The Magpies Story — November 2012

Hello my friends, the Football Manager story continues! After the good debut in the Premiership my Notts County continued to play pretty well and, as a result of that, we were 5th at the end of October. We were out of the Carling Cup though, it was a big disappointment for our fans. West Ham knocked us out on penalties in the fourth round but we had the chance to get revenge right away…

The first game of the month was indeed at home with West Ham, they were 19th in the Premier League. My players were eager to prove that the Carling Cup defeat was only an accident. We dominated the first half and we got the lead thanks to Smallwood‘s inspiration, he picked the right timing in going forward and scored from inside the box. It was his first goal for the club and he certainly liked the feeling, he did that again right after the break! We were 2-0 up but West Ham didn’t give up, they tried to push forward but there was nothing they could do as Sergio Romero desperately wanted his first Premier League clean sheet. We got our revenge and the three points, I was pleased.

West Ham sacked Tony Pulis right after the game and the media speculated that I was the one to replace him. I told them to chill out…

The next game was away at 5th placed Everton, one of the teams that were looking to get an European spot at the end of the season. The first half was fairly even but Guilherme made the difference again, he finished off a counter attack with a perfectly placed shot, it went in off the post. It was his 10th goal of the season! Everton came out of the dressing room with a different attitude, they dominated the second half. We had luck on our side though, a free kick cross from Lucas Biglia took a strange curve and went right in! Everton reacted with fury and although we pulled back to defend the lead we were unable to weather the storm, we conceded twice in the last 10 minutes. I guess we didn’t deserve to win it, Everton played really well in the second half.

Next up, the very difficult away game at Manchester City, the title holders. They were in 3rd place at the moment but they were still unbeaten after 14 games! I hoped to hang on until half time and then see what happens but Salomon Kalou scored an early goal with a fantastic shot from the edge of the area. The Citizens left us the ball possession after scoring the goal but we just couldn’t get the ball past their hard working midfield… We played a bit better in the second half, even created some chances to score. We did score twice but both goals were disallowed. We tried hard to score and get back on level terms but Robinho punished us on a counter attack. Then Adebayor completed the evening with a fine header, we were taught a lesson of football. I told my lads not to be disheartened, we have to work hard and one day we will outplay Manchester City anytime anywhere…

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

We had to get back to winning and the next game seemed to be a good opportunity. The game was at home with 11th placed Fulham and we played pretty well in the first half, dominated the game but the ball hit the woodwork twice instead of going in… The second half was an uphill struggle, Fulham defended with great determination and we lacked the creativity to cause them problems. It was an unconvincing performance overall and another home draw for us.

The last game of the month was away at 10th placed Wolves, we were down in 7th place after the Fulham draw. Guilherme started the game by hitting the woodwork one again but a few minutes later luck got back on our side: a corner kick sent the ball bouncing back and forth into their box and it finally went in off the feet of their defender. My boys were unleashed after the goal, Agnaldo made a superb run on the left, crossed the ball to the far post and Hinshelwood headed it right in! Only seven minutes later Biglia played a perfect through ball for Sburlea and the Romanian striker powered it in, our first half was like a dream! Wolves tried to get back into the game in the second half but we defended pretty well, Romero had only five shots to save this time :)

That win pushed us up in 6th place, we still were in the Europa League region but the table was quite tight. I guess our fans had another reason to be happy: we were 6th and Forest were behind us in 10th place :)

So far so good but I guess December will show us if we really can hope for an Europa League place at the end of the season. We’ll have the Nottingham Derby right after Christmas and a tough away game at Anfield Road just before the end of the year.

That’s how it was, a tough month in which we lost some points along the way. I hope to get at least three wins out of the six games in December, that would probably keep us withing the first eight in the Premier League table. Can we win those three? I guess we can… ;)

• If you like the story subscribe to the RSS feed, the future episodes will come to you fast as lightning!
  
• You can also subscribe to the Email Newsletter, the new posts will be sent directly to your inbox!
• Want to stay in touch? Download and install our community toolbar, it works on Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari!