Dorchester Town Story – September 2013

Hello folks and welcome back to Dorchester as we prepare for another month of Championship football. As you know our first month in the Championship didn’t go particularly well but not too bad either: we got one win, two draws and two defeats for a total of 5 points which landed us in 19th place.

With Mark Simmons sent to the reserves team (he failed to report for a match if you remember…) I felt we needed to bring in another striker on loan and I managed to snap up Liam Parker on transfer deadline day, a talented youngster from Manchester United. He can also play as a right winger so I guess he might provide good cover throughout the season.

On to our first game of the month, we were playing away at top of the table Coventry. They were a newly-promoted team just like us but they got off to a fabulous start and were unbeaten in 5 games! We were coming from two straight defeats so we had to do something. Unfortunately there isn’t much I can tell about the game, it was the most boring match I have ever witnessed and it couldn’t finish any other way than with a 0-0 draw. The two sets of players chased the ball around for 90 minutes but they looked more like track and field athletes than actual football players.

Our next game was away at 16th placed Scunthorpe, we had to get out of the poor run… The first half didn’t give me too many reasons to be happy, we were unable to keep possession and Scunthorpe dominated the game. We defended well though, that was the only positive note. Our game improved after the interval, we were playing much better and even managed to create quite a few clear chances. Unfortunately we wasted all of those chances, the biggest one fell to midfielder Javier Vila but he hit the post from close range.

Our first home game of the month was a tough one as we had to face 5th placed Swansea. I was hoping to get a win though but things got off to a bad start as Swansea took the lead early on thanks to a good shot from distance. We were unable to get it together until half time, Swansea were in control of the game without breaking too much sweat. We came out with a better approach after the interval and it finally paid off as Omar Koroma was brought down inside the penalty area, he was clean through so we got a penalty and a red card for the opposition centre back. Mancini stepped up and slotted home the penalty kick, his first goal for the club. Swansea missed a great chance on a counter attack a few minutes later but then we took over, created chances again and missed them again as our strikers were looking bereft of confidence.

Before moving on to the next game, let’s remember what happened last month with 18-year-old striker Mark Simmons. He failed to report for a league game after being seen walking out of a bar in the middle of the night. I handed him a fine and he replied that he felt I treated him unfairly. As a response I moved him to the reserves team and that seemed to have done him some good as he issued a statement in which he admitted that he made a mistake. He will remain with the reserves until the beginning of October though, forgiveness is not that easy to earn. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Back to the league then, our next game was at home against bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday. We were coming from a poor run of five games without a win and this was the perfect opportunity to bounce back. The lads looked determined to give their best and we missed a great chance 40 seconds into the game! Three minutes later we finally managed to score as Tiberiu Paduraru made absolutely sure that he wouldn’t miss: he rounded the keeper and tucked the ball in from point blank range. On 21 minutes Mohammed Tchite finally proved his worth as he scored a fabulous solo effort, his first goal for the club. We could have made it 3-0 before half time but I guess it would have been too much. Sheffield Wednesday were better after the break, they deservedly clawed one back with a good team move. Then we took control again, missed a couple of chances and could have paid the price for that as our opponents hit the crossbar with a wild shot from 40 yards out seven minutes from time. We finally ended the poor run…

The last game of the month was away at 11th placed Derby County. The first half showed a hard-fought and fairly even game but I was extremely happy to see that Mohammed Tchite made the difference again with a fine solo effort. Derby started pushing forward after the interval but we struck on a breakaway nine minutes into the second half, Tchité rounded off the quick move with a placed finish. Then we took control of the game but an error in defence let Derby back into the game. We were under pressure during the final minutes of the game but we stood firm and grabbed the three points, our second consecutive win!

We moved up to 10th place but the league table is not too important at this stage, we have to get in some more points and then evaluate the situation.

The good thing is that some players appear to have found the confidence that they were lacking so things might improve next month. We managed to stay unbeaten for five games and also got two very important wins, hopefully we can keep that going into October. The most difficult game seems to be the one against Wigan but all the opponents are tough at this level.

That’s how it went my friends, thanks a lot for taking the time to read this. I am very happy that we managed to grab those last two wins, those could make a big difference for our season.