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Warren — FM 2011 Hartlepool United August 2010/11
Hi all and welcome back to the latest edition in my Hartlepool United story in FM 2011. In the last post I talked about the signings that I have made and what I think the season holds for me as Hartlepool manager. In August I would have a total of 5 games to contend with, 4 in the league and 1 in the league cup against championship side Doncaster. Before I start I have some terrible news that Ryan Donaldson was injured in training and has torn a hamstring which will keep him out for between three to four months. This is a massive blow as I felt that Donaldson was important to the way the season pans out. To combat this I managed to sign another two players, one is a short term replacement for Donaldson called Elliot Chamberlain and the other is a right winger from America called Devann Yeo.
V Plymouth (h) 7th August 2010
We were now into the first game of the season at home against Plymouth and I had a mixture of nerves and excitement before the game. Plymouth is a tough game to start off with as they were just relegated from the championship the previous season and will be pushing for a promotion place.
A decent result considering that we were 2-1 down until the 86th minute but it would have been harsh on my Hartlepool players who more than matched Plymouth. Hopefully we can take positives out of the game and grab a win in the next league match.
V Doncaster (a) 11th August 2010
It was now time to forget about the Plymouth and concentrate onto the league cup match against championship side Doncaster and we were certainly the underdogs for the game. I was hoping for a good performance and possibly getting a goal to win the tie.
At the end of the game I was slightly disappointed with the result as we had chances to win the game but I am pleased with the way the team played considering that we were playing with 10 men for over 70 minutes of the game.
V Brentford (a) 14th August 2010
We were on the road for the first time in the league and we travelled to Brentford looking for all three points to get the season up and running.
The winner game in the second half from the unlikely source of second-half substitute Richie Humphreys. The three points were ours and it was a result we thoroughly deserved dominating the game for the whole 90 minutes.
V Rochdale (h) 21st August 2010
Hoping to extend our unbeaten start to the season we now faced newly-promoted Rochdale. It was a game I was expected to win so I was looking for three points for Hartlepool.
Haris Vuckic managed to break his Hartlepool duck by scoring his first two goals for the club in the first 15 minutes of the match. The game seemed to go flat after that until Rochdale got a late goal to increase my nerves but we managed to hang on and get our second consecutive win.
V MK Dons (a) 28th August 2010
In our last league game of the month I was wishing that we could finish the month undefeated and I was looking forward to this game after the start that I have had.
Poor passing and the determination to win the game costs us our first league defeat of the season with both goals coming from Sam Baldock. We couldn’t do much about the first goal but I felt that the keeper should have stopped the second goal going in.
V Huddersfield (a) 31st August 2010
Again it was time for us to ignore the league and now concentrate on the Johnsons Paint trophy against a Huddersfield side that had a 100% record in the league.
After breaking the deadlock in the 77th minute with a first goal from Chamberlain I thought we were going to win the game but 2 goals in the last 10 minutes from Huddersfield meant that in both of the cups so far this season we were knocked out in the first round.
August Results
All in all quite a decent start to the season even though we were out of both of the cups. That was never the priority for the season so I cannot be too disheartened.
Table
I finished the first month in 10th place and I was satisfied with this but knew that I wanted to be higher come the end of the season so fingers crossed that happens.
Don’t forget to check out my YouTube site to see the goals from my story.
http://www.youtube.com/user/fmlegend92?feature=mhum
Thanks for reading
Warren