Hello my friends! I wish to express my gratitude again for the wonderful display of enthusiasm that you showed on my last post, I am extremely happy to have such an active and helpful audience. As you already know I decided to accept the Uruguay job offer, I will manage both Notts County and the Uruguayan national team for a while, that is until they will sack me :)
The Uruguayan Football Association mad things clear right away, they want me to take the team to the next FIFA World Cup.
There will be six games to play in 2011, three friendlies and three important World Cup qualification games, it will be a tough debut.
But I guess that’s just enough about Uruguay, there will be a special post about the national team that will be published after the Notts County December update. Now let’s get back to my Magpies, we were ready to make our debut it Coca-Cola Championship and we had quite a difficult game right away. The first game of the season was away at Portsmouth, a team that just got relegated from the Premier League. They were strong promotion contenders, so I was quite sure that we had to produce a good display in order to get anything out of that match. The first half was fairly even but Tomas Pekhart made the difference after a quick counter attack, we were looking good. The second half began with a brutal foul from Mokoena, he deserved two red cards for that one! We took control of the game thanks to the one man advantage and Tomas Pekhart struck again to give us a very important debut win.
We had the Carling Cup 1st round coming up, we had to do well in that competition considering that we went all the way to the final last season. The first opponent was a weaker one, League Two side Accrington. I expected an easy game but somehow it turned out to be very close to a nightmare. We missed enormous chances throughout the game, shocking misses that made me think that we were having a black day. Right back Ovidiu Dananae attempted a shot from way out, 35 or 40 yards maybe, I think he did that out of frustration, he rarely shoots on goal. And it went in, it was his first ever goal for the club and our ticket to the second round.
Back to the Championship, we had a tough home game coming up against fellow newly promoted side Coventry, they finished 3rd last season in League One and got promoted after the playoffs. The first half was pretty lame, Coventry were slightly better than us but didn’t have what it takes to create clear chances. We played a lot better in the second half, created chances but missed them… Fortunately we managed to win it with a late goal, Kamil Grosicki placed a good header from a corner kick.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Calum
21 декабря, 2009 at 21:36
Outstandingly good stuff Johnny! You are doing reall well with Notts County and I wish you luck with them as well as Uruguay. Brilliant blog also.
hARRO
21 декабря, 2009 at 22:12
thats a great start to the league m8.
Sonny
21 декабря, 2009 at 22:52
brilliant start johnny
Johnny Karp
21 декабря, 2009 at 23:20
@Sonny, hARRO and Calum
Thanks folks, I didn’t expect such a good start. Now that it’s over I can say it could have been slightly better :)
@Radu
Well, I wasn’t expecting an unbeaten month :) Wobay will probably get sold in real life too, he’s very talented but his attitude isn’t always the best. About Barboianu, it’s a shame that his versatility in real life isn’t reflected very well in his FM 2010 profile, he’s a very good youngster.
Kevin
22 декабря, 2009 at 02:02
Johnny, nice start your debut in the Championship. Already looking like title contenders and an excellent result in the Carling Cup too.
I left a note in your forum so as not to get off topic here. I don’t want to distract from your «career» so when you have time if you could take a look. Many thanks
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 11:11
Thanks Kevin, I tried to answer in the forum.
Martin
22 декабря, 2009 at 13:08
Great Start !
Sburlea’s Doing Really Well
I Know You’ll Be In The Premiership Next Season :)
Kevin
22 декабря, 2009 at 14:34
Looking forward to more updates especially with the Christmas break coming up.Is next Monday a holiday a for you as it is in Canada?
Chris Harris
22 декабря, 2009 at 14:37
I check every day and when something new shows up it never disapoints
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 14:45
@Chris Harris
Thanks mate, I’m doing my best to write good stuff :)
@Kevin
Next Monday won’t be a holiday here I’m afraid, only the 25th of December.
@Martin
I’m very pleased with Sburlea indeed, he had a great start. It will be pretty tough to get promoted, that’s what I felt after the first 5 games…
eddie eddie
22 декабря, 2009 at 15:25
Hi, good month for you there by the way everyone who can my old blog I thought was a bit uslees so here is the new one:
http://ultimatefootballmanagerat.blogspot.com/
Really helpful if you can read and comment on it time time everyone here thanks.
Good luck johnny.
Darren
22 декабря, 2009 at 16:04
Hi There! Came across you whilst looking for kit downloads & I’m glad I did.
It’s been a fantastic read & has inspired me to start further down the leagues.
Good luck with getting Uruguay to the World Cup & the Championship season.
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 18:51
@Darren and Eddie
Thanks for the comment and for the good luck wishes folks. Eddie, why did you change the blog address, can’t understand your decision.
Kevin
22 декабря, 2009 at 19:00
Eddie: Left a comment on your blog. I kinda like the dark look.
Johnny: Echo Darrens comments about being inspired. I’ve now found a team that I actually want to stick thanks to your stories.
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 19:11
I’m very happy that you found my attitude inspiring, you’ll see that sticking to one team has its very nice rewards. That is if you won’t get sacked at some point :P
Kevin
22 декабря, 2009 at 19:21
Well I’m currently in 4th place with Swindon after 12 games though playing like Man City and drawing a lot.
Better get back to my real life work before I actually do get the sack!
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 19:24
Good start Kevin! And you’re right, don’t get too addicted!
Eddie Eddie
22 декабря, 2009 at 19:36
Well what is wrong with it?
I mean all I did was change blogs it is not like I changed the world I found it easier to change blogs for new settings is there really such a problem with that?
Sorry if this is to aggresive but I feel your choice to just reject mine is not very satisfactory towards my options.
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 23:00
Eddie, calm down mate. I just couldn’t understand why you changed the blog address and I still can’t. You can change settings with keeping the old address, can’t you? I was just trying to be helpful since I guess I have some blogging experience but it’s your choice. I don’t have to agree with it though.
P.S.: I will update your link to point to the new address.
Eddie Eddie
22 декабря, 2009 at 23:25
Sorry there I did not mean to be so aggresive but some things just annoy me.
You are right you can change the settings but it was so much easier just to make a new one as I did not know the settings where evrything was so it was easier and quicker to make a new blog.
Sorry for being so aggresive but I get annoyed easily it is not your fault I was just very annoyed look foward to your next post.
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2009 at 23:36
OK Eddie, no problem. You can use the contact (about) page if you need any help with setting up the blog, it’s been some time since I quit using Blogger but I can still remember a few things.
nicolas
26 декабря, 2009 at 21:46
http://www.LaCelesteBlog.com/
find there the latest information about URUGUAY and the world cup.
Johnny Karp
27 декабря, 2009 at 13:02
It looks great Nicolas, I love it!