Southampton: Nov — Dec 2011

Greetings from Canada and a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. It’s time for yet another update on my final FM 2011 story  so let’s take a look at how The Saints performed over the last couple of months.

November 2011:

Two days after our defeat at Reading we were back at home to face Hull City. We got off to a fantastic start with Andrew Davies scoring after just three minutes with two more goals being added inside the first twenty minutes. The game was effectively over when Hull were reduced to ten men before half time and we really should have added more to our tally.

We followed the win with a very disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Norwich where we dominated proceedings but could not get the ball to cross the Norwich goal line despite several great opportunities.

A very poor performance indeed saw us taste defeat by a goal to nil away to Peterborough but we somehow managed to retain our top spot in the table.

With three games already played in the first eight days of the month the injuries were starting to add up with some being more serious than others; the worst being Vidal and Clifford. Thankfully we had a two week break coming up before out top of the table clash with Blackpool.

I did however make two short term loans to cover the defence. Jordan Spence from West Ham and Patrick van Aanholt from Chelsea.

The international break was over and it was time to host Blackpool at St Mary’s. Tom Cleverley got the game off to an electrifying start bagging a goal within the first minute after latching on to a through ball by Stevanovic from the centre circle. Cleverley was there again minutes later with a spectacular diving header that whizzed past both defender and goalkeeper to set the home fans into a frenzy. That was short lived as Blackpool pulled one back with just 10 minutes gone but we steadied ourselves and more pressure resulted in a third goal just before the half hour. That frantic first half would prove to be enough to beat Blackpool though remarkably Jose Fonte had three headers cleared off the line and two more hit the bar!!

Indicative of the month our inconsistent form continued as we then crashed away to Coventry by a score of 2-0.

White Hart Lane was next for our League Cup Q/F match with Spurs and once again I went for second string players simply because we had to play the new league leaders Birmingham next. We gave a good account of ourselves frustrating the home side for much of the match and although they dominated the game it wasn’t until the 86th minute that Spurs took the lead by which time exhaustion had ripped through the lads like a tornado. Although we lost I was extremely proud of their efforts even though we never looked like causing an upset on the night.

Results Summary:

December 2011:

I was happy to be in a new month and perhaps a fresh start as our form had been pretty lousy over the last several weeks. We started off against Birmingham at home which saw Jose Fonte head in an equalizer in the 55th minute as we battled for a point to keep us in the running for promotion.

Swindon Town provided the next opposition with Guly do Prado breaking the deadlock on the hour with a superb diving header. After Swindon had equalized with 11 minutes remaining Jason Puncheon scored the winner with a brilliant glancing header off a Chamberlain cross to snatch all three points at the County Ground.

Our next two games saw comfortable wins over both Cardiff and Derby County but then a lack lustre effort away to Doncaster brought the winning streak to an end.

The final game of 2011 and yet another top of the table clash this time against Nott’m Forest who were in first place with a lead of just two points. We took the game to Forest, controlling the midfield but once more our strikers failed to make chances count in front of goal and in a tense final 15 minutes it was defender Eric Botteghin who headed in the winner from a free kick that put us back on top of The Championship.

Results Summary:

League Table:

So we lead the pack going into 2012 but it’s going to be a tough race all the way to the end as the leader it seems is constantly changing. We will start the New Year away to Barnsley before entertaining Newcastle in the FA Cup third round.

That completes this report and my following updates may be a bit more consolidated as I’m anxious to move on to the FM 2012 Demo and see what the new game is like. The Icon is there on my desktop waiting to be explored but I don’t want to get distracted from this story so for now it remains «unclicked».

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your comments.