Thurrock-2012/13 Season Ends

Hello friends, finally the last stage of our push for promotion has come. We are certainly in a very good position right now, has a game in hand and leading at the top of the table with 4 points separate us and 2nd place Accrington. It is a conjested month for us as we have to play 7 games this month. Can my Thurrock team defy all odds to win promotion to league 2? Lets find out.

First game of the month, we were away to AFC Wimbledon hoping to beat them in their own ground. I went into this game full of confidence as they were currently fighting against relegation. But the results wasn’t meant for me to take as they were determined to avoid the drop and gave us a scare when they took the lead in the 4th minute. My top scorer Izale Mcleod equalized in the 30th minute after a fine pass by Kevin Macdonald. Both teams went into the break with the scores level. It was the same scenario in the second half when they scored another not long after the break. Both times we needed to come back from behind to gain the equalizer. This was quite an even match with both sides cancelling each other out and the game ended a draw. I was a bit disappointed as i think this was a game we should had won.

Next game was against our rivals Ebbsfleet, we disappointed our fans one more time by losing to our rivals. I don’t know why we always seem to struggled against them. This is our fifth meeting with them and the record showed 3 losses and 2 draws. The players never really get it going and performed poorly from defenders to strikers. I had no complains regarding the results and we deserved to lose 1-3. 1 draw and 1 loss is definitely not a good start, we are giving our rivals a chance to close in on us. Luck seems to follow us as our rivals are all dropping points. Accrington suffered 2 defeats, Cheltenham 1 win and 1 loss and York with 2 draws. So we are still leading 2nd place Cheltenham 4 points with a game in hand.

We were playing this game in hand and this time my players got back to winning ways in front of our home fans. After some inter-change passing around the midfield area, Thomas Hitchcock powered home a goal 13 seconds from the start of whistle. He scored another in the 73rd minute centered by a Kevin Macdonald goal. A lack of concentration allowed them to score a consolation goal in injury time. Overall it was good win for us. My rivals were not playing and we opened up the lead to 7 points now.

The next game was arguably the most important game of the month as this was against Accrington, one of the title contenders.  A title deciding match became unbearable that i wished i was not there to watch the full game. My players were so poor tonight that i can’t recognized them on the field. The defenders were making a lot of mistake and Accrington easily put 4 goals pass us. If you take a look at the screenshot, you will see that my players had a average rating of 6.00. Probably pressure caught up with them, i don’t know but Cheltenham and Accrington had cut the lead to 4 and 5 points respectively. There was still a lot of work to do.

We had gotten used to score early goals this season and this was another game when we took the lead under 1 minute. Stevenage made things difficult for themselves when they had a player sent off for professional foul which resulted us awarding a penalty. But their goalkeeper saved the penalty by Simon Heslop. They switched to defensive with a man down and we control and dominate the match from that on. The highlight of the game was Izale Mcleod scoring a hat-trick in this game.

Before the game was played, the table looks like this. Thurrock – 87 points, Cheltenham – 83 points and Accrington – 82 points. I did not mentioned York as they had dropped out of the title race after a series of poor results. I kept looking at the latest scores by other two teams when playing Stevenage. Cheltenham was leading Mansfield 3-0 and Accrington was trailing 0-1 by half time. But the final results was totally different when i rechecked it after the game had ended. Mansfield came from behind to draw 3-3 with Cheltenham and Accrington came from behind to win 4-1.  So the table stands at Thurrock – 90 points, Accrington – 85 points and Cheltenham – 84 points. We only needed a draw in our next game to get our hands on the title. Between Accrington and Cheltenham, i was more wary of Cheltenham as they had a more superior goal difference than us so you can imagined my delight when they draw their last match.

They inflict a defeat on us back in November so they will possess some threat to our title chances. I tried to emphasized to my players how important this match is. The road to glory was here and we only need to walked pass it. They showed it on the field that they wanted to lay their hands on the title and we stormed to 2 goal lead in the first half with a Troy Archibad-Henville header and an own goal by their player. They pulled a goal back right after the break but Izale Mcleod and Troy Archibad-Henville made sure we can’t be caught with another 2 second half goals. With this win, we definitely can’t be caught now and the BSP title is ours. Yes we have done it. We had made history in promotion to league 2. It was a marvelous day for all the fans and our board too. Just look at the board and the fans reaction.

The success of Thurrock was totally unexpected before the start of the season, but my players really stand up to the challenge. I must thank them for the efforts and commitment in making Thurrock a force to reckon with in the near future. It will be one step closer to the premier league and we will keep on working towards that goal.

The celebrations continued but we still had 1 more game left in the schedule. Last game of the month and season was against Kidderminster, it was played in our Ship Lane stadium. The whole stadium was in a carnival atmosphere as we had a record attendence with 2714 fans with us to witness us collecting our BSP trophy. My players were determined to end the season on a high and although it was a drab match, we won the game 1-0 to give further joy for the fans.

The final table looks like this after the last match, i believe the reason that we were be able to crowned champion mainly we had fewer draws than our rivals. Especially in the last month while we were suffering from bad results, they couldn’t take advantage of that to close in on us. Accrington got promoted with us after beating Cheltenham in the play-off final. Stevenage, Tamworth, Hampton & Richmond and Chelmsford were relegated to BSN and BSS respectively.

Lets take a look at the players who made the most contributions to our successful season. There is no argument that the best player is Izale Mcleod who scored a whopping 37 goals this season. Second is Kevin Macdonald who contributed 3 goals but created 24 goals for his team mates. These two players are the ones who drives us on this season, they were both selected into players team of the year for this season.

We swept most of the awards near end season, first i was voted as the manager of the year award and Izale Mcleod was voted player of the year, he was also the BSP top scorer among all the players. Thurrock fans also voted him as the fans player of the year award for his performances.

The challenge facing us next season will definitely be greater as there will be more difficult opponents awaiting us. With the club still running in debts, i don’t know what is the wage budget the board will present to me. I will act accordingly and that will be updated in my pre-season post for next season. While now i will sit down have a drink to enjoy our achievements with the players and everyone associated with Thurrock.

There you go my friends, we ended the season with the target achieved and i will be happy to hear your comments. In real life, Chinese New Year is round the corner, i will have the celebrations with my family and friends these few days. For those of you who don’t celebrate, i still want to wish you Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentines Day.