Vauxhall FM 2011 Story: Sweet November

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.