Thurrock-January 2014 results

Hello friends, it is a brand new year and the challenge of bringing my Thurrock team to the Premier League is still underway. We ended 2013 on a high and was unbeaten for 15 games in all competition. The transfer window will be opening soon and i need to look for players to secure some loans until the end of the season as all my loan signings will be returning back to their clubs soon. They have been performing well in my team and i wonder whether the loan can be extended since the transfer window is opened. I am glad that the loan can be extended and i managed to extend the loan of Moreno Marra, Brett Slade, Mitchell McPike and Roel Smit.  Aaron wildig doesn’t want to extend the loan with us and will return to cardiff when his loan is up. I secured another 3 loan players in this month and they were Ernesto(Right-Back from Chelsea), Adam Miller(Defensive Midfielder from Man Utd) and Nathan Lloyd(Left Winger from Cardiff).

Biggest game of the month without doubt will be the FA cup 3rd round match against Aston Villa. We had an injury news before the month, my left-back Robbie Threlfall injured himself in training and will be out for 6-7 weeks. It was a blow to him as he was eagerly anticipating the match against Aston Villa. So lets see how the month goes.

The loss to Aston Villa was expected and the hiccup against Grimsby when we had an off day. The rest of the games saw us winning three of the league games and a draw. Overall, it was not a bad month for us.

First game of the month saw us playing 11th place Rushden on first day of the year. Both teams went into the game with attacking mentality and plenty of goals for the audience. We went a goal behind when a poor clearance allowed them to score from the penalty area. We hit them back immediately when a through pass from Kevin McDonald found Moreno Marra who beat the offside trap to power in the equalizer. Confidence soon grew and we took the lead after some fine teamwork from the players. Kevin McDonald squared a ball to Izale Mcleod at the edge of the box and he smashed in a goal giving the goalkeeper no chance. But we couldn’t keep the lead and they got the equalizer just before the half time whistle. They were fairly better in the second half but conceded a own goal to us from a corner which is deflected in by their goalkeeper. We tried to protect the lead but they were determined to come back and finally got the equalizer in the 77th minute. The match ended 3-3. It was a fair result as neither teams seem capable of winning the game.

The match that we are waiting for is finally here. We will be going to Villa Park to face mighty Aston Villa. I believe this is the biggest game that we ever have so far. They fielded most of the reserve players and a couple of youngsters, but they still had Gabby Agbonlahor up front, Steven Sidwell and Fabian Delph ruling the midfield. Every touches that they had turned into shots at goal, we were expected to lose and we got thrashed by 4 goals. In fact i had my goalkeeper to thank for keeping the scores down, he was our only positive in this match. A regen youngster from the Villa squad caught my eye and he was the MOM for this game scoring two goals for Villa. His name is Andrew Bond. Take a look at his screenshot.

He is only 18 and his attributes is amazing definitely a future England international. I will keep an eye on him, and who knows if we ever got promoted, will surely make a loan move for him. After the game ended, i checked up my finance page and was delighted to know that we received almost 580k in gate receipts. Our debts was immediately cleared and now we had a balance of 430k in the books which was certainly good news for the club.

Next game saw us pit against Bournemouth who knocked us out for the JPT competition. We wanted some revenge on them and we got a great start when nice teamwork between the strikers and Izale Mcleod slide the ball pass the goalkeeper after a fine assist by Roel Smit. They created few chances and threaten our goal a few times but luckily their shot doesn’t has any accuracy on it. We doubled our lead when a cross by Paul Sturrock was headed in by their own defender without any challenge from our players. They tried to come back and got the equalizer in first half injury time. Second half was a boring affair with both teams guilty of missing some easy chances and the scores remain as it is. We got another injury in Troy Archibad-Henville, luckily the lay-off is not long only out for 9-12 days.

Next game was against 15th place Grimsby, they had a very strong home record with only 2 loss in Blundell Park. We were unbeaten for two months and sooner or later a defeat will arrive but i never expect to lose in this game. We never really get going and this is our worst performance so far. Without Troy Archibad-Henville, there was no compose figure at the back and our defenders were day dreaming on the field. We ended up suffered our worst defeat of the season. Even some harsh words from half time doesn’t seems to motivate the players. Probably this is just our off day.

We returned to Ship Lane for the next game against Lincoln. They have pretty good players in front and we need to find ways to contain them. The game started by them taking the initiative and finding space to break down our defence. Our first real chance resulted in a goal when Izale Mcleod feed his strike partner Roel Smit in a good position to score a goal. But they equalized 4 minutes later when a mistake by Ignasi Miquel allowed their player to head in a goal. The rest of the half was a boring affair and we went into the break with the scores level. The second half was pretty even and shots were few and even. we had the last laugh when Roel Smit dribbled down the right flank and sent a pass to Thomas Hitchcock who powered in a goal from a very tight angle. It was a hard fought win for us and i am glad the players responded after the defeat to Grimsby

Last game of the month was against 18th place Torquay, we had a narrow win against them in September. It was pretty the same in this game, they were very compact at the back and posed a lot of problems for us. It took a great vision from Brett Slade who had just returned from injury, he spotted the run from Izale McLeod and sent a perfect cross to him. Izale slide the ball pass the goalkeeper into the net to score the only goal of the game. We suffered another injury bad news in this game, Izale McLeod sustained a twisted knee and will be out for 4 weeks.

This month saw us consolidated our position at the top and we actually went one place further climbing to 4th place. Bradford that was behind us has a game in hand and we will drop to fifth if they won their game. We were very close to the top and with a chance to gain a direct promotion spot.

Next month will see us playing five fixtures with the most important game against Burton. Though Izale McLeod will probably be missing all the fixtures but i have confidence with the pairing of Roel Smit and Thomas Hitchcock up front, i hope they don’t disappoint.

Thats how my team fares in the first month of 2014. Dear friends, thanks for reading and i will be glad to hear your comments and feedback. I will see you in my next post Thurrock-February 2014 results.