Dorchester Town Story: November 2012

Hello folks and welcome back to the Dorchester Town story! I was quite eager to continue the game after the great month of October in which we conceded only one goal, managed to stay unbeaten and, last but not least, jumped right up to the top of the table! We were only two points clear of second placed Coventry though so we surely needed to keep up the pace in order to stay top. Let’s see what happened in November…

The first game of the month was away at 7th placed Rotherham, not an easy opponent at all. Things got even more difficult eleven minutes into the game when my defense was unable to clear a corner kick properly, the ball fell back into our penalty area and got placed into the back of the net. We got back level only five minutes later courtesy of Omar Koroma, the striker made a great counter attack run and finished it perfectly. Then we got a bit lucky a couple of minutes before the half hour mark, midfielder Zakaria Labyad tried his luck with a curling shot from 30 yards out, the ball hit the post, bounced clear, hit the goalkeeper in the back and bounced straight into the net! We found ourselves under a bit of pressure after half time but my defense resisted well and when it didn’t goalkeeper Gabriel Nicolau made sure that nothing went past him. A draw might have been the just result there but I was quite pleased with the way we defended the lead in the second half.

We had the FA Cup coming up next, we were going to meet Notts County in the first round. I remembered that we had quite a difficult game against them in the league, it was a thriller that ended 3-3 in September. Back then Notts County scored a late goal from distance, this time they scored the opening goal in a similar fashion, a great 25 yard drive beat my goalkeeper eight minutes into the game. We played quite poorly until half time, did better after the break but failed to convert our chances into at least a goal. I was disappointed with the early FA Cup exit, we didn’t play well enough to deserve to go through.

We were out of the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, we had to do our best in the Johnstone’s Trophy. Our next game was the South quarter final against League Two side Leyton Orient and although the bookmakers were saying that they were slight favourites to win the game I decided to field mostly backup players and give some key men a good rest. We got off to a decent start, missed a couple of chances but then my defense gifted Leyton Orient the opening goal by playing the offside trap terribly wrong. My team appeared to be less determined than the opponents, we were losing lots of balls in midfield, but we managed to get back level before half time when Szymon Kazmierowski rounded off a good team move. We were playing quite badly though and Leyton Orient had two good chances to get back in the lead before the break. We continued our terrible display into the second half and eventually Leyton Orient deservedly took the lead. We had 20 minutes to turn things around so I decided to switch the strategy from «attacking» to «overload» and moved my wide midfielders to attacking midfielder positions. We started to push forward convincingly and it took us seven minutes to net the equalizer, Revy Rosalia headed one in off the post. We were piling on the pressure but also wasting great chances from close range. Szymon Kazmierowski completed our fightback two minutes from time when a free kick cross found him inside the box and he headed the ball home. I was expecting an easier game to be honest…

Back to the league then, our next game was a difficult and important one: at home with 3rd placed Gillingham, they were only five points behind us. Unfortunately we went down early in the game again, a corner kick marking error gave the opponent too much time and space inside our penalty area and Gillingham took the lead. We managed to score 20 minutes later though, a great team move sent Omar Koroma clean through and he found the target with a placed shot. He could have doubled his tally a couple of minutes before half time, he had a good chance but sent the ball disappointingly wide. Gillingham started the second half with greater impetus and they hit the crossbar five minutes into the last 45. We were being outplayed but the defense allowed us to hang in there until the final minutes of the game when Omar Koroma could have handed us the win but his good shot hit the woodwork.

Our goal scoring form was not what I expected so I decided to bring in another striker on loan. There were not too many good ones available, the better ones didn’t want to join Dorchester, but I am satisfied with the one we managed to bring in. He is 17 years old, he comes from Manchester City and his name is Craig Carlisle. He’s a rather strong lad for his age with decent technique, I hope he will settle in quickly and bang in a few goals. He will spend three months on loan at Dorchester but I might extend the deal if he does well. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Our next match was away at 18th placed Hartlepool, I was hoping for a win there but surely didn’t expect it to be that easy. Simon Ferry scored the opening goal on 14 minutes, a good flowing team move gave him the time and space to shoot from the edge of the area and he sent the ball in off the underside of the crossbar. Then Omar Koroma was brought down inside the penalty area and young striker Peter Singh netted the penalty kick to end his goal drought that was dragging on for more than 10 hours of competitive football. We continued the dominant display and scored the third one a few minutes before half time when Zakaria Labyad found Omar Koroma with a great pass and the striker finished it off on the volley. We were less convincing after the break but still managed to score three more: captain Ryan Carolan with a corner kick header, then Singh again from the penalty spot and, last but not least, Koroma netted his 10th goal of the season.

The last game of the month was away at lowly Wycombe, they were down in 23rd place. The team looked overconfident though, we were playing quite poorly and our unconvincing defending gifted Wycombe the opening goal. Then we took control of the game, had lots of possession until half time but we were going nowhere useful with the ball. Things changed after the break, we started to lay siege on Wycombe‘s penalty area and got our equalizer on 68 minutes when Omar Koroma‘s parried shot fell into the path of debutant Craig Carlisle who pushed it home. My pair of strikers could have won the game for us during the last 20 minutes but they went on to miss quite a few easy chances so Wycombe held on to the draw. We should have won this game…

We dropped some points there and Coventry were tied with us on 40 points but we had a slightly better goal difference. Coventry seem to have regained their pace while we surely seem to have lost it, we definitely have to improve if we want to stay top of the table.

Midfielder Zakaria Labyad had something to celebrate at the end of the month, he was picked young player of the month in League One and I guess he deserves some recognition. He played pretty well so far, made five assists but is still chasing his first goal for us. He is on loan from Liverpool until the end of the season and his career started at PSV Eindhoven where he impressed and was bought by Liverpool for 1.7 million pounds in 2010. He has good vision and creativity and I guess he might turn into a good Premier League midfielder in the future.

Next month will see us playing mostly against mid-table teams, I hope that we’ll manage to keep our unbeaten record in the league until the end of 2012.

Mark requested a screen shot of the board confidence  so here it is. They seem to be quite happy with the job I’m doing but being 5,500 pounds over the weekly wage budget surely raises a few eyebrows in the board room. I hope I’ll be able to correct the situation in January when I intend to sell a couple of players.

That’s how our November 2012 was, thanks a lot for reading. We managed to stay unbeaten in the league but were knocked out of the FA Cup, I was surely hoping to get some prize money from there… Anyway, the team continued to look fairly solid at the back and I guess they should play even better next month. We’ll see how that will turn out in the next post ;)