Hello dear friends and a warm welcome back to Dorchester for another episode of my Football Manager 2010 story! Our first couple of months in the Championship were not entirely rosy but we managed to stay unbeaten in September and got three draws and two wins. Those results pushed us up in 10th place, I was quite curious to see whether we were strong enough to keep that good form going.
We were preparing for the first game of October when I noticed that we had a serious situation going on: both my goalkeepers were away with their Under 20 national teams at the Under 20s World Cup! Without Gabriel Nicolau and Davide La Rocca I had no other choice than to rely on an amateur keeper that I found at the training ground… If you look at his attributes I guess you can understand that I was more than nervous before the game…
On to the match then, it was at home with 21st placed Reading. The game was not easy at all, Reading were trying to shoot on sight because they probably knew about our goalie problem but fortunately their aim was largely wasteful. We had quite a few chances to score ourselves but we failed to make them count until Fabricio Coloccini netted a corner kick header to celebrate his first ever goal for the club. There was only one minute left to play and we were in control but Mancini played a superb pass for Mohammed Tchite who settled the score with a powerful finish.
The next game was away at 20th placed Huddersfield and we were sill without our two goalkeepers… We missed a good chance to take the lead early on an then gifted a goal with a defensive mistake, then went on to miss another good chance and got punished from the spot after a silly handball inside our own box. We were 2-0 down at half time and the game was looking as good as over. We tried to fight back in the second half but only managed to score four minutes from time through Graeme Owens, too late…
Another away game was coming up, at 8th placed Wigan, and our two goalkeepers were still away with their Under 20 national teams… Our amateur goalie handed us a nightmare start as he gifted the opposition a goal nine minutes into the game and the team never recovered. Wigan hit the woodwork no less than three times until the end of the game, they surely deserved to win.
The last game of the month was at home with 21st placed Watford and our goalies were finally back from their national youth teams! That didn’t help us too much though as a fairly even first half was won by Watford thanks two a couple of fabulous shots from 30 yards out. The team reacted very well after the break, we were pushing forward and Omar Koroma clawed one back on 56 minutes. We continued to chase the goal but had no luck, two good chances went begging and we lost our third consecutive game!
Those results pushed us back in 13th place, we had to react quickly otherwise the whole season could have turned into a nightmare! I guess most of you can understand why I chose to continued the game and play on into November, I had to see the team getting out of the poor run! So read on to see what happened in November :) Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
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.