Notts County Story — January 2013

Hello my friends, welcome back to the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story! It’s been quite a long break since the last post, I had to travel around the country to do some work but I’m back home now so hopefully I’ll have the time to play the game regularly again. Let’s see where we left off… We were lying safely in 6th place at the end of 2012, that gave us hope for an European Qualification at the end of the season.

The year ended with a defeat for us, Liverpool beat us 3-1 at Anfield Road. We had another tough game coming up, at home with the Premier League leaders, Chelsea. They won the previous game 1-0 in August and it looked like they had a good chance of repeating that result. We had four first team players injured and one suspended but I hoped that the squad depth would be sufficient to overcome that crisis.

The first half was extremely boring, Chelsea managed to block our attacking initiatives. They struck just after the break though, one error was enough. We played better after conceding the goal and Chelsea were trying to give us the fatal blow on counter attack. We failed to create something special upfront and Chelsea finally converted a counter attack chance, it was an Italian style win for Ancellotti‘s side.

We had an FA Cup game coming up, at home with Tottenham in the 3rd round. The players were determined to get back to winning and we started the game pretty well, Biglia fired in a free kick from 20 yards out. Guilherme doubled our lead just after the break, he broke through Tottenham‘s defense on a counter attack, dribbled past the keeper and slotted it home. Tottenham had a bit of bad luck with the injuries in the first half, they were forced to send in Peter Crouch as a centre back in the last 45 minutes. He did a decent job in that role but he couldn’t stop Guilherme from scoring again, we were through to the next round.

After the FA Cup game I tried to conclude one of the transfer deals that I had in mind for January, we brought powerful striker Gianmarco Zigoni on a loan to buy deal from AC Milan. With Pekhart and Szalai performing below par this season I felt that Guilherme needed better support upfront so I chose the strong Italian striker for that role. He is both strong and quick and his heading ability could turn a lot of crosses into goals or assists for us.

The next game was another difficult one, away at Old Trafford. Manchester United beat us 3-2 at Meadow Lane back in October and they were lying in 5th place, just above us. My boys started the game very well, we were pushing forward quite freely. We missed a few chances though and Rooney popped one in out of nowhere just when I thought that they will crumble under pressure. Centre back Havard Nordtveit headed a corner kick in right before the break to make it all square again. The second half began beautifully for us, Tomas Pekhart converted another corner kick into a goal with a fine header. We continued to play well and miss huge chances and, as always, we paid the price as Berbatov fired one in to make the score level again. We could have won it judging by the number of chances that we created but they always count the goals, the rest is just useless numbers.

We had to get a win in the Premier League pretty soon, the situation was threatening to become worrying. The next game was away at 13th placed Hull, a team that we managed to beat 2-1 at Meadow Lane in September. We had a good first half and Sburlea made our domination count on the scoreboard as he powered in his 10th goal of the season. Hull dominated the second half but we defended pretty well while waiting for the perfect chance to double our lead. That chance came a bit late but Szalai didn’t turn it down, he fired it in to give us a vital win.

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Next up, another away game against a relegation threatened team, Burnley. They were down in 18th place but I couldn’t forget that we had a difficult home game with them in September, we won it 3-2 then. My worries became lighter just after a few minutes into the game, Agnaldo crossed a ball from the left and Hinshelwood was right there at the far post to head it in. We seemed to keep the game under control well and new striker Zigoni took advantage of a defensive error to score his first goal for the club. I was a bit angry two minutes later, left back Alberto Morgado conceded a penalty kick after making a useless foul inside the penalty area. His lack of judgement could have cost us the win, Burnley pushed forward after converting the penalty and we have to thank Romero for surviving the pressure.

Our league form was looking alright again, now we had to confirm that in the FA Cup. We had to knock out Hull City to get to the next round and we had a slight advantage as we just beat them 2-0 at The Circle. The first 15 minutes were a complete nightmare, I guess my players thought that the game would have become ours just because of their names. We were 2-0 down after 13 minutes, something had to change. I already had a few substitutions in mind and I made all of them at half time. Guilherme clawed one back before the break and the second half was entirely ours, Gianmarco Zigoni scored again and Rodney Sneijder fired in his first goal of the season from a free kick. I was pleased that we managed to turn the game around but I was not pleased with the draw, we got Manchester City in the next round!

The last game of the month was at home with 19th placed Wigan, a team that held us to a 2-2 draw in September. We were in control throughout the game and we scored one goal per half. Agnaldo finished off a team move in the first half while Zigoni did the exact same thing in the second. The game ended with a frustrating episode, goalkeeper Sergio Romero got sent off for a stupid foul, he came out of the box to intercept a ball that was going safely towards our defenders and upended one of Wigan‘s players. He was banned for one game, I hope we won’t miss him too much.

With these results we managed to maintain our 6th place with 9 points above the 7th. Liverpool had a game in hand though.

I tried to bring in another player on loan before the end of the transfer window, I felt that another central midfielder could give us better depth in that department. After browsing through several options I chose Colombian youngster James Rodriguez from Juventus, a skillful player that we can buy during the loan for a fixed fee. He could prove to be decisive in some games with his ability to place long shots, I hope he’ll do well.

February will be quite difficult, we’ll start with European challengers Sunderland, then Arsenal and back to back games with Manchester City. I’d be happy to get two wins out of the four league games and try to get an unlikely win in the FA Cup game.

That’s how January was, I’m satisfied that we managed to keep our 6th place and go through the next round of the FA Cup. The most difficult part of the season is yet to come though, we have to get as many points as possible to stay in with a chance to get a ticket for Europe at the end of the season. Thanks for reading, I’m looking forward to reading your comments and to answering your questions.

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