Premiership

March Results

We had a busy month as there are seven games waiting for us. We had no problems demolishing 21st place Derby by four goals with Freddie Sears scored his first goal this season. Next game against Barnsley was the Bressan show as he ran the midfield and hit two brilliant goals. The other goal was scored by Yaya Sanogo. Our winning run was then halted by two of our rivals. The team behind us Peterborough hold us to a 1-1 draw in front of our own fans and it was all square in St Andrews against Birmingham.

We got back to winning ways against 18th place Southampton as we saw them off 3-1 in The Boleyn Ground. Brighton who played a delightful passing game inflicted us our third defeat of the season by a single goal. Last match of the month against Reading saw Federico Macheda scored a brace to give us another three points.

Player of the Month: Yaya Sanogo

This young French kid is taking the Championship by storm this month as he scored four goals. His physical strength posed a lot of problems for his markers and he is only 19 years old.

We were delighted we have won the Championship at 95 points with six games left. Peterborough is twenty points behind us and there is no chance for the rest of the teams to overtake us.

As we were expected to finish 1st, the board is just please that i did not let them down. The fans are definitely happier as they will be tasting Premier League action again.

Remaining Games

It’s very common to see the players slacking down after winning the Championship. We only managed two wins, three draws and a loss. This month also saw Miles Addison scored his first goals for the club.

Table

This is how the Championship finish. We are the Champions and the two teams joining us in Premier League are Peterborough and Burnley who beat Nottingham Forest in the play-off final. The teams that got relegated are Derby, Leeds and Watford.

Players Rating

A number of players deserved some credit for our way to promotion. James Tomkins(Fans Player of the Year) is the best of the best. He is a rock at the back and his 10 goals also help us to win in some games. Bressan turned out to be a solid buy for us among the new signings. His biggest contribution comes from his 17 assists and also contributed 5 goals. Federico Macheda and Frederic Piquionne are our goal sources. Together they scored 42 goals, almost half of our goal tally. My decision to take Jordan Spence back from loan paid off handsomely with him commanding a regular place in my line-up.

Even though we are the champions but we lost out on a number of awards. I was third place in the manager of the year award. Our performance is better in the players team of the year with four members from West Ham. Another consolation is the beautiful goal scored by John Lindpere was voted goal of the season.

Tough Challenges Ahead

Our financial situation is terrible. From 32 million in the bank, plunged to a debt of 6 million now. I just have to live with it. We need to pay the bank more than 600k every month.

To be frank, i don’t know what i will be getting next season. Looking at the financial mess, the challenges ahead is getting tougher. I just hope to receive a decent budget to increase our chances of surviving in the Premier League.

We have fulfilled our expectation of going straight up. I am looking forward to next season though it will be tough. I hereby conclude my first season report. Thanks for reading and following the story. Looking forward to any comments you might have. Cheers!

FA Cup

After the disappointment of exiting from the League Cup, i hope to go further in the FA cup but our draw was a tough one. We were due to face Premiership side West Brom. The game at home finished as a goalless draw and we were away to West Brom for the replay.

We were able to match West Brom for large period and even took a lead through Frederic Piquionne but West Brom launched a late fightback and scored two late goals. The winner came at injury time and it was a stunner, 25 yards thunderous shot which gave Robert Green no chance. With this defeat, we were out of all cup competition and we can focus all our energy in the promotion.

Championship

November

We continued where we left in October with another strong performance in November. Goals from each department gave us a good start by beating a strong Southampton side 3-0 away. James Tomkins was our savior in the next game against Reading as he demonstrated his aerial strength to head in two goals for us. Brighton who played 4-1-2-1-2 seemed to pose us a lot of problems with their short passing as we were lucky to avoid a defeat at home.

We scored a vital win against one of our rivals Nottingham Forest. The game was largely squared but a mistake by the Nottingham Forest defender in the penalty area saw Frederic Piquionne hit the ball in to give us a 1-0 win. Last game of the month provided no contest as Federico Macheda hit his first hat-trick for West Ham and Yaya Sanogo finally got his debut goal after five games. The final score 4-1 to us.

Player of the Month: James Tomkins

I was choosing between Macheda and Tomkins but i choose James Tomkins because of his calm influence at the back. We looked capable of stopping any team with him around.

December

Our form dipped a little in December as we won three and draw two. The first three games turned out to be easier as we won against difficult opponents. Burnley was beaten 2-0 with Macheda and Jack Collinson providing the goals. The next game saw Cardiff had a man sent off early in the first half and we took control of the advantage to win 3-1, with Yaya Sanogo starting to show his potential. Bristol City was totally no match for us at home as we limited them to one shot for the whole game. A brace from Piquionne and a Abdoulaye Faye header saw us took three points.

Last two games were disappointing as we dropped four points. The major disappointment came against Millwall as we conceded a goal in 90+4 min to make it 3-3 in the end. There were two early goals from each side against Crystal Palace and the rest of the game saw no breakthrough. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Player of the Month: Frederic Piquionne

Five goals in the last five matches has seen his tally increased to 14 goals in total. To be frank, i never expect that as i have place Carlton Cole and John Carew in front of him but his form has made me changed my mind.

Top Six Teams

Half a season gone and we have a nine points lead over Peterborough. We have proved how strong we are. We have to consolidate the form and win the title as soon as possible.

Miles Addison

If you remember in my pre-season report, there was a new player joining us in January. Miles Addison was brought in from Derby for 650k. My coaching team believed he will not become a Premier League player but i knew him in FM11. He seems to be a solid player. I like to take the chance on him. A determined and strong guy, a good bet for us at the back.

This month also saw the departure of two players. John Carew fell out with me because of playing time and he asked for a mutual termination of his contract which i happily obliged as we don’t have to pay 20k for an unhappy player. Defender Matt Fry hadn’t seen much of first team action and he went to Tranmere for 55k.

January

We didn’t have to face any difficult opposition in January and we were unbeaten for another month. 3 wins and a draw. Our season has largely depend on three players, James Tomkins, Frederic Piquionne and Federico Macheda. It was them who provided the goals again in January.

Player of the Month: Robert Green

Robert Green has been doing his job quietly and he is a big reason why we are able to keep so many clean sheets this season.

February

Leeds was having a poor season lying in the bottom. We had no problems brushing them off putting four goals past them. We had an injury blow with Jack Collison ruled out 2-3 months with a torn hamstring. Next game against Ipswich saw us score two goals in 5th and 10th minute through Federico Macheda and Julien Faubert. Then Bressan paid for his stupidity with a vicious tackle and we were one man down. Despite that Ipswich never get going and we managed to score another goal through Matty Taylor in the second half.

The game against Middlesbrough was a difficult one as injuries and suspension hit us coupled with a rest on some key players. We finally suffered our first defeat of the season in the hands of Middlesbrough when we conceded a close range goal in 71st minute. We got back to winning ways when we narrowly edged Watford 1-0 after our first defeat.

Blackpool has a squad whom i think is as good as ours. They showed their superiority in this game by putting two goals past us in the first half. We were awful in this game. Our central midfielders were totally out-played by the Blackpool players.

Table

Lets take a look at the table position after those two defeats. Our lead has opened wider, we are now holding a fourteen points lead over Peterborough. I can’t see how we will throw this lead away. We will surely get promoted to the Premier League next season.

Players Rating

The morale of the squad is still superb. The only exception is David Bentley who has lost his starting place to Julien Faubert after a run of poor form. Top four performing players are still James Tomkins, Frederic Piquionne, Federico Macheda and Bressan. New signing Miles Addison has also performed well in his seven games.

Well we are finally beaten and those defeat are caused by injuries, suspension and fatigue. The reserve players should do better. I can foresee a lot of players will be sold if we get promoted. I hope it comes sooner. That’s it for my West Ham report. Thanks for reading and i look forward to any comments from you. See you in my season ends report.

League Cup

First two rounds of the League Cup posed no problems as we beat League 1 side Yeovil and League 2 side Plymouth 4-0 and 3-0 respectively. Our third round opponent was Premier League side Bolton. We were a bit unlucky there as we held our ground and managed to match them in terms of shots. A mistake by Guy Demel gifted them a penalty and we crashed out of the League Cup because of that goal.

Championship

 August

Four wins and a draw, a very good start for us. We were nervous in the first match against Crystal Palace and a diving header from Federico Macheda claimed the win for us with David Bentley provided the cross. Our first home game was disappointing as we couldn’t score with 20 shots created and Coventry held us to a draw.

Our August fixture was quite easy as the only difficult match came against Leicester who is predicted to finish 5th. We had to work very hard in this match and we settled the nerves with two second half goals from David Bentley and Carlton Cole. Next two games saw Carlton Cole and Federico Macheda running the show as their goals ensured we remain unbeaten for August.

Player of the Month: James Tomkins

Even though Frederic Piquionne and Frank Nouble have higher rating but those performances were focused in the Cup competitions. James Tomkins is excellent for the whole month and he is a rock in defence. Strikers are finding hard to get past him. A solid player we have.

Injury: Defender Abdoulaye Faye suffered an injury in the last match against Doncaster and will be out for around 3 months.

September

We faced a bigger challenge in September as Leeds(Predicted to finished 3rd) and Middlesbrough(Predicted to finish 8th) were two of our opponents. We entertained Leeds at home to kick off the month and we control the match from start to finish. A close range finish by Frederic Piquionne and a 51st minute penalty by David Bentley saw us taking the three points. Ipswich then halted our winning run after they put up a brilliant defensive performance to share the points with us.

The next game saw Middlesbrough failed to defence against our set-pieces. Our defenders James Tomkins and Winston Reid were the scorers and the other goal saw new signing Bressan opened his account in a West Ham shirt. Last game against Watford saw us mastered a narrow win with Frederic Piquionne scored the winning goal. We should have won by a bigger margin but Carlton Cole was disappointing in his finishing.

Player of the Month: Frederic Piquionne

His performances has led to John Carew relegated to the fourth strikers role. I like his overall contribution as he holds the ball well and great in bringing others into play.

October

We are simply unstoppable in October. A perfect month for us. We scored the highest win against Derby thrashing them 6-1 which led to the sacking of their manager Nigel Clough. This month saw Federico Macheda taking the first team place from the out of form Carlton Cole and his partnership with Frederic Piquionne was heaven in match. Their continuous scoring ensured our winning run for the first four games. Barnsley, Blackpool and Peterborough were beaten and we conceded none.

Last game of the month was against our closest rival Birmingham who is not having a good season lying in mid-table. It was a tight match as both teams seemed unable to create a breakthrough. It was until two minutes after the break when a special goal by John Lindpere settled the game for us.

Beautiful Goal Scored By John Lindpere

Player of the Month: Federico Macheda

The on loan young striker from Man Utd has played an important role contributing 4 goals and 2 assists. He has established himself as my first choice striker ahead of Carlton Cole and John Carew.

Table

After fourteen games, we are lying on top holding eight points lead over the surprise package Peterborough. Our defence has been fantastic and only 3 goals conceded so far. We are still unbeaten and look good to go straight up to the Premiership as long as we keep up the form.

Players Rating

Standing high on the rating is Frederic Piquionne having scored 8 goals for us in all competition. Not far behind are James Tomkins and new signing Bressan who has three goals and five assists. David Bentley is also having a great season with him our attacking focus. His three goals and seven assists show his importance to the club.

Things are definitely looking good for us and we live up to the favorites tag and the medias prediction. I am not so concern about remaining unbeaten. My main target is the promotion and i like to see that happen than sooner.

Thanks for reading this report and there is more action to come. See you soon in my next report.

I have a analysis of the squad and the left side of the squad is the weakest. We have a good left back in Herita Ilunga but we do not have any quality backup. The on loan George Mccartney may provide that but i do not want to pay 31k wages for a backup. I terminate his loan alongside young Paraguayan striker Brian Motenegro to give way for new players.

If i am to play a 4-4-2 formation, i need to sign a left midfielder as we do not have any recognized left midfielder. My other target is to sign some young players for the next few years in mind.

We don’t have a large squad and the wage budget is pretty healthy, there is nobody transfer out of the club. I did tried to offload two players but there are no takers for them. Now here is the transfer news.

Transfers

I actually signed eight players but one of them will be joining in January 2012. I didn’t notice that until the transfer was confirmed. The rest will be joining us this summer. Two of them are loan signings while the rest are signed permanently. Lets take a look at them one by one.

Yaya Sanogo

A hugely talented striker whom you are familiar with in FM11. I don’t have to tell you how good he will turn out to be. I just hope my coaching team will be able to unleash his potential to maximum. He can’t be play until 23rd August due to some undisclosed injury.

Michael Lumb

Danish International was signed from Zenit for 650k. Seems to be great going forward but he need to work on his tackling, heading and strength. Should be a decent backup for Herita Ilunga.

Bressan

Not satisfied with the many midfielders we have, i signed Belarusian Bressan from BATE for 1 million. He seems to be better than my existing midfielders and at the age of 22, there is room for improvement. His only weakness is his marking but the rest of the stats look good enough to feature in the Premiership.

John Lindpere

John Lindpere is an established Estonian international and i got him for 400k from New York. I tend to see him as a short term solution as most of the targets i identified do not want to join us. Hardworking, good flair and off the ball, i hope he can produce some magic for us during the matches.

Lukas Van Eenoo

I got Young Belgian Lukas Van Eenoo for a mere 150k from Club Brugge. He is a defensive midfielder by trade but capable of playing on the left. His stats suggest he may do better there as he has the pace, hardworking and a great team player. He can be a useful addition for us.

Federico Macheda

Another young striker you know well. Federico Macheda is loaned from Man Utd and will stay with us until end of the season. He is a determined young lad and can play with both feet, something that i like. He will give some of his experienced team mates some pressure.

Jack Robinson

Jack Robinson is loaned from Liverpool and he has pretty good attributes consider his young age. He will provide us additional backup in left defence should Herita Ilunga or Michael Lumb gets an injury.

Formation

With all the new players coming in, it’s time to settle for a new formation. I will be using a flat 4-4-2 formation. As West Ham has several target men up front, i will be using a more direct approach. Below is the formation details

4-4-2

This is the formation and team instructions i will be using. Of course, it’s not final as there will be some fine tuning here and there in order to perfect it. The strategy used is standard and i will employ a balance philosophy. My passing will be focus down the right as i intend to rely on the creativity of David Bentley to supply the crosses for my target man John Carew, i also set the cross to “float cross” which will be aiming at the far post. One great feature of FM12 is your coach actually recommend which is the suitable role for your player. I tend to follow majority of the role recommended by my coaches. I also have a backup tactic which focus on playing through the middle which is 4-3-1-2. If my wingers got injured, this is the time when this tactic comes into the picture.

Friendly Games

My friendly games results tell me we are the favorites for a reason. We show great form before the real competition as i am especially happy we are able to beat Panathinaikos and Fiorentina 3-0.

Overall i am please with the preparation but i wish we could do better in the transfers. I know a lot of talented youngster from my FM11 Telford story but i couldn’t sign them because they either have no intention to join us or their price is too steep. I hope to sign some of them next season though.

Well, that’s it for my transfer updates. Thanks for taking the time to read this report and i will see you soon when i get on to the games. Cheers!

Mega Facepack

I did not download the mega facepack for FM11 as i am using the old version of mega facepack v2.0 for FM10. What i did was to download the huge facepack from Sortioutsi. Luckily for me, i bought a new mac this May and it didn’t took me too long to get this done.

Background Stadiums & Skins

I am obsessed on playing the game with a background stadium. When you click any team, the background will immediately change to the club’s stadium. Not every skin is suitable especially the default FM skins. As FM12 has just released, there aren’t many skins available.

I have found a pretty good skin in fm-base. It is called FM12 Dark Skin. The skin is created by DAZS8 and it complements very well with a background stadium. If you are interested, you can see the link here. Even you don’t have any background stadium graphics, the skins itself has numerous backgrounds which i think it’s great. Overall, this is a lovely skin to start with if you think the default skin is too bland.

Initial Start-up

As my computer performance is capable of holding more leagues, i choose five major European leagues plus my native country the S-League. I also choose a large database which the players count is 43000. A huge number in my opinion.

Starting of West Ham Journey

After choosing West Ham as the team to manage and upon arriving at Boleyn Ground, i was immediately greeted by the Chairman David Sullivan who promised to give me his full support even though i am virtually unknown in England.

History of West Ham

A short introduction of West Ham history. I am very happy with the youth facilities and intend to recreate the days when they have lots of talented youngster coming up for first team action. Their best days of succes were in the 60s and my aim is to correct that.

West Ham has a trophy room waiting to be fill up. As you see, their success came mainly from the FA cups and Championship though they won the old European Cup Winners Cup once in 1965.

Basic Information

West Ham has fierce rivalry with Tottenham, Millwall and Chelsea. Their other rivals includes Sheff Utd, Man Utd and Arsenal. Currently the financial situation in the club is secure as we have 30 million in the bank but we have an outstanding loan debt of 114 million waiting for us to be clear. The current captain is Kevin Nolan and vice captain is Mark Noble.

Meeting the Staff

The first thing i have to do is to meet the staff. West Ham has a pretty good coach set-up and i am happy with the coaching ability. I just have to add a few more coaches to take care of different training categories.

My assistant manager Neil McDonald has compiled a team report on the team and this is a new FM12 feature that i like. It gives me an overview of the players strength in each position. West Ham has a strong squad and i am quite happy with the quality we have in the squad.

Deciding on The Training Schedule, Scouting Assignments and Tactics

These are the first few things i always do when i arrive in a new team. I like to create my own training schedule. As West Ham has one scout, i have to get a few more in to scout more places. The next important task i have to do is to decide a tactic for my West Ham team. We have many talented players in the middle and i have to decide between a 4-4-2 and 4-1-2-1 tactic. As i don’t like to focus the play through the middle, i decide to go with a flat 4-4-2 formation.

My play will be focus down the flanks as i am looking to the on loan David Bentley to provide crosses for our potential target man John Carew. This is my initial thoughts and i have yet to decide on the instructions yet.

Season Expectations

The stakes are high for me. I don’t have any choice as the West Ham board has set a minimum target of wining the Championship and promotion. I have 5 million for new players purchase and extra 50k for wages.

Alright friends, i do not want to make this a long post, so i will stop here for now. My next report will be the players transfer news and a brief overview of my tactics. Thanks for reading my first FM12 report and i hope you are already enjoying playing the game. If you have any comments, please let me know in the comment box. See you soon.

A difficult away game right up against 3rd place Stockport. Just a season ago, they were playing league 2 football. The first half saw them taking control of the game but we defended well to force the first half into a draw. Five minutes after the break, the referee saw an infringement and we were awarded a penalty. Regular taker James Lawrie was dropped due to poor form and right back Jared Wilson stepped up and converted confidently. We scored in quick succession three minutes later as a long ball from young left back Sean Howarth saw Michael Uwezu clear on goal. He unselfishly squared the ball for Fabrice Otshudi to score. Things went horribly wrong when Tasos Kapsalopodas picked up his second yellow card and was sent off. They went all out and pull a goal back with a header in 75th minute. The equalizer came in injury time and the Telford fans were disappointed with the result. Grimsby couldn’t capitalize as they also drew their game.

Our next game was against 21st place Hayes & Yeading and our chance to claim three points. Greg Mills gave us the lead in 14th minute after he get on to the end of a cross by Michael Uwezu. The lead was doubled after Shane Killock headed in a goal from a set-piece just three minutes later. They played better in the second half and reduce the deficit to 1-2 in 56th minute. Things just got nervy as they had some clear cut chances. James Lawrie calmed it down when he came on and headed in a goal in injury time. Our title had to be delay as Grimsby is not giving up the fight with them also winning.

We will be facing 5th place Histon and we need to win to claim the title. The players looked lively and they were playing well creating chances after chances. However, the ball just won’t go into the net. As time passed, the players were getting frustrated. The morale was affected when they headed in a goal in 37th minute. They played better after the goal and went on to scored another goal nine minutes after the break. As the match was going on, i was busy checking out the game of Grimsby against Cambridge. They were trailing by a goal and if things remained as it was, we will win the title. The players were urged to mount a comeback and James Lawrie scored a wonderful goal one minute before full time. We lost the match 1-2. I checked the full time results and Grimsby lost the match against Cambridge. WE WON THE TITLE AND PROMOTED TO LEAGUE 2. They had no chance to overtake us with a game left. It was a proud moment for the team.

The board and the fans were absolutely ecstatic and all the praise were directed at me. I was one of the favored personnel after the promotion. Our last game against Mansfield ended with a loss and the players can’t really be blamed. They were already celebrating the achievements.

This is the final table. Grimsby won the play-off against Stockport and will be joining us in league 2. Teams that are relegated are Hayes & Yeading, Havant &W, Boston Utd and Southport.

James Lawrie missed out on the player of the year award but i was awarded my first manager of the year award.

These are the players who contributed to our success and all having an average rating of 7.00 and above. Oliver Nicholas and James Lawrie are the two most important players we have. James Lawrie scored a total of 36 goals in all competition. Fabrice Otshudi and Michael Uwezu each contribute 19 and 15 goals respectively. Some of them will surely leave as we will be looking for better players to equip us with the league 2 challenge.

I have already started looking for players even though i don’t have any idea on the transfer budget given by the board. I secured the signature of first ever American to play for Telford. His name is Anton Peterlin.

Hopefully he is the first of many quality players that we will be bringing in for next season. I will be searching for players who want to join us so will be busy looking at attributes. Thanks for reading and following this updates. See you in my Telford story 2012/13 pre-season report.

An incredible run saw us winning all our games. The players stood up to the challenge when it matters. I am really proud of them.

First game of the month was against 15th place York. We were rock solid at the back in this match. We had been conceding a number of goals in the last few games. I change the match preparation to focus on defensive positioning. Probably it made the difference, i’m not sure. Anyway we never allow York to create any real threat at goal. We were a bit wasteful in front too. Just when the game was entering half time, Fabrice Otshudi unleashed a shot which flied into the net from maybe 35 yards. It was an absolute cracker. I will be submitting this for Johnny’s goal of the month competition. The second half saw both side creating many but no end results. We started off the month with a good win but Grimsby is keeping close on us.

Next game was against 8th place Macclesfield. They were favorites to win this game even though we were at home. We took the lead first in 12th minute after a clever through ball from Daniel Johnson found James Lawrie through. They level the score 14 minutes later with a well taken freekick. It was even when both sides headed towards the dressing room. We got off to a bad start in the second half as we conceded a header three minutes after the break. The goal spurred the players into action and we tried to search for the equalizer. It came in 67th minute after a cross by Greg Mills was met with the head of Daniel Johnson who directed it to the top corner. There was no further action as both sides seem destined for the draw. However, we had the last laugh in injury time when a mistake by their defender saw a low cross fell to James Lawrie in close range and he just had to tap the ball in. This was really a hard fought win against a good side.

An away trip to face 13th place Chelmsford awaits us. Grimsby had a perfect start same as us and both teams are still level. We were quite solid at the back but there was a lack on creativity. It was goalless until there was action in first half injury time. Oliver Nicholas gave me an easier half time talk when he headed in a goal from a Alexis Nikolas freekick. Chelmsford was playing better than us but their chances was limited to long range shot. We secured the win seven minutes from time when James Lawrie broke the offside trap to strike the ball in the net. I looked at the table, Grimsby had a draw and we are now two points ahead of them.

Next was against the bottom team Havant & W, there is no reason why we can’t keep another three points based on current form. Fabrice Otshudi got us going in 8th minute when he hit another long shot to the top corner, 1-0. Daniel Johnson brought the ball past the defender in the penalty area and he was brought down in 20th minute. James Lawrie stepped up and scored to put us two goals ahead. We made it three just before the referee blew the whistle. Fabrice Otshudi scored his second goal in identical fashion at the edge of the box. Second half was a bit boring as we were relaxed and just waiting the final whistle. Luckily Havant & W could not do any damage to us. With this defeat, they were relegated from BSP with seven games left.

20th place Altrincham will be the next team we will be visiting. I was delighted to welcome Jody Morris, Michael Uwezu and Matthew Wells back from injury. This wasn’t a convincing performance by the players but we took the chances really well. Daniel Johnson had a great game. His deep run from midfield saw him scored his first ever hat-trick for the team. Altrincham pulled back a goal from many chances they created. Our sixth win for this month and seventh in a row.

Next game was against 17th place Barrow. We never really settled into the game initially and we conceded a goal from 25 yards in 13th minute. The players were woken by the goal and we bombarded them from every directions after that. Michael Uwezu who was installed to the first team line-up brought us level when he pounced on a rebound from a James Lawrie shot. Oliver Nicholas then scored his sixth goal of the season from a set-piece to put us ahead in the first half. We dominated the whole game and Michael Uwezu scored his second goal when he robbed the defender off the ball and hit the ball past their goalkeeper. Jody Morris had to go back to the treatment room once again after he was injured in this game. We will be seeing him in next season.

Last game of the month was against 7th place Darlington. We never seem capable of winning as Darlington was the better team in this game. We took the lead due to the vision of Daniel Johnson. He lobbed a ball to the path of Michael Uwezu and he kept his composure to score. We suffered heavy pressure for the rest of the game. We defended brilliantly to frustrate Darlington and completed our 100% record this month.

The 100% record saw us leading Grimsby by four points. They are also having an unbeaten run but draw two games out of that. Both teams have achieved a play-off spot with four games left. There are few players who perform well but Daniel Johnson remains the players who deserve the most credit. He has been scoring and providing the assist from midfield.

Match Preparation

I wonder whether there is any relation. After reading How to Use Match Preparation in FM11 by Vitaliy Mokosiy, i tend to change the focus before every match. All along, the team focus was set to team blend and i seldom use this feature. In the games this month, i set “Defensive Positioning” for defensive tactics and “Attacking Movement” for attacking tactics. It seems to make a difference and i will keep on monitor this feature.

We have four remaining games left but the games are not easy. Stockport and Histon are chasing for a play-off spot and they will provide some stern challenge for us. We look good for promotion but we need to be very careful to avoid any slip up. My assistant has informed me we need eight points to wrap up the title. Stay tune for the next updates. Thanks for reading and see you soon.

P.S I have found a problem in the tactics. Every time after i view the goal highlights, my corner settings which is set to “far post” will automatically reset back to default. Anybody else has this problem?

Our fitness problems has no signs of easing and i had to rotate the players in numerous occasion. The results was neither good nor bad. We were dumped out of the FAT because i sent in the reserves. In the league, we had two wins, two draws and a loss.

First game of the month was against 23rd place Southport. We had an advantage when they had a man sent off in 12th minute. The players started to pass the ball around and seven minutes after the sent off, a cross from left back Abdou El Kholti saw James Lawrie scored in a crowded penalty area. We made it 2-0 four minutes later. Greg Mills robbed their defender off a cross and scored from close range. There was no way back for them as we fully controlled the match from start to end.

I sent in a strong line-up for this FAT 3rd round match against Barrow. There was a lot of chances for us to bury the games. However, we need to wait until 54th minute before Fabrice Otshudi headed in a goal from a James Lawrie cross. It was a hard fought win considering the quality between the two sides.

Next was a vital game for us. We will face 2nd place Grimsby. They have a talented squad full with quality. We got off to the worst start when we conceded a goal from set-piece. It became uphill for us when they scored another goal from close range. James Lawrie pulled a goal back for us when he was put through by Fabrice Otshudi. It was 2-1 to them in the first half. We had another breakthrough nine minutes after the break when another through ball from Fabrice Otshudi saw James Lawrie scored his second goal of the game. They had better possession after the game but we held on for a draw.

We returned back to New Bucks Head to face 8th place Gateshead. They are having a good run of form and we need to be wary of the threat they have. They had a good start in 6th minute when a powerful shot from the edge of the box saw them took the lead. Three minutes later, Bradley Hudson-Odoi made a good run for the entire half and scored an magnificent solo goal. We went ahead in 20th minute when a great vision from Daniel Johnson spotted the run of James Lawrie and he couldn’t miss. The score was level 30th minute when their player was left unmarked to head in a goal. I was furious. Where was the marking?  It was 2-2 after 45 minutes. The games had a draw all round the air as both sides seem unable to score further. It was 3-2 in 80th minute when James Lawrie was fouled. He took the spot kick himself and successfully converted. I thought we had the win. Three minutes from time, their substitute headed in from a cross. The marking was simply terrible today. Both sides had to be content with a point.

Another home game for us and we were up against 11th place Cambridge Utd. I was disappointed with Oliver Nicholas when he was sent off being the last man to haul their player down. Cambridge Utd controlled the game with ease from that onwards and got a goal in the first half injury time. It was poor marking by us. Their player simply walked the ball into the net from a cross. We couldn’t find a solution and ended up with a defeat.

Another difficult match coming up as we had an away trip to face 3rd place Crawley. Surprisingly we had a better outing on the field as we had more possession and more chances than Crawley. The first half ended goalless as we couldn’t take our chances. Things remained no difference after the break but we had a breakthrough in 77th minute. Fabrice Otshudi received the ball on the right and hit the ball on goal from a tight angle. The ball hit their player and deflected in. It was a vital win against one of our rivals.

Last game of the month was the FAT match against Eastleigh a BSS side. I made lots of changes as my priority has switch to the league. We are now level on points with Grimsby and can’t afford to lose any more players through injuries. We put up a poor performance and were dumped out of the FAT after conceded two goals.

We are now level on points with Grimsby after poor form by the players. They are having a good run of results so far. We are still on top because of superior goal difference. Our fatigue problems has no signs of easing and i couldn’t keep the same eleven players for every game. A lot of players are not performing well. If things continue, heads will surely roll in close season.

A lot of points up for grab. Seven games in total. It will be a break or die month for us. We can’t repeat the poor performance if we want to win the title and promote automatically. Can we do it? Thanks for following this updates and i hope to have good news for you next month.