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.
Majk
2 июля, 2010 at 13:10
Basingstoke in the 4th round of the FA Trophy! That will be something else indeed ;P
Looking good for promotion there Johhny as we all knew before hand, keep it up.
Sears
2 июля, 2010 at 13:45
Johnny, fantastic! 12 points clear, promotion will surly be secured now with a few more wins. Dorchester for League 2!
ravenie
2 июля, 2010 at 16:02
Despite the defeat to Hayes another solid month Johnny, League 2 appears to have become an inevitability
Callum
2 июля, 2010 at 17:36
Can’t really add much :P Keep up the good work :)
Johnny Karp
2 июля, 2010 at 17:51
@Majk
Thanks mate, I’m looking forward to the Basingstoke game :)
@Sears
Thanks, I hope we’ll clinch that promotion soon enough.
@Ravenie
Thanks, it’s not 100% sure yet though, we have to keep going.
@Callum
Thanks buddy, I’ll tell that to the players :)
Vinners
2 июля, 2010 at 21:13
Fatigue becomes a huge problem in the lower leagues from my experience because you cannot afford to get a good squad of players but if you don’t have enough players then your first eleven get tired which can lead to injuries. I think I stuck to having a large squad even if some weren’t quite good enough and I just rotated them all the time. But then again you are 12 points ahead so the way your doing it has got be working.
Laxeyman
2 июля, 2010 at 21:17
Well done Johnny, that wasn’t a bad month at all. I think promotion is all but secured now, well done. Good luck in the FA Trophy!
Johnny Karp
3 июля, 2010 at 00:02
@Vinners
Thanks for the comment. I am trying to rotate the players as much as I can but I have a 23-man squad and not too many options available. The good thing is that there are only a few months left so I hope we’ll be able to hang in there.
@Laxeyman
Thanks, I hope to keep that 12 point cushion at the end of February.
Sears
3 июля, 2010 at 00:26
Johnny, in your Notts County save, what role did you give striker Guilherme?
Lye
3 июля, 2010 at 05:37
Just a few couple of wins and i believe you will confirm the promotion soon. Well done mate.
I seem to have problem accessing your new design using Google Chorme. Nevertheless i like the new layout.
markjulian
3 июля, 2010 at 08:32
Well done again, as a York man I hope to see them joining you in promotion although the second-placed team never wins the playoffs on FM!
I am going away again,
so i will make my predictions:
Argentina 3-1 Germany
Paraguay 0-2 Spain
Kevin Mayo
3 июля, 2010 at 09:29
Hi Johnny
Great start to the new year. Keep it up !!
Johnny Karp
3 июля, 2010 at 10:26
@Sears
Most times I employed him as a complete forward with «support» duties.
@Lye
Thanks, I guess we’ll need a few more than a couple of wins but not too many I hope. Could you please give me more details about the problems you experienced with Chrome, I only tested the new design in Firefox and IE.
@Markjulian
You already submitted your predictions for those two games but I guess I’ll replace them with these new ones. Who knows, maybe York will finish third after all :)
@Kevin
Thanks, I hope we’ll keep that cushion into the next couple of months.
Lye
3 июля, 2010 at 13:57
Hi mate, the content and the post title can’t be seen and seems to align to the left.Wonder any others have the same problem using google chrome.
Johnny Karp
3 июля, 2010 at 14:07
Thanks Lye, I guess I’ll install Google Chrome and take a look myself. Thanks again for the heads up.
Johnny Karp
3 июля, 2010 at 14:17
Hi Lye, I am writing this comment on Google Chrome, just finished installing it. The website does look a bit strange while loading but everything seems to fall into place in just a few seconds, then it looks exactly like it’s supposed to. If anybody else has such problems please let me know, thanks.
Ana Garcia
3 июля, 2010 at 14:22
You are making this look to easy! :D
On track again for promotion, best of luck Johnny.
Johnny Karp
4 июля, 2010 at 14:15
Thanks Ana. Don’t say that too loud though, the players might hear you and get complacent :)