Dorchester Town Story: January 2013

Hello folks, I’m happy to bring you another episode of the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! I’ve had a few troublesome days lately with hardly any time for football, FM or… life in general so I’ve been postponing writing this post. Now it’s here, I hope you’ll enjoy it. My Dorchester were the surprise package in League One, that’s beyond doubt, we were top of the table at the end of 2012! We had a slim margin over second placed Coventry, only one point, but we were 10 points clear of the third placed team and that was quite pleasing.

The first game of the new year was away at mid-table Bournemouth and things set out nicely 12 minutes into the match when one of their centre backs was sent off for a professional foul on Peter Singh, my striker was clean through on a counter attack. We had a poor first half though, Bournemouth dominated the game despite the one man disadvantage. We were looking more lively after the break and midfielder Al Bangura saw a good shot smashing against the crossbar. We broke the deadlock on 76 minutes when a cross from Omar Koroma was headed in by Craig Carlisle (I managed to extend his loan deal until the end of the season, he surely is an asset for the team). I thought the game was all over but 10-man Bournemouth decided to go all out attack, they switched their formation to an incredible 4-1-4 and started pouring forward. Goalkeeper Gabriel Nicolau pulled off a couple of stunning saves and we won the game but hats off to Bournemouth for their great display of determination and courage.

Next up, a home game against 14th placed Colchester, a game that we had to win. We had a poor first half again but Omar Koroma managed to score the opening goal from the penalty spot after he was brought down inside the box. The team improved after that goal but we missed a couple of good chances before Colchester scored the equalizer on a counter attack, just one minute before half time. We started pushing forward after the break, created numerous chances but some unbelievable goalkeeping kept the match level. I was already settling for the frustrating result when Tiberiu Paduraru whipped in a good looking cross that Craig Carlisle banged in on the volley! It was a last minute goal that brought us a thoroughly deserved three points.

The following match was away at relegation threatened MK Dons, they were sitting 20th and not looking too confident. My team got off to a poor start yet again though and our opponents took the lead on 18 minutes. And they deserved to be in the lead too! They dominated the game until half time but Omar Koroma managed to bring us back on level terms all by himself, he skipped past his marker and powered the ball right into the roof of the net. I was disappointed by that first half performance but that was all in the past after watching the second half: my lads turned on the style and overran their opponents with Omar Koroma, Al Bangura and Aleksandar Mladenov getting on the score sheet. All the four goals came as a result of good flowing team moves, I was quite pleased with that.

The next game appeared to be another easy one as we were playing bottom of the table team Exeter at home. They were on a dismal run of 16 games without a win and they came at the Avenue Stadium with the intention of defending and maybe grabbing a point. They parked the bus right from the start of the game and didn’t move it until the final whistle. Centre back Joseba Barbero provided the break through on the half hour mark, he made his strength count in a corner kick scuffle and pushed the ball in. The second half saw another shining performance from substitute winger Aleksandar Mladenov, he came off the bench and scored with two well placed headers. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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!