Notts County Story — October 2015

Here we go again my friends, welcome to another episode of the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story. The team was right on course at the end of September, top of the league table with a nice four point gap already built and with a couple of solid results in the Champions League, a draw at Lyon and a win over Atletico Madrid. Now we just had to keep the good results flowing and hopefully improve our game a bit.

The first match of the month was a tricky one, away at surprising 4th placed Everton. They were in good shape and confirmed that early in the game, a blackout moment in our defense gave them a big chance to score and they did. My boys were not too affected by that, they reacted well and Andrea Romano gave us the equalizer after skipping past two already dizzy defenders. We continued to push forward until the end of the game but luck was definitely not on our side, we missed a few incredible chances. I was already at peace with the 1-1 result but there was a nice surprise, Simon Kjaer banged in a corner kick header right in the dying moments of the game to give us a narrow victory. We thoroughly deserved to win the game though.

I had to take a break from Notts County, the last two Euro Champ Qualifying games were just around the corner. We only needed one point out of the last two games and I was hoping to get that point right away in Switzerland. The players wanted more than a draw though, after a slow start Rooney picked up a through ball from Huddlestone, skipped past the keeper and pushed it in. A few minutes later Delfouneso was clean through on a counter attack, Djourou tackled but missed the ball so he was sent off. The game was entirely in our hands after that moment and Delfouneso doubled the lead just before the break with a powerful shot from inside the area. Switzerland were quite impressive in the second half considering the one man disadvantage, they played pretty well. They had no luck though, even worse. Jonjo Shelvey scored a fabulous goal from 50 yards out, the keeper was out at the edge of the area and the balled fizzed right past him.

It was all over, the last game didn’t matter anymore. We still had to win it though, we owed that to the fans at Wembley. Northern Ireland were not the best of opponents, so my lads were taking the game to them right from the start. It was a special night for Wayne Rooney, he scored a hat-trick, but the whole team played very well and sent the fans home happy.

We dominated the group and I’m quite pleased with the fact that we didn’t concede any goals in the 8 games that we played. Even more, we scored an average of four goals per game, not bad even if the opponents were not world class teams. Now we have to wait for the draw and see who we’ll have to face in the Euro group, there won’t be any easy opponents there.

Back to Notts County then, we had a difficult home game coming up with Manchester City. It was quite a nervy game in the first half, both teams performed rather poorly. My lads picked up the pace after the break, The Citizens were in all sorts of trouble but they survived somehow. My strikers can’t seem to find the clinical finishing that pushed us to the top last season and I can’t seem to understand why.

A few days later I received some surprising news: Brazil were offering me the manager job although I didn’t apply for it! That was quite flattering but I declined the offer, I really want to do my best with England at the Euro and then evaluate any job offers. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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

Back to Meadow Lane for a Champions League game, minnows Slovan Bratislava were coming to visit. After having a look at their squad I decided to rest a few first team players so I sent in a few young lads from the reserves. One of these youngsters made a real difference, 17 year old Belgian regen right winger Wilfried Robert. He still isn’t good enough to replace the first team regulars but he proved his worth by scoring a double on his debut, not bad! Chris Gadi scored one too, he dribbled past a defender and powered it in to give us a peaceful second half. We faced the last 20 minutes with only 10 men due to Defour‘s injury (will be out for a month) but didn’t have too much trouble with the opponents.

Atletico beat Lyon 1-0 away from home and that was a good result for us, we had a three point gap over the French.

Back to the Premier League, we had to play away at Craven Cottage against 8th placed Fulham. Our strikers didn’t seem very convincing in the first half so the defenders had to step up: right back Stefan van Dijk was curling in perfect corner kicks and Simon Kjaer headed two of them home! We were totally dominating the game but Fulham were quite dangerous on counter attacks. Guilherme scored one eventually after hitting the woodwork twice in the second half. Our corner kick effectiveness is definitely better compared to last season but the strikers are doing much worse, so I guess it all evens out…

Next up, the Carling Cup 4th round encounter with Championship side Bristol City. I chose to send in a few youngsters from the reserves again and they did pretty well. We were totally in control of the game but Bristol City equalized in the second half after an unbelievable counter attack run. Anyway, we won it thanks to two goals from 18 year old players, I was pleased with that.

The last game of the month was at home against struggling 18th placed Birmingham, a match that we had to win. We were pushing Birmingham around right from the start but they were defending quite well. That was until Nicola Bonetti took the ball inside from the right wing, passed it through to Guilherme and the Brazilian coolly slotted it home. A few minutes later Fabian Delph stepped into the spotlight, he rifled in a fantastic shot from 30 yards out and it went in off the upright. The game was looking like a contest between my players and Andrea Romano did his part right before half time, he sent in a cracking free kick shot from 25 yards out. Guilherme closed the score sheet in the second half with a powerful shot from the edge of the area, it was a pleasing performance to wrap up a good month.

We were safely in 1st place and the gap is wider now, the chasing pack is quite a few points behind. It’s still too early to celebrate though, there are lots of problems that could disrupt the team until the end of the season.

November will be extremely important for our Champions League campaign, we have to beat Slovan away and then Lyon at home to qualify. Slovan won’t be a problem I guess but Lyon will be a tough test. We’ll also have a difficult away game at Arsenal in the Premier League, we have to stay unbeaten but it won’t be easy.

That’s how it was folks, I’m going to wrap it up now. Thanks for reading again and I’m looking forward to having some nice discussions in the comments.

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