We still were top of the table and had two more league games to play before the end of the month: against the 3rd placed and the 2nd placed! The first game was away at 3rd placed Maidenhead, a match that was going to be played on a frozen pitch. We found ourselves under pressure in the initial minutes of the game but then the team took control of the midfield and we scored eventually, another goal produced by the Jivan — Almani Romanian striker duo. After the goal the game got a bit nervy until half time, lots of fouls and yellow cards and only a few moments of real football. We played very well after the break, Maidenhead had no chances to score. We could have doubled the lead but we missed a good chance and then hit the crossbar from a corner kick. We totally deserved to win it and these three points were quite important.
The last game of the month was at home with 2nd placed Dover, they were 5 points behind us. We already played them away from home in August and the memory of that game was not pleasing, they beat us 3-0 despite the fact that we played better than them. My lads were determined to get revenge and they made that pretty clear right from the start, we missed a clear chance only 30 seconds into the game! A few minutes later we went close again but Ryan Carolan‘s corner kick header hit the crossbar and bounced a few yards out of the box. We were continuing to push forward and the goal finally landed 20 minutes into the game: experienced left back Darren Barnard sunk Dover with a torpedo-like free kick shot from 20 yards out, a beautiful shot and his first ever goal for the club! We continued to attack but there were no more clear chances until half time. We resumed the siege after the break and got lucky, a cross was deflected by one of Dover‘s defenders into his own net. Five minutes later striker Sergiu Jivan put the cherry on the cake with a fine shot from the edge of the area, straight into the top corner.We were forced to defend for a while after the third goal but Dover‘s attacks were not scary at all. The game got more complicated 13 minutes from time when my right back picked up his second yellow card but we ended Dover‘s hopes only two minutes later on a quick counter attack. We got revenge for the away defeat and it was quite sweet, the team looked unbeatable!
I received my first Manager of the Month award but that was not important, we were top of the table and eight points clear! Please tell me I’m not dreaming :)
I want to pay tribute to our main scorer so far, Romanian striker Sergiu Jivan. He scored eight goals but he is also a great team player, he made 9 assists for his team mates. He joined us from an amateur team in the Romanian fourth division and since he’s only 20 years old I hope that he can make some progress and remain at the club for a few more seasons.
Next month’s highlight will be the FA Cup game against Stockport, I’m quite curious to see how we’ll manage to play against a much better team.
That’s how October was my friends, way above my expectations. Everybody at the club is feeling confident and I’m beginning to dream about getting promoted too. Thanks for reading and for supporting our tiny club.
- If you like the story subscribe to the RSS feed, the future episodes will come to you fast as lightning!
- You can also subscribe to the Email Newsletter, the new posts will be sent directly to your inbox!
- Want to stay in touch? Download and install our community toolbar, it works on Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari!
Sears
12 мая, 2010 at 20:42
Johhny,your assistant’s manager comment was funny but stupid!How many romainians does he want at he club?!?
Anyway,great month again,and no your not dreaming!By the way,what tacic are you using?
Calum
12 мая, 2010 at 20:46
Wow, you are doing really well Johnny :) Your Romanians are doing you proud!
Majk
12 мая, 2010 at 23:10
That striker (Jivan) of yours is great and only 20 yrs old.
I’ll work out my next post with Basingstoke later tonight after I’ve watched the Uefa cup final.
Good job holding the first place down. It’s hard to keep up a good winning-streak with such «unprofessional», or at least a bit undeterminded, players. At least I’m having some ups and some down.. mostly Ups though, thankfully :)
Johnny Karp
12 мая, 2010 at 23:38
@Sears
Thanks for the comment. The tactic is the 4-4-2 I employed with Notts County during the last couple of seasons.
@Calum
Thanks Calum, I really am proud of the lads.
@Majk
Thanks mate. Sudden drops in form are quite frequent at this level, that’s why I’m a bit surprised by our run too.
Laxeyman
13 мая, 2010 at 00:25
Hi Johnny, brilliant month! You’re in with a great shot at promotion now, I hope you do it. You’ve got your team playing really well, hopefully they cab keep it up for the whole season.
dami
13 мая, 2010 at 00:57
you’ve got a nice run of form there…hope you can keep it up and get promoted…
it was really painful to see fulham lose tonight…so I’ve decided to make amends by wining the uefa cup for them…
Lye
13 мая, 2010 at 05:24
Hi mate, though I am sorry that Thurrock lost but you did really well in beating two of your closest rivals. 8 points clear and you should be comfortably closing in on promotion now.
Johnny Karp
13 мая, 2010 at 10:29
@Laxeyman
Thanks mate. I don’t know if they can keep it up throughout the season but I guess we’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts.
@dami
Thanks. Indeed, it was quite painful to see Fulham’s fairytale end like that. Good luck and bring the Champions League too while you’re at it :)
@Lye
Thanks mate, those two last wins were very nice to watch. Thurrock were not easy to beat though, they caused us some problems with the corner kicks because they have some really tall lads.
Ana Garcia
13 мая, 2010 at 15:20
Great work Johnny, your making this look too easy! :)
I hope you can claim promotion, and push this club forward.
Best of luck.
Johnny Karp
13 мая, 2010 at 17:43
Thanks Ana. I hope that the players won’t start thinking it’s too easy, then we might get into some trouble. :)
Kevin
14 мая, 2010 at 11:07
Hi Johnny
Hilarious comment from your assistant manager to start the month off which of course turned out to be another successful one for you so well done. That striker Jivan seems to be key to your winning ways at least so far. Good luck for next month.
Johnny Karp
14 мая, 2010 at 11:16
Thanks Kevin. I just posted the new update so I can’t make predictions about next month, it went rather badly…
Mariano Vagator
11 июня, 2010 at 10:29
Hi,
Maybe you should tell you assistant manager you are planing to bring a Roumanian one:)!
I remember the roumanian manager in world cup 94, what was his name?
you could sign him as assistant he was very good!
They knocked us of(Argentina),it was such a good team with Hagi, Bulgaria had a wonderful team by then too.
Johnny Karp
11 июня, 2010 at 11:13
@Mariano
His name is Anghel Iordanescu but he’s out of football now and into… politics! The victory over Argentina still remains the highlight of our national team’s history, too bad we got knocked out by Sweden after beating Argentina…