Hello friends and welcome back to the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! I’m writing this while trying to digest a home defeat recorded by my beloved Universitatea Craiova, they lost 1-0 but missed a penalty during injury time… Anyway, back to the point: Dorchester were flying high at the end of 2016, we were in second place and that left many of you wondering if we really can challenge for the title or not. I had the same question myself and there’s no better way to answer it than seeing what happened in January, whether we managed to stay among the top three or not.
We had a warm-up game before going back to the Premier League, the FA Cup 3rd match against Hull City. We enjoyed a fantastic start that brought us a two goal lead after eight minutes: first Iulian Marin set up Silvestre Varela for the opening goal and then Christian Stuani curled one in from the edge of the area five minutes later. The team was playing very well but we wasted a couple of good chances before letting Hull right back into the game in the 28th minute. Fortunately we rebuilt the two goal lead right after the break, substitute Gael Kakuta made an instant impact as he came in after half time and put one straight into the top corner inside his first minute on the pitch. We had a good display overall but I couldn’t enjoy it too much since the physios came with some concerning news: John Heitinga was going to be out for six weeks! He’s a very important player for the team and I was quite sure that we were going to miss his presence on the pitch.
The first league game of the year was away at 15th placed Birmingham, a team that was struggling in the league but they still had some very good players. I was pleased to see the team having a good start again and it was Silvestre Varela who drew first blood once again when he placed the ball past the keeper in the 7th minute. Then we continued to play well until half time and we really could have added at least another goal but we missed two good chances plus hit the crossbar from distance. We paid the price for that seven minutes into the second half when we conceded the equalizer much too easily, my defenders appeared to be lacking determination. Then we took control of the game again looking for the second goal and it finally came 17 minutes before time when Craig Carlisle finally powered one in from inside the penalty area. We held on well until injury time when Rafael Coelho wrapped up the three points with a great individual effort but the game wasn’t over yet and Birmingham clawed one back when David De Gea made his first big mistake of the season: he came out to catch a cross but he totally missed the ball.
We had another away game coming up against another underachieving team: Everton. The Toffees still had very good players in their squad so I wasn’t expecting an easy afternoon. But I wasn’t expecting us to be on the wrong end of an onslaught though… That’s what it was, Everton totally dominated the game from the very first second to the final whistle. We had a better ball possession than they did but most of that was outside the final 30 yards, we rarely managed to get the ball into their box. David De Gea was the man of the match, he won us a point all by himself with a string of unbelievable saves. Everton would have deserved to win this one but we could have grabbed all the three points during injury time when Silvestre Varela headed one just wide from point blank range. We remained unbeaten but that was probably the worst display of the season until that point.
We had to play much better in the next match, league leaders Tottenham were coming to pay us a visit. We were still in second position and the gap was not too big, we were only five points behind the Spurs. We started the game pretty well this time and Rafael Coelho could have given us the lead but he was denied by the goalkeeper. We continued to push forward but it was Tottenham who scored against the run of play, Luka Modric placed one in from the edge of the area. We resumed our attacks after the break but it seemed that we were out of luck, the ball just wouldn’t go in. It could have gone worse though, Tottenham had a couple of great chances to wrap up the game on counter attacks. We finally managed to level the game 11 minutes from time and I was pleased to see that two substitutes made that goal: Fran Merida played a great ball inside the box for Gael Kakuta who fired it in low at the near post. Then we tried to push for the winning goal but Modric caught us on a counter and silenced our fans five minutes from time. My lads didn’t give up though, our fans deserved better and they went wild just a few seconds before the final whistle: a corner kick cross found Daniel Nilsson inside the six yard box, his header bounced off the crossbar and fell into the path of Silvestre Varela who fired it in! It was a fairly good result but it saw us dropping into third place.
We had another tough game coming up, at home with Manchester City. I was expecting a good performance from my lads and they made me proud, especially in the first half. Centre back Francesco Tosto scored the opener and his first goal of the season on seven minutes when he powered in a corner kick header, then Brazilian striker Rafael Coelho took over and bagged a quickfire double in the 29th and 21st minute to rise his total to ten goals this season. The Citizens finally showed themselves upfront during the last 10 minutes of the first half and they could have scored one or two but David De Gea was in good shape again. Things cooled off a bit after the break, we were firmly in control and we could have added another goal before Robinho clawed one back for Man City eight minutes from time. They went all out attack during the final minutes of the game but we managed to hang in there and extend our unbeaten run to 14 games. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Kevin
23 октября, 2010 at 23:29
Hi Johnny
Good result against Spurs and a fantastic win over Man City. Too bad about the dropped points with the visit of Birmingham but nonetheless you have established Dorchester as a real title contender. You really are in with a great chance of finishing FM2010 in superb style!
Johnny Karp
24 октября, 2010 at 08:47
Thanks Kevin. I fear that we will drop more points like we did with Birmingham though, that’s why I think we are not real title contenders…
Darren Smith
23 октября, 2010 at 23:49
YOU LEGEND!!!!!! I mean seriously, to guide Dorchester to five consecutive promotions, then be in contention for the top four in your second season within the Prem. AMAZING! I so hope you can shock the FM community and win the league!!!! Well done mate, you are the god of FM.
Johnny Karp
24 октября, 2010 at 08:46
Thanks Darren, you are too kind and a bit too enthusiastic though :)
hils
24 октября, 2010 at 08:18
Hi Johnny,some great results there!!!!!!!!!! You have a great chance of shocking the entire fm community when you win league!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!
Johnny Karp
24 октября, 2010 at 08:45
Thanks for the confidence Hils :)
John
24 октября, 2010 at 09:26
Hey Johnny, fantastic as usual. I posted on here a few months ago when i was about to start a Blyth game but got messed up so i went with Havant & Waterlooville instead. Have achieved consecutive promotions to Premiership, finished 5th in my 1st season (would have been higher but for a dreadfull start to the season) won the FA cup and so just about to start my debut european season. The key to my success, LUCK lol. I have had some fantastic regens come through my youth system with 2 of them in the full England squad. What training and youth facilities do you have as you don’t seem to have had any stars come through yet?
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2010 at 06:40
Thanks John and well done, getting consecutive promotions is quite an achievement. I think that the youth facilities are «basic» or something like that, the youth intake has been full of worthless youngsters every single season until now. I think I had just one promising lad coming through a few seasons ago but he got sold against my will.
Lye
24 октября, 2010 at 15:24
Hi Johnny,
Unbeaten in 16 games, that’s a very good run. I think you will definitely in the top four. I still believe you have a chance on the title. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2010 at 06:36
Thanks Lye, I agree that the top four finish looks like a definite possibility now.
Sears
24 октября, 2010 at 19:23
Hey Johnny,
so far so good. Dorchester are now firmly established ass title contenders! I really think you can win the title, or even finish in the top two which would be an amazing achievement. Go for it!
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2010 at 06:36
Thanks a lot for your confidence Sears, we’ll do our best :)
Sears
24 октября, 2010 at 19:24
Sorry, meant ‘as’ not ‘ass’!
Mal
24 октября, 2010 at 22:02
Are you planning on moving to FM 11 or staying with FM 2010?
It’s amazing what you have achieved, both with Dorchester and the blog.
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2010 at 06:35
Thanks Mal. I will surely move to FM 11 starting November 5th.
Chris @ Chester
26 октября, 2010 at 16:10
Hey Johnny, Im back> I must confess that i havent looked at this website or even played fm for a while, but i am back with a new pc and a fresh desire to play. I have to read through the posts to catch up, but I must say I loved the win over man city. Made my day
hils
26 октября, 2010 at 18:33
It made mine as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
27 октября, 2010 at 05:37
Hey Chris, nice to see you back! I hope you still remember that you won a copy of FM 2011 so please send me your postal address :) The email is johnny[at]footballmanagerstory[dot]com
Sea
27 октября, 2010 at 08:23
I noticed you only had 3 english players in your squad and one was on loan
Do you have any problems with the homegrown rules like 8 out of 25 have to be trained in england and 4 have to be trained by your club
Johnny Karp
27 октября, 2010 at 08:32
I do have some problems with the home grown rule, I have barely fulfilled the minimum of 8 players to register in the 25-man squad. The 4 trained at the club is a rule only for the European competitions. Anyway, I don’t have any players trained at the club but since you don’t have to register under 21 players I can employ all of my players in the Europa League too.