I know, the song says «wake me up when September ends», it’s played by a band called Green Day and I’m sure that most of you know it. This song popped into my head while playing Football Manager 2011 with my Vauxhall Motors team in Blue Square Premier during October 2011, a month that was like a bad dream. September was quite good for us, we went through that month unbeaten and ended it in 3rd place but things went quite differently in October. Let’s see…
The first game of the month was away at 9th placed Gateshead, a tricky match. We got off to a perfect start though, Michael Ricketts and Omar Koroma worked well together and the Gambian striker popped one in just four minutes into the game. We could have doubled the lead later in the first half but we hit the crossbar and then luck turned totally against us. The home side got two headers into the back of the net during the closing minutes of the first half and the second goal really hurt our fans since it was scored by… Ryan Carolan! We wasted two huge chances right after the break and then the game opened up so the crowd got to see some chances for both sides. We couldn’t convert ours though and our unbeaten run came to an end after a game that should have given us at least a share of the spoils.
We had another away game coming up but it was supposed to be an easier one since we were visiting fellow promoted team Nuneaton. I had some squad problems though since no less than five of my players were away on international duty! We had a poor first half and it was the home side who looked more likely to break the deadlock. Things got a bit better after the break but my lads were uninspired upfront, most attacks were ending just before the final pass. We snatched the three points thanks to two substitutes during injury time: right winger William Mellors-Blair swung in a far post cross and left winger Robbie Hume nodded it home.
Yet another away game was coming up, this time we were traveling to meet 9th placed AFC Wimbledon. We had a decent first half this time and a clear cut chance. We missed it and went into the second half with a terrible lack of confidence upfront, my players looked clumsy and their main opponent seemed to be the ball itself! It was quite frustrating to watch but at least we snatched another point…
The first home game of the month saw us playing hosts to mid-table side York. I was hoping to see more from my lads but the lack of inspiration continued to show throughout this match. We dominated the game, the ball was often worked around York‘s penalty area but we just couldn’t get it in. We could have won it with a bit of luck since we hit the woodwork on one occasion but in the end we had to settle for another goalless draw.
Next up, the first cup game of the season: the FA Cup 4th qualifying round match against Mansfield, 4th in Blue Square Premier. This game was the climax of a nightmare month, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. First we wasted two immense chances, then Mansfield took the lead, then Omar Koroma was stretchered off the pitch, then Akwasi Asante got sent off, then we missed another huge chance, then Mansfield doubled the lead and finally Sergio Sanchez also got sent off. You can’t really ask for more when you miss three clear cut chances though, can you?
The last game of the month was at home with 12th placed Fleetwood, I was hoping to see a return to winning ways. It started badly as we missed a huge chance just 30 seconds into the game but then Danny Uchechi finally found the back of the net on 26 minutes. We missed quite a few other chances before midfielder Matthew Ball fired one in from 20 yards out, his first ever goal for the club. The two-goal lead restored some confidence and we could have added at least two more after the break but we hit the woodwork twice. I was sure that the three points were ours even if Fleetwood pulled one back 20 minutes from time. I just couldn’t see us losing the game and I was hoping to see a third goal from us. It was my mistake, I didn’t want to pull the team back to defend the lead and we got punished three minutes into stoppage time when a quick ball over the top caught my defense unprepared and gave the visitors a share of the spoils. Frustrating is a mild word to describe this game…
Despite the dismal run we were still among the top five, I was quite surprised to see that at the end of the month since I didn’t check the table after those poor results.
I made another signing this month, a quick, hard working and creative left winger coming from Wales: 19-year old Sam Hart. He is a promising lad that might stay at the club for a while.
November will give us a chance to get revenge over Mansfield, the team that knocked us out from the FA Cup, but I hope to get some wins until then.
That’s how it was, a bad dream. I just hope we’ll wake up starting the 1st of November and start firing in some goals, otherwise we’ll surely be sliding down the table real fast. I can’t really say why we had such a bad month but most probably it’s a combination of lack of confidence and bad luck because you can’t blame fatigue so early in the season. Or maybe my team is not as good as I hope it is, who knows… Thanks a lot for reading, I hope to have better news after November.
Sears
1 декабря, 2010 at 20:44
That’s unfortunate Johnny, hopefully your team can pull together a better string of results next month. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:14
Thanks Sears, we’ll need some luck to bounce back.
Laxeyman
1 декабря, 2010 at 21:08
Hi Johnny, unlucky there, your side just suddenly stopped scoring which was a bit strange. Anyway, hopefully you can pick up your form now that the month has ended, good luck!
Johnny Karp
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:14
Thanks Laxeyman, it is a bit strange but now my strikers look like they have just discovered football!
paine
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:01
I agree, sometimes bad period happens without any apparent reasons, but there’s time to recover, so I wouldn’t worry too much.
Johnny Karp
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:15
Thanks for the comment Paine. I’m not too worried at the moment but if things keep going like this in November then I will surely be quite worried.
Darren Smith
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:10
Hey Johnny, that was a tough month and I know they seem so long when your fighting bad form. However, on the upside your league position hasn’t been too badly damaged. I think your form will pick up again soon and hopefully so will your results. Goodluck mate.
Johnny Karp
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:17
Thanks for the confidence Darren, I’ll try to wake the lads up but they don’t seem to respond lately. I might give some of them a bit of time with the reserves team.
warren
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:19
Hi Johnny
It feels odd for me to say this but you of all people had a bad month. This just goes to shown that everyones human and not everyone can get it right all of the time. These things happen sometimes and it about how you conquer this in the next month.
Good luck for the rest of the season
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 07:22
Thanks Warren. It’s not like I’m Jose Mourinho though :) But he got beaten 5-0 on Monday so I guess it can happen to anybody :)
Vinners
1 декабря, 2010 at 22:36
Unlucky johnny! It’ll pick up. I finished my season and won the fa trophy which earn me about 100k which really helped the finances but the board won’t upgrade my training. However my pc is down ATM so I cannot play for now
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 07:21
Thanks Vinners and well done on winning the FA Trophy, it will be one of my goals this season as well.
Arjuna
1 декабря, 2010 at 23:06
Hey Johnny,
It’s surprising that despite your bad form, you still managed to be among the promotion spots. Sam Hart looks good, and he might turn out to be a great signing. You might want to change your formation — if you already haven’t tried — to one that you have never played in a match — just prepare it first! That’s how I got caught out in my West Brom story, towards the end of the season, we became to predictable.
Arjuna
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 07:19
Thanks for the suggestion Arjuna, I’m already preparing a different formation :)
Ana Garcia
1 декабря, 2010 at 23:43
Hey Johnny, have you got long shots on often on your players I have noticed that in almost every game you are having 6-7 long shots per match, and am guessing that your players will have a fairly low chance of scoring.
I dropped mine down to rarely and also dropped their creative freedom down and now they look to pass rather than ambitious 25 yard efforts, might be worth a try.
Am sure your form will improve, just a bad spell that everyone gets. Hopefully things will be on the up and you can return to winning ways again.
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 07:18
Hi Ana. Long shots are set to rarely but they are still trying, not from 25 yards but more from around 20. That’s not the main problem though, my boys were unable to score when one-on-one with the keeper and even with the goal at their mercy. Dropping the creative freedom down was the next step I had in mind if the form wouldn’t improve.
Kevin
2 декабря, 2010 at 01:31
Hi Johnny
The positive out of this is that you maintained decent league position despite your forwards letting you down. It sounds like the same problem I have with Wrexham. Hopefully a return to form will not be too far away. Sorry, I haven’t heard of a band called Green Day, maybe I’m too old to know of such a thing. Anyone for ABBA? :)
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 07:13
I hope that next month will be inspiring me to sing ABBA’s «The winner takes it all» :)
Lye
2 декабря, 2010 at 10:47
Hi Johnny,
For the first time your team is having a poor month. Luckily it doesn’t seem to have any effect on your position. I believe you will bounce back stronger next month. Your team has too much quality to continue the poor form. Good luck for the games next month.
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 11:29
Thanks for the confidence Lye, I hope we’ll turn things around soon.
hils
2 декабря, 2010 at 16:49
Hi Johnny,not a very good month!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully you will bounce back from this!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 16:56
Thanks Hils, you’re always cheering me up :)
Sayam Khan
2 декабря, 2010 at 18:21
You have the same problem as I did! It’s early in the season and as I experienced, don’t panic just yet ;-)
Johnny Karp
2 декабря, 2010 at 18:59
Thanks Sayam, I won’t panic until December, I promise :)
Mariano
25 декабря, 2010 at 02:21
:) I have a similar situation, I was doing great in my 2nd season with Havant in Blue Premier until november but we lost the last 3 games without scoring any goals, though we had 13 clear-cut chances!!!!!!!!
We are in 4th place though…..
Do you have any theory about why this bad luck situations happens?
Should i focus my match preparation on attacking moves?
Or should i tell my strikers to shoot outside the goal to see if they miss the empty space?
Cheers and thanks for the entertaining Motors story
Johnny Karp
25 декабря, 2010 at 03:05
If the team is creating chances then the attacking moves are going OK, not a problem there. I don’t have a solution, just hang in there and hope that the players will regain some confidence after converting some chances. I never encourage my lads to shoot from distance because I don’t have very good shooters at this level, my strategy is to work the ball into the box and fire it in from there, hopefully.