Hello dear friends, I’m very happy to bring you a fresh episode of the Vauxhall Motors Football Manager 2011 story! I’ve been going through a rather stressful period lately but, as always, Football Manager is the perfect medicine for that. As you remember from the previous update we were 11th in Blue Square North at the end of October, we managed to grab 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses in the initial 12 games of the season. No less than 22 new players joined the club until the 1st of November and I was hoping to see the best of them as soon as possible.
The first game in November was away at 14th placed Worcester. We had a good start to the game, dominated the first half and missed a big chance before the interval. Things changed after the break, Worcester were more in control of the game but they couldn’t create any clear chances so it ended goalless. Striker Rhys Henry added some spice to a dull second half by getting sent off for a second bookable offense four minutes from time.
Our next game was at home with bottom of the table Stafford, a team what was hit hard by a 10 point deduction. They had grabbed 12 points up to that moment but their official record showed just two. I was expecting a difficult game but things got smoother after John Kennedy smashed home on 11 minutes to round off a good team move. He could have made it 2-0 nine minutes later when he was brought down inside the area but his penalty kick was horrendous, he blazed it way over the crossbar. The game was pretty rough so I wasn’t surprised to see one of our opponents receiving his marching orders for a second yellow card a few minutes before half time. Ryan Carolan wrapped up our good first half with a fine stoppage time corner kick header, we were in control. We killed off the game around the hour mark when Suleiman Leluu and John Kennedy converted two good breakaway moves to make it 4-0. Stafford got a consolation goal later on, a total fluke as you can see from the video below.
That was our biggest league win of the season, now we were seeking the first away win… The next opportunity was the match at 20th placed Redditch, the weakest team in the league up to that point. We got off to a perfect start as midfielder Shane Williams thumped one in to finish a good counter attack five minutes into the game. Unfortunately Redditch leveled the match around the half hour mark, my defense was positioned totally wrong at that moment and we paid the price for that. We were pushing forward after the interval but the clear chances were coming at the wrong end, Redditch were quite dangerous on the breakaway. They missed their chances though and we clinched the win thanks to Rhys Henry‘s first goal for the club! We have waited long enough to see that goal from him and the board complained about his signing by telling me that it was a poor deal for the club. I hope that Rhys will prove them wrong.
We had a cup game coming up, the FA Trophy match with non-league side FC Halifax. I was surprised to see that the bookmakers though that our opponents were the favourites to win the game and because of that I decided to field a full strength squad. John Kennedy put us ahead on 20 minutes and then Pietro Palladino made it 2-0 by scoring his first goal for the club. Things got a bit complicated after the break when midfielder Alex Stockinger got sent off for a violent tackle and FC Halifax pulled one back just before the hour mark. Ryan Carolan eased our concerns with another corner kick header, we were through to the next round.
We had one more league game to play before the end of the month and I was in a difficult situation: I had no central midfielders available for that match! One of suspended, the others were banned but I was lucky enough to complete another transfer a few days before the match. It was a signing that I was chasing for quite some time and I was delighted to have the papers signed before that game. The new player is midfielder Kurt Hammonds, a young and hard working lad that should do a good job for us.
On to the last game of the month then, we were playing away at 11th placed Gloucester. I sent in the new signing in central midfield along with a versatile centre back and I was delighted to see Kurt Hammonds scoring the opening goal on his debut. Then we found ourselves under pressure but survived until half time. Gloucester had nothing more to show after the break, we took control of the game and John Kennedy scored yet another goal to give us the three points. You can watch the two goals of the game in the video below.
We were on a six match unbeaten run, I was quite pleased with that, and we moved up the table in 7th position. Things look fairly tight at the top but I guess that we could move further up if we can keep the unbeaten run going for a few more games.
The month also brought my first award in FM 2011, it should be the first of many :)
Before concluding the post I have to praise Shane Williams, the young Welsh central midfielder was essential to our good form. He scored two goals until now, made five assists and also grabbed four man of the match awards. The good news is that he’s just 18 years old!
He missed just one game until now due to a slight injury, I hope that he’ll stay fit for as long as possible. As you can see his ratings have been very good in most of the games that he played until now and he played a quite a few key passes.
The screen shot below shows Williams‘ passing in the game against Stafford, the one we won 4-1. Being our playmaker he made the most passes during that game but he rarely missed them, most of his balls found their target.
Williams is just one of the reasons behind our good form of late, the other one might be that the team has finally understood what I want them to play. As you can see from the match preparation screen the 4-4-2 setup that I wanted them to learn has no more secrets for my lads.
Next month will see us playing mostly against teams located in the lower half of the table but we’ll also have a tough match in the FA Trophy against Telford.
That’s how November was folks, we won three league games out of four and made a swift move up the table. I surely hope that we’ll keep up the pace and maybe find ourselves among the top five at the end of the year. Thanks a lot for reading this update, I hope you enjoyed it.
Ana Garcia
13 ноября, 2010 at 11:52
Good month Johnny,
Nice to see you start picking up some wins on a more consistant basis and your team seem to have finally settled.
You pick up alot of yellow and red cards like I do on my game! On my Real Union game I had one man sent of in 9 years on this game I think I have had 6 sent off already!!
Guess that in the lower leagues my team are more clumsy than reckless but good luck and hopefully this good month will be followed my another.
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 13:46
Thanks Ana. Yellow cards are extremely frequent but some of them seem to be given too easily. I guess I’ll have most of the players suspended in January if things go on like this!
Lye
13 ноября, 2010 at 12:22
Hi Johnny,
Finally we are beginning to see some real stuff from the Vauxhall players. The motormen are rolling on. I believe if your team keep playing like you are now, no doubt Vauxhall will be the hot favorites to promote to Blue Square Premier. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 13:44
Thanks Lye, I’m quite optimistic now after watching a few good displays from the lads. We will need to be consistent though if we want to challenge for promotion.
Darren Smith
13 ноября, 2010 at 12:55
Hey Johnnys back to winning ways :) Well done mate, you really did win some of those in style. I am still waiting for my boys to gain a decent understanding of my 4-5-1 tactic but we’ll get there. Well done Johnny and I think we’ll be looking at the play-offs as a minimum.
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 13:44
Thanks Darren, I’m quite happy to finally see the team playing a game that’s more similar to football than wrestling :)
Ben E
13 ноября, 2010 at 14:16
Great story as usual Mr Karp, already addicted!!!
Don’t worry about Rhys Henry, i’ve signed him on my Boston Utd game 5 goals 7 games ;) can’t complain there!!
Keep it Up Motormen!!
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 15:18
Thanks a lot Ben. Henry doesn’t seem to find the right tempo in my team but I hope he’ll do better in the second part of the season.
Kevin
13 ноября, 2010 at 15:38
Hello Johnny
Here we go then. On the climb to promotion with some better form. Nice header in by Carolan against Stafford though he didn’t show up in my database :(
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 16:02
That’s outrageous, Ryan Carolan should be in every database! Which option did you select, large or medium?
dami
13 ноября, 2010 at 20:20
he’s not in mine either…I selected medium…
Kevin
13 ноября, 2010 at 20:42
Medium… I guess that’s why.
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 21:56
Let’s make a petition to include Ryan Carolan even in the «small» database :)
Sears
13 ноября, 2010 at 16:30
Hey Johnny,
that’s a good month. I think now your team will go from strength to strength since they’ve fully adapted to your 4-4-2 tactic. All your team needs now is consistency, I’m sure if they can find it you’ll be celebrating a title win at the end of the season :-)
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 22:03
Thanks Sears, there’s a lot of work to do until winning the title so I’m not going to advance that as a hypothesis at the moment :) I just want to climb into the top five and then we’ll see…
Vinners
13 ноября, 2010 at 19:44
Good Month Johnny! I knew you would fight back and you did fantastically to start to move up the table. I cannot believe your match preparation is all 100/100. That’s insane! But unfortunately it resets after each season which is annoying. With regards to my game at one point I had a 11 point lead but due to complacency by me and my players we lost a couple of 1-0 leads and got a few draws which then lead to a loss and then the last 7-8 games were very close with me only a point ahead and we kept exchanging wins and draws. Luckily I finished 2 points ahead by the end because I was a point ahead, I drew my last game but Nuneaton lost which was lucky. But now I need some new players for the Blue Square Premier and I still cannot get a loanees to come to the club as well the fact I lost tranmere as a parent club so now I have to find a new one :(. Anyway well done, keep it up and I cannot wait for the next update!
Sorry for the long post.
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 21:59
Thanks Vinners. Well, having Tranmere as a parent club didn’t bring any benefits until now because none of their reserve players wanted to join us on loan. About the match preparation, it’s normal to be reset if you bring in new players, isn’t it?
Vinners
13 ноября, 2010 at 22:30
Yer but I was going to keep my squad as they knew my tactics well so I was going to not doing any match preparation and get them to train more instead to increase their stats. But I had the same squad but all the match preparation bars went way down to 10/100.
Yer they didn’t supply me any players either even though I got two players in the demo, but I hoped that they’d be more willing to come to Blue Square Premier but because I didn’t use it I lost it and my board couldn’t find me a new parent club either. It’s a shame because it makes my job much more difficult
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 22:55
That’s interesting, I’ll be keeping an eye on the match preparation screen at the end of the season.
dami
13 ноября, 2010 at 20:30
good month…the climb to the top position begins…
I never realized how difficult managing in lower leagues was until I started unemployed and got a job at hereford…I took your approach and released most of the players at the club…though I’m having trouble with finances…
Johnny Karp
13 ноября, 2010 at 21:57
Thanks Dami. It is difficult but on the other hand there’s less pressure, the board normally gives you some time before waving the axe above your head :)
Arjuna Kankipati
14 ноября, 2010 at 00:52
Hey Johnny,
You’re doing very well for the lowest team in England!! You should get into the play-offs by the end of the season
Arjuna
managerstoriesfootball.blogspot.com
Johnny Karp
14 ноября, 2010 at 10:48
Thanks Arjuna, I hope we’ll continue to move up the table.
Mark Hurcombe
14 ноября, 2010 at 11:08
Johnny,
Great story, i am trying to replicate your blyth career on FM11, One question, how do you get the stadiums? On my game it doesn’t show stands or supporters on any ground??
Johnny Karp
14 ноября, 2010 at 11:27
Thanks for the compliment Mark. As for the stadiums, go to your game’s preferences screen, to «display and sound» and tweak the 3D Settings like «show stadiums», «show crowd» and so on.
hils
18 ноября, 2010 at 15:35
Hello Johnny, its good to see the motermen playing real football!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!!
Mariano
21 декабря, 2010 at 05:59
Well done!
I´m catching up on your story:)
It´s amazing how quickly you made your new players blend completly to your tactic before December.
I finally decided to play managing Havant, and gor Williams, but as a substitute of Standing(for now).
Johnny Karp
21 декабря, 2010 at 07:49
Thanks Mariano. Williams is a very good midfielder for my style of play but I reckon he could do well for you as well. Good luck!