Notts County Story — August 2016

Here we go my friends, my last season in charge of Notts County is underway! We had probably the most spectacular transfer window so far bringing in a world class superstar, Sergio Aguero. Spending 55 million pounds on him was a bit of a break from my usual bargain hunting habits but since it’s the last season I figured that a marketing boost for the club wouldn’t be too bad. I was also hoping to see his skills in action as soon as possible, so let’s get on with the matches.

The first game of the season was the Community Shield at Wembley against Chelsea. We already won the trophy three times in a row so I was looking to continue the tradition and sweep it again. We played a rather poor first half, didn’t create anything special upfront and even allowed Chelsea to have two clear cut chances. We got off to a great start in the second half, Agnaldo made one of his runs down the left flank and crossed it to the far post, Bonetti just had to push the ball in. Chelsea were dominating the game but there was no pressure on our defense, we were managing to stop their attacks 35 -40 yards from our goal. We were looking to strike on a counter attack and that did happen eventually, a long ball from Varga found Aguero clear of the offside trap. It was all between the Argentinian striker and Petr Cech and I must say that I was surprised by Aguero‘s choice: he chipped the ball past the keeper with a perfectly timed header. Chelsea clawed one back a few minutes later but never looked like scoring again, the trophy was ours again. We couldn’t celebrate it though, Sam Hinshelwood‘s injury was pretty serious, he was going to be sidelined for two months!

We had to meet Chelsea again six days later, this time in the first Premier League match day. The game was quite boring until Andrea Romano set up Sergio Aguero with a fine assist, they were looking like they enjoyed playing together. Then Chelsea took control of the game and they could have scored two or three goals before half time, my defense was a total mess. It was 1-1 at the break and we had to thank Igor Akinfeev for that. We defended much better after the interval and eventually struck on a perfect counter attack, Steven Defour got the ball back inside our own half, passed it quickly to Aguero who touched it forward down the right flank to Romano, the Italian ran past his opponent and crossed it back at the edge of the area to Delph who headed it first time inside the box for Agnaldo‘s perfect left footed volley. And it all happened in 10 -15 seconds! The game was fairly quiet until the end but I have to admit that we were lucky not to concede more goals in the first half.

Next up, the first home game of the season, Arsenal were coming at Meadow Lane. We had a flamboyant start, created and missed two clear chances in the first five minutes. Then Havard Nordtveit scored against his former club with a corner kick header and it was looking like we were going to have a great evening. That turned into a nightmare pretty quickly though, my defenders were incredibly sloppy again and we conceded the first time Arsenal came into our box. We took the lead again thanks to a solo effort from Rafael Sobis but the atrocious defending continued and the first half ended all square. We played much better in the second half but the finishing was rather wasteful so the game ended in a draw.

The players surely wanted to earn forgiveness in the next game, away at Everton. They played very well but I had the feeling that I was witnessing a «who misses the most chances» contest between Romano and Aguero, they blew huge opportunities to score. They did bang in three goals eventually so I felt less upset about all the wasted chances.

Then the Champions League groups were drawn, we were handed a pretty tough one with AC Milan and PSV but I had no fears, I’m pretty confident that we’ll get through to the next round.

Next up, the most important game of the month, the UEFA SuperCup in Monaco. We had to meet Arsenal again as they won the Europa League last season by beating Manchester United in the final. This was a trophy that we never won, our only chance was in 2014 but Real Madrid beat us back then. We displayed some solid defending in the first half and eventually struck on a counter attack, Romano broke through the offside trap and finished it with a powerful shot. Arsenal came out with a very attacking attitude in the second half but we continued to defend well and struck again on a counter attack, Sergio Aguero took the ball into the box and set up Fabian Delph for an easy finish. Arsenal continued to try hard but we managed to keep the ball away from them for large periods of time. There you go, some brand new shiny silverware for our trophy room :)

The last game of the month saw Andrea Romano sinking Sunderland all by himself in the second half, he scored a hat-trick in less than 20 minutes. Segio Aguero could have scored a couple himself but he looked like having his mind set on something else than football during the game, he missed a few easy chances.

That’s how the first month was, I’m pleased that we managed to bring more silverware to the club. We didn’t produce impressive performances in every game but overall the team looks capable of having a memorable season. The next post will be fast-forwarding the story a bit, it will be a quick update containing the games played in the three autumn months (September, October and November). Thanks for reading.

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