The last game of the month was one that surely brought back a few memories, we were playing at Meadow Lane against Notts County! They were not doing too well, despite being a pretty rich club for League One they were just a mid-table side. We got off to a terrible start though, we were being totally outplayed and Notts County deservedly scored the opener 10 minutes into the game. I was happy to see that we made an instant reply, just one minute later Matt Richards made a great run down the left, squared it for Koroma who blasted it in with a fine volley. Then the game cooled off a bit but Notts County appeared to be the better side as the two teams went to the dressing rooms. We had a better start in the second half, midfielder Labyad played a great looking through ball and striker Michael Garrity slid it past the keeper who was just rushing out to block him. Then we found ourselves under pressure again, Notts County were playing pretty well and our defense was looking quite shaky. The equalizer came in the 70th minute but we got lucky three minutes later as Garrity intercepted a poor pass and fired it home! We were in the lead again and this time our defense appeared to be more solid. We held off the attacks until the very last minute when a thunderous strike from 35 yards out beat our brave keeper and handed Notts County a deserved point.
We managed to stay unbeaten with two wins and three draws in September, I’m satisfied overall. Coventry seem to be the best team in the league so far as we are sitting second four points behind them. There also seems to be fierce competition for the play-off spots, I hope we’ll manage to keep up with the other contenders.
There is one player I would like to praise this time and that’s our new 19 year old goalkeeper, Gabriel Nicolau. He did concede 13 goals in 11 games but none of those goals came as a result of errors from the young goalie. His average rating is quite good so far and he appeared to be very reliable throughout the first two months as there were no gaffes from him. He surely has some talent and if he’ll manage to improve some of his mental attributes then he could well become a top goalkeeper.
We’ll have a very tough next month as we’ll have to play four of the current top six teams: 1st placed Coventry, third placed Peterborough, fourth placed Millwall and 6th placed Walsall!
I guess next month will tell us whether we really can compete for promotion or not, those direct encounters with the top promotion contenders might tell us the truth. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the new episode. By the way, don’t forget to join our predictions contest or if you already did, submit your predictions for the next Premier League weekend! ;)
Darren Smith
17 августа, 2010 at 21:20
Hey Johnny, you had a reasonable month there. Not as good as last month but you have managed three consecutive promotions. Like I said to Sears, the quality catches up with you eventually. I think your doing very well in League One and the table looks good. Hopefully you can keep it up next month. Goodluck mate.
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 00:01
Thanks Darren, next month will be a lot tougher so I would be happy with a few draws there :)
Sears
17 августа, 2010 at 21:42
Hi Johnny,
by a promoted teams standerd, I guess you should be extremely pleased with your teams start in League 1. Next month will really determine if you team are promotion contenders or just play off hopeful’s. Goodluck!
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 00:01
Thanks Sears, we’ll surely need all the luck we can get next month…
Kevin Mayo
17 августа, 2010 at 22:06
Hi Johnny
Some very exciting games this past month for the neutral reader. You’ve remained close to the top so that’s all right and it’s still early days. I like your new goalkeeper; his communication maybe poor but everything else looks great.
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 00:03
Thanks Kevin. I’m very happy with my young goalie and you are right, his main flaw is the communication area. That might improve with age and I can only hope that he’s ambitious enough to make some progress.
java
18 августа, 2010 at 01:52
Promotion isn’t far from your Dorchester Mr. Karp. :D
You’re now fighting for the promotion, and maybe you can win the league.
Nicolau is a talented goalie for sure… Good luck for the promotion Johnny. Oh man, reading your story makes me want to go home and continue my game. I’m now on a vacation, but I just realized that FM is ore interesting. :(
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 10:37
Thanks Java, I’m happy that I managed to put some of my passion for the game in these posts. But you should stick to your vacation, there will be plenty of time for FM after that :)
Plobdork
18 августа, 2010 at 09:20
well done i dont know how you do it mate i struggle to stay in league when i get promoted you its easy :)
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 10:38
Thanks for the compliment. I don’t know if it’s easy or not but «how I do it» is thoroughly explained here: https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2010/07/football-manager-lower-league-management-guide/
Laxeyman
18 августа, 2010 at 11:00
Hi Johnny, your team looks solid and hard to beat, and you’ve got a good shot at promotion if it stays like that. Well done and good luck for next month.
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 12:17
Thanks Laxeyman, the team surely showed some great spirit there despite going down to late goals on a couple of occasions.
Lye
18 августа, 2010 at 11:31
Hi mate, not too many points but you remained unbeaten and thats a positive sign. I am sure that you will do better next month even though there are some difficult fixtures there. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 12:18
Thanks Lye, it would be great to remain unbeaten through the next month too but that will be quite a tough test.
Plobdork
18 августа, 2010 at 21:10
great season so far johnny :) how do you make work permaits be granted or is it just luck??
Johnny Karp
18 августа, 2010 at 21:19
Thanks mate. I don’t have any players in the current squad that would require a work permit because all of the non-EU players that I have also hold British passports. However, the rule to get a work permit would be something like this (quote from another source):
Currently a non-EU player applying for the permit must have played for his country in at least 75% of its competitive ‘A’ team matches for which he was available for selection during the previous two years, and his country must have averaged at least 70th place in the official FIFA world rankings over the previous two years. If a player does not meet those criteria, the club wishing to sign him may appeal if they believe that he is a special talent and «able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK.»
Plobdork
19 августа, 2010 at 09:04
thanks mate i get it now advice about revy rosalia worked he scored 12 goals in 8 games :)
Johnny Karp
19 августа, 2010 at 09:36
Great! He never scored that many for me :)