Notts County In League One — September 2010

Hello my friends, thank you for following my Football Manager 2010 story! After a good start in League One my Notts County had to show consistency and keep up the good form, otherwise promotion would be just a dream.

The first game in September was away at 13th placed Gillingham, a difficult opponent. The first half was fairly even, both teams tried to control the game but none of them succeeded. We played a lot better in the second half and finally managed to score, first through a perfect header from Szalai and next through Gasmi after a great through ball from Pinzi. Gillingham made the last minutes of the game more interesting after scoring in the 71st minute but they didn’t have the strength to cause us any problems.

The next game was another tough one, at home with 5th placed Bristol Rovers. We conceded a free kick goal only 14 minutes into the game but we reacted well and got back level eight minutes later thanks to a header from Tomas Pekhart. The referee gave Bristol Rovers a penalty kick before the break but Kasper Schmeichel saved it, it would have been unfair to be 2-1 down at the break because we played pretty well. Unfortunately we got 2-1 down in the second half after a huge defensive error and despite dominating the game quite clearly we could only score one more goal through Pekhart again, he skipped past a defender and blasted the ball right under the crossbar. Unfortunately we made too many errors in defense and despite playing well we paid the price…

We had to patch up our wounds and fight in the next game, at home with 19th placed Norwich. We played well again and left back Charlie Mulgrew gave us the lead with one of his trademark free kick shots right before the break. Left winger Nicolae Mitea made it 2-0 in the second half after a great run down his flank and the victory was ours, well deserved.

The next game was a big challenge for the team, away at Championship side Ipswich in the Carling Cup. It was obvious that we had to face a better opponent but I encouraged my players to give their best out there and hope… Things didn’t start well for us, Ipswich scored the first goal by taking advantage of a marking error. But somehow we managed to turn things around in the last minutes of the first half! First Pekhart whipped in a fabulous shot from 25 yards out and four minutes later Szalai made it 2-1 with a perfectly placed shot from inside the penalty area! We were forced to defend in the second half, we did that with great determination. When the pressure was getting bigger and bigger Szalai took advantage of his height and placed a perfect header from a corner kick! I was very satisfied with the result, a good win against a better opponent.

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Back to League One, we had a very difficult game coming up, away at 2nd placed Blackpool. It was a tough game indeed but we dominated it. Unfortunately we were not very convincing upfront and we failed to convert our chances.

The last game of the month was another tough one, away at 9th placed Charlton. Strikers Tomas Pekhart and Nikita Andreev did their job well, both of them scored with nice close range headers. Our problems were in defense again, Charlton surprised us with some quick counter attacks and converted two of them thanks to Zavon Hines‘ speed and accuracy.

A bit too many draws this month but the good thing was that we managed to keep the unbeaten record. Things were looking pretty tight in the league table but we were still in 1st place.

Our best player so far this season was undoubtedly Czech striker Tomas Pekhart, he scored 8 goals in 8 games, quite efficient!

As you can see the competition in League One is quite fierce, we’ll have to fight to the death in each and every game to get the points that we need in order to get promoted. October will start with a tough game at home with 3rd placed Coventry and we’ll also have a difficult Carling Cup game with Championship side Cardiff…

I’m sure there will be plenty of emotions in October, stay tuned to live them with me!

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