Notts County In The Carling Cup Final

Hello my friends, the most important month of my second season at the helm of Notts County was about to begin. We qualified for the final of the Carling Cup after beating Preston in the semi final last month, our fans were eager to see us at Wembley Stadium against Everton.

But there still were a lot of games to be played until then, we had to keep a good pace in League One and gain promotion to Championship as soon as possible. The first game of the month was away at 14th placed Norwich, we defeated them 2-0 at Meadow Lane in September. Things went very well again, centre backs Muniesa and De Laet made it 2-0 with powerful headers from corner kicks and winger Pedro Botelho scored a goal on his debut with a superb left footed drive from the edge of the area. Sburlea came in for injured Pekhart and scored a double for us in the second half, quite pleasing :)

The next game was at home with 6th placed Charlton, a team that held us to a 2-2 draw in September. It was an important game against a promotion contender, we had to do our best to win it. Left back Charlie Mulgrew gave us the lead with another great shot from a free kick and then Sburlea and Gasmi dominated Charlton‘s defense with their great skills. A good win both for the morale and for the league table.

Next up, the second leg of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy North final. The first leg was played at Meadow Lane and despite dominating the whole game we were not able to gain more than a 0-0 draw last month, now we had to stand firm and win the tie away from home. Blackpool were lucky to score am early counter attack goal and despite having quite a few chances in the first half we couldn’t get it past their keeper, he pulled off some spectacular saves. We did it after the break though, first left winger Pedro Botelho headed in a far post cross from right back Gergely Varga and then Tomas Pekhart placed it in after a great run and assist from Romain Gasmi. We were through to the final but there were bad news after the game, Pedro Botelho had a few broken ribs and he was going to be out for around 7 weeks!

We had another tough league game coming up, away at 4th placed Coventry. We won the home game 5-0 back in October but I wasn’t expecting an easy game. Pekhart wanted to prove me wrong and buried it twice in the first half, he was unstoppable. Coventry looked better in the second half, more offensive, but we ruined everything in only three minutes! It was a shock and my team was not able to react after that, Coventry were more aggresiive and even had the chance to win the game.

There was one more game to be played before the Carling Cup final, at home with 3rd placed Blackpool, the team that we just defeated in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. We were not very convincing this time but the best player was their keeper again, Paul Rachubka, he saved some unbelievable chances. We should have won it though…

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We were still top of the table but Huddersfield were only two points behind us. Promotion is almost gained, we just have to win a few more games…

And now, the big final! Everton were the Carling Cup holders and they won the FA Cup too last season. They had a solid team, good talent in midfield and a very strong defense, everybody said that our chances of winning the game were quite slim. I sent in my best eleven players available at that moment and told them to fight, it was our only chance.

The first half was fairly even but Everton made the difference with two long range shots, from 30 and 35 yards out, Schmeichel tried to parry them but he couldn’t, those were perfect shots. It was frustrating because we didn’t play too bad. We tried to push forward in the second half but Everton had no problems with our attacks, they were stopping us easily and creating great chances on counter attacks. There wasn’t much we could do, just a consolation goal scored by Szalai, too little too late… It was a beautiful dream but Everton proved to be a much better team, I felt powerless throughout the game.

We had to get back to the League One games in March, it will be the decisive month for promotion. There will be quite a lot of games to play and we already have a few injured players, I hope there won’t be more long term injuries…

That was it, I still feel bad about that final but there was nothing we could to, Everton outplayed us 80 minutes out of 90. Hopefully we’ll reach the final again in the next few seasons and maybe we won’t miss the chance to win the trophy again. See you soon with the March update, stay tuned!

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