Thurrock-August 2014 results

Hello friends, we had some nice workout last month and now we are well prepared and ready to go. I am as eager as you to find out how we are going to perform this season. Can my new signings transform us into a title contender?  Can we gain promotion to league 1 after the disappointment of losing the play-off last season?

We have a tough fixture coming up against MK Dons in our first game of the season. They were a league 1 side last season, definitely favorites for the title. What a great way to kick off the new season, in order for us to be the best, you need to beat the best. Lets find out how we perform in the first month.

It was a decent start from the team as we were still waiting for the new players to blend into the squad. Except for the losses against MK Dons and league cup 2nd round against Preston, we were unbeaten in the league having 2 wins and 2 draws.

Our first game against MK Dons was not an easy ride for us, i was really pleased with the performance of our players for the first 20 minutes. We passed the ball really well and it took a while for MK Dons to settled into the game. We had 57% of possession throughout the whole game and created more shots than them. But they had individuals who can create something out of nothing. We ended up losing three goals to suffer a defeat in our first game.

We were facing championship side Leyton Orient in this league cup first round. Frankly speaking i don’t expect my team to progress based on the difficult opponent we were facing. However my players really put up a strong performance and outplayed them in all departments. Though we tested their goalkeepers several times but we couldn’t find the goal and it was 0-0 in the first 45 minutes. We remained control of the game and finally took the lead in 84th minute when Thomas Hitchcock played his strike partner through and Izale McLeod made no mistake in putting the ball in the net. But we couldn’t hold on to the lead when they scored in the last minute to take the game into extra time. We were motivated to do well and Thomas Hitchcock who was brilliant up front scored a brace to give us a 3-1 lead. Though they scored another goal before the final whistle but we held on to win against a more reputable side.

In this fixture against Burton, it was another game which we dominated the whole game but could not get a result that justify our performance. The match ended 1-1 with us scoring first in the first half but unlucky to concede the equalizer after the break. I was really pleased with the performance of both my wingers Kevan Hurst and Moreno Marra. Their ratings had been above 7 in the last few games and looked dangerous going forward. Kevan Hurst is the only new signing that settled into the squad fast,the rest of the signings are still finding their feet in my Thurrock team.

We were still trying to wait for our first win for the new season and i was delighted to win our first game in this away tie against Grimsby. Both teams had equal shots and fair share of possession, but i think we were better in terms of defending at the back and going forward. One of my old guns Kevin McDonald was magnificent today, he scored two early goals to give us the win. First was a nice through ball from Petr Kopecky and the second was a well taken individual goal which he dribbled past two defenders to place a shot in the far corner.

Next game was against Bury which we haven’t lose to them in the past three meetings with them. We never really created a lot of chances but it was a game that we took our chances very well. Credit to Thomas  Hitchcock, it was a brilliant five star performance from him. All five goals were scored by him couple with 3 assist by Petr Kopecky. I was really surprised at how Thomas Hitchcock had matured this season. He took 40 games to score 10 goals last season but he already got 5 in our fourth league game of the season. However our delight was dampen a bit when Emmanuel Frimpong was taken off in the 35th minute and will be out for 3-5 weeks.

We got an additional game coming and that was the league cup 2nd round game against Preston. We couldn’t produce an upset this time because they sent out their strongest team against us. This showed that we were not to be underestimated after we knocked out Leyton Orient in the previous round. We tried our best to produce a fight and even had more possession but couldn’t turn the possession into chances. They had too much quality in their side and we were lucky to lose just by two goals.

One of the play-off teams last season, Kassam stadium is not an easy place to visit. They too were determined to starve off the disappointment of losing the play-off and be a success this season. Although we were second best throughout the whole game but we took the lead in the 17th minute through the in-form Thomas Hitchcock, another fine assist by Petr Kopecky. We concede an equalizer in the second half with an unlucky own goal by my goalkeeper Sam Spender. With them not taking advantage of their chances, we hold them off and was lucky to get a draw. We had three injuries suffered to my players in this match, all picking up knocks during the match. Robbie Threlfall and Kevan Hurst will be out for few weeks but i am glad that Thomas Hitchcock will be match fit for the next game.

We ended the month with 11th place out of 24 teams. Bournemouth had a great start winning all five games and leading the table. The new signings had been trying to blend into the squad and i am convinced once they have done that, we will get better and better. The injury to Kevan Hurst is certainly a blow as he has been performing very well since joining us. Bram Meijer will deputize for him while he is out. Thomas Hitchcock is surely our best player for this month scoring 8 goals in all competition with Moreno Marra not far behind with a rating of 7.57 .

Next month will see us playing 6 games with an early meeting with Bournemouth in mid-month.  Lets see whether my team has what it take to challenge with the current leader next month.

Dear friends, thats how we performed in the first month going into the new season. I will be looking forward to your comments and feedback.  I will see you in my next post Thurrock-September 2014 results updates.