Thurrock-September 2014 results

Hello friends, here is another month of my Thurrock story updates. We did not have a great start to the new season, our new signings are still trying to blend into the squad. Hopefully once the players understand each other better, we will perform better for the coming months. I got another two defenders in last month to provide some backup to David King and Paul Sturrock. You can find the players here. We will be playing 6 games in September with a meeting against the leader Bournemouth. Some difficult games over there and lets take a look at the results.

Aside from the loss to Bournemouth, we were unbeaten for the rest of the games and got 4 wins and a draw. It was a good month for us as the players had shown better team work and understanding in those games.

First game of the month was against Torquay which we have a good record against them. It was a well even match with both teams having several shots in the first half with us hitting the woodwork twice. We got an early goal in the 5th minute when Thomas Hitchcock taking the ball to the right flank, spotted a run from Jonathan Worthington, spreading the ball to him to power a debut goal from 20 yards. Thomas Hitchcock continued his fine form when he produced a magic of his own to place a shot to the top right corner from 20 yards to double our lead in the 19th minute. It ended 2-0 in favor of us in the first 45 minutes. We allowed them to pull a goal back when we failed to pick up a run from their midfielder in the 64th minute. Paul Sturrock made sure of three points when his freekick was deflected to his own net by their goalkeeper.

We had never win against Rushden in our last two meetings with them. They were having a poor season and lying on 18th place. They looked strongly at home and keeping finding openings to tear our defence apart. We went a goal behind when they out-jumped my defender to head in a goal. Though we lack of creativity in the game but luckily for us we have individuals who can win the game for us. My favorite player Kevin McDonald played a precision pass to Thomas Hitchcock who made no mistake in putting the ball in the net for our equalizer. Rushden was still the better team after the break but with some slack defending, we went ahead when Thomas Hitchcock was unmarked and headed in a goal from a Paul Sturrock freekick. He completed his hat-trick in the 72th minute when his pace got better of their defender and slide the ball into the net. Another magnificent performance from him. Our in-form winger Moreno Marra picked up a knock in this game and was later confirmed that he will be out for 4 weeks. Luckily Kevan Hurst will resume training soon and i can employ him in the left midfield position.

A difficult home game coming up and we were facing the leader Bournemouth. Ever since the appointment of former Man Utd and Newcastle player Nicky Butt as their manager in 2013, they had seen a turn of fortunes in league 2. They finished 8th last season missing out on a play-off place. They had been entirely different this season. Both teams were defensively sound and discipline in this game and lack of any clear cut chances, in the end it took a wonderful freekick from their player in the 8th minute to inflict a defeat on us.  We got another injury in this fixture, my loan signing Petr Kopecky had a groin strain and will be out for 2-3 weeks. We lost another key player. What a blow!

Yeovil was lying on 20th place at the moment similar to the position where they finished 21st last season. If we got to challenge at the top, we need to win games against teams like Yeovil. We took an early lead in the 6th minute when Jonathan Worthington was fouled in the box and Thomas Hitchcock converted the penalty successfully. Things were level when we failed to clear a loose ball in the penalty area and was punished. Izale McLeod gave us the lead again through a counter attack when he dribbled half the pitch on the right flank and placed a shot pass the goalkeeper with a tight angle. But we failed to hold on to the lead when their player was unmarked at the far corner to head in a goal. I was angry with the defence to allow a player completely unmark. But David King calmed our nerves when he picked up the ball from a corner and power the ball into the net. We got another goal in the second half through Izale McLeod to prevent them from coming back to the game.

Darlington was having a poor season and lying at the bottom of the table. But they definitely don’t look like a bottom team when they faced us. Both teams had identical shots though we had better possession. They took the lead in the 22nd minute when their striker side-step my defender to slide the ball pass my goalkeeper. We went in search of the equalizer but couldn’t find a way through in the first half. We equalized soon after the break after some fine teamwork from my two strikers and Izale McLeod finished the move by sweeping the ball home suspicious of an offside position. We got the winner 8 minutes before the final whistle when Bram Meijer slide a through ball behind the defender and Thomas Hitchcock was there to put the ball in the net.

We were favorites to win against 17th place Morecambe and really took control of this game. Thomas Hitchcock our in-form player scored in the 35th minute to give us the lead. Although we were the much better team and restricted them to 1-2 shots but we couldn’t capitalize and went into the break leading by one goal. Kevan Hurst picked up a knock and was replaced by Matt Paine in 38th minute. We tried to open up the lead but just lack the finishing touch and even conceded a headed goal from a corner. The match ended 1-1 with us clearly the better team. Troy Archibad-Henville picked up a slight knock through the final minutes but lucky for us it was nothing serious as well as Kevan Hurst. They will be fit for the next game.

We climbed to 4th place on the table after the games played in September. Bournemouth will be the team to beat as they were unbeaten so far and leading comfortably. We still got a lot of work to do as it will be a long season. The injury to Moreno Marra will be a blow to us as Kevan Hurst doesn’t seems to produce the type of form when he is playing on the left. I will probably get a few loan wingers in next month. Without doubt, Thomas Hitchcock is definitely our player of the month where he scored 7 goal from the last 6 games, failing to find the net only in the fixture against Bournemouth.

We have a much more relax schedule next month playing 5 games along the month. A few difficult games awaiting us notably Cambridge, Stockport and Carlisle and the JPT fixture against league 1 side Charlton.

Dear friends, we conclude our second month with a place among the top and will be looking forward to hear your comments and feedback. Next post will be the updates of October results and i will see you then in my next post.

P.S Dear friends, i am doing a poll on will you buy the FMBritain’s Communication & Psychological Warfare ’10 – The Ultimate Football Manager 2010 Guide? Please find it at the side widget bar and vote your choice. I will vote Yes as i am really curious on some of the topics covering in the Chapter such as match build up, post match reactions and staff feedback etc. What about you?