Hello friends and welcome back to my new FM Story. My apologies for the delay in a fresh update but I haven’t been feeling too good these last few days but I’m back in action now so let’s get on with the news!
August 2010:
With some good results behind us and well drilled in our new tactic we headed up to London to play Charlton in our opening game of the season. We came up against an authoritative Charlton midfield who stifled our free flowing play and a lucky deflected shot ended up in a goal for the home side which was enough to take all three points. Not the start I had in mind.
The League Cup was up next where we ran riot over League 2 side Barnet at St Mary’s stadium. Alex Chamberlain got a brace on his debut and so did my Brazilian striker Guly do Prado who had joined the club just prior to my arrival. An own goal added a fifth to the scoreboard on a very pleasing nights work indeed.
Brighton were our next opponents and again we were at home for our first League game of the season at St. Mary’s. After a frustrating first half do Prado put us ahead in the 48th minute striking the ball first time from a Puncheon cross ball. We had to wait though until late in the game before adding two more through DC Fonte and right winger N’Guessan for our first league win of the season. The victory though was marred by an injury to GK Bartosz Bialkowski who will be out for two months
Martin Hansen arrived from Liverpool as a loan goalkeeper for 3 months prior to our away game at Dagenham which saw us struggle up front and a single goal by DC Danny Seaborne gave us the win in a less than impressive performance.
We returned to St Marys for second round League Cup action where we were trounced by Birmingham by four goals to one which seemed to very much suggest that my tactic was lacking defensively. In the final league of August we left it late to secure a point through Adam Lallana after falling behind early on to Brentford.
A modification in our formation paid dividends in our last game of the month which was a derby encounter against south coast rivals Bournemouth in the JP Trophy. Two first half goals from do Prado and Gislason was enough to see off our bitter rivals.
Results:
September:
We started off the new month with confidence high after the win over Bournemouth but were soon brought back to earth with an unexpected defeat away to Yeovil. This prompted another tactic modification which saw dropping the wing backs into a flat back four and removing the anchorman to be replaced by another striker.
In our following game the team hit their stride thumping in three goals paast Hartlepool as I exploited the wings to full effect with Lallana and Chamberlain. This approach almost backfired away to Peterborough but two goals in the last ten minutes ended a brilliant comeback to take all three points. The highlight being the winning goal by striker Richard Lambert who hit a stunning free kick from 25 yards out. We followed that with a methodical performance at home to Carlisle which saw do Prado geting his second brace in two outings whilst fellow striker Lee Barnard netted his first of the season. We ended the month the same as we started with and away defeat this time to Huddersfield who pretty much controlled the game from the outset.
Table:
West Country teams are dominating League One with Swindon Town and Yeovil leading the pack and with us nine points adrift of first place we have some hard work ahead of us.
Fixtures:
We start October at home to Rochdale before taking on Yeovil again this time in the JPT and will end this two month cycle with a visit from Swindon Town
With no new transfers to speak of other than the previously mentioned Martin Hansen I’ll leave you with a picture of our finances which aren’t too bad at all.
As always thanks for taking the time to read this update.
e:
Hi Kevin,
It was a decent start and i believe you can slowly climb up the table. Martin Hansen should provide a decent back up while your goalkeeper is out injured. There was no lack of goals and you will go one further for the automatic promotion if your defence can improve for the coming games. Good luck.
Hello Lye
I neglected to mention my Brazilian defender who cost 400,000 is also out injured so hopefully things will improve on his return
That’s not a bad start at all, it’s a good foundation and I think you will be somewhere in the top four at the end of the next two-month cycle. Good luck!
Thanks Johnny – it’s not a bad start at all. I feel the team just need to gel a bit more.
Southampton have some good players, Lallana and Chamberlain will do well for you, you should be more than able to get promoted or get a playoff spot, just need to avoid conceding more goals, have to hang on for your keeper to come back, you might need to also score some more goals to improve though
The players you mentioned are playing well and you are right about getting the defence sorted out.
well done Kevin unlucky not to be in the play offs but I am sure you will be by the seasons end
Thanks George
Decent start Kevin, it always takes time to fine tune your tactics at the start of the season, so now that you have I reckon you’ll start climbing towards the top. Swindon and Yeovil can’t keep up their form for much longer, so hopefully you can catch them. Good luck!
Hi Laxeyman – you make a good point about the tactic and I feel you are right about those West country leaue leaders, they have to hit bad form at some point :)
Hi Kevin,
Good start Kevin and I’m sure things will get even better when your team adjusts to the tactics. I very much doubt that Yeovil and Swindon will be in the title chase for the long haul so I’m sure you’ll be up there pretty soon.
Thanks Dan – you are most likely right about my rivals and hopefully about my teams imporved perfromances.
Hey Kevin
That was a decent start to the league, the tactic seems to work most of the time. You can go and catch the title chasers, you can easily improve and get promotion.
Hi vaibhavc – thanks for that confidence boosting comment. Cheers!!
Well that isn’t a bad start at all Kevin. Sure you lost a few and drew but those defeats came against strong opposition. I reckon with those out the way you could be looking at the title. Good luck mate.
Cheers Darren. We have surely thrown away a few games recently.
Hi Kevin
Good start to the league, Keep it going and I’m sure you will do well mate. Good Luck
Thanks a lot Martin – I’ll do my best for you.