Hello friends, finally the new season is under going but before we go to the actual games, we have some workout in the friendly games. There are a lot of friendlies to be played, i try to rotate the players to get their match fitness back as they had just returned from holiday.

A few high scoring results there, the only defeat is to championship team Peterborough but the result had been expected as they are few divisions on top of us. The new signings had adapted very well especially the new strikers. They had scored a total of 18 goals between them. It was a nice workout for the team as they need sometime to foster the understandings.

The media predicts us to finish 15th this season, the bet is firmly against us too. We were expected to struggled and fighting a relegation battle. I think thats a joke from them to lessen my pressure on the job. Anyway based from what i saw from the friendly, we definitely have what it takes to challenge for the title.

Finally the actual game arrives, however i received a bad new that Thomas Hitchcock had injured himself in training and will be out for 2-3 months. He was a bit downhearted as he had perform very well in the friendly games bagging 6 goals and 2 assists. I am not too worried about it as he is my 3rd choice striker at the moment.

We will be having some difficult fixtures in August as we will be facing 4 titles contenders in a row. I admit that this will not be an easy month for us but after this few games, it will at least give me some idea where my team stands. Do we have the quality to challenge for the title this season?  Here is the results.

We had played 5 games in August and got 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. I was pretty happy with the results as the opposition was very strong and the players really respond to the challenge.

First game of the season was against Mansfield, if you remember they are one of our rivals competing for the last play-off spot last season. They only missed out on goal difference. It was not easy to face them for the first game but interesting fact is that our record against them is good. We had not lost to them for the past 2 meetings. The game starts by them having better possession and we conceded a own goal in the 18 minutes. It was an unlucky goal as a attempted long shot hit the goal post, bounce back and hit the head of my goalkeeper Joe Woolley and deflected into the net. We equalized 2 minutes later when Izale Mcleod robbed the ball of the defender and hit a low shot to the net to record his first goal for the club. We went into the break with the score level. Both team were trying to search for the winner in the second half and it was us who got it. A swift counter in  the 51 minutes saw my substitute Kiernan Hughes-Mason intercept a pass and run down the right flank to send a perfect cross for Steven Leslie to drive it in. Well, another new signing scored in his debut. Though they tried to come back into the game but we held on to give us a perfect start to the new season.

Next was a visit to London underhill stadium to face Barnet, a team that the media predict a 8th finish for them. I am full of confidence with my team now and came with a standard strategy, not counter attacking game as i usually employ. We were full of movement on the pitch trying to look for chances to break the defence. We took the lead in 22 minutes, Izale Mcleod hit a long shot which the goalkeeper pushed it away. It dropped back to Izale who slid a pass to Marc Richard who simply can’t miss at this range to score his first goal for the club. We were still the better team after the break and we doubled the lead in 56 minutes. Kevin Macdonald send a delightful chip over the defender to the path of Izale Mcleod who hit it first time to make it 2-0. It was a wonderful win but to the expense of my key defender Troy Archibad-Henville. He picked up a groin strain that will put him out for 5-6 weeks.

Another difficult fixture awaiting us in our home ground. Our next opponent was Histon, they finished 4th last season. The game was pretty even with both teams having equal shots. The main difference was probably our strikers was more clinical in front of goal. Marc Richards continued his good form from the last game to score a brace in this game. First goal was scored in a acute angle in the near post. The second was after a series of scuffle of the ball, David King headed the ball to the 6 yard box and Marc was there to bang it in. It was a fine debut by Frederic Veseli, who came in to replace the injured Troy Archibad-Henville.

We will be visiting Cheltenham in our next game, they were playing league 2 football last season. They were definitely think of going straight back up as they were domination the possession and testing my goalkeeper. But we took a shock lead in 5 minutes when Kiernan Hughes-Mason headed in a goal from the corner. With the support of their home fans, they kept attacking and was rewarded when they made things level in 32 minutes. It was 1-1 in the first half. Frederic Veseli picked up a knock just before the whistle and i had to replace him with Ignasi Miquel the young Spaniard. We were a goal behind when his inexperience was shown on the field after he conceded a penalty in 63 minutes. To make things worse we conceded another goal 4 minutes before the final whistle, from what i see, it was Ignasi Miquel again who was beaten to a header by opposition player. Though we pulled a goal back immediately, we lost the game 2-3.  Cheltenham was better than us today and i can’t have any complains even thought the goals were scored due to Ignasi Miquel’s error.

Fleetwood was a team that was playing BSN football last season, the relegation candidates is having a good season. They only suffered 1 defeat in the last 4 games. Early in the game i had to make a substitute as Josh Falkingham picked up a knock and i do not want to risk him on the field. Our defence was terrible in this game and i was very shocked when a relegation candidate team can put 3 goal pass us easily. It was always a difficult task to overturn a 3 goal deficit. But in football you will never know until you hear the final whistle. I had my strategy changed to attacking and made the final 2 substitutes. It made the difference. First Kevin Macdonald smashed in a freekick to claw a goal back in the 67 minutes. Paul Hakim, my substitute scored from close range after putting through by Robin Shroot, an early substitute who replaced Josh Falkingham. The comeback was finally achieved when Kiernan Hughes-Mason powered in a corner in 85 minutes. I was a relieved man after the game as it would be our 2nd defeat in a row if we lost it. I was pleased with the determination of my players.

We were in 3rd place after 5 games played. The season was still early  and there are a lot of games to be played.  Overall i am quite please with the performance of the players, a lot of them having rating of 7 and above. Best is Kiernan Hughes-Mason and Marc Richards sharing the same rating of 7.34. Kiernan Hughes-Mason was also selected as the young player of the month for August. He definitely make the right midfield his own even though his natural position is a striker. Robin Shroot has a lot of work to do before he can get his place back.

Dear friends, how do you think about the results of my Thurrock team? We will be having a busy schedule next month, 7 games in total. Beside Crawley, the rest of the opposition is not so strong. This is the month that i expected my team to gather as many points as possible to climb up the table.

That was it for the first month of the new 2012/13 season, i will see you in my next post Thurrock-September 2012 results.