Dorchester Town Story: November 2014

Hello dear friends and welcome back to the Dorchester Town FM 2010 story! We enjoyed a decent start to our first Premier League season as the first three months saw us getting four wins, one draw and four defeats. We were lying 11th at the end of October and that was much better than the bookmakers would have expected. We had a tough schedule in November though, four away games and only two at home, let’s see what we managed to achieve.

The first game of the month was at home with 4th placed Tottenham, a very difficult game. Given the large number of goals that we had conceded until that point I decided to adopt a different approach and start the games with a counter strategy instead of attacking but I was employing my ancient 4-4-2 tactic. The game was fairly quiet until the 23rd minute when Dawson made a professional foul on my Liam Parker and got sent off. At that point we were hoping to get more out of the game but there were no clear cut chances until half time. The second half was quite surprising for me, 10-man Tottenham were outplaying us and goalkeeper Davide La Rocca saved us on a few occasions. The woodwork saved us twice as well! We were hanging in there though and there was only one more minute left on the clock. We had a corner kick, the third of the game, and we struck: centre back Petre Micu climbed above his marker and smashed in the header! We won the game but I had to admit that Tottenham were the better side.

Next up, a tricky away game at 15th placed Stoke City. I decided to stick to the «counter» starting strategy but that didn’t give us the opening goal, it was pure luck: a cross inside Stoke‘s box was headed past their own keeper by one of the centre backs! Then we managed to keep the game all quiet until the 66th minute when Sean Scannell had to be taken off on a stretcher and we were down to 10 men as I had just made my third substitution. The disadvantage was not very important though, we continued to keep the game under control. We even managed to double the lead during injury time when the referee spotted some pushing and pulling and pointed to the spot. Willo Flood coolly converted the penalty kick and we recorded our fourth consecutive win! The price that we had to pay was quite steep though, striker Sean Scannell was going to be out for three months and that was a big blow considering that he had scored no less than 7 goals for us until that point.

Our great run was meeting a high obstacle, the next game was away at second placed Manchester City. We had a fairly good start and it could have been even better but we missed a good chance early on. Then Adebayor took over and netted a first half hat-trick, our run was over. The second half was a total onslaught, Man City were playing with us like an experienced cat with a scared mouse. Davide La Rocca did his best to limit the damage but we let in another two goals. Omar Koroma managed to get in a last minute consolation goal to make the defeat taste a bit less bitter.

We had to put that demolition behind us and give our best in the next game, at home with 19th placed Burnley. We showed good determination during the initial minutes and missed two great chances before Petre Micu netted another corner kick header on 19 minutes, his third goal of the season. Our display was quite convincing and we managed to double the lead at the hour mark when a cross from Nemanja Rnic found Packie Doolin unmarked inside the box and the Irish winger headed in his first goal of the season. Burnley replied with a good team move just four minutes later but we managed to stay calm and claim another three points.

We had another «mission impossible» coming up, away at league leaders Chelsea. They were no longer playing their home games at Stamford Bridge, the club built a brand new 57,184 all-seater stadium named «Zola Arena«! I was not hoping for too much before the game but my mood suddenly changed 24 seconds into the game when Liam Parker rounded off a great team move! In fact, Chelsea didn’t even have the chance to touch the ball since the start of the game, we took it from kick off to the back of the net! Then we had to defend and my lads did a brilliant job at the back until half time, Chelsea had only one clear chance that was wasted by Essien. Chelsea turned on the style after the interval and they outscored us in just four minutes: first Luis Suarez whipped in a great shot from 20 yards out and then Gourcuff played a great back heel pass for Pato who settled the score. Chelsea were taking the game to us and goalkeeper La Rocca put on a great display to keep the margin of the defeat to a decent amount.

The last game of the month was away at 8th placed Middlesbrough, I was looking forward to test my team against them. I decided to revert to my usual starting strategy, the attacking one, and that could have paid off right away as winger Laszlo Tamasi hit the crossbar early on. Then Liam Parker had a great chance to open the scoring but it was Boro who scored on 27 minutes by taking advantage of a poor clearance from our defense. We were playing pretty well though and Omar Koroma leveled the game before half time after receiving a great through pass from Fran Merida. Middlesbrough hit the crossbar from long range just after the interval but then the game cooled off. That was until seven minutes from time when a blitz counter attack went past my defenders and the hosts took the lead. We tried to react and came very close to netting the equalizer but Parker missed another huge chance right in the 90th minute.

So, another month went by and we were sitting 10th with a rather peaceful record of seven wins, seven defeats and just one draw. The good thing is that we already have 22 points so we might need just around 15 more to make absolutely sure of surviving in the Premier League.

Although I am still a bit angry with him for missing two huge chances at Middlesbrough I have to admit that Liam Parker had been our best player so far, he scored eight goals and made 7 assists. His average rating is the highest in the whole squad and I think that he still has good margins for improvement.

December will see us continuing the Carling Cup campaign with the quarter final against Swansea and then with five league games that will culminate at Anfield where Liverpool will be looking to get revenge for that opening day defeat that we inflicted them.

That’s how it went folks, thanks for following the story. I guess we’re doing pretty well so far but we should be careful and stay away from poor runs that could send us right down to the bottom of the table. We have a poor run ongoing though, two consecutive defeats, so we have to bounce back as soon as possible.