FMstory

Hello friends, we suffered a number of injuries last month which had saw us dropped to 6th place. There are a lot to play for in the next few months as the table at the top is extremely tight with 5-6 teams claiming on the play-off place. Luton and Rochdale most likely will claim the top two position unless they go terribly out of form. Its up to the rest of the teams to grab the last automatic promotion spot and four play-off places. From now onwards, there is no room for any mistakes and our players need to show the form in the early stages to climb up the table. Lets find out how we do in March.

We had another poor month with 2 wins and 3 draws. The players seem short of confidence and most of the players were not performing at their best which is a worrying signs to us at this final stage to the season.

First game of the month was against 18th place Tranmere, it was a chance for us to get back to winning ways. Seems like our bad luck on injuries had not gone away as Paul Sturrock picked up a knock and i had to replace him in the 13th minute. We took the lead 2 minutes later when Gary Alexander was the first to react after their goalkeeper had palmed out a shot from Izale McLeod. Izale was in great form since returning from injury and he added two goals to bring his tally to 23 goals in all competition. He scored his first goal from close range after put through by David King and added his second goal with a powerful effort from the edge of the area in 70th minutes. They pulled a goal when Nikki Bull deflected a goal into his own net. We had a good start of the month by winning 3-1. It was later confirmed that Paul Sturrock will be out for 3-4 weeks due to his injury.

Next was an important game against 3rd place Dag & Red, we should had won the game. But my laptop hang up just when our team scored a goal. End up i got to restart and load the file to play again. But the results was totally different as we succumbed to a two nil loss. Their first goal came in the 56th minute when a through pass put their striker on a good position to score a goal. We had a chance to equalize but Thomas Hitchcock wasted the opportunity on the penalty spot. I switched to attacking trying in vain to search for the equalizer but we conceded another goal through a counter attack. I was a bit disappointed as the gap between them and us had opened up to 4 points.

We were seriously low in confidence and it was bad time to face the leaders Luton at this moment. We never get going in this match and was totally outclassed by Luton. For a long period of time, we couldn’t even get the ball out of our own half. Even when the time we had the ball, possession was always lost to the opposition. I tried a few instructions such as retain possession, pass to feet, hassle opponents etc but the players still performed poorly. They scored the only goal of the game due to an error by Robbie Threlfall. If we do not show any improvement for the rest of the games, i think we can say bye bye to the play-off place.

Next game was against 22nd place Walsall, they had been bottom of the table for long periods but because of Brentford’s woeful form they climb out of the relegation zone. It was a match that we had to win to regain our confidence back. We stormed to a three goal lead in the first half. Izale Mcleod scored two goals and Ignasi Miquel headed in a goal from a corner. With the two goals, Izale McLeod had become the all time record scorer of 56 goals for Thurrock. But we were still showing lapse of concentration at the back and allowed them to pull two goals back. Luckily Troy Archibad-Henville made sure of all 3 points directing the ball in from a freekick in injury time.

Last game of the month was against 21st place Yeovil, i expected my players to win this game but we were still showing the poor form that hindered us from closing in the teams at the top. Their striker scored a hat-trick, the first goal was brilliant dribbled past our defender to score in close range. But we conceded the other 2 goals that you my fellow FM players surely encountered before. He scored at the edge of the area twice which the ball fly to the top corner. The media is picking on my goalkeeper but i don’t think any other keeper would have save that kind of shot.  And yet the long shot attributes of the scorer is just 3. But i won’t be using it as an excuse as my players perform rather poorly in this game. Though we pulled a goal back, i don’t think we will be able to win the game even without those 2 goals.

Well, no change on our position. We are still in contention for a play-off spot. But i don’t think we will be able to achieve the direct promotion spot due to the poor form shown in the last two months. Our hope is that the players do not under-perform any further with the last 7 games left in our calender.

Next month will see us playing 5 games, i don’t see any weak opposition over there as any team can beat us if we perform poorly. Its up to ourselves to collect the three points regardless of whoever we meet.

Ok friends, this is the latest update on the results in March. Thanks for reading and i will be happy to hear your comments and feedback. Most likely i will post together with my last two results play in May. So next post will be my last post Thurrock-2013/14 Season Ends.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!