Top Form Hit in November

November started well for us, without us even kicking a ball, as Newcastle lost their game in hand, meaning we are second by only a single point having played the same number of games.

Our first game was away to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. The match started badly with poor concentration from a free kick allowed Wednesday to take a lead after just 3 minutes. From that point on we dominated the match giving them few chances although it took till just before half time before we finally got the ball in the back the net. In the second half piled on even more pressure, and with just 2 minutes left I thought we'd end up with just a draw, but their keeper made a poor clearance, under pressure, straight to my right back Laure, who took a first time shot from just inside their half straight into the net. It's nice to see this happen, as in previous versions if the same clearance happened, the player never ever tried to score. Well done to the developers, and happy I wasn't on the receiving end of this. We really should have scored more, but our finishing and first touch seems to lack the killer instinct.

During the break for the international matches good news as all but one of my injury victims are back in training. Sadly Grenier still has about 3 months left before he recovers.

The two week break seems to have had a good effect on the team. Within a minute of kick-off against Doncaster at the Keepmoat, we're one up, and 3 minutes later it's two up. Within 25 minutes the score stands at 4-1. Both teams are actually playing good football, but we've been creating the best chances. The rest of the match is entertaining too with another goal each. A sensational performance, which seems to suggest the team is really starting to gel.

Coventry arrived at Loftus Road with a defensive formation, but this didn't help them at all, as they were demolished. I was pleased that we managed not to concede, despite Coventry pressing forward after they went behind. This probably contributed to the ease with which we managed to slice their defence open several more times.

This proved to be a great month, with only one minor issue, that being that Matthew Connolly has now picked up five yellow cards so will receive a one match ban. Fortunately with our injury situation being excellent, this shouldn't be a problem.

Angelo Balanta has come into a rich vein of form, and secured the Young Player of the Month award for November with 4 goals in these three matches. Jay Simpson continued his fine form by also scoring 4 goals this month too. Newcastle also won their other 3 matches this month, so have retained the lead, but we have both pulled further away from the chasing pack.

At the bottom of the table, Blackpool finally got their long awaited win, though only recorded one point at home. However they have given themselves a vague hope of escaping relegation.

Decent form through October 2009

October started with a trip to the Liberty Stadium against Swansea. A hard fought battle was won by a piece of magic from Faurlin, and that in spite of Swansea pressing us hard we managed to hold out for the victory. No new injuries, and then an international break. Cook and Alberti and back in full time training, so things are looking brighter, until disaster strikes. Cerny picks up a back strain and will be out for 4 weeks, so Steele will now get his chance. Then things get worse, and Grenier picks up a torn calf muscle in an under 19 international, and he'll be out for up to 5 months, although as backup player it's not a disaster, but he'd been showing well in training and matches he'd played.

The home match with Preston was 2 points thrown away. We eventually took the lead, and then concede the softest of goals from a freekick ever. The wall might not have bothered, because the free kick went well to the right of it, no curl and straight into the right side of the goal. Has to be the most pathetic piece of defending from a free kick. Really unhappy with that, and the referee was throwing yellow cards around like confetti, with seven bookings between the two sides.

The match against Reading proved to be a battle, and after slipping behind 2-1 shortly after the break, I put us to all out attack and took the victory with two excellently crafted goals. One minor set-back is Fitz Hall is now out for 3 weeks with a twisted knee.

The encountered with Derby proved to not be so much a battle but a war. We managed to sneak a victory in an exciting match, which was marred by 8 yellow cards and a red card for Varrault. I can't complain about his dismissal, he'd made plenty of poor challenges, though this is most unusual, as he'd only received one yellow card in all the previous matches. I have to admit on another day this result could have gone the other way, but pleasing to see us come through another hard fight, coming back from being a goal down twice.

In the following week the League Cup fourth round was played with three surprise results. Arsenal losing on penalties at the Emirates to Swansea. Chelsea being demolished 5 - 1 by Fulham at Stamford Bridge and Reading beating Man City at home by 1 - 0. Preston almost caused a shock only losing on penalties after a 1 - 1 draw with Man Utd.

Leicester's visit to Loftus Road produced another battle. The first goal we conceded was horrendous, a cross the keeper came for, flapped at, and only succeeded in palming it straight to a Leicester player who thumped it home. We then got caught on the break to go two goals down. This finally seemed to wake the team up and proceeded to finally play good football, to lead 3 - 2. Hogan Ephraim and Martin Rowlands scored screamers from just outside the box. We then wasted several excellent chances, with a penalty shout turned down, and then paid the price by conceding an equaliser.

October has been mostly positive, and we have moved back up to second in the table, and closed the gap on Newcastle to one point, although they have a game in hand. Peterborough's great form has continued with them fully deserving their third place. Blackpool still continue to struggle at the foot of the table with just 3 points, none of which have been achieved in front of their home fans.

A Perfect August, followed by Inconsistent September

Despite my concerns after the friendlies, the season got off to a flyer winning the first five league matches and both League Cup Matches. I also won the Manager of the Month award in August, even though Newcastle were first at the end of the August. The results were as follows.

The away win against Bristol City was a touch fortuitous. The League Cup match against Oldham was made so much harder than it should have been by the return of some awful defending. With the twenty minutes to go and the match looking like it would go to extra time, I put Varrault on at left back and Adel Taarabt in midfield. Within minutes Varrault slotted a great pass through to Taarabt, who turned and let loose with a screamer from 35 yards curling into the top corner of the goal. I guess on Match of the Day they'd say it was inspired substitutions.

The Scunthorpe match saw my first injury occur with Kaspars Gorkss tearing a hamstring, which has put him out for about 3 months. During the two week break for internationals I another injury occurred, with Ákos Buszáky suffering a dislocated shoulder, putting him for between 2 to 3 months.

The Peterborough match was nothing short of a disaster. Five minutes into the match Damion Stewart was given a straight red for a vicious tackle. Yet another injury blow occured ten minutes later, with Adel Taarabt sustaining a twisted knee enforcing a substitution, also leading to him being out for at least 3 weeks. Things looked brighter after forty minutes when Simpson slotted home after a superb display of passing. Five minutes later it looked like things couldn't get better with us winning a penalty. However, Ben Watson fired the penalty straight at keeper allowing him to save. This was to prove costly as Peterborough came out fighting in the second half, and we finally conceded an equaliser. The two points thrown away annoyed me more than the red card and the injury. At this point we were in second place with Newcastle sitting first with a one hundred percent record.

The 5 - 1 victory over Crystal Palace was a stunning display of football. One downside was yet another injury, this time Matteo Alberti out for 4 weeks with a broken rib.

The defeat to Cardiff was a miserable failure, conceding an early goal showing how dismal we are at coping with a good a cross, and then a penalty in the first half. We outplayed them in the second half, throwing away several clear cut chances. Not good preparation for the Cup match against Spurs. We played much better against Spurs, and were unlucky not to grab an equaliser in the last ten minutes, and force the match into extra time.

The Barnsley match was pretty poor, and again we somehow managed to not find a winner. This match brought Ben Watson's loan to an end, as he suffered a torn calf muscle, which would put him out for the remainder of his loan period. Four minutes my injury crisis got worse, with Fitz Hall carried off with a dead leg. Fortunately this will only put him out for less than a week. I hope we can stop picking up quite so many injuries, especially the long term ones, as these could be a killer for my aspirations of making at least the playoffs.

The match against Newcastle was a very open match, where either side could have sneaked a winner. I was quite happy with this, as we are the first team to even take a point away from St. James' Park. The spate of injuries was a bit of a worry, but we're still sat in 3rd place in the league, so I can't be too disappointed. Peterborough are the biggest surprise in the top ten, and makes the draw with them seem not quite so bad, although dropping points at home never feels good. At the other end of the table Blackpool are having a major disaster with only a single point from the first 10 matches.

When I first took over I noticed my reserve goalkeeper is rated as being decent for the Blue Square Premier league. Eventually near the end August I finally found a reasonable goalkeeper who wouldn't be a total embarrassment to use should Cerny be injured, in the form of Jason Steele from Middlesborough for £190k.

Pre-Season 2009

The very first thing I have noticed, is that the coaching staff and scouts seem to be rather poor. The one scout does not have good attributes for either current or potential ability. I started by sorting out the training programs, and bringing in new and better staff. The limitation of only six coaches means a compromise will be necassary, and mutually terminating the employment of a couple of the existing coaches, namely David Rouse and Marc Bircham.

Given the stature of the club, with so many excellent coaches showing no interest in joining the club, I feel the above appointments are pretty good, with the goalkeeping coach giving a 4 star rating out of 5. There are two categories with a 2.5 star rating, which is not ideal, but about the best I can do for now. Bernard Guignedoux is actually trained as an assistant coach, so I may look in the future to giving him that role, depending on how John Gorman performs.

The assistant's report gives me some concerns, especially in the left back position, and even the right back position is lacking some depth. The first team only one player in each of those positions, and you'll see that Gary Borrowdale isn't of the best quality.

Given I'm playing safe with the expectations of securing a top half finish, I have a transfer budget of £6 million and a wage budget of £180k, with £171k already accounted for, prudence is needed. I will trade some of the transfer budget to give me more leeway with the wages.

After much scouting of the different players recommended by the staff, and failed attempts at trying to sign them, I decide to undertake my own search, and eventually secure some new signings.

Cédric Varrault and Laure are definite improvements over the existing full backs, and secured without spending a vast quantity of cash. Clément Grenier is an 18 year old attacking midfielder, I was lucky enough to sign on a free transfer in FM09, who turned out to be a real star. I've therefore signed him on a loan, with a £1.8 million option to buy, as he has the potential to be a quality player.

Down to the friendlies, and quite frankly it didn't quite go as well as I hoped.

We started well with three solid displays, conceding only one goal. Against Barnet we made very heavy weather of claiming a result, conceding a penalty in the process. I was happy with the number of shots and clear cut chances we made, but the finishing was plain awful. But for two wonderful long shots that flew in, our wasteful finishing could have sunk us, and would come back to bite us later.

Somehow even though we dominated the match the match against East Stirlingshire, with 25 shots to 4, we never managed to get the ball in the net, only to concede a very soft goal from a corner after failing to clear properly. To be fair the match with Hibernian was always going to be a test, but again we had the better of the match, but a couple of horrendous errors from the centre backs, allowed Hibs to score two goals they shouldn't have. Real schoolboy stuff, and gives me some concerns ahead of the season.

The last friendly against Altrincham went well, with a much better display of football, but again the score line does not reflect our total superioty. Looking back through the stats for these games we are good at dominating, but our finishing needs to be better if we're going to keep making some of the most awful defensive errors.

A great plus heading into the season is that I picked up no new injuries during the pre-season, so only have one player injured, that being Lee Cook, although he won't be fit again until October at the earliest.