Dorchester Town Story — October 2010

Good day to you all and welcome back to the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! As you know we had a great start to our season in Blue Square Premier, we were unbeaten in 12 league games, top of the table and six points clear of the second placed at the end of September! That was way beyond the most optimistic expectations and I guess you are as curious as I was to see if me managed to continue the good form. Let’s see…

The first game was at home with 21st placed Tamworth, a good chance to keep on winning. The game turned out to be fairly easy as we managed to score twice during the first ten minutes. Five minutes into the game centre back Ryan Carolan scored his first goal of the season with a corner kick header and striker Marius Dabu finished a fine run with a placed shot only four minutes later. Striker Sergiu Jivan took over after half time, he was both a hero and a villain for our fans. First he set up right winger Jason Mycoe for his first ever goal for the club and then, ten minutes later, he blasted a penalty kick wide! It didn’t matter too much though, the three points were already ours.

The next game was expected to be far more difficult, we were playing away at 2nd placed Luton. They were six points behind us and I was hoping to get a draw and keep that cushion intact. We got off to a great start, Luton‘s defense was under a bit of pressure and that paid off 9 minutes into the game when Dabu was knocked inside the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot but there were bad news too, Marius Dabu was unable to continue the game so I was forced to replace him. Sergiu Jivan stepped up to take the penalty and this time he didn’t make any mistakes, he coolly placed it past the keeper. We had some defending to do until half time, Luton were trying to push forward but they failed to create any clear chances. Things were looking good, we were 1-0 up at half time. Unfortunately my defenders seemed a bit complacent a few minutes into the second half, Luton‘s striker had fun with my two centre backs and banged in the equalizer. We found ourselves under pressure after the goal but we managed to withstand it and try to attack. The reward came in the 67th minute, a good flowing team move brought the ball inside the box to right winger Carol Domondi and he slotted it home. Luton replied immediately though, my defenders were asleep again and we conceded the equalizer. The game cooled off after that goal, none of the two teams looked capable of pushing forward. Things took a sad turn for us during the last 10 minutes, my lads were looking numb and another huge error in our defense allowed Luton to score the winning goal. They even created a few more chances until the final whistle, it was our first defeat of the season and we totally deserved to lose the game.

The good thing was that Marius Dabu‘s injury was not too complicated, just a concussion that was going to sideline him for around two weeks. Our next game was at home with 20th placed Kettering, I was hoping that the players would be able to bounce back and forget all about the defeat against Luton. We didn’t produce a brilliant display but the finishing was top notch, my two backup strikers, Biagini and Almani managed to score while Sergiu Jivan banged in a double in honor of his friend and teammate Dabu. I was pleased to see Leonardo Biagini score his first goals for the club, he got injured during the last friendly game, then got back in training and just when he was looking ready to play he got injured again. He played only in the first half against Kettering, his fitness is not 100% yet, but he surely proved that he still has the skills to help us.

The next game saw us traveling to meet 4th placed Stevenage, I was expecting another tough encounter. The first half proved me right, the game was fairly even but not too spectacular, the fans had to witness rough battles for possession in midfield. Stevenage broke the deadlock five minutes into the second half, my defenders failed to clear a corner kick cross that was headed in off the crossbar. My boys reacted pretty well though and three minutes after the hour mark 20 year old winger James Marwood finally managed to score his first goal for the club by finishing off a good team move. We kept on pushing forward and Dutch midfielder Mimoun el Kadi was overjoyed to record his first goal for the club, he scored with a superb placed shot from the edge of the area. We could have made it 3-1 a couple of minutes later but a good counter attack chance was wasted. We defended well during the last 10 minutes and clinched a very important result. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Then we had to take a break from the Blue Square Premier, our next game was the FA Cup 4th qualifying round encounter with Blue Square South team Lewes. I decided to give my first team regulars a well deserved rest and fielded the backup players, I hoped they would be keen on taking advantage of the opportunity to play. Well, they were not. We played a very poor first half and Lewes deservedly took  the lead five minutes before the break. We were not very convincing in the second half either but it was Jason Mycoe‘s lucky day, the right winger managed to score a double and pushed us through to the next round. We didn’t deserve to win this game to be honest but I was quite happy that we did since we received 12,500 pounds for it. We are 231,000 pounds in debt so every penny counts.

Back to the league for the last game of the month, we were playing at home against 14th placed Cheltenham. We failed to impress during the initial minutes of the game but centre back Ryan Carolan gave us the lead with a corner kick header. Then we took control of the game and midfielder el Kadi doubled our advantage from close range right before the break. We dominated the second half and since Marius Dabu was back in training after the injury I decided to send him in to get some confidence back. His killer instinct was not affected by the concussion, he fired in a placed shot ten minutes from time. Cheltenham scored the consolation goal during stoppage time with a corner kick header but that didn’t matter too much.

We lost our first game this month but Luton had a terrible run after winning that game, they lost a few consecutive matches. So we were still top of the table and the cushion was still at 6 points above second placed York.

Striker Sergiu Jivan received the Young Player of the Month award, he surely deserved some recognition. He scored 11 goals so far this season and also played no less than 11 assists, he is a key man in my tactical setup. I got him for free last season and the interesting fact is that he never played for a professional club before joining Dorchester, he was raised at a small independent football academy in Romania but never attracted any attention from league clubs.

Next month we’ll be meeting League One side Carlisle in the FA Cup, I’m very curious to see how we’ll be able to handle a superior opponent. We’ll also have a tough league game against 4th placed Ebbsfleet, I hope we’ll be able to hold on to the six point cushion.

That’s about it my friends, thanks for reading. We recorded our first defeat of the season and our performances were not impressive after that moment. We managed to return to the winning ways but the season is still long and we should be careful.

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