March 2012 - Motivation, that's what you need

This month sees us scheduled for just 6 fixtures, with 4 league matches, an FA Cup tie and the second leg of our Champions Cup match against Valencia. Our injury list, sees only one casualty, that being Varrault, who should be back in training with us by the end month. Our first match is 6 days after our League Cup loss, which is the longest gap we've had between fixtures since Christmas, which is very welcome for many of our players.

Tottenham (A) FA Cup Sixth Round

We travel to White Hart Lane for this tricky cup tie as slight underdogs. The record of our previous 6 matches, sees us share 2 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws, which doesn't tell us an awful lot. We have not so far managed to beat them at this ground, which doesn't bode too well, but I believe we have a chance of finally changing that.

The match started looking as though it was going to be a real hard fought midfield battle. However we soon started to control the ball and in the 9th minute the first good chance fell to Grenier in the area, but his shot hit the crossbar, bouncing off to go for a throw-in. In the 10th Grenier was again involved, this time crossing from the right into the area, where Ephraim was running through, and hit a superb low volley to give us the lead. After this we had to withstand a lot of pressure from Spurs, who were desperate to find an equaliser. One thing we were doing very well was managing to keep Crouch and Defoe quiet. One worrying aspect was how many fouls we were giving away, some of which were decidedly dubious, in particular one where Kranjcar made a clear dive to win a free kick. We did manage a few attacks ourself, but made little to worry the Spurs keeper again. The half came to an end with us leading 1-0.

I was quite pleased with what I'd seen, because despite the pressure we were under, Crouch managed 2 off target shots in the first half, and Defoe did not get a single shot. I sent the players back out giving them encouragement to go on and see this result out. For a large part of the second half we were having to defend strongly, finding it very difficult to take control of the ball properly, making all sorts of weird passes, and giving the ball back too easily. Our defending however remained top quality, keeping Spurs at bay even though they were getting more desperate. I tried a few changes, but these didn't seem to have much effect until the last 10 minutes of the match, where we started to finally pass the ball properly and dominated the possession near the end, helping us to play out the rest of the match to give us a 1-0 victory.

I was pleased that we managed to grab this victory, but to be honest this was a very poor match. In the 2nd half we'd again kept Crouch and Defoe quiet, each managing just 2 shots in that half, none of which were on target. In fact Spurs only managed two shots on target, which were of so little consequence I didn't feel it was worth mentioning them as chances. We managed 3 shots on target, plus a shot off the woodwork. The majority of shots from Spurs were long range efforts that were either blocked or off target. That has to go down as one of our ugliest wins, but the way in which we were able to stop Spurs creating any good chances was extremely encouraging. This win also puts us through to the semi final of the FA Cup.

Result: 1-0

In the days following this match the draw for the semi final was made which sees us play either Blackburn or Everton. The other semi final sees either Liverpool or Arsenal play Chelsea. I was kind of hoping to play Chelsea, as I feel we definitely have the beating of them, but maybe if we win the semi, we'll get them in the final for the ultimate grudge match of the season.

Valencia (H) Champions Cup First Knockout Round 2nd Leg

Valencia arrive at Loftus Road, as marginal favourites to win the leg, and hold a one goal advantage so firm favourites to win the tie and progress to the next stage of the competition. Our 2 away goals do however give us an advantage if we are able to claw our way to 1-0 or 2-1 victory. Given the talent of Valencia though that will not be easy, but I'm sure my players will be giving it a try. We are likely to get a fair amount of possession, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage, but the speed of some of their players is always a handful to deal with. There is a huge bonus to us before the match starts with David Villa being injured. Since the first leg, Valencia have recorded 2 losses and a draw in the league, being thrashed by Getafe and Real Madrid. Their morale is very low coming into this match, which I hope will make a difference.

We started the match going forward, and in the 2nd minute Fatih Yucel hit the post and the follow up shot from Grenier hit the keeper. In the 4th minute Sunny took a knock causing a possible upper body injury, but not bad enough to need substitution. In the 11th minute we conceded a very dubious foul not far outside our area, with Sunny receiving a talking to. I get the feeling already that the referee is biased. From the free kick the ball hit our post, going safe, and I breatehed a sigh of relief. In the 14th minute Grenier got another chance, but again found the keeper with his shot. It was noticable that Valencia were getting more and more nervous the longer the scores stayed level and us pushing forward. This was looking a much uglier match than the first leg, with several of my players taking knocks from hard tackles. This seemed to be the result of their growing nervousness; they had 7 players nervous, and 1 playing without confidence. In the 31st minute Sunny found a superb throughball for Fatih Yucel to run onto in the area, and he took great delight in putting the ball by the despairing keeper to open the scoring. Their nervousness proceeded to get worse, and in the 42nd minute when one of their centre backs was booked, all their players were either nervous or playing without confidence. I have never seen a team in such a bad way before. This didn't stop them making attacks, but there lack of confidence was making things very easy for us to defend. The match reached half time with us leading 1-0.

I was pleased with what we'd done in the first half, and the current scoreline if we could hold on to it would put us into the next round. I sent the players back out giving them encouragement to go on and see the match out properly. Valencia came back out still looking very nervous. In the 51st minute I thought Fatih Yucel had extended out lead, but he was unfortunately offside as the pass was made. In the 59th minute Balanta had a great chance to extend the lead, but the keeper managed to close down fast enough to stop him scoring. In the 62nd minute Grenier had an even better chance, but again found the keeper blocking his shot. Later the same minute Buzsaky struck a thunderous long shot which the keeper managed to deflect over the bar. In the 75th minute Valencia's persistent fouling brought about the sending off of Alex, to take them down to 10 men for the last 15 minutes. In the 77th minute Grenier produced a superb cross to Balanta at the edge of the area, with space and time to place his shot perfectly in the corner of the net to give us a 2-0 lead. Valencia were now looking very ragged, and their attempts to come forward were easy for us to cut off. In the 87th minute Zigoni had the chance to seal the victory beyond all doubt, but hit it at the keeper. In the 89th minute he produced a superb long shot from just outside the area, which looked destined for the top corner, but the keeper managed to get a hand to it, pushing it for a corner. In the 4th minute of added time, he had yet another chance, but again shot straight at the keeper. The match came to an end with running out 2-0 victors.

I was delighted with the team, after this performance, which sees us advance to the quarter final stages of the competition. We played much better in the second half, really taking advantage of the nervousness of the Valencia players. If our finishing had been better, this could have been a very embarrassing demolition. I have to give some credit to Getafe and Real Madrid who had totally demoralised them in the run up to this match. Such was the number of times the Valencia keeper denied us, he ran out as man of the match. I have to say, even though I felt before the match we had a chance after the first leg, I did not expect Valencia to be so poor in the 2nd leg. Today I saw how a very good team can become extremely average if their morale is bad. A couple of bits of bad news from the match, are that Sunny suffered a bruised rib, sidelining him for about a week. Laure picked up a yellow card in the match, which will see him miss the next match in the Champions Cup.

Result: 2-0

In the days following the match, the draw took place for the quarter finals, which will see us play Tottenham. In one way I'm pleased with this, as we know we can beat Spurs, but I'd have preferred a different team, rather than playing another 2 fixtures against them. After our previous fixtures it's bound to be a hard fought contest, and they'll be looking to get revenge for us beating them in the FA Cup. The first of these fixtures at White Hart Lane will take place later this month, so our fixture list has increased to 7 games.

Everton (H) Premier League

The Toffees arrive as clear underdogs for this match, struggling in mid table, but seemingly clear of relegation worries now. My big worry about this match is that Everton have always been my nemesis team, but after securing a draw with them earlier in the season to finally take a point from them, helps me to believe I might finally vanquish my nemesis.

The match started in amazing fashion with Scocco slipping a pass through for Grenier to run onto in the area, with his shot going in off the inside of the post to give us the lead with just 70 seconds on the clock. Although Everton were trying to push forward, we were doing a good job of keeping them at bay, and on the attack we were looking dangerous, with the keeper having to save a stinging drive from Buzsaky in the 6th minute. In the 9th we had a little slice of luck, with an attempted throughball from Buzsaky bouncing off an Everton defender and dropping at the edge of the area, where Ephraim rifled an unstoppable shot into the net to extend our lead. In the 12th minute I was livid when the referee awarded Everton a penalty, with a shockingly poor decision, for a supposed foul by Buzsaky. Yakubu stepped up and hammered in the penalty to bring them back into the match. In the 23rd minute however Fatih Yucel set Scocco free just inside the Everton half and as he reached the edge of the area he placed the ball into the bottom corner of the net to restore our 2 goal lead. After that the match became more even, with neither side really creating much, although every time we went forward we looked a threat. The match reached half time with us leading 3-1.

I was pleased with what I'd seen, with one of our best performances in a first half for a while. I'd even calmed down after the dodgy penalty decision. I sent the players back out telling them I was pleased, hoping they would keep this performance going. Early on in the half it was clear the referee was still seeing things in a quite strange way, with Fatih Yucel twice penalised for fouls, after winning a header. When Rafa was booked in the 55th minute for a relatively innocuous foul I was really starting to get wound up by the referee. Two minutes later we had a scare when a header was put just wide of our post. In the 60th minute we had a shout for a penalty, which was not given, which to be honest looked as much a penalty as the one given to Everton; in other words I didn't think it was. In the 62nd minute Everton thought they'd pulled another goal back, which was disallowed for being offside. At least the assistant referee was getting decisions correct. However I was wrong because in the 74th minute he got a decision wrong with Steele having to make a great save to deny a shot which should have been ruled offside. In the 85th I was livid when Everton scored, a goal from a definite offside position. It appeared the officials wanted Everton to get back into this match. After that Everton started throwing everything into getting forward, but we were standing firm, and Ephraim had a chance after a clearance to score having run from 10 yards inside our own half, but he just dragged the shot wide. That was the last kick of the game bringing the match to an end with us running out 3-2 victors.

I was pleased with my players for finally beating my nemesis team, Everton, even if it appears the officials were trying to stop that from happening. Fortunately the dubious penalty and the offside goal did not cost us the match. The really bizarre booking of Rafa now means he will now serve a 3 match ban, having picked up 10 yellow cards. Some of the Everton players commited several much worse fouls without getting booked, so I was left shaking my head about that. Given how many fouls, including the one to concede penalty, had the commentary say "That's dubious", or harsh, I find it intriguing that the post match report can say the referee had a good match. I'm sure in my position Fergie would have been shooting his mouth off after that match.

Result: 3-2

Bolton (A) Premier League

We travel to the Reebok Stadium as clear favourites for this match. Bolton are struggling in 17th place, and have lost their last two matches. Our record against Bolton is good, although last season we could only manage a draw in this same fixture. This is a match I feel we should be targetting all 3 points, as we push to consolidate our title challenge. Given how we often get complacent against lower opposition I decided to tell my players that I expected a win.

We started the match looking quite bright, forcing Jaaskelainen into two consecutive saves in the 4th minute from Jimenez and Scocco. In the 8th minute there was another great save from Grenier, and another from Curri shortly after. In the 10th minute our pressure finally paid off with Sunny passing the ball to Laure in space just outside the area, and he hit an absolute screamer into the top corner of the net, for his first goal of the season, and must be his first ever long shot on target. We continued to pressure Bolton getting a number of shots, and corners. Bolton managed the odd sortie forward, but we restricted them to just a few long shots. In the 35th minute I couldn't believe we didn't extend the lead, with Jaaskelainen making two superb saves from Ephraim and the follow up from Scocco. In the 42nd minute Bolton hit the crossbar, the closest they'd come to the target. We saw the half out to lead 1-0.

I was largely pleased with what I'd seen, with us largely controlling the match, and it was only the superb keeping from Jaaskelainen that had stopped us adding to our goal tally. I decided to give the players encouragement to go on, and hopefully see the match out in proper style. What followed was a pretty horrible battle, with few really good chances. Both teams had shots hit the crossbar, and a few saves made by each keeper, but there didn't seem to be much danger of the scoreline changing. In a rather turgid half that's exactly how things played out, with the match finishing with us running out 1-0 winners.

I was pleased that we managed to get the win. Although our second half performance was not as good as the first, where we were largely in control, with Bolton creating very few real chances. Laure's performance today was excellent, scoring only his 2nd goal for the club, and deserved his man of the match award. Both defences had performed well, making a low scoring match almost inevitable. This is the first match I've tried using the team talk, "I expect a win" for a long time, and this seems to have made a difference, as no players were looking complacent early in the match, as they had in a couple of matches the previous month. This was a result we deserved, and is extremely important given results elsewhere on the day, with the Manchester derby finishing 1-1, Liverpool losing 2-1 to West Ham, and Arsenal losing 4-2 to Chelsea. A better day I could not have imagined.

Result: 1-0

Newcastle (A) Premier League

We arrive at St. James' Park as clear favourites to win this match. Newcastle have slipped to 20th position, without a win for just over 2 months, claiming 2 points from their last 8 matches. Those 2 points came from their last 2 matches, showing a slight shift in their form, but looking doomed, especially as their remaining fixtures are all against teams in the top 8 of the league. This seems to be another match which probably requires me to tell the lads I expect a win. For the first time in months, I have named an unchanged side, which reflects the luxury of a one week break we've had since our previous match.

The match started with both sides showing good passing skills. In the 4th minute Scocco had a chance to score from the edge of the area, but hit the shot straight at the keeper. In the 7th minute Steele had to make a save from a long shot. Although the possession was fairly even for a while, we were getting into better positions to create chances, with Scocco hammering a shot way over the bar in the 10th minute. In the 16th, Ephraim put Fatih Yucel through into the area, clear of the defence, placing the ball into the opposite bottom corner of the net to open the scoring, his 20th goal of the season. In the 19th minute Scocco hit a long shot, which the keeper managed to push behind for a corner. Two minutes later Jimenez decided to have a crack from distance too, with the keeper just tipping the ball over the bar. From the corner Puygrenier got his head to the ball, but his shot wasn't good enough to beat the keeper. After this the match became much more of a midfield battle, with both sides finding it very difficult to create any chances, with a only a few each created in the rest of the half, bringing us to the break still leading 1-0.

I was pleased with what I'd seen, but slightly concerned we'd only put one of our chances away. I sent the players back out giving them encouragement to see this result out. For the first 5 minutes we were under seige, and I was disappointed to see that a couple of my players were looking nervous for no reason I can understand. Once we'd ridden this pressure, with shots seeming to rain in from everywhere, we finally settled a bit, and in the 57th minute Fatih Yucel was put through on goal, his shot hit the keeper, with Scocco on hand to hammer the rebound in. This settled the nervousness within my players, which I was pleased to see. It was still worrying though how easy it was for Newcastle to work their through us, with Steele having to make a great save in the 61st minute. Two minute later Fatih Yucel broke through into the area, but somehow the keeper managed to hook his shoot away. In the 66th minute Newcastle hit the post from a free kick, with Puygrenier receiving a yellow card that I felt was harsh. Three minutes later Kjær then received a yellow card, that probably was deserved. After this match the became a midfield battle, with rare chances created by either side. In the 86th minute Newcastle's Alan Smith made an awful two footed challenge on Buzsaky gaining himself a straight red card, dropping them down to 10 men. In the 88th minute Balanta was put through on goal only to see his shot saved. A minute later Sunny took a crack at a long shot, only denied by a superb save from the keeper. Newcastle just seemed shellshocked after that, not seeming to have any interest in even finding a consolation goal, bringing the match to an end with us running out 2-0 victors.

I was pleased with this victory, even there were some concerns with how easily Newcastle were able to work a way through us at points. On the whole though our defending had been excellent, and our movement going forward was superb. This was thoroughly deserved win. Elsewhere there were some important results, with Arsenal beating Tottenham, with Man City surprisingly losing 2-1 to Aston Villa.

Result: 2-0

Our opponents in the FA Cup Semi Final have now been confirmed as Everton. When the draw was made I was hoping that Blackburn would beat them, but as we have subsequently managed to vanquish my nenemis earlier in the month I am no longer so concerned.

Tottenham (A) Champions Cup Quarter Final 1st Leg

We travel the few miles across north London to White Hart Lane, for the 3rd time this season. We are marginal underdogs for this fixture, despite the last 2 visits giving us a draw and a win. The record suggests that not many goals are likely with only a single goal being scored in those two matches. As in the our FA Cup match earlier in the month the key will be in trying to keep their strikers out of the game as much as possible. After a long absence I have decided to give Lung jr his first start for a while, to see if his attitude on the pitch has changed.

The match started as a fairly ugly midfield battle, with few chances. The first came to Balanta in the 7th minute, but gave the keeper a very easy save with his rather limp looking shot. In the 9th minute Robbie Keane hit the post for Spurs from a long shot. In the 14th minute I thought Puygrenier had put us ahead scoring from a header at a corner, but he apparently fouled someone while challenging for the ball, which has me mystified. The commentary says he backed into and fouled the keeper, which is astonishing as he was moving forwards towards him at the time. I thought we'd scored in the 19th minute when Zigoni put the ball in the net, but he was clearly offside so the goal didn't stand. After this, Spurs started to try and dominate the game, but were lacking the penetration to open us up properly. I started to worry a bit when Puygrenier was booked in the 24th minute and then Rafa just 2 minutes later. The referee was being so niggly about everything, that play was just not flowing. In the 28th minute Lung jr had to push a thunderous long shot from Palacios over the bar. A minute later when Carrick brutally chopped Jimenez down from the behind, causing a potential shin injury, without even getting a talking to from the referee, I began feel the world was against us. After that we started to play a bit better, and the deadlock was finally broken in the 41st minute when Grenier played a ball over the top for Balanta to run onto. As he neared the keeper he seemed to suddenly look nervous, and it was obvious he was not going to score. His shot hit the keeper, bouncing out to the edge of the area, where Zigoni put the ball back through to Balanta, and this time he found the target to give us the lead. Spurs pushed forward after that, but stood firm to finish the half leading 1-0.

I was pleased with how we battled, and despite Spurs looking the better team, but had created the better chances, and taken one of them. We'd managed to stop Crouch from having a single shot, and restricted Keane the other striker to a couple of long shots, only one on target which was a tame effort. I gave the lads encouragement to go out and see the match through and give us the advantage heading into the 2nd leg. We started the half looking quite bright, before the match settled into a midfield battle. In the 56th minute Spurs worked their first really good opportunity with Lung jr making a good save to push the ball for a corner. When Mattock chopped Balanta down from behind in the 58th minute without even a foul being given, from which he suffered an arm injury requiring substitution I was really wondering what the referee was actually seeing. The match settled back to being the midfield battle although Spurs were looking the more dangerous, with them now finding the head of Crouch a few times, although he wasn't finding the direction or power to really worry us. In the 71st minute, Keane was looking nervous this showed when he gave our keeper an easy chance to clear the ball for a throw-in. A minute later Buzsaky was put through clear on goal, but the keeper was able to push his shot wide for a corner. The match then started to become very ugly with Spurs pumping the ball into our area, making it hard for us to clear our lines. I was really upset when Defoe managed to break through in the 89th minute to score an equaliser. Not long after the match came to an end with the scores level at 1-1.

I was pleased with the effort put in by the players, and feel very let down by a biased referee, who would not book any of the Spurs players, no matter what they did. Rafa and Puygrenier were both booked after 3 trivial fouls each. However Spurs Hutton made 3 far worse fouls and was not booked. The fouls that caused injury to both Jimenez and Balanta looked like they warranted yellow cards. There was also the bizarrely disallowed goal. I was astonished when I saw the post match report say that the referee had a good game. Despite being very upset at the referee, I feel that a 1-1 draw is still a useful result, but under the circumstances this was a kick in the teeth and I sympathised with the players. Fortunately the injury to Jimenez caused no issues, but when Balanta was unceremoniously dumped to the ground he broke his arm, putting him out for the best part of 2 months, and therefore will almost certainly not be back before the end of the season. He is quite understandably distraught about this, but I at least made him feel a bit better after saying "It's a blow, but it's not the end of the world" in the post match press conference.

Result: 1-1

Cardiff (A) Premier League

Our last match of the month sees us travel to the Cardiff City Stadium with us favourites for this match. Cardiff have struggled this season, finding themselves in 15th place having a 6 point gap to the relegation zone. Before the match Dave Jones was trying to play mind games, which seems to have fired up several of our players, so may backfire on him. Only Jimenez has taken a negative view, so will be start the game on the bench. Cardiff are one our rivals, so it shouldn't be hard to get the team fired up for this match, especially after the comments from their manager.

The match started with Cardiff looking quite lively, going close in the 5th minute with header from a corner hitting the bar and going behind. The match started to even up more, and after 10 minutes we started to spend a lot of time camped in the Cardiff half. This pressure finally paid off in the 19th minute with Fatih Yucel sliding a pass for Buzsaky to run onto at the edge of the area, which he placed into the back of the net to give us the lead. The rest of the half was pretty poor with Cardiff keeping very tight at the back, and struggling to find a way through us. Right at the end of the half, Scocco had a tricky chance, but couldn't keep the ball down, with it flying over the bar. The half came to an end with us leading 1-0.

I was largely pleased with our performance, having shown good motivation from the start of the match. I sent the players back out encouraging them to go on and complete the job. The half started as a continuation of the midfield battle, but Cardiff then started to control possession. In the 62nd minute Lung jr had to make a great save to keep us in the lead. I tried some changes, but Cardiff were still all over us. In the 87th minute Cardiff thought they'd found an equaliser, which was ruled out for being offside. We managed to see the rest of the half out without conceding to give us a 1-0 victory.

I was pleased that we'd managed to claim this victory, but it certainly wasn't one of our best performances. After controlling the first half so well, it was disappointing that how near Cardiff came to cancelling our lead out, and we rarely looked dangerous in the second half. It was all told a pretty poor match, that another day we could easily have thrown away. During the match I'd been casting an eye over other fixtures, and up until the very end of the match, Arsenal were drawing their match against Sunderland, only to cause some diappointment by finding a late winner.

Result: 1-0

Month Roundup

This has been an absolutely fantastic month. It's hard to know where to start, but I think the best result was against the very lacklustre Valencia. Even though they were demoralised after recent defeats, they were by no means easy to beat, but the nervousness of their players certainly helped, especially when it came to shooting. The ground out victory over Spurs to advance to the FA Cup Semi Final was good, with the way we managed to stop them from being able to score. Of the 4 league wins, it can be said they were all teams that have struggled, and so we should be able to win them. All our league matches seemed to follow a similar pattern with us taking the lead, and then having to hold out against pressure. The draw in the Champions Cup match against Spurs was disappointing, after getting so close to snatching a win, although before the match I'd have been happy to take a score draw from the match. There were some weird decisions from some referee's, but if you get the result at the end of the day, you soon forget those. It's also easy to overlook the times when you benefit from some dodgy decisions yourself, which I know we have, but can't readilly think of any. It's human nature to remember the incidents that go against you, and forget when the opposition suffers in the same way.

Before the month started, I knew our rivals had a much harder set of matches than us, but I never expected them all to lose so many points, giving us a 10 point advantage over Arsenal and a 14 point advantage over Man United. Arsenal and Man United are now the only teams that that could beat us to the title, and even though we play the latter on the last day of the season, they both need to win all their remaining matches to have any real hope, with us falling apart in our last 4 matches. That said, our last 4 league matches are home to Blackburn and Spurs, and away to Aston Villa and Man United. Blackburn are the lowest of those teams sitting mid table, so none of these fixtures are guaranteed points. The only tricky fixture that Man United appear to have is the last match against us, with Arsenal having one tricky encounter at home to Liverpool. I can't think the team would throw it away now, but there's something scary about this scenario. Our league form has seen me pick up the Premiership Manager of the Month award again.

I'm pleased to see they my team talks seemed to be making difference, because earlier in the season when I checked the results of my team talks, there rarely seemed to be any player that was affected by them. Hopefully I seem to have found the best way to motivate players, at least this late in the season anyway.

This month has again seen some excellent performances, by many players, with Fatih Yucel picking up the Premiership Young Player of the Month award. Although he put in some decent performances, I was surprised he picked up the award this month. My player of the month is Simon Kjær who put in another set of great performances, showing his consistency. I feel that Sunny ran him pretty close, but was not quite as consistent. There is really only one disappointment after this month, that being the broken arm suffered by Angelo Balanta. He has put in some good performances this season, always giving his best, with a habit of popping up in just the right places. It's not an injury that should stop us from claiming the title, but it does weaken the backup to our main strike partnership.

Next month we are currently scheduled to play 5 matches. Three of these are league matches, our FA Cup Semi Final against Everton and the 2nd leg of our Champion Cup quarter final at home against Spurs. Should we manage to beat Spurs, there would 2 further matches in the month to play the semi final stages of the competition.

February 2012 - The Quest for League Cup Glory

This month starts with Slory and Varrault out with long term injuries and Ephraim a few days away from recovery following his elbow injury. This is going to be a tough month where we will be playing 8 fixtures for the 3rd month in a row. The last couple of months has really tested the depth of our squad, and on the whole we've stood up to the challenge very well. We have 5 league matches, an FA Cup tie, our first leg of our Champions Cup knockout 1st round and the League Cup final to end the month.

Liverpool (H) Premier League

The Reds travel to Loftus Road as marginal favourites for this match, but I feel if we play well, we have every chance of taking the 3 points. Liverpool are one of or closest challengers, sitting just 2 points behind us, so the result of this match is very important. For this match I am giving one of our young players, Alexander Kacaniklic his debut, with Paul Dixon taking a place on the bench. This is a slight risk, but I feel the pace of Kacaniklic and his dribbling may cause Liverpool some problems.

The match started with our players looking to attack, and really taking the game to Liverpool, but their defence was proving very hard to break down, with them playing 2 DMC's. When Liverpool did get forward, we were looking solid as well, and after quarter of an hour this was looking like being a pretty dreary match. In the 23rd minute the first real chance of the match came with Faith Yucel receiving the ball in the area, but Reina in goal caused frustration by saving it; where's a beachball when you want one? The next was 3 minutes later, this time Steele was the keeper making the save. In the 35th some patient build up play saw Scocco get in close but his shot was parried by the keeper, out on our left where Kacaniklic quickly passed it back to Scocco, who spotted Fatih Yucel in space just outside the area, and gave him a perfect ball to hammer into the net to give us the lead. We'd been looking good and continued to outplay Liverpool, even though we had less possession. However just to cause maximum frustration we conceded in added time at the end of the half from a corner. I was massively disappointed in our players for allowing this. The half finished with the scores level at 1-1.

I was disappointed, as Liverpool really did not deserve to be level, as they'd shown little in the way of positive play. Most of their greater possession was just interminable passing in the midfield. I sent the players back out telling them could win this, hoping it would spur them on a bit more. In the 47th minute Scocco was brought down in the Liverpool area, and Curri stepped up to take the penalty, hoping to set the record straight after having his previous penalty saved. I have to admit I was a little nervous, but he hammered it home to give us the lead again. In the 55th minute Gerrard gave a us a scare cracking a long range effort which thumped into the crossbar, and bounced out to one our players. In the 66th minute Jimenez went down after a heavy challenge with a potential upper body injury, so in a slightly risky move I decided to substitute him and change our formation slightly to 2 DMC's, with Scocco sitting in just behind Fatih Yucel. In the 71st minute before this substitution could be made Torres managed to get through for his first shot of the match. Huge credit goes to Steele for closing him down and making an excellent save to stop him from scoring. There was no surprise that Liverpool starting pushing forward, but we were doing the sensible thing on the whole when we got the ball, moving forward and passing the ball about trying to keep possession and see if we could find another way through the defence. In the 90th minute that nearly happened with Fatih Yucel having a shot from the edge of the area saved. Liverpool gave us one more scare in added time when they got a cross into our box with an astounding number of their players in the area, but fortunately their header was wide of the post. For the rest of the time we managed to retain possession and see out the match to seal a 2-1 victory.

I was delighted with how we'd taken the game to Liverpool and managed to come out on top. This victory is extremely important in our title fight, and one of the big keys to this was how quiet we'd managed to keep both Torres and Gerrard, with them both managing just 2 shots each during the entire game. When you consider that before this match, Torres had scored 24 times from 23 matches, keeping him so quiet was some acheivement. I felt that with the hard work our players had put in and the positive attitude they showed, we deserved this victory. Kacaniklic gave a good account of himself on his debut, showing a few good moves, and showed quick thought and vision to put the pass back to Scocco in the build up to our first goal. Fortunately Luis Jimenez has not picked up an injury which is good news. It is grealy amusing to see this result described as a shock victory in the Premiership Round-up.

Result: 2-1

The FA Cup 4th Round replays took place the same day as this match, and our next opponents in the 5th round will be Portsmouth. There was an upset in the replays, with Championship side Swansea defeating Premier League strugglers Wigan at the DW Stadium.

Birmingham (A) Premier League

We travel to St. Andrews as firm favourites for this match. Birmingham have been struggling this season and find themselves down in 15th place, just above the relegation zone, and come into the match off the back of losing in an FA Cup replay to Blackburn. This is an away match we would expect to collect all the points, but as with all teams in the league they always have the ability to cause a threat. Paul Dixon our loanee from Bolton will make his debut for us in this match at left back, giving Curri the chance to take a breather.

Early on we were showing greating ability to retain possession and passing, but failing to make the best of this as Birmingham were defending very well, restricting us to long shots. A few times they managed to get forward, but also restricted them to a couple of long shots. After 15 minutes I decided we needed to work the ball into the box, because our long shots were just nowhere near the target today. We continued to dominate, and in the 24th minute this paid off with Dixon, playing in debut, slipping a pass through into the area for Zigoni to run onto and slot the ball home to give us the lead. Birmingham felt this goal was offside, but the replay shows that Zigoni was just onside as the pass was made. In the 27th minute Rowlands went down after a tackle with a potential foot injury, not bad enough for an immediate substitution, but a worry still. We continued to do an excellent job of retaining possession, pushing Birmingham back all the time, but their defence proving to be very tricky to break down again. In the 42nd minute Sunny conceded a foul, that I don't understand at all, just outside our area, and received a yellow for this mysterious offence. Fortunately Steele was up to the job and caught the free kick. Right at the end of the half, Birmingham had their best period of play, in forcing a series of corners, but we held firm to keep the score at 1-0 when the break arrived.

I was pleased with what I'd seen in the first half, with us dominating the game, and always the more likely to score the next goal. I decided to send the players back out giving them encouragement to go on seal the victory for us. Birmingham started the half showing their intent to try and get forward and find an equaliser, but we again stood firm, although they were nervous moments, and our defending was looking more frantic. We really needed to just calm things down, and get the ball back under our control. In the 58th minute Buzsaky had a great chance from a rebound after a Zigoni shot, but he didn't make the most of that and allowed the keeper an easy save. In the 64th minute Scocco missed a great chance to put us further ahead, shooting wide of the target. I made a couple of substitutions to try and just mix things up a bit, getting Curri out on the left wing, and Balanta up front with Zigoni, as for once Scocco was not having a good game. This almost immediately had a big effect with us going forward, with Curri running onto a Grenier throughball, but his finishing is not good, so it was no shock to see the keeper push it wide in the 71st minute. From the resulting corner, Birmingham cleared the ball out to the centre of the park and we quickly moved back out to our right wing, where Buzsaky delivered the ball back into the area, with Balanta making a one touch pass allowing Zigoni to run through and score his 2nd of the match, in the 72nd minute. Birmingham were again crying out for it be ruled as offside, but out near Buzsaky was a defending playing him onside at at least 3 yards. As you'd expect Birmingham started to push forward, but we were still standing firm, and once we got the ball we were looking very good at retaining it, and now working chances with ease. In the 79th minute Zigoni will probably never get a better chance of a completing a hat-trick, shooting from about a yard out to the right of the goal, and somehow he fluffed it hitting the post; one of those nightmare moments for a striker. In the 85th minute Steele made a mess of trying to catch a ball from a corner kick, which allowed Birmingham to pull a goal back; with his aerial ability and handling that was most unexpected. That gave them a lot of encouragement, pushing forward again, and I was nervous when they got another corner, but we cleared it and then took control of the ball well, with Buzsaky denied in the 3rd minute of added time by a superb full stretch save from the keeper. The full time whistle brought the match to an end seconds later with us securing a 2-1 win.

I was largely pleased with the performance today. Was a disappointment to concede another goal from a corner, especially in the manner it came about, as Steele is normally excellent at dealing with the ball crossed in the air. Fortunately our defending after was good and our control of the ball and passing moves were excellent. It was a shame that Zigoni missed his golden opportunity to score a hat-trick, and will be wondering how he hit the post. Fortunately the knock that Rowlands picked up has not caused an injury, which is great news. I was impressed with the debut of Paul Dixon, especially as he started the match understandably nervous, but after he supplied the pass for our opening goal, he really settled down and did a fine job for us, finishing with a rating of 7.40, which is excellent in his first competitive match of the season.

Result: 2-1

The last few matches I'm beginning to feel I'm getting the strategy and touchline shouts better coordinated, which seems to avoid the situation I was having before, where sides would just overrun us. The matches haven't had the same inevitable feel that the opposition are going to peg us back as I was suffering before. It doesn't mean this will always work, but I feel I have a better understanding of how to counteract a team suddenly going on the attack. It's very easy to just panic and think the match engine has gone crazy, but after reading some guides, most of which are neatly listed by FM Pundit here, I feel so much more confident about dealing with each team we play. I would advise anyone who hasn't check these out, to do so, as things should become a whole lot clearer.

Arsenal (H) Premier League

The Gunners arrive at Loftus Road, with us narrow favourites for the match. Having come through the big test with the visit of Liverpool earlier in the month, this is our next challenge, as Arsenal are pushing us the closest of any team at the top right now. Both sides will be trying to ensure they are not defeated, as that would hand the advantage in the league to the other team, and therefore this match could have a huge bearing on who wins the premiership title this season. Our record against Arsenal is remarkable so far with 2 wins and a draw. The 2 wins last season though were definitely gifts through them playing weakened teams against us in both matches. I doubt that will happen this time though. As I had in our last meeting, I decided to go with a Counter attacking strategy, which had largely worked for us.

The first half was a fairly even but unexciting battle. Arsenal created more shots, but there were no real incidents worth noting. We seemed to be cancelling each other out, and so the first half ended up goalless.

I was reasonably happy that we'd done quite well at keeping Arsenal quiet, but concerned that we'd only managed a couple of shots. I sent the players back out telling them they could win this game. The 2nd half started in much the same fashion, so it seemed the match was destined to be very boring. However in the 56th minute Balanta ran with the ball down the left and hit a cross into the box, which Scocco met with his head to give us the lead, and is his 100th career league goal. In the 70th minute disaster struck from an Arsenal free kick, with the ball deflecting in off Curri, dubiously given as an own goal, to level the scores. That was definitely a lucky goal as the free kick had delected off an Arsenal player's body on the way into the area with him having no control of it. In the 1st minute of added time I was livid at the referee for sending Daeseleire off for a 2nd yellow card offence, which seemed far too harsh. It was a relief when the final whistle blew bringing a very poor match to a close with the scores level at 1-1.

Having managed to get the lead it was disappointing to only end up with a draw, especially as the goal we conceded owed a lot to luck. I sympathised with the players over this bit of bad luck. The red card for Daeseleire sees him banned for a one match. The performance of Kjær in the centre of defence was great today, earning him a well deserved man of the match award. Even though we lost the lead, to only claim a draw, the fans are still happy with this result. Elsewhere there was a very significant and surprising result with Liverpool being mauled 6-2 by Sunderland.

Result: 1-1

Portsmouth (A) FA Cup 5th Round

We arrive at Fratton Park to play the current leaders of the Championship, which makes us only marginal favourites for this match. This is definitely not a match we should take for granted.

When the match started Steel was called upon to make a save in just the 2nd minute. After that we began working our way forward putting Pompey under some pressure. It was clear though that Portsmouth were up for trying to grab the win here. In the 8th minute they won one of the most mysterious corners ever, with Steele apparently being given as making a save on a ball that was not noly wide of the post, but he also never got close to it. That would suggest either the referee/assistant are terribly biased, or what you see on the 3D view is sometimes not even close to what the match engine believes is going on. This seemed to spur Pompey on and they started mounting attacks, so I decided that our best chance was to try and see if we could exploit the flanks, as the speed and dribbling of Grenier and Ephraim should start to cause problems. This worked perfectly in the 18th minute with Grenier steaming down the right touchline, and produced a superb cross into the box, where Ephraim was placed to side foot into the back of the net. Pompey were determined to come at us, which gave us more space to get down the flanks, and they were struggling to deal with this, with plenty of last ditch tackles going in. In the 26th minute Scocco skied a chance from in the area, but he was under pressure from the defender. After this Pompey started trying to thump long shots at us with that disturbing accuracy, making Steele really work for his wage today. In the last 5 minutes of the half Pompey were putting us under huge pressure, very nearly cracking us with Steele again coming to the rescue with a great save. We manged to see the half out with us leading 1-0.

I was pleased that we had the lead, but it felt rather fragile with the way that Pompey were pushing so hard. I decided to tell them to do this for the fans, hoping that would give them the added motivation to hold on, and hopefully stretch our lead. For a while we had to withstand quite a bit more pressure from Pompey, before we finally managed to get forward again. As Pompey were now doing a good job of stopping us down the flanks, I switched to exploit the middle to see if it would make a difference. Ephraim had a good chance to score again in the 58th minute, but couldn't find the back of the net, with the keeper saving the ball. Although this in itself wasn't creating many more shots, it was making it harder for Pompey to attack, as they were now mostly going down the wings, which we seemed to be happier to defend against, although there were still a few scares. In the 81st minute Fatih Yucel stuck an almighty long shot from 30 yards, but the keeper managed to get a hand to it, to push it for a corner. We then spent most of the rest of the match camped in the last third of the pitch, with Buzsaky having a close shot saved by the keeper. This allowed us to play out the rest of the match to take a 1-0 victory.

I was pleased with how my touchline shouts in the 2nd half really changed the dynamic of the game. The shots from Pompey shows the big difference between the two halves, with 12 in the 1st, and just 3 in the 2nd. We had only 3 in the 1st and 7 in the 2nd half, which shows just how much better we had played. Our performance in the 2nd half, even though it didn't give us any more goals, really did stop Portsmouth being anywhere near as effective as they had been. I have to admit I was rather worried after the way they were all over us in the 1st half. This is a match that we could have thrown away if we'd continued to allow Portsmouth to dominate as they had in the 1st half. Steele really earned his wage today and the clean sheet bonus in that 1st half, but his performance was eclipsed by Ephraim, the man of the match, who along with Grenier really terrorized the Pompey backline. One of the best things about this match was that it did not end up as a draw, as that would have added to our already congested fixture nightmare.

Result: 1-0

The draw for the 6th round of the FA Cup took place a couple of days after this match, and will see us play away at either, Tottenham or Cardiff. Given all the teams left in the draw are Premiership teams, it could have been worse, such as away to Arsenal or Liverpool. Tottenham however if they do win the replay are still a tricky prospect. One good aspect of the 6th round onwards are that all matches are settled on the night, with no replays.

Valencia (A) Champions Cup First Knockout Round 1st Leg

We travel to Spain and the Nuevo Mestalla for our most daunting challenge of the season, as underdogs, and expected to be thrashed. This is the first match of the season that the fans have been pessimistic. Success for us in this match is not be completely thrashed I feel, with a draw being a long shot, and win would be a miracle. I decided the best option would be to set us up for going on the counter attack, and hope that if we can hold steady at the back, we have a hope with a quick counter attack.

The match started with Valencia pushing forward, giving Steele some early catching practice. What happened next stunned me and the entire stadium. The ball was cleared to the left and forward to Zigoni, who squared the ball inside to Fatih Yucel at the edge of the centre circle, in space and able to dribble forward clear of the defence. As he got into the area, he unleashed a great shot to beat the keeper to give us an astonishing lead in just the 5th minute. Valencia immediately pushed forward, forcing Steele, who was looking really motivated for this match, to make a stunning save in the 6th minute from a long shot. One of the oddest things was how Valencia seemed in little panic to pressurise us, and were allowing us a lot of time on the ball when we got it. In the 22nd minute Steele was called upon to make a good save, but wasn't working as much as I expecting. In the 34th minute we finally worked our 2nd shot of the match, with Zigoni's shot from the edge of the area, just saved at the near post. The inevitable happened in the 40th minute with Valencia's, David Villa finally receiving a great pass at the edge of the area, and managed to somehow slide it in the corner of the net. It was a bit disappointing, but it takes a striker of his quality to pull out a great shot like that. Just slightly left and it would have been wide, just a touch right and it would have hit Puygrenier who was right in front of him. Valencia then seemed to up the tempo, and in the 43rd minute Villa got in clear, only to see Steele push his shot out for a corner. We managed to see the half out with the scores level at 1-1.

I was pleased with what I'd seen, because although Valencia are clearly better than us, we'd not allowed ourselves to be overrun, and it'd taken a classy finish to break through our defences. I sent the players back our telling them I was pleased, hoping this would motivate them for the 2nd half. I have no idea if the half time talk really had an effect, but from the kick off the ball was worked to the left, for Balanta to move forward, and spotted a diagonal pass to Fatih Yucel, just outside the area, with space, and again as he entered the area he unleashed another superb finish into the far bottom corner of the net to give us the lead again. I was stunned, and delighted. Although Valencia were getting forward and putting some pressure on us, we were still getting a lot of time on the ball. In fact at this point we'd had more possession and our passing completion was better. In the 57th minute from a corner, Zigoni got his head to the ball and the Valencia keeper made a save he didn't know too much about from point blank range, allowing Puygrenier a follow up shot, but he could only give the keeper some catching practice. In the 63rd minute Villa scored the equaliser from just outside the area, yet again just finding the one place, that missed a defender, and although Steele got a fingertip to the ball, he couldn't stop it going in. In the 69th minute Villa got through looking for his hat-trick, but this time Steele was able to get enough on the ball to push it out for a corner. In the 75th minute there was huge disappointment with Valencia scoring from a corner, which I really hate. For some reason I can't fathom, about half of the goals conceded at corners, seem to be by a player scoring their first goal of the season. In the 78th minute Ephraim will wonder for a long time how he couldn't find the shot to score with just the keeper to beat in the 6 yard box. My players looked determined to try and find an equaliser in the game pinning Valencia back and winning several corners. With the seconds ticking away we gave it one last try winning another corner, from which we went close, with the rebound dropping to Sunny just outside the area, but his shot couldn't find a way through the crowded area. That was the last shot of the game, bringing it to an end with us losing 3-2.

In spite of losing, I was really pleased with the performance we'd put in, even if the winner was a very disappointing goal to concede. To have taken the lead twice against such good opposition was superb, and gives us a little hope that we might just be able to pull off a big surprise in the 2nd leg, with the two away goals we have scored. Even if don't, we have given a superb account of ourselves in this match. I was delighted that Fatih Yucel was given the man of the match award, scoring two superbly taken goals. The only surprise for me, was that Jimenez had a very average game. The email summary of the match states that we put in a good display and could feel unlucky at losing this match. Despite the loss, the morale of the team is still very high, which is great as they are obviously viewing this match objectively.

Result: 2-3

Manchester City (A) Premier League

We travel to the City of Manchester stadium as clear underdogs for this match, but our record against them is actually quite good, with 4 wins out of the last 5 matches between the two teams. This is another extremely important match in the title race, as City are 3 points behind us having played the same number of games.

The match started with Man City going close, after getting a cross in from the byeline, with the header fortunately giving Steel an easy save. After that things became a lot more even, with both sides creating some chances, with the closest being a long shot from City that hit the crossbar in the 16th minute. This seemed to spur City on for a few minutes, with us having to defend hard. In the 20th minute we worked the ball forward patiently getting a series of corner kicks, with Kjær getting his head to one in the 25th minute to give us the lead. City really pressed after this, and the equaliser came in the 32nd minute, much to my disappointment. We tried to react, but everytime City got the ball, they were moving the ball so fast, we were struggling, and Steele had to make a superb save in the 35th minute to stop the ball going into the top corner of the net, and another brilliant diving save in the 41st minute. We managed to weather the storm putting a big clearance up the field for Zigoni to run onto on the right side, he held the ball up near the corner waiting for options, and provided Grenier a superb pass to run onto in the area. He ran to the right edge of the 6 yard box, and somehow managed to beat the keeper at the near post to give us the lead again in the 1st minute of added time, and gives him his first goal of the season. The first half came to an end with us still leading 2-1.

Our first half performance had been rather variable, with our defence being opened up a bit too often, but our attacking play had been good at points, although our strikers seemed to become rather isolated. I sent the players back out telling them I was pleased, hoping they could hold out for a victory. City found the equaliser in the 48th minute, with Steele making 2 great saves, before Tezvez pounced to stab the ball home. I was disappointed that we let them back level so quickly. In the 50th minute Steele had to make another great save after we allowed Robinho to just dribble right through us, and was beginning to seriously worry me. However, we were not about to lie down, and we moved the ball forward again patiently, and in the 53rd minute Ephraim picked out a superb cross to Jimenez in the area, who kept his cool to place the shot into the net to give us the lead again. This was now becoming a real end to end affair, and Adebayour scared us in the 57th minute getting clear but fortunately for us he shot just wide. The match continued going end to end with scares for both teams, one of the biggest being in the 76th minute from a City cross, with the header somehow being put wide of the target. In the 79th minute Steele produced an absolutely astonishingly lucky save after a Barry shot from outside the area, hit the bar, and bounced down, hitting him bouncing safe allowing us to clear the ball. For the last 10 minutes City were almost camped in our half of the pitch, with a scary number of shots, but fortunately for us the shots were either blocked, easy saves, or off target. I have no idea quite how we managed to hold on to this 3-2 win.

This definitely goes down as a lucky win, and shows the frailty of the City defence, in that we managed to score from 3 of the 7 shots we had in the match. I was disappointed to see the man of the match award going to Tevez, as I felt Steele who had an outstanding game, was more deserving, but goals always count higher for ratings. I was delighted to come away with this most unlikely victory. I don't how or why but we seem to have the something over City, no matter what they throw at us. One thing I did notice early on in the match was that we had several players motivated from the start, which seems to happen rarely. An observation about City that may explain this result, is that each time the scores were level they were quite happy to allow us the time and space on the ball to work openings. Once behind they would then push, and the longer they stayed behind, the more desperate they seemed to be, such that although they had lots of shots, they were easier for us to stop than if they had been more controlled about working an opening, as they had been when scoring their 2 goals.

Result: 3-2

Fulham (H) Premier League

Our final league fixture of the month sees Fulham travel the short distance to Loftus Road, with us being favourites to win the match. Fulham are a team we see as a rival, but they actually see us as fierce rivals, so they are sure to have serious motivation for this match. The sides have not been seperated by more than one goal in our previous 4 matches, so this is likely to be another tight contest. When the teamsheets are announced we find that Fulham are lining up with a 3-5-2 formation, making for a very congested midfield, but hopefully giving us space on the wings to get behind them.

As I expected space in the midfield was difficult to come by and it was clear a patient build up would be needed. In the 4th minute after a lot of passing, we finally fashioned an opportunity for Scocco to hit a long shot, which the keeper only just pushed out for a corner. From the resulting corner, Fulham made a poor effort of trying to defend, and the ball dropped to Puygrenier, who even with his poor finishing skills managed to find a gap through the bodies to give us the lead in the 5th minute, even though the keeper managed to get a hand to the ball. Our lead didn't last long though, with Fulham equalising in the 9th minute, the first time they'd even managed to get near our area. Most annoyingly this goal should have been given for offside, so I feel very aggrieved by this. Our players continued to build regular attacks, and in the 18th minute, the keeper saved another tremendously struck long shot from Scocco. Fulham were now looking more attacking and causing a few more worries at the back, but it was us that struck again next, with a well worked moved down the right side, with Scocco passing the ball inside to Jimenez, who flicked it on into the area, where Ephraim arrived to hit the ball into the net to give us the lead again in the 29th minute. Fulham then dropped to a 5-3-2 formation, I'm guessing to strengthen the backline. Although Fulham were still managing to make attacks, it was allowing us huge amounts of space to get down the wings when we went forward. In the 44th minute Jimenez put Fatih Yucel through into the area, and he gave us our 3rd goal of the match to give us a 2 goal lead. We quickly won the ball after the restart and went looking for another, and only a well timed tackle stop Fatih Yucel the opportunity to score, and a couple of minute later the half time whistle blew just as he hit a shot, which went into to net, but wouldn't count, so the half finished with us leading 3-1.

I was pleased with what I'd seen so far, with us able to rip through Fulham with ease, and our defence had not had much work to do, with a dodgy offside decision being the only time we'd failed to deal with and attack. I sent the players back out pleased with what they'd shown so far, hoping they would continue to show the same endeavour in the 2nd half. Fulham came out absolutely fired up, pushing us back as much as they could, winning several corners early on. The pressure from them was quite intense, but we were still standing firm, but they were closing us down fast when we were heading forward. I made a few adjustments, but in the 71st minute they still managed to get a player clear with a great throughball, but fortunately Steele managed to stand his ground and make an excellent save. Later the same minute we managed to get Ephraim through, but he pulled his shot wide of the target. In the 78th minute Steele made another superb diving save. Fortunately after this we calmed down and started to play more sensibly, and our defending became much more solid, Puygrenier really taking control of the things at the back, winning almost every header when the ball was hit forward. We also managed to take some time out of the game by retaining possession, but still looking to score again. We managed to play the rest of the match out claiming a 3-1 victory.

I was pleased with this result, although I feel we a few times we nearly panicked in the 2nd half under pressure, but this turned out to be a very good team performance, all built upon the superb attacking play we'd shown in the first half. Puygrenier won the man of the match award, after having put in a superb performance in defence, as well as scoring a goal. This is our best performance against Fulham, and we stood up the to pressure we knew would come in the 2nd half. The fans are delighted with this result, as they should be when we beat one of our rivals.

Result: 3-1

The FA Cup Replays were also took place on the same day, confirming Tottenham as our opponents in the next round, giving us a tricky encounter at White Hart Lane. Elsewhere Arsenal were surprisingly beaten in the home leg of the EURO Cup tie against HSV, 3-1 to be put out of the tournament.

Arsenal (N) League Cup Final

Next up is a visit to Wembley to play Arsenal for the second time this month, with them clear favourites to lift the trophy. This will definitely be a tricky match, and after being knocked out of the EURO Cup earlier in the week, it's hard to know exactly how they will react to that. We can only hope it has a negative effect upon them, rather than inspiring them to give us a good thumping. The two matches between us in the league, both ended as 1-1 draws, so this could well be a closely fought match. One piece of luck for us, is that Theo Walcott is injured, and won't be playing. When the teamsheets were revealed, it was clear they were intent on winning this trophy, with a very strong side announced.

The first half was pretty awful, where we had marginally more of the ball, but for the first half an hour, we were getting nowhere when we went forward, and giving the ball away too often at the back. In the 10th minute we have Steele to thank for making a great save after Puygrenier allowed himself to be caught dwelling on the ball. This happened with several players during this time with Steele having to save us. It wasn't until the 42nd minute we finally worked a proper chance, with Ephraim receiving the ball in the middle of the area, but he thumped it straight at the keeper. The half ended goalless with Arsenal having created 3 times as many chances as us.

This was a really poor display, not helped by what appeared to be a terribly biased referee. We had Laure and Sunny booked in the first half, and yet Arsenal seemed to able to take my players down without it even being given as a foul. My favourite was Sunny being behind Fabregas, but somehow giving a foul away for backing into him. I told the players I was disappointed, hoping this would fire them up to start performing. We came out looking much more motivated, but it who still Arsenal who broke through for the first chance of the half with Steele having to make a great save in the 49th minute, and another in the 55th. In the 60th minute we were denied claims for a penalty with Boateng pushing Fatih Yucel as he was jumping for a header. Our first shot came a minute later with Fatih Yucel blasting just over the bar. We'd been doing a good after that of retaining possession and cutting out attacks from Arsenal. In 83rd minute though, I was angry for 2 reasons, with van Persie being offside, and then I'm sure he fouled Steele before putting the ball in the net. I was spitting chips after that, and decided to just go full out attack. Sadly we totally failed to achieve anything and the match came to an end with us losing 1-0.

I was totally gutted by this result and feel totally cheated by the complete injustice of van Persie's goal which I feel should have been disallowed, and for us not being a awarded a penalty. To lose the League Cup in such controversial circumstances really hurts, but it's something we need to put behind us. I was also disappointed with how few times we managed to create shots, with only 6 to the 17 Arsenal had. The players had put in a lot of effort without managing to really create much. This is the first match we've failed to score in since Christmas, which is also a disappointment.

Result: 0-1

Monthly Roundup

Despite being absolutely gutted at losing the League Cup Final in the way we did, I feel we had a superb month. Our league form was brilliant with 4 wins and draw, with 2 of those wins over our closest title rivals. The win over Portsmouth in the FA Cup 5th round was not as convincing as I feel it should have been, but it was still pleasing to advance to the 6th round. In the Champions Cup against Valencia, who I expected us to really struggle against, I ended up feeling disappointed that we'd managed to draw the match, as we played so better than I could have dared hope. However I still feel that scoring 2 away goals was good, as it gives us some hope in the 2nd leg at home next month.

Our wins over Man City and Liverpool have given us a good advantage over them, and the hectic fixture schedule took its toll on Arsenal, who lost to Aston Villa during the month, allowing us to gain an advantage over them. This run won me the Premiership Manager of the Month award for the first time this season, with Man United's Roberto Mancini in 2nd and Arsenal's Arsene Wenger in 3rd. Our chances of taking the title are quite a bit better after this month. Liverpool had a terrible month with 1 win, 2 losses and 2 draws to slip 10 points behind us, the low point being the 6-2 thumping they suffered at the hands of Sunderland.

Clement Grenier won the Premiership Young Player of the Month award with Angelo Balanta placed in 3rd. There were a lot of great performances from different team members, but my player of the month is fairly easy this time, with Kjær being the most consistent performer for us in the centre of defence, with an average over 7 games of about 7.4. The month ends with Slory now back to fitness and ready to play in the 1st team again. Varrault is our one remaining injury, still about 3 weeks from being able to make his return.

The next month sees us play 6 fixtures, which feels like a very quiet after 3 straight months with 8 fixtures a piece. We will be playing Tottenham in the 6th round of the FA Cup, our second leg of our Champions Cup tie against Valencia, and 4 league fixtures.

I now feel more optimism that we may be able to win the title, because our rivals appear to have a slightly tougher run in to the end of the season than we do, although we don't want to rely on other teams slipping up.

January 2012 - Problems in the Dressing Room

The month starts with the confirmation that AC Milan have sent Gianmarco Zigoni on loan to us, and according to my backroom staff he is rated as our 3rd best striker, behind Fatih Yucel and Scocco, so should be able to do a decent job for us during the heavy fixture congestion we have coming up. He is however severely lacking match fitness so will need a match or two in the reserves before joining the first team.

Unfortunately the harmony in the team seems to breaking down a lot. The catalsyt for this seems to have been after one of my hot prospects had a falling out with Rafa while he was tutoring him. Silviu Lung jr has also expressed a desire to leave in order to join a bigger club and win trophies. In order to avoid causing a huge upset, I have responded that he should wait until the end of the season. I'm not happy with this, but if I decline his request to leave, I'm sure he'd stop playing at his best, as happened with Fatih Yucel for a while. I find this desire to leave a bit strange, given that we are currently 1st in the Premier League and also in the League Cup semi final, with a good chance of making it through to final, as well as also winning the FA Cup last season, and the Charity Shield in this one. I can only hope that we do manage to hold on and win the league, and that this causes him to have a change of heart. In the hopes of bringing some of the harmony back to the dressing room, I have accepted offers for both Rowan Vine and Matthew Connolly, who appear to have been the most vocal is stirring up trouble. Wayne Routledge looks to be another player that needs to leave, so I've also offered him to other clubs. This may appear brutal, but I feel I need to clear out those who I feel are no longer good enough to play for the team, and causing our dressing room problems.

Sunderland (H) League Cup Semi Final Leg 1

The first match of the year sees Sunderland arrive back at Loftus Road just 4 days after we gained victory over them in the FA Cup. We are again narrow favourites for this match, and know that we can achieve a win. It would be ideal if we can give ourselves a comfortable victory and keep a clean sheet if we can. My biggest concern in this match is how the problems in the dressing room affect the players out on the pitch, but my assistant seems to have no worries about the focus of any of the our players on match day.

We started the game by going on the attack, allowing Sunderland little time on the ball. In the 6th minute this paid off with Varrault finding a superb diagonal pass into the area for Scocco to run onto and round the keeper to give him the easiest of shots to give us the lead. In the 11th minute Scocco received the ball clear of the defence, but this time the keeper was able to close him down and stop his shot from finding the back of the net. Although Sunderland were trying to mount attacks, were doing a good job of cutting these out and mounting our own attacks and in the 17th minute Scocco squared the ball to his right just outside the area for Fatih Yucel, who moved forward and placed the ball into the net to give us a 2nd goal. In the 25th minute we nearly added to our goal tally with Buzsaky's curling shot from just outside the area saved, with the rebound dropping to Scocco in the area, but his shot was also saved by the keeper. After the half hour mark Sunderland came a bit more into the game, managing a few shots, but nothing that required a great save from our keeper. We continued to mount attacks, with Buzsaky having another shot saved in the 36th minute. Although Sunderland were regularly managing to get down the flanks, their crossing was pretty woeful, which was making our job of defending that much easier. The first half came to and end with us still leading 2-0.

I was pleased with what I'd seen in the first half, with the players looking good on the ball, and making it hard for Sunderland to attack. I sent the players back out telling them I was pleased, hoping they would continue to make the same sort of effort for the 2nd half. Sunderland came out looking motivated, but this didn't seem to be helping them, and in the 51st minute a series of swift passing moves, saw Rowlands slide the ball across the face of the area, for Fatih Yucel to run onto and score our 3rd goal of the match. Annoyingly we got caught out in the 56th minute by the speed of Bent, getting onto the end of a ball and sliding it by Lung jr again at the near post, which is very disappointing. In the 69th minute Scocco had a tricky chance to extend our lead again, but failed to even find the target. In the 84th he had another chance having got clear of the defence, only to hit the keeper again. In the 90th minute I was angry when Bent managed to get on the end of another ball and hammered it by Lung jr without him seeming to make much of an effort to make the save. That was very annoying, as I feel he really could have saved both of these goals, making we wonder if he is distracted by his desire to leave the club. We saw the match through to gain a 3-2 victory.

I was pleased to get a victory, but very annoyed that we'd conceded two goals I felt our keeper should have made a much better effort to try and save. It's very disappointing not to finish with the margin of victory our performance had deserved. Although we will head to the Stadium of Light holding an advantage, but it's not as good as I would have liked.

Result: 3-2

Wigan (A) Premier League

For our first league fixture of the year we head off to DW Stadium to take on Wigan, who have been struggling quite a big this season, finding themselves in 16th place, which makes us favourites to win this match. Our record over Wigan is good, having won the last 3 matches we've played against them, although each time the margin of victory has been by a single goal.

The match started as a midfield battle and continued on from there. In spells we looked good, causing the Wigan defence problems, and several times had a player just about to get clear with the ball, only for him to be fouled each time, denying us any really good chances. In the 40th minute Lung jr had to make the first save by either keeper of the match. We reached half time goalless, in what had been a pretty dreary match so far.

I was somewhat disappointed with our play, although that had a lot to do with the tactics of Wigan. I sent the players back out telling them it had been disappointing so far, hoping this would bring them more to life for the second half. At the start of the 2nd half we were awful, being overrun by Wigan, and took ages to start to settle again. It wasn't until the 59th minute Jimenez had a chance to score, only for his shot to be saved. In the 63rd minute Scocco had a better chance, but somehow the keeper managed to flail an arm and bring off a miraculous save. In the 82nd minute there was great controversy when we were awarded a penalty for a foul on Buzsaky, which Fatih Yucel stepped up to take, and buried into the back of the net to give us the lead. It's no surprise that Wigan started pushing hard to find an equaliser, with Lung jr having a make a save in the 88th minute from a stinging long shot. In the 1st minute of stoppage time, Wigan had a shot bounce off the crossbar and go safe, with Lung jr called upon the following minute. Fortunately after that we managed to keep the ball as I wanted us to, and play out the time for a 1-0 victory.

I was pleased we managed to get this victory, and at times in the 2nd half our performance looked good, but overall the match was pretty poor, with Wigan's very defensive and negative tactics making it very hard to break through. Such was the poor quality of the match, Sunny was named the man of the match with a rating of just 7.5, which says a lot. Our defence, which had seen a few changes for this match for the purposes of maintaining fitness levels, had done a pretty good job, giving me a lot of confidence in all the defensive players I will be using over the next few months.

Result: 1-0

Following this match we have now confirmed the sale of Rowan Vine to Norwich for £500k, which has seen the dressing harmony rise a bit, but is still far too low. Although the harmony of the squad is down, their morale is very high, with the results still being good, but I definitely need to improve the situation as quickly as possible.

Sunderland (A) Premier League

We now travel to the Stadium of Light for a league match against Sunderland, who we're getting to know extremely well recently. They are the narrowest of favourites for this match, and after our recent meetings I feel we have a decent chance.

The match started as a fairly even affair, with both sides looking to mount attacks. In the 8th minute Lung jr had to make a very good save keep the ball out of the net. This seemed to spur Sunderland on, and in the 10th minute Lung jr had to make another great save from a free kick, where our wall was in the wrong position. It took us a few minutes to settle again, with our first shot of the match coming in the 16th minute from a Scocco long range drive that flew just wide of the post. Sunderland were however finding it far too easy to break through our back line with Lung jr making another good save in the 19th minute. In the 28th minute Scocco managed to get on the end of a throughball clear of the defence, but he failed to be able to get the ball by the keeper who'd been quick to close him down. However later the same minute Slory slotted a pass through to Scocco at the edge of the box, allowing him to move by his marker, and this time he managed to slide the ball under the advancing keeper as he dived to try and make the save. Sunderland tried to respond, which was giving us a bit more space to attack when we got the ball, and in the 34th minute Fatih Yucel tried a long range shot from outside the area, which the keeper could only push over the bar for a corner. From the resulting corner there were shouts claiming that we should have had a penalty, but it's very unclear, and the ball went for another corner. In the 37th minute there was disappointment as Sunderland broke through again allowing Aaron Lennon an easy shot to level the scores. Just two minute later Puygrenier was given a very dubious yellow card, for an apparent trip on a player who was running from behind him as he jumped for a header. No idea how that works out. Just into added time Lung jr produced an amazing save to deny Kenwyne Jones when he managed to get the ball clear of our defence, bringing the first half to a close with the score level at 1-1.

Although Sunderland had enjoyed more possession, the match had been fairly even, and was quite pleased with what I'd seen, hoping we could now push on to find the winning goal. The 2nd half started with Sunderland pushing forward, forcing another couple of saves from Lung jr, but we soon started to mount attacks ourselves, and in the 52nd minute Fatih Yucel had an excellent chance to score, but just couldn't get it out of the reach of the keeper, with the ball was cleared out to the right, where the Sunderland right back had the ball stolen from him, and then fouled Slory trying to win it back. Buzsaky stepped up, and I was just expecting the ball to be delivered into the box for one of our players to try and get a head on it. However his kick was directed towards the far top corner of the net, but fully expected the keeper to push it over or wide for a corner, but he misjudged it, and ended up deflecting it into the goal to restore our lead. This was an own goal, as it looks unlikely the ball would have gone in without his touch on the ball. My delight didn't last long as Sunderland managed to claim an equaliser by just keep pumping the ball back into the box, and eventually it fell for one of their players to put the ball in the net in the 55th minute. I was angry with this goal, as our defending had let us down badly, with us getting pushed back far too much. Sunderland then started pushing for a winner, and worryingly in the 62nd minute Buzsaky went down with a potential thigh injury. After this we seemed largely powerless to stop Sunderland from creating chances with shots coming from everywhere, causing a lot of worry. We did get foward a few times, but the last part of the match was pretty poor with us having to withstand some serious pressure, but we managed to hold out and reach the end of the match with the scores level at 2-2.

Given how we'd managed to take the lead twice, I was disappointed with the result and how much we were outplayed by Sunderland in the last part of the match. I guess I should be happy though to come away with a draw, as this is not an easy venue to get a result at. One good piece of news is that Buzsaky has not sustained an injury from the knock he took in the match.

Result: 2-2

In the days following the match I have now sold Wayne Routledge to Birmingham for £1 million, which should ease some more of the dressing room disharmony.

Sheffield United (H) Premier League

The Blades arrive at Loftus Road with us clear favourites to win this match. The backroom staff tell me that we have a lot of different advantages over them, so this is a match we should definitely be winning against a side that have struggled this season, sitting in 17th place in the table. I've decided to give Zigoni his first start since joining the club.

With just 10 seconds on the clock, Sheffield United's Crisetig hacked Ephraim down with a vicious tackle, resulting in him being sent off and his victim suffering a potential knee injury, which is a bit of a worry, but at the moment a substitution is not needed. For some reason after this, it was Blades going on the attack, pushing us back for a while. In the 9th minute a superb throughball over the top nearly got a us a goal with Balanta taking control of it, and hitting the shot, which the keeper just managed to get a hand to and deflect around the post. From the corner Ephraim had a shot which bounced off a defender and dropped perfectly for Puygrenier to swing a leg and thump the ball into the back of the net and give us the lead in the 10th minute. The Blades were now dominating possession, stroking the ball about like we weren't there, but we nearly got them on the break in the 17th minute with Balanta again getting clear and again seeing his shot kept out by another great save. We started to gain a bit more time on the ball, but still giving possession back far too cheaply, which was disappointing. In the 29th minute we won our second corner of the game, and the Blades made an awful mess of trying to defend it, with the ball bouncing about like it was in a pinball machine, before it bounced off the keeper, allowing Kjær to pounce on the ball and prod it into the net to give us a 2 goal lead. In fact it was Kjær's initial flick on to put it over the head of the flailing keeper that helped to cause the panic. This appeared to settle us properly for a while, but again we started to give the ball away far too cheaply. Near the end of the half Balanta and then Jimemez went down having taken a knock, which is not good during this busy period of matches. The first half ended with us leading 2-0.

I was pleased that we had the lead, but felt we hadn't taken as much advantage as we should have, especially with a player having been sent off. I sent the players back out telling them I was pleased, hoping they would then go on the see this match out properly. The half started with the Blades looking very good, making me worry a bit with the ease with which they were moving the ball about. In the 50th minute we'd finally wrestled the ball back, and Zigoni had a good chance to extend our lead, but his shot was the victim of another great save by the keeper. We finally seemed to settle down after that taking a lot more control. In the 56th minute I was astonished when Balanta was booked for a supposed dive in the area, but it looks like he was brought down to me. Somehow the keeper managed to make another astonishing save to deny Zigoni yet again. In the 61st minute we were the victims of another of the AI's miracle long shots, to pull a goal back for the Blades. We then started to enjoy a good period of possession, looking to restore our 2 goal lead, rarely letting the Blades mount a counter attack, but every time they did I got nervous. In the 78th minute Curri spotted Scocco, on as a substitute, in space just outside the area, and he thumped in a superb long shot to restore our 2 goal cushion. After this we were really dominating possession well, and giving the Blades no opportunity of getting forward. This was spoilt though when the referee made what I feel was a disgraceful decision to give Sunny his second yellow card of the game leading to him being sent off in the 87th minute. That sending off had little effect on the result though, with the match ending 3-1.

I'm pleased that we got the win, but absolutely livid about Sunny's sending off, and the bizarre booking of Balanta for a supposed dive. It was quite nice to see our two centre backs get on the scoresheet, but Scocco's screamer was an absolute delight and really settled my nerves. In the post match analysis it actually says that the referee had a mixed day, and could be accused of a bias towards to the visitors, which I certainly felt. The bad news is that Sunny is now banned for 2 matches after his sending off, but there is some good news which is that Ephraim has not sustained an injury as a result of the vicious foul in the first few seconds of the match. One of the more astounding stats is that Sheffield United only commited only 2 fouls in the match, or at least the referee gave only 2 fouls against them.

Result: 3-1

Sunderland (A) League Cup Semi Final Leg 2

We travel back to the Stadium of Light, as marginal underdogs looking to advance through to the final of the League Cup, holding a narrow lead of one goal in the tie. If we can match our performance earlier in the month we played in the league at this stadium, then I'll be very happy, as it will be enough to see us through to the final.

For the first 15 minutes of the match we were completely and utterly rubbish, so bad I was thinking of joining our fans and booing the awful display they were putting on. The only good things I was seeing was some herioc defending under great pressure. I really started shouting at the team, telling them a few fortunes, and this seemed to wake them up from whatever drugged haze they had been in at the start. Suddenly they were managing to string some passes together and in the 18th minute Fatih Yucel squared the ball in the area for Jimenez to stroke the ball home to open the scoring, in what had up until then looked a very one sided match. The match became a little more open after that even though Sunderland were pushing to find an equaliser. This was opening the pitch for us to mount counter attacks which were causing them some worries, even though we weren't creating any shots. In the 29th minute one of those counter attacks saw Scocco put through on the left and when reached the byeline he turned and sent a great pass to Curri who'd moved into the area, who then slipped a short diagonal pass to Rafa, who looked sure to increase our lead before he was flattened by a tackle from Anton Ferdinand. This resulted in a yellow card, which was fairly lucky given Rafa had a clear chance to score. Curri stepped up to the take the spot kick but somehow the keeper managed to make a save and deflect the ball onto the post, with Scocco's shot from the rebound saved, and then Jimenez had a shot from just outside the area, go just wide of the post. I can't believe we've let them off like that. To add serious insult to this missed penalty, Varrault went down in the 36th minute with a possible thigh injury, requiring his substition. This missed penalty seemed to give Sunderland more confidence and they pushed forward again, with Lung jr called upon to make another great diving save in the 38th minute. We went through another period of 5 minutes looking totally awful again, but we managed to make it to half time still leading 1-0.

Although we'd looked really poor at times, I was pleased that we'd managed to get the lead and although Sunderland had put a lot of pressure on us, we'd managed to stand up to that so far. There was a bit of disappointment that we'd had a penalty saved, and Varrault had needed to be substituted. I sent the players back out pleased, as we were now holding a two goal lead on aggregate, and hoped they would be a bit more consistent in the second half. We actually started the half looking a bit better than we had, but it was Sunderland who were to make the breakthrough in the 53rd minute, with another of those annoying long shots flying in that you find hard to believe. For the next few minutes there was big midfield battle, which ended with Sunderland getting a cross into the box for them to head the ball home to take the lead and level the scores on aggregate. From the moment of that penalty everything was going against us, and now we were getting poor offside decisions given against us with the wrong player being called, when the receiving player was actually onside. We desperately needed some change of luck if we were to get out of this with the result we so desired. After about 70 minutes we started to enjoy our best period of the game, but a lot of our attacks were being stopped by fouls in the midfield area, which was getting frustrating. In the 86th minute there was an awful tackle on Slory leading to his enforced substitution with a possible thigh injury, but the player inflicting the injury was not even given a talking to. From the resulting free kick Rafa got his head to the ball, but the keeper somehow managed to deflect the ball over the bar for a corner. In the 3rd minute of added time, we won a corner which was cleared, and the ball was then passed back to Jimenez on the right, who crossed it back into the box, where it took a deflection off a Sunderland player towards the goal, with Scocco the first player to react and he hammered the ball home to level the scores and restore our aggregate lead in the most dramatic fashion. Despite Sunderland immediately going on the attack, there was not enough time for them to find the goal they needed to send the match into extra time. The match ended with the same scoreline there had been in the league game, a 2-2 draw, meaning we'd won the semi-final 5-4 on aggregate.

I was delighted, with how much better we'd been in the 2nd half, especially in the last 20 minutes of the match. Luis Jimenez came away with the man of the match award, after putting in a great performance today, rounded off by getting the assist for our dramatic late goal that put us through to the final of the League Cup. I had just about resigned myself to the match going to extra time, where I feared we would start to tire, and possibly give the match away. The injury to Cedric Varrault is a quite nasty one to his hip, putting him out for between 2 to 3 months, which is not good. Although we have Curri who can play just as well at left back to cover his absence, I feel we need to look at signing another player for this position. Slory's injury is fortunately nowhere near as serious, with it just being a dead leg, putting him out for just 3 to 4 days. Our opponents in the final will be Arsenal, who came through after getting a 1-1 draw away to Everton, to win 3-2 on aggregate.

Result: 2-2 (5-4 aggregate)

Annoyingly a deal to sell Matthew Connolly to Sampdoria fell through when they were unable to find the funds, so I've have offered him up again for sale, but increased his price a little as there is a lot of interest in buying him.

Huddersfield (H) FA Cup 4th Round

Huddersfield visit Loftus Road for this cup tie as clear underdogs for this match. They have had a reasonable run of late in the Championship sitting midtable, and victory can not be taken for granted. As far as the fans are concerned defeat in this fixture would be almost unforgiveable, so it is very important that our players are not complacent.

The match started with us pushing forward looking for a way through, and Huddersfield helped us by conceding a free kick just outside the area. Buzsaky stepped up and stroked the ball home into the top corner of the net to open the scoring in the 3rd minute of the game to get us off to a great start. Rowlands had a shot from a narrow angle saved in the 6th minute to win a corner. In what I felt was a slightly bizarre move Huddersfield substituted their fastest striker, and changed from a 4-4-2 formation to a 4-1-4-1, which I was sure could only be a good thing for us, even though it would make it harder to crack their defence again. What followed was a rather unexciting period of play where we were dominating possession trying to find a way through the solid wall that Huddersfield had decided to create, and it wasn't until the 29th minute that Rowlands picked Balanta out in space in the area, where he drilled the ball along the ground to beat the keeper and double our lead. Just three minutes later Zigoni showed good vision to put Balanta through on goal with in space and he advanced into the area and placed the ball into the bottom corner of the net to give us a 3 goal lead. Huddersfield then switched to trying to play possession football, trying to work forward slowly, but that was just succeeded in making the match fairly boring, as it seemed be just a matter of time before we would cut a pass out and clear the ball. Their only shot of the half came from a free kick conceded about 40 yards out, which was blocked, and so the half ended with us leading 3-0.

I was pleased with how we'd performed, getting 3 goals, and totally snuffing out Huddersfield as an attacking force. Steele our keeper in this match, had hardly had anything to do in the match. I sent the players back out pleased, and hoped they wouldn't get complacent in the 2nd half. Huddersfield came out looking motivated, pushing us back suddenly and in the 51st minute they managed to grab a goal back. This seemed to give them hope, and there followed a boring period of play with a midfield battle, and then they started to push forward as if they were Man United, suddenly able to do whatever they liked, and Steele had to make a great save in the 66th minute to stop them finding a 2nd goal. This was bizarre, even when we did break forward, suddenly our first touch had gone, the passing was suddenly going all wrong and Huddersfield were making every tackle perfectly with the ball always going to them. Any tackle we made, the ball was also going straight back to them. I decided to make some substitutions, as nothing else seemed to make any difference, and this seemed to at last suddenly have our passing back again. Huddersfield still seemed to be able to charge through us in a way that I find hard to believe given their players and the skills. They just continued until the end still pushing to find a goal, but I'm pleased to say they couldn't find a way through, so the match ended 3-1.

I'm pleased we got the victory, but I find the 2nd half just totally bizarre, where the only reason that Huddersfield didn't get back into the match was due to some poor finishing and some good defending. Even trying to hassle the opponents didn't make any difference apart from us picking up some yellow cards, so I removed that shout. I know that in real life Huddersfield in that situation may try to go for it in the 2nd half, but to dominate it to such an extent was beyond belief. This seems to happen too often, and I'm glad this time I've got away it, unlike our match against PSG last month, where we were beaten with us unable to do a thing in the 2nd half of the match.

Result: 3-1

Following this match Matthew Connolly has now been sold to Torino for £2.2 million, which is a great relief, and brings a bit more harmony back to the dressing room.

Leeds (A) Premier League

We travel to Elland Road as marginal favourites for this fixture, but this surely has the potential to be a banana skin for us, as Leeds have performed quite well in their first season back in the Premier Division, sitting comfortably in 10th spot. Leeds have also played no matches for 10 days, so their team is fully fit as well, but hopefully that will not prove to be much of an advantage. Their home form is quite poor, so they seem to struggle in front of their own fans.

We started the match in fine form with, with us working Scocco through in the 2nd minute, but he fired just wide. We continued to push forward, and in the 5th minute Jimenez put a superb pass through for Fatih Yucel to run onto and he found the target with a fine finish to open the scoring. We were still doing a good job of controlling the match, and in the 24th minute Fatih Yucel was put through again, but this time the keeper was equal to his shot. In the 26th minute Steele had to make a superb save to stop Leeds grabbing an equaliser, and another great save in the 30th to push the ball over the bar. In the 41st minute Scocco will wonder how having got clear his shot was saved by the keeper. From the resulting corner Fatih Yucel met the ball with his head, only to see the keeper manage to push the ball clear. We continued to press on seeing the half out still leading 1-0.

I was pleased with what I'd seen, but felt we really should have had a better lead. The match restarted looking a bit more open. In the 51st minute Kjær put a header just wide from a corner kick. In the 55th minute Scocco hit the crossbar, he was then brought down, but no foul given, on the edge of the area. In the 56th minute Scocco got clear again, only for the keeper to make another amazing save to deflect the ball for a corner. In the 58th minute this pressure finally paid off with Fatih Yucel turning to provider to flick a short pass to Eprhaim in the area, to slot the ball home to give us a 2 goal lead. We continued to pile on the pressure and in the 62nd minute Ephraim played the ball inside to Scocco 30 yards out in space and he hit an absolute rocket which hit the back of the net, despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball.  Immediately Leeds went on the attack from the restart, but Steele was equal to the shot holding the save with ease. In the 65th minute somehow we allowed Beckford to dribble his way around our defend and pulled a goal back, which was hugely disappointing. As in our previous match, it appeared that a team we'd been outplaying with ease, were suddenly turning on the style in a somewhat unbelievable fashion. Fortunately this didn't last long in this match, and we charged forward again, with Daeseleire producing an excellent cross which went over the keeper's head where the waiting Ephraim had the easiest of headers to put the ball in from point blank range for his 2nd of the match. Ephraim's desire to complete his hat-trick seemed to now be driving us on to look for another goal. I was very annoyed when he went down under a challenge in the 84th minute with a potential arm injury. That seemed to inspire Leeds, with a long shot from 40 yards out only being kept out by a stunning save from Steele. I was pleased though that when we did get the ball we were still looking very comfortable and confident. In the 89th minute Scocco hit a shot straight at the keeper with the ball rebounding out in the area where Ephraim was waiting and he managed to keep his composure in front of an almost empty net, to slot the ball home, and complete a wonderful hat-trick. Leeds tried to see if they could find another consolation from the restart, but once we got the ball back it was easy for us to see the match out for a marvellous 5-1 victory.

I'm absolutely delighted with this win and a superb performance, where the margin of victory could have been even bigger. From the starting 11, the lowest rating was a 7.1 from Sunny who was the first player I substituted due to him picking up a yellow, and looked in danger of getting a second. This is one of the best performances I've seen from the team, demolishing a team that could have caused us a few problems. Ephraim was outstanding, finishing with a hat-trick and an assist. The coaches only rate him as a good player for a Championship side, but there's something about his attributes that make him a great winger, even though his overall attributes are fairly average. He also completed the match with a damaged elbow that will see him sidelined for up to a 2 weeks. The fans that travelled to Leeds were also delighted having seen us dominate a game and for the first time this season produce a result that was befitting of the performance put in. I have to give huge credit to my players, because with the dressing room not showing the greatest of harmony, once they get on the pitch that his being forgotten.

Result: 5-1

West Ham (H) Premier League

The visit of West Ham to Loftus Road sees us as clear favourites for the match. West Ham have struggled a bit recently and find themselves in 11th place in the league, but they are by no means an easy team to beat.

We started the match looking to take it to West Ham, but somehow just couldn't find a way to create a chance, with the Hammers getting more time on the ball and being more creative. In the 9th minute though we finally managed to work our way through, with Grenier forcing a save from the keeper, which rebounded out for Zigoni to pounce on and stroke the ball home to give us the lead, this being his first goal since coming on loan to us. The Hammers then tried to push forward, but we were standing firm, and this allowed us an opportunity in the 19th minute to counter attack, with Laure hitting the ball upfield allowing Zigoni to race clear of the defence, and as the keeper advanced he produced a wonderful lob over the keeper to score his second goal of the match. In the 26th minute Balanta was set clear but the keeper stood firm to make the save. We were doing a great job of keeping West Ham quiet, but in the 40th minute they won a corner, from which the ball was cleared to the edge of the area, and hammered straight into the back of the net, through a crowded area without hitting any player on the way, to pull a goal back. In the last minute of half time there was a bit of a panic in our area but we managed to clear the ball, and the half ended with us still leading 2-1.

I was reasonably pleased with our performance in the first half, and felt that we were quite unlucky in conceding the goal in the way we had. I sent the players back out trying to encourage them to keep up their level of performance. In the 1st minute of the half we nearly allowed Owen to put the scores level and only a good save from Steele stopped that happening. For the first 10 minutes of the half we were almost under siege, before finally starting to get ourselves together and getting our passing back under control. In the 57th minute Balanta had another shot, but the keeper again made a great save. In the 61st minute Steele had to make another close range save to deny Owen again. In the 65th minute Zigoni was put through with a chance of claiming his hat-trick but again the keeper managed to make the save. A minute later West Ham got lucky with a deflection allowing them to score the equaliser, and also disappointed that Steele had not managed to make the save. There followed a big battle in the midfield for about 15 minutes. In the 80th minute we thought we'd taken the lead again when Jimenez put the ball in the net, but this was ruled out for him being offside. In the 85th minute I was livid when a nasty tackle caused Slory to go down with a potential foot injury, fortunately not bad enough to require substitution, but pretty nasty and yet again no card or talking to for the player that inflicted this; just a free kick. In the 89th minute West Ham hit the post, with us clearing the ball for a corner; I can't understand this, as there was very easy to have cleared this for a throw-in. Fortunately that odd decision to concede the corner didn't matter and the match came to end with the scores level 2-2.

I was really disappointed to end up with only a draw, especially after holding a 2 goal lead and although we had less shots, we had by far the better chances of scoring. This definitely goes down as 2 points thrown away. Slory ended up with a twisted ankle, which will see him out for about 4 weeks. This is frustrating, because with Curri who plays really well as a left winger now covering at left back, I'm effectively down by two left wingers. The situation is slightly worse than that, due to Ephraim still a few days away from making a return after this elbow injury.

Result: 2-2

When Varrault became injured I decided I needed to look to cover our left back position. Even though Martin Stranzl can play as a left back, he isn't the ideal cover for that position for any length of time. This became even more important with Slory picking up an injury, as it might then allow us to play Curri as a left winger again, where he seems to be very effective. In the days following I looked at signing some players, but had some good offers rejected, before I found Paul Dixon of Bolton avaliable for loan, and decided that this would probably be our best option, even though he's not quite as good as Curri or Varrault. I am happy this will give us the adequate cover we need.

Monthly Roundup

This was another great month for us, remaining unbeaten, and securing progression through to the League Cup final and the 5th round of the FA Cup. In the league we managed to claim 3 wins and 2 draws. The draw against West Ham is the result I'm most disappointed with, as we'd held a 2-0 lead which we somehow let slip.

The league table sees us slip to 2nd place, on goal difference behind Man City, but we do have a game in hand over them. Arsenal are 3 points behind us with a game in hand over us, with a better goal difference. The top 5 teams are all very much in touch, so the end of the season could be quite exciting as there are no clear favourites yet for the title. We can only hope the other teams make some slips somewhere along the way. It's interesting to see how Everton have managed to claw themselves out of the relegation area, with the odd win but then drop a lot of points to drag them closer again. They may be saved by the teams below them being just as bad this season, but they are definitely the team performing way underpar at the moment. Leeds are also sliding slowly down the table, which after their fantastic start is rather disappointing for them.

Ephraim's stunning hat-trick against Leeds was enough for him to win the Premiership Player of the Month award. There were a lot of good performances this month in the team, with Balanta and Fatih Yucel giving us 4 goals each, and Scocco producing 5. I think for his consistency over over those matches, Scocco just about edges it for my own player of the month. Every member of the team delivered some very good performances, with the demolition of Leeds being the highlight, where Ephraim put in arguably his best ever performance while scoring a hat-trick, so it was a real shame that he suffered an injury in that match. Fortunately he is only a few days away from returning to the squad. Sadly Slory will be out for about 4 weeks and Varrault for about 2 months.

I'm quite amazed with how the squad, which started the month lacking harmony in the dressing room, were able to keep morale very high and produce some excellent results. The good news is that at the end of the month the dressing room is now much more harmonious. If we hadn't been able to keep the good results coming in, I think the lack of harmony would have become a big problem, as a lot of players were making comments to the press about this issue during the month. All is looking much better, but due to Lung jr's getting all upset, I have given Steele a bit of a run in the first team, to bring his spirits up more, as I guess he may well become my number one keeper at the end of the season, and the only way he'll improve more is through playing. Zigoni has made quite an impression with the fans already, especially after the two goals against West Ham, with the 2nd of them being a quite exquisite lob over the keeper.

February sees us scheduled for 5 league fixtures, the League Cup Final and the first leg of our Champions Cup knockout match against Valencia. Once our next oppenent in the FA Cup is confirmed we will be playing that match too, which will mean travelling to either Charlton or Portsmouth, both of these teams being Championship sides. After our match against Huddersfield, which was a bit tense at times, neither of these teams can be taken for granted. Our league fixtures also look tough with matches against Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City, so the next month will be very important in determining how realistic our challenge for the league title is. Although we have a busy schedule of 8 matches, it appears that once Arsenal know their FA Cup opponents, they will have 9 fixtures to play, which for a month with just 29 days, sounds like hell.