Dorchester Town Story: October 2012

Hello my friends and welcome back to the Dorchester Town FM 2010 story. We managed to stay unbeaten in League One through the first two months so we were sitting second at the end of September, four points behind leaders Coventry. We had a tough schedule ahead of us as we had to meet most of the top teams in October, including Coventry and third placed Peterborough.

In fact, our first match of the month was at home with Peterborough, the strong promotion contenders that were lying just behind us in 3rd place. The crowd got to see a fairly even game until Peterborough took the lead on 23 minutes thanks to a stunning 35 yard free kick shot. My lads reacted pretty well and we had a good chance to get back level a few minutes before half time but failed to convert it. The players came out with a good attitude after the interval and Omar Koroma brought us the equalizer eight minutes into the second half with a splendid shot from 20 yards out. The team produced an excellent display until the final whistle, everything went just as it should have apart from the finishing. We wasted quite a few chances so the game ended all square although we really could and should have won it.

The next game was another tough one, away at 4th placed Millwall. I was quite happy with the first half display, the team was looking quite solid but failed to find the breakthrough until the 42nd minute when loanee striker Michael Garrity slid one in a few minutes after being denied by the keeper from a similar position. We found ourselves under a bit of pressure after the interval but goalkeeper Gabriel Nicolau worked wonders during the initial 10 minutes of the second half. Then we gradually took control of the game since the referee sent off Millwall‘s left back at the hour mark. We could have wrapped up the game quite easily but we missed a few chances again, our lack of concentration upfront was beginning to worry me. I was quiet happy with the defense though, we appeared to be rock solid at the back.

Next up, the Johnstone’s Trophy second round game against Wycombe. I felt that it was the right moment to rest some of the first team regulars for the tough battles ahead but at half time it wasn’t looking like such a great idea anymore. The first half was incredibly boring, no shots on target at all! The second half wasn’t much better either but Polish striker Szymon Kazmierowski managed to tuck one in six minutes into the half and that goal was enough to win the game. Not impressive by any means but I was happy that we were through to the next round and also that I had the chance to rest a few important players.

The most important game of the month was coming up, at home against league leaders Coventry. I expected it to be a tough match but just when I was preparing to pick my first eleven I was in for a shocking view: seven of my players were not available because they were away on international duty with their national teams! Don’t get me wrong, I was happy that they were selected for their national teams, but I was quite concerned that I wasn’t able to send them in for such an important game…

Anyway, I managed to send in a decent eleven hoping to keep our unbeaten record. Coventry had six points ahead of us and they also had an impressive record, they were unbeaten in eleven games and conceded only five goals in the process! And they also had all their players available, no international duty for them… The first half saw a hard fought game, rough battles for possession in midfield but very little entertainment upfront. We enjoyed better possession after the interval, our moves were more fluid and we finally took the lead on 59 minutes: captain Ryan Carolan made a majestic jump and headed in a corner kick! We took control of the game after that goal but failed to create any more chances. Coventry started to push forward when there were 15 more minutes to be played but they were leaving gaps at the back and we managed to exploit them twice in three minutes! First Aleksandar Mladenov made a great run on the right flank and found Matt Richards unmarked at the far post and then Peter Singh whipped in a good cross that Michael Garrity headed home. Our finishing got better just when we needed it the most, now we were only three point behind the league leaders! 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 an easier game coming up as we were preparing to visit 21st placed Stockport with all our players back from international duty, shopping or whatever else they have to do outside of the club :) We had a solid first half, created a couple of chances but unfortunately we went back to our wasteful finishing… Aleksandar Mladenov broke the deadlock 10 minutes into the second half, he rifled in a superb 25 yard free kick to give us the lead an also the win. We created a few more chances but the finishing was quite poor again and we could have paid the price as Stockport came close to scoring a late equalizer.

The last game of the month was at home with 10th placed Walsall, it was a game that I surely wanted to win. We dominated the first half, we were dictating the tempo and creating the chances but we were also missing them quite easily. Omar Koroma made amends for that poor finishing only 30 seconds into the second half as he rounded off a good flowing team move. He did it again less than 10 minutes later so I guess I can forgive him for all the chances that he missed this month. It also was a special game for Michael Garrity, his loan from Everton was going to expire right the next day and he scored with a cracking 20 yard effort to say goodbye to our fans. He did pretty well for us but unfortunately his loan can’t be extended.

Getting beaten at the Avenue Stadium was quite a shock for Coventry: they were unbeaten until then but after that game they had a poor run as they drew 3-3 away at Walsall and lost 3-2 at home against Gillingham! With all those points that they dropped we were the new leaders!

The player that I would like to praise this month is right back John White, he has been extremely reliable until now and always showed good tackling and determination. He has quite an impressive average rating at this point, 7.25, by far the highest of his career so far.

Next month will see our debut in this season’s FA Cup, I really hope we can get past Notts County and get some prize money into the club’s bank account. We’ll also have a tough game in the league against 4th placed Gillingham but I hope that the players will do their best to keep the unbeaten record.

That’s how it was my friends, now I can officially say that we are genuine promotion contenders! We proved to be competitive against the best teams in the league, even if we had squad problems. I don’t think that we can go unbeaten until the end of the season but I think that we have what it takes to mount a serious promotion challenge and maybe even succeed. Thanks a lot for reading this important update, stay tuned for the rest of the season! :)