Dorchester Town Story — January 2011

Hello dear friends, welcome back to the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! The first half of the season is over and it has been quite rewarding for my newly-promoted Dorchester: we were still top of the table in Blue Square Premier at the end of December 2010, eight points clear of the second placed team. That surely means that we were the favorites to gain promotion to League Two but we still had quite a few more points to earn to make sure of that. Let’s see how we did in January.

The first game of the new year was at home with 4th placed Crawley, quite a tough game for the 1st of January… The team looked pretty well during the first part of the game, we were pushing forward and striker Leonardo Biagini scored the opening goal eventually after wasting a couple of chances. His header gave us an 1-0 lead at half time and things were looking great. The second half was fairly quiet, we were keeping possession very well but we failed to create any more chances. That nearly turned against us during the final 10 minutes, Crawley had a couple of very good chances on counter attacks but young goalkeeper Maximiliano Catalano kept a clean sheet with some great saves.

The next game saw us playing away at bottom of the table Altrincham, we surely had to grab a win. I was a bit worried before the game though, most players were very tired because the Crawley match was played only two days before this one. My worries were wiped out quite early, Sergiu Jivan played a through ball for Dabu and the Romanian striker gave us the lead only 36 seconds into the game! Around ten minutes later Jivan scored one himself with a good header, I was totally relaxed. The team continued to play well and we could have easily scored a few more goals. Midfielder el Kadi and striker Marius Dabu fired another two goals, it was all easy.

Next up, the FA Trophy 2nd round match against Blue Square South side Dover. They were our rivals last season, they were in 2nd place behind us for quite some time but then failed to get promoted. My players might have been a bit complacent, they had a terrible first half and Dover surely deserved to take the lead. We were saved by the woodwork just before half time, I was quite angry. I made a few changes at half time and that paid off immediately, substitute striker Alexandru Almani rounded off a team move right after the interval. Then we took control of the ball possession but the team was not pushing forward as it should have. We paid the price for that eventually, a near post cross into our box surprised my defenders and Dover equalized. They even had a huge chance to win the game with a late goal but my goalkeeper saved us again. It was a disappointing performance but we still had the chance to qualify by winning the replay.

The replay of the Dover game was our next match, we had to play a lot better. That was just a hope though, the first half was painfully boring. Just imagine this: there were no shots on target during the first 45 minutes! A pretty harsh team talk at half time changed my players’ attitude, they took the game to Dover after the break and we finally managed to take the lead in the 56th minute when left winger Alexandru Gheba powered one in after latching on to a great through ball from Spanish playmaker Juanje. Dover tried to react but they were leaving spaces behind for our counter attacks. We had several chances to double the lead but my players wasted them. Anyway, we managed to get through to the next round but I was a bit upset that we needed a replay to achieve that.

Back to the league after the cup intermezzo, our next game was away at 17th placed Hayes & Yeading. We got off to a very bad start as our opponents took the lead 9 minutes into the game on a counter attack. It was one of those goals that a team shouldn’t concede but I’ve seen England making the same mistake during the Germany game: we had a corner kick, the ball was cleared by the opposition defense and the counter attack was too fast for my defenders. The team looked in shock after that goal and we conceded another two before half time! I couldn’t believe it, my players were looking numb! The lads were much more positive after the break, we were piling on the pressure but we missed quite a few good chances. Ryan Carolan headed in a corner kick to reduce the gap but it was too late, we lost the game. 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 expecting a reaction from my players in the next game, at home with 9th placed Macclesfield. I was quite pleased with what I saw during the first half, the lads were in control of the game but not incisive enough to create chances. We finally broke through a couple of minutes into the second half, centre back Bosko Visatovici headed in a corner kick cross. We had some defending to do after the goal, Macclesfield were pushing forward, but this time we held our ground very well and managed to grab a very important win.

The last league game of the month was away at 14th placed Wrexham, I was expecting nothing less than a win. We produced a very good first half display but I was already getting worried since my strikers were wasting huge chances again and again. Luckily captain Ryan Carolan stepped up again to give us the lead with a corner kick header. Things got better after half time when midfielder Mimoun el Kadi doubled our lead with a great shot from the edge of the area, in off the crossbar. Sergiu Jivan rounded off our good afternoon with a penalty kick goal, I was finally satisfied.

Even though we had a pretty bad month our gap at the top of the table increased to 12 points! That was because York had a very poor run in January, promotion looks a bit closer now.

The month was not over yet though, we still had an FA Trophy game to play. We were going to meet Chelmsford, the team that was leading the table in Blue Square South at that point. We got off to a very good start, Biagini and Dabu crafted a good counter attack and the Romanian striker rounded it off with a placed finish. We doubled the lead in the 22nd minute, Spanish midfielder Juanje finally scored his first goal for the club with a beautiful placed shot from the edge of the area. Chelmsford clawed one back a minute before half time, it was a 25 yard shot that beat my keeper but it looked like any other goalie would have been able to save that. Anyway, we were leading 2-1 but the second half was a totally different story. We produced a rather unconvincing display and that allowed our opponents to create quite a few chances. Luckily their finishing was extremely poor so we managed to sneak through to the next round. Young Irish defender Stefan O’Brien picked up two yellow cards during the game so he was sent off, he hasn’t been very convincing until now but I guess he will need some time to adapt.

Next month will be extremely important as we will have to play second placed York away from home, a win could seal the promotion while a defeat could make the race wide open again. We will also have a couple more tricky matches against Kidderminster and Mansfield, I hope we’ll have a good run.

That’s how it was folks, thanks for reading this episode and for supporting Dorchester Town. The team isn’t playing as good as they did in the first months of the season but I guess that’s mostly due to fatigue since I don’t have a large squad and some players have to be in the starting eleven more times that their fitness would allow. The good thing is that we didn’t have too many severe injuries, if that will continue for a couple more months then I guess we’ll be able to achieve promotion.