The first game of November was at home with 6th placed promotion contenders Ipswich. My players seemed to have confidence problems and probably I had some problems too since I chose to start with a «counter» strategy instead of our usual «attacking», I guess I was afraid of losing yet another game. Omar Koroma missed a great chance two minutes into the game but then Ipswich took control and kept our defense under pressure. That was until the 28th minute when a blitz counter attack sent Koroma clean through and he did it, he hit the back of the net! He had a good chance to double the lead just before the interval but I was quite satisfied, we defended well and struck on a breakaway. Koroma didn’t forgive the opponents 10 minutes into the second half though, another counter attack and we were leading 2-0! Our defense stood firm until the last 9 minutes when we had to play with only 10 men following Al Bangura‘s injury. Ipswich did get a last minute shot from distance in but our defense won a crucial game for us, our first win after a rather long drought!
Next up, a tough away game at 9th placed Leeds. We were playing against all odds again but we managed to keep the game fairly level until the 28th minute when centre back Ryan Shotton got sent off for a professional foul. I had to pull back as Leeds were pushing forward but my lads defended well until half time and kept the score all square. The pressure was rising after the break but Fabricio Coloccini was keeping our defense together with his experience and skills. Things got even better 10 minutes into the second half when Omar Koroma broke through on a counter attack and placed the ball into the back of the net! We had to hang on to that lead but the pressure was becoming unbearable. Despite that we managed to survive thanks to some resolute defending, great goalkeeping from Davide La Rocca and a big chunk of luck as Leeds hit the woodwork… We ran out of luck 6 minutes from time though, Leeds finally broke through our defense but we still managed to grab a good away point.
We had another away game scheduled next, a tough one at recently-relegated Portsmouth. They were having a disappointing first part of the season and were lying 17th but they still had some pretty good players in their squad. My lads got off to a brave start though and Mohammed Tchite could have given us the lead but his superb 20 yard lob landed on top of the crossbar. Then Pompey wasted a pretty big chance and that probably impressed centre back Francesco Tosto, he handled the ball inside our own box despite the fact that he was under no pressure at all! The spot kick was converted but we pegged Pompey back instantly, Jonathan Dos Santos scored his first goal for the club with a placed shot from the edge of the area. Portsmouth were the better side though and they wasted another couple of chances before the break. The second half started in the best possible way for us, Tchite was brought down inside the box and Dos Santos fired it home from the penalty spot! We found ourselves under pressure after the goal and my defense cracked 19 minutes from time… Then my lads finally showed some good attacking football and we could have won the game 7 minutes from time when Omar Koroma missed a real sitter…
Back to the Avenue Stadium for the next game, 6th placed Leicester were coming to visit. We had a pretty good first half with the support of our fans but failed to convert a couple of pretty good chances. I sent in Mancini after the break and he made an instant impact, he powered one in from inside the penalty area and we were in the lead! Then Leicester started pushing us back, we had to defend but there was nothing we could have done as they leveled the game on 65 minutes. We were unable to regain control in midfield and we could have even lost the game during the final minutes… It was our third consecutive draw…
The last game of the month was away at 20th placed Barnsley, I was hoping for a win to give us some hope for a better December… Mohammed Tchite got us off to a flying start as he scored with a fine solo effort two minutes into the game but then Barnsley netted the equalizer with a splendid shot from distance. Omar Koroma missed a couple of great chances before half time but he made everybody forget about those misses after the interval as he netted a superb hat-trick! It was a real classic hat-trick too as he scored the first one with his right foot, the second with his left and the third with a header that sent in a great cross from Nemanja Rnic! The performance was quite pleasing but there were bad news too, Ryan Shotton was going to be out for two months!
We managed to stay unbeaten through November but with three draws out of five games we didn’t add too many points to our tally. We are sitting 13th but at least we’re 11 points clear of the 22nd…
Omar Koroma was our hero so far, he fired in 11 goals to help our cause. He celebrated his 100th career league game, a career that really took off when he joined us at the Avenue Stadium.
December has a grueling schedule in store for us, we’ll have no less than seven games to play and three of those matches seem to be impossible: away at leaders Newcastle, at home with 3rd placed Southampton and 4th placed Bristol City…
Thanks for reading this rather long update folks. I guess it’s pretty clear that we won’t manage to achieve another surprising promotion, what do you think?
Kevin Mayo
6 сентября, 2010 at 19:55
Hi Johnny
Well at least you ended in style. October was a horrible month for you due to that GK crisis but you got some decent draws in November to kep the ship steady though I know you would have liked to have won. At least YOU still have Koroma :) Great story as usual.
Johnny Karp
6 сентября, 2010 at 22:16
Thanks Kevin. October was quite a nightmare indeed but overall I think that we got the number of points that we deserved to get.
hils
6 сентября, 2010 at 20:20
What a fantastic last game Johnny, 1-4 vs Barnsley is one massive achievement for a side who were predicted to come last in the blue square south. Good luck in future month!
Johnny Karp
6 сентября, 2010 at 22:17
Thanks Hils, I just hope we will play more games like the Barnsley one.
Darren Smith
6 сентября, 2010 at 21:06
Hi Johnny, you have had some mixed form there. The league is very tight and your not too far off the play-offs. However your current form suggests the top six may be hard to get. I hope you can turn some of those draws into three pointers and move up the table. Koroma could be vital in your push. Goodluck mate
Johnny Karp
6 сентября, 2010 at 22:18
Thanks Darren. I think that the team needs more confidence but that’s hard to get when defeats are always around the corner. In my view we don’t have enough quality to be in the top six.
Lye
7 сентября, 2010 at 02:09
Hi mate, very very unlucky with your regular goalkeepers away at international duty. There is still 5-6 months left. If your performance turns out for the better, i still believe you can grab a play-off spot. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
7 сентября, 2010 at 11:43
Thanks Lye. I don’t know if the team can do much better than this but I guess there still is some hope.
Mat
7 сентября, 2010 at 08:47
Quite a tough period you find yourelf in at the moment Johnny,
I will be extremly interested to see if u can find some consistency and start picking up all 3 points on a more regular basis
Best of luck for the coming months
Johnny Karp
7 сентября, 2010 at 11:44
Thanks for the good luck wish Mat, I’m quite curious to see if we’ll show more consistency too.
Laxeyman
7 сентября, 2010 at 11:15
Hi Johnny, October was a tough month with your goalkeepers being away, I remember having a similar problem in FM09. Still, you managed to turn it around a bit in November, I think a solid mid table finish looks very achievable for you. Good luck for December, that will be an important month.
Johnny Karp
7 сентября, 2010 at 11:45
Thanks Laxeyman. You are right, I guess December will show us if we can stay afloat or not.
Majk
7 сентября, 2010 at 15:59
The championship season is probably the biggest challenge for the smaller clubs. Even if you make it through to the PL i still believe the biggest changes comes when you face the opposing teams in the Champ. You can’t sign the great players who will help the team go forward in the same manner as in the lowe divisons and the top half of the league have really strong teams already. When you get to the PL you can at least sign some decent players that will help you hold on to a 15th position, but in the championship everyone strives to qualify for PL.
I had the same halt of progress with basingstoke… maybe I’ll start putting up some of my progress again, but at the moment i’m short on free time.
/Majk
Johnny Karp
8 сентября, 2010 at 23:42
Hi Majk, nice to hear from you. You are right, the Championship is probably the toughest challenge for a small club going forward in English football.
Angel
8 сентября, 2010 at 13:38
I love this story.
I’ve been following your story from Notts and every time you amaze me more.
Thank you for helping so many people, I has served me ayuda.Me like you to see my blog, thanks
http://footballmanagerawesome.blogspot.com/
Johnny Karp
8 сентября, 2010 at 17:10
Good luck with the blog Angel.