Thurrock-October 2011 results

Hello friends, since the return of my injured players, we are improving bit by bit as month goes along. We managed to climb up the table after winning 3 games out of 5 last month. How about this month? Are we able to carry the fine form over from last month to challenge in the top half of the table? Well, here is the October results…

We are unbeaten for the month for 4 league game and 1 FA cup fourth round qualifying match. (There should be five games, however last match against Crawley was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch in our ship lane stadium) We got a terrible pitch very muddy and wet, i am relieved that this doesn’t affect too much on our results.

First game of the month was against 10th place Kidderminster, they are playing very well at the moments. They had chalked up 3 wins in a row before they meet us. Their morale is definitely very high and my defense were kept busy throughout the whole game. We are lucky that their strikers are having a off day, they created a lot of chances but struggled to put into the net. I need to give credit to my defenders though, they absorb the pressure without fear throughout the whole game. Then 7 minutes into the second half, we got a breakthrough, Paul Hakim send a cross to the far corner, Robin Shroot pick it up and smash into the net to record his first goal for the club. That was the only goal of the game but it was not without controversy. Robin Shroot was in a offside position when he shoot, when i looked back the replay, i got to admit that it was offside. However the goal was given and i willingly accepted the gift from the referee.

Next game will see us travel to 9th place York, their home form is not impressive. But this time i think they don’t want to disappoint their fans. They were playing a fluid and attacking game, we conceded 2 early goals inside ten minutes. We were playing chasing game most of the time, my team did not perform well in this match. But i think luck is with us in this game. After finding ourselves 2 goals down, we managed to reduce the deficit through Antoine Sibierski in the first half. It was 2-1 when the half-time whistle blows. 3 minutes after the break, we make things level. Kevin Macdonald attempted a long shot from 25 yards and the ball go straight in to the far corner. Based on our performance, we really need individual brilliance to level the score. The York players could not believe it and they throw everything at us. But we held on the score was 2-2. I was delighted with the draw but the fans are not too please. Probably they prefer to look at the performance rather than the results.

Histon was the in-form team of all the teams at the moment, they are eight games unbeaten and chasing for a play-off spot. It was really bad time to face them especially it was a away game for us. I thought that we will be having a difficult time but to the credit of my players, they put up a great fight and match them in the whole game. In fact i thought we were unlucky to concede a goal as i think their player was offside when the goal was scored. It was payback time after the goal scored against Kidderminster was given to us. We tried to search for the equalizer and was finally rewarded when Paul Hakim headed in a goal with 13 minutes left.

We need to play against the current Blue Square Premier leaders Gateshead for this FA cup fourth round qualifying match. Due to our fine run, we are the favorites for this game, we created more chances than them and Jack Jeffrey scored the only goal of the game to send us through to the FA cup first round against Carlisle.

Last game of the month was against this relegation threaten team Northwich,  it was a rather easy game for us. We totally dominate this game, numerous chances was created but only 2 goals to show our dominance. Robin Shroot continue his fine form to score his 2nd goal of the season to give us the lead. The second came in injury time when my loan signing Andrew Isaac scored in close range to open his account for the club. He is one of the 4 loan signings that i made this month.

They are Ben Miller, a full back from Gillingham,  Freddie Warren, a midfielder and Andrew Isaac, a striker are from Charlton and lastly Kiernan Hughes-Mason, a striker and comfortable on the right flank is from Millwall. The loans will last for 3 months without us paying any wages. I signed them to give the squad some depth to deal with any injuries suffered to my players.

But i think Andrew Isaac has already started making an impact. From what i see, he is quite a team player and hold the ball well even though he is only 17. One of his main strength is his pace, take a look at his screenshot.

After going through the month unbeaten, my Thurrock team has climb to 14th place in the table with a game in hand. We are performing very well at the moments with 7 games unbeaten. Next month will be a very difficult month for us as we will facing 3 out of the top 5 teams in the table. If we can produce the goods against them, i will start believing that we can challenge for a promotion spot this season. I hope we can…

Next updates will be the November results, please come back to see how we fare against the top teams in the Blue Square Premier. See ya..