Hello folks, I finally managed to prepare another update of the Vauxhall Motors Football Manager 2011 story! I hope you are very curious to see how we started our season in League Two after bringing in so many interesting players during pre-season… I won’t make the introduction any longer, let’s see what happened!
In fact, the post will also be shorter than usual and that’s because I was ill, I spent a lot of time in bed and with only a few other options to spend my time I chose to run Football Manager on my laptop while having hot tea and pills… That’s how I managed to play no less than three months of the new season!
August 2012
Well, our debut month went so well that I really couldn’t believe my eyes! First we swept past Bury with debut goals from midfielder Peter Leven, striker Darryl Duffy and winger Joe Griffin and then we managed to pull off an upset in the Carling Cup by knocking out League One side MK Dons in the first round. Then striker Omar Koroma stepped up and scored two consecutive hat-tricks! First we beat Morecambe 3-2 and then we recorded a shocking result: 7-0 away at Crewe! The month would have been perfect if we wouldn’t have been beaten by Newcastle in the Carling Cup but I guess it was a bit too much too ask, after all they are a Premier League team! They didn’t outplay us though and they only managed to win thanks to a late goal…
The away game at Crewe was absolutely stunning: they were the favorites to win the game but we were simply unstoppable! Omar Koroma netted a hat-trick, centre back Oliver Nicholas bagged a brace while Darryl Duffy and Peter Leven also found the back of the net. It was by far the best performance I have seen from my team since starting the career two seasons ago. Enjoy the highlights, there are quite a few goals to see! :)
After such a good month my players were dominating the awards, Duffy was elected Player Of The Month while Leven and Koroma were ranked just behind the Scottish striker.
September 2012
After three straight league wins I was expecting a setback, I just knew it was going to come. Things continued well though as we beat Aldershot 3-1 away from home and then beat Crewe again, but with a lower margin, in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Then, as I feared, we crashed back to earth… We recorded two consecutive league defeats, at home against Stevenage and away at Burton, and both of them were due to two reasons: we were incredibly wasteful upfront and extremely sloppy at the back. Then we recovered with two wins, away at Bradford and at home with Darlington as the team seemed to have regained some composure in defense.
The home game against Darlington, the last match of the month, was a pretty tough one and we were a bit lucky to get the three points. Darlington took the lead from the penalty spot just four minutes into the game, then Oliver Nicholas pulled us back level but our opponents could easily have scored another two goals before half time as they missed a penalty kick and another good chance. We did a bit better in the second half though and Darryl Duffy scored the winning goal.
Despite the two defeats we remained top of the table but I was perfectly aware that the season was far from being over.
October 2012
I played the month of October after installing the latest patch and I don’t know if it was because of that or not but my players wasted enormous amounts of chances in each game. Luckily the defense was tight enough and we conceded just two goals in six games. As a result of that we recorded four 1-0 wins, three in the league and one in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and a 1-1 draw against Gillingham in the league. The only game that saw decent finishing was the one against Torquay, a refreshing 5-1 win.
That win over Torquay saw a great performance from Darryl Duffy, the Scottish striker played very well and would have deserved at least a hat-trick. However, the good finishing from this game didn’t last more than the 90 minutes as we returned to the wasteful habits in the last game of the month.
Duffy was praised by the media after that performance against Torquay and he totally deserved it after scoring 9 goals in 16 appearances this season.
So, after three months and 13 league games we are top of the table, two points clear of second placed Southend. But since the top three will gain automatic promotion I guess we should rather look at the gap between us and the fourth placed and it stands at a solid seven points. I guess we do have a good chance of getting promoted if we keep it up!
However, fitness seems to be a big problem. Whenever we had two games in three or four days we had fatigue problems and due to injuries I wasn’t always able to field two different elevens. November will have no less than seven games in store for us and that could mean that we will face some fitness problems again.
That’s how it was my friends, I will probably get back to my usual posting style from the next update. Thanks a lot for reading this update and I hope that you enjoyed the video highlights. Oh, and if you didn’t do that already, join our forum as we have quite a few interesting discussions there. You can also win a FM 2011 DVD for Christmas if you register! ;)
Ana Garcia
17 декабря, 2010 at 17:34
Pretty amazing start Johnny! Well done!
7-0 away win! Congratulations I bet you enjoyed watching that game! :)
It seems it may be another season where your team will be pushing at the top again, I know its a little early and things can change but going on your first 3 months you should do allright I think!
P.S. Hope your feeling better!!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:03
Thanks Ana, I was running a fever when we got that 7-0 win and at some point I thought I was hallucinating! :) I’m feeling a bit better now.
Laxeyman
17 декабря, 2010 at 17:45
Great start Johnny, well done! The win over Crewe was amazing, and it looks like you’ll get promotion if you can keep playing like that. Hopefully Duffy can keep banging them in, if he does you’ll be promoted. Good luck!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:04
Thanks Laxeyman. I hope that Duffy will keep it up but I also hope to see more from the other strikers, it’s going to be a long season.
Sayam Khan
17 декабря, 2010 at 18:07
Brilliant start Johnny, The 7-0 win was amazing, Duffy looks like the real deal. Good Luck
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:05
Thanks Sayam. Duffy works well with the other Scottish player, Peter Leven, I hope they will keep it up.
Sears
17 декабря, 2010 at 20:49
Tbh, wasn’t expecting such a good start Johnny. That’s actually the best start you could have asked for! Hopefully fatigue won’t hinder your progress, good luck!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:06
Thanks Sears, I wasn’t expecting such a rampant start either. It’s quite unusual for my team if you look at the last two seasons so I hope we won’t slip up in the second part of the term.
Darren Smith
17 декабря, 2010 at 22:03
Wow Johnny, that is truly amazing. Some really high scoring games and your top of the pile!!! Well done mate, we could be looking at a third consecutive title! :)
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:06
Thanks Darren, I hope we will grab that third one :)
Kevin
18 декабря, 2010 at 00:11
Wow!!
That is an amazing three months. To echo everyone else a 7-0 win? My goodness I don’t recall seeing a result like that in the year I’ve been on this site. Absolutely brilliant!!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:07
Thanks Kevin. I don’t remember having a 7-0 away win before either and I don’t think I’ll have another one soon :)
Arjuna
18 декабря, 2010 at 01:35
Hey Johnny,
Good form in the begining of the season. You can hopefully keep this form up, and we may be looking at three consecutive titles!
Get better soon,
Arjuna
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 06:08
Thanks for the well wishes Arjuna, I hope that the team won’t get worse once I get better :)
James H
18 декабря, 2010 at 10:50
I love reading LL stories but I never have the patience to do one myself!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 11:36
It does require a bit of patience James, I agree :)
Lye
18 декабря, 2010 at 11:27
Hi Johnny,
Great results in those three months. The team is showing good form and they definitely want another consecutive promotion. I believe you can do it. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 11:36
Thanks Lye, I wasn’t expecting such a good start to be honest.
hils
18 декабря, 2010 at 12:24
Hi Johnny,great month there!!!!!!!!!! Great 7-0 win against crewe!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 20:17
Thanks Hils, I knew you’d be excited after that 7-0 win! :)
warren
18 декабря, 2010 at 13:45
Hi Johnny
Great start to the season and you have certainly hit the ground running. Duffy is in a good run of form and for your sake I hope that he will be able to continue this. And a 7-0 win from a team that has just been promoted is a huge and tremendous result.
Good luck for the rest of the season
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 20:18
Thanks Warren, it was quite an unbelievable result. I guess it won’t happen again soon though :)
Mark
18 декабря, 2010 at 16:18
Heyy Johnny, your stories are easily the best i read they are so enjoyable. when do we expect the next update to be out. you got any ideas for January transfers. Many thanks once again Mark.
Johnny Karp
18 декабря, 2010 at 20:19
Thanks for the kind words Mark, I’m very happy that you are enjoying the story. I don’t know when the next post will be out but I will be trying to have it ready sometime tomorrow. About the January transfers, I’m looking for a right/left winger, probably on loan, but we’ll see if any injuries would force me to make other transfers as well.