Notts County August 2013

Hello dear friends, a new update of the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story is ready to go! I have to admit that I was a bit excited by the good start of the season with all the transfers and the European debut, so I sacrificed a couple of hours of sleep to play the game :) I was very eager to see how the new signings would perform in the Premier League and I guess you’re quite curious too. Let’s see what happened…

The first game of the new Premier League season was away at newly promoted side Reading, they were determined to have a good start. We played quite poorly in the first half, the team seemed unable to set the right tempo. Reading were deservedly leading 1-0 at the break, something had to change. The lads picked up the pace in the second half and the goals finally came. Midfielder Kevin Thompson seized an opportunity to score from inside the penalty area and, just a few minutes later, Guilherme netted a nice through ball from Demba Ba with a well placed shot. Sam Hinshelwood got off to a great start of the season by getting his name on the score sheet, he did that with a fine header to connect with a far post cross. I was quite pleased with the last 45 minutes, the team looked solid out there.

The next game was the first leg of the last Europa League preliminary round, we were welcoming Romanian side Rapid Bucharest at Meadow Lane. Anything less than a win would have been a disaster, I surely wanted to go through to the group stage. The game was not very difficult, Rafael Sobis and Marcelo Moreno had fun with the Romanian defenders and the score line was 3-0 after 46 minutes. We got a bit complacent after the third goal but I guess the three goals difference was enough to have a quiet away leg.

We had a much more difficult challenge to face in the next Premier League game, away at West Ham. We were under pressure throughout the game despite having a better ball possession, West Ham had numerous opportunities to shoot but they were quite wasteful. We had our own chances on counter attacks but failed to convert them. Overall the result was fair but I was a bit disappointed with our performance.

I chose to rest most of my important players for the second leg against Rapid, the qualification was already won from the first leg. The team looked a bit complacent but Rafael Sobis solved the game for us right away, a quickfire double and we were 2-0 up after 7 minutes! Sabrin Sburlea got a goal from himself although I employed him as a right winger in that game. I was a bit disappointed because of the two goals that we conceded but I guess the players’ attitude is understandable.

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We were through to the group stage and we were seeded 3rd for the draw. I think we were quite lucky as we avoided extremely tough opponents like Juventus or AC Milan but the group isn’t easy at all. Olympiakos are the favorites with Saint-Ettienne behind them while we are said to have the third chance. My goal is to qualify for the next round, it won’t be easy but it’s quite possible on paper.

The last game of the month was at home with Newcastle, they finished 12th last season but they had 9 points deducted for some reason. I was expecting a difficult game but we got off to a great start: a vicious shot from Rafael Sobis was parried by the keeper, the ball bounced clear and Guilherme was there to blaze it home. We continued to play well and Gergely Varga doubled our lead from a penalty kick just before the break. The second half was a festival of attacking football, my boys were unleashed! Guilherme returned the favor to Sobis by setting him up with a nice assist and then Sneijder rifled home another one of his left footed free kicks. Nicola Bonetti completed the rout with a fine shot from the edge of the penalty area, our fans were in heaven!

I guess we can be quite optimistic after this start, I was particularly pleased with our defense, it looked a lot better than last season.

My youngsters impressed everybody this month, Hinshelwood got the Young Player of The Month award with Barton and Varga right behind him!

We’ll have only four games to play in September due to international call ups (I’ll have two games to play with Uruguay though). We’ll start with a tough one at White Hart Lane and then we’ll have too face French side Saint-Etienne at Meadow Lane.

Well, that’s how it was. The defense is looking good so far with the Scandinavian pair in the middle (Nordtveit and Kjaer) and with Joe Barton, our enthusiastic youngster, on the left flank. The last game, the 5-0 victory over Newcastle, left everybody at the club in an optimistic mood but I guess we shouldn’t get carried away. The real tests will be the matches against the big teams, those games will tell us where we stand.

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