Notts County December 2010

Here we go again my friends, the story continues! After the fabulous triumph against Liverpool in the Carling Cup we had to keep our feet on the ground and work hard to earn promotion to Coca-Cola Championship.

The first game of the month was away at 7th placed Milwall, a solid team. We had some problems in the middle of our defense, Martis was away on international duty and Muniesa was suspended for the game. We started the game well, put Milwall‘s defense under pressure, and Tomas Pekhart converted that pressure into the 1-0 lead. Milwall got back level only 12 minutes later, they scored with a fantastic free kick effort from 30 yards out. Midfielder Matt James settled things again with a nice shot from the edge of the area, in off the post! Szalai completed a good first half with a powerful header, that allowed us to have fun and relax in the second half.

We had another away game coming up, at 6th placed Colchester. We dominated the first half but missed a couple of good chances to score. We got lucky in the second half, one of Colchester‘s defenders handballed in the box and gave us the perfect opportunity to score. Sburlea didn’t miss the penalty kick, we were in control. Things turned bad in the 76th minute, Tinga got sent off for an unnecessary vicious foul in midfield and Colchester started to put us under pressure. We nearly got away with the three points but it wasn’t to be…

Next up, a home game with 14th placed Walsall, we had to win it. And we didn’t have much trouble, midfielder Giampiero Pinzi scored two identical goals in ten minutes, both goals from corner kicks. He was left free as a bird inside the box and he volleyed the ball home twice! And that was it, we missed another few chances but Walsall never looked capable of causing any problems.

The next game was the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy semi final, away at Hartlepool. We defeated them 3-1 in the League One game in October, I hoped to achieve the same result again. Pekhart opened the show with a fabulous shot from the edge of the area, in off the post! Tinga earned forgiveness for that red card with a thunderous drive from 30 yards out just before the break, we were in control. Nikita Andreev fired another missile in the second half and the scoring stopped there but it could have gone a lot worse for poor Hartlepool :)

Back to League One, the next game was away at 13th placed Carlisle. Our opponents played pretty well in the first half but we punished them twice on counter attacks. We dominated the second half and I had a good reason to be happy, right winger Kamil Grosicki finally scored his first goal for the club!

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The next game was at home with relegation threatened Leyton Orient, they were lying in 20th place. Our opponents parked the bus and it was pretty difficult for us to break their defense. We finally did that in the second half, Kamil Grosicki scored again, he was more and more confident.

The last game of the year was away at 9th placed Watford, we defeated them 4-2 at Meadow Lane back in August. This time things went a bit different, we dominated the first half but couldn’t convert our chances. Watford were launching dangerous counter attacks and they punished us after the break, it looked like we were heading for our first defeat of the season. Adam Szalai got us back level though by doing what he know best — rising above the defenders and heading the ball in. We continued to push forward and winger Romain Gasmi scored a beautiful goal, a fierce left footed drive from 25 yards out! It was a nice comeback to finish a great first half of the season.

We were in control at the halfway point of the season but Huddersfield were still not far behind us, only 5 points. Promotion seems to be already in the bag though, we are 18 points ahead of the third placed team!

I’m satisfied with most of my players so far, some will have to go but I feel that we have a good solid group of players that can do well even in Championship. My two favorite strikers, Pekhart and Szalai, were unstoppable so far, they scored 43 goals between them!

We’ll be very busy in January, nine games to play! And some will be pretty important games, the final of the Johnstone’s Paint North Trophy and also the fairytale semi final of the Carling Cup against Championship side Preston. We have a chance of getting to the final, that would be fantastic!

That’s about it for 2010, we’ll have to maintain a good level in 2011 too and see what we can achieve… I can’t help thinking about the Carling Cup semi final, getting to the final of the cup from League One would be absolutely wonderful…

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