Warren — FM 2011 Hartlepool United January 2010/11

Hi all and welcome again back to Hartlepool and to the next instalment of my football manager story. After the end of last month I was sitting pretty at the top of the table and I was now going into the business end of the season with the hope that I would be challenging in the Championship next season.

V Plymouth (a) 3^rd January 2010

In the first match of January I was set to face Plymouth who were just outside the play-off places and the press had put pressure on manager Peter Reid to get results because they expected to go up automatically. The pressure could either help or hinder us I was wishing that it would help us win the game.

Unfortunately it was a hindrance and Plymouth ran out 2-0 winners in a match that they dominated from start to finish and deserved their win with goals from Arnason and Noone. I was disappointed with the performance from my players and I was hoping that this was not the start to a loss of form.

V Ipswich (h) 8^th January 2010

It was now the 3^rd round of the FA Cup and a chance to see how well my team can play against a Championship side in the form of Ipswich Town. I was excited to see how well we could play against a side we would hopefully be playing next year in the league.

After all the build up and the excitement that surrounded the game I was really disappointed with the performance and result of this game. Ipswich ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Goals from wonderkid Wickham, Edwards and Priskin took Ipswich into the 4^th round and I was now left with just the league to concentrate on.

V MK Dons (h) 12^th January 2010

We were now going to face MK Dons who we had previously lost 2-0 to back in August. It was now time to get one over them and get my first points of the season.

That’s exactly what happened in the end but not before MK Dons had taken a one-nil lead into half time when Miantoudila placed his low shot into the corner of the goal. Second half goals from Vuckic and a first of the season for Monkhouse saw a turnaround in the game and we ended up with all three points.

V Peterborough (h) 12^th January 2010

The visit of Peterborough was next and I was hoping to have a repeat of the 2-1 win that we handed out to Peterborough when we played at London Road in September.

Like the game in September only one goal separated the two teams and once again we came out on top with yet another goal from Haris Vuckic. We were second best in this game but that what good teams do and that’s win when they don’t particularly deserve to.

V Swindon (a) 22^nd January 2010

In the final away match of the month we were travelling down to Swindon and to the County Ground. Like always I felt that we could win with a good performance and a better result than when we drew 0-0 with them in September.

For the third time this month I had suffered a loss but this was probably the worse out of the three and it was the first time this season what we had conceded more than 2 goals in a game this season. Swindon was 3-0 up before we seemed to wake up and give them a match. I was angry with the players and I let them know how I felt at the end of the 90 minutes.

V Tranmere (h) 29^th January 2010

It was now time of the last game of January and I time to get the previous results out of the way and hopefully have a repeat of the last time I played Tranmere and won that game 5-1 in September.

We were back to winning ways but unfortunately it could match the previous game against Tranmere in terms of goals but it certainly matched in excitement. We won the game 2-0 with goals from Javan Vidal and Joe Keenan but at the end of the 90 minutes Hartlepool were playing against 9 men after Tranmere had both Maxime Blanchard and Marlon Broomes sent off with straight reds both in the first half.

January Results

This was probably the worst month that I have had so far this season with 9 points out of 15 which is not up to the standard that I have usually set this season. I was also out of the FA Cup which was a shame.

Table

The dropped points cost me being top of the table and I was now three points away from Southampton who are the new leaders of League 1. I am hoping to take it back off them next month with a few good results.

Performance of the month

With December having a few good performances to choose from you could say that January was the opposite and I was struggling to pick one. I decided in the end to go with the 1-0 over Peterborough as it was a game when I shouldn’t have won but did because I took the chances that I got.

Thanks for reading

Warren