another two months of this form should secure you a play off spot! Goodluck!
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 19:01
Thanks Sears, it doesn’t look too difficult the way you said it, just two months… :)
Jack
12 сентября, 2010 at 18:53
Keep up the good work Johnny! Play offs are gonna be very tense if you keep up this form! Bring on the Premiership!
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2010 at 19:02
Thanks for the encouragement Jack!
Mat
13 сентября, 2010 at 08:03
This has been probably your most interesting season for mine in quite a while. You certainly havnt had it all your own way and have sowly had to claw your way back from a shaky start. At this stage a promotion place looks likely and I wouldnt put an automation spot beyond you reach.
Best of luck for the coming months
Johnny Karp
13 сентября, 2010 at 08:15
Thanks Mat, it surely is a very interesting season for me too :) I don’t know about automatic promotion, I think we could reach that only if we would be able to get five wins in a row or such runs. So far we failed to do that.
Rob
13 сентября, 2010 at 20:30
Hey johnny, good month again I’m confident that you’ll be able to secure a playoff spot just wondering if you’ve decided who you may manage in FM2011? Thanks, good luck with next month with a good run of games you could get automatic promotion :D
Rob
Johnny Karp
14 сентября, 2010 at 07:14
Thanks for the confidence Rob. I haven’t decided the team that I’ll manage in FM 2011, we’ll probably discuss that here after the demo will be launched.
Ana Garcia
14 сентября, 2010 at 00:27
Good month, shame about that Swansea game as two extra points would have been nice to put more distance between you and 7th place.
Still very close but you should probably grab a playoff place, I think the automatic has just about gone but if you can string 5-6 wins together then who knows!
Good luck!!
Johnny Karp
14 сентября, 2010 at 07:13
Thanks Ana. I don’t know if I remember exactly but I think we never got more than two or three consecutive wins this season, so maybe automatic promotion is too much for us.