Vauxhall Story: Wake Me Up When… October Ends!

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.