Notts County Story — January 2014

Hello my friends, welcome back to the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story! I finally got to play the game again last night and now I’m ready to share what happened in January 2014… If you remember, we were in 2nd place at the end of 2013, one point behind Manchester United but with three games in hand. The schedule for January looked quite scary though, we had no less than 9 games to play!

The first game was right on the 1st of January, away at Chelsea in the Carling Cup quarter final. The last league game against The Blues was still fresh in everybody’s memory, we beat them 2-1 at Meadow Lane in December. We didn’t look as good in the first half though, Chelsea took the lead after taking advantage of a corner kick scuffle and outplayed us in midfield throughout the first 45 minutes. We were 2-0 down at the break and we totally deserved that. We looked a bit better in the second half but got punished on a counter attack, the game seemed as good as over. I changed the wingers then, Sneijder came in for Agnaldo and Hinshelwood came in for Bonetti and that gave a lift to our attacking game. The two substitutes produced two goals for us, first Sneijder volleyed home a cross for Hinshelwood and then Hinshelwood headed in a cross from Sneijder! It wasn’t too late but Guilherme missed a golden opportunity in the last minute, he was one on one with Cech but the keeper saved it. We were out of the Carling Cup, you can’t afford to play a first half like we had against a good team like Chelsea.

We were still in the FA Cup, the 3rd round game was coming up, at home with Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. We were expected to win and the team was determined to live up to the expectations. Marcelo Moreno started things up with a cool finish and then Demba Ba doubled the lead with a spectacular 20 yards shot, it went in off the crossbar. Once he saw he can do it from 20 yards he tried one from 30 yards and it went in too! The Senegalese striker was unleashed and he celebrated a hat trick right after the break, the team had a lot of fun and gave the fans an entertaining show.

Back to the Premier League, the first game of the year was at home with 19th placed Hull City. Sergio Romero got injured in training before the game, he was going to be out for 10 days, it was a chance for substitute Luis Guilherme to prove his skills. Sam Hinshelwood gave us the lead by finishing a team move but our defense had a lot of trouble with Hull‘s strikers. They got a deserved equalizer but youngster Luis Guilherme saved a few to keep us level at half time. We placed Hull under siege after half time but Rafael Sobis and Guilherme were missing a lot of chances. The goal finally came from a corner kick, Guilherme flicked the ball on from the near post and Sobis powered it in with a fine far post header. The man of the match was young keeper Luis Guilherme, I guess the future looks good ;)

We had another home game coming up, only three days later. This time 15th placed West Ham were coming at Meadow Lane, a team that held us to a 0-0 draw back in August. We got off to a bad start, an error from Luis Guilherme didn’t go unpunished and we were one goal down. Demba Ba was determined to continue his good form, he dribbled past an opponent and powered it in only 5 minutes later. We were dominating but the ball just wouldn’t go in, Marcelo Moreno went close but his header hit the crossbar. Rafael Sobis replaced the Bolivian at half time but he didn’t have more luck, his placed shot hit the post and bounced clear. It all went down to injury time, we kept on trying but it seemed like we were heading for a draw. We managed to bang it in again in the last seconds though, a parried shot from Bonetti bounced to Demba Ba and the striker powered it in to give us the win.

The third consecutive home game in the Premier League saw us welcoming 6th placed Everton at Meadow Lane, we were expecting a tough game. Guilherme gave us the early lead after a fine solo effort, he dribbled past a defender and placed the ball in with great ability. We kept Everton under pressure until half time but failed to convert that into goals. Guilherme did it again after the break, he tapped in a shot from Nicola Bonetti after keeper Tim Howard was able to get a hand to it. Everton had a good chance immediately after our second goal but then we were able to keep them under control and claim the three points.Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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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