Notts County Story — January 2014

The next game was away at 10th placed Newcastle, a team that we demolished at Meadow Lane, 5-0 in August. They were surely looking for revenge but we started the game well, Agnaldo hit the crossbar with a nice header right away. Newcastle slowly picked up the pace and caused us some trouble until half time, but nothing that Romero couldn’t save. On the other hand Marcelo Moreno went pretty close on two occasions on counter attacks. We did concede eventually, a corner kick goal that could have easily been avoided. Guilherme got us back on level terms right after the break, he picked up a through ball from Defour and hit the net with one of his trademark placed shots. Marcelo Moreno missed a great chance a few minutes later but then the game turned rough, lots of fouls and yellow cards. The team looked a bit tired in the final minutes but we could have won the game with better finishing, we dropped two important points.

The next game saw us meeting Hull City again, this time at The Circle. We just won the home game earlier in January 2-1 and I surely hoped to win again as Hull were coming from a bad run of three straight defeats. We dominated the first minutes of the game and Kevin Thomson rattled the crossbar with a powerful shot from the edge of the area. We took the lead a few minutes later as Rafael Sobis headed home a fine cross from Hinshelwood. The right winger was in great shape and he proved that again seven minutes later by serving a perfect through ball for Agnaldo, the Brazilian finished with a placed shot. Hull had a good chance right before the break but their free kick shot hit the post and went out. We didn’t look too fresh in the second half, Hull dominated the game and created a few chances but Romero kept the door firmly shut with a few fantastic saves. Hull scored eventually but it was no more than a consolation goal.

Our next league game was postponed but we didn’t get a chance to rest, it was replaced with the FA Cup 4th round game, away at Championship side Birmingham. We took control in the first half and we managed to convert the domination into two goals. The first one was scored by Nicola Bonetti with a placed shot from the edge of the area while the second was the result of a corner kick header from Guilherme. The Brazilian striker hit the net again after the break and had the chance to make it a hat trick but he hit the post. Birmingham tried pretty hard to get back into the game and they played quite well. We were through to the next round though, we’ll meet Wolves in the 5th round. Left back Joe Barton got injured during the game, he’s going to be out for three weeks.

Finally, the last game of the month! We were finishing January with a home game, a tricky one with 4th placed Tottenham. We won the away game 2-1 at White Hart Lane in September but I remember that we were quite lucky to walk away with all the three points. We played well in the first half, dominated the game but failed to convert the chances. Guilherme missed the best chance before the break but he had the opportunity to score after half time, he was brought down into the penalty area and the ref pointed to the spot. Guilherme took the penalty kick but it was a horrendous strike, it went wide! Immediately after that Defoe had a good chance but hit the post on a counter attack. My lads looked exhausted in the last 20 minutes of the game, Tottenham created a couple of good chances but missed them, a defeat would have been too cruel.

So, we were top of the table thanks to the games we had in hand as Manchester United didn’t drop any points in January! And we still have a game in hand, it looks like the battle for the title will be between us and the Red Devils.

I am relieved to see that we have only seven games to play in February… We’ll start with a tricky one at Everton and we’ll end the month with the double Europa League encounter with Standard Liege. Manchester United have a tough month ahead of them, they’ll have Arsenal at home and two very difficult away games, at Chelsea and Liverpool. I hope they will drop some points, otherwise it will be difficult to challenge them.

That’s how it was folks, a tiring month both to play an to write about it :) The good thing is that we managed to survive it without getting beaten in the Premier League but we did drop four points while Manchester United had five straight wins. I guess we won’t finish below the second place and that’s a good achievement. But now that we felt how the top of the table tastes we’ll surely try to battle for it right till the end.

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