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.
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 :)