Notts County Story — September 2013

Here we go again fellow Football Manager fanatics, a new update to the Notts County story is packed and ready to go. Our second Premier League season started pretty well, the new signings seemed to add just what the team didn’t have last year, a more confident defense and a much better conversion ratio for the attacking chances. We also qualified for the group stage of the Europa League, the club was entering a whole new era. It was still too early to draw any conclusions, too many tough games were still ahead of us.

The first game in September was one of these tough ones, away at Tottenham. We got off to a very bad start, Defoe intercepted a poor pass in our defense, set up Crouch and we were 1-0 down right away. The lads reacted well though, they started to push forward and we managed to get back on level terms only 8 minutes later: Biglia laid a fine through ball for Hinshelwood, the youngster shot towards the far post, the keeper parried it but Sobis was there to push it in!Ten minutes later, the same drill but this time it all started from a through ball from Defour and Agnaldo was the man who pushed in Hinshelwood‘s shot. We didn’t have any trouble until half time, we were 2-1 up. The second half was more difficult as Tottenham were trying hard to score. Guilherme had a couple of nice chances on counter attacks but he was a bit unlucky to hit the post twice! The last 15 minutes were quite painful, our defense was under a lot of pressure but we survived with a bit of luck and clinched an important victory.

After that tiring match we were ready to face the first group match in the Europa League, at home with strong French side Saint-Etienne. Everybody in town was excited about that match, every single ticket was sold! Guilherme was up to the occasion right away, he finished off a team move in the 11th minute and it seemed that we were in for a fine night. The team continued to play better until the break but Guilherme didn’t find the way to the net anymore, he missed a couple of good chances. He did find a perfect assist for Sobis right after the break and the other Brazilian star couldn’t say no, he powered it in! We kept moving the ball around the park with great confidence, the team impressed me in that second half. The lads looked so confident out there, it was a nice picture to watch… :)

Next up, the Carling Cup 3rd round game, away at fellow Premier League side Burnley. We got off to a great start, Agnaldo intercepted a poor back pass rounded the keeper and laid it into the back of the net. We didn’t have too much time to enjoy that though, Burnley made the score equal only three minutes later. The spectators got to see an entertaining show until half time with good attacking moves on both ends. Unfortunately we went 2-1 down before the break, Sergio Romero made a bad error by coming out to catch a corner kick cross and missing it by a whole yard! Lucas Biglia got us back on track right after the break, he did that with a spectacular free kick bomb shot from 30 yards out, it went straight into the top corner. We continued to push forward but missed good chances quite frequently. We finally struck in the 81st minute when Demba Ba laid a fine through ball for Sobis, the Brazilian dribbled past the keeper and pushed it into the empty net. Then we had to withstand the pressure in the last minutes. We did that well and struck again on a counter attack, we were through to the fourth round.

Back to the Permier League for the last game of the month, at home with newly promoted Stoke. We solved the problem in the first half with four goals in only thirteen minutes! First Defour set up Sobis with a fine through ball and the Brazilian netted his 10th goal of the season. Only a few minutes later Stoke‘s defense was surprised by the exact same move, Sobis struck again after picking up the pass from Defour. The Belgian midfielder had a great first half and got a goal from himself with a fine shot from distance, the fans were delirious. The team got a bit complacent in the second half, we failed to create the same pressure and Stoke deservedly scored a consolation goal.

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I have to say that my youngsters made me proud again, they dominated the Young Player of the Month again. Agnaldo clinched it this time but I guess each of them will get the award in the next months, they are good! ;)

The league table looked pretty good at the end of the month, we were lying in 3rd place. It’s still too early though, don’t get carried away…

We’ll have the first real tests next month, both at home with Olympiakos in the Europa League and with Manchester City in the Premier League. We’ll also get to meet Tottenham again at White Hart Lane, this time we’ll play for getting through to the fifth round of the Carling Cup.

That’s how it was, we confirmed the good start but I guess we’ll know more about our worth at the end of October. If we’ll continue to show consistency I guess we’ll have a chance to fight for one of the top four spots.

Last but not least, Majk asked me to share the current tactic that I’m using. It’s based on the tactic that I’ve used since the League One days but I’ve tweaked it along the way to face the new challenges that we had ahead of us. There you go, download it from here. I’ve reached version 3.3 at a certain point but I came back to v2.6 since it proved to be the most stable set up. Give it a try and share your impressions.

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