FMS Patriots Story — March 2011

Hello there my friends, I know that you were waiting for this one! Welcome to a fresh update of the FMS Patriots Community story, the Football Manager 2011 Story in which you are the players and I’m the manager (but only for a few more days as Jake should be back next week :) ) Alright then, we were well on course for the Championship title at the end of February so my goal for March was to seal that title, maybe not mathematically but at least close to that. Let’s see how things went…

The first game of the month was against 16th placed Middlesbrough, I expected nothing less than a win. We received a big helping hand from Boro as one of their players got sent off after just four minutes but we were unable to capitalize on that advantage before half time. Luckily we did manage to convert our domination into a goal shortly after the break and it was McLean who put us ahead with a superb effort. Then it was Pepper who stepped into the spotlight, first he banged in his 20th goal of the season from outside the penaly area and then converted a good through pass from Darren Smith to wrap things up. (Click here to watch the highlights.)

Next up, a trip to 23rd placed Derby in what seemed another «to win» match. The game wasn’t too easy though, Derby held out well until the interval but then we struck on two counter attacks to grab the three points. The first goal came at the end of a fine breakaway move with Smith passing to MRNDRA who set up Hazza who scored. Then it was Pilgrim‘s turn to be the creator, he set it up nicely for Rodrigo who made no mistake. (Click here to watch the highlights.)

The last home game of the month was against 16th placed Hull, another easy game for our mighty squad, at least on paper. We got off to a flying start as we broke the deadlock after just four minutes when clinical Smith took advantage of a defensive blunder to add yet another goal to his already impressive tally. One goal is never enough for this lad though and he banged in a second after five minutes after receiving a good cross from Pepper. Then it was our captain’s turn to do some damage, Sears headed home a corner kick cross from Dezmo and we appeared home and dry after just 20 minutes. Dezmo was really bending in those corner kicks though and he produced another goal on 35 minutes, this time it was Dully who nodded home at the near post. We made it 5-0 before the break thanks to a special goal from Dami, a superb volley from 20 yards out! The second half was a lot more quiet but we still had two goals in it, unfortunately one of them was into our own net with Sears being the unfortunate scorer. However, we did score one at the right end and it was midfielder Judast who managed to bag his first ever goal for the club! (Click here to watch the highlights.)

The last match of the month was the most important one too as we were traveling to meet 2nd placed Burnley. They were no less than 15 points behind us before that game so I was hoping to make that gap even bigger or at least keep it at that level. We started brightly again and we took the lead after just 23 seconds, a fine move from Smith was capped by a nice finish from McLean. Burnley reacted though and we held on thanks to a couple of great saves from Vaibhav before an unfortunate corner kick own goal scored by G… Things got even worse on 28 minutes, we conceded a goal on a throw-in and I was a bit upset with our defenders as the marking on that occasion was simply terrible. Fortunately the leader of our defense reacted, captain Sears bagged another corner kick goal on a Dezmo cross and we were back on level terms at the interval. The second half started as brightly as the first, substitute Bushy made a superb run and his cross was headed home by Pepper on 48 minutes. Six minutes later it was Dami who silenced the home crowd, he powered in a glorious free kick from 30 yards and the game was suddenly going our way. We had a setback on 77 minutes when McLean had to leave the field due to a slight injury but that didn’t stop us from scoring two more goals, both set up by Bushy and both scored by the one and only Darren Smith. (Click here to watch the highlights.)

Unfortunately Ipswich bounced into second place at 15 points behind us but I think that the title is already secured as there are only seven more games to play.

We only need two more wins out of those last four games so I can make you a promise right now: each and every one of our players will get his chance to play for the first team during the last month of the season.

I’m quite happy that we managed to kill off the title race this early in the season but we still have two more races to win, in the reserves and under 18s leagues! Go to the next page to read all about those and also about some very interesting club and international news.

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

The reserves had just one game this month and we won easily, Bmwdestroyer, Alex, Jimmy and Jon Crosby took care of things in attack…

There was just one game for the under 18s as well and a solid away victory with Ross Gilchrist putting in a man of the match performance and Sibo, Taylor091 and Bmwdestroyer getting on the score sheet.

Club News

I am pleased to announce that we have a decent feeder club, League 2 outfit Stockport, a club with decent training facilities that could represent a solution for going out on loan starting next season.

International Call Ups

We had no less than 46 players called up for international duty in March, that is simply amazing!

International Reports

And I’m pleased to say that most of our players did manage to play and even score for their respective nations, have a look at the series of reports!

Injuries

We had a couple this month too, sorry lads…

That’s it for now lads, thanks a lot for reading and please share your thoughts and requests in the comments.