Warren — FM 2011 Hartlepool United November 2010/11

Hi all and welcome back to yet another instalment in my Hartlepool story. I had made a very good start to the season and I was looking to progress on that into the winter months. We would have five games this month with one of these games being the start of the FA Cup. I will also go over the tactics that I am using in my Hartlepool at the end of the post.

V Yeovil (a) 2^nd Nov 2010

The first game of the month saw is us against a Yeovil side that were in 18^th places so I told my players that I expected to win this game and gain more momentum to climb up the league table.

After a frantic start to this game it died down after the 8^th minute when by this time we had already seen goals from Donaldson and Liddle sandwiched between a Yeovil missed spotkick. Yeovil did crawl one back though a Liddle own goal but Vuckic completed the scoring to end the game at 3-1.

V Bath (a) 7^th Nov 2010

It was now time to concentrate on the FA Cup against a Bath City side who are in Blue Square Premier which is two leagues below my Hartlepool side.

A comfortable 2-0 win was always on the cards and goals from Haris Vuckic and Adam Boyd set the tone for an easy win and a place in the 2^nd round against Dagenham and Redbridge.

V Bournemouth (h) 13^th Nov 2010

Next up was our first and only home game of the season against Bournemouth who were currently in a mid-table position.

Like the Swindon game in September this was quite an interesting and eventful 0-0 draw the only thing that was missing from this game was a goal. We arguably had the better chances of the game so it was disappointing that we couldn’t convert one of these chances.

V Southampton (a) 20^th Nov 2010

The next two games were crucial to see if I had a major chance in getting either a play-off place or an automatic promotion spot. The first of this game was against 2^nd place Southampton and it would be a huge win if we could get three points.

The game seemed to be ending in a draw which would have been a decent result especially away from home but to my delight Ryan Donaldson popped in the box to drill a shot into the bottom corner of the goal.

V Huddersfield (a) 23^rd Nov 2010

The second of these two major games was now against 3^rd placed Huddersfield Town. They had a blistering start to the season but had seemed to boil down a bit recently so it was the perfect time to play them.

And for the second game in a row we had won by one goal this time the heroes this time were Brown and Vuckic to ensure that we finished the month unbeaten in the league.

V Dag & Red (a) 27^th Nov 2010

Now it was back to the FA Cup and a chance for a place in the 3^rd round where we could face the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and even Newcastle.

That became more of a possibility when I ended up progressing into the 3^rd round with a 2-1 win against Dag & Red with goals coming from Keenan and Donaldson.

November Results

My best month with just 2 league points dropped and I had progressed into the 3^rd round of the FA Cup were we are going to face Ipswich Town of the Championship. It was a good month but we need to concentrate on building on this in December and into the New Year.

Table

For the fourth consecutive month I had moved up the league this time I finish the month of November in 3^rd place just 1 point off the top spot and the elusive automation promotions. The race for the top was on.

Tactics

After a few of the comments asked what tactics I was using I decided to write it into my next post so here you go.

I play a standard 4-4-2 in the team in the typical English fashion with the emphasis on team ethic and working as a team. This is why I have chosen my players to close down the opposition as soon as they cross the half way line. It is more effective in these leagues as the standard of player isn’t as good so they are more likely to make a mistake.

I also want my team to play more direct as I feel that with the pace that my forwards have got then it means that they can get behind the defenders and are usually one-on-one with the keeper and have better chances in scoring and because I play more direct I also play with a quicker tempo. Hopefully when I get into higher league I can change the way I play and make it more attractive to watch but at the moment I feel this is good and if it’s working why should I change it.

If you have any questions about the tactics just ask me in the comments section.

Thanks for reading

Warren

P.S I have managed to sort out the uploading match highlights and I have got a new feature that I would like to add to my story which is performance of the month. I will upload one game each month and show it to you and this game as the title suggests will be the best game of the month.

Starting from today the winner of the first performance of the month is the 2-1 win against Huddersfield.