The most important game of the month was coming up next, the first leg of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy South final at Plymouth. We enjoyed a good first half this time, we missed a couple of early chances and then hit the crossbar from long range. We continued to be in control of the game after the interval but we missed another good opportunity and paid the price: Plymouth took the lead with a spectacular volley from 25 yards out. It was a bit frustrating but my boys continued to push forward and were finally rewarded five minutes from time when Al Bangura found himself on the finishing end of a great flowing team move. It’s a good result to take into the second leg but we surely could have won the game.
The last match of the month was a difficult one, away at promotion contenders Rochdale. They were lying in 7th place after a not so good run lately but they were still in with a good chance to grab a play-off spot. My lads were looking confident though and we took the lead on 13 minutes when Tiberiu Paduraru won the ball in midfield and played a great killer ball for Omar Koroma who slotted it home. Rochdale put up a brave reaction and it took them only 15 minutes to get on the score board, Michael Garrity scored on his debut for them. He was on loan at Dorchester for a few months at the start of the season but didn’t want to extend his stay and moved to Rochdale on another loan deal. Anyway, we got back in the lead just before half time when Craig Carlisle powered in a great header. We could have added another one to our tally two minutes after the break but we hit the post. Things were safely in control though, the ball was in our possession most of the time and Rochdale failed to threaten our lead.
Coventry had a terrible run in January, they dropped no less than 9 points so now we had a comfortable 10-point cushion over them! We also extended our lead over the 3rd placed team to 15 points, I can’t see promotion slipping away from us to be honest :)
Our man of the month was midfielder Al Bangura, a player that I was quite angry with in December. He got sent off during the game against Southend and caused us the only league defeat of the season so far. He served a four match ban for that but when he started to play with real fire in his belly once he came back and managed to score his first two goals for the club.
Next month we’ll have to focus on the Johnstone’s Trophy game and win it in order to go to Wembley for the final. We’ll also have to keep up the good form in the league and wrap up the promotion as soon as possible.
It was an almost perfect month for us, I couldn’t have wished for better results. We also had a pretty good business run on the transfer market, I managed to offload three of my players on a «Spanish connection»: sold Chris Herd to Alcorcon for 80,000 pounds, Hristu Chiacu to Cadiz for 220,000 pounds and Szymon Kazmierowski to Girona for 95,000 pounds. With all that money I managed to balance the wage budget, now the board has nothing left to complain about :) They also have around 400K in the bank, I hope to see some of that in my transfer budget in July ;) Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the future episodes!
Darren Smith
25 августа, 2010 at 11:48
Hey Johnny, well done on another fantastic month. You have established a wealthy lead in League 1. It cant be long till your promoted now. Well done on balancing the books aswell, hopefully the board will show some gratitude and offer a reasonable transfer budget. Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to you title party!
Johnny Karp
25 августа, 2010 at 16:15
Thanks Darren, Coventry seem to have lost their tempo so I guess things should be wrapped up shortly, that is if we manage to keep up the pace.
Laxeyman
25 августа, 2010 at 12:17
Well done Johnny, you’ve all but guaranteed promotion now, with that sort of lead I can’t see anything bad happening :) Well done and good luck in the JPT.
Johnny Karp
25 августа, 2010 at 16:13
Thanks Laxeyman, I can’t really see anything that bad happening now either.
Sears
25 августа, 2010 at 13:42
Hey Johnny,
regarding your »on» and »off field success» that was a wonderful month. You managed to open a 10 point gap and you sold some players to balance out the wage budget. Well done mate. Promotion will be secured in about 6-9 games. By the way, how much of the transfer income do you recieve, is it still only like 10%?
Johnny Karp
25 августа, 2010 at 16:12
Thanks Sears. I think that they give me around 20% now but I moved all the income into the wage budget anyway.
Lye
25 августа, 2010 at 14:33
Hi mate, no chance you are going to let that lead slip away. The promotion will be more or less confirm as you never let those big gaps slip away. Good job from the players and you. Hopefully the promotion will be secured by March. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
25 августа, 2010 at 16:11
Thanks Lye, I’m quite confident that we won’t let the promotion slip through our fingers. It would be a shame after such a good first part of the season.
Kevin Mayo
25 августа, 2010 at 18:55
Hi Johnny
What a fantastic month. Promotion is almost assured with this type of form. good job in the transfer market and I wish you well for the return match against Plymouth. Great job!
Johnny Karp
25 августа, 2010 at 20:42
Thanks Kevin, it was an almost perfect month, only a win at Plymouth would have made it 100% perfect. I think we can settle things in the home leg though.
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 07:57
Well done Johnny. You beat my beloved Exeter City 3-0, which not many teams can do that. Anyway,im borrowing the laptop that Football Manager 2010 works on for the weekend. Good luck in all aspects of the game!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
26 августа, 2010 at 10:44
Thanks Hils. Sorry about your beloved Exeter City but it seems that almost everyone beat them this season in my game :) I hope it goes better for them in real life :)
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 11:01
it does get Better in real life we managed to stay up last season and we are unbeaten this season at the moment in the league. The only down side is one of are players died with bow cancer. R.I.P Adam Stansfield
Johnny Karp
26 августа, 2010 at 11:12
Oh, sorry to hear that. His teammates will have to play better and dedicate the victories to him.
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 11:18
we are starting to boost morales. I bet Blackpool are regretting letting him go to exeter. Can you please reply to my other comment as its a question!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
26 августа, 2010 at 11:27
Sorry, I don’t see any question marks. Which is the question?
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 12:11
its the one with the different clubs.
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 08:16
Hello guys, this is a message to all bloggers and commenters!!!!!!! Im considering adding a new user to my Bristol Rovers and notts county game!!!!! here are the choices: Man united barcelona,Wolfsburg,Exeter,Hayes and Yeading,Ascoli,Mallorca or republic of congo.
Johnny Karp
26 августа, 2010 at 15:12
So you want to start a network game with somebody? I would love to join but as things stand right now I barely have the enough time to play my own game…
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 16:40
It doesn’t matter if you cant do it,im going to put a new user on my game with Bristol rovers and Notts County. Can you please vote. You might be the only one who votes!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
26 августа, 2010 at 16:52
Oh, so it’s not a network game, you will be the new user, right? Anyway, I would vote for Exeter since it’s your favourite club.
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 17:24
ok so 1-0 exeter. im gonna split it now down to three storylines. Barcelona storyline: only aloud to buy players over 10m once per season. Exeter: try and get them into premiership but have to Release Adam stansfield when hes 31. Mallorca try and get them out of the poor finances. Thanks for voting!!!!!!!!!
hils
26 августа, 2010 at 17:24
ok so 1-0 exeter. im gonna split it now down to three storylines. Barcelona storyline: only aloud to buy players over 10m once per season. Exeter: try and get them into premiership but have to Release Adam stansfield when hes 31. Mallorca try and get them out of the poor finances. Thanks for voting!!!!!!!!!
Sears
26 августа, 2010 at 22:23
@Hils,
ah…. I’m going to go for the Mallorca story. Goodluck.
Jean Paul Borg
27 августа, 2010 at 13:00
Decent job in the transfer market and I see you managed to balance out the budget. Nice job getting a 10 point cushion, don’t get complacent though, as there are quite a lot of games still to be played are Coventry are a good side. Good luck for the rest of the league mate!
Johnny Karp
27 августа, 2010 at 15:43
Thanks Jean Paul, I’ll try not to get complacent :)