Dorchester Town Story — October 2011

Hello folks, time for another episode of the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! As you know we managed to stay unbeaten in September but we only managed to secure two wins and three draws. We were still sitting second in the League Two table though, far above the expectations. The team was looking pretty good so I was hoping for a good run in October too, let’s see what happened.

We started the month with a tough away game at 9th placed Crewe, a team with very good strikers at this level. They made that count immediately as Calvin Zola fired in a splendid 20 yarder just six minutes into the match, a nice goal to watch for the home crowd. My lads were not put off by that and four minutes later striker Kazmierowski rounded off a flowing team move with a poacher’s effort from close range. We continued to play well and missed a couple of good chances by half time. Our domination was still there after the break but we lost some of the bite that we showed upfront during the first half. I sent in Marius Dabu to replace Kazmierowski who was pretty tired and the Romanian substitute didn’t let me down, he blazed in a powerful shot from the edge of the area to nick the win for us. Crewe attempted a desperate push for the equalizer but we could easily have settled the game on counter attacks. Anyway, it was a good win that added some more confidence to the squad.

We had a quick break from the league then, the next game was the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match against fellow League Two side Crystal Palace. They were sitting third in the league, just behind us, so everybody was expecting a tough game. We had a terrible start again, a counter attack move surprised my defense and we were 1-0 down after only three minutes. The team was pretty strong mentally though and reacted well. We were pushing forward and Kazmierowski netted the equalizer right after missing a huge chance  a few minutes earlier. It was all square at the break but before we knew it we were one goal down again. Crystal Palace took the lead 30 seconds into the second half, it was a pretty solid team move that misplaced my defense. We resumed our chase for the equalizer, we were dominating the game and I was quite sure that we would draw level. That happened 10 minutes from time thanks to Omar Koroma, he made a superb run and fired in a powerful shot from the edge of the area. Two minutes later Marius Dabu came off the bench again and scored another important goal, a superb pass from playmaker Juanje set him clear of the defense and he didn’t miss. We found ourselves under heavy pressure during the last minutes of the game but the team defended well to go through to the next round.

Back to the league then, the next game was at home against 18th placed Torquay. I admit that I was expecting a quiet game, there’s no way I could have predicted what was going to happen in the craziest game of the season so far. We got off to a flying start as winger Mladenov gave us the lead only two minutes into the game, it all seemed to go the right way. The team kept on pouring forward and we missed another two huge chances in the following minutes. We lived to regret that as Torquay managed to squeeze in the equalizer by capitalizing on a huge error from my defense. Things got back on track in the 17th minute when Omar Koroma fired in another one of his beautiful shots from the edge of the area, it went straight into the top corner. We couldn’t hang on to that lead though, my defense acted up again a few minutes later when they played the offside trap totally wrong and gifted Torquay a goal. As some people say, don’t be sad when things go bad, they can always go worse! Four minutes before the break Torquay took the lead thanks to a total fluke, the ball bounced around our box and eventually hit the goalkeeper in the back and rolled into the net. I checked the stats at half time and I was in disbelief, we missed five clear cut chances and we were 3-2 down! The dismal defending continued after the break, Torquay had quite a few chances to score end eventually did that 10 minutes into the second half. My team continued to push forward but apparently the players were lacking confidence, loads of shots went disappointingly wide. We did manage to claw one back but that couldn’t cheer anybody up, we recorded our first home defeat of the season in quite a shameful manner. I can’t really explain what happened, the same players in defense had no trouble in using the offside trap a few days earlier, now they seemed to be playing like total strangers!

I moved that game into the «X Files» and prepared for the next, away at 23rd placed Morecambe. We got off to a slow start, the team seemed to be still suffering from the Torquay shock. Omar Koroma took care of things though, he gave us the lead with a powerful shot. The game was fairly quiet until the last 10 minutes when Morecambe started to come forward with more determination. Midfielder Simon Ferry settled the game with a placed finish, it was his first ever goal for the club. The team didn’t produce a great display but I guess the win was more important than anything else. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

We had to get back in shape for the next game, a League Two derby against 2nd placed Crystal Palace. That’s right, our defeat against Torquay saw us dropping to third place but we were only one point behind Crystal Palace. We already beat them in the JPT game but their league form was quite impressive since they were on a seven match unbeaten run. The fans were totally behind us for the game, I think we had the biggest attendance of the season so far, 4212 people (the capacity is 5009). The team looked fairly confident during the first minutes of the game and we managed to take the lead in the 12th minute: a corner kick cross was headed by centre back O’Brien, the ball came off the underside of the crossbar but landed right on the goal line… where the other centre back, Martin Kelly, was ready to push it in. The crowd went wild but so did Crystal Palace, we found ourselves under pressure for a while but managed to cope with it. We lifted the siege in the 34th minute, a quick counter attack sent Koroma clean through and he slid the ball past the keeper to double our lead. The second goal brought the game back into our control, we were keeping possession well and our defense wasn’t under pressure anymore. Things got even better a few minutes after the break, Crystal Palace‘s defensive midfielder finally got sent off after making a long series of pretty rough tackles throughout the first half too. We took control of the game and totally dominated it right till the final whistle, we could have scored quite a few more. It was a very important result that pushed us back into the second place in the League Two table.

We had another derby coming up, the last game of the month was away at 3rd placed Stockport! We were tied with them at 30 points but our goal difference was slightly better. I was hoping to get a draw but we had a poor start, gave the ball away easily in midfield and Stockport launched a quick counter to take the lead only four minutes into the game. I wasn’t desperate though, I knew that my lads had the mental strength to react. In fact, we missed three clear cut chances until Omar Koroma finally scored in the 34th minute with a coolly placed finish of a great run at the defense. Stockport could have taken the lead again on a counter attack just before half time but we got away with it and the first half ended all square. We continued to dominate the game after the interval and the goal came as a natural consequence, a flowing team move was rounded off by Kazmierowski with a powerful finish from inside the penalty area. Stockport fought back and nearly got back on level terms 10 minutes later but the woodwork saved us. Captain Ryan Carolan was employed as a left back because my first choice player for that role, Fabio Daprela, was injured. Our captain stepped up again just when we needed him the most but this time he didn’t score with a corner kick header as he usually does, he used his left foot to blast in a superb shot from 25 yards out! And guess what, it was his first goal of the season! Stockport desperately pushed forward and eventually clawed one back but it was too late, we recorded a splendid win!

Those last two wins consolidated our second place but the situation is pretty tight at the top. The most important thing is that we’re 9 points clear of the 8th placed team so a play-off spot surely seems achievable at this point.

Our player of the month was striker Omar Koroma, he scored five goals in five appearances! He is starting to show the kind of form that I was hoping he would display and I guess if he will stay clear of injuries then he might have a shot at the league top goalscorer award. He is still young, 22 years old, born in Gambia but raised as a footballer at Watford. As you can see from his career stats he switched quite a few clubs but never found the right place to settle. At Dorchester he got his first real chance of playing first team football and he seems to have understood that this could be the point from where his career could take off.

We’ll be quite busy next month and there will be a few tough games to play: the cup ties against Gillingham and Southend (both League One sides) plus the League Two battles with promotion contenders Luton and Oxford.

Unfortunately I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a while, the next update will probably be published next week. I am off to another trip, not on holiday but as part of my job. It will be a shorter trip than the last one, I should be back on Sunday, but much longer in distance since I will be flying all the way to… China! The plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow afternoon though so I’ll have plenty of time to reply to your comments until then :) Thanks for reading and don’t forget about Dorchester until I get back :)