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-- Joe Collins is named to the league 2 team of the week for the second week in a row.
-- Arsenal beats Sunderland and Tottenham beats Aston Villa in the semifinal of the League cup, they'll meet in the finals. -- MC Chris Herd is out for 3 weeks. Bell-Baggie resumes full training. January 24th, 2015 Stockport(15-6-7, 5th) @ Woking(13-4-11, 9th) We are 6:4 favorites today, they are 13:8 dogs. Favorites over a playoff contender! We've not done well against them at all. 0-0-3 over the last season and a half. We lost 2:1 at their place earlier in the season. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/Williams/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/N'Diaye AM: Collins/Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Stockport have dual threats up front in a 4-4-2, Ben Hutchinson has 13 goals, Danny Pilkington has 12. After that they have a random guy with 3 goals. Bell-Baggie will start but almost certainly won't be able to go the whole way. 7': Upson with a ball foward to Bell-Baggie, he places a nice ball foward for N'Diaye, he gets off a nice looking shot but its saved. 30': Thorugh ball for Stockport to Hutchinson, Smith is out of position as he cuts towards the middle and allows a very easy strike for a goal. 0-1 38': Kenny is injured, he can stay on but our injuries are piling up. 45': Taylor with a hard tackle on a free kick, yellow. 48': COLLINS! He's just all over it. Taylor with a ball to N'Diaye, he plays it foward to Kenny who is cutting to the center, he draws some defenders and plays a great ball through the crowded area to Collins who puts it in from point blank range! 1-1 HALF: We get a critical goal at the very end of extra time in the first half. Critical goal that should give us the advantage back at home. 48': Nikolaou with a cross from the left side, Kenny puts a solid head onto it and sends it just inches wide. 55': Collins is brought down hard making a run down the left side, he's a bit hurt and slowed... ugh. 57': Hutchinson for Stockport gets a ball with no defenders near him... I throw my hands up in the air when I see, HOW IS HE THAT OPEN... but Lynch makes a brilliant save. 69': Downes in for Kenny, Subotic in for Bell-Baggie. 89': No serious higlights for 20 minutes... then... a cross into the area by Stockport is deflected, one of their attackers picks it up at the edge of the penalty area, N'Diaye goes ot tackle it away and brings his man down... its a foul, and a penalty. They drain it. 1-2 Woking 1 : 2 Stockport We get the tying goal in the final seconds of the first half... we give up the winning goal with a penalty in the final minutes of the match.. Very, very frustrating loss at home. Losing these last two matches after putting ourselves in a position to make the playoffs in the first half of the season is super, super disappointing. These are the types of games where we need points. Collins yet again is man of the match in a loss. He puts up a 7.5 rating with our only goal. Kenny with the assist and a 6.8 rating. Ogogo put up a 7.1, N'Diaye a 6.0 on the other end. -- Kenny is going to miss 9-12 days with the injury he picked up today. Collins is fine. -- We drop to 9th in the loss. |
-- The transfer window opened back up in January, I looked at some short term loan options but never really found anything I liked, we have a lot of players on the roster and it would take a massive upgrade to want to acquire someone new.
-- Harsanyi has resumed full training coming off his recent injury. He probably won't be ready for our next match, but glad to have him back obviously. -- Chris Herd had been pretty much abandoned as someone of value to Woking, He signs an agreement to transfer to "FH" in Iceland once his contract ends in June. FH stands for Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar, by the way. Right... FH it is. Good luck to Chris Herd. January 31th, 2015 Woking(13-4-12, 9th) @ Chesterfield (3-8-18, 24th) Chesterfield are 4:6 favorites today. We lost to the #23 team a couple weeks ago, we cannot lose to the worst team in the league here. We're still just a point out of the playoffs, and there's a long way to go, but this feels like the type of game where we must find at least a point and preferably 3. We're 1-1-1 against them over the last season and a half, winning 2:1 at our place in September. Ryan Blackwell leads them with 12 goals. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/Cooper/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/Downes ST: Bell-Baggie Cooper in for Williams who has a 6.28 avg rating over his last 5 matches. O'Sullivan is back from injury and Downes is in for Kenny who is hurt. Harsanyi won't play today. 1': We have the ball to start, buliding up an attack quickly. Upson ahead to Collins who cuts behind the deefnse. He has a close range shot, but its at a tough angle and the keeper saves it. 12': Collins a cross in that O'Sullivan puts over the bar. We've had a number of highlights in their defensive half of the field but I hven't seen Bell-Baggie touch the ball yet. 26': Chesterfield had a little flurry where the earned a couple corners, then the higlights come back to our end, but we're putting everything off target. 36': More corner kicks for Chesterfield, they have 6 so far, most earned as they cross it into the area and we head it behind. Over and over and over. HALF: We lead possession 55/45, each team ends up with 5 shots, they have 2 on target we have juts 1 on target, Collins early strike. Most of the highlights have us on offense, but we really haven't done much with it since the opening minute. 55': Its another flurry of 3 corners for Chesterfield, they don't get a single shot here though. 64': Bell-Baggie receives a pass about 18 yards out, he turns and fires, its on target but saved. Credited as a clear cut strike but I don't really see why, not that easy! Nice to see him touch the ball at leas.t 69': A free kick for chesterfield from mdifield, there are two quck passes before a through ball to Blackwell. He receives it cleanly and scores easily. Yuck. 0-1 86': N'Diaye in for a tired Downes, we are trying to attack obvoiusly to get a goal back. 91': A logn ball from Taylor is played foward to Bell-Baggie, great control, he pushes the ball into the area, beats the keeper who came out of the net to pressure... but hits the right upright. doh! 93': Long pass ahead form Nikolaou, Bell-Baggie receives it in the midfield circle, two defenders close down on him, he pushes the ball foward and breaks into a sprint, leaving both defenders in the dust! He makes a run, the keeper again comes out, Bell-Baggie pulls up 20 yards out, takes aim, he fires and again gets it by the keeper, this one is in! Struck nicely into the left side of the net!!! We get the tying goal! 1-1 Chesterfield 1 : 1 Woking We should really be getting 3 points against these bad teams but hey, at least we salvaged one. Stats are very similar to the first half, we take 8 shots, they take 7, possession 57/43 in our favor, they end up with 11 corner kicks but its just the one through ball/defensive letdown allowing the goal. We get the late breakaway for the last second tie. Nikolaou has the assist, he was great in defense as well today and earns an 8.1 rating and man of the match. Bell-Baggie ends up with a 7.0 and the goal. Taylor (7.2), Upson (7.0) and Ogogo (7.0) stand out as well. -- We lose ground today as the teams around us get wins. We fall to 10th and are 3 points out of the playoffs now (we were just 1 point out). |
February Update
-- We play 5 matches in February. 3 of them in short order from the 21st to 28th to end the month. -- Grimsby's Tom Corner scored 6 goals in January to earn the league 2 player of the month award. Woking are all over this list though, with Joe Collins 2nd and Zoltan Harsanyi 3rd. Both had a couple really solid matches. Collins is also 3rd in the young player of the month voting. Lastly, Bell-Baggie's goal against Chesterfield is the 3rd best goal of the month. -- The board remain delighted with my leadership. Our league 2 performance is the highlight, Christian Smith's poor play is the lowlight. These DC's are just getting killed for me this season. February 7th, 2015 Rochdale (14-5-11, 7th) @ Woking(13-5-12, 10th) Rochdale are 4:6 favorites at our house today, we're just 7:2 to win. We're 2-0-1 against these guys, including a big win at their place earlier this year, 1:0 on a 76th minute Harsanyi goal. They're holding the last playoff spot and are 3 points ahead of us. Key game. Rochdale's Joe Thompson has 11 goals, Will Buckley has 9 goals. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/Cooper/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Downes ST: Bell-Baggie Harsanyi starts at AML today, even though Collins has been playing great. Kenny is training again but not ready to start. He could come in off the bench. We're attacking at home. 19': There hve already been 5 shots but I've only seen one in a highlight. Rochdale has controlled possession so far. 25': Upson controls the ball in midfield, Harsanyi cuts by his man coming in from the left, Upson with a great ball to him. Harsanyi controls, shoots near post and there's no way the keeper could possibly have stopped that! Harsanyi with the goal! 1-0 27': Quick shot from 35 yards out from Rochdale, Lynch turns it behind for a corner, we clear out the corner. 34': Downes with a corner, crossed to the far edge of teh 6 yard box, Taylor gets a head to it but puts it over. 43': O'Sullivan with a through ball for Harsanyi, their defender is able to clear it behind. Nice pass but they defended it well. We had 3 attacks come up without a shot in the final few minutes, this was just the last one as they clear out the corner. HALF: We're thrilled to be up 1-0. Keep the pressure on and attack, settle into defense to try to hold the lead? I tend to default to attacking in these spots, and I'll do so here. Rochdale has 6 shots, but 5 are from long range. Just one on target. We have 5 shots, 2 on target. Possession has evened up, 52/48 for Rochdale (it was 60/40 rochdale early). 49': O'Sulliavn to Bell-Baggie 20 yards out, he turns by a defender, it seems like he could have attacked and gotten closer but instead he fires a quick shot, its off target. 58': O'sullvian plays a ball foward to Downes, Downes is in the area but at a real tough angle, he shoots, deflected back for a corner, which they clear. 59': Nikolaou with a rough looking sliding tackle out on the right side. Its a yellow. I was a little worried that could have been a straight red card. 62': Rochdale on the attack, a cross comes in from the right, the ball deflects off smith and falls to one of their fowards, Thompson. He fires a shot but its wide. 63': We push teh ball foward but they clear...surprise blast by a midfielder from probably 40 yards out. Its struck with great pace and Lynch is able to save it but its scary looking. 69': we drop back to defend, they are putting the pressure on hard now. 71': Downes centers to O'Sulllivan who takes a good shot from about 20 yards out, its saved by the keeper and turned back. We can't do anything with the corne, but its nice to see the ball foward to take a little pressure off the D. 75': Pulis in for O'Sullivan who has been involved a lot but has misplayed a lot of balls. Kenny in for the tired Downes. 79': Corner for Rochdale, they cross the ball through the penalty area 2 or 3 times before we finally get the ball out of there. 88': Extended higlights in our offensive end, again keeping pressure off our defense. They try to counter after winning the ball but there's a foul in the midfield that gives it back to us. We do a great job of keeping possession late and not allowing Rochdale to attack. Woking 1 : 0 Rochdale I know its at home... but this is the type of win a playoff contender needs! We shoot 10 times, they shoot 13, but 7 of their shots come from long range, only 2 of ours are. We put 4 on target, they put 3 on target. Their keeper actually earns man of the match today with an 8.2 rating. With only 4 shots on target and one clear cut strike i'm not exactly sure why. Our goal comes from Harsanyi, he earns a 7.5 rating. Assist from Upson, 7.4 for him. Lynch (7.1), Ogogo (7.3), Nikolaou (7.2) also shine in defense. O'Sullivan struggled with a 6.1 rating before coming out. We remain in 10th despite the win. We knock Rochdale down to 8th, remember the playoffs are the top 7 spots. We're still 3 points out of 7th but now we're in a 3 way tie for 8th/9th/10th. Our goal differential of -3 is still the worst of the playoff contenders by quite a bit. Even with 15 matches still to go it seems highly unlikely that we'd be winning any tiebreakers this year. League Record Upadte I glance around at the stats in the league and I notice something pretty amazing. Port Vale striker James Lawrie has 31 goals in 31 matches so far this year. That's the most in League 2 in my history, though he needs a few more for the all time record set by Andy Morrell of Wrexham back in the 02/03 season with 34 goals. Seems like he's a lock to get it. |
February 14th, 2015
Woking(14-5-12, 10th) @ Port Vale(19-7-5, 2nd) Port Vale are 4:7 favorites at their place. We're 4:1 to win. We've never beaten them, 0-1-2 in the last year and a half. We did manage a tie at our place earlier this year. James Lawrie has 31 goals for them, Massimo Fischnaller has 11 goals. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Cooper/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/Kenny ST: Harsanyi I don't want to bench Harsanyi but I want to get Collins back into the mix, so this is where we end up. We'll come out defending today. 16': James Lawrie scores his 32nd goal. Way too easy, a pass to the penalty spot in from the right, he's unmarked, way to go defense! 0-1 20': Cross in from the left by Lawrie, Signorelli, a right midfielder, beats Nikolaou for the header... and directs it near post for their second goal. 0-2 36': We have our first offensive highlight, earning a corner, its taken short to Williams, he controls it but doesn't shoot, passing instead and earning corner #2. Second corner is a header over the bar by Cooper. That's our first shot of the match. 40': Yellow for defender O'Hanlon, a tackle on Harsanyi just outside the area. Free kick goes nowhere. HALF: They are just far better than us. Our defense except for Cooper are all in the 5.5 range, just playing poorly. They shoot 9 times putting 6 on target. We shoot twice, none on target yet. 48': Mike Williams with a foul just outside their area, they earn a corner on the free kick. We manage to clear away the corner. 56': O'Sullivan with a ball up the middle to Harsanyi, he turns on his man, he's defended pretty well but he does manage to get into the penalty area and fires a shot, saved though. 62': Nikolaou with a long ball down the left, we work it into the area, they clear... Upson puts it back into the box and Kenny makes a gret run, he fires a shot, its parried away but O'Sullivan jumps on the rebound and puts it in the net! 1-2 78': We have a couple attacks that dont' really threaten. Here Collins earns us a corner but they clear it right out. We fight winning a number of headers to try to keep it in the attacking end but eventually they tackle it away from Nikolaou and counter. 84': Bell-Baggie in for Harsanyi who hasnt' been very effective today. 92': We work hard trying to build up the offense, finally generating an attack. Kenny with a good move to get us foward, up to O'Sullivan, ahead ot Bell-Baggie, he controls the ball well and sends it left to Collins. Collins is into the area, he fires a shot... but it goes over, not very well struck. Full time is called before the ball is put back in play. Port Vale 2 : 1 Woking This is one of the best teams in the league, no surprise that we couldn't challenge them on the road. One of their goalscorers is man of the match. On our end, Kenny has our assist and a 7.5 rating. Joe O'Sullivan has the goal and a 7.2 rting. Upson 7.2, Collins 7.1. On the other end, Mike Williams has a poor day, 5.6 rating. -- We remain in 10th but for the first time in a long time we're not within 3 points of a playoff spot. Hereford has 53 points in 7th, we have 47 points. We're 32 matches in, 14 to go. |
February 21th, 2015
Leyton Orient(17-7-8, 5th) @ Woking(14-5-12, 10th) Leyton Orient are favored today but its close, 6:4 vs 13:8. We're 1-1-1 over the last year and a half against these guys. We lost 2:0 at their place earlier this year. I remember this game looking back at the stats... we had 5 clear cut chances and never managed a goal. They're led by Yann Kermorgant with 14 goals and Michael Higdon with 11. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Collins sits today in favor of Harsanyi out wide and Bell-Baggie up front. We're attacking these guys hard today. 3': Kenny with a clear cut chance after a cross by Bell-Baggie, he heads it right at the keeper. 7': We earn a free kick near the penalty area. Smith takes it, passing it just left to Kenny, Kenny makes one quick move then shoots, its his second clear cut chance of the match already b/c the defense somehow didn't seem ready for the short pass.... and Kenny drains it! 1-0 14': There's a long ball forward fo rLeyon Orient, Smith races to the ball and goes for a quick slide tackle, he catches the attacker too though and picks up a yellow. They can't do anything with the free kick. 16': Bell-Baggie with a couple nice long runs but they end up in bad passes. 22': Midfielder Fitzpatrick with a yellow. 24': They have a corner, we clear it and are on the quick counterattack, Bell-Baggie with a long run, he cuts out wide and passes to O'Sullivan, O'Sullivan with a blast, but its just wide left. 31': Leyton Orient has 5 corners now... 6... we finally clear, they had 4 in a row there, but didn't manage a single shot. 38': Another quick counter after we clear a abll out of the defensive end. Kenny makes a long run, comes into the area, places a short cross over to Bell-Baggie who volleys it but the keeper saves it. 41': Ed Upson with a yellow, complaining about what he thought should have been a penalty. Shut up and play dude. HALF: We are dominating possession 59/41, we also have 8 shots, 3 on target while they just have 3 total shots, only 1 on target. They attacked quite a bit in the final 15 minutes but it mainly ended up in counter attacks for us. 53': We pressure a number of times, finally we have the bal lin the midfield, Upson with a quick ball foward that finds Harsanyi with a small hole about 17 yards out, he controls it well, fires a shot into the upper right corner of the net, by the keeper, goal! 2-0 62': Upson with a foul abou 40 yards out... the ref calls him over and shows him his second yellow card. Upson is out and we're down to 10 men. We drop back to a straight 4-4-1, Pulis comes in for Taylor, Downes is in for Kenny. We'll defend the rest of the way. 65': We give up a corner after a long free kick. The corner is taken to the far end of the 6 yard box, Lynch comes out to try to punch it away, can't quite get to it, they win the header and put it in. 2-1 71': Lynch stops a long shot, he punts it deep, Harsanyi wins the ball and pushes it immediately forward to Bell-Baggie, he wins the ball from the defender and scoots into the penalty area, its a clear cut chance and Bell-Baggie isn't going to miss! He puts it near post and in. 3-1 81': Fluke fluke fluke, a pass into the middle, they take a quick shot from 20 yards out. I really dont' think it would have had a chance, it deflects off a defender though and a shot aimed for the right post ricochet's off of Smith and perfeclty settles into the left corner of the net. Disgusting. 3-2 83': I drop into a contain strategy to try to hunker down with our 10 men and preserve this win. 85': Who needs contain!!! We earn a corner while i'm changing the strat... Downes takes it, crosses it in low towards the near side of the 6 yard box, Smith is there and blasts a header in! 4-3 90': Oh my dear lord. We are caught massively out of position, Lynch has to come WAY out to block a shot, he does parry it away but it falls to one of their strikers and he puts it into the empty net. 93': Another attack by Leyton Orient, Smith wins a critical header on a cross, he went up at the same time as an attacker, if he loses out i'm sure its a clear cut chance for the attacker. Finally. WHEW. Woking 4 : 3 Leyton Orient Craziness. Ed Upson is gonna get bitched out big time, if he doesn't whine about a call then he doesn't get the first yellow. That's simply unforgivable. Kenny ends up man of the match, he has a goal and an 8.0 rating. Other goals from Harsanyi(7.6), Bell-Baggie (7.6), and Smith (7.4). Smith had an assist as well. Upson (6.9) with an assist, Downes (6.9) also. One goal was unassisted, Bell-Baggie's I guess since Harsanyi didn't get credit for one. Taylor put up a 7.0. -- We're up to 9th after this win. Good win vs a playoff team! We remain 4 points out of a playoff position, one point behind Rochdale for 8th. |
-- Ed Upson will miss our next match. We played that last one on the 21st, next 2 are 24th and 28th, so we will be going on short rest for a bit here.
-- AMR Charlie Kenny is named to the league 2 team of the week. -- We were about to play a super critical match vs 7th place Hereford on the 24th but its postponed due to poor field condition and is rescheduled for March 11th. It'll be on short rest then as well. February 28th, 2015 Woking(15-5-13, 9th) @ Tranmere(13-13-7, 14th) We're 1-1-1 lifetime against these guys, they embarrassed us 3:0 at our house back in September. They scored 3 goals in the final 22 minutes. They're 4:5 favorites today, we are 3:1 to win, 2:1 to tie. Tranmere have 3 players with 10+ goals, Dean Bowditch with 14, Patrick Nzuzi with 12 and Sam Wood with 10. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Arter/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Arter is in at MC for Upson (Pulis is hurt and Upson suspended). We set out to defend today. 4': We get a bit of a breakaway, Kenny receives a pass in the right side of the penalty area, he has a clear cut strike but its aimed right at the keeper and saved easily. 18': We see a few highlights in our defensive end, but they can only manage two shots well off target so far. They have shown some good ball movement and i'm worried about them eventually catching us out of position. 24': We have a corner, they claer it easily, Arter picks it up 35 yards out and fires... its a strong shot and it hits the crossbar, good effort there. 30': Nikolaou goes down and looks to be fairly badly hurt. He has to leave the field for some time. 31': Bell-Baggie has it out left, he goes wide and crosses it in, kenny gets to the header but its off the crossbar. 36': Long pass for Tranmere from 40 yards out into the penalty area, Cooper gets turned around and they get Nzuzi to it and he easily scores... 0-1 47': We get a free kick in their end, then a throwin, then a corner... they take care of everything without us getting a shot off. HALF: Each team takes 5 shots and puts 2 on target. They got a very very easy goal sadly. Possession is about even, so are all of the other stats really, we just didn't generate any chances quite as good as the one they got, we had one where we probably should have scored and Kenny couldn't finish. Collins is in for Harsanyi who had a very bad half. 51': Thomas in for the injured Nikolau. 55': Collins with a deep run down the left side, a cross into the middle, O'Sullivan is there, he heads it and it hits the crossbar, close. 60': Great through ball for Tranmere, they get a clear cut chance and Lynch makes a great save to keep us within striking distance. 70': We'll try to attack to get that goal back. 86': There's a fight for possession naer midfield, we eventually control the ball and O'Sullivan gets it foward to Bell-Baggie, he shoots from 20 yards out and the keeper just saves it. Corner comes to nothing. 90': N'Diaye in for Taylor and we have him move up to AMC to try to get really aggressive in extra time. No luck. Tranmere 1 : 0 Woking Just the one goal, but it was enough. Ogogo puts up a 7.1 rating and is our best player today, Arter a 7.0 in midfield. Christian Smith with a 5.6, a poor day from him. They do a good job defending in the second half and limit us to just 3 shots. -- We fall back down to 10th in the loss and the guys ahead of us keep winning. We are now 7 points out of 7th for the final playoff spot. -- DL Nikolaou will miss 2 weeks with the injury he picked up today. |
I'm playing a number of games currently and FM has fallen by the wayside a bit. Can't sleep tonight though so lets knock out a game.
-- Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-1 to win the league cup. Tottenham scored in the 2nd minute but Arsenal had 3 by the end of the half. The game winning goal was an own goal. March Update -- We play 5 matches in March. We seem to be settling solidly into a mid-table finish, the playoffs aren't totally out of the question still but they seem more unlikely every day. -- The board is delighted with my leadership, highlighted by our league 2 performance. We did lose $68k last month. March 7th, 2015 Woking(15-5-14, 10th) @ Bury(11-12-12, 13th) Bury are pick'em favorites today, we're 11:5 dogs at their place. We've not yet lost to Bury, tying them twice last year and winning at our place 2:1 back in October. Bury's scoring is pretty even, 11 goals each from strikers Jack Hill and Scott Rendell. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Nikolaou was hurt in our last match and is out for this game and probably our next one. We'll be defending today. 13': A long clearance leads to Bell-Baggie out wide with the ball, he crosses it in, header from Harsanyi is saved, the ball is headed up, Kenny with a header... off the crossbar, one of those was a clear cut chance. Those were the first two shots of the match. 33': Ogogo picks up a yellow for a tackle out near the midfield after a throwin. Bury has 3 off target shots, nothing really threatening. We've earned a few corners but other than that one flurry of shots we haven't seriously threatened either. 45': Taylor picks up a yellow for a tackle... that didn't look like much. Free kick to Bury 30 yards out, its curled around the wall and is just barely wide. Close one. HALF: As usual, I'm ok with a scoreless tie on the road. Each team has 4 shots, Bury's are all off target, we've put 2 on target. We have a huge 60/40 possession edge. We've been called for 9 fouls to just 1 for Bury, they have a lot more set pieces but no one is really doing much here. 46': They try to attack out of the gate, we win the ball deep in our end, Harsanyi with a long ball foward, Bell-Baggie picks it up 25 yards out at the left sideline, he cuts through two defenders, works his way into the box, sets up to try to cross the ball to the other side of the penalty area, it hits a defender and deflects towards the goal, the keeper is out of position and its in!!! Its credited an own goal. Bell-Baggie gets an assist. 1-0 53': Bell-Baggie collides with a defender going up for a header. He's hurt and we are immediately forced to sub him out. Ugh. Subotic is in. 60': Subotic is charging down the right sideline, he draws a defender and passes to O'Sullivan, who shoots... off a defender and over. Corner comes to nothing. 65': We have a long run of possession, O'Sullivan works it out wide, Ogogo cuts foward past Kenny and receives a pass deep in the right corner, he plays a cross, Subotic with the header, its in!!! A missed interception is shown as the main reason for the goal. Subotic has fallen out of favor a bit and hasn't played much, its great to see him get a goal. 2-0 73': CLUTCH goalkeeping. They get two shots from very close range, Lynch with two brilliant looking saves, one a reflex save on a strong blast from 10-12 yards out. Herd in for O'Sullivan, Collins in for Harsanyi, both for rest as we play again in 4 days. Bury 0 : 2 Woking Huge road win as we try to stay within 3 games of a playoff spot(7 points out currently). Bury takes 11 shots today but only puts two on target, both in the same attack, Lynch making two solid saves to keep our lead at two goals in the final 20 minutes. We shoot 8 times, putting 4 on target and scoring twice, one on a fluke ricochet but we'll take it. Ogogo puts up an 8.6 rating and an assist and is the clear man of the match. Subotic a goal and a 7.1 rating off the bench. Bell-Baggie a 6.9 and the other assist. Thomas (7.2), Cooper(7.2), Smith (7.2) and Taylor(7.0) come up big on the defensive side of the ball, Upson puts up 7.0 as well. Injury Update Abdulai Bell-Baggie breaks his arm today and is going to be out for 4 weeks. He'll miss half of our remaining matches. Playoff Update Most teams have played 36 matches. We've played 35, 7th place Hereford has played 35. Here are the urrent teams hanging around the playoffs, remember we need 7th to make the playoffs: 6th: Bristol Rovers - 60 pts 7th: Hereford - 60 pts (1 less match played) -------------------------------------------- 8th: Rochdale - 57 pts 9th: Oxford - 55 pts 10th: Woking - 53 pts (1 less match played) Our next match is the makeup match against Hereford. We'll be at home. Win and we're in 9th, 4 poitns out of the playoffs. Lose and we stay where we are, 7 points back with 10 to go. |
March 11th, 2015
Hereford(17-9-9, 7th) @ Woking(16-5-14, 10th) We're 7:4 dogs today, they are 5:4 favorites, both teams are playing well above expectations going into the season. I'm not going to change my tackling instructions I don't think, but I do take note that today's ref has handed out 32 yellow cards in 6 league matches this year... this one could be messy. We've never beaten these guys, and in fact have never scored against them. Two scoreless draws last year and a 2:0 defeat at their place in September. Our pre-game scouting tells us that Hereford has a large number of injuries and is missing many starting players today, but leading scorer Mathieu Manset (14 goals) is available. GK: Lynch D: Williams/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/Kenny ST: Subotic Thomas isn't fit to go back to back at DL, so Mike Williams starts there. Collins starts at AML and Subotic at ST. "standard" mindset coming out of the gate. 7': We control early possession, O'Sullivan with a pass foward that's intercepted but not controlled well, Upson runs onto it 20 yards out and fires a shot that is just wide right. 16': A nice through ball for Hereford gets their star Manset open, but he's pushed out pretty wide to the left, he takes a shot but Lynch is in good position to make the save. 22': Kenny earns us a corner with a good run down the right. Upson takes it, its cleared but Smith puts it back foward, O'Sullivan with good control of the ball and we're attacking hard, he makes a great pass across a number of defenders, Subotic runs onto the ball and has a look from just outside the 6 yard box, he fires it hard near post under the diving keeper!! 1-0 O'Sullivan looked brilliant there in really heavy traffic. 39': A long stretch with nothing happening, we earn a free kick and O'Sullivan shoots, deflected out for a corner. Subotic gets his head on the ball after the corner but it hits the bar and goes over, so close. HALF: We take a 1-0 lead into the locker room, we're playing pretty well and need to hold on here, possession is slightly in their favor, 56/44, but we have 8 shots to their 4. We've only managed to put 2 on target. We could easily be up 2 or 3 goals here, hopefully we can keep pushing and get a cushion in the second half. 47': Almost immediately after the second half starts striker Maccollum takes a hard shot from just outside the penalty area, it hits the right post and bounces across the face of the goal, Ogogo clears it. 48': Counter attack... there's a great ball forward to Collins, he's in the penalty area and has a one on one look against their keeper... and drills it at him, saved easily. This is why I have been starting Harsanyi, despite all of Collins' positives. 53': Two quick yellows, one on Bidwell of Hereford, a midfielder, and one on O'Sullivan. 63': Pulis in for a tired O'Sullivan, Harsanyi in for Collins. 67': Yellow for midfielder Maccollum holding on to Upson's jersey. 72': Hereford earn a corner, its taken short and a hard shot is fired at Lynch, he's able to get a hand to it and push it aside. 81': Taylor with a great tackle in midfield, I assumed a foul but non called, he gets it to Subotic and we have a few guys pushing foward, Subotic pushes it out right to Pulis who makes a run and centers it to Upson coming into the penalty area, he's open and has a great look and is able to beat the keeper!! 2-0. Very pretty play every step of the way. 81': N'Diaye in for a tired Subotic, Harsanyi up to striker, N'Diaye AML. We'll defend away the final 10 minutes as well hopefully. Woking 2 : 0 Hereford Great win today, Hereford may be depleted by injuries but we still had to earn it on the field and we showed great composure. 16 shots, just 4 on target but we got two of them in. We allowed 9 shots, but only 2 of those were on target. 3 were from long range and their star striker only got the ball in a really dangerous spot one time. Upson is man of teh match today with a 7.9 rating and 1 of our goals. Subotic the other goal (7.0). Assists from Pulis (6.9 off the bench) and O'Sullivan (7.5). Ogogo (7.2), Williams (7.3), Smith (7.0), and Kenny (7.0) were noteworthy as well. Everyone is now evened back up with 36 matches played. With 10 to go: 6th: Bristol Rovers - 60 pts 7th: Hereford - 60 pts -------------------------------------------- 8th: Rochdale - 57 pts 10th: Woking - 56 pts 9th: Oxford - 55 pts We get another chance to make a huge statement in 3 days as we host 5th place Brighton. They won't be on short rest like we are unfortunately though. |
-- a "good crowd, but not a sellout" is expected for our next match, good to see the fans showing up for some key matches down the stretch run.
March 14th, 2015 Brighton(17-11-8, 5th) @ Woking(17-5-14, 8th) And all of a sudden after assuming Woking were likely not really in the playoff hunt we get two huge wins in a row. Brighton are even money favorites here, we're 11:5 to win and 11:5 to draw. We're 1-0-2 against these guys, losing 2-0 on the road back in October. Striker Ugur Ocak scored twice against us. Our assistants want me to mark him tightly. Perry Wells leads them with 15 goals, Ocak is 2nd with 11. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/Cooper/Smith/Alcock DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/Downes ST: Harsanyi We make a couple changes due to the fact that we're playing our 3rd match in a week. Downes at AMR, Alcock at DR, Harsanyi up front. Ocak isn't starting for them today. 4': They're on the break, down the left side, a pass into the area, then a pass across the face of the goal that is somehow not intercepted by Smith.. Perry Wells is tehre and walks it into the net. 0-1 9': Free kick from midfield, there's a long ball foward, Wells heads it from over 20 yards out... Lynch is... well I honetsly don't know where Lynch is but he's not guarding the net and somehow a lofting header from 20 freaking yards out goes in. 0-2 23': Harsanyi controls it, back to Upson a ways out, a ball forward to O'Sullivan, he gets a decent look but slams it into the side netting. 29': N'Diaye is in for Taylor, and I'm moving him up to AMC, removing the DMC spot. Lets go crazy to try to tie this up. Our goal differential sucks comapred to the teams near us anyway. HALF: No noteworthy action for the rest of the half. Alcock picked up an injury late in the half, Ogogo is coming in for the rest of it. We have 7 shots but 5 are from long range, only one is on target. 49': After a corner by Downes the ball is headed around a few times, O'Sullivan picks it up and sends it out left to Downes (who is coming back from taking the corner so on the 'other' side from usual). Downes runs into the area, he's brought down hard and he's hurt, they clear it and there's no penalty given. The match is stopped immediately and 3 physios rush onto the field. Downes has to come out. Kenny is in and we're out of subs. 70': O'Sulivan clears a ball out of our side and Harsanyi races for it, he beats the defense but his first touch is not the best, allowing a defender to come push it behind for a corner. First corner the ball is tackled away from Smith and we want a penalty but aren't getting it. Second is cleared, we push it back in and earn corner number 3. Third one they just tackle away and clear it. 86': they have it in our end, thomas with a ver ylong clearance, Harsanyi picks it up and rushes down the left sideline, its a bit of a breakaway, he puts a cross in, we have 3 players converging, O'Sullivan is theer, he heads it in! 1-2 91': O'Sullivan gets it to N'Diaye 20 yards out but he puts a shot just over. 92': Midfielder Crofts for Brighton picks up a yellow for a poor challenge on a header. Its his second, and he's gone! We can't do anything though. Woking 1 : 2 Brighton Its incredibly demoralizing to watch 2 goals in 8 minutes like that out of the gate. Downes put up a 5.8 before getting hurt. Smith a horrid 5.2 allowing the first goal, there was no excuse for it, a pass through the 6 yard area with Smith right there, there is no way they should have been able to score at all on that first goal. -- Our attendance was 4945 today, very impressive. They may not come back after the show we gave them though. Injury Update Backup AMR Aiden Downes tears a calf muscle and is going to miss 4 months. We get a week off after this flurry of matches. We're stlil only 4 points out of the playoffs but we fall to 10th and have 2 teams between us and 7th now. |
March 21st, 2015
Woking(17-5-15, 10th) @ Barnet(4-15-18, 22nd) We're pretty big favorites on the road here, even money to win, Barnet is 11:5. Barnet have not won a match in 12 games. We're 4 points out of the playoffs still, Barnet is only 2 points above relegation. Big game for both teams. We're 1-1-1 lifetime against Barnet, winning 2:0 at our place earlier this year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Subotic Nikolaou is back into the lineup today, Subotic up front, Harsanyi at AML again today. We start in a "standard" mindset, we're not backing off to defend against these guys. 17': Subotic puts one over the bar, the first shot taken by either team, lots of highlights so far, most with us on offense, but we're struggling to generate an attack. 32': Kenny with a good centering pass to Subotic for a quick shot, but its saved well. 44': Barnet just took their first shot. HALF: We need to win this. 3 points or failure. We take 4 shots, they take 1. We put 2 on target but one was from long range and didn't really have a chance. Stats are pretty even, we're winning in the air by a decent bit. We turn on the attack. 50': A very poor clearnce by Barnet allows Nikolaou to put it forward to Harsanyi. He takes a shot from 20 yards out, its not an easy shot at all but he places it perfeclty, it hits the right post and bounces in, goal!! 1-0 85': A solid 20 minutes fly by with no highlights and I get some subs in for the last few minutes... Pulis for O'Sullivan, Herd in for Taylor, Alcock in for Ogogo. 91': Barnet on the attack, they get a man into the area and we tackle it away and clear it out to the side. Their attacker goes down like we stabbed him, no penalty. We hold on for the win. Barnet 0 : 1 Woking We're supposed to win here, but its always in question on the road imo, so I'm happy we pulled it out. Nikolaou is man of the match with a 7.6 rating and the assist. Harsanyi 7.2 with the goal. Elsewhere, Ogogo 7.2, Upson 7.0, everyone else 6.8-6.9 or thereabouts. -- Zoltan Harsanyi's goal today was his 75th English League Goal. Playoff UPdate With 8 matches left here's how things look: 1. Port Vale - 81 pts 2. Crewe - 73 pts 3. Stockport - 72 pts --------------------- 4. Leyton Orient - 71 pts 5. Brighton - 66 pts 6. Hereford - 66 pts 7. Bristol Rovers - 61 pts ----------------------- 8. Rochdale - 59 pts 9. Woking - 59 pts 10. Oxford - 58 pts Nothing is officially clinched yet, but Port Vale is going to win the league. The other two auto promotion spots are still up for grabs, most likely between 3 teams. Bfrighton and Hereford seem relatively solidly in the playoffs but again there's still room for error there, while more realistically 4 teams, including Woking, are competing for the final playoff spot, barring a collapse from Brighton or Hereford. Our goal differential is 0 (51 for/51 against). Everyone else is +10 or better. We won't be winning any tiebreakers. |
March 28th, 2015
Kidderminster(8-15-15, 18th) @ Woking(18-5-15, 9th) We are favored two days in a row, 5:4 at home, Kidderminster 7:4. Probably our longest history is now with Kidderminster. We're 4-1-3 against them going back to the BS Premier league in 2010. We tied them 0:0 at their place back in November. Another game where if we're a playoff quality team we win this. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/N'Diaye ST: Subotic AMR Charlie Kenny is out for an international U-19 match. With Downes and Bell-Baggie hurt, we're incredibly thin at AMR. We start N'Diaye and if he can't play 90 minutes we have a pretty big problem. Standard mindset again today for us. 2': Two corners and 3 shots by Kidderminster, one of them i'm stunned didn't go in, a very scary start for us. 10': We get two shots, Harsanyi puts one on target, before earning our first corner, we get nothing out of it though. 20': A brilliant long pass foward by Upson from near midfield to a cutting Harsanyi, he receives a pass behind the defense and has our first clear cut chance... but the keeper makes the save and Harsanyi really doesn't direct his shot very well. 42': We have a free kick from midfield, Smith sends it into the penalty area... the keeper catches the ball as Harsanyi comes charging in... and DROPS IT. Harsanyi is right there to poke the ball into the net and their keeper suffers a horrific mistake to give us our first goal. 1-0 HALF: We've pressured them a lot, taking 11 shots, but 6 of them are from long range and until the breakthrough gaol I was pretty disappointed with our inability to do anything but shoot wildly from 25 yards out. Only 3 of our shots on target, they have 5 total, 2 on target. Kidderminster actually have a 55/45 possession edge, but as we often do we dominate the air, winning 76% of our headers while Kidder only connects on 38% of theirs. Lets get a second goal and put this away guys! 47': O'Sullivan with a long ball forward.. Subotic is there in the area and gets his head to it, its over the keeper and into the net... but offsides. I dunno about that. That was damn close at best, and if we don't win I will seriously consider calling out the refs in the press conference afterwards if given the chance. 52': Kidderminster get their first clear cut chance, blasting a shot from 15 yards out that Lynch barely saves. Whew. There's a rebound but a player was offsides and that ends the threat. 60': Kidder has the ball wide right, crosses it to the left side of the penalty area, midfielder Pinney turns by Ogogo and fires from the edge of the penalty box, and beats Lynch. Ugh. 1-1 66': We're attacking the rets of the way. 86': we take our first shot of the half... a wide free kick. Pulis in for Upson, Thomas in for a tired Nikolaou, Collins in for Subotic/Harsanyi moves to Striker. 88': Taylor with a yellow. We get one nice long ball from Thomas to N'Diaye but he's exhausted and can't do anything with it... really wish Kenny was there today. Woking 1 : 1 Kidderminster Dissapointing finish for us today. Their scorer is man of the match. Harsanyi puts up a 7.5 on our end with his goal, Smith 6.9 for the assist, no one else over 7 today. We only shot once in the second half and it was a poor long range free kick effort. Very, very disappointing. Here's the full postgame description: "An error from Tommy Forecast allowed striker Zoltan Harsanyi to score a close range header. Woking also saw their 47th minute strike disallowed in controversial circumstances. Winger Nathan Pinney then equalized for Kidderminster after 60 minutes with a real poachers effort. Then followed controversy as Woking were denied claims by striker Danijel Subotic for a penalty. Then followed controversy as Woking were denied claims by full-back Stelios Nikolaou for a penalty" a goal disallowed that looked onsides and two potential penalties. Oh boy. No option for a post match press conference. Damn! Bristol Rovers got a win today and we failed to keep up: 5. Brighton - 66 pts 6. Hereford - 66 pts 7. Bristol Rovers - 64 pts -------------------------- 8. Rochdale - 60 pts 9. Woking - 60 pts 10. Oxford - 58 pts 7 matches to go. |
-- League 1's Middlesborough beats League 1's Bournemouth in the finals of the Johnstone Paint Trophy. Whee.
-- I get another round of mails about expiring contracts. most that are still left are guys I'm parting with, the only potential exception is DC Christian Smith. I still don't know what to do about my defense, but Smith is willing to take a pay cut from $1200/wk to $1000/wk for another year. I lower his appearance fee that he's requesting and make him an offer. March Review -- We play 5 matches in April and one in ealry May. Our last match of the year is @ Bristol Rovers, the team currently in 7th. Lets see if we can have a solid April and make that game mean something! -- The board is delighted with my leadership. Our league 2 play is the highlight, no downsides. We lost $47k last month, less than usual this time of year, a couple solid home attendences is the main reason I believe. -- Abdulai Bell-Baggie resumes full training on April 1st. We play on April 6th. I'd love to have him at striker. -- Christian Smith signs his new contract, so i've got the DC for another year, for better or worse. April 6th, 2015 Woking(18-6-15, 9th) @ Hartlepool(15-7-17, 13th) Hartlepool are big 4:7 favorites at their place today, we are 4:1 dogs for a win and 5:2 dogs to even get a draw. They've only scored 42 goals this year though and are one of the lowest scoring teams in the top 20 in the league (the relegation candidates are much, much worse). We beat them 1:0 at our place earlier in the year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Subotic Kenny is back in at AMR. Otherwise no changes to the lineup, Bell-Baggie will sit out today and be fully rested for our next match. We set out to defend today. 21': Tough save by Lynch as striker Wright gets a good look inside the area. 6 total shots today but that's the first one that's been worth noting, the ones we've seen for Woking are way over and long. 30': Harsanyi crosses in and O'Sullivan with a header, its over, decent look though. 32': Hartlepool with a great through ball and the first clear cut chance of the match by one of their strikers... just flat out wide. HALF: Hartlepool has been on the attack, 10 shots, just 4 on target though and 5 from long range. We have 4 shots, not a one on target or even blocked yet. Possession is even, Hartlepool is passing extremely well today, completing 80%, we're winning in the air, lots of shots and we need to shut that down as a couple have looked very dangerous. 54': We get the ball on the attack a coupl times but just cannot get it into the penalty area, they clear/tackle etc before we can do anything aggressive. 58': Ogogo has gone down hurt twice this match, he's toughing it out so far. 61': Harsanyi with a nice run down the left side, gets it to Subotic who puts our first shot on target, but its a weak header and saved easily. 66': Alcock in for the injured Ogogo, Collins in for Subotic, Harsanyi striker/Collins AML. 68': A solid strike by Hartlepool, nice save by Lynch, we push it back for a corner and clear the corner. They're up to 15 total shots, 6 for us. 76': Harsanyi with a great turn deep on the left side, he plays what looks like a cross.. it kinda is way to close to the goal and looks more like a shot that cuts right across the face of the goal... its just out though, nice play to get something but poor result. 92': One last attack for us on a deep throwin. Collins ends up with a header that's saved, and we leave with a scoreless draw. Hartlepool 0 : 0 Woking Hartlepool takes 16 shots and puts 7 on target, 7 from long range too. We shoot 7 times, putting 2 on target but both were weak headers. Subotic is somehow man of the match, passing I guess, 25/33, trying to help generate offense forward. He puts up a 7.2 rating, Nikolaou 7.0, O'Sullivan 7.0 today as well. We need 3 points more often but this wasn't a bad road draw I don't think. Playoff Update 5th: Hereford - 69 pts 6th: Bristol Rovers - 67 pts 7th: Brighton - 66 pts ---------------------------- 8th: Rochdale - 63 pts 9th: Woking - 61 pts 5 points out of the playoffs and Bristol Rovers are now in 6th. |
Injury Update
Abu Ogogo pulled a hammy in that last match. He's going to miss 3-4 weeks. Our backup, Craig Alcock, will be getting full time minutes at DR the rest of the way, here's your chance to step up new guy! An April 11th Match at home vs Accrington is postponed due to a waterlogged field. This is pretty bad for us I think, instead of matches on the 11th/14th/18th/25th, now we have matches on the 14th/18th/22nd/25th. It does mean that we'll have 3 in a row at home, fwiw, after this next road match. Playoff Update Everyone around me wins except Brighton who gets a draw. We've played one game less due to our "rainout" so here's how we look now: 5. Bristol Rovers - 70 pts 6. Hereford - 69 pts 7. Brighton - 67 pts ---------------------------- 8. Rochdale - 66 pts 9. Woking - 61 pts (1 less match played) April 14th, 2015 Woking(18-7-15, 9th) @ Walsall(10-11-20, 20th) We beat these guys 2-0 back in November at our place. They're considered big favorites despite the disparty in the standings. They are 4:6, we're 7:2 to snag a win here today. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Alcock DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Bell-Baggie is back into the starting lineup, Alcock takes over for Ogogo for the rest of the year. Standard mindset today, we're not defending, lets take a few more risks for 3 points here. 16': Kenny picks up an injury, he can keep going for now. 29': Each team has 1 shot so far. A very nice long ball from Taylor set Harsanyi up with some space but the defense came thorugh... Smith with a header on a corner for our second shot, we earn corner #2... put behind... corner #3... cleared out finally. 38': Nikolaou plays it long down the left side ,Bell-Baggie is there, he holds it up, turns and crosses into the area, kenny with a header, JUST over. 44': Taylor with a yellow for a hard tackle in midfield. HALF: We only allow one shot, but we only take 4 with 2 on target, neither seemed particularly dangerous. Things are very even, even the headers today. We'll try to keep pushing and might even look to attack to get a goal here. 47': Corner for walsall as we deflect a cross behind. They get a shot out of it but its very well defended and we clear. 53': We will turn on the attack. 54': Great tackle by O'Sullivan in defense, he plays it foward to bell-Baggie, to Upson, long ball to Kenny, Kenny has it in the penalty area with no deefnders near, its the first clear cut chance of the match... right at the keeper and saved. Disappointing finish there. 59': Clear cut chance to Walsall after a ball forward is met by a very poor interception attempt. Lynch makes a solid save and pushes it wide, we clear it. 65': Bell-Baggie collides with a defender and he's not listed as injured, but he is slowed greatly. I'm making a change asap. 67': Subotic in at Striker. 73': N'Diaye in, taylor out, no more DMC, he's in at AMC to try to put more pressure on the defense. 77': Subotic with a great ball foward to N'Diaye deep in the penalty area. He is immediately dispossessed though. 81': Nikolaou with a long run foward, a cross, the keeper gets to it though, not a bad look, Subotic was there, the keeper just came out for it. 85': O'Sullivan with a shot in traffic to earn us a corner, its cleared easily. 88': Alock startsthe attack off a goal kick, foward to Kenny, centered to O'Sullivan, foward to Subotic, he plays a through ball up to N'Diaye who runs onto it beautifullly, stops, aims near post and puts it past the keeper!!!!! 1-0 That's it! Walsall 0 : 1 Woking Christian Smith wins 5 tackles, 9 headers (6 of them key headers), makes 7 interceptoins and earns himself man of the match with a 7.6 rating. Our goal by N'Diaye earns him a 7.2 off the bench. Subotic a 7.2 off the bench as well with the assist. Nikolaou 7.3, Cooper 7.2, solid win on the road today when we just can't afford to lose at all. Playoff Update 5. Bristol Rovers - 70 pts 6. Hereford - 69 pts 7. Brighton - 68 pts ---------------------------- 8. Rochdale - 66 pts 9. Woking - 64 pts (1 less match played) Everything works in our favor today. Brighton with a draw, Bristol Rovers, Hereford and Rochdale all lose. We're 4 points out of the playoffs with a game in hand, 4 matches to play for everyone else, 5 left for us. 4 of our last 5 are at home. |
Injury Update
AMR Charlie Kenny will miss a week with a bruised rib he suffered in our last match. Unfortunately that may well mean he misses 3 of our last 5 matches at this point. April 18th, 2015 Oxford(17-10-15, 10th) @ Woking(19-7-15, 9th) We're even money favorites today at home against Oxford. I haven't been including Oxford in the playoff updates but right now they're only 3 points behind us (with 1 more match played of course). We've done awful against Oxford in our history, 1-0-4, losing 2-0 at their place earlier in the year. Oxford are led by Paul Taylor who has 20 goals, no one else on their team has more than 7. He scored both against us in that 2-0 loss. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Alcock DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/N'Diaye ST: Bell-Baggie Collins and N'Diaye at AM today, Harsanyi is available off the bench. Bell-Baggie will start again today. We're going to try to attack and get an early lead. 10': Nikolaou with a cross in from the left side, O'Sullivan heads it, the keeper saves but can't hold on, N'Diaye races to the ball but they have a man get to it and clear it just in time. 18': Defender Tunnicliffe picks up a yellow for a foul on Bell-Baggie. 24': We earn our 4th corner, its taken to the far post and the keeper is out of position... but Collins heads it over the bar. 28': They earn their first corner and take their first shot off of it, but Lynch saves easily. Smith makes two good tackles to clear attacks out during this stretch of highlights. 31': Long through ball from Oxford, AML Mustoe blows by Cooper to run onto it and puts it into the left corner of the net. 0-1. We've got a lot of work to do now. 41': Lots of highlights with us on offense, Bell-Baggie ending up with it on the left side of the attack multiple times, playing the cross himself, and we just have no one that can head the ball in, everything is wildly over or wide or whatever. HALF: we generate 7 shots but only put 2 on target. I'm going to tell the guys we need to go up the middle, these crosses... we just aren't connecting at all, and Bell-Baggie is way out of place on many of them, leaving N'Diaye or O'Sullivan to be our scoring threats. They have 3 shots, but one clear cut chance that they took advantage of, so we're in pretty poor shape here. 48': O'Sullivan forward to Bell-Baggie, he beats his man and turns but another defender clears the ball behind for a corner. Corner is taken to the far side of the area and headed well over. 59': Harsanyi in for collins, Subotic for Bell-Baggie, I'm happy that we're getting foward a bunch but not happy what we're doign with the ball, lets give someone else a try. 64': Two strong attacks from Oxford, one leading to a good shot and tough save by Lynch, the other a corner that we clear. 67': Yellow for Defender Smith for Oxford for holding back Harsanyi. 68': We turn it over poorly and they have a bit of a breakaway, O'Sullivan makes a hard tackel and gets a yellow for his troubles. I would not have been surprised if it had been red. 70': Yellow for Oxford's Norwood tackling O'Sullivan. we have a long free kick and its taken well but a header is put well over. How many times will I say that today? 77': Nikolaou with control, Harsanyi breaks behind the defense and Nikolaou finds him, he crosses it into the 6 yard area, Subotic heads it, saved but not well held, O'Sullivan comes charging in and puts it into the net!!!! 1-1 77': We stay on the attack, win it win it! The only noteworthy event of the final 15 minutes or so is that N'Diaye comes up hurt, play didn't stop for it, we'll see how bad it is. Woking 1 : 1 Oxford We needed 3, but in the end feel lucky to have salvaged 1 point there. Their scorer is man of the match today. On our side O'Sullivan has a 7.2 rating and the goal. Harsanyi gets the assist (I thought Subotic, I may have misread the action on that goal) and a 6.9 rating. Upson 7.1, Nikolaou 7.0. N'Diaye struggles greatly and earns a 5.8 rating. Playoff Update No one else in key spots did anything today either. 5. Bristol Rovers - 70 pts 6. Brighton - 69 pts 7. Hereford - 69 pts ---------------------------- 8. Rochdale - 67 pts 9. Woking - 65 pts (1 less match played) Hereford and Bristol Rovers lose, Brighton and Rochdale pick up 1 point just like we do. Injury Update AMR Makhtar N'Diaye has a pulled groin and will miss 3 weeks. Bell-Baggie can play AMR well, and about to be releaed Giuseppe Sole is an "unconvincing" AMR. That's enough for now to list him as a sub and have him ready to go. Next up is our makeup game with Accrington. A win would put us in 8th, 1 point out of the playoffs, with 3 matches to go. |
-- Port Vale has clinched promotion from League 2, while Leyton Orient and Crewe have clinched playoff spots. Leyton Orient can clinch promotion in their next match, while #4 Stockport can clinch a playoff spot in theirs.
April 22nd, 2015 Accrington(11-13-18, 18th) @ Woking(19-7-15, 9th) We're 5:4 favorites today, they're 7:4 dogs. Attendence is expected to be only around 3000 fans today, a bit low but it is a rescheduled match. We're 3-1-3 in our history with Accrington, the number of times we've played is bosted by a meeting in the 2 leg FA Trophy Semi-Final back in the 12/13 season. We lost 2:0 at their place earlier this year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Alcock DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Bell-Baggie ST: Subotic Kenny is actually back to full training today, but he's really not ready to play anything close to 90 minutes. I stick to my plan of starting Bell-Baggie at AMR, but Kenny is available to play 20-30 minutes if need be. We're attacking today, and I tell the team pre-game that I expect them to win this one. 17': Almost all the highlights show us on offense so far, we seem to be out-hustling them and getting to every loose ball, maybe the "you'd better win!" helps on rare occasions. 20': Bell-Baggie to O'Sullivan, he passes it foward to Subotic, Subotic turns by a defender, he's 18 yards out with two men close by, he lets a shot fly though, and it beats the keeper!! One of the defenders takes the blame for the goal missing a tackle. 1-0 22': Accrington will try to get that goal back, we drop back into a standard mindset at least for now. 23': Taylor saves the day, Accrington earn a corner and a shot is blocked but the rebound sits in the penalty area... Taylor is able to get to it first and clears it out wide. HALF: We see a couple highlights in the midfield and then blow through the final 15 minutes without anything at all. We take a 1-0 lead into the locker room. We manage 8 shots, Accrington 6 shots, we've only put 2 on target and they've only put 1 on target. Outside of our dominance on headers, everything else is relatively even. 51': After we clear out a cross, Accrington has a midfielder take a wild shot from the midfield circle... it sails through the defense and is only a couple yards wide. 58': I put the attack back on, I'm not going to sit back and let a weaker team try to put pressure on us the rest of the match for free. 61': I almost pay for it immediately, there's a long through ball and a shot from a striker of theirs about 25 yards out, its over Lynch but hits the crossbar. 66': Bell-Baggie receives a pass on a counter attack, he's one on one with a defender, and he's tackled hard, no foul is given but Bell-Baggie is hurt. I bring him out immediately, Kenny is in. Pulis in for an exhausted O'Sullivan at MC too. 69': Ok maybe attacking isn't the right thing to do. Counter attacking makes a lot of sense though. 77': Lynch with a great save after what i was sure was an offsides on a through ball... it wasn't called that way, and they got a man into the penalty area. Smith came back to pressure and Lynch saved the short range shot attempt. 89': We fly ahead to the 89th minte where we see Accrington earn a corner. We are able to clear it out easily. Subotic gets to the ball first and takes it all the way down field, stalling a bit in the corner before starting an attack, a shot is blocked though. We kill a couple minutes of extra time in this stretch. 93': Pulis commits a foul going after a loose ball and is hurt in the process. We clear out a ball on the free kick, they try to get it back in, Smith boots it well out of play. They bring it back in again...Cooper with a clearance... why isn't this game over... ok finally as Charlie Kenny makes a run into our offensive end the final whistle blows and we get the 3 points! Woking 1 : 0 Accrington Subotic is great today with a 7.7 rating and the only goal. O'Sullivan a 6.9 rating with the assist. The defense is strong, 7.0 Alcock, 7.2 Nikolaou, 7.3 Cooper, 7.1 Smith. Upson puts up a 7.0 in midfield as well. Accrington took 14 shots but only put 4 on target, for a good stretch of the second half it seemed most of the highlights involved Accrington trying to get long balls foward, occasionally catching us off guard, Lynch made a couple key saves, though most of the time Smith and Cooper were right there. 3 matches left in the season for everyone now, only we played today, making up last week's delay due to our field getting waterlogged. Playoff Update 5. Bristol Rovers - 70 pts 6. Brighton - 69 pts 7. Hereford - 69 pts -------------------------- 8. Woking - 68 pts 9. Rochdale - 67 pts I really thought only one playoff spot would be up for grabs, Brighton and Hereford have both fallen on very hard times. We've got 5 teams competing for 3 spots with 3 games to go. Our final 3 matches: vs #16 Luton at #5 Bristol Rovers vs #12 Grimsby |
-- Today we expect closer to 4000 tickets sold, hooray gate receipts.
April 25th, 2015 Luton(11-19-13, 16th) @ Woking(20-7-15, 8th) Luton are favored 6:4 at our place, we're 13:8, essentially on equal footing. We're at a disadvantage b/c of our make up game 3 days ago. We're going on extremely short rest here, Luton has had a chance to rest up a little. We're 0-1-1 lifetime against these guys, getting a 2:2 draw earlier in the year at their place. The other match was in the FA Trophy back in 2010. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Alcock DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Collins/Kenny ST: Subotic We change both of our attacking mids today, Collins and Kenny are in, Harsanyi needs to rest. Nikolaou and Alcock on our back line are both pretty damn tired but I need them both badly. We'll come out on the attack again today. 13': Collins with a long run down the left, a cross, headed by Kenny.. but over. 31': Collins again... this time Subotic gets his head to the cross, and again its over. Not a lot of highlights here. 33': O'Sullivan a through ball into the penalty area, Kenny runs onto it, its a clear cut chance, open net from what can't be more than 10 yards out... and he puts it wide right, aiming too much or something, that hurts, a lot. 38': A cross comes in from the left, Subotic heads it... keeper saves but can't hold it, Collins gets to the rebound but a defender is there to block it. HALF: We manage 8 shots in the half but only put one on target. Luton with just one shot, we are dominating everything here except the scoreboard. 7th place Hereford are losing so far today and we have a chance to move into a playoff position with a win should everything else stay the same. 50': Luton comes out stronger, earning a couple corners early in the half, and a couple throwins very deep in our end... we finally get a save from Lynch on a shot and put an end to the danger. 58': We have a throwin in their end, Nikolaou ends up putting a cross into the area, O'Sullivan gets a head to it and its inches over... again. 59': O'Sullivan with a ball foward to Subotic, he shoots from just ouside the penalty box, and its just wide. 69': Subotic receives a pass from Kenny, jukes by two defenders, an incredible move to get a good look... its our THIRD clear cut chance(I missed the second I guess), and its off the right post. 76': We bring in fresh legs for the attack. Harsanyi in for Collins, Bell-Baggie in for Subotic, Arter in for Upson. 83': Bell-Baggie with a long run down the left... he gets into the area, crosses to the far post, Kenny with the header, he's got a really really great look, our FOURTH clear cut chance, but he puts it right at the keeper. 89': We earn a corner... 3 minutes of injury time coming. Corner is taken poorly and cleared. And nothing happens... so so many missed chances. Woking 0 : 0 Luton Nikolaou was everywhere today, he puts up a 7.8 rating and earns man of the match. Lynch 7.1, Alcock 7.1, Cooper 7.2, Collins 7.2. O'Sullivan and Kenny both struggled with 6.2 ratings. Kenny took 6 shots, but only put 1 on target. We pressured them like crazy, its ridiculous to not get a goal today. 15 shots, 57% of the possession, we even completed an amazing 42% of our crosses, but only 3 shots on target... less shots on target (3) than clear cut chances to score (4)!!!! Massive, Massive disappointment. Playoff Update 5. Bristol Rovers - 73 pts 6. Brighton - 72 pts 7. Rochdale - 70 pts -------------------------- 8. Hereford - 69 pts 9. Woking - 69 pts What I didn't notice was that Rochdale was playing Hereford, and Rochdale got the win, we would ahve been a point ahead in 7th had we won there. We're still in this thing. Next up is Bristol Rovers at their place. We're 4 points behind them with 2 to go, with a couple others even closer. A win would make things crazy exciting for the last game. I think its safe to say 6 points would get us into the playoffs. Not mathematically, but there are so many teams so close I imagine it would do it for us. |
Injury Update
-- Ed Upson hurts himself lifting weights. We get the option for a shot to get him through the next match. It changes his recovery from 4 weeks to ~7. Either way he's done for the rest of the year, so we give him the shot so he can play against Bristol Rovers. He's done after that. May Update -- We go to Bristol Rovers on the 2nd and host Grimsby on the 9th. Playoffs start on the 16th. Even if we don't have a big shot at promotion, the semifinal game to a packed house would be really good for the wallet. -- The board is delighted and our position in the standings is the reason why. With so many home games in April we only lost $2,140. That's really rare late in the season for us. May 2nd, 2015 Woking(20-8-15, 9th) @ Bristol Rovers(20-13-11, 5th) Bristol Rovers are massive 4:7 favorites today, we're 4:1 to win on the road. A win clinches a playoff spot for Bristol Rovers, so they have a lot on the line here too. They can't make it up to 3rd. These guys killed us at our house 3:0. This is a tough test. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Subotic Ogogo is right back into the lineup, I don't know if he can go 90 so Alcock is ready to come off the bench. Harsanyi starts again at AML. Bristol Rovers striker Aaron McLean has 24 goals and 12 assists this year, we will try to mark him closely to limit him a bit and to make him use his very weak left foot. We set out to defend at least early. I'm worried about falling behind right away in this one. 17': We try to drape ourselves all over McLean but it stil only takes 17 minutes for him to break through. They've already shot 5 times, 4 on target, his goal is a tough one from a tough angle. 0-1 30': O'Sullivan with a beautiful through ball to Subotic, he runs onto it and has a look at the keeper from about 10 yards out... keeper makes a diving save, that was a clear cut chance, our first on target shot, we needed that badly. 32': Nikolaou down the left sideline, he gets it to Subotic about 20 yards out, slides it left to Harsanyi, he turns and fires from about 18 yards out with a man on him... and its by the keeper far post!!! Amazing strike. 1-1 36': McLean gets free for another shot, this one is a clear cut chance on their end, and Lynch is there to save it. 37': Taylor misses an interception, McLean appears offsides but its not called, and McLean buries his second clear cut chance, he's got 2 goals and that was demoralizing as hell. 1-2 43': A cross in from the right, their "other" striker O'Donovan gets his head to it and probalby ends the game... sigh. This team is just too good. 1-3 HALF: Smith 5.7, Taylor 5.4, Nikolaou 6.1. I guess that's what happens when you give up 3 goals in the first half. They take 10 shots and put 7 on target. We take 4 and put 2 on target. We have to come out attacking in the second half now, and it'll probalby only make it worse, but our goal differential is irrelevant anyway. 47': We get a free kick 20 yards out, Smith takes it and puts a shot just barely wide. So close! 60': Subotic gets the ball on a counterattack after we clear it out. He makes a 50 yard run before the ball is tackled away in the penalty area. We earn a throwin, turn that into a corner... and they clear it out. There were more highlights but nothing coming anywhere remotely close to a goal for us so lets get this over with. Bristol Rovers 3 : 1 Woking This really could have been much worse. Our goal by Harsanyi was a really tough one, and they put 11 on target and could have easily scored 5 or 6. 7.2 for Harsanyi with the goal, 6.8 for Subotic and the assist. Upson 6.0, everyone else at least pulled back up to 6.4 or better. Just a much, much better team than us. Playoff Update 7. Rochdale - 70 pts -------------------------- 8. Hereford - 69 pts 9. Woking - 69 pts Bristol Rovers and Brighton clinch playoff spots. rochdale and Hereford both fail to get wins so we're still alive. Our goal differential is not up to par though, so we have to win our last match against Grimsby and have neither Rochdale or Hereford win to make the playoffs. |
Leaving your devoted following hanging? Very cruel :)
Good luck in your last match. It has been an exciting season to follow, regardless of the outcome of this game. |
Quote:
hah, I was too tired to play that last one last night, it will most certainly happen today. Thanks for reading! |
-- #7 Rochdale plays on the road at #2 Leyton Orient. #8 hereford hosts #10 oxford. We host #11 Grimsby. None of our opponents have anything at stake anymore, but at least none of them are playing the worst teams in the league.
Rochdale: In with a win, in with a tie/loss and Hereford & Woking tie/loss. Hereford: In with a win + Rochdale tie/loss. Woking: In with a win + Rochdale tie/loss & Hereford tie/loss The only way we make the playoffs is by winning and having both our competitors fail to win. May 9th, 2015 Grimsby(18-10-17, 11th) @ Woking(20-8-16, 9th) We've never beaten these guys, 0-1-2. We tied at their place in December and lost both times last year. We are slight favorites today, 6:4, Grimsby is 13:8. Grimsby's striker Tom Corner has 12 goals and is out today due to a bruised shin, we're happy to see that. They do have pretty balanced scoring though with 13 goals from Rene Howe and 12 goals from Richard Peniket GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Cooper/Smith/Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Pulis/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/Kenny ST: Subotic Upson is out now with his long term injury, Pulis will start in his place. Grimsby runs a 4-4-2 with Peniket and Howe as their fowards. We're attacking today, win or else. 3': Defender Ben Gerring for Grimsby picks up an early yellow. 4': Kenny makes a run into the area and earns us a corner kick. Its taken to Smith, he turns with it, fires a shot, its a great dviing save by their keeper... a second corner is cleared easily. 7': They attack and we clear a cross, triggering a counterattack, a ball is played forward to Kenny, he goes down after a tackle but O'Sullivan is there, he crosses to Harsanyi.. keeper comes out and grabs it. 10': No score in the other matches we're watching yet. 11': Harnsayi with a cross, Kenny a header... off the crossbar, cleared behind for a corner. No luck on the corner. 14': Grimsby take their first shot, a poor wide effort from 25 yards out. 20': Still ties in both the other matches. 27': Long run by Kenny, he beats two men to put a cross into the area, but Harsanyi heads it over. 30': O'Sullivan gets a shot form 20 yards out but its saved. Still no action in the other two games either. 39': Taylor makes a tackle to win us the ball in our offensive half of the field, he plays it foward to Subotic who takes a strong shot from 20 yards out, saved by the keeper and turned behind, we can't do anything with the corner. HALF: No score in any of the 3 matches that will determine the playoffs. We are attacking well but we just haven't broken through yet. Kenny has been getting more than his share of shots but he's not the best finisher. I bring Bell-Baggie in at AMR and hope he can get those same shots but put them away. We have a 56/44 possession edge, 8 shots to their 4, we have 3 on target though, they have none on target. We've earned 8 corner kicks and done nothing at all with them. We'll keep the pressure on and expect a lapse on their end at some point here. 46': Harsanyi with a strong run into the penalty area, he blows by his man and takes a shot, the keeper is in good position to turn it behind though, we earn a corner which of course leads to a header 50 feet over. 49': Throwin grimsby on the left side in our half. They cross it in immediately and midfielder Bryant gets free for a header which easily beats Lynch. Uh-oh. 0-1 58': Harsanyi receives a pass from Subotic in the penalty area and he looks like he should score easily... but the keeper blocks his shot, ugh we needed totie that up. 66': We've had a couple more corners with no luck so far. 76': Bell-baggie receives a pass in a graet position on the right side... but he's offsides. 77': N'Diaye in for Taylor and up to AMC. 81': Ogogo with a yellow. 83': Free kick near midfield, its taken quickly foward to N'Diaye, he plays an immediate through ball to Bell-Baggie who blasts a shot off the keeper and in! 1-1 85': Rochdale losing, Hereford tied, if we could get a miracle goal here we could make the playoffs still. 89': 4 long minutes fly off the clock with no highlights. We earn a throwin in their end but nothing doing. 3 minutes of extra time. 92': Throwin for Grimsby in our defensive end. Its thrown into the penalty area, Smith goes to head it out... and is called for a foul, its a penalty. ST Howe converts and we're done. 1-2 Woking 1 : 2 Grimsby We pick up a tie and a loss in our last two home games, winning either one would have put us in the playoffs. We have performed WELL above expectations this year and I'm thrilled about our position going into next season, but we really, really blew it in this final 2 weeks of the season. Their keeper is man of the match today. Subotic 7.0, Bell-Baggie 7.2 and the goal. Joe O'Sullivan comes up short with a 5.8 today. Pulis was alright in for the injured Upson today. Leyton Orient beats Rochdale 1:0, while Hereford plays Oxford to a scoreless tie. Rochdale and Hereford both end the season with 70 points but rochdale has a significantly better goal differential and they earn the final spot in the playoffs. I'll update the rest of the season and end of season stuff later on, so disappointing! |
Goalkeepers
**GA = Goals Allowed | SO = Shutouts Lynch played about the same this year as last, Martin with a little more action as Lynch was hurt for a time. Defenders
**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game Nikolaou is down a little from last year (was 7.12 last year) but still he is very good in defense and very good coming foward when we attack. Ogogo's rating improved some but mainly he averaged nearly a full tackle more this year than last. I felt like he settled in with the rest of the guys this year, I remember being frustrated with him at times last year, not this season. The DC's remain an issue. Cooper was a loaner, Smith and Williams were both worse this year than last. |
Central Midfielders
**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game The overall ratings for the midfield were down this year, the attacking mids were up though, I expect this is mostly due to the formation change. I'm quite pleased with Taylor in his first season for us, O'Sullivan had his worst year ever but still was a consistent performer for us. We made such little use of reserves here and will be making some changes, I think Arter/Herd/Pulis are all gone soon? Attacking Midfielders
**GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/game Collins was the impressve one early on but Kenny was the more consistent performer. The default 4-5-1 formation has the AML attacking and AMR supporting, and Harsanyi is just much better than Collins as an attacking AML. Collins would have been better if we had some truly dominant guys in the air (Subotic is our best but he isn't enough to take advantage of Collins crossing skills). Attackers
** GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/Game Harsanyi is back as our leading scorer, half of the season was at AML and I will go into next season expecting him to start there. |
One thing I've noticed the last few seasons is that we really don't find guys to bring in on loan that just carry the team to another level, no superstars, but we seem to consistently get guys that can start and are very solid contributors. I'm not sure if i can really do better with that or not, or if I need to look to bring in a $3k/wk DC who could be up there with Upson and Harsanyi as "consistent 7.0+ performers" to take us to the next level.
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-- We receive $115,000 for our finish in the league. Hooray income!
Final standings:  I don't remember seeing a message about a 10 point penalty for Tranmere, it showed up awhile ago. Turns out it was huge as they finished w/ 62 points and would have had 72 otherwise. That was not the case for most of the year either, they were further behind than that and made a strong run I think. Also, if this were baseball, we'd look at our goal differential compared to other teams around us and claim quite a bit of luck, assuming that we finished way higher than we really should have based on our ability to score compared to others. Not sure if that kind of Pythagorean metric exists in soccer or not, but we definitely seem out of place. |
Woking 2012/13 History/Leaders
Team History 2009/10 - BS South - 1st - 24 W - 12 D - 6 L - 62 for - 39 ag - +23 GD - 84 pts 2010/11 - BS Premier - 17th - 14 W - 10 D - 22 L - 60 for - 65 ag - -5 GD - 52 pts 2011/12 - BS Premier - 4th - 26 W - 12 D - 8 L - 87 for - 51 ag - +36 GD - 90 pts 2012/13 - BS Premier - 1st - 26 W - 11 D - 9 L - 88 for - 56 ag - 89 pts 2013/14 - League 2 - 18th - 12 W - 17 D - 17 L - 50 for - 54 ag - 53 pts 2014/15 - League 2 - 9th - 20 W - 9 D - 17 L - 57 for - 58 ag - 69 pts This year: Top Goalscorer - Zoltan Harsanyi - 15 goals Top League Goalscorer - Zoltan Harsanyi - 15 goals Most Assists - Charlie Kenny - 10 assists Highest Average Rating - Ed Upson/Zoltan Harsanyi - 7.06 Most Man of the Match - Stelios Nikolaou |
League Two Playoff SemiFinals
First Leg Bristol Rovers 2 : 1 Brighton Rochdale 0 : 1 Stockport Second Leg Brighton 0 : 1 Briston Rovers -- Bristol Rovers advances 3 : 1 Stockport 1 : Rochdale 1 -- Stockport advances 2 : 1 League 2 Playoff Finals Stockport 0 : 1 Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers scored on an own goal in the 92nd minute of extra time. Ouch!!!! Bristol Rovers promotes back up to League 1, making it right back up the year after their demotion. |
We're informed that our 9th place finish is a record high for Woking, breaking the league 2 18th place we earned last year. Duh.
Chelsea beats QPR 1:0 to win the FA Cup. June Update -- The Board is delighted with my performance. Our league 2 performance is a highlight, Joe O'Sullivan's performance is a lowlight, a first for him I'm sure. We lost $70k last month. Retirement Nick Fenton announces that he will retire on June 30th. I was not going to re-sign him, and the 35 y/o defender is not going to look for another deal. Fenton came up in Man City's youth program in the 90s (according to his history sheet). He spent most of his career in League 1 with Notts Co, Doncaster and Grimsby. He joined Woking in the 10/11 season when he hit 30 years old. Fenton played 505 league matches in his career, scoring 21 goals. He started for Woking for 3 years in the BS Premier league, in 10/11 earning a 7.12 average rating. We're up to about June 20th, we'll start scheduling friendlies soon and all the end of season reports are about to come out, almost there for next season! Done for tonight though. |
Tough loss. Good luck going forward! Will be reading along myself.
Tell |
QPR made the FA Cup final? Am I getting confused with the Scottish version in thinking that that's crazy?
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Job Application
After a disappointing 2:1 loss to Guatemala in the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup (won eventually by Mexico), the United States head coach job has opened up. I go ahead and apply for it though I assume I'm not anywhere close to being on a big enough stage to get serious consideration. Expiring Contracts My last chance to try to re-sign these guys if I want them... ST Giuseppe Sole - definitely not MC Anthony Pulis - 30 and skills eroding ST Anson Cousins - Nope AMR Aiden Downes - The one worth considering. The thing is that I'm going to bring in a loaner here no matter what, so I may as well let Downes go and bring in another full time guy too and see if I get a better result out of a new hire. I do make an offer to Downes, if he'll take a pay cut I'll keep him. |
Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Park_Rangers_F.C. They're my parent club in the English Premier League. |
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Thanks! :) |
England Year in Review
The season summary showing what happened in all English leagues is one of my favorites. Premier League Winner: Man City Relegation: Nottingham Forest, Hull, Ipswich Top Scorer: Carlos Tevez (Man City) - 26 Championship League Winner: Stoke Promoted: Stoke, Southampton, Charlton Relegated: Preston, Gillingham, Scunthorpe Top Scorer: Adrian (Stoke) - 26 League 1 Winner: Doncaster Promoted: Doncaster, Bournemouth, Middlseborough Relegated: MK Dons, Aldershot, Rushden, Lincoln Top Scorer: Scott McDonald (Middlesborough) - 29 goals League 2 Winners: Port Vale Promoted: Port Vale, Leyton Orient, Crewe, Bristol Rovers Relegated: Northampton, Barnet Top Scorer: James Lawrie (Port Vale) - 38 Blue Square Premier Winner: Macclesfield Promoted: Macclesfield, Droylsden Relegated: Grays, Gateshead, Crawley, York Top Scorer: Kyle Hendry (Droylsden) - 30 |
Fans Player of the Year
Ed Upson is the fans player of the year for the 2nd year in a row. Not as big a runaway as last year but he's still deserving. Woking Best Eleven No surprise here either. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou, Smith, Cooper, Ogogo DMC: Taylor MC: Upson, O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi, Kenny ST: Bell-Baggie Bench: GK Martin, ST Subotic, AML Collins, AM N'Diaye, DC Williams, DR Alcock, DC Fenton Woking All Time Best Eleven Abu Ogogo, Sam Sloma(the year after he leaves... wtf), Ed Upson, and Zoltan Harsanyi are all new additions to the Woking All Time Best Eleven. Nick Fenton, Nicky Nicolaou, Anthony Pulis, and Mark Cullen lose their "starting" spots to make way for these new four. GK: Kevin Lynch (236 apps/6.72 rating) DL: Stelios Nikolaou (104 apps/7.13 rating) DC: Mike Williams (139 apps/15 goals/6.81 rating) DC: Mark Ricketts (153 apps/3 goals/6.86 rating) DR: Abu Ogogo (81 apps/6.88 rating) ML: Sam Sloma (84 apps/4 goals/6.70 rating) MC: Ed Upson (83 apps/7 goals/7.15 rating) MC: Joe O'Sullivan (185 apps/13 goals/7.13 rating) MR: Moses Ademola (167 apps/37 goals/6.85 rating) FC: Giusepe Sole (130 apps/62 goals/6.94 rating) FC: Zoltan Harsanyi (176 apps/79 goals/6.98 rating) Schedule Announced We host Wrexham August 8th in our opening match of the season. TV Rights Money We get $437,000 for TV Rights for the season, same as last year. Season Expectations For "achieving a safe position" (a mid-standing finish) we can get a payroll allowance of 29.5k/wk. This is the lowest we're allowed to go, whereas last year just barely avoiding relegation was considered an acceptable goal. We're currently at $26,655/wk in salaries. I want more money though, and I think we should be able to achieve similar success to last year, so I bump things up to a "top half finish" which will allow us to spend $34k/wk. |
-- We set a new attendance record last year, averaging 3637 fans per match. This crushed our old record of 3236.
Promotion Odds Recently Relegated MK Dons are 5:4 favorites to promote out of league 2. Other contenders: Rushden (5:2), Aldershot (5:2), Lincoln (5:2), Stockport (6:1), and Brighton (8:1). We are 33:1, a value that is always super low since we rely so heavily on loaners to be some of the better players in the lineup at this level. ... July 1st rolls around and the transfer window is open and all of our expired contracts officially leave the club. A list of "notable" players released around the country are given and I see Frank Lampard on that list, he's 37 now, he's not interested in giving it one last go in league 2, believe me I checked just in case ;) July Update The board is 'pleased' with my leading of the team. I guess I have to earn my way back up to delighted by coming out winning again this year. After a number of contracts ending we are now spending $24,287/wk on salaries. We're allowed up to $35,000, so we have a lot of room to grow. Depth Chart Before I decide where I want to try to spend my money, lets look at what's on the roster. GK: Lynch, Martin - A+. DL: Nikolaou, Williams, Thomas - A+ DC: Smith, Williams, Taylor, Thomas - C - We need to bring in a stud here imo. DR: Ogogo, Alcock (taylor/nikolaou can play here too tho i never want them to) - A DMC: Taylor, Arter - C+ - Taylor was good here but we need better depth and I want the option to try Taylor out at DC, my scouts feel he'd be better there. MC: Upson, O'Sullivan (Arter/N'Diaye/Taylor) - B - love our starters, hate our backups AML: Harsanyi, N'Diaye - A - Harsanyi is a stud here, need a little more depth though, N'Diaye gets put in too many different positions to be theonly other guy that can play here. AMR: --------, N'Diaye - F - #1 need. ST: Subotic, Harsanyi - B - Need more depth and would love to try to find a star to get us 25 goals at this level. I've made two contract offers already, one to a DMC, one to a striker, hopefully they come through. Neither are max contracts or anything, both are in the $1500 range. Our needs, in order: AMR, DC, AML depth, MC/ST depth Our coaches are fine but we need to bring in a couple scouts. I seem to be able to find really high quality guys for a year and then they realize they're high quality and above my level. |
More than any other period of the season, I have to be in just the right mindset to get through early July, sometimes I have the attention span of a gnat and I really want to sit down and do tons of scouting and really try hard to improve my team in this period. I finally found that right mood tonight and am trying to bolster my scouting staff and I look into loaning in guys at the key positions I need, AM, DC, and trying to find that elusive star striker.
In recent years we've found scouts near 20 in both evaluating talent and potential but all those guys ditch me after a year. This year that's not available and we bring in a few scouts in the 13-15 range for both abilities. That'll work, and maybe they'll stay on long term. My max contract allowed for a scout is $600, I sign 3 guys all in the $400-$600/wk range. New Signing 27 year old Scottish DM/MC Simon Ferry has agreed to a $1500/wk deal with Woking. This isn't a loaner, its a new acquisition. This isn't a monster splash or anything, but its a guy that adds much needed depth and looks like someone who will be a solid rotation guy that will benefit the team. He can't jump. His jumping rating is a 3. I kinda imagine that myself, as an overweight 35 year old, might have a jumping rating of 1... so a 3... embarrassing! Its worth pointing out b/c its his only rating below 8 on the entire card. Passing 13, creativity 14, teamwork and work rate both 15. Nearly every other rating he has is between 10-12. He looks like a solid all around option. He'll get into the rotation with Taylor(DMC) and Upson and O'Sullivan and will hopefully merit a lot of time on the pitch this year. New Signing Welcome free transfer ST Matthew Paterson to woking! Another solid, but not huge splash signing. Paterson is 25 years old and will make $1600/wk. Similar to MC Ferry above he doesn't have a lot of huge holes in his game, he's got solid and consistent numbers all the way around. He's incredibly strong (16) with very solid composure and bravery which I'm hoping will make him a poised player with the ball in the penalty area. Off the Ball, Creativity, Flair, Work Rate are all 13, Finishing, Passing, First Touch, Heading all in the 11-12 range. I don't expect we've got a star on our hands here but hopefully we've got a solid consistent contributor. |
Loan Acquisitions and a Suprise Shift in Focus
So in the past I've made a lot of loan offers where the players would never, ever consider me. So this year I looked at a lot of guys valued in the $2M range with skills where it just seems like I have zero shot at getting them to come to Woking for a year... but this year, mass acceptance!!! I have a few very very tough decisions as 3 guys that could be stars, two straight strikers and one AML/ST are all willing to play for me for the year. I still need to do something at AMR and something about my defense, but I just can't turn this away. In the end I decide to accept all three offers and to change my formation back to a more aggressive 4-2-2-2, without the DMC and with two strikers. Vince Taylor is rated highly at DC and he'll play a ton there, and if I go back to the 4-1-2-2-1 later I've got Taylor and Ferry to fill the role. I don't know how well this will work but it seems to me like we have a chance to have an overwhelmingly good offense with these guys as long as Upson/O'Sullivan/Ferry can hold the middle and get the ball foward reliably. AML/ST Mickael Colin is a frenchman currently on Burnley's reserve squad. His strength is only 9 but everything else in the physical section is 13+, pace 15, agility 16, accel 15. Determination 20, Work Rate 15, Teamwork 15, technically he's solid but not an automatic stud, passing, crossing, first touch, finishing all in the 9-11 range. He could play some AML with Harsanyi or just be part of the striker rotation, we'll see. He's valued at $2.1M, something that isn't necessarily a measure of skill but would have been an automatic reject in the past. Spanish ST Constantino is an Aston Villa 20 y/o reserve who will be here for the season. Greased Lightening is the first term that comes to mind. Strengthof only 8, but he'll be the fastest player ever to play for Woking I think. Pace 17, Accel 18, Agility 16, Balance 15 is just so much better a physical specimen than we are used to seeing and I can't wait to watch him on the pitch. Off the Ball 13, Teamwork 14, Determination 14, Bravery 10, he has pretty good skills for this level too... Finishing 11, Dribbling 12, First Touch 13, Heading 11. He's a poor passer, and I'd love to see slightly higher flair(only 8) but seriously I can't complain about this guy being willing to play for me for a year. This was the guy that made me decide that I need to make room in my formation for more than one foward. FC Dan Taylor comes to us from the Fulham reserve squad, a 19 y/o valued at $1.6M. Pace 14, everything else physical above 10, he's not the superstud Constantino appears to be but he looks solid. Technically, he's the best of all the guys i'm bringing in I think. 16 determination, 16 teamwork, 14 off the ball, 10 flair, 11 composure. 14 first touch, 14 dribbling, 12 finishing, 10 passing... slight but noticible upgrades over Constantino in the technical attributes section. When I looked at Taylor and Constantino, I already have Subotic, I just signed Paterson, but how in the world could I tell one of these guys that I didn't have a spot for them on my team. I'll also point out that I have another acceptance on hold for a striker from Man City valued at $1.1M that is not quite up to this level that I'm going to reject. I have a free transfer offer out for a guy I feel could be a superstar AMR. My defensive line worries go down slightly knowing I can put Taylor in the rotation, but doing something there is still an option. Its no longer a requirement, Smith/Taylor/Williams/Thomas.... it still leaves me with guys that have slightly disappointed me in the past but its not a gaping hole in the roster. |
Final Loan Acquisition
We loan in our 4th guy for the season, an aggressive "gets foward whenever possible" MC Zak Middleton off of Ipswich's reserve squad. I'm taking a risk here and maybe should have delayed this transfer to be honest, but I want this guy. This is a case of "Upson and O'Sullivan, I love you both, but you have to fight for the other MC spot this season, I'm sorry", because Middleton is going to play, and play a lot. I had a short tinge of fear bringing in those strikers that I might not have the quality at midfield to consistently control the middle and feed the attack, and Middleton makes me feel better about that. Lets start with speed, we're a FAST team now all of a sudden. 16 pace, 12 agility, 14 stamina. Many of his mental traits are in the 13-15 range... influence, teamwork, work rate, determination, composure, bravery, with aniticpation, flair, creativity all in the 11-12 range. A solid first touch (12), a solid ability to pass the ball(12) are critical for me, decent dribbling(8) tho a little weak to be honest, but if he can find those passing lanes it'll work out. Now, the potential mistake I've made is that I'm assuming the stud AMR that I'm going after is going to sign. If he doesn't, well, I've got to keep looking and I've got money to spend but my only option now will be short term loaners or free transfers. The loan market at AMR was very very dry, but perhaps I should have kept that option open. The backup plan i'm hanging my hat on is that Ogogo is a competant AMR and my backup DR Alcock is not happy with his playing time, so I do have an option there. Its not an ideal one, but I do have options. We've struggled to score in League 2 so far compared to the top teams. 50 goals our first season and 57 last year, where every single playoff team in those two seasons scored at least 65 goals and all but a couple of them scored 70+. This was not my plan going into the off-season, but I feel like an opportunity fell into my lap and I have the makings of a very potent and fun offense if I can make use of these guys properly. |
The stud AMR that I'm going after gets an "11th hour offer" so i've got some competition. This guy becomes the first player that I've literally pulled out every trick I've got for. He was asking for $2900/wk and I offered it, but after seeing the competition, I'm $8k/wk under budget and I want this player more than I've ever wanted anyone that I've gone after due to the combination of talent/scouting and need... I bump him up to a Key Player and offer him the maximum the board will allow, $3500/wk. He's not like... a guy that's going to singlehandedly win me games, but he's strong in every area I care about and this has been a problem position for years for me. Its the only position where I've started a loaner consistently for 3+ years.
I'm starting to regret letting Aiden Downes go outright. League Cup Draw We are going to have to go on the road to League 1 side Swindon Town for the league cup this year. I guess it'd be ok to just get it over with, but these cup games if I can get an extra round and a home game out of them provide some nice revenue. Friendly #1 Our first friendly is against a random Argentinian side that gives us good money. This is just a bad team though. We lead 4-1 at the half and win 6-1. Harsanyi scores 2 goals and is man of the match. Other goals come from Middleton, Taylor, Colin and Subotic. N'Diaye and O'Sullivan each have 2 assists, Ferry and Paterson 1 each. We tried to get everyone on the roster 1 half of play here to get warmed up a little. -- We announce a $450,000 loss last season. We hope to do better this year. Maybe if we're highly successful. I don't really expect to do better this year, as long as the board lets me lose a bit of money I'm going to keep spending what I feel I need to. New Signing After much fanfare, we get our man. Welcome 27 y/o AMR Dany N'Guessan to Woking. Now there is a downside here. Dany is a frenchman. But he has British Nationality and believe it'll work out just fine. I compared N'Guessan to last year's AMR starter Charlie Kenny and N'Guessan is superior in almost every way. He's got very solid pace(14) and accelleration(13), both keys for my attacking mids who I want to make their way up the lines quickly to create offense. He's strong(15) and should be difficult to take off the ball. Solid flair(13), aggression(13) and creativity(10), good off the ball(10) play should hopefully see him finding ways to both create and score goals from time to time. He can shoot from range as good as most anyone at this level(11), dribbles very well for this level(13), and is an acceptable passer(10) and crosser(11). As I said before, he's not a super stud, but my scouts instantly fell in love with the guy, and my supreme need for an AMR made me trust my scouts and fall in love with him too. We beat out Notts Co, another league 2 side, to sign him. He's the first guy I've ever offered a straight up Max contract to outbid another team for. Hopefully he proves to be worth the money. N'Guessan spent the last 4 years in league 1 with MK Dons and Southend, putting up 6.8 ratings in a higher leave while getting noticible playtime (33 games last year, 41 three years ago). Ed Upson is valued at $60k, N'Guessan comes in as my second most valuable player at $45k (tied with Ogogo and Harsanyi actually). Again I know value isn't a direct correlation to skill, but that's 3 every day starters and 3 of the highest rated players on the pitch with a lot of consistency, so I'm pretty pleased to see that. |
I'd posted a depth chart before going into the standard mass player acquisition mode in July to pick up loaners and a few new signings. I feel I basically have a complete roster now, finding a free transfer stud DC is about the only possible move I'd make now I believe, so lets see how things look now.
GK: Lynch, Martin (unchanged) DL: Nikolaou, Williams, Thomas (unchanged) DC: Smith, Vince Taylor, Williams, Thomas (Taylor will get a solid shot to start now that we won't run a DMC) DR: Ogogo, Alcock (unchanged) MC: Middleton, Upson, O'Sullivan, Ferry (two new signings, one a clear starter) AML: Harsanyi, Colin (exciting loaner) AMR: N'Guessan, N'Diaye (new guy better be a star after all my talk) FC: Constantino, Dan Taylor, Subotic, Paterson (two very exciting loaners) I just realized I have two guys named Taylor on the roster. I'll try to distinguish but one is a foward and one is a defender. It will hopefully be obvious which one I'm referring to if I leave out the first name. If Vince Taylor picks up a goal/assist I'll go out of my way to mention the first name of course since it'd be an oddity for him. Injury Update Matthew Paterson picks up an injury in training and is going to miss about 6 weeks. That gives me less tough decisions about what to do up front with my fowards I guess! I hold a press conference to introduce N'Guessan after there's an immediate message from the fans that they love the signing. Might as well hype him up. I talk about how great a pull he is for us and how I'm hopeful he'll be a part of taking us to the next level. After the presser, N'Guessan is very happy, but MC Simon Ferry is unhappy with my comments. Maybe he wanted a press conference too. Too bad, buddy. |
Friendly #2
Much better competition as we play Hull from the Coca-Cola Championship. This one will be at home. We get a great early goal as Dan Taylor takes the ball up the left side and plays a great cross to the far post, Constantino with the header past the keeper. Hull ties it up, but we get a free kick towards the end of the first half from near midfield, Smith takes it, plays a ball into the box, Vince Taylor with the header... its off the keepers fingertips, hits the crossbar and bounces in! We make our halftime subs and no one scores in the second half. Martin makes a couple really nice saves. Christian Smith is man of the match with a great effort in defense (he's also the only player to play 90 minutes). Zak Middleton was hurt near halftime and i'm worried about what I'll see there. Woking 2 : 1 Hull Injury Update MC Zak Middleton will miss 3-4 weeks with a pulled hamstring. Its July 18th, he'll miss our first couple matches but that's about it. -- We announce 892 season tickets have been sold so far. We estimate we'll hit about 1200 by the time we're done. This is a reasonable improvement from the 826 we'd sold last year at this time. |
We've only got 4 friendlies this year, the last two are over the next few days, then a bit over a week off to get ready for our opening match.
Friendly #3 The first of two we expect to lose badly, we host Sheffield United from the premier league and they get two easy first half goals, both from the same striker getting a breakaway as Christian Smith finds himself out of position on a through ball. I start half of my expected first team, the rest will start in my next match in a few days. They get about 65 minutes before being subbed out. Woking 0 : 2 Sheffield Utd -- Lots of South American national jobs are open after the completion of the Copa America, won by Brazil in extra time over Argentina. Uruguay, Ecudor, Venezuela, and Boliva all have jobs open. -- We're up to 1116 season tickets sold, still expecting to hit 1200. Friendly #4 Our last friendly is on 3 days rest and I start basically a completely different lineup as a result. We've got about 10 days rest after this before the start of the new season. We're playing QPR's reserve squad at home today. We get a goal 22 minutes in as Vince Taylor blasts a 25 yard free kick into the upper left corner of the net. Constantino shows why I got so excited about him in the 34th minute taking a long pass from O'Sullivan and basically outrunning their defense before placing a perfect strike by the keeper for our 2nd goal. The exact same thing happens on the other end of the field in the 57th minute. 6 minutes later O'Sullivan to Constantino again, this time in a crowded penalty area, constantino breaks first on a pass and hits it first touch by the keeper. Woking 4 : 0 QPR Reserves Constantino showed us everything I hope he can be against league 2 competition today with a hat trick. August Update We play 5 league matches in August, opening up with Wrexham on August 8th. Our League Cup match is on the 11th. Things will be quite busy with matches on the 8th/11th/15th/18th/22nd. If we were to win our League Cup game somehow we'd also play on the 26th in round 2. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our growth in stature is the main reason. The disappointment listed is the loss of favorite Giuseppe Sole. -- We made $228k profit last month. $365k from season ticket sales was the main reason. After that it'll be a long decline into the red the rest of the year. -- Team Captains remain the same as last year. Kevin Lynch is captain, Ed Upson is vice-captain. We'll be missing starting MC Zak Middleton for opening day, he should be ready to help in the rotation during our busy stretch though. ST Matthew Pateroson is out for a couple more weeks still. -- With that, its August 5th and the next update will be for opening day! |
August 8th, 2015
Wrexham @ Woking We're very slim 5:4 favorites in our opener. Wrexham are 7:4. We're 4-1-3 against Wrexham lifetime, with most of that being in the BS Premier league a few seasons ago. We played twice last year, the road team winning each match. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V. Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/N'Guessan FC: D. Taylor/Constantino Wrexham are led by Striker Marc Williams, he's been at Wrexham his whole career (since 04/05). He scored 24 goals 2 years ago i nthe BS Premier league and scored 13 last year in his first Leauge 2 season. We're recommended to go in hard tackling him and will do so. 10': N'Guessan frees himself up in the penalty area for a shot, its over the bar, nifty move though. 11': Constantino drives down the middle after a turnover in midfield, he draws the defense and passes to Taylor, its our first clear cut chance, but he sends it right at the keeper. 35': Almost no action for a very very long time. Wrexham earns a corner but we defend it well and force a poor long shot. HALF: One more highlight of us earning a corner and that's it for the half. They shoot 4 times, we shoot 3. We control possession 57/43 and our ratings are a little higher on average, perhaps we have a very slight edge, but that's it. 64': the first highlight of the half, literally... throwin for us, Ogogo heads to O'Sullivan, a pass ot Upson, he drops a little ball through the center of their defense, Constantino runs onto it and strikes it quickly, beating the keeper!! 1-0 64': Upson was hurt and we were waiting for a sub at this point. New MC Ferry is in for Upson. 85': Long highlight for Wrexham, we see Christian Smith clear the ball out of the defense twice before they take a poor long shot. 88': Quick move for Woking after crossing midfield, Ferry receives a ball about 40 yards out, he passes it forward to Constantino, who turns, gets a little space from his man at the edge of the penalty area and blasts a shot that the keeper has no chance at stopping! 2-0 we get one more attack as we're runnign the clock out but its stopped pretty easily. Woking 2 : 0 Wrexham Wrexham shoots 9 times but only puts 2 on target, 4 are from long range, not a serious threat to be had that i saw. We only shoot 6 times but our new striker is deadly,or at least was today. Constantino shows exactly why I got so very excited about him when I saw he was willing to come here. A great 2 goal debut, an 8.8 rating and man of the match. Assists from Ferry (6.9) and Upson(7.6). elsewhere, Lynch(7.1), Ogogo (7.8), Nikolaou(7.3), O'Sullivan(7.2) all had outstanding games. 3675 people came to see our opening day win. |
-- Zak Middleton resumes full training.
August 1th, 2015 League Cup Round 1 Woking @ Swindon Swindon are a level above us and are expected to win big at their place today, 2:5 favorites to our 13:2 chances. We actually drew these guys at home last year in the Johnstone Paint Trophy. They beat us 2-0. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/Williams/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Upson/Ferry AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: D. Taylor/Harsanyi We're coming as close to giving up as we possibly could today, replacing every starter that's reasonable ot make sure we're as rested as possible for the rough early season league grind. I just don't feel like throwing all our energy into such a difficult match to win. We're clearly trying to defend today. 2': WOW. We start with the ball, pass it arond a bit, and our first pass goes foward to HArsanyi... they tackle it away, there's a long pass down the left side, and the counter is on. Its a quick run down the left side, a cross, and a devastating powerful header into the net. 0-1 9': A steal in the midfield, a pass ahead, a great individual effort to make Williams look bad and Lynch is beaten badly... 0-2 34': Ther's a free kick by Swindon about 40 yards out to the far right side of the field, Vince Taylor is given the blame for missing a header, they get an attacker to the ball to head it in. 0-3 42': Williams is beaten by a good individual effort, Swindon gets their 3rd clear cut chance and 4th goal. 0-4 44': Ferry has the ball in the midfield and launches a long ball towards the other end... Harsanyi is still playing hard, he runs onto the ball, gets to it first and strikes it near post past the keeper, we get on the board. 1-4 HALF: Lets just get past this. 67': We get a decent look as Colin takes a through ball on the left side but a defender gets to him and clears it before he can shoot. 67': Arter is in for a tiring Upson. A couple highlights but no goals. Lets get out of here and pretend this didn't happen. Swindon 4 : 1 Woking Ferry plays a strong game in the midfield and actually earns a 7.9 rating, very imprssive. Subotic 7.0. Alcock 5.0, Thomas 5.6, N'Diaye 6.0. We're just outclassed here. I'm maybe a little worried that a Laegue 1 team dominated us this badly, this is just one level up! |
August 15th, 2015
Woking(1-0-0) @ Lincoln(0-1-0) Lincoln are even money favorites at their place today. We played these guys two seasons ago in our first league 2 season. They won both matches 2:0. They promoted to league 1 last year and relegated right back down. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: D. Taylor/Constantino Middleton will get his first action today, Harsanyi will rest after playing the last two. Standard mindset today, until proven wrong I don't want to play defensive with this formation too often. 13': We get a good corner kick, Vince Taylor is called for a foul as the ball sails through the 6 yard box though. 19': We win a ball in the midfield, Ogogo to Middleton, middleton tries a through ball to Taylor, but its deflected by the defense, the deflection falls to constantino who was rushing foward as well and he places a great shot to the left side of the net, goal! 1-0 26': We have a poor clearance, their man Stewart picks it up 30 yards out and sprints to the goal, between two of our defenders rushing to get back into the right position and he beats the keeper. 1-1 38': Corner kick, Lynch rushes out for it, we get it out of the area but not out safely... Hutchinson, a lincoln striker ends up with it about 20 yards out, he fires a shot, and something is wrong with Lynch. He is still recovering from charging out for the ball, and he I guess realizes he is horribly out of positoin, he makes it worse by taking a step out towards the attacker before trying to get back, and it leaves a huge portion of the net wide open. They nail it. 1-2 HALF: We make two huge mistakes after taking a 1-0 lead and trail 2-1. Lynch has a 5.8, O'Sullivan 5.9, Colin 5.9, some poor play here today so far. We only have 3 shots, just 1 on target, the goal obviously. They have 5 shots, 3 on target. We dominate possession today so far, 59/1, we dominate in the air, but we've just given away two goals. 47': N'Guessan gets deep down the right side and makes a very nice cross, Colin heads it, and its just over. 57': Smith with a free kick from 25 yards out, a couple yards wide. 61': Ferry in for Middleton, he's not fit enough to go 90 minutes yet. N'Diaye in for N'Guessan, he looks hurt, something happened a couple minutes ago that I didn't see. 67': V. Taylor with a ball forward from the midfield line, O'Sullivan chips it into the area from 40 yards out, Constantino has a little space, he shows a great first touch, controls, turns and shoots and its by the keeper!! 2-2 72': We give up a near point blank shot after a through ball, Lynch with the stop, corner comes to nothing. 73': After clearing that last corner, there's a long ball into space. Constantino's superior speed shows. He gets to the ball first, sprints toward sthe area, beats one defender, a second defender gets the ball loose but doesn't clear. Constantino sticks with it, rushes to the ball and pokes it into the net!!!! An INCREDIBLE individual effort!!!! That's a hat trick, and 5 goals in 2 matches. 3-2 82': We control the ball on the offensive end, a nice long ball to get the attack going by Ferry, Colin earns us a corner, but we can't do anything with ti. 85': Lynch clears a ball out, they recover it naer midfield and send a long ball foward, Lynch is rushing back into position, he turns around and charges the attacker who has the ball... shot... Lynch dives and makes a great save! 87': Lincoln tries the offside trap, Constantino beats it and Ferry gets a nice through ball to him, he gets into the area, no one is catching him if he gets space, but the keeper makes the save this time. 90': Nikolaou is slow to get to a long ball and has to put it behind for a corner. N'Diaye makes a nice tackle after the corner to clear the danger. They do get a throwin, O'Sullivan commits a foul as they try to build up the attack, free kick from 30 yards out. The wall blocks it and it goes behind for another corner. The corner is taken well, they get a header, and its inches over. WHEW. On the play, Ferry is hurt. That was their last chance. We should have shown a more dominant win today but we made it exciting! Lincoln 2 : 3 Woking We only shot 9 times, but again today Constantino is deadly, he manages a hat trick. Lincoln shoots 12 times, Lynch made a couple nice plays in the 2nd half to hold them to 2 goals. Obviously Constantino is man of the match with 3 goals and a 9.5 rating. Assists from Ferry (6.9), O'Sullivan (6.9) and Middleton (6.8). Lynch never did get his rating up, finishing with an awful 5.8. Ogogo (7.0) and Taylor (7.4) put up the only other solid numbers after Constantino. Injury Update AMR Dany N'Guessan twisted his knee today and is out 2-3 weeks. MC Simon Ferry "sustained a bruised head" and is out 5-8 days. -- We draw League 1 side Dag & Red for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy South 1st round. Dag & Red avoided relegation by 6 points last year out of league 1, we have a little better chance of beating them than Swindon. Its a road game though. |
-- Constantino is, to the surprise of no one, named to the League 2 team of the week.
August 18th, 2015 MK Dons(2-0-0) @ Woking(2-0-0) MK Dons were relegated down from League 1 last year. They're slim favorites at our place, 5:4 vs 7:4. This will be our first ever meeting. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: O'Sullivan/Upson AM: Harsanyi/N'Diaye FC: D. Taylor/Constantino Middleton is tired, still getting back to full fitness following his injury. N'Guessan is hurt for awhile so N'Diaye is in there. We're attacking today. MK Dons runs a very defensive looking 4-1-4-1 formation. 11': We take the first two shots, one generated by a long ball out of our defense than Constantino just beats everyone too, but its in a corner and he can't go shoot, he crosses in for a header that's high. 13': Vince Taylor with a yellow card. 20': Smith takes a free kick, crossing it into the box from 40 yards out wide, we earn a corner... but do nothing with the corner. 24': Most highlights are in our offensive end but we are finding it hard to crack all the defenders they have in there. 3 shots, all off target. 34': Defender Doyley with a yellow card, that's the third foul i've seen of his today. 39': Dan Taylor is tripped and goes down hard, his fitness drops all the way to 30% which is terrifying. He is forced to come out immediately. Subotic is in. 46': N'Diaye goes down on a tackle and he's hurt as well. He can stay in but I'm thinking i may sub him at the half anyway. HALF: We shoot 3 times, they shoot 3 times. They put one on target, none for us. Their on target show was from very long range and had no chance. We've got a 55/45 possession edge, we're tackling better and winning more headers but really its anyone's game. They are packing it in so tight that it seems like we need a breakaway or a great individual play from Constantino to get a goal here. I bring Alcock in for N'Diaye. Ogogo moves up to AMR, Alcock at DR. I'm down to 1 sub. 53': MK Dons earn 3 corners straight and they've now had 9 of them... still only 5 total shots now and just one on target. 61': We have a throwin, Ogogo to O'Sullivan, he pushes it foward to Harsanyi who is past the defense and puts it in... but he's offsides. ugh. 75': Middleton in for O'Sullivan who is tired. 86': Ogogo puts our first shot on target but the keeper easily saves it. Yawner, can anyone steal it at the end? 88': They commit a foul just outside the penalty area. Christian Smith wil take it... its over the wall, but doesn't quite bend down into the net, just barely over. Good effort. 90': Ogogo earns us a corner with a nice cross. Its taken short to Smith who blasts one off a defender and wide, corner #2. The second one is taken to Smith as well. Two defenders converge... Smith goes down... and gets a yellow for diving. Oof. 93': With 3 minutes of overtime scheduled, we're at the 92:45 mark. Lynch takes a goal kick and blasts it long. Somehow Constantino receives it about 3 steps outside the penalty area... he controls it well, takes a few steps into the box, shoots... and its wide. It was just him and the keeper. That's the first time I've seen him have a look like that and miss. That would have been an epic ending. Alas. Woking 0 : 0 MK Dons They have a defender put up a 7.4 rating to earn man of the match. On our side, Nikolaou (7.3), Taylor (7.3), Ogogo (7.0) and Smith (7.0) all do well for us. Each team put one shot on target all match, and neither of those shots were anything close to a threat. No injuries are reported after the match. That's a huge win for us with the two guys we subbed out today that looked quite hurt. |
August 21th, 2015
Woking(2-1-0) @ Hartlepool(0-1-2) Hartlepool are 4:5 favorites at home, we're 3:1 dogs. They finished 12th last year. We're 1-1-0 against them, winning at home and tying on the road last year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/Ogogo FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Lots of changes today mostly due to fatigue. Harsanyi at foward where he'll expend a bit less energy, Colin at AML. Ogogo I liked what I saw in stretches last game so he gets AMR duties while Alock defends. Standard mindset today. 6': A blocked shot earns us a corner. Middleton takes it and sends it near post. Smith gets in and heads it, the keeper gets his fingers on it, it hits the crossbar, and a defender clears it off the line. 19': Some nice buildup, Ogogo puts in a cross, Harsanyi heads, the keeper is able to make the save. We've got 4 shots, they have none. 25': First Hartlepool shot is blocked , they earn a corner. Header off the corner is way over. 27': Ogogo with a great run down the right side and a really really solid cross, Harsanyi heads it but its just over. Harsanyi could have done better there. 32': Colin takes a pass from Middleton, gets into the penalty area... I expect him to be looking for a through ball, he shows some brilliant footwork, jukes two defenders, and fires a shot across the face of the goal by the diving keper!!! Incredible move to get by two defenders, I have no idea how he found a shot there. 1-0 HALF: Not much action the rest of the half. I'm thrilled, we're outplaying them and Colin with an amazing goal. We have 7 shots, just 2 on target but one is the goal. They have 2 shots, none on target. Lets see if we can keep this control into the second half. 47': Hartlepool gets the ball into the penalty area, their striker shows a very very poor first touch and the ball squirts out wide, he tries to recover and shoots but at a bad angle and its a terrible wide shot. 50': We clear out a corner and Constantino is on the run, he goes wide to the right and gets a cross into the area. Harsanyi gets his head to it but its over the bar. 54': Nikolaou with a tackle near midfield, he gets the ball ahead to HArsanyi. Harsayi can't find Constantino and pulls it wide, passes it back a bit to Nikolaou. Nikolaou crosses into the area, Constantino with the header, and its perfectly headed by the keeper into the right side of the net!! Great cross and great finish. 2-0 65': N'Diaye in for Ogogo, Taylor in for Constantino, Upson in for Middleton, all subs to rest guys assuming we're going to get a win here. 80': We're still attacking, Harsanyi way wide, he passes the ball to Colin deep near the goal line, Colin makes another graet individual move to make a pass to Upson, Upson can't get a good shot off though. 82': We throw it in deep in their end, a pass to Upson, Upson runs all the way through the penalty area from the left to right side, turns, makes a little omve, passes to O'Sullivan in heavy, heavy traffic, and O'Sullivan blasts it into the net!! This was a long slow play and their entire defense was back there clogging things up, an amazing play by Upson and great finish! 3-0 91': They're going all out to attack, there's a turnover and Harsanyi plays the ball forward to Colin. There's really no defense near, Colin makes a 45 yard+ run with the ball and the defense never does recover to get into position. Colin runs into the penalty area and calmly strikes the ball past the keeper!!! 4-0 Hartlepool 0 : 4 Woking WOW! We shoot 14 times, putting 5 on target. They only get 5 total shots, not a single one on target. 60/40 possession, the average rating for Hartlepool was 5.88. 7.72 for Woking. Just a crazy dominant performance. Mickael Colin at AML is the clear man of the match. He put on an amazing show today, scoring twice and really he was better than just that, some great great individual plays there. 9.3 rating for Colin. Other goals from O'Sullivan(8.3) and Constantino(7.3). Assists from Nikolaou(8.8), Middleton(7.0), Harsanyi(8.0), and Upson(6.9). Alcock put up a great 7.9 at DR, Taylor 7.3, Smith 7.5. Ogogo's rating was just 6.9, the highlights I saw I really liked from him at AMR though. Great win!! |
-- Nikolaou and Colin are both named in the League 2 team of the week.
August 29th, 2015 Bury(1-2-1) @ Woking(3-1-0) This is an even matchup according to the oddsmakers. We're 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8. We've not lost to these guys in two seasons, 2-2-0. We won both matchups last year, when Bury finished 14th. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/Ogogo FC: Harsanyi/Constantino After a week off I leave my lineup exactly the same to see if the magic we found against Hartlepool could be duplicated. We're attacking at home. 1': We take the opening kickoff, feed it up to Constantino, he passes to AHrsanyi, Harsanyi blasts a shot and its barely saved.... we almost scored a goal 18 seconds in. 9': We have the ball in their end for what seems like forever, 3 corners, they can't clear it all the way, we keep pumping it back into the offensive end... and we still only have 1 shot. They're packing it in pretty tight and we're all over the place and all over the ball but that one final connection to get a shot isn't quite there. 13': A crushing shot by Bury , Lynch barely gets a finger to it and directs it high... by an inch, it hits the crossbar. 17': We give up a corner, they cross it in, we get a head to the ball... there's 3 straight headers in the penalty area won by Bury to keep it alive before they finally head one by Lynch and into the net. We never let that happen, we always dominate the air!! 0-1 20': Constantino receives a pass in the penalty area, makes a move and generates our first clear cut strike mostly on his own. But he drills it at the keeper and its saved. We earn a corner, Harsanyi gets a shot but its saved as well. 22': They counter after our last failed corner... a long ball leads to a breakaway, they try a shot from outside the area, and Lynch dives and tips it wide. Corner is cleared out. 25': Mickael Colin almost did it again... he takes a pass on the left side of the area, he dribbles by one man, by a second, splits two defenders, and fires a shot from a great spot... and it hits the post and goes wide. SO close. 35': After a cross Bury clear to midfield. Vince Taylor isn't having any of it, he tackles the ball away, passes to Middleton. Middleton makes a long run into the penalty area, stops, places a short pass that beautifully slips between two defenders, constantino meets it and strikes it with his first touch, and he puts it in!!! Just a great, pretty looking play. 1-1 44': A Bury attacker is 1v1 against Christian Smith, he burns Smith in embarrassing fashion before firing a shot, Lynch makes another diving stop. HALF: Wow, what a half. This has been awesome. Somehow Lynch only has a 6.9 rating, I'd give him an 8 for the saves he's made. Middleton has been brilliant and there are shots coming from everywhere. 6 for us, 5 on target. 7 for them, 4 on target. 58/42 possession edge, they are actually winning the battle in the air today, by quite a bit. We're not completing many crosses either. 48': Huge defensive lapse on a throwin for us. Somehow... maybe we think we've set up the offside trap succesfully, but there's a cross by Bury into the area and they get two men behind our last line of defense to receive it. Its clear cut strike #3 on the match for Bury but they put it wide. We got very, very lucky there. 56': No!! How did we not score. Colin tries two crosses, both blocked, before getting a pass in to Harsanyi, he hits O'Sullivan who plays a great pass to Ogogo, his shot hits the keeper, and it floats up into the air for anyone to go head in... fail, headed over by Harsanyi. 60': Constantino takes a pass in the penalty area, he goes down.. PENALTY! Middleton is going to take it, and... he hits it straight at the keeper, its saved. Dreadful. Just awful. 61': Yellow for defender Westlake deep in their end. Smith crosses into the area, headed behind for a corner. They clear the corner. 68': Upson in for the tired Middleton 76': O'Sullivan with a yellow. 78': N'Diaye in for Ogogo. 80': Alcock to Upson, Upson to Harsanyi 20 yards out, he turns to the right, I'm 100% expecting the through ball to constantino, but no, he just blasts a shot between two defenders, and it shocks everyone as it rockets into the left side of the net. There's an audible "WHOA" that would make Joey Lawrence proud as I watch that shot. 2-1 93': We give up a corner but clear it easily, turning it into a counter attack, the ball gets ahead to Constantino who takes it into the left corner before dropping a pass back to Nikolaou, a cross is put in, N'Diaye heads it inches over. The match is called soon after. Woking 2 : 1 Bury This was a thrilling game, filled with chances. Graet keeping? Horrible shooting? We took 17 shots, put 10 on target, generating SIX clear cut chances. They took 10 shots, putting 4 on target, generating THREE clear cut chances. That's 9 instances where a goal really should have been scored, yet its 2-1. Harsanyi is man of the match today with a goal and an 8.0 rating. Constantino with our other gaol and a 7.3 rating. Assists form Upson (6.9) and Middleton(7.5). Lynch 7.1, Alcock 7.0, Nikolaou 7.0, Colin 7.0. -- Last year we got 15 goals from Harsanyi, 9 from Subotic, 6 from Bell-Baggie, the rest spread around amongst the midfield. After just 5 league matches Constantino has 7 goals for us. Two guys have 6, Constaintino is currently leading the league in goals scored though. Its early, cold streaks will happen, players get shut down... but I'm so thrilled with our offense so far this year. -- Mickael Colin is really making me question what I'm going to do with Zoltan Harsanyi. Colin has put in 3 great games for us and he seems capable of individual plays that are just stunningly good. Harsanyi seems to thrive in the second foward role in a very limited sample more than Dan Taylor. We may run Colin AML, Harsanyi and constantino up front for awhile. |
September Update
-- September is goign to be another crazy month. We start off with our Johnstone's Paint Trophy match on the 2nd, then we have league matches on the 5th, 12th, 19th, 22nd, 26th, and 29th. -- Constantino wins August Young Player of the Month in league 2!! Mikael Colin was actually the #2 for this spot! -- I win Manager of the Month for August. Woohoo! The first time I've won the award since we got promoted up to League 2 I believe. We are 4-1-0, we dominated August. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. constatino is the highlight our 4-1 League Cup collapse the lowlight. We lost $73k last month. -- N'Guessan resumes full training, he won't play today though. September 2nd, 2015 Johnstone's Paint Trophy South First Round Woking @ Dag & Red The league 1 side is heavily favored at home, 4:6 to our 7:2 to get the win. I think we can compete with these guys though. They're near the bottom of league 1. We played them twice our first year in League 2, losing at home, tying on the road. GK: Lynch D: Williams/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Ferry AM: Harsanyi/N'Diaye FC: Subotic/Constantino I rest Nikolaou, Ogogo, Middleton, and Colin today since we've got 3 matches in a week. Mike Williams gets his first start of the year and Alcock has been playing well at DR. Standard mindset today, defense is for pussies. 5': O'Sullivan loses the ball about 30 yards out, they pass it ahead, and there's a random quick shot from 25 yards away.. Lynch isn't ready for it, and its placed nicely into the upper left corner of the net, its a quick goal for Dag & Red. 0-1 12': After a corner, Harsanyi crosses to the far post, Vince Taylor is there but heads it just over. That was our first shot, Dag & Red still only have one. 17': There's a long pass foward to Constantino. He's at the penatly box edge, he turns by one defender, streaksinto the area, a second defender misses a tackle, a third is trying to close in but he shoots, the keeper dives and deflects it, but not far enough, it squirts into the right side of the net!!! Incredible individual effort. No idea who got the assist. 1-1 22': A through ball from O'Sullivan into the area, Constantino runs onto it, turns, its a clear cut chance... I don't think it shoudl be tbh... keeper makes the save. it was a weird angle. 28': We get a quick counter attack, a long ball foward comes out of the defense, Constantino heads the ball foward, sprints, he beats the defender to it and has a free run into the penalty area, its a total breakaway... constantino into the area, a shot driven low, past the keeper, goal!!! 2-1 40': Ferry plays a long pass foward, Harsanyi runs on to it and gets into the penalty area, but he doesn't have the same speed as our other foward just quite. The defense recovers and tackles it behind. Corner goes nowhere. 44': Defensive lapse, big time. They get a man into the penalty area, I guess we thought he was offsides and let up, I honestly don't know. There's a pass in the box deflected off one of our defenders, the ball sits free 10 yards out, it seems like we have two guys that should get to it, neither does, and they have a foward rush onto it and drive it home. That was a weird play. We complain of an offisdes afterwards, butthat's jut bad. 2-2 HALF: They shoot 8 times, just 2 on target, both are goals. We shoot 7 times, just 3 on target, two for goals. We're deemed to be playing much, much better, avg rating for our team 7.01, 6.55 for them. I guess a League 1 side at home has higher expectations by a large margin. 49': We give up 4 corner kicks.. the last one is cleared out, but they push it right back into the area. Christian Smith tackles the man with the ball.. and is called for a foul, its a penalty. They aren't going to miss. 2-3 61': I want to win this, those rested guys will still be semi rested! Ogogo in for N'Diyae, Upson for Ferry, Colin in for Harsanyi. 67': Every highlight is a quick Dag & Red shot. They're up to 14 total, we have 7, same number we had at the half. We're falling apart a little here. 70': A breakaway for Dag & Red, they get a defender behidn our lines and have a free run at Lynch... the shooter pulls up a bit short and fires a shot wide though. Poise isues there, that should have been a very easy goal. 76': We get a shot as Colin makes a nice run and cross, Ogogo puts a header wide though. 82': Throwin to Constantino, he crosses, Colin is there, its a clear cut strike, he has an open net to head the ball into basically... and he whiffs it, into the post. 92': 4 minutes of extra time. O'Sullivan found a little space for a shot, saved but a corner... they clear the corner out. Mike Williams fights to send the ball back in but commits a foul. They'll stall and secure the win here. Dag & Red 3 : 2 Woking A disappointing loss after brilliance and speed gets us a lead going into the half. But we gave a great effort against a higher league team on the road. Constantino is again amazing, 2 goals, 9.0 rating. He's man of the match even in the loss. Assists came from Alcock(6.9) and Subotic(7.4). |
September 5th, 2015
Woking(4-1-0, 1st) @ Walsall(1-3-1, 12th) This one is considered to be about even, Walsall 6:4, we're 13:8. We're 2-0-2 lifetime against these guys, but our losses were in a friendly and the FA cup 3 years ago. We beat them both times we faced them in league play last year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino N'Guessan is back today, he won't make it 90 minutes but I'm ready to get him back on the field. Standard mindset for us today. 5': The first few highlights are their offense throwing away corners and free kicks. We get a counter attack that has Constantino earn us a corner, but we can't do anything with it. They counter off our corner and get into the penalty area, Vince Taylor makes a key tackle in the box. 8': Colin with a yellow. 12': Our first shot is a poor header after a long free kick. 23': Nikolaou with a nice pass to Harsanyi... to Constantino, he turns by his man and looks to rush the keeper, he's brought down... just a tackle, we lose possession. 25': Free kick from 20 yards out, Smith takes it and just barely misses. 27': Middleton keeps the ball after two attempts to tackle it away, he feeds it foward to Constantino, he jukes his man, looks like a fake left/go right type of move, he's into the area, its a clear cut chance... but the keeper makes the save. 39': Free kick for Walsall, we block it for a corner, a shot on the corner is tipped over for a second corner. We clear that one out. 48': They earn a corner as we deflect a cross attempt behind. Ohh horrible luck. Its a cross curling towards the 6 yard area, they have two attackers there, one heads it, Lynch is in position for it, and it deflects off the second man and into the net. Just horrid luck. 0-1 HALF: There have been a ton of shots, 9 for us(2 on target), 8 for them (3 on target). It seems like tons of stuff is getting blocked, most of the shots are not from logn range tho, just 3 total. 49': Lynch with a great stop as we let a through ball get them way too close. We counter and earn a free kick 20 yards out after a foul but can't do anything with it. 50': Lets try to attack and see if we can keep a little less pressure on our defense that way. 56': Midfielder Sean Geddis gets a yellow for Walsall. That's the 4th foul I've seen of his, should have happened a long time ago. 63': we earn a corner, taken short to Smith, he fires a shot that's just saved, Taylor goes for the rebound but commits a foul trying to get it. He's given a yellow for his troubles. 63': O'Sullivan in for Middleton, N'diaye in for N'Guessan. 71': They hav ea man run down the edge of the penalty box.. likely looking for a through ball, he spots an opening and fires a shot... Lynch doesn't react at all, and the shot sails in. We're in big trouble now. 0-2 We don't get close at all the rest of the way. Walsall 2 : 0 Woking Can't win em all. In the end we shot 14 times but just couldn't find the net. They also shot 14 times. We had our chances here, but its our first loss in league play. They have a defender put up an 8.5 ratign for man of the match. On our side Lynch gives us a 7.5 since he faced so many shots, Taylor 7.2, Constantino 7.6. N'Guessan struggled with a 6.4, it was his first game back and he was tired early. |
September 12th, 2015
Kidderminster(1-1-4, 22nd) @ Woking(4-1-1, 3rd) We're 4:6 favorites today, pretty big actually, 7:2 dogs for Kidderminster. We've got a huge history with these guys, 4-2-3 lifetime against them. We tied twice last season. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Same Starting lineup today with a week's rest. We'll be attacking against a team we shoudl beat at home. 6': They're on the attack but Smith makes a solid tackle and clearance. He clears the ball down the left side, they get to it first but Harsanyi is there and tackles the ball away, he picks it up and is on the move!! He's made a long run unopposed into the penalty area, stops, fires a shot near post, by the keeper!!!! Spectacular individual play from Zoltan Harsanyi 1-0 12': Our ball, controlled in the midfield, Middleton lifts a pass foward, Harsanyi has beaten the offside trap, shows a great first touch to control it, and sends it into the upper right corner of the net!! 2-0 22': Nice control of the bal after a corner, Constantino with a little cross, Colin a header in traffic... saved easily though. 24': Middleton with a ball foward to Harsanyi, Harsanyi jukes a defender, a second collapses on him, he drops a ball foward for Constantino, he's there and he buries it! 3-0 33': We loft a long ball foward, they have a defender try to clear it but its an awful clear, the ball hits Harsanyi who was tracking foward to put pressure on them... Harsanyi picks it up 25 yards out, has an easy run into the penalty area, makes hte keeper commit and passes the ball into the net for a hat trick! 4-0 38': Vince Taylor clears it out of our end with a long ball down the right side. Constantino is there, he gets deep, puts a cross into the area, Colin heads it, but right at the keeper. HALF: 4-0. 4-0!!! We've shot 10 times, putting 8 on target. Kidderminster has not managed to shoot yet. Complete domination. Paterson in for Constantino, Ferry in for Middleton at the half. This is Paterson's first action of the season. Trying to keep him from getting pissed off. 47': We get the ball out of our defensive end, Paterson picks it up near midfield, rushes down the right side, we've got 2 men in the penalty area who look open, Paterson with a cross, he hits Harsanyi perfectly, Harsanyi heads it by the keeper and in, his FOURTH goal!! 5-0 74': Alcock in for Ogogo, our last big "he gets pissed off if he doesn't play" worry. 76': Of course. Harsanyi is brought down by a hard tackle and he's hurt. We've used all 3 subs so we're forced to play with 10 the rest of the way. It would really suck to see a long term injury after this perforamnce. No more action on the day. Woking 5 : 0 Kidderminster Kidderminster did not take a single shot today. Perfection. Harsanyi scores 4 goals and has the assist on the other, he earns a 9.9 rating and man of the match. Probably the most perfect game I've seen. Constantino the other goal and a 7.5 rating. Assists from Smith (8.2), Middleton(7.2) and Paterson (6.9). Other ratings: Ogogo (8.1), Nikolaou (8.4), Taylor(8.2), O'Sullivan (7.3), Colin (7.8), N'Guessan(7.7). Fun game team! --Harsanyi has a concussion but I guess this is before we took concussions seriously. He'll be back in a week! |
-- Harsanyi's four goals last match is a new Woking record, Giuseppe Sole had the previous record with 3.
-- Nikolaou, Vince Taylor, Christian Smith, Harsanyi, and Ogogo are all named to the League 2 team of the week. September 19th, 2015 Woking(5-1-1, 1st) @ Accrington(2-1-4, 20th) we're big favorites on the road today, we're even money to win on the road, they're just 11:5 to win at home. We're 4-1-3 against Accrington lifetime. Last year the home team won both games. Throughout this series the home team is 6-1-2. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Subotic/Constantino Another game on a week's rest. Subotic starts for the injured Harsanyi. Lets attack on the road. 3': We control the ball in the offensive end from the start, Constantino receives a pass and beats his man for a shot but its saved. 7': Another attack, we take it across the penalty area, kick it wide to Ogogo, there's a cross into a very, very crowded penalty area, Subotic with the header, the keeper can't get to it! Its in!! 1-0 15': Constantino makes a nice run down the right side and gets a cross into the area, We get a header from O'Sullivan but its over. 25': Subotic picks up an injury. He can stay in for now, but he's hobbled a bit, i might have to bring him out at the half. 29': There's a pass into the area to Constantino, a nice ball foward from N'Guessan. Constantino tries to go by his man and he's tackled. Its a penalty!!! Subotic takes the penalty and buries it. 2-0 31': there's a long through ball after the kickoff that gets one of their fowards open very near the penalty area. He's so open i can't believe he was onsides. Lynch rushes out and cuts down the angle a bit and the shot is blocked! Good defense by Lynch, poor finishing for them. 39': Another through ball for Accrington, a second shot is blocked by Lynch. Christian Smith seems to be getting burned a lot here, I'm getting worried. 42': We've got a throwin near midfield, its thrown to middleton, he passes it ahead to Constantino. Constantino burns his man and has open space into the penalty area. He sprints foward into the area, the defense is just not fast enough to recover, Constantino has a point blank shot and easily puts it by the helpless keeper. 3-0 HALF: We got lucky to not give up a goal or two in a couple spots, but we take a 3-0 lead into the locker room. Each team shoots 6 times, we've got 4 on target, they have 3 on target. Each team has one clear cut chance, we of course have the penalty. Subotic is hurt and I'm just going to pull him to be safe, Paterson is in. I also bring in Aswad Thomas at DL for Nikolaou. 56': Christian Smith is just getting burned today... they clear a ball out of the defense and Smith is up too far, he loses a header against the foward he's going up against, and their attacker has a free run on goal. Lynch has stopped everything so far, but this is just too much... they get one back. 3-1 After the goal we drop back to a standard mindset. 60': I tell our back line to drop deeper. Lets try to stop these paochers. 72': Alcock in for Ogogo. 75': N'Guessan makes a nice move and gets a cross in to Colin, Colin heads it just wide. 80': And it happens again. Christian Smith misses a tackle and it allows a great through ball leading to another easy effort for Accrington. We've given up a second goal and this is getting a bit scary. 3-2 80': We drop from standard to a defensive mindset. 86': We allow a corner kick. They curl it into the 6 ayrd area near post. They get to it and head it across towards the far post where another man connects on it and heads it into the net. EPIC COLLAPSE. 3-3 91': We give up another corner. This is terrifying. Colin clears the corner. They push it back into the area and there's a quick shot... Lynch has to dive to save it, that was very close. 93': We earn a corner, they clear it out initially but O'Sullivan brings it back in, he gets it to Paterson, Paterson shoots but its deflected wide right. N'Guessan runs onto it and crosses it into the 6 yard box. Paterson heads it, deflects off the keeper, its in!!!!! ... but a foul is called on Paterson going up to head it in. WHAT!?!?!!? Accrington 3 : 3 Woking Goals: Subotic 2 (8.5 rating), Constantino (7.6) Assists: Constantino, Middleton(6.8), Ogogo(7.6) Notables: Lynch(7.0), Nikolaou(7.0), Taylor(7.0). Paterson 5.5, Thomas 5.6, Christian Smith 5.4. I blame Christian Smith for giving away this lead. This was a horrible performance. -- Subotic is out for 12-14 days with a hurt elbow he picked up in the first half today. Frustrating draw. |
September 22th, 2015
Woking(5-2-1, 3rd) @ Grimsby(1-4-3, 22nd) We're very slim favorites on the road today, 6:4 over Grimsby's 13:8. We've never beaten Grimsby, 0-1-3 lifetime against them, including the final game of the season last year where a win would have gotten uns into the playoffs. Before the match grimsby's manager states that he knows how big a threat Harsanyi is and that he must be stopped at all costs. I wonder if he konws we have another forward who is twice the threat right next to him. I hope not! GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: ferry/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: D Taylor/Constantino Some changes today due to fatigue, HArsanyi isn't fully ready to go after his injury so I am startnig Dan Taylor. Ferry/Middleton in the midfield and N'Diaye in for N'Guessan at AMR. We come out on the attach. 3': We give up a corner early, they take it short and a shot is saved by Lynch, we clear it out. Pretty dangerous looking. 8': We control the ball in their end for a good long while, Taylor holding it in the corner, passig it into the penalty area leading to 3 more passes before N'Diaye fires a shot that's blocked wide for a corner. We earn a second corner that's cleared out. We try to push the ball back in for another attack but they finally clear it away for good. 17': We clear it out after an attack, their last line of DC's picks it up, but constantino tackles the ball away. He's off to the races all on his own! He gets close to the penalty area, their DC on the other side closes in and Constantno goes wide. We still have a nice advantage, Constantino plays the ball back to Ogogo, he puts a cross perfectly to the far end of the 6 yard box, Colin is there and gets his head on it, its in the goal!!! 1-0 35': We bring the ball foward and are looking to get it into the area, Middleton makes a great pass to the left to Colin, Colin gets behind the defense, but instead of trying to shoot from a semi-difficult angle, he tries to possess the ball and it gives the defense time to get there and tackle it behind. Corner comes to nothing. I don't like that indecisiveness. 43': We cut into an attack in progress for this highlight, Colin has a shot blocked but we retain possession, nikolaou has it out left, he puts a cross into the 6 yard area, Constantino is there and heads it in!! There were two defenders trying to get to that one and Constantino just got to the ball first. 2-0 HALF: This is a lot different than our last match. Our defense is playing great. This isn't a situation where they are getting lots of chances but we've been putting them away so far. We are dominating this thing and Grimsby seems to have no chance. We have 7 shots, 3 on target, two clear cut strikes, both for goals. They ahve 5 shots but juts 1 on target, 2 from long range. 48': We get the first two shots of the half, both on nice crosses from Colin and nikolaou, but both are headed over. 53': they have their first successful through ball to scare me a bit, but the defense closes well and Vince Taylor puts it behind for a corner that we clear out. 56': Grimsby Defender O'Loughlin is given a yellow for a tackle near midfield. 65': oh my god constantino is so fast. we clear a ball out of the defensive end and look to counter attack. Dan Taylor has it and plays a ball foward from 40 yards out into the penalty area. constantino was breaking back as to not be offsides... he was going the wrong way... yet he turns, begins to sprint, and simply outruns the defender to the ball and scores easily. 3-0 73': They get a counter attack, getting the ball quickly down the right side, there's a centering pass, Ogogo is deemed to have missed an interception on the pass, and they complete it and connect for an easy goal. 3-1 73': Mike Williams in for Constantino, I change ot a 5-4-1 formation and change to a counter attacking strategy. I had made that sub order before the goal was scored... 80': Thomas in for Nikolaou at DL They get a couple attacks in the final minutes but nothing seriously threatening. Grimsby 1 : 3 Woking MoM: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Constantino 2, Colin (8.0) Assists: Ogogo (6.7), Nikolaou (7.7), D. Taylor (7.8) Notables: V. Taylor (7.1), Middleton(7.3) This is the 3rd game in a row we've taken a 3-0 lead. |
September 26th, 2015
Chesterfield(2-5-2, 12th) @ Woking(6-2-1, 1st) We get to be big favorites again today, 4:5 to win, they are just 3:1. We're 1-2-1 lifteime against them, last year we won at home and tied on the road. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Harsanyi/N'Guessan FC: Paterson/Constantino Lots of changes today. Alcock at DR, Upson/O'Sullivan mid, Harsanyi at AML and Paterson gets his first start at foward. This is in part b/c we are on short rest now and in part planning ahead for the fact that we play again on the 29th so we need to rotate some guys in. Clearly, we attack at home. 1': They push immediately, going down the right side and taking a shot that almost goes in 22 seconds into the match. 3': Our first shot from Constantino after short buildup, the keeper gets a figer to it, then it hits the post and goes out for a corner. Corner comes to nothing. 6': O'Sullivan with the ball 30 yards out, they miss a tackle on him, he makes a run into the area and has what seems like a very good shot opportunity, he doens't take it though, dribbles too much and the ball is tackled away. 11': We clear the ball out of the defense, Constantino runs onto it ahead of the defense, gets very deep, tries a pass to Upson in front of the net but they get the interception. 23': O'sullivan is hurt, he can stay in but he's got that injury symbol, worried for him... 27': Nice tackle deep by Nikolaou, he gets it foward to start the coutner, Constantino sends it wide to N'Guessan, he is closely guarded but places an inch perfect cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, Harsanyi is there and hits the header cleanly, goal!! 1-0 36': Constantino hits Harsanyi with a great through ball for a goal, but it was clearly, very clearly offsides. 39': Constantino is just too fast, part... I dunno like 7 now? O'Sullivan with a long ball from behind midfield, its placed perfectly and Constantino simply outruns the defense to get to the ball at the edge of the penalty area. A couple steps in, he puts it by the keeper for a 2 goal lead. 2-0 41': And again!!! Paterson with a header foward from like 40 yards out... again the defense tries to track back to it, but Constantino turns on the gas and just simply outruns the defense to the ball. He gets to it and puts it into the net. 3-0 HALF: 3-0!!! We take 6 shots, they take 2... but we have 3 clear cut chances and scored on all 3. I make a bunch of changes at the half. Williams is coming in for Constantino, Ferry in for the injured O'Sullivan (both are to give them a shot of playing our next game). I drop to a 5-4-1 formation and a counterattacking mindset. 53': Harsanyi goes down in the box on a tackle, he's limping a bit... not hurt though. 57': Paterson tries to clear a ball after we concede a corner, he goes down hard, and he IS hurt. Down to 40% fitness and seems like he might be pretty badly hurt. 63': Colin in for Paterson. 66': Lynch takes a goal kick... he sends it very very deep, the ball lands 22 yards out... right on the right foot of Colin who was somehow allowed to get behind the last defender. He controls the ball beautifully and shoots near post and beats the keeper! 4-0 85': They're up to 13 shots but 9 are from long range... the last two highlights were Chesterfield taking shots from 30 yards out and not coming even remotely close. Woking 4 : 0 Chesterfield MoM: Constantino (8.7) Goals: Constantino 2, Harsanyi (8.3), Colin (7.1) Assists: Lynch (8.6), O'Sullivan(7.3), N'Guessan(8.2), Paterson(6.9) Notables: Alcock(7.6), Nikolaou(7.8), Taylor(7.3), Smith(7.4), Upson(7.9) Many of our recent wins have been against some of the worst teams int he league, but hey, last year we weren't getting all these 3 and 4 goal games. Injury Update O'Sullivan is out with a pulled hamstring for 3-4 weeks. Paterson is out with an elbow injury for 12-14 days. Constantino now has 13 league goals in 10 matches. No one else has more than 7. Harsanyi is actually 4th in the league with 6 goals thanks to his recent 4 goal game. Constantino and Harsanyi are also #1 and #2 in League 2 in average rating so far(7.97 and 7.77). |
-- Lynch, Nikolaou, Harsanyi and Constantino are all named to the League 2 team of the week this week!
September 29th, 2015 Woking(7-2-1, 1st) @ Droylsden(19th) Droylsden won the BS Premier League last year, but they barely qualified for the playoffs at that level and seem like they're going to struggle to stay up. We're 4:6 favorites on the road, they're 7:2 dogs to get a win today and 9:4 to pull off a draw. This is our first ever meeting. After today we've got at least a little break as we don't play again til Oct 3rd, over half a week off! GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: D Taylor/Constantino O'Sullivan and Paterson are both out today. The guys we rested last match (Colin/Middleton/Ogogo) are back in, and I'll give Harsanyi a day off and Dan Taylor gets another start today. We'll attack. 17': First two shots of the match to Droylsden, the most recent a pretty decent look after an attacker dodged a Vince Taylor tackle, Lynch makes the save though. 30': A long clearance of the defense by Colin... constantino runs onto it a little past midfield and turns on the speed, he gets into the penalty area, a defender is there, tries a slide tackle, Constantino keeps possession, cuts inside for a little better angle, and blasts a shot to the far post by the keeper!! 1-0 41': We fail a couple attempts to clear the ball out of our end and allow a corner kick, but they can't do anything with it... HALF: Kinda boring half, neither team is really playing well, we just had the one long ball/individual effort by Constantino. We have 4 shots, they have 5. Its a very sloppy game, both teams are completing only 55% of their passes, making it very difficult to get anything built up. 50': A nice counter attack from Droylsden worries us a good bit, they are able to work the ball into the penalty area after a few passes foward, there's a quick shot from the left side of the area, its a tough angle but the shot hits the crossbar and bounces away... we clear it. That was a bit of a scare for us. 53': Yellow for defender Banali for a tackle on Constantino. 54': Another quick attack by Droylsden, they get a man running down the middle into the penalty area... Lynch comes out after a short pass, the ball is poked away and recovered by a Droylsden attacker and now Lynch is miles away from the net. They put it into the empty net and tie the game. I'm really not sure what Lynch was doing there. Poor decision. 1-1 60': Dan TAylor gets a bit of a braek and rushes down the left side with the ball, he tries to center it but they send it out for a throwin, we can't do anything with it. It seemed there was a really strong opening there, Taylor couldn't put his pass where it needed to go. 64': We earn a corner, its taken to the far edge of the 6 yard box, Vince Taylor gets his head to it, just barely over. 68': Harsanyi in for Dan Taylor, Ferry in for Middleton. Both are not playing that well and i'm worried they're just not trying vs a weaker opponent. 82': All the highlights are for Droysden now, they earn a couple corners, but they end up with a bad shot. We just aren't showing up today. 85': We get a quick counter attack... Ferry down the right side, passes ahead to N'Guessan, he's got a great look from 15 yards out... but its saved by the keeper. 89': Ferry with a 20 yard shot after a throwin, well over. 90': Harsanyi with good control in the middle.. sends it wide for n'Guessan, back in to Constantino, he makes one defender miss, gets close, fires a shot from 10 yards... saved. That was our second clear cut chance of the game. 91': They counter attack and Nikolaou brings his man down hard about 25 yards out, he gets a yellow. They shoot on the free kick... off the wall and out for a corner. We clear the corner. 92': Constantino plays a ball forward from the midfield on our own counterttack, they try to clear but we get it back into the area... very nice tackle by the defense before we get a shot. Droyslden 1 : 1 Woking I tell the team I'm disappointed in them. It seems like we only gave a full effort for the final 15 minutes of the game and were sleepwalking the rest of the way. Extremely poor. Man of the Match: Constantino (8.4) Goals: Constantino Assist: Colin (8.2) Notables: Nikolaou (7.1), V. Taylor (7.2), Upson (7.0) Poor Performances: Lynch (5.8) |
October Update
-- October looks like a pretty light month for us since we're out of the league cup and johnstone's paint trophy already. We'll enter the FA Cup at the end of the month, probably won't play in it until November. -- Constantino wins the league 2 player of the month award! Harsanyi is 2nd. -- Mickael Colin wins the League 2 young player of the month award! -- The board is delighted at my leadership, dominating league 2 remains a highlight, losing Giuseppe Sole is the downside... yeah ok i'm fine with that. -- We lost $123k last month, that's quite a bit. October 3rd, 2015 Luton(6-4-1, 4th) @ Woking(7-3-1, 1st) We're currently 2 points ahead of Luton. Most of our recent matches have been against bottom feeders, so this could be a good test of where we are. We're super slim 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8. We're 0-2-1 lifetime against them, tying twice last season, the loss coming 5 years ago in the FA Trophy. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Ogogo MC: Ferry/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We'll attack today. 6': First shot of the match is a shot from about 20 yards out from Harsanyi that sails a bit wide. 15': They get it ahead to striker Ball, he draws Taylor a bit away from center, a pass back, then a great rhrough ball and Luton has midfielder White in the 6 yard box all of a sudden, he is at a real tough angle but he puts it near post past Lynch and we trail. 0-1 21': After a throwin the ball comes foward to middleton, instead of putting in a through ball he blasts a shot from about 20-25 yards out. The keeper is there but can't hold on, the ball squirts away from him. contantino is paying attention, sprints to the ball and puts it in the net to tie it up! 1-1 31': Free kick for Luton from 30 yards out, they fire a shot around the wall and Lynch has to make a diving save... "brilliant save by Lynch" says the commentary. Whew. 33': Some buildup in the middle between Ferry and middleton and Constantino... Middleton plays a ball into the right side of the area, N'Guessan is running hard to get to it, he strikes it, keeper has to dive but is able to push it away. 40': Luton are playing a 4-2-1-2-1 formation with two defensive midfidlers and a MC... the middle is extremely clogged up. I instruct our guys to "exploit the flanks" and "play wider" to try to drag some defenders out. HALF: Its been fairly exciting, we have 6 shots, 3 are on target. They have 3 shots with just 2 on target. We've got the possession edge 57/43 but I've seen a lot of play in the midfield where we just are passing the ball around hoping they make a mistake. Hopefully the getting out wide order will help open things up a little. 62': Boring so far, we've seen one highlight, a free kick cleared right out. 63': Harsanyi with the ball in the penalty area, not quite sure how he got there... but he puts a shot from close range well wide, that was weird. 73': We earn a corner... Smith takes it, sends it long, we get a head to it but its over the bar. 75': Upson in for Middleton, Dan Taylor in for Colin, Harsanyi to AML. 78': Yellow for Nikolaou 80': Constantino rushes down the right side, crosses into the area, Taylor heads it... over. 82': Yellow for defender Grovers for tackling Harsanyi just outside the area. Smith shoots the free kick off the wall. We control but they clear relatively easy. 87': Luton wins a ball in midfield, they try a backpass towards a defender but it goes straight to Constantino... the defense is not in the best position, Constantino turns and finds Upson, its not the easiest shot in the world, its from about 20 yards out, but he strikes it clean and buries it in the right side of the net!!!! 2-1 89': A quick counter, N'guessan burns his man down the right side, places a perfect pass to a sprinting Constantino who takes a couple more steps in the area and fires a shot past the keeper! 3-1 90': Ogogo goes down shortly after kickoff and is hurt. I sub in Alcock and hope its not serious. Woking 3 : 1 Luton Man of the Match: Constantino (9.2) Goals: Constantino 2, Upson 1 (7.3) Assists: Constantino, N'Guessan (7.8), Ferry(7.5) Notables: Lynch (7.5), Ogogo (7.5), Nikolaou (7.2), V. Taylor (7.3), Smith (7.0), Middleton (7.1) We started to have a lot of success putting pressure on their defense in the finl 15 minutes or so and were able to finally convert it into two quick goals at the end to secure the win. |
-- Hartlepool fires their manager, I immediately deny interest.
Injury Update Star DR Abu Ogogo has a torn hamstring and is going to be out for 3 months. Crap! -- Hartlepool officially offer me their head coaching job. They're 20th in League 2 with $10k/wk less allowed for their wage budget. I have less than zero interest in that! Reject. New Loanee Every so often QPR offers someone to me for loan, if they look decent I accept but they often offer me players I'm not allowed to have since I've already maxxed my long term loans, etc. I thought that was the case this time, but it appears that the loan has gone through.... Welcome AML Shane Kelly to the club for the rest of the season. Kelly is 20 years old and plays for my parent club QPR. 13 pace/14 accel is nice going down that sideline, work rate, teamwork, creativity all good. His technical attributes are stellar. 14 crossing, 15 dribbling, 12 finishing, 13 first touch, 10 passing... he looks like a really, really, really good AML at our level. Michael Colin is faster, and Colin has a 20 determination rating which I expect counts for a lot. But Kelly is a superior technician in every measurable way. I may well just play them in a full rotation and let Harsanyi live at FC next to Constantino. My offense is extremely, extremely crowded now. I've just not ever had access to this kind of talent before and can't say no. Loaner Dan Taylor is the one guy that really suffers here. Constantino/Harsanyi/Colin/Kelly will get tons of minutes, no doubt. |
-- Constantino is named to the league 2 team of the week
October 10th, 2015 Woking(8-3-1, 1st) @ Tranmere(3-5-4, 13th) I didn't talk about it much last year b/c I never really saw a news item on it... but last year Tranmere would have been a playoff team but had 10 points deducted as penalty for some sin they committed. I still don't know what tbh. Tranmere are small 6:4 favorites, we're 13:8. We're 1-1-2 against these guys. We lost to them both times last year. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Ferry/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Alcock in for the hurt Ogogo. O'Sulivan is still injured, and our new surprise loaner AML Kelly is away on international duty so he's not available today. Standard mindset on the road today. 4': They get the first attack but we clear it and Constantino is off to the races. He gets al lthe way down the right side of the pitch, places a solid pass in to Harsanyi, its a clear cut chance from Harsanyi... but right at the keeper, saved. 5': We get a couple shots to get the ball into the penalty area cleared out but we keep pushing. Middleton has it 30 yards out and puts a through ball into the right side of the area. Constantino breaks onto it, shoots from just outside the 6 yard box and blasts it past the keeper!! 1-0 11': After Smith makes a nice interception to clear out one threatening pass, Tranmere get the ball back and place a nice through ball into the area, the defense slips completely and they get a shot from about 8 yards out ... its taken... and somehow put severely wide. Major, major choke by our defense, but an even bigger choke by their striker. 26': Another through ball for Tranmere, Smith is there and makes a nice sliding tackle to poke it away. Unfortunately it falls right on the foot of their left midfielder Wood coming in, and he gets an easy shot that he buries. 1-1 31': There's a through bal into the area for Tranmere, Lynch comes out to fall on it... and doesn't secure the ball... it squirts away and a Tranmere attacker is first on the scene, passing the ball into the empty net. Huge, huge mistake by Lynch. 1-2 39': Constantino is trying to time a run behind their line for a through ball... in an effort to mark him Tranmere seems to leave a gaping hole open for Harsanyi, he dribbles to an open spot just inside the penalty box and blasts a shot, but its saved. HALF: We give up two frustrating goals. Nikolaou is sporting a 5.4 rating and Lynch a 5.8 rating at the half. Each team has only 4 shots, we just have a couple big mistakes and they've capitalized. in fact they should have 3 goals as they blew a 3rd easy, easy chance. 57': A counter attack by Tranmere sees a man make a long, long run down the right side, our defense struggles to get bak, there's a low cross into the area and they get an attacker first to the ball and its put into the net. Nikolaou's rating is now 5.0 after getting burned on that run before the cross came in. 1-3 60': Colin gets down the left sdieline and plays a cross in... Harsanyi gets his head to it, its his 3rd clear cut strike of the match... and he's missed all 3. Sigh! 70': Vince Taylor with a yellow card. Upson is on for Middleton, Mike Williams in for Nikolaou. 73': constantino and Harsanyi play a give and go, with Harsanyi receiving a pass just outside the area with tons of space to operate... but his first touch is terrible and he gives away possession. 82': Subotic in for Harsanyi, though its surely too late. 92': They get a 4th goal just to pile on, another through ball that we defend horribly and Lynch is powerless to stop it. Just an awful, awful effort from the defense today. Tranmere 4 : 1 Woking Goals: Constantino (6.5) Assists: Middleton (6.9) Awful Play: Lynch (4.9), Nikolaou (5.0), Ferry (5.9), Colin (5.8). Harsanyi put up a 6.8 rating today, he had 3 shots and they were all on target. The thing is... all 3 were considered clear cut strikes and Harsanyi just doesn't usually struggle to put away his best chances like that. Extremely, extremely frustrating. |
October 16th, 2015
Notts Co(3-6-4, 15th) @ Woking(8-3-2, 2nd) We're 5:4 favorites to win at home today, Notts are 7:4. We're 2-0-2 lifetime against these guys, the home team has won every meeting. GK: Lynch D: Williams/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: Subotic/Constantino After our lackluster performance last match we make a few changes. Williams gives Nikolaou a day off, Upson starts for Ferry, Kelly gets his first turn at AML for us, and Subotic starts for Harsanyi. We of course attack at home. 7': Well this is no good. A throwin for Notts, there's just one pass, a ball foward to the right midfielder who streaks by Williams and beats Lynch easily... 0-1 25': We go nearly 20 minutes without a highlight before seeing a long ball for Notts the ends up being offsides. 35': Midfielder Jackson with a yellow for Notts. 38': Our first offensive highlight of teh match, kelly takes a throwin and moves down the left sideline, he's covered closely but puts a pretty cross to the far post, N'Guessan is there, he heads it... off the crossbar, so close! HALF: We had an 18 minute stretch and then a 10 minute stretch without a single highlight for either side. Notts shoots 3 times, we shoot once... boring boring game, but we need to get moving and make something happen pretty damn fast. 46': They have possession, Upson makes a great tackle and steal on our end of the mdifield, gets it foward to Subotic, he beats his man and has a shot from 15 yards out... but its saved and put behind. 50': Upson is in the penalty area... no idea how he got tthere. He's tackled, he goes down hard... and gets a yellow for a dive. Come on guys! 56': Kelly makes a tackle on the defensive end to win a ball and begins a long, long run up the left side. He gets all the way to the other end alone, centers the ball to Subotic, Subotic plays a little cross through the penalty area... and they head it out. 57': Long ball out of the defense, Constantino gets to it, he's past the defense, he gets into the area and its our 3rd clear cut strike of the match... but the keeper goes down and pushes his shot wide... Corner comes to nothing. 61': Upson with another steal near midfield, a great individual play. He gets a through ball into the area, its picked up by Constantino, our FOURTH clear cut chance, and Costantino's shot to the near side of the keeper is saved... ugh!!! 68': Paterson in for Subotic, Colin in for a tired Kelly 70': Long run up the right side for N'Guessan, he plays a nice ball foward into the right side of the penalty box that Constantino picks up, he passes across the face of the goal to PAterson... who shoots right at the keeper. Clear cut chance number FIVE. Its turned over for a corner. 70': Paterson takes the corner, swings it in towards the 6 yard box, Christian Smith rushes on to it, drives his head into the ball and it bounces under the diving keeper and in!!! Finally, we get our goal. 1-1 72': A run down the left side for notts, our defense seems to be struggling to position well, there's a pass into the area, and a sliding tackle by Vince Taylor to push the ball away. Notts wanted a penalty, nope. 73': Throwin for Notts.. there's a pass up to the top of the penalty box, a shot taken from 20 yards out, and it simply beats Lynch. SIGH AGAIN. 1-2 76': The defense crowds the penalty area but we get a nice through ball to N'Guessan on the right side... he shoots but a defender blocks it. 79': Paterson goes down in open space after making a pass. This dude is flat out injury prone. 85': Counter attack for us, Upson plays a ball foward, Colin wins it in the air and nods it on to Constantino who gets our SIXTH clear cut chance of the match... and he cna't find a way to beat the damn keeper. 86': Williams has the ball 40 yards out on the left side, he plays a long low pass foward to Colin, Colin is a step inside the penalty box, he shoots a low shot to the far post... GOAL!!! 2-2 86': N'Diaye in for N'Guessan. That'll do it. Woking 2 : Notts Co 2 Just awful, awful finishing today. We took 11 shots, putting 7 on target, and we generated SIX clear cut chances. The funny thing? Neither goal came on the clear cut chances. Both goals were fairly tough looks. We should have destroyed Notts Co today. Man of the Match: Upson (8.7) Goals: Smith (7.4), Colin (7.3) Assists: Upson, Williams (6.9) No one else but the goal scorers and Ed Upson put up above a 7.0 rating today. We'll get some draws, sure, but we really should ahve won this easily, disappointing finish. -- Our fans are pleased with the draw, perhaps their expectations haven't risen as much as mine have for this season. |
-- Ed Upson and Christian Smith are named in the League 2 Team of the Week.
-- Joe O'Sullivan is back to full training. October 24th, 2015 Woking(8-4-2, 2nd) @ Rushden(6-5-3, 8th) Rushden were promoted to league 1 a couple years back and relegated back into league 2 last year. We spent 3 years with them in the BS Premier league then one in League 2. We haven't played them since 2013, but we're 1-3-4 lifetime against them. Rushden are pick'em favorites against us today, we're 11:5. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Rushden is led by Sam Smith with 10 goals. Its a name I remember from back in 2013. He scored 34 goals in 11/12 and has scored 20+ goals every season since. We are back closer to our full starting lineup here, O'Sullivan is playing today, Nikolau is back in the lineup, etc. Standard mindset today. 6': N'Guessan crosses i nfrom the right side, Colin is there for the header... its low, keeper is able to go down and get it. 8': We work it back into the box, Middleton is making a run but they make a nice tackle. 9': they counterattack quickly, smith gets behind the defense, Lynch plays it perfectly and deflects the shot away and we clear. 10': throwin for our offense, Colin plays a very nice cross in, N'Guessen meets it but his header is over. Its a clear cut chance for us, he was not marked. 19': They play a long ball to Sam Smith and he gets behind Taylor way too easily... he's rushing into the area, Lynch hesitates on whether to come out or not and Smith scores on him. 0-1 20': N'Guessan has it right after the kickoff, he passes to Constantino, he's 35 yards out, he makes a move and beats his man, sprints into the area and fires a shot to the far post and its in!!!! 1-1 26': midfielder Robinson for Rushden with a yellow. 28': We build up quickly, Constantino puts a ball into the area for Harsanyi, they tackle it away, corner for us... but they clear the corner. 35': Sam Smith fights for a ball in midfield and gets a yellow. 41': Midfielder Kay with a yellow for Rushden. 47': Middleton gets a yellow... our first. HALF: Wild half, constant attacking, but we only take 4 shots, they take 3. Both teams have 2 on target and one clear cut chance. We control possession 56/44, and we're dominating on crosses and in the air. 46': We take the opening kickoff, Harsanyi runs foward, passes to Constantino, a good 40 yards out, he gets by a defender and runs into the area, two defenders converge, one goes for a tackle and the ball comes loose a bit. Constantino keeps his composure and is the first one to the ball, he lines up a shot and puts it near post under the keeper! Ridiculous individual effort here. 2-1 50': O'Sullivan picks up a yellow in midfield, then Christian Smith picks up a yellow inches outside the penalty box. Free kick is blocked behidn for a corner, that we clear out. 55': Beautiful!!!!! We have a throwin on the right side. Middleton receives it plays a brilliant low ball into the area. Harsanyi controls it perfectly, turns, fires between two defenders and puts it by the keeper! 3-1 60': Ferry in for O'Sullivan, Williams in for Smith. Both are kinda prone to fouls and this ref is handing out cards like candy, I don't want either to get their second yellow. 65': Foward Hughes-Mason for Rushden gets a yellow fighting for a loose ball. 65': Midfielder Robinson gets a yellow fighting for a bll i nthe midfield... yes, same minute. That's his second yellow and we're a man up. 77': There's a long ball up to Sam Smith, he turns and beats Williams, he's got a great look, Lynch makes an incredible diving save. 83': Alcock with a yellow, a stupid foul 25+ yards out. 84': defender Blackford with a yellow... lalala. 86': Beautiful play, they're trying to get one back and we counter hard, Harsanyi with a short run, he plays it down the left sideline to Colin. Colin with a great centering pass to Middleton who is charging up at full speed. He meets the ball perfectly and blasts it past the keeper from the edge of the penalty area. 4-1 Rushden 1 : 4 Woking This is a spectacular road win over a team that should be a playoff contender. Man of the Match: Constantino (9.1) Goals: Constantino 2, Middleton (8.8), Harsanyi(8.4) Assists: Middleton, N'Guessan(7.7), Colin(7.4), Harsanyi Notables: Lynch(7.4), Alcock(7.2), Nikolaou(7.4), V. Taylor(7.1) There were 10 yellow cards handed out this match. -- Constantino now has 19 legue goals in 15 matches. 7 man of the match awards! Port Vale's James Lawrie scored 38 last year, that's the all time league record. |
-- Our game against Hereford coming up is going to be "fan day", kids get in half price!
-- Kevin Lynch, Zak Middleton and Constantino are all selected to the League 2 team of the week. -- The draw for teh first round of the FA Cup was today. We're going on the road, but for once we're getting a lower level opponent. We'll play morecambe from the BS Premier league. injury update Christian Smith is hurt in training and will miss the next 2 weeks. October 31st, 2015 Hereford(5-4-6, 13th) @ Woking(9-4-2, 2nd) We're 1-2-1 against these guys. The home team won 2:0 both times last year. We're even money favorites today, Hereford is 11:5. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Upson AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Williams is in for the injured Smith. Upson gives Middleton a day off, and Kelly is in at AML. We clearly attack today. 5': We build up immediately, O'Sullivan makes a run into the area, he's tackled and goes down, but no foul is called. We get a corner but can't convert. 10': O'Sullivan with another run into the area, he shoots this time but its saved. 14': Another decent look, N'guessan with a great steal deep in our offensive end, he plays a cross in, Kelly controls it and shoots but its saved. 26': We allow two corners but they still haven't managed a shot, we clear well. 33': Nikolaou is well forward after some buildup, he play a cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, N'Guessan heads it just over. 38': again.. after a free kick Nikolaou is out wide, crosses in, N'Guessan heads it over. 43': O'Sullivan plays a great ball into the left side of the area, Kelly is there, he has our first clear cut chance but puts it right at the keeper. 44': We get a throwin, its taken to Upson, he crosses, Constantino gets his head on it, it hits the right post and bounces in! 1-0 HALF: We shoot 9 times, Hereford shoots once, I only see one of them in a highlight at the very end of the half. We're dominating in the air and hitting our crosses well, though that's just lead to a ton of headers over for the most part... well that and our goal. 50': N'Guessan with a nice run, he gets it to O'Sullivan in the area, the ball is tackled away, we want a penalty again but its just a corner, we can't do anything with it. 56': Hereford's righ defender is hurt. We get the ball to Kelly and he just sprints down the left side, their defender can do nothing... he plays a good cross but Constantino heads it wildly wide and high. 63': N'Guessan is hurt and hobbled a bit. He'll be ok I think. 64': Constantino picks up a yellow. 67': They have a free kick from deep in their end... the keeper takes it, one of their fowards heads it from about 20 yards out, its a high lofting header and Lynch wasn't quite ready for that, it goes over his head and into the empty net. DOH! 1-1 72': Kelly with another solid cross, Harsanyi gets his head to it and puts it just over. 74': Paterson in for Harsanyi, Middleton in for O'Sullivan 86': We work the ball foward after a free kick, its played into the area to N'Guessan, he tries a little cross to center it, its deflected but stays in the area, Constantino is the first to it and the keeper is out of position after the deflection, Constantino puts it in easily! 88': they have a cross and header that Lynch is forced to save. He does so pretty easily. We drop back to defend the last couple minutes away. 90': they have a throwin deep in our area. We clear one crossing attempt and a second attack tackle it behind for a corner. We get it out of there after that. We counter attack, N'Guessan plays a long ball foward, Constantino runs onto it and sprints into the penalty area ahead of the defense, he shoots, its saved but not held by the keeper, and Ed Upson is there for the followup, putting the ball into the open net as the keeper tries to recover!! 3-1 Woking 3 : 1 Hereford A fluke goal made it a bit of a scare but we come up big in the final 20 minutes to put the game away. We really put the pressure on them today, 16 shots, 8 on target compared to just 8 shots for Hereford. Man of the Match: Ed Upson(9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 (8.8), Upson Assists: Upson, Constantino, N'Guessan (8.6) Notables: Alcock (7.0), V. Taylor(7.6) -- We draw 5451 fans for Fan Day, not a new record I don't think but a very nice number. -- 16 games in, about 1/3 of the way through the season, and we're in first place by a point. We have 40 goals, the next highest scoring team has 26. We have a +21 goal differential. Over half the league, 14 teams, haven't even scored 21 times yet. There's a long long way to go and an injury to Constantino would be devastating, but we're thrilled with where we are right now. |
November Update
-- We only play 3 league matches in November. The FA Cup gets into full swing and the League Cup and Johnstone's Paint Trophy progress, but we're not in those anymore. We open the month with our first FA Cup match, it'll be on the road but against a lower division side. If we win the second round would occur at the end of the month. -- Constantino is the League 2 Player of the Month for October. This is his second straight month winning the award. Ed Upson scored two goals in four appearances in October, he's second in the voting. Constantino had the 2nd best goal of the month, and I was third in manager of the month voting. -- The board remains delighted with my leadership. Our dominant performance in League 2 is the highlight and the loss of Giuseppe Sole remains a sticking point. Either he's the most beloved player ever, or there's just nothign else to complain about. We lost only $43k last month. -- Ed upson is named to the League 2 team of the week. Somehow, Constantino is not! November 7th, 2015 FA Cup First Round Woking (1st, L2) @ Morecambe(6th, BSP) We're 5:4 favorites on the road, they are 7:4. Morecambe were relegated out of league one 2 seasons ago (13/14), our first season in league 2. We beat them 3:0 both times we played that year, our only two meetings ever. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Upson/Middleton AM: colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Upson is getting a lot of press and has played great so he's in next to Middleton. Colin at AML today. We'll attack. 2': They get a throwin in our end, there's one pass to a man 20 yards out, he turns, fires, and makes Lynch look downright bad... blows it right by him. 0-1 9': Middleton to Harsanyi in the midfield, Harsanyi comes foward, plays a through ball to the penalty spot, Constantino gets behind his man, controls it well and calmly puts it by the keeper. 1-1 11': Colin with a run down the left, a cross, Middleton just misses a header. 13': Long ball out of the defense by Colin, Constantino runs onto it but can't put it in immediately, the keeper rushes out and shuts down his angle, his shot is saved. 18': Taylor intercepts a cross and gets it foward quickly. Middleton to Upson, back to Middleton, ahead to Constantino, he goes wide and crosses to Harsanyi, he heads it, just barely wide. 20': Another attack for Woking, Constantino beats two defenders about 30 yards out, cuts wide as there are defenders there still, he crosses into the penalty area and Colin is there for the header, his aim is true and the keeper can't stop it, we take the lead! 2-1 33': Middleton shows great ball control to get the ball foward through a crowded midfield, he plays it foward to Constantino, the defense converges, a through ball to N'Guessan, he shoots... just saved. 37': WTF! Goal kick for morecambe, Williams is there but he just flat out misses a header and the ball falls free, Morecambe attacker Cunliffe runs onto it and has clean shot that Lynch can't stop. 2-2 44': Morecambe with a long buildup, all of a sudden there's a ball played into the area from about 30 yards out. Their man Cunliffe runs onto this one and has another great look, and he doesn't miss this one either. 2-3 We cry for an offsides call and i think there may be a point here... but still, disgusting. HALF: Mike Williams 4.9, Alcock 5.6, Nikolaou 5.7. We just seem to get so damn complacent against lower prestige teams. Thoms is coming in for Nikolaou, maybe he'll play hard. I also call for our defense to play with a deeper back line. It's been an exciting half, 21 shots between the two teams and 5 goals. We need to get a couple in the second half! 52': Upson with a yellow for a tackle near midfield. 58': We have a throwin in our offensive end. We have a good amount of buidup trying to find a good shot, Middleton gets it centered to Harsanyi. He's about 25 yards out and has a defender draped all over him. He makes a quick move and shoots from that distance... his shot hits the left post and bounces into the net!!! 3-3 66': Incredible individual effort by Constantino. He receives a pass 35 yards out, drags two defenders with him into the penalty area, cuts wide, makes a great pass across the face of the goal, Colin has a clear cut chance at the far end of the 6 yard box... and puts it into the keeper's hands. Seriously the entire left side of the net was open, and he just hit it right to the keeper. 74': N'Diaye in for N'Guessan at AMR. 78': Our first lapse of the half, there's a through ball that Cunliffe fires.. Lynch came out quickly here and blocked the shot. 81': We win a ball in the midfield, Upson to constantino, he puts it out wide for N'Diaye, long run, cross... header by Harsanyi, but its over. 83': After a corner, Williams has the ball out left, he passes to Colin in the area, Colin cuts by a defender and somehow finds an open shot in an incredibly crowded penalty area... he beats the keeper, and we take the lead!! 4-3 85': We win a ball in midfield, Colin to Harsanyi, Harsanyi with a through ball to Constantino, Constantino shoots quickly and beats the keeper!! 5-3 89': We earn a corner, Mike Williams takes the low pass.. and he's tackled in the box, that's a penalty! We're just piling on now as Constantino nails the PK, that's the hat trick. 6-3 92': Oh god. Its the nightmare scenario. We're running out the clock and there's a long goal kick. Constantino picks it up and he's tackled and he's down. He's got the injury marker next to his name. Holding my breath until the postgame reports. Morecambe 3 : 6 Woking Man of the Match: Constantino (9.6) Goals: Constantino 3, Colin 2 (9.2), Harsanyi (9.1) Assists: Harsanyi 2, Williams 2 (7.2), Middleton (8.2), Constantino Notables: Lynch (7.1), Upson (7.2), Thomas (7.7) We played a horrible first half but got it together in the second, only allowing 3 shots. -- We receive $29,500 for our win. We can always use money, and now we earn a second game. -- After the match, Kevin Lynch tells the media that my inspiring words at the half turned the team around and willed them to victory. -- Constantino has a bruised rib and will only miss 5-7 days. He'll probably miss our next league match, that's it. |
-- We draw a home game against Rochdale (6th in League 2) for the 2nd round of the FA Cup. That should bring in some good cash and gives us a fair shot at advancing to the 3rd round.
-- Our Nov 14th game vs Oxford is rescheduled for December due to international callups. We only have one guy out, our new AML Loaner Kelly. Oxford has one player on the Northern Ireland squad(the senior team) and two on the Welsh U21 squad. Most teams in league 2 are playing today. November 21st, 2015 Woking (10-4-2, 3rd) @ Stockport (11-3-3, 1st) We haven't played in 2 weeks now and its given us a lot of time to think about one of the most important games we've played so far this year. We travel to Stockport, the team currently in first in the league. They've got one game on us and we're 2 points back, due to our last game being postponed. Stockport are huge 4:5 favorites at their place today, we're just 3:1 to get a win here. Stockport finished 4th in league 2 last year and 10th the year before. We've never beaten them, scoring 2 goals and allowing 7 in four matches. We get a lucky break in that their leading scorer, Ben Hutchinson (10 goals in 15 matches) is hurt and won't play today. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Christian Smith has recovered from his injury and is back. Kelly in at AML. Stockport run a defensive formation, a sweeper, two DCs, two DM's wide, 3 MC's and two FC's. We're goign to play a counterattacking strategy today. 3': Midfielder vincent with a yellow for Stockport. 13': N'Guessan picks up a bit of a knock and has to come off briefly. He should be ok though. 16': Stockport work the ball foward and get a through ball to one of their strikers. He's by the defense though we're closing hard right behind him. Lynch rushes out and blocks the shot perfectly. It was a clear cut chance for Stockport. We counterattack and quickly rush the ball foward to Harsanyi who gets a fairly decent look of his own but he puts it well over. 19': Another yellow for a stockport mid, Williams. 20': Long ball played up to Harsanyi off the free kick. He receives it 25 ayrds out, turns by his man and blasts a shot, just wide right. 31': Two offensive highlights for us, both ending in horrible long shots by Middleton and Upson... work it foward more guys please (I don't issue the order I just hope to see it). 37': Christian Smith with a yellow for us. 45': We see two late highlights for Stockport, both of them are crosses that lead to headers that are nowhere near the target. HALF: This is the first game we've played this year where I'm really pleased to be tied I think, at least in league play. We have a 54'46 possession edge, both teams are being careful wtih the ball, 75% passing for both, things are pretty even. Stockport shot 7 times, just putting 1 on target, and four of those were from long range. We shoot 6 times, again only one on target with two from long range. No changes for the second half. 46': They attack out of the gate, Vince Taylor tackles one of their fowards about 25 yards out, he gets a yellow. The free kick is struck by the wall, and bends into the left corner of the net... shit. 0-1 53': We earn a free kick on our offensive end about 25 yards out. Smith shoots and its saved, corner. Corner is taken to the far post, the keeper dives out for it and is out of position but we don't win the header. 55': Attacking is what we do best, time to try it. 61': Middleton picks up a yellow for a tackle in our offensive end trying to win a ball. 64': They have it in our end, we are scrambling a bit, missing a couple tackles, finally a pass goes forward, there's a shot, their 3rd clear cut chance of the match, and Lynch makes a great save. 76': We replace 3 tired guys to try to get an attack going. O'Sullivan in for middleton, Colin in for Kelly, N'Diaye in for N'Guessan. 82': O'Sullivan makes a great tackle to win a ball in the midfield, Constantino picks it up, plays it back to O'Sullivan. He lofts a pass foward to Colin who passes it to Constantino, he gets into the penalty area but he's fighting two defenders... he's tackled hard, he's hurt.. no penalty given. He looks pretty badly hurt, he can stay in but we'll see after the match. 92': Throwin deep in their end, its in the area and they head it behind for a corner. After a couple headers and of course the corner itself the ball ends up sailing through the penalty area 4 different times before the keeper finally recovers it. Stockport 1 : 0 Woking No one was great on either team, they only had a couple guys above a 7.0 and we only had one. But they got their one key free kick and it won them the game. Man of the Match: Harsanyi (7.4) -- Constantino has a bruised thigh. He's only out 5-8 days. This is his second injury in two matches though so I'm officially worried. |
... Well, we were going to play Macclesfield on Nov 24th. Its rescheduled for December 16th due to our field being waterlogged. We already had one match rescheduled in mid december. December is going to get very very crowded.
November 28th, 2015 FA Cup Round 2 Rochdale(10-4-5, 4th) @ Woking (10-4-3, 3rd) Its a cup match but since we're both in the same league i listed our standings. We're more rested so there is that. Rochdale are favored 5:4, we're 7:4. We've had a lot of success against these guys, 3-0-1, we've won the last three times we played, all of them 1:0. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Smith/V Taylor/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/D Taylor O'Sullivan is in for Upson, Colin at AML, and Dan Taylor starts in Constantino's spot. We attack on a still wet field in the rain at home today. 1': They start with the ball and after a few passes work towards a shot that hits the right post from 25 yards out. Close. 3': Middleton with a pass from 40 yards out into the penalty area. Colin comes streaking in and times his run perfectly, meeting the ball right as it hits the ground and striking it near post past the keeper!! 1-0 20': they get their first clear cut chance and the first highlight in awhile as they get a cross and a header from very close range, but Lynch makes the save. 24': We've had tons of offensive highlights, 6 corners and some deep throwins, but only 4 shots total, we're not really mkaing that last connection to get a shot off enough. 28': Dan Taylor places a through ball to the right of the penalty area for N'Guessan. He has to fight a defender for it, but he controls it and fires a shot to the far post. It grazes the post and goes wide, so so close. 37': Oh bad news here. Craig Alcock goes down injured and has to come out. Nikolaou can play both sides so we move him to DR, Mike Williams comes in at DL. HALF: We end the half with a highlight of us earning 3 corner kicks without a single shot being taken. We do manage 6 shots but only one on target. We have 8 corner kicks and i'm not sure we've even taken a shot off of a single one of them. Rochdale 4 shots, just one on target. We have a 57/43 possession edge. 48': We get a corner, no shot there, but a throwin and a cross, Colin with a header... its wide but hey its a shot! 50': O'Sullivan with a through ball up the middle, Colin is first to it, its a clear cut strike, the keeper makes a diving save and barely pushes it wide, just inches wide even after the deflection by the keeper. On the corner the keeper dives out for the cross, free header by Smith... it hits the right post and is cleared by the defender on the line. 52': Another attack for us, Colin makes a great run through the penalty area to generate an open shot, its off the right post again! Ugh, soooo close in the previous few minutes. 59': O'Sullivan plays a ball into the area, Dan Taylor is first to it, I thought he was offsides but I guess not... its our 4th clear cut chance, and he puts it right at the keeper. 65': Subotic in for Dan Taylor. 68': Rochdale with their first shot of the half as an attacker runs parallel to the edge of the penalty box before putting a shot just high. 78': A quick attack after a pass in from the midfield... Subotic with a through ball, Harsanyi is there... off the right post! Ugggggh. Clear cut chance #6. After a clear, we push it back into the area again, this time there's a cross and Subotic has clear cut chance #7 for us, putting a shot inches wide. 79': Vince Taylor is fouled, and he's hurt. He doesn't have to come out but he has that injury symbol and all of a sudden I'm looking at 3 defenders being injured perhaps. 83': This is insane. We now have 18 shots, just 4 on target. Rochdale only has one shot this half still. 85': We'll pack it in for the last few minutes and hold the lead hopefully. We kill the clock and take another 1:0 win over these guys, that's been the result of our last 4 meetings now. Woking 1 : 0 Rochdale We had a 61/39 possession edge and shot an incredible 20 times, only putting 4 on target despite SEVEN clear cut chances. Rochdale shot 5 times all match, just one on target. Man of the Match: Mickael Colin (8.3) Goals: Colin Assist: Middleton (7.9) Notables: Nikolaou (7.6), V Taylor (7.1), O'Sullivan (7.3) Hey, guess who we play in our next league match? Rochdale at home. -- We receive $44,500 for our FA Cup win. We might actually make money this month! Injury Update -- Vince Taylor has a twisted knee and will miss 2-3 weeks. Taylor has averaged a 7.06 rating this year and has helped shore up our weak defense. Ok, most likely our offense has helped to shore up our defense... but still I like Taylor back there. -- Craig Alcock has a hamstring injury and is out 3-4 weeks. -- Abu Ogogo is still out for an unknown amount of time. For now, we have 4 healthy defenders on the senior roster. We call up two pretty crappy reserves. D RL James Oliver-Pierce and DC Aaron Gough will play if they have to, but we hope they don't have to. |
December Updates
-- Thanks to the two games we had rescheduled in november, we play December 1st, 5th, 9th, 12th, 16th, 19th, 26th, and 28th. This is a terrible, terrible time for us to have 3 of our top 5 defenders hurt. -- The board is delighted with our leadership. The loan of Constantino is the highlight, losing Sole is still the low point. We lost $83k last month despite our FA Cup Money. Only playing like 4 games is a big part of this. -- The top teams are brought into the FA Cup for round 3, so we've got a shot to say, host an EPL team. We get another home game against one of the worst teams in the Championship league, Bournemouth. They'll be crazy heavy favorites but we'll get a bit of extra revenue out of it. This game isn't scheduled until January 2nd. December 1st, 2015 Rochdale(10-4-5, 4th) @ Woking (10-4-3, 3rd) Rematch! Rochdale are 5:4 favorites just like they were in the cup match. GK: Lynch D: Williams/Smith/Thomas/Nikolaou MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: Subotic/Harsanyi Williams and Thomas in on defense, Upson at MC, N'Diaye AMR, Subotic up front. Constantino back for our next match. We continue to attack at home no matter who we play. 1': Colin with a yellow... kinda early bud. 8': Nice through ball from Middleton, Harsanyi tries to get to it, a defender is theer at the same time and pokes it away though. 18': Middleton trying too hard to make the pass... they clear out a corner but we work it back foward, we've got a ton of guys in the penalty area, Middleton has it, he's got space and could line up a really dangerous shot, but instead tries to play ti foward to Harsanyi, too crowded and its cleared out. I wish he'd shoot that one. 21': Most highlights are us trying to attack, and we have a 62/38 edge in possession... but no shots yet. 32': We just shot for the first time, Harsanyi kinda forced one, we eanr a corner as its blocked... the corner is taken to Christian Smith, who goes down in the penalty area and is given a yellow for a dive. Oh god. Its his 5th yellow... he misses our next match. 38': Rochdale has 7 shots, but 4 are from long range, nothing has seemed noteworthy at all, and I haven't seen all of them.. 43': our second shot is a poor effort by Subotic from outside the penalty area. HALF: Smith takes a shot on a free kick at the end of the half, we have 4 shots, 0 on target, nothing remotely close. They have 7 shots, 3 on target, but nothing remotely threatening. Just to try to change things up I bring Paterson in for Subotic at the half. 47': They open with the ball, earning a throwin deep in our end and after a very poor clearance getting a shot on target... it could ahve been dangerous ut it was a super weak looking effort saved by Lynch. 52': we have a throwin and work the ball around, Upson plays it into the area and Paterson breaks onto it first, he gets there and strikes it left across his body, its on target and the keeper can't get to it, goal!!! 1-0 That's Paterson's first ever goal for us. 60': Ferry in for middleton. Middleton has been really good and I want him rested as much as possible for this crazy run of ours. 65': Ferry pulls up and shoots from 25 yards out, he hits the left post but they clear it. 72': They ahve a corner, they control it near our penalty area, working it to the opposite side of the field, there's a cross, it deflects off a defender and falls to one of their attackers, he shoots but Lynch is able to make a diving save, deflecting it wide, and we clear it out. 83': O'Sullivan in for Harsanyi, we drop into a more defensive look to try to end this. Ferry DMC, O'Sullivan/Upson MC, just Paterson at foward. 93': We look to be killing the clock easily, but Ferry makes a bad pass to turn it over and give them one last counterattack. They get it down the left side, but aside from the attacker charging down the left side of the field they don't really have anyone else keeping up. He holds it and tries a cross but our defense got back well and heads it clear. Full time is blown soon after. Woking 1 : 0 Rochdale For the 5th match in a row against this team we win 1:0. This one is a league match against a fellow likely playoff contender so this is a pretty good win for us. Man of the Match: Ed Upson (8.5) Goal: Paterson (6.9) Assist: Upson Notables: Lynch (7.2), Nikolaou (7.4), Williams (7.2), Smith (7.0) Our entire defense pulls a 7.0 rating except for Thomas. Not a bad effort. |
December 5th, 2015
Woking (11-4-3, 3rd) @ Aldershot(6-5-9, 17th) Aldershot are slim 6:4 favorites at their place, we're 13:8 to win. This is our first ever meeting. Aldershot were relegated out of League 1 last year. GK: Lynch D: Oliver-Pearce/Williams/Gough/Nikolaou MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: Paterson/Constantino The defense... sigh. We start both of our reserve scrubs today. Kelly/N'Guesssan at AM, Paterson up front and the only good news I see is Constantino is back int he lineup today. Standard mindset today, I'm tempted to attack but no. 3': We control the ball for what seems like forever in our offensive end before a foul gives us a free kick 30 yards out. We cross into the area... and they clear. 15': We get foward again, N'Guessan gets a pas from Constantino in the penalty area and just looks afraid to shoot... he holds the ball with a good look available at the goal and allows a defender to get near and put it back for a corner. We can't do anything on the corner. 21': Upson to N'Guessan, he finds Constantino who fires from about 20 ayrds out, its just barely over. Our best look so far. 25': they get some open space on a counter attack, there's a through ball straight up the middle, their striker Sheppard runs onto it and puts a shot past Lynch for a goal. I think that's mostly on Mike Williams. 0-1 37': Scrub DC Gough misses a tackle about 25 yards out, allowing one of their fowards to get a good shot off, lynch witha great save. 39': Constantio receives a pass 25 yards out, he pulls off an amazing move, he dribbles between two defenders to get into the box and find a shot... but its saved. There shoudln't have been a shot there to be had, crazy stuff from Constantino. HALF: We just look confused on offense. Too many passes when shots are available. Constantino has had chances to create something for himself a couple times but passed instead ot guys that just look downright afraid to shoot. They have 6 shots, 2 on target, we have 5, 2 on target. We have a dominant 59/41 possession edge but just aren't doing anything noteworthy with it. 50': Colin in for Kelly at AML, Harsanyi for Paterson at foward, two guys I wanted to rest but I think they'll help make our offense look acceptable. 54': Scrub DC Gough is hurt. He can stay in but this is bad. 55': Harsanyi makes a run down the right side, he goes very deep towards the end line and tries to center the ball to Constantino. One of their defenders tries to intercept it but instead misplays it and puts it in his own net!! We tie it up on an own goal, but the aggression from Harsanyi made it happen. 1-1 58': We lose the ball in the midfield and they play a long ball foward... both our DC's are closest to it but they are juts slow and not ready... their attacker Sheppard is first to the ball and puts it in. Mike Wiliams takes the blame for the goal and has a 4.9 rating now. 1-2 66': Harsanyi takes it down the left sideline, he can't cross but he gets a pass to Upson, Upson with a through ball, constantino is there, he turns and shoots from near point blank range and scores! I didn't write this until after the replay. Constantino was so very, very far offsides I expected the ruling to change even after the goal was confirmed. This will be brought up in postgame I'm sure. 2-2 89': their "other" foward Raynor gets a yellow for a dive. 92': We intercept a clearance, Upson to Constantino, he finds Harsanyi, Harsanyi makes a man miss and he's got a free run at the keeper, he goes into the penalty area... strikes it from 10 yards out... saved. Oh man we should have gotten a last second winner right there. Aldershot 2 : 2 Woking Given our issues I'm happy with a tie here. Goals: Constantino (7.3) Assists: Upson (7.9), N'Guessan (7.0) Notables: Nikolaou (7.1), Mike Williams (5.4), Kelly (6.0) Oliver-Paerce with a 6.7 out left, Gough a 6.6. Mike Williams was the goat today. -- No injury issues, I was worried about a long term injury to Gough, but he's ok. |
-- Ed Upson is named in the League 2 team of the week.
December 9th, 2015 Woking (11-5-3, 3rd) @ Oxford (10-6-4, 6th) This is our first makeup game, so these guys should be as tired as we are. Its a road game against a playoff contender, and they're favorited big time, they're even money and we're 11:5. We've had very bad luck against Oxford, going 1-1-4 lifetime against them, only scoring 3 goals in 6 matches against them. Last year we tied at our place and lost 2:0 at theirs. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/Williams/Smith/Nikolaou MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We're in much better shape today with Thomas rested and Christian Smith's one game suspension over. Now we're basically just battling fatigue. O'Sullivan in for Middleton, Colin in for Kelly, Harsanyi back up front. Standard mindset today. 14': We counter after defending a corner, O'Sullivan has the ball at midfield, their defense isn't really getting back evenly and theer's a hole for Harsanyi to exploit. O'Sullivan fires a perfect long low pass into the open area, Harsanyi runs onto it perfectly and blasts a shot from 15 yards out by the keeper! 1-0 17': They get it back on a bullshit play, 1000000% offsides. Through ball to foward Paul Taylor but he's like 3 steps offsides. We complain and the commentary says it seems like we have the right to do so. 1-1 26': Oh so so pretty. Constantino with great control in the right side of a crowded penalty area, he pulls it out wide, crosses in to O'Sullivan, O'Sullivan heads it backwards to Nikolaou who volleys it from the edge of teh penalty box, perfect aim, perfect strike, and its by the keeper! 2-1 29': Hah, again! A through ball from 35 yards out to left midfielder Coke charging in, he controls it well and puts it by Lynch.. we cry for offsides again but this time I don't think he is at all. 2-2 34': N'Guessan makes a tackler miss horribly on him near midfield and ahs a free run down the rigth side, he pulls a defender out of position to cover for the guy who got juked so bad, crosses, Constantino gets his head to it... but its saved. 38': Smith has it at midfield with our entire team foward, he gets it to O'Sullivan, foward to Constantino, he has a little space but plays a ball foward to Harsanyi instead, Harsanyi fires a shot... right at the keeper, but there's a rebound, Harsanyi is first to it and he puts it into the net this time!! 3-2 45': A long cross from N'Guessan to the far post, Colin is there and gets his head to it... the keeper is helpless but it hits the left post and bounces free. HALF: Crazy game, Harsanyi has two goals and we lead 3-2. We shoot 7 times, 5 on target, they shoot 8 times, 4 on target. Oxford hasn't hit a single cross yet, they're all about the through balls and beating the offside trap, while we are succeeding a lot on our crosses and have a huge edge in the air. 51': They get two shots early in the half but both are long and not on target. We get a throwin near midfield, Constantino receives it, sends it wide to N'Guessan, he gets it centered to Harsanyi who is in a dangerous position but they quickly tackle it and its a corner for us. Corner is easily cleared. 71': Holy crap 20 minutes just disappaered... their foward Taylor makes a great tackle in the midfield on a ball we're trying to feed back into the offensive end, he's got a ton of space and makes a long run to the penalty area. Lynch comes out, and Mike Williams gets bck and makes the saving tackle just in time. 83': Ferry in for Upson, Kelly in for Colin, Dan Taylor in for Harsanyi... defense is tired too but I'm terrified of our backups. We go defensive to try to end the match. 89': Kelly with a foul just outside the penalty area, way out to the right edge though. They cross it in on the free kick, we put it behind for a corner. Corner is cleared, but Constantino commits a foul tryig to keep them from sending it back in. Yellow for constantino. They shoot on the free kick and send it well wide. They try to start up their offense in extra time but we win the key headers and get the clearances we need so that they can't get another shot off. Oxford 2 : 3 Woking This is a really big road win for us at this point in the season. Man of the Match: Harsanyi (8.8) Goals: Harsanyi 2, Nikolaou (8.0) Assists: O'Sullivan 2 (8.4) Notables: Colin (7.4) DL Stelios Nikolaou has 115 league matches played for us, and 144 in his career. He just scored his first career goal today. |
-- The press heaps praise on Harsanyi after our win. Harsanyi has never liked the attention, any time another coach calls him out as a player they fear or there are too many press reports about him his morale goes down. Today is a first though... "The Surrey Herald has reported that Woking's Zoltan Harsanyi is deeply unhappy at recent press attention. [b]The striker has reportedly threatened to quit English soccer if he is not left alone."
!!!!!!!!! I guess I give him a couple games off? December 12th, 2015 Brighton(10-8-3, 4th) Woking (12-5-3, 3rd) This is the first big game where our fatigue could be a big factor and will be noticibly different than our opponents. Brighton are only 3 points behind us in 4th as well. Big game for us. They're 6:4 to win, we're 13:8, they're favored but its basically even. We're expected to sell over 5000 tickets for this match. This is another team we haven't done so well against in our history (like Oxford last match). We're 1-0-3 against them over the past few seasons. Brighton foward Ugur Ocak has 7 goals, that's a name that stands out from past games. Perry Wells has 9 goals to lead them. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/Williams/Smith/Nikolaou MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Subotic/Constantino Subotic starts for Harsanyi today, and Middleton is back at MC. As much as I love O'Sullivan Upson/Middleton seems to be our best combo and its not really even close. We set out atacking and we'll play with a high defensive line at the recommendation of my assistant's. 11': Brighton have earned 4 corners now, 3 of them in a row, they just took the first shot of the match. The last corner we clear out and try to counter attack, Colin makes a long run, tries to get it to Subotic, gets it back but has no luck creating anything. 18': We win a header on a goal kick and get the ball foward pretty quickly. Subotic hits Constantino about 25 yards out with a little room. The keeper is a bit off his line and Constantino tries to loft a shot over his head. It lands on the top of the net, pretty close. 31': We give up a corner, they take it to the far end of the 6 yard box, Lynch dives out for it and misses... but we win the header, whew. 33': Brighton earn 2 more corners.. up to 7 now, but we clear ok. Constantino generates something from nothing with his speed, earning us a corner as he charges into the area with the ball against like 4 defenders, we can't do anything with it though. HALF: Brighton saw a number of attacks but only managed 2 shots, just 1 on target. We never really got the ball solidly into the penalty area, we shot 4 times, all off target. We have a 53/47 possession edge and are dominant in the air, winning 77% of our headers, we're passing way better, but they're tackling well... 84% of their tackle attempts have come through. That's preventing us from buidling anything. 57': We have a long highlight in their end of the field that mainly consists of us heading the ball around without doign anything threatening at all. 61': corner for Brighton, they get a shot off this one and hti the right post, whew, close one there. 74': Harsanyi in for Constantino, O'Sullivan in for Upson. constantino with the worst game he's played for us so far today. 76': We have a corner, O'Sullivan crosses into the area, Nikolaou is there, he outjumps a defender and heads it by the keeper!!! After 114 leauge matches without a goal he's got two in two games. 1-0 83': Middleton comes off injured, he can come back in but he's on the sideline being treated. They get a free kick from 25 yards out while he's off and take it pretty solidly, Lynch is theer to make the save though and holds it safely. 85': We almost get a second goal clearing out of the defense and counter attacking, theer's a long ball to Harsanyi, he's closed down on before he can make a move to score, instead he goes wide, waits for some help and crosses, Colin is at the 6 yard box for the header, but its saved. 88': they get a cross after a throwin and a header from a threatening spot is put wide. 90': A long shot is deflected and Brighton win a corner, we clear it out though. Woking 1 : 0 Brighton We get our second win over a playoff contender in a week! In the end each team shoots 9 times. O'Sullivan had just been subbed in when he played the cross leading to the winning goal. Man of the Match: Nikolaou (8.4) Goals: Nikolaou Assists: O'Sullivan (6.9) Notables: Upson (7.0), N'Guessan (7.0), Constantino (5.5). Constantino was prety bad today, everyone gets an off day though if you score more than once a match for 1/3 of a season. |
-- Nikolaou is named in the league 2 team of the week.
-- Our defenders are starting to get healthy again, maybe in a couple matches we'll be back to full strength there. December 16th, 2015 Macclesfield (3-6-12, 22nd) @ Woking (13-5-3, 3rd) This is our second makeup game. We'll be back even in terms of games played after this. If we tie, we're tied for 2nd, if we win, we're tied for first, if we lose, we stay 3rd. We're ahead in goal differential in either scenario with 1st/2nd. We're mammoth favorites today, 4:7 to win compared to their 4:1. We've not ever lost to these guys, 2-2-0 lifetime. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Nikolaou MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: Subotic/Harsanyi Macclesfield have 6 players hurt today. I'm starting Vince Taylor, we'll see how much he can play though. Constantino gets the day off and we go old school with Subotic/Harsanyi instead of our loaners or new guys. Kelly in for Colin at AML. Clearly we attack here. 1': We get foward quickly, Subotic passes to Harsanyi, he's about 40 yards out though. He pushes the ball foward, sprints between the two central defenders and he's got nothing but space in front of him. He gets into the area, shoots, goal!!! 24 seconds in. 1-0 17': We are on the attack again with really good looking spacing, Middleton to Upson, he plays a long ball into the area, N'Guessan runs onto it from the right side, controls it well, and beats the keeper! We've shot 6 times now. 2-0 21': We cross into the area... Middleton goes up for a header, he's fouled!! That's a penalty. Subotic takes the PK... and hits the left upright. wow. 23': Yellow for defender Ross Draper. Smith shoots on a free kick from about 30 yards out, its blocked and goes behind for a corner. Corner is cleared out. 26': Yellow for midfielder Bell tackling Kelly. 29': We earn numerous throwins and a couple corners as we keep pushing and Macclesfield cannot clear it out... after one throwin there's a cross from N'Guessan to Harsanyi, Harsanyi heads it, pretty softly... it is over the keeper... but hits the crossbar. Doh! 37': More highlights with us on offense... we have 10 shots, they have none. A 3rd goal would be cool though. 38': Macclesfield shoots for the first time, wide. HALF: I'd like a safer lead but really we should be fine here. Ferry in for Middleton and N'Diaye in for N'Guessan. They need the rest. 53': Oh god. Vince Taylor is hurt. He could keep going but I'm subbing him asap. 55': Thomas in for Vince Taylor. 59': Ferry picks up a yellow for a really dumb foul in the midfield. 61': Oh god... Ferry has it in the penalty area... and he goes down, the ref considers it a dive, and tht's a red card. I've used all my subs and am down a man now. Awesome. We change to a 4-4-1 formation, Subotic up top, Harsanyi AML, Kelly MC which he can't really play. We switch to defend. 65': We get foward but turn the ball over, they try a counter attack with a long ball, their top scorer Lewis Guy is there, he shoots wildly though as soon as he receives the ball 25 yards out. 72': through ball from 35 yards out for Macclesfield, Christian Smith is right there but he misses an easy itnerception, their foward Guy runs onto it and puts it past Lynch. 2-1 81': Guy shoots from 30 yards out, Lynch has to just punch it away and its behind for a corner. We clear the corner out. 83': Yellow for midfielder Fitzpatrick for a tackle on N'diaye in midfield. 88': Their man Guy gets into the area, we're draped all over him but he gets his shot off... it hits the crossbar and bounces high up in play... we head it out. WHEW. We hang on after using up all our subs and losing a guy to a red card, whew again. Woking 2 : 1 Macclesfield Man of the Match: Harsanyi (8.3) Goals: Harsanyi, N'Guessan (7.2) Assists: Upson (7.0), Subotic (6.0) Notables: Lynch (7.0), Williams (7.0) The missed penalty hurt Subotic quite a bit. He was awful in the air as well. -- Today was another fan day for Woking. We had 5584 fans in attendance and are well on our way to shattering attendance records. -- I give Simon Ferry a warning for his red card, mainly for taking a dive in the box for the second one, so so stupid especially after a yellow. -- Vince Taylor is fine, i was worried that he'd aggrivated his injury. -- With the win we're back even in total matches with everyone else in league 2, and we are tied for first. |
December 19th, 2015
Woking (14-5-3, 1st) @ Wycombe(5-8-9, 19th) And the beat goes on, we play again on 3 days rest. We've almost survived this awful december stretch, just a couple more! We're 6:4 favorites to their 13:8, basically even on the road. Wycombe are struggling in 19th place, we're 2-2-0 against them, beating them both times we played last season. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Nikolaou MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Constantino is back in at foward, Colin at AML. O'Sullivan gives Upson the day off. Vince Taylor is good to go again today. Its pouring down rain today, and their field looks pretty good, way way better than ours in this weather. We're going to attack today. 8': They get a straight on shot from 18 yards out, Lynch has to dive and makes a "brilliant save" according to the commentary. Corner comes to nothing. 12': Our defense should be embarrassed. Their two forwards play a give and go and Smith is just totally dumbfounded by the through ball, their top scorer Bradley burns everyone and beats Lynch with his shot. 0-1 25': Mike Williams with a foul just outside the area, they shoot on the free kick but Lynch saves. 33': They attack, there's a cross into the area, Vince Taylor goes up to ehad it away but he's deemed to have fouled their attacker... that's a penalty, and they convert it. 0-2 HALF: This is just bad. We have 2 shots, both are headers by Constantino, one a weak one that was easily saved, the other way over. They shoot 6 times, putting 4 on target, the stats are pretty darn even but they have the one through ball that burned us and the penalty and its looking really bad. 49': We try to attack, O'Sullivan shoots from 25 yards out and its saved, they get behind us on the punt by the keeper... foward Pittman runs onto it behidn our back line, he makes a long run as Taylor and Smith can't catch him, he shoots as Lynch comes out... and the ball hits the crossbar. Whew. 52': Mike Williams picks up a yellow. 57': Mike williams is dispossessed after a throwin deep in our offensive end, but the ball pokes out to O'sullivan, he crosses into the area, N'Guessan heads it, and it just goes over the outstretched arms of the keeper and squirts into the net!! We get one back and ahve a shot here. 1-2 65': We earn a corner, its played to the far post, N'Guessan gets his head to this one too... and it hits the crossbar, so close! 71': We push foward, Colin tries a through ball from about 25 yards out, its blocked by a defender, but the ball falls back to Colin, he makes a move ot the right by a defender, and shoots from just outside the penalty area, the keeper isn't ready and he buries it into the right side of the net!! 2-2 73': A quick attack.. Colin rushes down the left sideline, crosses, N'Guessan sprints ahead of the defense and gets his head to the ball at the edge of the 6 yard box, it hits the right upright and caroms in!! Goal!!!!!! 3-2 74': We try to give away our comeback. they get into the area and fire a shot, Lynch saves it but can't hold it... there's a rebound, they get to it... and a shot hits the right post and goes out of play. Whew. 78': O'Sullivan plays a ball foward, they head it away from the penalty area but Middleton heads it back foward immediately. Constantino is first to it and centers the ball, Middleton is there and his quick shot is by the keeper!!! A couple funny bounces there and we were just faster to the ball, catching them out of position. 4-2 82': Vince Taylor picks up a yellow, his 5th of the year, he'll miss the next match. 91': We're fighting for possession to try to kill the clock, there's a tackle in the midfield and N'Guessan goes down. He's hurt and his fitness drops a TON. Worried about this one, lets see what they say after the game. Wycombe 2 : 4 Woking Crazy game, we look terrible in the first half but find 4 second half goals and run away with it!! Man of the Match: N'Guessan (9.2) Goals: N'Guessan 2, Middleton (8.0), Colin (9.0) Assists: O'Sullivan 2 (8.6), Colin, Constantion (7.1) Notables: Lynch (7.4), V Taylor (7.0) Injury Update N'Guessan twists his ankle and is going to miss 4 weeks. After 3 goals in 2 games it really sucks to lose him for a month. -- Abu Ogogo resumes full training. We're really, really happy to get him back. We've got a full week off til our last couple matches of the month. |
We've reached the halfway point of the league 2 season, everyone in the league has 23 matches played. We're having an incredible season, 15-5-3, 53 goals/27 allowed for a +26 goal differential. We have 50 points!
Last year 97 points won the league and 81 was good for auto promotion. 97 points is the most in Leauge 2 in this career. Low 90s usually wins the league and a few times the mid 80s would win it. Here's a quick look at the standings. League 2 Mid-Season Table 1. Woking - 50 pts 2. Stockport - 48 pts 3. MK Dons - 45 pts --------------------------- 4. Rushden - 41 pts 5. Rochdale - 41 pts 6. Oxford - 40 pts 7. Walsall - 39 pts --------------------------- 8. Brighton - 38 pts 9. Chesterfield - 37 pts 10. Wrexham - 34 pts 11. Lincoln - 34 pts 12. Tranmere - 33 pts 13. Hereford - 31 pts 14. Luton - 31 pts 15. Accrington - 28 pts 16. Aldershot - 28 pts 17. Grimsby - 27 pts 18. Notts Co - 25 pts 19. Wycombe - 23 pts 20. Bury - 22 pts 21. Droylsden - 17 pts 22. Macclesfield - 16 pts --------------------------- 23. Hartlepool - 13 pts 24. Kidderminster - 9 pts Looking at the individual leaderboards... Goals 1. Constantino - Woking - 22 goals 2. Sam Smith - Rushden - 16 3. Adam Vickers - Chesterfield - 15 4. Billy Greulich - Accrington - 13 5. Kieman Hughes-Mason - Rushden - 13 ... 10. Zoltan Harsanyi - Woking - 10 Assists 1. Oliver Norwood - Oxford - 13 2. Ed Upson - Woking - 8 3. Karl Moore - Grimsby - 8 4. Joe O'Sullivan - Woking - 7 Zak Middleton - Woking - 7 Many, mnay others have 7 assists. 10 guys total. Constantino leads the league with 7 man of the match awards. A couple guys have 6, Harsanyi is one of 4 players with 5. Average Rating 1. Constantino - Woking - 7.67 2. Sam Smith - Rushden - 7.55 3. Zoltan Harsanyi - Woking - 7.44 4. Harry Worley - MK Dons - 7.43 5. Jermaine McCall - Notts Co - 7.41 Ed Upson is tied for 5th at 7.41. Mickael Colin is 11th with a 7.35 rating, Dany N'Guessan is 13th with a 7.29 rating. Nikolaou 15th, O'Sullivan 17th. We have 5 players in the top 20 in average rating in the entire league. That's pretty darn good!! |
Expiring Contracts
We get notices about expiring contracts. We've got about 20 of them including staff members. This will be interesting since we have reasonble expectations that we're going to promote, so marginal guys may be even more marginal for us. -- Makhtar N'Diaye won't be re-signed. He's turning 34 soon and is declining. He's been a solid affordable backup that can play many positions but he was 32 when we signed him, we knew he was just a stopgap. -- Aswad Thomas is just the type of guy that is already marginal and we really couldn't hang on to at the next level. No offer now. -- Mike Williams is better than Thomas and is really my 6th best defender (Nikolaou/Ogogo/Taylor/Smith/Alcock clear top 5 imo). He's also 29 and I'm not sure about his usage at the next level either -- Ed Upson makes $3300/wk and totally deserves it. I offer to extend him at the same rate. -- Zoltan Harsanyi makes $2000/wk, he wants $2500. I'd pay it if I had to but I offer $2300/wk to see. -- Craig Alcock wants a raise up to $1100/wk from $975/wk, he wanted a huge appearance bonus, I lower the appearance bonus and offer him $1200/wk. I thikn I want him around for sure. He's the type of guy taht I will probably phase out in league 1 but that is worth taking there at first. -- Harry Arter is gone after this year, I kept him last time his contract ran out b/c he can DMC, but that's it. -- Abu Ogogo will take the same $2800/wk he's making now, he wants a crazy $700 appearance fee, I try to lower that some. -- Danijel Subotic is one of those guys I'm not sure about, he makes $2100/wk now and seems to be the odd man out a lot. I don't offer anything for now. -- Kevin Lynch wants a raise from $1k/wk to $1300/wk. We'll see if he can play at league 1 or not, but for now, I want him on the team. -- Stelios Nikolaou is another guy who is a clear extension. He'll get a small raise as well. -- Lewis Martin we'll probably release, backup GK. So I'm trying to sign anyone who starts for me now basically, and if we make it up to League 1 next year we'll just have even stronger loaners and will figure out which starters need to be replaced. -- Danijel Subotic has been working on his shot and should shoot more powerfully now. Hooray. December 26th, 2015 Woking (15-5-3, 1st) @ Wrexham(10-4-9, 10th) We're 5:4 favorites on the road, they're 7:4. We beat Wrexham 2:0 in our opening match this year and are 5-1-3 lifetime against them. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Wrexham have two guys with over 10 goals, Wayne Ellis with 12 and Marc Williams with 10. Our coaches recommend we tackle Williams hard, we'll do that. Vince Taylor is serving his oen game suspension today, but Ogogo and Alcock are both ready to go. N'Guessan is out for 2-3 weeks with his injury so a lot of pressure is on N'Diaye at AMR. Standard mindset on the road today. 3': There are two early highlights for us, the seond one Upson feeds N'Diaye on the right side, he plays a great through ball to the penalty spot for Harsanyi, he gets there behind the defense, cuts to the right to get an angle on the keeper and fires it in! 1-0 12': We win a ball in the midfield, Constantino passes it back a bit to Upson, who lofts it foward and Constantino runs onto it, he's got tons of space, gets into the area... and can't beat the keeper... doh. 16': Free kick for Wrexham, they shoot, Lynch dives but it hits the left post and is back into play. They recover and shoot, Lynch dives the other way and makes a great save... but again it squirts back into play, and this time a Wrexham man is there first to poke it into the net, Lynch did his best there. 1-1 24': We're on the attack N'Diaye plays a ball to Constantino who is 25 yards out, the defense collapses on him a bit and he finds a perfect opening for Harsanyi, he runs into the area and beats the keeper!! 2-1 27': Sheesh... there's a long cross for Wrexham in their offensive end, they get it deep on the left side, there's a pass back to a man coming in from the midfield, he receives it about 25 yard sout, takes a couple steps and launches a shot, Lynch just can't get to it and its i nthe back of the net. 2-2 40': Their man Marc Williams receives a pass about 30 yards out, we've got two men covering him but he finds an opening and blasts a very powerful long shot, it hits the right post, scary moment there, Lynch would not have been there were it on target. 44': Constantino receives a pass 35 yards out, he runs forward before finding N'Diaye with a nice pass, N'Diaye is in the area, shoots... but its saved. 45': We build up in the offensive end again, Harsanyi plays a ball out wide for Nikolaou, he plays a long cross foward into the area, N'Diaye gets his head to it, its off the keeper and in!!! 3-2 HALF: Well, sometimes with our setup we're just goign to play like we have to outscore the opposition, today is one of those days. Each team shoots 9 times, we have 6 on target, they have 5. They do have 6 long shots, so we're doing a better job of getting closer for presumably more threatening attempts. Stats are very close to even everywhere. 50': We allow two corners, the second one we clear out and start a counter attack. Constantino takes a long ball and runs ahead of the defense but they close down, no shot there, he centers it and the rest of our offense shows up, Upson plays a ball out left for Nikolaou, he puts it into the area to Colin, colin gets to the end line and lofts a ball to the far post, the keeper doesn't react to it well at all and N'Diaye is there to nod the ball into the net!! His second goal today! 4-2 64': They build up on offense, there's a cross in from the left and Marc Williams is there to meet the ball and put it by Lynch easily. Our defense really really let down there allowing Williams to receive what was basically a 40 yard through ball. 76': O'Sullivan and Ferry in for Upson and Middleton, Alock in for Ogogo, fresh legs at some key spots to hold our lead. 84': Smith misses a tackle on Marc Williams, he has a free run into the area, but Mike Williams comes in and tackles it away. 91': They earn a throwin deep in their offensive end. They put a cross into the area, but we win two straight headers to get it out of there. 94': We should have this put away, but Nikolaou just went down with an injury as he was tackled hard and fouled... hopefully nothing long term here. 95': 3 minutes of extra time has turned into 5... we just cleared a ball out of the defense and they were given time to push it back in, they earn a corner. The corner is taken and one of their men gets a head to it, Lynch makes the save but its still in play, they recover the rebound and shoot, Lynch is there again!! This time Smith is first to the rebound and clears it out, and full time is finally called. Thrilling ending. Wrexham 3 : 4 Woking Man of the Match: N'Diaye (9.3) Goals: N'Diaye 2, Harsanyi 2 (8.8) Assists: Nikolaou (7.1), N'Diaye, Colin (7.7), Constantino (8.6) Notables: Lynch (7.7), Middleton (7.1), Upson (7.2) Its been a few matches since Constantino has scored, though he played great today and made some key passes, we're still winning though! -- Nikolaou is out for 5-8 days with a "gashed head". -- This is our 5th straight win in league play. |
-- Kevin Lynch and Makhtar N'Diaye are named to the league 2 team of the week.
December 28th, 2015 Hartlepool(23rd) @ Woking (16-5-3, 1st) This is supposed to be an easy one, we're massive 1:4 favorites, they're 9:1 to pull off a win at Kingfield Stadium today. We're 2-1-0 against these guys, winning 4:0 at their house earlier this year. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: Paterson/Constantino Nikolaou misses a couple games and Mike Williams starts in his place. Vince Taylor is back. O'Sullivan, Alcock, Kelly, and Paterson are in for tired guys on 2 days rest here. We'll attack and hope to put this out of reach early. 3': Its been a bit since we've seen a Constantino goal, O'Sullivan with a long pass out of the defensive end. Constantino picks it up just inside midfield, he blows by one defender and just outruns everyone else trying to cover and close down... he makes it into the penalty area unopposed and beats the keeper. 1-0 11': We have a throwin in our defensive end, we get it to Paterson in midfield, he gets it to Constantino who could try to make a move himself, but instead he passes on to N'Diaye, who has a good look but puts a shot just over. 15': N'Diaye controls the ball outside the penalty area after some buildup, he turns by his man and puts a cross into the 6 yard box, Kelly is there and heads it by the keeper! His first goal since I brought him on. 2-0 17': We have another breakaway, Constnatino is ahead of everyone... he's tackled hard from behind about 20 yards out, and their defender gets a straight red card!! Smith puts the free kick over the bar. 20': We have it again, Upson finds O'Sullivan about 25 yards out, he has a good line on a shot, fires... and the keeper can't get to it! Its in the back of the net!! 3-0 24': We have a corner, they clear it out and Williams picks it up, he looks to feed it back in but their striker Gilbert steals it away in the midfield... and we have no one else anywhere close, Gilbert has a free run from the midfield, he pulls up at about 20 yards as Lynch comes out... fires... and lynch makes the save! 36': Uh... same thing as the last update... Smith horribly misses an interception in the midfield as they clear out a corner, and Gilbert is on the run again, he pulls up about 20 yards out, shoots, and Lynch makes the save. It looked like a replay almost. HALF: Lets just not get anyone hurt now. Ferry is in for Constantino and we drop into a 4-5-1 formation with Paterson up front. Scrub Aaron Gough in for Smith. Ogogo in for N'Diaye who might die on the pitch if he doesn't get a rest. We'll change to a counter attacking strategy. 81': they get a bit of a breakaway coming in from the left side, a shot for Hartlepool, its by Lynch but hits the left post, it ricochets across the face of the goal, williams beats an attacker to the ball by a step and clears it away to safety. We easily kill off the rest of the game. Woking 3 : 0 Hartlepool Great result as tired as we were there. Man of the Match: Joe O'Sullivan (8.3) Goals: O'Sullivan, Constantino (8.2), Kelly (8.0) Assists: O'Sullivan, Upson (7.6), N'Diaye (7.1) Notables: Lynch (7.2), Alcock (7.8), Williams (7.6), V Taylor (7.2) We've got 3 more matches before significant rest will come. Today's the 28th of December. We play i the FA Cup on Jan 2nd, then have league matches on the 6th and 9th before finally getting a week off til the 16th. |
January Update
-- We play in the FA Cup on the 2nd, then league matches on the 6th, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. Should we win our FA Cup match there will be a 4th round matchup at some point in January as well. -- Joe O'Sullivan was named 2nd in the player of the month voting for December, behind Sam Smith of Rushden who scored 10 goals in 6 matches. -- Rushden went 6-0-0 in leauge play in December and that earned their manager the monthly award. i came in second. I should have won. We had 2 makeup games from November and we went 7-1-0 despite playing constantly on 2-4 days rest. -- The board is delighted with my performance. Our league 2 dominance is of course the highlight and the loss of Giuseppe Sole is still the downside. We actually made money last month thanks to all the extra games and the fact that our attendance is up. -- Though we're expected to lose in this round of the FA Cup we're expected to have a near sellout with over 6000 tickets sold. Capacity is 6500. January 2nd, 2016 FA Cup 3rd Round Bournemouth(23rd, Coca Cola Championship) Woking (1st, League 2) This will probably get ugly, even though we're first and they're looking at relegation, we're stil 2 leagues apart. They're 1:2 favorites today, we're 9:2 to win and 13:5 to pull off a draw. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Alcock MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We're putting the best team we possibly can out there today. We'll attack, screw it, we're at home and we try to outscore people! 2': Colin down the left side, he lays a ball back for Upson who shoots from 20+ yards out, its a pretty solid shot, the keeper has to make a last second save and turns it behind. We get 2 corners before they clear. 6': Bournemouth midfielder Donnelly with a yellow going up for a header in midfield. 9': Midfielder Donnely receives a pass about 20 yards out and fires a shot at Lynch, it hits the left post, close. 13': Another strong strike for Bournemouth but from range.. this one came from the right side and hits the left post. 20': Throwin for Bournemouth deep in our defensive end. They throw it into the penalty area and Vince Taylor is called for a foul. They convert the penalty... 0-1 22': Colin makes a nice run down the left side, he has to fight to keep the ball twice from tackle attempts, he crosses it to the near side of the 6 yard box, Harsanyi is the first one there and directs the ball goalward with a header, it's by the keeper and we've evened the score!! 1-1 35': Ed Upson is hurt and he has to come out immediately. O'Sullivan is in. 41': O'Sullivan is hurt a bit on a tackle... he should be ok though I think. 46': We have a long stretch of possession but struggle to get it into the area, finally O'Sullivan finds N'Diaye, he could try to shoot in the crowded penalty box but insted lays a ball foward, Colin gets to it first and he has basically a point blank shot... its our first clear cut chance, and he just blasts it wide from about 8 yards out. We should have the lead now. HALF: These guys are clearly better but we'll keep pushing and see what we can do. They shoot 10 times, though 4 are long shots. We shot 4 times only. Possession is even, we're actually tackling better, everything else is pretty much even. 50': Vince Taylor with the 3rd foul i've seen him commit in highlights, this time he gets a yellow. 51': They work the ball foward after their free kick, there's a through ball on the right side to striker Pellicori, and he puts it in pretty easily. 1-2 62': Another long buildup for us, we're looking for an opening, finally Harsanyi pokes a little ball foward that constantion runs on to, he's inside the 6 yard box and the keeper seems to be caught totally off guard... and Constantino pokes the ball just inches wide... that was our second clear cut chance and we missed it as well. 75': Ogogo in for N'Diaye at AMR. 78': We have a throwin in their end, Alcock takes it and puts in a nice cross, Colin gets his head to it, wow he's wide open here, its actually our 3rd clear cut chance... and the header is right at the keeper, uggggggh!!! 90': Goal kick for Bournemouth, Taylor is there and controls the ball, he passes it foward, constnatino is there, a defender is draped all over him, he receives the pass about 20 yards out, he controls it and shrugs off a tackle, getting into the penalty area, he shoots... it beats the keeper!!!!! A dramatic last minute goal. 2-2 90': 4 minutes of extra time. 94': Ogogo is called for a foul about 20 yards out... they shoot on the free kick and it sails a few feet wide. That'll do it! We remain alive. Woking 2 : 2 Bournemouth One of their goal scorers is man of the match. We only allowed 4 second half shots and all were off target. We pushed really hard and generated a number of good looks, we really could claim that we should ahve won this one with a couple very easy looks that we choked on. Goals: Harsanyi (6.9), Constantino (6.9) Assists: V Taylor (6.8), Colin (7.3) The entire team was between 6.7 and 6.9 except for Colin. -- Ed Upson is going to miss 5-8 days with an injury he picked up in today's match. -- 6036 fans came to watch our match today, generating $210,000 in revenue for the team. This is a single game record for us and is actually higher than some full months or gate receipts for us. -- I was hoping the Replay vs Bournemouth would postpone one of our league matches... nope, it's going to be on the 13th, during the middle of the week we were going to have off. |
On the bright side, you'll get more revenue from the replay. Silver linings and all that...
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Yeah, for a lot of smaller teams playing in a 1st div or prem side stadium is a dream come true for those exact reasons.
Tell |
-- Craig Alcock, Shane Kelly, Joe O'Sullivan and Constantino were all named to the League 2 team of the week this week.
-- The fourth round draw for the FA Cup is held... the winner of Woking/Bournemouth will get another home game, and boy it would be a special one. If we can somehow pull off a win at Bournemouth to advance, we'd host Arsenal in our little 6500 seat park. January 6th, 2016 Lincoln(9-10-6, 12th) @ Woking(17-5-3, 2nd) We're second as league matches were played while we were playing our FA Cup match, so we're at one less game played now, and 1 point behind Stockport. Only 3 matches today, looks like this is the make up day. We're 4:5 favorites to win today, Lincoln is 3:1 to win. We're 1-0-2 lifetime against these guys, the one win a 3:2 victory on the road back in August. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Colin/Ogogo FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Nikolaou back in at DL, O'Sullivan in for the injured Upson, Ogogo gets the start at AMR as N'Diaye could use a day off. We attack today. Lincoln run a 3-5-2, strikers Needham and Hutchinson are their leading scorers with 10 and 9 goals. 16': Nikolaou picks up a yellow for a tackle. This is ugly so far, both teams have a couple long off target shots, but mainly the highlights are showing tons and tons of poor passes and crosses. 29': We earn a corner, complete a cross successfully, Vince Taylor heads it over though. 32': Middleton with a run up the midfield, he threads a beautiful pass between 2 defenders to a streaking Ogogo, he comes in from the right side and blasts a shot past the keeper and in! 1-0 38': Lincoln try the same thing from the left side, a run up th emidfield, a nice pass to striker Needham, he fires a shot, but it is just inches wide. 41': Lincoln defender with a yellow for a foul.. i thought a penalty, but its literally on the 18 yard line. There's a 5 man wall but from this close Christian Smith is able to take perfect aim and he fires a hard shot on target, beating the diving keeper!! 2-0 44': Yellow for midfielder Lloyd for grabbing Harsanyi's jersey to keep him from running by. 45': Vince Taylor picks up a yellow, that's the second foul of his I've seen in highlights, lucky he didn't get a yellow already. HALF: We manage 8 shots, but only put 2 on target, the two goals. 5 of our shots are from long range and 4 are blocked. Lincoln has 5 shots, just one on target, 4 of them from long range. Neither team is passing, crossing, or heading well, not a single number over 70% on either side. This is kinda sloppy but we've finished well when we did generate legit chances. 51': great long ball from O'Sullivan leading Ogogo into the penalty area, his first touch wasnt' quite perfect and it allowed a defender to come poke it away. Really really pretty pass though. 60': Tons of higlights with us on offense, possessions with 15+ passes to try to find an opening, we're up to a 62/38 possession edge but haven't found the shot we want yet. 64': Lincoln with a couple strong attacking possessions, but Vince Taylor is briliant in defense, making every key tackle and interception to keep them from being able to do anything at all. 68': There's a Lincoln foul against Harsanyi about 25 yards out, Christian Smith lines up another free kick and he just barely missed this one, inches over. 75': Aswad Thomas gives Nikolaou a rest. 82': Yellow for midfielder MacDonald as he gets completely owned by Middleton and has to foul him to keep him from blowing by and starting a run. We put this one away. Woking 2 : 0 Lincoln We got a couple quick strikes for our goals but the defense was really solid from start to finish, I completely agree with the man of the match here: Man of the Match: Vince Taylor (7.9) - 5 key headers and 8 inteceptions, won 22 of 23 headers he contested, made 5 tackles. Goals: Smith (7.4), Ogogo (7.4) Assists: Middleton (7.6), Constantino (6.9) Notables: Alcock (7.1), Nikolaou (7.6), O'Sullivan (7.5) |
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Hm so in a cup match like the replay coming up at Bournemouth, we get some sort of portion of the tickets sold? They're bigger than we are but not by a ton, just a 9600 capacity stadium it appears. |
In real life, smaller teams will insist that they play in the Prem side park even if they draw them at home. Only reason they would do that is if they get part of the gate. Should be the same in the game.
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Cup game revenues are shared between the teams if I remember right, which is why a cup game at a big club is a big deal. It can settle the budget for the year.
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Interesting, thanks for the information. The odds of us advancing are slim but we'll see what happens in the game if we do!
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-- Harry Arter is really really unhappy at the lack of playing time he's getting, and I'm not going to change it, I go ahead and offer him to other clubs and hope someone will bite. At this point I'll give him away if I need to, he doesn't appaer to ahve any strong ties to anyone else on the team so i'd rather just have him be happy and not risk causing any problems for our morale down the stretch.
January 9th, 2016 Woking(18-5-3, 1st) @ MK Dons(14-8-4, 3rd) Huge match here, MK Dons are favored 5:4, we're 7:4. For a road game against a team that got relegated just being 7:4 dogs is pretty good. We tied 0:0 at our place back in August. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Middleton AM: Kelly/N'Diaye FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We change out our Attacking mids. We're going to defend today. 4': defender Doyley with a yellow going up for a header on a long ball for us. We earn a corner on the free kick. We earn a second corner, and then put a header well over on the 3rd attempt. 9': They clear an attack of ours and try to counter. Our defense is back but they take a shot from aout 25 yards out that hits the right post, pretty close. 12': Middleton receives a pass about 25 yards out, their defense is set and there don't seem to be openings, but Middleton places an inch perfect ball between two defenders, Kelly runs on to it and shoots towards the far post, its in, he beat the keeper!! 1-0 19': After a ball foward Harsanyi has it 20 yards out, he turns and beats his man, choosing to pull up from there and shoot, its... well mishit I guess. Its like 15 yards wide. 28': Midfielder Bloom picks up a yellow going for a tackle. 30': They work the ball foward, at about 25 yards out one of their fowards turns and fires a shot, its on target and well struck, but Lynch makes the save and parries it away. A followup shot is wide. 31': We're having a hard time getting the abll out of our defensive end. Middleton commits a foul just inches outside the penalty box. They shoot on the free kick but Lynch makes the save. 38': Christian Smith is hurt, he goes down in defense... he can stay in but his fitness is crushed and I'm worried about a potential long term injury here. I'll take him out at the half. 42': they control the ball in our end, after a good buildup there's a through ball, we don't defend it well at all and there's a very easy finish to tie the game up. 1-1 HALF: MK Dons have 9 shots, 4 on target, we have 4 shots, just one on target. They clearly dominated the match after our goal and put tons and tons of pressure on us. Mike Williams is in for Smith, Ogogo is in for Alcock. We change to a counterattacking strategy. 53': They have 3 shots, we have none, the pressure is still on in full from MK Dons. 58': I hope this doesn't backfire... N'Diaye is just getting domianted out there. Every time he touches the ball we lose possession. I move Ogogo to AMR, Vince Taylor DR, and sub in Aswad Thomas (N'Diaye out) to play DC. 75': midfielder McKenna with a yellow about 35 yards out for us. WHOAAAaA... vince Taylor takes the free kick, he shoots, it blows by the wall and bends into the right side of the net, there was maybe an inch or two between the keeper's outstreched fingertips, the ball, and the goal. Incredible shot!! 2-1 80': We drop back to contain for the last 10 minutes, I assume the pressure we're going to see will be immense here. We burn off the final 10+ minutes with relative ease and get a huge road win! MK Dons 1 : 2 Woking Man of the Match: Vince Taylor (9.0) Goals: V Taylor, Kelly (7.6) Assists: Middleton (7.2), Williams (6.9) Notables: Lynch (7.1), Nikolaou (7.0) We took 2 shots i nthe second half, one was the free kick for the win. MK Dons end up with 17 for the match, so that's 8 in the second half. They did end up taking 11 from long range. Stockport lost today so we won while 2nd and 3rd both lost (3rd being MK Dons). Here's the top half of the league w/ the main playoff contenders. We're 27 matches in so there's a ton of time to go. 1. Woking - 62 pts 2. Stockport - 57 pts 3. Rushden - 53 pts ------------------------- 4. MK Dons - 50 pts 5. Rochdale - 47 pts 6. Oxford - 45 pts 7. Walsall - 45 pts ------------------------- 8. Chesterfield - 44 pts 9. Brighton - 41 pts 10. Tranmere - 40 pts 11. Lincoln - 40 pts 12. Wrexham - 37 pts 13. Luton - 36 pts We have 63 goals, 31 allowed for a +33 goal differential. Stockport are at +25, Rushden +21. Constantino's speed is still opening up passing lanes for us, but we're not relying on him for two goals to win, so I feel even better about things now. |
Transfer
After offering Harry Arter around, we got a couple offers, he ends up signing with Cheltenham in the BS Premier league, and we get a transfer fee of $5000. I am pretty sure this is the first time we've ever made money on a transfer! I've jettisoned some salary by giving players away for free in the past, but never a transfer fee. Arter tells the media he's sad to no longer be playing for me. I'm a bit surprised at that since he's only made 15 appearances for me in the last 3 years. He was a regular starter for me in the BS premierleague, playing 30+ games a season for us in each of our seasons there. January 12th, 2016 FA Cup 3rd Round Replay Woking(1st League 2) @ Bournemouth(23rd Championship) They are 1:6 favorites today, we're 10:1 to win. Oof. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Alcock MC: O'Sullivan/Upson AM: Kelly/N'Diaye FC: D Taylor/Constantino I'd love to go all out to try to win here but I choose to rest a couple key guys instead that have played 4-5 matches in a row on 3-4 days rest. Nikolaou, Middleton and Harsanyi are sitting today. We'll defend. 14': Almost a miracle start for us... we clear out with a long ball down the left side, they get a man to it but Dan Taylor is tracking the ball and he makes a steal! He rushes into the penalty area and lines up a shot, its a clear cut chance for us... but the keeper saves it. 20': Another attack, Constantino receives a pass about 20 yards out and is able to control the ball with a man draped all over him, he gets into the area and shoots but its saved. 30': Bournemouth earn a corner and get their first shot of the game but its a poor header over the bar. 42': They have a two on two with Smith and Vince Taylor left to defend their strikers... Smith makes a great tackle to win possession. 48': The last play of the half is a corner for Bournemouth, we clear out the corner but they push it back foward, there's a quick shot from 20 yards out but Lynch holds it cleanly. HALF: Are they toying with us, resting their guys way more than we are? Do they not care about this competition since they're fighting for their lives in relegation? I dunno but we are still in this thing! We have a 57/43 possession edge and ahve 3 shots to their 2. Not a whole lot going on here, lets see if we can maybe get lucky in the second half and get a couple more good looks. 50': They get two early shots but one is off target and the other is blocked and we withstand the first bit of pressure to come out way. 61': Ferry in for O'Sullivan, Colin in for Kelly, both are quite tired. 65': We work the ball upfield, earning a throwin about 35 yards out. Colin takes it to Williams, who passes to Ferry in the penalty area, Ferry is tackled, he goes down, PENALTY!!! Ed Upson steps up to take the penalty kick and he buries it!!! 1-0 70': Upson is hurt, he stays in but his fitness is pretty low. 79': I get upson out of there, Aswad Thomas is in at DC, Vince Taylor up to MC. 85': they try to attack and make a ridiculously lazy pass, we intercept near midfield, the ball goes foward to Constantino, he makes a man miss a tackle, he keeps going.. he plays a ball to Colin who is going to have a point blank shot at the keeper.. but a defender comes in and brings him down before he can shoot... its another penalty!!!! Constantino takes the penalty and he buries it. We're gonna win this aren't we!? 2-0 92': They've given up and we're just enjoying the hell out of life right now. N'diaye with a little run down the right, he plays a ball foward to Constantino and the defender on him was just way out of positoin, the rest of their defensive line was back, but this one man was not even close so he's onsides, Constantino runs into the area and puts a shot low to the near post,the keeper dives but the ball beats him and its another goal!!! 3-0 Bournemouth 0 : 3 Woking Unbelievable. I don't know how many starters they rested today but it wasn't all of them, the danger man my scouts identified was still the same, the strikers were both stil the same from the first meeting, those names I recognized. We obvoiusly got some luck on the penalties, but the defense was just awesome pitching a shutout. They only shot 8 times and only 1 was on target. Man of the Match: Constantino (8.6) Goals: Constantino 2, Upson (7.3) Assists: N'Diaye (7.9), Ferry (7.1), Colin (7.1) Notables: Alcock (8.0), Williams (7.5), Smith (7.3), Vince Taylor (7.3) -- We are awarded $110,000 for getting past this round of the FA Cup! -- We'll play Arsenal on January 23rd. Its still scheduled for our place, I don't see an option to request a change so we'll just have to see what happens. It sounds like we could be missing out on a ton if this holds true. Still, we've done so well, I cannot complain! Team Records -- Constantino's two goals gave him 31 total for me (combined league and cup play), that breaks a Woking record set by Zoltan Harsanyi, who scored 30 the year we promoted up out of the BS Premier league. -- The man of the match award made it 10 total for Constantino, breaking the team record held by Ed Upson. |
-- I was looking at our finances briefly. Last year we lost $452,500. So far this year we've made a profit of $400,000. Usually the season is a slow drain on resources and I expect to make less than that by the time we're done, but, we're going to do immensely better this year than last, our attendance is way up and we've pulled in almost $200k in prize money for these FA Cup wins.
-- Last season we brought in $1.62 million at the gate, $425k in "match day income" and everything else is really low comparitively. Our total revenue was $3.58 million. This year, midway through January we've already brought in $3.15 million. Gate Recepts are at $1.50m, only about $120,000 less than the entirity of last season. Prize Money of $185k dwarrfs last season and we'll have a much bigger bonus coming for our finish this year assuming we don't crash and burn. Winning just works wonders for everything! January 16th, 2016 Woking(19-5-3, 1st) @ Bury(5-11-11, 21st) We're big 4:6 favorites even on the road today. They're 7:2. My main concern today is that we are going to be noticibly more fatigued. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/Middleton AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Lots of changes again today. Our defensive line is full strength for the first time in a month. N'Guessan is healthy again and starts though he won't play 90 minutes. Harsanyi/Colin/Middleton all start again today. We'll attack even on the road today. 3': They generate the first attack, but as they try to get the ball into the area we intercept and counter quickly. Colin receives a pass and plays it long to Harsanyi, Harsanyi runs from midfield to the penalty area, he goes all the way to the end line, passing across the face of the goal, the keeper can't stop it and N'Guessan runs onto it, passing it into the completely empty net. 1-0 8': Middleton lays a ball off to Constantino after a short bulidup and he is open in the area, he shoots from 15 yards out and beats the keeper easily! 2 shots, 2 goals. 2-0 10': Colin with a run down the left side, he crosses and the defense simply isn't there, Middleton runs behind everyone and volleys the cross into the net! 3-0 3 shots, 3 goals. This is insane. 22': We shoot our 4th shot but its blocked behidn for a corner. First shot of the match that didn't lead to a goal. 28': We give one back, Ogogo makes a tackle on a ball in mdifield as we're trying to keep it in our offensive end, but it pokes away to another midfielder of theirs and that starts the breakaway, they get a nice through ball and an easy goal this time. That was their first shot, one shot, one goal! 3-1 33': Middleton makes a nice run of about 25 yards with teh ball, avoiding one tackle and drawing one of their central defenders, he puts a ball into the empty space and Harsanyi meets it and puts it home! 4-1 45': Middleton is hurt after a tackle... shit, he has to come out. Hopefully this isn't bad. Thomas comes in for Middleton, Vince Taylor to MC, Thomas DC. O'Sullivan can play but I'd rather keep him rested, especially if there's a chance Middleton is out for multiple games. HALF: We have a huge 4-1 lead. We've blown a 3 goal lead at the half this year so I'm not letting up quite yet. 51': Incredible control by Colin, he takes a pass in the area, dribbles around two defenders to get to the end line, crosses into the 6 yard box and Constantino heads it in. 5-1 57': N'Diaye in for N'Guessan, Subotic in for Constantino. N'Guessan was playing his first game back, lets give him a break, and Constantino doesn't get enough rest. 66': Bury shoots for the second time, but Lynch saves this time. 78': I give the rarely used "take a breather" instruction. Bury 1 : 5 Woking Bury shoots 3 times and scores once. We shoot 9 times and score 5. Craziness! Man of the Match: Mickael Colin (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 (8.7), Middleton (8.3), N'Guessan (7.9), Harsanyi (8.1) Assists: Middleton 2, Colin 2, Harsanyi Notables: Lynch (7.3), Ogogo (7.3), Nikolaou (7.8), V Taylor (7.1), Upson (7.3) Christian Smith misses 4 headers (4 for 8) and is only 9 for 20 passing, his rating of 6.8 is the only starter below 7 today. Injury Update - Disaster Zak Middleton tore a calf muscle at the end of the first half in today's match. He is going to miss ~4 months... aka the rest of the season. Middleton played really, really well for me, appearing in 27 matches, scoring 3 goals and leading the team with 11 assists to this point. His average rating is 7.18. Our depth is still fine, Upson and O'Sullivan is a very comfortable and familier midfield for us, Simon Ferry has played well in a mostly backup role and will be rotated in a lot more often. N'Diaye, Vince Taylor and Christian Smith can all play MC as well. -- I'm not sure if I can loan anyone else in, but I decide to go ahead and terminate the loan of Zak Middleton and send him back home. He'll be better off in the hands of the Ipswich physio's. I hope this doesn't piss anyone off. |
-- Nikolaou, Middleton, and Colin are all named to the league 2 team of the week.
Injury Update Makhtar N'Diaye sprains an ankle in training. Its hurt pretty damn bad and he is going to miss 5-6 weeks... by itself that's ok, it means more playing time for Alcock at DR as Ogogo will play some AMR... but that's two bad injuries in a week's time, not good! Injury Update #2 Seriously? Vince Taylor twists a knee in training and is out 2-3 weeks. WTF! January 23rd, 2016 FA Cup 4th Round Arsenal(9th, PRM) @ Woking(1st, L2) So it is at our place, couldn't do anything about that. Its our first ever meeting. Arsenal are 1:10 favorites. We're 15:1 to win. Seems like it should be like 30:1, but ok. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Williams starts for the injured Vince Taylor. Arsenal is basically starting a backup team today, only a few players who have played more than 10 league matches are playing today. We'll defend. 6': We get the first shot, we earn a corner, they clear it but we get it back in, Constantino is able to receive a pass and find a shot, but its saved easily. 8': They cross into the area, Colin brings down the attacker and its a penalty. Ugh! They bury the penalty. 0-1 28': They're shooting a ton but mostly long and all off target. They have 8 shots so far. 37': They earn a corner, its passed low, they control it, juke by one man and a shot by one of their defenders is in. 2-0 ... ok, we can't beat these guys and while its a thrill to be on the same field as them lets get back to the task at hand. Arsenal goes up 4-0 in the first half. We get a goal on a cross from Colin that N'Guessan heads in. The last 40 minutes fly by and that's the final score. Woking 1 : 4 Arsenal Ratings are all over the place today. Harsanyi and N'Guessan both put up 7.2's. Smith 5.7, Williams 5.1, Nikolaou 5.8, Constantino 5.5. Everyone else is in the 6-7 range. |
-- GK Lewis Martin has agreed to leave for Czech First Division side Slovan Liberec after his contract ends at Woking. Fair enough, he's ready for a starting job, he's just behind a keeper we're extremely loyal to.
January 27rd, 2016 Walsall(14-6-8, 7th) @ Woking(20-5-3, 1st) We're even money favorites today, Walsall is 11:5. They're in the thick of the playoff race but we should have a big edge at home here today. We're 2-0-3 lifetime against them, one of our 3 losses this season was on the road, 2:0 at Walsall in September. Walsall's William Grigg leads them with 11 goals. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Alcock MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Kelly/Ogogo FC: Paterson/Constantino Alock in at DR so that Ogogo can move to AMR and give N'Guessan a day off. Kelly and Paterson in for Colin and Harsanyi. We attack. 12': Close call as there's a long ball for Walsall that an attacker gets to before our defense. He goes way too deep though before shooting and Lynch makes what seems like a pretty easy save. 18': First clear cut chance of the game to Walsall... a long through ball is met by their right midfielder behind the D... Lynch makes a solid save though. 22': Run down the left side for Walsall... our D is back, there's a cross into the area... Williams misses a header, and their leading scorer Grigg scores an easy goal from about 4 yards out... 0-1 24': We try to respond quickly, Constantino is way way out wide, O'Sullivan hits him with a pass and he crosses quickly into the area, Paterson beats his man and gets his head to the ball, its by the keeper and in! 1-1 39': We have a throwin deep in their end, they head it out of the area but O'Sullivan gets to it and takesa long shot that just goes inches over... HALF: Boring half. Too many highlights for Walsall in the first 25 minutes. Each team has 5 shots but we only have 1 on target. We need to tackle better and could pass a bit better, Walsall only completes 51% of their passes. 53': long possession for us but we don't manage a single shot, I thought we had a goal, O'Sullivan hit Constantino with a short through ball, but they tackled it away before Constantino got a shot off. 55': A quick turnaround for Walsall, there's a ncie through ball into the area, they get a shot out of ti, Lynch saves it but there's a rebound and they are first to the rebound and score. 1-2 68': We score a goal but constantino is clearly offsides, so clearly that this is hwo I'm bothering to type it up. Not even remotely close. 73': Craig Alcock picks up a bit of an injury, hopefully nothing bad. He's staying in though. 75': Yellow for Mike Williams for a foul just outside the penalty area, we clear out the free kick. 75': Colin in for Kelly, Subotic in for Paterson. 89': First highlight in our offensive end in a long time, we get a throwin pretty deep, there's a cross but their keeper comes out to snag it. 91': We get foward and O'Sullivan goes down in the area... how bad is it that I assume he's diving? Yep, he's diving. And he gets a yellow. Woking 1 : 2 Walsall We've got 4 losses now on the season and 2 have been given to us by Walsall. Just a real bad matchup for us apparently. We only shot 1 time in the second half. Very frustrating. Goal: Paterson (6.9) Assist: Constantino (7.2) Notables: Nikolaou (7.2), O'Sullivan (7.4), Upson (7.0) |
New Loanee
I decided to try to bring in a midfielder after losing Zak Middleton. I end up bringing in 19 y/o DC/MC John Moseley, a reserve on Championship squad Fulham. My biggest concern is that he's not the best athlete in the world, 9 pace/10 accel, good balance and fitness and those numbers could be worse I guess. But technically and mentally he's great. Influence is his only mental attribute below 10, Teamwork 20, Work Rate 14, Off the Ball/Positioning 12, everything else thre 10/11. Marking 14, Passing 12, Dribbling 16, First Touch 14, Tackling 10. He looks like a great technical talent at this level. He'll get some shots at both DC and MC to see where we can fit him in best. Moseley is a 3 month loan, we aren't allowed til the end of the season for someone under 23 y/o. And uh, the bad news... He's hurt for 3 weeks. But, of the 5 or 6 guys I tried to bring in here, he was the only one who would come, so I thought he'd really add to our depth and give us extra options for a couple months so we can't get injured into oblivian. January 30th, 2016 Grimsby(9-8-12, 15th) @ Woking(20-5-4, 1st) We're even money favorites again today. We're just 1-1-3 lifetime against grimsby but we beat them 3:1 at their place this year, so I have high hopes for our rematch at Kingfield stadium. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/ogogo MC: Upson/Ferry AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We're a lot stronger today with Colin, N'Guessan, and Harsanyi. Ferry in for O'Sullivan today. Grimsby foward Tom Corner has 9 goals in 22 matches, he's their top player. He didn't play in our first meeting. I remember the name from when he single handedly beat us in a game last year. We attack today. 3': Each team misses an early shot way wide. 6': Harsanyi with a run down the left, a cross and an N'Guessan header is the first on target shot today, but saved. 17': We've gotten foward a few times and generated 5 shots, but just one on target so far. 21': Mickael Colin goes down hard and he's hurt, force to come out instantly. Ugh! Subotic is in at Forward, Harsanyi slides to AML. 24': Constantino evades two defenders but has a shot saved... its our 7th shot, 2 on target only. 25': We allow a breakaway, there's a great pass to forward Peniket who is wide open in the area and burns Lynch. 0-1 30': And finally we break through. Ogogo recovers a ball that had been weakly cleared out of the area, he plays a cross back in, Subotic wins a header at the penalty spot, heads it low, it bounces under the keeper!! 1-1 36': Upson is hurt, he can stay in after a short treatment, hopefully he's ok. 40': Harsanyi with a rare yellow fighting for a ball in our offensive end. 45': Another great look for us, Harsanyi fights off two defenders to put a cross in, Constantino heads it just barely over the bar. HALF: This feels a little sketchy. We should pull away and win this 4-1 in the second half, but we're really left the door open and allowed them to stay in the game. We've taken 13 shots, putting 5 on target, but have only managed the one goal. Grimsby only has 3 shots... but same number of goals as us! 47': They start with possession, Ferry wins the ball in midfield pretty quickly though, we get foward, N'Guessan down the right side and he puts a good cross in, Subotic gets his head to it but its inches over. 58': O'Sullivan in for Upson, who I think is ok long term but he seems hobbled today, the halftime rest didn't help him, his fitness is still way below everyone else. 68': Mike Williams goes down hard in the penalty area after a corner... no penalty and he's hurt, he can stay in though. 70': They get a corner, Christian Smith goes up for the header in the area, and pulls down his man... its a penalty. They take it... and bury it. Sigh. 1-2 80': Harsanyi with a move down the left side, he gets a pass into the area for constantion, he's got a really good look at it, but his shot is saved and turned behind. We can't do anything on the corner. 86': We have a free kick in our end, Lynch plays it long and Constantion runs into the area from the right side... he lobs it over to Subotic who has a wide open net as the keeper is out of position... and heads it over. 88': Run by Subotic down the left, cross... constantino fights for it, they possess and clear it though. 89': We earn a corner, desparately trying to get this goal back now... Mike Williams picks upa yellow for diving in the area trying to get us a penalty. Sigh! 92': Their attacker Peniket gets a yellow for grabbing Smith's jersey. Stall tactic I think. 93': Last second here... whistle is at any time... Subotic is first to the ball 20 yards out... he's tackled hard and he goes down, he's legitimately hurt here. The game ends shortly after. Woking 1 : 2 Grimsby We played 3 times this month when our opponents didn't. It started to show here I believe. We were unbelievably exhausted by the end of this one. But we still should have won. We generated a crazy number of shots, just one goal is unforgivable. They played a great second half, limiting us to 5 shots, but that's still 18 total. They shot 7 times only and put 2 in. Despite the loss the man of the match is on our side. Man of the Match: Subotic (7.6) Goal: Subotic Assist: Ogogo (6.8) Notables: Nikolaou (7.0), Ferry (7.0), N'Guessan (7.3) Injury Update Danijel Subotic is out for 2 weeks with the injury he picked up today. That's it, it could be worse with Colin and Upson both getting hurt as well. Standings Update We had built up a big lead and the two losses don't hurt too much, other than we had a chance to build up a 10+ point lead and didn't take advantage. Stockport has only gotten 1 point out of their last 4 matches and we still hold first place by 7 points. 30 matches in: 1. Woking - 65 pts 2. Stockport - 58 pts 3. Oxford - 54 pts ------------------------- 4. Rushden - 53 pts 5. Rochdale - 53 pts 6. MK Dons - 52 pts 7. Walsall - 52 pts ------------------------- 8. Chesterfield - 48 pts |
February Update
-- 5 matches this month, just two at home, 6th, 13th, 20th, 24th, 27th, not bad at all after the last two months we've had. -- Vince Taylor was 3rd in the player of the month voting for January, nice! -- The now departed Zak Middleton was 2nd in the young player of the month voting for January for league 2. Vince Taylor was 3rd. -- The board is delighted with my leadership, our league 2 performance is a highlight, Mike Williams struggling to replace Nikolaou while he was injured was a problem. We made a huge (for us) profit of $298k last month. Player Value When the season started I remember reporting that Dany N'Guessan was one of the most valuable players on the team at something like $40k. Well, this run of ours this year has brought some major attention to a couple of our players. Ed Upson is now worth $75k, Stelios Nikolaou dwarfs that with a $180k value, but the real shocker is Vince Taylor. Taylor has become somewhat of a star in the defense for us, and his value has skyrockted up to $300k! [b}Transfer List[/b] We signed ST Matthew Paterson before finishign the loans for Constantino and Dan Taylor, and Paterson has really just been completely left out to no fault of his own. He has only played 9 matches this year, starting only 4 times, he has two goals but just a 6.69 rating. He's requested a transfer, and I go ahead and grant his request and put him on the transfer list. We got him for free and maybe we can get a bit of cash for him, I am confident we will be able to bring on another guy in his place next year if we don't get the star studded loanees. February 6th, 2016 Woking (20-5-5, 1st) @ Kidderminster(5-6-19, 22nd) I guess we're expected to fall apart after 2 losses in a row, as bottom feeder Kidderminster are 5:4 favorites today, we're on the road sure, motivation! We're 5-2-3 lifetime against these guys including a crushing 5:0 win back in September. We haven't lost to them in our last 4 meetings (2-2-0). GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We have 4 guys hurt, including Vince Taylor, we start the best lineup we're capable of today. We will of course attack. 2': They get the first look today, a run down the left, cross, header... just over. Lynch would have had it anyway I do believe. 8': Defender Collins with a yellow for slowing down a run by Colin. Confusing set of names there. 9': They clear out our free kick and begin to push. It doesn't seem lke they have numbers or an advantage or anything, but their man coming down the left cuts inside, O'Sullivan misses a tackle, he goes by a defender and fires a shot from 20 yards out... Lynch gets his fingers to it but it goes by him and is in... 0-1 12': Bend it like Upson!!!! WHOA!! Corner for us, Constantino receives it but not in a position to shoot, he runs out left, passes back to Upson who is 20 yards out and a few yards wide of the left post (hope that makes sense)... he fires a shot through the area that curls significantly left and barely curved into the good side of the right post... an amazing shot I didn't know he was capable of!! 1-1 24': They have a goal kick, its taken very very long and somehow oen of their fowards wins the challenge against Mike Wliliams for the ball, a better first touch and its an easy goal, instead Lynch is able to leave his line and cut off the angle, stopping the shot fairly easily. Very poor play by Williams. 31': Colin draws two defenders and beats them both on a run down the left side... he passes to Harsanyi who is 15 yards out, maybe he was excited about how much space he had... he fires a wild shot that goes way way wide. 34': Colin with an amazing run down the left, he deftly dodges two men trying to tackle him one after the other, makes it all the way down the sideline, passes to HArsanyi... and Harsanyi is tackled in the area! That's a penalty!! Upson takes it and buries it for his second goal of the day. 2-1 37': Harsanyi has the ball in midfield, the defense is there but they are spread out a bit, Harsanyi plays a perfect through ball between two defenders, Constantino reacts perfectly and sprints behind the defense to get to it, he continues his run into the area and easily beats the keeper! 3-1 HALF: We make a great recovery after falling behind 1:0 and take a 2 goal lead into the locker room. Each team has 7 shots, we only have 3 on target but all 3 are goals. They ahve 4 on target, Lynch has made a couple nice saves and recoveries to keep their score at one. Other stats are all close to even. We're actually losing out in the air today but not by a lot. 50': Nikolaou is hurt and has to come out of the game immediately. Dammit we just got him back healthy! Thomas is in. 52': We clear out a throwin, as they try to possess the ball to feed it back in, O'sullivan makes a great tackle and picks up the loose ball, this triggers a break for us, their defense isn't in any way in position for anything, so O'Sullivan plays a simple ball foward, constantino runs onto it and runs well away from the rest of their team, gets into the area and finishes well, goal! 4-1 63': Constantino picks up a bit of a knock going for a header, he's fine but i'm taking zero chances especially with a big lead, Dan Taylor comes in at the next opportunity. That's the final score, we put this away nicely. Kidderminster 1 : 4 Woking Man of the Match: Ed Upson (9.1) Goals: Upson 2, Constantino 2 (8.8) Assists: Harsanyi 2 (8.1), Constantino, O'Sullivan (8.4) Notables: N'Guessan (7.0) Injury Update dammit dammit dammit!!! Stelios Nikolaou pulled a hamstring and he is out 3-4 weeks. The good news is that February is fairly light and he may miss as few as 3 matches. Maybe 4 or 5 depending. |
The season I'm playing through with York in the BSP is a mirror image of your season here. We were comfortably in first place, surprising everyone, when injuries and match congestion led to some January struggles. But it looks like you've been able to right the ship. Mine is still adrift. For the first time all season, I had to blast the boys in the locker room after a sorry loss at home to a mid-table team. We'll see if it does any good.
|
-- Our MC's are both in the league 2 team of the week, O'Sullivan and Upson.
February 13th, 2016 Accrington(10-9-12, 16th) @ Woking (21-5-5, 1st) At home against a middle of the pack team, this is expected to be a big win for us, we're even money favorites, they are 11:5. We're 4-2-3 lifetim against them, but the first meeting this year was rather memorable, and not in a good way. We scored 3 first half goals on these guys, giving one back in the 56th minute and giving two more back in the final 15 minutes, ending in a 3-3 tie. We need a first half repeat without the collapse today. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Billy Greulich has 15 goals for Accrington, by far the most for them. On our side Nikolaou is hurt but Vince Taylor is back to full training, so Williams moves out to DL, Taylor back in at DC. We attack. 19': The first legit scoring chance of the game comes as Colin shrugs off a tackler on a run down the left side before firing in a nice cross, Harsanyi heads it well over though. That was our 3rd shot, the other two weak and off target. 25': Accrington build up, there is a through ball from 25 yards out, into a huge amount of space given that our defense is fully back... Greulich runs onto it and scores with ease, yuck! 0-1 29': Free kick from out right, Smith takes it and sends a cross into the area, Ed Upson is the first to it in the crowd, he gets his head to it and buries it into the back of the net!! 1-1 40': The highlights are all attacking for us now, we've earned a few corners and had a couple shots blocked but thats really it so far. 47': They try to clear a ball out of their defensive end but a nice Ogogo tackle keeps it for us, he passes to Upson who has a crack from 25 yards out... its just off the right post, strong effort! HALF: We end up with 8 shots here, 3 on target, it doesn't really feel like that many since most of them never looked like they had a chance of doing anything. Accrington 3 shots, just the one goal on target. If we keep the pressure on i'm confident we'll get the win here. 54': Accrington highlights so far, they earn 2 corners but the best they can do is get a shot blocked before we counter attack. 60': Three highlights for us but two of them just show a ball sailing through the penalty area untouched. The third Upson takes a shot from 20 yards out at a tough angle and its much closer than I'd expect it to be. Upson has become a serious scoring threat all of a sudden! 78': Alcock in at DR, Ogogo AMR, N'Guessan is tired and sits. 79': Vince Taylor with a yellow "for persistent fouling" 81': Alcock plays a cross into the area... there's a foul! The cross seemed long and misplaced but apparently someone was impeded from getting to the ball, Upson is going ot take the penalty, and he buries it! 2-1 Controversy!!!! 84': There's a long ball forward from the midfield for Accrington, they get a striker behind Vince Taylor, his first touch is fairly poor and he shoots a wild shot over the bar. That was a catastrophic mistake by Taylor, we just got very lucky. 89': We counter after forcing a turnover, Ogogo plays a ball up to Constantino and now he's behind their defense! He makes a run into the penalty area, pulls up... but the keeper stops it, nice save. Corner comes to nothing. 90': Harsanyi with a yellow for a tackle in defense. There are 5 minutes of extra time but we spend all of it earning corners and throwins deep in their end and taking our sweet time doing anything at all. Woking 2 : 1 Accrington A win is a win but it would be fair to say we did not play well here today. We got bailed out to earn the winning goal and bailed out again that they couldn't convert on a couple massive mistakes we made. Man of the Match: Ed Upson (9.0) Goals: Upson 2 Assists: Smith (6.7), Colin (8.9) Notables: O'Sullivan (7.1), Ogogo (7.8) We are now 9 points up over 2nd place with 14 matches to go: 1. Woking - 71 pts 2. Stockport - 62 pts 3. MK Dons - 56 pts ----------------------- 4. Rochdale - 55 points Maybe more importantly, we are 16 points ahead of 4th place, since the top 3 spots auto promote. |
Quote:
I did that after my last loss. Not sure it was really warranted just yet, but it made me feel better. |
-- Abu Ogogo, Mickael Colin, Ed Upson are all named in the league 2 team of the week.
February 20th, 2016 Woking (22-5-5, 1st) @ Luton(12-11-9, 12th) Luton are 4:6 favorites today at their place. We're just 7:2 to win. We're 1-2-1 lifetime against these guys, including a 3:1 win back in October. Luton not lost in their last 5 matches. An old and favorite loaner of mine, Curtis Main, is on Luton, though David Ball is their star with 15 goals. Main has 5 goals. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Same lineup for us. Luton runs 4-2-1-2-1 with two DMC, two AMs wide, MC and FC. David Ball is their Striker, so Main isn't even out there. Standard mindset today. 1': Long pass foward for us, Harsanyi reaches it first and is brought down. Defender Pilkington gets a yellow. 18': We attack pretty constantly but only have 1 off target shot to show for it. 23': We work the ball foward, pushign it back in after a clearance, O'Sullivan plays a perfect through ball between the two DC's, Constantino breaks on it and pushes it by the keeper who is trying to rush out, but he can't get tehre and its a goal! 1-0 26': A quick run down the right side for Constantino, he puts a cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, the keeper dives out for it but can't get to it. Colin is there and heads it into the now empty net! 2-0 31': Constantino is tackled in midfield and hobbled a bit. He's not injured but slowed, we'll see how he recovers going into the second half. 45': Luton has been attacking for the last 10 minutes but has not generated a shot in that time period. They get a nice through ball into the right side of the area but we have two defenders close down really quickly and we tackle it away quickly. HALF: We shoot 5 times, putting two into the net, the only two that were on target. Luton actually controls possession 55/45, a rarity for us, but only 2 shots and only 1 on target. Constantino will stay in for now but probably won't finish the match. 50': A very quick attack from Luton, Curtis Main is in for the second half, he receives a pass a solid 30 yards out, he turns and fires a shot immediately, its pretty much right at Lynch, but struck with such pace that Lynch just reaches his arms out and the ball blows through his hands and into the net... 2-1 57': A through ball to Harsanyi, he's there but a defender tracks to the ball with him well and his shot is blocked. We earn a corner, then a second corner, its cleared out, no luck for us. 70': We have a free kick from 30 yards out ,Smith lays it off to upson who blasts a shot, its right at the keeper, he makes a save and turns it behind, a well struck shot, corner comes to nothing. 80': Fresh attackers coming in... Kelly i nfor Colin, Subotic in for Constantino. 91': Subotic gets down the right and tries a cross, its blocked, Upson recovers it, runs out wide, passes it up to Ogogo, Ogogo is on the right corner of the penalty area and fires a shot, the keeper is slightly off his line, the shot sails over his head and barely under the bar, perefctly into the upper left corner of the goal!! 3-1 Luton 1 : 3 Woking Luton attacked pretty hard in the second half and I was of course worried after the first goal early in the half, but we held them off and even got that third goal at the end. Man of the Match: Ed upson (8.7) Goals: Ogogo (8.5), Colin (7.6), Constantino (7.5) Assists: Upson, O'Sullivan (7.4), Constantino Notables: Vince Taylor (7.3) Ed Upson is just killing it lately. 4 key passes, he won 6 of 7 tackles in the midfield, 14 of 15 headers. His last 3 matches have been a 9.1 with 2 goals, a 9.0 with 2 goals, and an 8.7 with an assist, all 3 man of the match winners. He seemed like the clear #2 behind Zak Middleton (instead of O'Sullivan), and now that Middleton got hurt and is gone Upson has just taken over the team for now at least. |
-- Ogogo and Upson are named in the league 2 team of the week.
-- Nikolaou is our only injured player now. February 24th, 2016 Woking (23-5-5, 1st) @ Chesterfield(15-10-8, 6th) Chesterfield are 4:6 favorites at their place today, we're 7:2. We're 2-2-1 lifetime against them including a massive 4:0 win during our dominant start back in September. GK: Lynch D: Williams/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Chesterfield can score goals. Adam Vickers leads the team with 21, while Ryan Blackwell has 19. Our top two scorers are Constantino with 28 and Harsanyi with 13, we're not as balanced but basically a similar threat out of our two forwards. Our next match is a home game against a bottom feeder, it'll be on short rest too but I'm not going to rest anyone, I want to win *this* match. We defend on the road today. 8': They have 3 shots ealry, all blocked, 2 leading to corners that we've so far cleared out cleanly. 23': We manage a shot finally, way off target from 20 yards by O'Sullivan. Chesterfield have 5 shots but all off target, 4 blocked. 29': Quick attack for Chesterfield, a pass to midfielder Hussey at the edge of the penalty area, Smith misses an interception and the ball squirts free from the attacker but just barely... Lynch comes out, Hussey lifts it over Lynch's head and it drops behind him into the net. 0-1 44': A long ball ahead to Harsanyi, he gets to the ball near midfield and is way ahead of the defense on hsi first touch... I really really thought he was onsides, inline with a defender way out to the left, but he's called offsides and we don't get the run on goal. 46': BEAUTIFUL play from Woking. Harsanyi has it out left, he beats a tackler, we have many men foward, instead of a long Cross harsanyi plays it to the end line to Colin, Colin draws a defender towards him and lays a ball off to Ed Upson, Upson is in a perfect position near the 6 yard box and easily beats the keeper!! 1-1 HALF: A very quick half. Chesterfield with the one really nice shot, Woking with one beautiful buildup and a perfect goal. Its a 1-1 tie but chesterfield are clearly better in the first half. They have 9 shots but only 2 are on target. We have 3 shots, just one on target. We're winning in the air which is probably helping our defense a ton. Our average rating is 6.35, not good at all! Mike Williams and Christian Smith are both getting killed today. 49': a free kick from 35 yards out for Chesterfield, its taken really well and lynch has to dive and turn it behind. Corner is cleared out. We try to counter attack and Upson gets a shot from 20 yards out... he could have gone foward into the area for a better look, we had an opening there, but he shot as soon as he had control of the ball. 61': N'Guessan is fouled just outside the area, Smith shoots, its blocked behind for a corner. they clear it easily. 77': Ogogo to AMR, Alcock in for a tired and rather poor N'Guessan. Our new MC loanee makes his first appearance after coming off his injury, John Moseley is in for O'Sullivan. 85': A great look for Colin after a cross by Ogogo, but his header just barely hits the crossbar and misses... 87': Free kick for Chesterfield near midfield, there's a pass foward then a long through ball into the area, they get a man to the ball behind the defense and he scores on a helpless Lynch. UGGGGH!!! 1-2 92': We have a free kick from midfield and things are desparate. Upson plays a ball foward to Constantino. He turns by his man and fires a shot from 25 yards out. Its starts heading for the center of the goal and bends left away from the keeper, the keeper can't get to it and its in the net!!!! 2-2 Chesterfield 2 : 2 Woking Incredible finish with each team scoring a goal in the final 5 minutes of the match. Their man Hussey scores both their goals and is man of the match. Goals: Upson (8.3), Constantino (7.0) Assists: Upson, Colin (6.8) Notables: Ogogo (7.2) Williams and Smith end up with 6.0 and 6.1 ratings, N'Guessan has a 6.1 rating when I pulled him late. A few guys just didn't have good games at all. I'm really just fine with a draw in a match like this on the road. |
February 27th, 2016
Droylsden(7-10-17, 20th) @ Woking (23-6-5, 1st) We're predicted to win easy here, 2:5 favorites while Droylsden is 13:2. We really should run away with this but they gave us some problems at their place earlier in the year in a 1:1 draw. GK: Lynch D: Thomas/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Moseley/O'Sullivan AM: Kelly/N'Guessan FC: D Taylor/Constantino A bunch of fatigue related changes today, Thomas in for Williams at DL, Moseley in for Upson, Kelly for Colin, Dan Taylor for Harsanyi. We attack of course. 3': We are on the attack, O'Sullivan makes a pass ahead to Constantino, he blows by his defender to get into the area, stops, fires to the far post and beats the keeper. This is Constantino's 30th goal for us! 1-0 16': We earn a corner, Kelly takes it and plays it to the feet of Vince Taylor, he controls the ball, makes a defender charging at him miss, turns, and blows a shot between the keeper and the defender on the line, goal! 2-0 21': Quick counter attack for us, Dan Taylor has it, plays it foward to Constantino and charges foward, Constantino plays it back to Dan Taylor, Taylor is in the area, he shoots, and scores!! Its Taylor's first goal for us. 3-0 27': They have a deep throwin, pass across the area, a through ball to attacker Brown, is he onsides? Uh, I am not sure... he receives the ball near the 6 yard box, Lynch dives and the guy just evades him and walks it into the net. 3-1 32': Ogogo down the right side, pass to constantino, a through ball to O'Sullivan, its tackled away from him and cleared... but there's a foul!!! Penalty and yellow card for defender Richardson! Constantino takes the free kick and buries it. 4-1 35': Kelly makes a great run down the left side and earns us a corner. He takes the corner and plays a cross to the far end of the 6 yard area, Smith is there, he goes up and wins the header, and its by the keeper!! 5-1 HALF: Well then. So we're pretty good sometimes. We're dominating everything here. Subotic in for Constantino and N'Diaye in for N'Guessan. Rest up guys. 66': Alcock in for Ogogo, we're just killing time now. 70': Even after the 'take it easy" order, Christian Smith makes a stupid sliding tackle about 30 yards from the goal, committing a foul... and hurting himself. Moron. 84': O'Sullivan gets the ball to subotic 25 yards out, he goes ot the left, then cuts right and leaves his defender in the dust, generating an open shot from about 15 yards out, he buries it! Great great individual effort, though i can't imagine the defense was trying hard at this point. 6-1 Woking 6 : 1 Droylsden Dominance! Man of the Match: Shane Kelly (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 (8.5), Smith (9.0), V. Taylor (8.5), D Taylor (8.3), Subotic (7.0) Assists: O'Sullivan 3 (8.8), Kelly 2, Constantino Notables: Lynch (7.5), Ogogo (7.3), Thomas (7.9), Moseley (7.5) -- Christian Smith is goign to miss 9-12 days with a leg injury he picked up today going in for a stupid, stupid, stupid sliding tackle when we had a 5-1 lead in the second half. League Stats Update With just 11 matches to go we're 11 points ahead of 2nd and 18 points ahead of 4th. There's a chance we could clinch promotion in march with 7 or 8 to play. Constantino still leads the pack with 31 league goals. Rushden's Sam Smith is actually proving to be a challenge for the title though with 28 league goals. 3rd place is 21. Oxford's Oliver Norwood is crushing the league in the assists category with 22. O'Sullivan is 2nd in the league with only 13. Middleton and Upson have 11 each for us. Constantino's 7 man of the match awards is part of a 5 way tie for 2nd in the leauge, Billy Greulich of Accrington has 8. Ed Upson has 6 and Harsanyi 5. We have 5 of the top 10 players in average rating. Constantino is 1st at 7.65. Sam Smith of Rushden is 2nd with 7.63. Upson 3rd (7.58), Harsanyi 5th (7.40), Colin 7th (7.38), O'Sullivan 8th (7.38). Looking through the team stats not much stands out but there is a "Games Scored in a Row" stat. We've scored in our last 18 matches. No one else is above 8. We have 88 goals as a team, second best is 67. |
-- Liverpool beats Sunderland 1:0 to win the league cup. This is their second straight League Cup title.
-- Scoring 6 goals is good for the awards. Thomas, Kelly, O'Sullivan, Upson and Constantino are all named in the league 2 team of the week. March Update -- Easy month, we play on the 5th, 12th, 19th, and 28th. -- Ed Upson is third in the league 2 player of the month voting. -- Constantino wins the Young Player of the Month award this month! -- I win my second manager of the month award this year, Woking went 4-1-0 in February, scoring 17 goals and allowing 6 in 5 matches. -- The board is delighted with my leadership. Our league 2 performance is the highlight. No downside! We did lose $89.5k last month. March 5th, 2016 Tranmere(16-8-11, 8th) @ Woking (24-6-5, 1st) We're even money favorites against a playoff contender at home, they're 11:5. They're just 1 point out of the playoffs and 6 points out of 3rd, after Woking in first and Stockport in second there is a pretty big logjam. We're 1-1-3 lifetime against Tranmere, they've been a consistent playoff contender in leauge 2 since I got up here. They killed us at their place in October, beating us 4:1 after we got a goal in the 5th minute to take a 1-0 lead. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Williams/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Dean Bowditch is their leading scorer with 14 goals, Patrick Nzuzi has 11 goals, those are the threats. Nikolaou is back today, but we've lost Christian Smith for this match. Otherwise, we have our top possible team out there. We attack today. 9': Constantino down the right side, lays the ball off to Ogogo, he crosses and there's a header by Harsanyi... it hits the crossbar and comes back into play, Colin heads it... saved, and cleared behind. Corner is cleared out. 11': midfielder Malone for Tranmere gets a yellow. 13': Colin with a nice run, its tackled away but the ball falls to Nikolaou who crosses, N'Guessan is open at the far side of the 6 yard box, but he heads it right at the keeper. 24': Yellow for O'sullivan. 31': Constantino receives a pass from o'Sullivan, he plays a beautiful ball into the right side of the area, N'Guessan is there, he fires, but its wide. Not a clear cut chance but it seems like he should ahve scored there. 34': Midfielder worthington gets a yellow. 42': Harsanyi with the ball 25 yards out, Constantino and N'Guessan both break to the goal but the pass isn't made.. time that better and its easy. Instead, Harsanyi takes the shot and puts it over. HALF: They control possession 56/44, they pass better, tackle better, and head it better... but we shoot 6 times to their 1. They aren't generating anything on their offensive end. We've had a couple solid looks, we just need a finish. 46': Nikolaou with a great long ball to Harsanyi, he tries a cross in, its blocked for a corner, its taken to Williams, cleared out for a throw... throwin taken to nikolaou... tackled away and they clear finally. 53': Ogogo with a foul just outside the penalty area, they take a shot on the fre kick and its just a foot or two wide. 55': O'Sullivan hurts one of their guys going for a header, but no foul, then Harsanyi receives the ball and is tackled and fouled. We shoot, its blocked into the area, Colin controls and we reset. In the end Nikolau commits a foul to give away possession. 64': we earn a corner, Upson takes it and sends it to Mike Williams, Williams turns and fires, the keeper dives but can't sotp it, goal!!!! 1-0 67': we switch to a defensive mindset. 82': They get a ball foward, there's a cross to the right side of the area, a header... it hits the crossbar and Ogogo puts it behind for a corner, that we clear out easily. 89': We give up another corner but clear it out. 93': Nikolaou just made the game winning tackle. We had a corner, they clear and try to conunter, Vince Tyalor loses a header and there is a legit chance for a total breakaway. They have an attacker just past midfield and only Nikolaou in between him and the goal... he approaches and makes a perfect tackle, preventing the breakaway chance. Woking 1 : 0 Tranmere We shoot 12 times, they shoot only 3 times, we didn't do much with our chances, but our defense was brilliant today. Man of the Match: Ed Upson (7.7) Goal: Williams (7.6) Assists: Upson Notables: Ogogo (7.3), Nikolaou (7.2), V Taylor (7.1), O'Sullivan (7.1) We've certainly played better but putting away a playoff contender is worth a lot. Ed Upson continues to star. With 10 matches to go: 1. Woking - 81 pts 2. Stockport - 67 pts 3. Oxford - 63 pts ----------------------- 4. MK Dons - 62 pts 5. Rushden - 60 pts 6. Brighton - 59 pts 7. Walsall - 59 pts -------------------- 8. Chesterfield - 58 pts 9. Tranmere - 56 pts 10. Rochdale - 55 pts 11. Notts - 53 pts 12. Luton - 53 pts ...... 21. Bury - 30 pts 22. Macclesfield - 26 pts ------------------- 23. Kidderminster - 26 pts 24. Hartlepool - 25 pts Close races everywhere except for the race for first. |
March 5th, 2016
Woking (25-6-5, 1st) @ Notts Co(15-8-13, 11th) The bettors see this as an even match, giving Notts the slight 6:4 edge to our 13:8. We've played these guys completely even in our history with them, 2-1-2, each team has 8 goals. We tied 2:2 at our place in October. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Christian Smith is back today, he's not full strength and may not play 90 minutes. Standard mindset on the road against a decent team. 9': They make a long run down the right side, Nikolaou is charging back to defend... they try a cross from the right side of the area... the ball hits nikolaou... and deflects into the goal. Its an own goal. :( 0-1 14': They attack and get a through ball into the left side of the area, an attacker meets it and shoots, and Lynch makes a good save. 22': We finally manage a shot, Constantino with a nice run down the right, a cross in and a header from Harsanyi, its just barely over. 24': A cross in from Colin, they head it away, but N'Guessan heads it back in... Harsanyi with a pretty strong header that goes wide. 42': Tons of time just ran off the clock... next highlight shows us on offense, Ogogo earns us a corner, Upson takes it, Taylor heads it miles over. 45': N'Guessan makes a run down the right, he pulls up and crosses seemingly too early, we had 3 attackers coming and he sent it in before any were in the penalty area... there's a random header in the box tht doesn't clear, Constantino gets to it but sends it right to the keeper with yet another weak header for us. HALF: Ugly, ugly half. Notts shoots 4 times, we shoot 6 times but 4 of ours are off target. We have an unbelievable 61/39 possession edge but we just aren't generating anything close to solid. Most of our shots have been awful. And of course they only score due to the freak own goal. Lets pick it up! 48': Our best chance of the match so far, after a long possession constantino receives a pass 25 yards out, he is able to work by his man and get into the box, he's still fairly closely defended but he gets a shot off and the keeper is forced to make the save. 52': O'Sullivan plays a beautiful ball from well on his own side of the field, Constantino turns on the afterbruners and catches up to the ball, there's no one anywhere close. He gets into the area, the keeper comes out, he shoots, but its saved.. there's a rebound and Harsanyi is there, Harsanyi passes the ball into the open net. 1-1 63': throwin for us in their end, its thrown to O'Sullivan who puts it into the box right away, Colin is thre to head it and its just over.. he had a pretty solid look there and could have done better. 65': They work the ball into the box, Vince Taylor makes a very good tackle to clear it away. 71': Ed upson witha yellow. 75': Offensive subs, Moseley in for O'Sullivan, Subotic in for Harsanyi, Kelly in for Colin, fresh legs to go get us the winning goal. 81': Upson with a foul, I hold my breath, no red, whew! 83': Corner kick for Notts after we head a cross behind. Smith misses a chance to intercept, but they try a pass that just goes harmlessly behind for a goal kick. 84': Moseley is at midfield, he makes a nice pass forward to Subotic, Subotic turns and puts a long through ball into the area, Constantino splits two defenders and takes off, he's the first to the ball, and he isn't missing this one! He fires it to the near post and its in! 2-1 91': Poor long shot from Notts after we commit a foul to let them set up an attack. 93': Another chance to attack for Notts, they cross through the area, no one touches it and Smith gets to it and clears it away. That'll do it! Notts Co 1 : 2 Woking We only allow them to shoot 4 times in the second half while our offense gets going much better and we get two goals for the comeback road win. Man of the Match: Constantino (7.5) Goals: Constantino, Harsanyi (6.9) Assists: Constantino, Subotic (6.9) Constantino with the 7.5 rating. The entire rest of the team, including our three subs, put up 6.8 or 6.9 ratings universally. 2nd place stockport tie 4th place MK Dons, giving us 2 points towards both our goals, 1st place and clinching promotion. 9 matches left, we're up 16 points in 2nd, 21 points on 4th. |
-- AML Shane Kelly was hurt in the last match and I remember seeing it but forgot to mention it during our comeback. He's out with a wrist injury and will miss 10-13 days.
March 12th, 2016 Rushden(19-6-12, 5th) @ Woking (26-6-5, 1st) We're even money favorites today, Rushden 11:5. Rushden are 3 points behind Oxford for 3rd and 4 points ahead of Brighton for 8th. They need every point they can get, but we're not planning on giving any up today. 2-3-4 is our lifetime record against these guys, we crushed them 4:1 at their place in October. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino We've got our best team out there and will attack. 7': Our best team isn't out there for long. Christian Smith goes down hurt and he has to come out immediately. Mike Williams is in. 10': Long possession for us but we can't find a shot, Constantino tries a turn but has the ball tackled away. 19': Foul by Woking at the edge of the penalty area, they shoot on their free kick, its blocked by the wall and behind for a corner, we clear the corner easily. 36': After a free kick by Upson whre he puts a shot miles wide, we've shot 4 times and all are way off target, pretty boring so far on both ends. 42': Constantino with a run parallel to the penalty area, he pases to ogogo who crosses in to O'Sullivan who heads it, just inches wide, our best shot yet. 46': They get into the area nd get a shot, Lynch saves and puts it behind for a corner, it was a really quick highlight, didn't see any buildup. We clear the corner and its halftime. HALF: Yawn. We shoot 5 times, all 5 off target. They shoot 4 times, 2 on target. We have a huge 60/40 possesion edge, we're passing well, heading really well, but we just aren't generating anything, we need to do more with our possession. 53': We counter attack quickly after stealing a ball near midfield, constantino lays a ball back for O'sullivan and takes off, he launches a long ball, constantino races by everyone and is in the area before you can blink, he shoots... but its saved. 55': There's a cross by Nikolaou, they head it away, but its not a strong clearance, O'Sullivan picks it up just outside the area, he puts a ball into the area, N'Guessan runs onto it and buries a strong shot near post!!! 1-0 58': We have a throwin in their end, they clear it, and they fire a long ball foward to top scorer Moult, and he's on the breakaway, its a huge letdown for us and no one can catch Moult, he makes it into the penalty area and beats Lynch, a solid play for Rushden. 1-1 63': We earn a corner, Upson takes it, Vince Taylor gets a strong head to it, but its way wide. 65': There's a break for Rushden, their man Moult has it, we're there to defend but backpedaling hard, Moult passes to another scorer, gets it back... fires a hard shot, and Lynch makes a save, whew. 71': N'Diaye in for a tired N'Guessan. 78': N'Diaye out wide, he crosses into the area, Colin with a header, and it hits the crossbar. 81': An interception by Nikolaou starts a break, he gets it up to Colin, Colin plays a ball into the area and Constantino runs onto it ahead of the defense, he shoots, the keeper has no chance... but he hits the right post, and it goes wide.. . aggggh. 84': O'Sullivan to Harsanyi after we win a ball in defense, Harsanyi up to Constantino... its another break, he pulls up early and shoots and just simply shoots it wide. Constantino doesn't miss these, ugh! 86': We've really got the pressure on here, Colin with a nice run and cross that erans us a corner. Mike Williams with a header after the corner is crossed in and its way over. 88': Yellow for defender Iriekpen for Rushden. 90': After a goal kick we are on the run again, N'diaye crosses ot Harsanyi, he heads it over. No more chances. Woking 1 : 1 Rushden They have a defender put up an 8.7 rating for man of the match. The last 20 minutes was an offensive show for us minuse the goals. We end up with a crazy 21 shots, about 8 or 9 in the last 20 minutes though. Only 8 of ours on target. Rushden shots 7 times but puts 5 on target, they threatened a few times on breakaways but we should hve won here. Goal: N'Guessan (7.3) Assist: O'Sullivan (7.8) Notables: Ogogo (7.0), Nikolaou (7.1), V Taylor (7.2), Upson (7.3), Colin (7.4), Harsanyi (7.5) Constnatino had a 5.4 rating today. Basically we won this game except for the fact that Constantino couldn't finish for shit. He gets a pass since he's the reason we're in 1st anyway. -- Chrisian Smith will miss 5-7 days with the injury he picked up today. Woking have guarenteed themselves a Coca-Cola League 2 playoff place We could lose the rest of our matches and make the playoffs at this point. We are 19 points ahead of 4th with 8 matches left. We could clinch at any point now with a win and a loss by key opponents. Stockporthas fallen off in 2nd as well, we're up 17 points on them. The top league 2 season in our history is last year when Port Vale went 29-10-7 and put up 97 points. With 8 matches to go we have 85. Port Vale also scored the most goals last year with 94. We are already at 92. |
-- Mickael Colin and Joe O'Sullivan are named to the leauge 2 team of the week.
March 26th, 2016 Stockport (19-11-8, 2nd) @ Woking (26-7-5, 1st) We are huge 4:6 favorites today. If we win today we could clinch first in our next match. We have never beaten or even tied stockport, we're 0-0-5 against them, losing 1:0 at their place. We really want to crush them today for that reason if no other! GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/V Taylor/Smith/Ogogo MC: Upson/O'Sullivan AM: Colin/N'Guessan FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Ben Hutchinson leads them with 13 goals, Andy Little with 9. We are by leaps and bounds the best offensive team in the league with 92 goals scored. Stockport are by leaps and bounds the best defensive team in the league, having only allowed 21 goals in 38 matches. Their top scorer Hutchinson is actually not starting today. We attack. 4': They earn an early corner, striker Andy Little gets his head to it and directs it goalward, but it hits the crossbar and we clear. 8': We control it in their end, O'Sullivan has the ball in the right side of the area and crosses to the far side of the 6 yard box, Colin is there for the header... saved! Its a clear cut chance for us, Colin got a great look there. 14': Nikolaou is hurt, he can stay in and nothing long term but he's a bit slowed. 17': Constantino gets into the area and earns us a corner but we can't do antyhing with it. We get the ball back foward as Colin makes a run into the left corner, he is able to get a cross in, Harsanyi heads it but its not on target. 24': Their attacker Little gets behind our defense and into the area, he earns their first clear cut chance but Lynch comes out and makes the stop. 34': Nikolaou is hit again going up for a header and he has to leave the field for awhile... again not long term but this is a bit bothersome. 45': After a stretch of no action we earn a corner, its an exciting one, the keeper comes out for the cross, gets his hands on it but doesn't hold it, the ball falls to the ground... but they get to it first and clear it away. 46': Nikolaou with a yellow. Tough half for him. HALF: We have an incredible 64/36 possession edge here, they got one nice through ball to lead to a clear cut strike, but just have 3 total shots and one on target. We have 6 shots, also just one on target. We have lots of crosses that lead to wildly off target headers. One noteworthy stat, Stockport have a 100% success rate on their tackles so far today. 48': They have a throwin, there's a pass leading to a through ball, Smith has a shot at an interception and just outright misses, striker Toggert runs onto the ball and puts it by Lynch. 0-1 51': Vince Taylor picks up a yellow for a tackle in the midfield. 53': Nikolaou passes to O'Sullivan about 25 yards out, he fires a long shot, it bends towards the goal but hits the right post and goes wide, so close. 58': We control possession forever in their end, multiple passes into the area that are all intercepted or tackled away perfectly, we just cannot find a good shot here. 63': Another chance on offense, Constantino plays a nce pass to Colin in the area but he's just immediately swamped by 4 defenders, somehow he fights them off to get a shot, but its way wide. 64': Subotic in for Harsanyi, Subotic is our best player in the air and our only looks today have been headers really. 66': O'Sullivan hits N'Guessan in the area and its our most open look since our first shot of the match, but its saved. 67': Vince Taylor tackles an attacker trying to make a run through the midfield... he's given his second yellow and we have to try to come back with 10 men. Mike Williams is in for Constantino who is having his second bad game in a row, Williams back in defense, Subotic the only foward. Moseley is in for O'Sullivan as well. 73': Christian Smith is hurt nd while he doesn't have to leave the game he doesn't look very good at all. 79': Their scorer Togwell gets a yellow for a foul on Moseley. 83': We've earned a couple corners and gotten foward a few times but no shots since the red card. Nothin, we don' shoot again and dont' really even come close. Woking 0 : 1 Stockport Neithe team plays well, their scorer earns a 7.3 rating and man of the amtch, their defensive line puts up 7+ ratings too. On our side, Abu Ogogo has a 7.1, Harsanyi a 5.7, we just weren't great and coudln't get anything at all done today. -- Christian Smith has a hurt elbow and will miss about 2 weeks. -- Vince Taylor will miss a game due to suspension after picking up his red card today. Our next match is against bottom feeder Macclesfield but missing our two strong central defenders will hurt. -- We are now 14 points ahead of Stockport with 7 matches left. We're 18 ahead of Rushden, currently in 4th, with 7 left. |
Awesome stuff! This thread is great, and it looks like you'll be in League 1 shortly!
This is one of the things that has inspired me to start my own FM dynasty -- I'm a recently converted fan of the sport so it's been a great learning experience. |
-- We get notice about contracts expiring. As far as players go N'Diaye, Thomas and Williams will not be extended, and that only leaves Subotic as an open option. He's willing to take $1700/wk to stay on, less than he makes now. He wants a big appearance fee, I lower it some and see if he'll take it.
April Update -- We play 6 matches in April, on the 2nd, 9th, 12th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. We could clinch promotion any game and even though we haven't dominated against some of the top teams in the last couple matches we are still a virtual lock to win the league. -- The board is delighted in my leadership, and we actually turned a profit in March without tournament money and such, we made $25k last month. Training Update -- Kinda disturbing update from our assistant... one player has failed to impress in training over the last month... our 24 y/o keeper Kevin Lynch just lost a point in handling... really??? April 2nd, 2016 Woking (26-7-6, 1st) @ Macclesfield(5-12-22, 24th) We're 1:2 favorites, they are 9:2 dogs. We are 3-2-0 lifetime against Macclesfield, including a 2:1 win at Kingfield stadium in December. GK: Lynch D: Nikolaou/Thomas/Williams/Ogogo MC: Upson/Moseley AM: Colin/N'Diaye FC: Harsanyi/Constantino Williams and Thomas are in at DC since Smith is hurt again and Taylor is serving out his red card suspension. Moseley in for O'Sullivan, N'diaye starts at AMR, Kelly AML. We will attack at their place. 5': Moseley takes a bit of a knock but he'll be ok. 20': highlights are even so far, each team has a couple shots but nothing dangerous at all. 22': Incredible play by the Macclesfield Keeper, we get upfield, constantino down the right side, he hits Harsanyi who takes a strong shot from 18 yards out, the keeper blocks it, there's a rebound right to Upson, he fires it back and the keeper recovers in time to make the second save too. 27': Nice give and go between Kelly and Harsanyi to get down the field, Harsanyi receives a pass and gets a shot off but its from a tough angle and its saved. 33': Moseley feeds the ball foward to N'diaye, he gets our first clear cut chance of the match as he receives the ball behind the defense in the area, but he puts a shot over. HALF: The rest of the half flies off without a single highlight. We seem better but we're kinda limping along lately, we're resting a lot of course. We shoot 10 times, putting 4 on target, with a huge 62/38 possession edge. Macclesfield shoots 4 times and doesn't really threaten, 3 are on target but 2 were very long range. 46': Constantnio is a damn genius. He receives the ball at midfield, runs through two midfielders, makes a defender miss a tackle, drags another defender out right with him, plays a low ball into the area that is placed inch perfect for Moseley to run onto, Moseley does so and puts it in, his first goal for us! But holy crap it was brilliance from Constantino. 1-0 63': Yellow on Midfielder Ackton. We have a free kick from near midfield. Upson takes it and plays it into the area, it was aimed for the left side to Harsanyi, it deflects off a defender and falls to constantino on the right, he takes advantage, picking it up and putting it in! 2-0 70': Defensive for us the rest of the way, lets get out of here and win. We kill the rest of the clock with ease. Macclesfield 0 : 2 Woking Relatively easy win as we would have expected today. Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0) goals: Constantino, Moseley (8.3) Assists: Constantino, Upson (8.5) Notables: Ogogo (7.9), Nikolaou (7.4), Harsanyi (7.3) 6 matches left in the season: 1. Woking - 88 pts 2. Stockport - 74 pts 3. MK Dons - 70 pts --------------------- 4. Rushden - 70 pts 5. Oxford - 69 pts 6. Walsall - 67 pts 7. Chesterfield - 65 pts -------------------- 8. Brighton - 64 pts We would have to lose our next 6 matches, Rushden AND MK Dons would have to win their next 6 matches, and BOTH would have to overcome more than 20 goal differential for us to not promote. |
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