Hello friends, welcome to my last post on the 2011/12 season. The fight to the play-off place is very tight at the moment with my Thurrock team sitting on 7th place few points off the last play-off spot. 5 games left and we need to gain as many points as we can. Can we reach the play-off place?

Lets take a look on the results..

It was not a great month for us, we managed 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. We had some difficult games in this month mainly against our closest rivals Accrington and Mansfield. My team could not overcome them and can only gain draws against them. It was an easy win against Forest Green and AFC Wimbledon though. The last play-off spot will be going down to the last wire. After 4 games played, this is how we stand…

5) Accrington 78 points

6) Mansfield 78 points

7) Thurrock 77 points

We need to do well in the last game and hope that my rivals slip up in the last game. Our last game was against Stevenage, a difficult opponent that were relegated from league 2. We were determined to get the last play-off place and frankly speaking we played fairly well. We took the lead as early as in the 9 minutes. But bad news filter in from the announcer that Accrington and Mansfield were leading their opponent at the moment. I think that affect the players a bit and a lapse of concentration , we conceded 2 goals in 2 minutes. I tried to urge my players from the sideline and we equalized 4 minutes later. It was 2-2 in the first half.During the break, I urged my players to ignore the results elsewhere and focus their job on the field. But i think there were already feeling downhearted, we couldn’t score and even conceded a late goal in injury time. And news keep filtering in, Accrington and Mansfield both won their game. Accrington got the last play-off spot with a superior goal difference over Mansfield, we remained in 7th place. The final table look like this..

Luton was the elite team in this division and no teams can challenge them for the title. Cambridge Utd won the promotion to league 2 after winning the play-off final against Crawley. Even though we have a good run towards the end of season, but there are far too many draws and the 2 defeat in February definitely got a say on the play-off place. Anyway the season is already over, as a manager i should be looking forward and not dwell on the past results. There are a few position that i have to strengthen for next season. With the experience and lesson learnt, i believe we are more well equipped to challenge for the title next season.

Players Ratings

In overall i thought that we had a good season, exceeding the board and fans expectation. Kevin Macdonald is definitely the cream of the corp managing 10 goals and 19 assist in all competition with an overall rating of  7.39. He was my player of the season this season and was also selected in the players team of the year. However Thurrock fans doesn’t seem to agree with me . Troy Archibald-Henville was instead pick  as the fans player of the year this season.

My board was happy with what i had achieved so far and had offered me a new 2 year contract which saw me extend my stay to 2014. I accepted it without any hesitation as i really love the club and the support given by the fans. My chairman is a very passionate and supportive guy, finances in the club is very bad, we are almost 250k in red. This exclude the cash injection by the board. I can’t remember how many times they had done that but everytime they are willing to bring the money in order to keep the club afloat. I think the fans of Thurrock should be grateful to them.

I already have big plans set for next season and start clearing the players i don’t need. Phil Anderson and Jack Jeffery was given green light to leave the club as there are offers coming in for them. I don’t think they are good enough for this level and it is better to give them a chance to further their career elsewhere. I need to reduce wage too in order to sign new players.

Dear friends thats how my Thurrock team fares for the 2011/12 season. Next post will be the first post of 2012/13 season, i will give you an update of the squad and the transfer news. See you in my next post Thurrock-2012/13 Pre-Season.