Dorchester Town Story — September 2010

Hello dear friends, the World Cup is keeping everyone busy and exciting but lower league clubs have a life of their own too, don’t they? Welcome to another episode of the Dorchester Town story! We got off to an excellent start in Blue Square Premier, far beyond any expectations. We managed to get five wins and a draw out of the first six games and we were top of the table at the end of August! Everybody, including myself, was curious to see if we would be able to continue the good run. Let’s see what happened in September 2010.

The first game of the month was at home against 6th placed Wrexham, I was hoping to continue the good form. Striker Sergiu Jivan didn’t need too much time to show his skills yet again, 12 minutes into the game he took the ball, dribbled past two defenders and smashed it into the top corner from inside the penalty area! The first half saw a great spell of dominance from my lads and we managed to score again after a fine team move, left winger Alexandru Gheba fired it in. We scored twice in the first half but we surely could have hit the back of the net a few more times since we struck the ball against the woodwork no less then three times until half time! The second half was much more quiet, we kept things under control and grabbed the three points.

The next game was a tricky one away at 5th placed Kidderminster, a team that was challenging for promotion. The game started perfectly for us, right winger Domondi was brought down inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot. We had a great chance of scoring an early goal but Sergiu Jivan‘s penalty kick shot was parried by the goalkeeper! The team didn’t suffer too much though, we kept on pushing forward and striker Marius Dabu gave us the lead 23 minutes into the game with a perfectly placed shot that went in off the post. We continued to play pretty well and could have doubled our lead just before the break but Dabu missed a very good chance. The boys were looking a bit tired at half time but I was hoping to hold on to the one goal lead. That didn’t happen though, Kidderminster scored five minutes into the second half and my team looked unrecognizable. We tried to react but immediately got punished on a counter attack and we were contemplating our first defeat of the season. We did manage to create a couple of chances to equalize but thing were not looking good. We got lucky a few minutes before the end of the game, an error in Kidderminster‘s defense was promptly speculated by Jivan, he fired the ball home with real venom. We even had a late chance to win the game, Jivan was one on one with the keeper but he failed to get the ball past him.

We had an easier game coming up, at home with 19th placed Grays. It turned out to be more difficult than expected though, we dominated the first half but were not incisive enough to score. Even worse, Grays managed to score just before the break and it was the first time they ever came forward in the first half! That was a bit unfair and harsh but that’s football. I encouraged the lads at half time and they rewarded me with a spectacular performance in the second half. We were piling on the pressure right away and Grays just couldn’t cope with that, Marius Dabu fired in a splendid hat-trick and gave us another three points.

Next up, the most difficult game of the season so far, away at second placed Mansfield. They were 5 points behind us and they were surely relishing the opportunity to make that gap a lot narrower. They were showing good form too, Mansfield were on a five match unbeaten run. We found ourselves under pressure right away and Mansfield scored only six minutes into the game thanks to a superb shot from the edge of the area. I was expecting the worst but my players reacted extremely well, they surprised me too! We missed a couple of chances right away and then Sergiu Jivan scored the equalizer after getting rid of his marker and firing it in from inside the area. We were piling on the pressure and Mansfield‘s defense cracked again seven minutes later, right winger Mycoe was brought down inside the box and this time Jivan didn’t miss the penalty! We continued to push forward after half time and striker Marius Dabu took advantage of a good assist from Jivan to double our lead. The match was fully under our control, Mansfield were unable to threaten us. We even managed to scored another two goals during the last 10 minutes of the game, I admit that I was impressed! 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 a home game coming up after that thrilling performance but it was another tough game since the visitors were 3rd placed York. We started the game with our usual domination but we missed a couple of chances that could have given us an early lead. We got punished for that lack of efficiency 19 minutes into he game, a great shot from 20 yards out went past our keeper and we were one goal down. The team reacted well again and managed to get the equalizer before half time, a splendid team move brought the ball inside the box to left winger Alexandru Gheba, he dribbled past the goalkeeper and tucked it in. We continued to dominate the game in the second half but we were not incisive enough to crack York‘s defense. We did have one or two good chances in the last 45 minutes but my lads wasted them so we got our first home draw of the season.

The last game of the month was away at 16th placed AFC Wimbledon, I was surely hoping to end the month with a win. We were quite unlucky in the first half, we hit the woodwork twice and missed another good chance. Segiu Jivan did his job again though and he fired one home a minute before the interval. Our bad luck from the first half converted into good luck right after the break, one of Wimbledon‘s defenders tried to pass the ball back to the keeper but he was under pressure and got the power a bit wrong… It turned our to be more of a shot than a pass and he beat his own keeper, it was quite funny to watch :) The game was fairly quiet after the comedy moment but we managed to score the third goal, a beautiful one too: 39 year old midfielder Edvard Lasota showed that he still has the skills as he banged in a superb left footed shot from 25 yards, straight into the top corner.

We were still unbeaten after 12 games, top of the table and the gap was now standing at six points!

Striker Marius Dabu, my number 10, was elected Player of the Month and he surely deserved that after scoring 6 goals in 6 appearances in September! He scored 11 goals until now this season and I will surely be praying that he will stay fit and in form until May!

We’ll have two important games next month, away with 3rd placed Luton and 2nd placed Stevenage, those games could tell us more about our strengths and weaknesses.

That’s how September was, I’m very happy that we are still unbeaten and that my players were not affected by any long term injuries. I am sure that we will have a setback sooner or later but I hope we’ll manage to grab as many points as we can until then. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the future updates!

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