Hello friends, we need to keep on fighting after having a series of poor results last month. We performed poorly against the title contenders and giving an impression to the media that we were just here to make up the numbers. Hopefully the players will pick themselves up and start performing to the fan’s expectations. Lets see whether the players had made some improvements in November.

We made a poor start to the month losing away to Wycombe but recovered well to remain unbeaten for the rest of the month. Though the team can only win one league game, we did well enough for the two cup games to progress to the FA cup third round.

First game of the month an away game to 12th Wycombe with us being the underdogs. It was in a heavy downpour there but both teams still managed to pass the ball around and few shot on goal. It was Wycombe who took the lead though when they placed a shot to the top corner which my goalkeeper had no chance. We tried to search for the equalizer but my players were wasteful in front of goal and denied twice by the woodwork. They were playing slightly better in the second half and their shot accuracy was much much better than us but luckily my goalkeeper Joe Woolley was in top form today saving every shot that came to him to make the score reputable. Our strikers did not have a good game and we lost because we could not find the net, lacking of finishing touch in the front end.

Our FA cup first round was against a non-league side. It was a game to rest some first team regulars and send on the fringe players. I believe you can see from the screenshot, we totally dominate the game and had countless of shots. Yet we went a goal behind in the 47th minutes, though we pulled a goal back 2 minutes later. We couldn’t take advantage of the possession we had and need to wait until 9 minutes before the final whistle before Izale McLeod scored the winner for the team. Seems like the players were still short of confidence and had trouble in putting the ball in the net. We really needed a win to boost the morale and performed better.

We welcome 20th place Lincoln to our Ship Lane stadium for the next game. It was a chance for the team to finally get a win in front of our fans. The game started with both team vying possession in the midfield area and playing attacking football. It was pretty even until they broke the deadlock in the 45th minutes. Immediately after the second half whistle, Thomas Hitchcock fired in an equalizer after putting through by Jonathan Worthington. Thomas turned provider when he made a cross from right flank and Moreno Marra headed in his first goal this season to give us the lead. We couldn’t hold the lead though and conceded the equalizer when they scored at the edge of the area. To make things worse, they led 3-2 after they scored anther goal with 8 minutes left. It was full of action in the second half, just when the fans consigned to another defeat, Thomas Hitchcock powered in a goal during injury time to give us a point. His late impact not only delighted the fans and me too.

Next was a difficult game away to 3rd place Oldham that was playing league 1 football last season. They were well on course to make a immediate return to league 1 which was expected by the media. We went into this match with counter strategy and was pleased to take a lead when Richard Jones headed in a goal from a corner. Our lead lasted for 7 minutes and they made things level with a close range shot. Bram Meijer was fouled when he was in a good position to take a shot and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Bram took the spot kick himself and converted beautifully. We led 2-1 in the first half. They came back strongly after the break and a period of dominance for them resulted in them scoring two goals. But luckily for us Vincent Nysson smashed a freekick in the 69th minute, his first goal  for the club to give us a point.

Finally finally we got our first win since September against 22nd place Macclesfield in our next home game. We were much more clinical in front of goal and the front two strikers performed very well in this match getting a goal each. First Thomas Hitchcock scoring a place shot after a nice pass from midfield and he provided an assist for Petr Kopecky to slide the ball into the net to give us a two goal lead. We allowed them to pull a goal back before the break when a simple cross from the opposition, my goalkeeper Sam Spender could not hold the ball properly and dropped it. Their striker was there to pounced on and put the ball into the empty net. Thats it, my patience had finally run out and i substitute him with Nikki Bull during the break. We restored the two goal advantage when Richard Jones headed his second goal of the season from a corner. Thanks to Jason from FMGuru, his corner settings really worked. Just need to have the right players for it. My nerves was up again when Nikki Bull pushed the ball into his own net where else he should had a better option of palming the ball away. I was really disappointed with the goalkeepers i have at the moment. Need some overhaul in that department when the season ends.

We had an additional match in this month and thats the FA cup 2nd round fixtures against Torquay. We had a very good record against them and never lost to them before. So i was pretty confident that we will progress to third round. It was pretty boring in the first half with neither teams seem capable of scoring a goal. Things looked better in the second half and there was more action from both teams. We concede a corner resulted in a goal in 61st minutes. Though we had chances after the goal but never seem able to convert the chances. I decided to take a gamble when time was ticking fast and ending. I sent in Kevan Hurst and change the flat 4-4-2 to a more attacking 4-4-2 formation pushing the wingers up. It paid off when Kevan Hurst got the equalizer and Thomas Hitchcock got the winner for us, both goals scored within 3 minutes. This was a formation that i never tried before but to my surprise the team actually played better after the switch. I believe i will make some trial on this 4-4-2 attacking formation for the next few games.

After the results in November, we dropped one place to 8th place and 12 points off the last automatic promotion spot. There were a few high scores games in this month which show defensively, we were still very poor but lucky for us that we had a bunch of good strikers to get us out of the mess. I will start using a much more attacking formation which probably my wingers will find it more comfortable to play with a higher position. I noticed that they were cutting more inside to the danger area which put them in a good position to test the goalkeeper. I hope we will see better results in December with the new formation.

Next month will see us playing 5 games with a possible FA cup third round match added to the calender. Thats it friends, my latest November updates on my Thurrock story. I will be looking forward to your comments and feedbacks. I will leave you here and see you in my next post Thurrock-December 2014 results.