Thurrock-2013/14 Season Ends

Hello friends, welcome to the last post of my Thurrock 2013/14 season. This will an extremely long post as i will give you the details of our remaining seven games as well as the play-off if we can make it. We had reached the final stage of the season, within minutes we will know whether we will achieve a play-off spot or miraculously gaining a direct promotion spot to league 1. Just 4 wins out of 10 games in the last 2 months had definitely affect our chances of taking the last automatic promotion spot which is 3rd place. Nevertheless we still need to push hard and aim as high as we can. Are we able to reach the play-off or one step further gaining direct promotion to league 1? Lets find out.

First game of the month was against 17th place Accrington with us no victory upon them in the last five meetings. They like to play possession football and were controlling the game in the first half but without much clear cut chances. We continued our poor form in the first half and both teams went into the break with the score 0-0. I gave my players a piece of my mind during the break hoping that they will perform better. Mitchell McPike was giving away freekicks recklessly and was on a yellow card, i decided to replace him with David King. It was a masterstroke as David King became the hero in this game scoring two goals both running from deep to score from close range. During the game, Kevin McDonald pick up a knock and luckily he will only be out for 9-12 days. At this point of time, i really need my players to be fit and ready for the remaining games. It was a different second half performance from my players and we record a win at the start of the month.

We traveled to 18th place Bury for our next game. They were missing a lot of first team players and we took control of the game from the start of whistle. Our first goal came in the 8th minute after a quick counter attack saw Roel Smit received the ball from a long pass. He dribbled down the right flank drawing the defender out of position and squared the ball the Izale McLeod who was unmarked  to power a goal. It was 1-0 in the first half. They hardly came back into the game in the second half and we doubled our lead when Roel Smit scored a loose goal from the corner after some slack defending from the opposition players. We won the match by two goals to make it two wins in a row.

Next was a difficult game against 2nd place Rochdale, they were well on course to promote to league 1 and wouldn’t want us to spoil their party. We had a terrible first half and they stormed to three goal lead inside 45 minutes. Their regen loan signing was the man at the moment as he scored two and made the other one. I was upset at the players about how easy they managed to score against us. But i try to encourage the players in the dressing room as their morale is quite low. They showed up putting a better performance in the second half. We managed to score two goals, both scored by Izale McLeod. With 20 minutes left, i urged the players to search for the equalizer but just couldn’t find the final touch. We lost 2-3 to a better team today.

We got a great chance to return back to winning ways against 21st place Darlington. I went for a control strategy and the players did what they were expected to do. They took hold of possession from the start and totally control the game from start to finish. However we couldn’t get the goal in the first half due to some great goalkeeping and missed chances. The first goal came in the 51st minute when Kevin McDonald threaded a through ball to Izale McLeod who made no mistake in giving us the first goal. Izale turned provider when he fed his strike partner Gary Alexander to power in a goal to give us a 2-0 win.

Last game of the month was an important game for us as we were meeting 3rd place Bradford. We are three points behind them so if we can win against them we are just behind them on goal difference. This was a game which i thought we were the better team. We created a few clear cut chances but our players put it to waste only two shots were on target and the rest either going wide or saved. The match went on with 25 minutes left and i was disappointed that our defenders did not pick up a run by their striker and bang, the ball went into the net and thats the only goal of the game. With this goal, we had blown our chances of obtaining the last automatic promotion spot. We were now 6 points behind them.

After the games played in April, lets take a look on the position at the top. Luton and Rochdale had won promotion to league 1. Most likely Bradford will be joining them as 3rd place. We are still in contention for a play-off place and we need to win at least one of the game in our remaining two games to achieve that. So on to the matches in May.

Next game will determined whether we will achieve a play-off place. We were facing 23rd place team Wrexham that was determined to avoid relegation. My scout told me that they liked to play defensive football but they gave my team a shock when they came all out at us. Our goal was under siege for so many times that i lost count, they managed to get a goal in in the 8th minute. The goal woke up the players and for the next 10-15 minutes we had a spell of dominance but couldn’t find the equalizer. We managed to level the score when Brett Slade headed in a goal from a cross. It was 1-1 in the first half. Both teams took turn to fire shots at each other, it was brilliant attacking football by both teams. They double their lead in the 60th minute  due to a lapse of concentration from my defenders. Luckily we got a savior in our team and that is Izale McLeod, he placed a shot in after a fine through ball to the penalty area. But not long after he sustained a broken ankle and cannot carry on. We continued the game at 10 man as i had made all substitutions. For the last ten minutes, it was all Wrexham but we held them off for a draw.

With one game left, Luton was confirmed as Champions of league 2. The draw against Wrexham was enough to win us a play-off place but i got a bad news that Izale McLeod will be out for 3 months. Thats a blow to our play-off chances.  When a 23rd place can create loads of chances against us, i wonder how are we going to win the play-offs. Especially without Izale McLeod in the team, we are not too optimistic about our chances.

Last game of the season was against Rushden a 10th place team. As the results of the game does not have any impact on us and the other strikers has been performing poorly, i went for 4-3-2-1 formation putting three midfielders to counter any threat we have. Probably the players are not familiar with the new tactics, thus we don’t really perform well in this game. We ended up losing 1-2. Seems like we still have the injury jinx, Ignasi Miquel picked up a knock during the game and will be out for 2 weeks.

Few days later, we are informed that our play-off opponent will be Stockport. It was a difficult draw for us as they never lost to us in the two meetings we face each other.

Stockport was too strong for us, a lot of our players had very low morale and it can be clearly seen that the players were short of confidence. They were giving ball away and suddenly don’t understand how to defend. Our first leg saw a record attendence of 4500 fans turned up for the match, almost full house. But we disappointed our fans by losing by a single goal. We were worse in the 2nd leg and was thrashed by 4-1. With us going out of the play-offs, that conclude our season exceeded all expectations to reach the play-off but just do not have enough quality to win promotion to league 1. In the other play-off match, Dag & Red won against Oxford and will be meeting Stockport in the final. Dag & Red won the final 2-1 to join Luton, Rochdale and Bradford to play league 1 football while Wrexham and Brentford were relegated to Blue Square Premier next season. Here is how the final table look like.

Our final position of 6th place told us that we had a successful season but i was not happy with the performance of the players in the last few months. I can’t figure out out of a sudden they were not playing the kind of football shown in the early stages. There were a lot of mistakes and poor performances by the players. In certain games, looking at the way they played made me want to vomit blood.

Not much outstanding players in the squad apart from last season’s best 2 players Izale McLeod and Kevin McDonald. Izale scored a total of 31 goals with 12 assists and 12 MOM in all competition. He had the highest rating of 7.29. Next best player is Kevin McDonald who scored 3 goals, made 17 and had 5 MOM. He has an average rating of 7.19. The players had gone for holiday and it was time for season look back. I need to decide who to keep and who has to go. I think i will released majority of the players as they simply could not cope with the demand of the level of play in league 2. With the clubs free of debt and a healthy balance of 430k, i hope the board can be generous and give me a higher wage budget.

Ok friends, thats how my Thurrock team finish in the 2013/14 season. I will welcome any of your feedbacks and comments on improving the squad etc.  Thanks for reading and i will see you next season.