FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

-- Ed Upson is named in the League 2 Team of the Week

International Update

Paraguay crushes Honduras 5:1 over the two legs of the playoff between the last potential north and south american qualifiers.


In Europe Switzerland beats Poland, Greece crushes Slovakia, Slovenia over Belgium, and Serbia over Denmark.

The World Cup Draw looks like it'll be on December 4th.


November 23rd, 2013

Hereford(2-6-8, 22nd) @ Woking(7-4-5, 9th)

We're 4:6 home favorites against this poor team. Hereford is 7:2 on their end. This is our first meeting.

GK: Lynch
DEF: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Harsanyi/Pablo

I've never seen a formation like this one... 4-2-3-1, that's 2 DMC's, 3 AM's and a striker.

We're attacking today.

9': Pablo has the ball forward, plays it back to Upson, a great ball forward to Jesus, he strikes it near post... keeper BARELY gets to it and turns it away.

34': Cannot believe we haven't scored yet. 9 shots to 3, many blocked. They do get men back w/ their formation heh.

43': Harsanyi and Pablo play a nice give and go, Harsanyi gets into the penalty area and fires a shot... another super close fingertip save.

HALF: Frustrating. We have 13 shots, 5 on target, 6 blocked heh. They have 2 off target shots, not even close ones. We'll break though and win this I believe, but the potential disappointment is looming if we can't.

68': We control the ball seemingly forever in front of their penalty area, Upson eventually gets a ball through to Jesus who strikes it hard but its saved... we now have 19 shots, 8 on target, 8 blocked.

69': Upson to Harsanyi who shoots from just outside the area, its over.

71': Ademola in for Downes, Subotic in for Harsanyi. Downes is tired, and I'm tending to prefer subotic/pablo up front.

76': Foul just outside the penalty area on Hereford. We get a dangerous free kick... and Upson puts it well over.

78': Some buildup after a free kick, Nikolaou a cross... Subotic heads it over.

82': Jesus receives a pass on the left side of the area from Subotic, he fires a bending shot... "grazes the top of the bar"


Wow. So frustrating!

Woking 0 : 0 Hereford

We take 25 shots, they take 3. We put 9 on target and have 10 blocked. What else is there to say. Their keeper earns a 9.2 and a well earned man of the match.

On our side:

Ogogo (7.2), Nikolaou (7.1), Upson (7.3), Jesus (7.0).

MEH.

[Radii]

November 26th, 2013

Woking(7-5-5, 10th) @ Dag & Red(7-3-7, 13th)

Dag & Red is favored 4:5 at their place today. They were predicted to finish much higher and have been a bit disappointing. This'll be our first meeting.

Dag & Red are led by speedy striker Izale McLeod who has 9 goals in 17 league matches. We'll try to close him down.

We replace a couple starters on short rest today:

GK: Lynch
DEF: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Jesus/Ademola
ST: Subotic/Pablo

9': Great hustle by Ademola to intercept a pass in the midfield, he races down the right sideline and fires in a cross... a header is put over but it was a very impressive play for Ademola worth noting.

15': Upson with a ball forward to Subotic who turns and evades a defender, earning our first clear cut chance... but his strike from 12 yards out is saved. We're playing real well early on here.

40': Scary moment as a long goal kick bounces high and Lynch gets caught in a real bad spot, contending for a ball in the air with an attacker that he's trying to race back for... he causes enough problems that a header goes wide, very scary situation in our penalty area there.

HALF: Dag & Red only shoot 3 times all half, each time on weak headers. Mike Williams has a poor 5.8 but the rest of the team is playing pretty well. We're taking a few too many long shots and not trying hard enough to get better shots it seems, I'll instruct the team to work the ball in closer before shooting.

48': A dag & red midfielder gets deep on the right side before crossing the ball in, its another header, this one though is just off the crossbar and back into the 6 yard box where Ademola gets there to clear. WHEW.

66': Upson picks up an injury, hopefully not bad.

68': O'Sullivan in for Upson.

73': Clapham in for an exhausted Jesus. We haven't taken a shot this half but Dag & Red isn't doing a whole lot better.

76': Harsanyi in for a tired Pablo.

89': 3 corners in a row for Dag & Red but we eventually get it cleared out.

92': After a Dag & Red corner we clear the ball away, Harsanyi wins it and fires a long ball ahead, Subotic gets behidn the defense and ends up with a complete breakaway chance, no defenders nearby... his first touch on the ball near the 18 yard line is awful though and it just ends up getting poked foward to the keeper, that was a near certain goal if he controlled it.

Dag & Red 0 : 0 Woking

Two scoreless draws in a row, this one I'm a lot happier about than the last.

Ed Upson is man of the match with a 7.4 rating today. Ogogo (7.0), Nikolaou (7.2) also did prety well. No one was really bad or anything.

[Radii]

November 30th, 2013

FA Cup 2nd Round

Peterborough @ Woking

Peterborough are currently 3rd in League 1. We expect to get destroyed today. We are 4:1 dogs, they're 4:7 favorites.

We make tons of lineup changes today, we're going to have to play another game after this one on short rest, the guys are tired.

GK: Lynch
DEF: Thomas/Fenton/Smith/Anane
MC: Ball/O'Sullivan
AM: Clapham/Downes
ST: Harsanyi/Sole


We'll defend today.

12': We're looking ok so far. Not a ton of chances but we're not getting run off the field right away.

29': After a long throw Ball heads the ball out of our penalty area. They get a man to the ball who fires a shot from 25 yards out, its placed well but Lynch makes a great diving save, even hanging on to the ball.

31': After some buildup Peterborough get a lot of congestion around our DC's and we break down and allow a through ball that leads to a point blank shot for their top scorer, Makall-Smith. Easy goal. 0-1

HALF: They start to build up a bit more, we don't allow another goal, but we're at 5 shots w/ all off target and they are now up to 10, the first 20 minuets things felt very very even.

Ball is hurt, he picked up an injury late in the half. Pulis comes in for him at the half. We'll try to attack a bit more but have low expectations.

55': We get a little buildup, Sole seems to have a chance at a through ball to Harsanyi but doesn't take it, instead passing to the left for Clapham, who is tripped up just inside the penalty box. PENALTY!! Sole takes it, GOAL! 1-1

68': Peterborough are pouring it on, we haven't cleared this ball out in a damn while heh. Jesus in for Clapham, who is playing poorly.

71': Harsanyi goes down in the midfield going after a loose ball.. he's hurt and forced to come out of the game. Subotic is in.

81': Mackall-Smith almost with his second goal, this a long speculative strike from 30 yards out way to the right that bends and hits the left post.

... 3 minutes of extra time coming.

Nuttin.

Woking 1 : 1 Peterborough

Our goal comes from Sole, 6.8 rating. Assist from Clapham, 6.9 rating.

Thomas earns a 7.2 in the DL spot, Smith a 7.0, that's it really.


Possession was 50/50 today, Peterborough took 20 shots to our 8, but they only got 5 on target. We held our own pretty well today but really got lucky to draw the penalty, we weren't about to seriously threaten to score otherwise.




-- Bristol Rovers fire their head coach, I'm expected to be a likely candidate for the job. That's actually interesting as the only other FOFC FM dyansty I did was a long lasting one where I managed Bristol Rovers the entire time, so I feel a small connection with them. But still.. not yet, I release a statement that I'm not interested.

-- Harsanyi is going to miss 2 weeks for an elbow injury he picked up today.

-- We set a record for gate receipts at $180,000 today, breaking our previous record of $130,000 in the FA Cup against Walsall I beleive a year or two ago.

-- The replay against Peterborough will be on December 11th. We play on the 3rd and 7th so will be tired as hell going into that one too.

[Alf]

great draw there Radii !

[Radii]

After a long MMO stint I decided to fire this back up today. I think I'd rather try to keep this going instead of buying FM11 at this point and trying to start something new. Re-reading the last page of the dynasty I remember all the guys on the team and want to try to take this a bit further.


December Notes

The board is delighted with my performance. Outperforming expectations in League 2 is a top reason for the delight. The departure of Mark Ricketts remains the top sticking point. We made money last month! $53k profit, thanks entirely to our huge gate receipts from the recent FA Cup match vs Peterborough. We have an overall balance of -$453,358. As long as we keep doing well there seems to be cash infusions to keep us going though.

DL Stelios Nikolaou trained well last month and saw improvements in a couple key ratings, Marking (up to 7) and Positioning (up to 10).

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

I cannot see us advancing past Peterborough... but if we somehow do, we'd get to host League 2 side Crewe in the next round. That would be a great draw for us.


December 3rd, 2013

Bury (4-6-8, 18th) @ Woking (7-6-5, 10th)

We go into this match slim favorites (5:4). Bury has been in League 2 for the last 12 years, only making the playoffs one time. They were 22nd last year.

This is our first ever meeting with Bury. They're led by Striker Scott Rendell who has 6 goals in 18 league matches. No one else has more than 3.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

5': We control possession in their 3rd for quite some time before O'Sullivan takes a long shot that's deflected out. Corner comes to nothing. We control immediately after their goal kick, more buildup, another shot deflected out, another corner going nowhere.

11': We earn a corner, Downes takes it short, Williams back out to downes who crosses it in, Smith with a header... off the crossbar! It was a good look.

15': Bury with their first shot, a long effort way off target. We have 6 shots, only one on target though (3 have been blocked).

19': Jesus has generated two great looks with runs down the left side and crosses into the area, headers from Pablo and Subotic have both gone over.

24': Upson with a pass ahead ot Jesus, he beats his man, into the box, he's tripped and a penalty is called!!! Its taken by williams... and sent wide. gah.

36': the last number of highlights have been Bury attacks... nothing serious though. Nikolaou just got called for a foul that looked sure to be a yellow to me.

39': Back to back yellow cards for Bury in defense.

HALF: We have 11 shots to their 9. We only managed one shot in the last 20 minutes of the half and things have evened out greatly. Our chances seemed better, but only one on target despite two clear cut chances, and its of course 0-0. Missing a penalty is pretty devastating.

46': We generate a nice attack right out of the gate, its yet another run down the left side by Jesus, a cross, and a header right at the keeper. Its at least on target this time.

62': Ademola comes in for a tired Downes at AMR. Jesus is tiring too but he's generated most of our chances so far, so I leave him in for now.

64': I change to an attacking mindset.

70': Clapham in for Jesus, Pulis in for O'Sullivan

71': As we clear a ball out, Bury midfielder Mat Mitchell-King picks up a second yellow card for a trip. We have a man advantage the rest of the way and really need to find a goal to win.

76': Ademola goes down with an injury and comes off the field briefly.

85': A long pass starts a counter attack for Bury. Their striker Rendell gets to it ahead of the defense but we catch up as he tries to set up for a shot, williams knocks it out for a corner.

87': A dangerous through ball by upson is cleared back for a corner. Clapham takes one, cleared back for another... the second is intercepted harmlessly.

89': We attack hard after a long clearance is picked off. Clapham runs down the left side.. into the box... a pass is deflected, Pablo races to it, but the keeper beats him to the ball by a split second.

92': Clapham with a terrible corner attempt. We win the ball back, Clapham with a terrible cross.

And thats it. We're unable to generate a goal here against a much worse team at home. This is a big disappointment.

Woking 0 : 0 Bury

Ogogo earns man of the match with a 7.3 rating. Nikolaou puts up a 7.2, Smith a 7.1, its all about the defense today.

Pablo had 4 shots, all off target. Subotic put 2 shots on target but both were saved. We ended up taking 18 shots today and putting only 2 of them on target. Bury had 12 shots, also putting 2 on target. We had 2 clear cut chances(to their 0) and hit the woodwork twice. Very disappointing result.

[Radii]

Its pointed out that we haven't scored in a few matches in league play during our postgame press conference, our last 3 league matches have ended in a 0-0 tie.

Loaner

BSS Side Lewes came asking about Striker Anson Cousins. Cousins is a kid I like a lot but he's just not up to the level of Harsanyi, Subotic, Pablo, etc. I'm happy to give him a chance to play somewhere.

World Cup Draw

Group A: Paraguay, Italy, Germany, South Korea
Group B: Australia, Cameroon, Serbia, Colombia
Group C: Bahrain, Uruguay, Portugal, Croatia
Group D: Slovenia, Chile, South Africa, Spain
Group E: Mexico, Greece, Iraq, Brazil
Group F: Holland, France, Canada, Ivory Coast
Group G: USA, Czech Republic, Ghana, Argentina
Group H: England, Switzerland, Nigeria, Iran

Group A and Group G are nightmarish. Good luck to the US getting anything done there, some revenge againast Ghana would be nice.



December 7th, 2013

Woking (7-7-5, 10th) @ Chesterfield(7-5-7, 12th)

Chesterfield are 4:7 favorites here, we're just 4:1, with a 5:2 shot at picking up one point. This is our first meeting against Chesterfield. They're led by Ryan Blackwell who has 9 goals on the season, tied for 5th in the league at this point.

I make a few lineup changes to account for the fact that we play a ton of matches in December and are going to have constant fatigue issues.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Chesterfield runs a 4-2-1-2-1 formation that we have not seen much of with two DMC, a MC, Attacking mids out wide and then of course their striker.

We open defensive.

15': We lose possession on our side of midfield, Chesterfield with a great pass ahead that looks to generate a clear cut look, but Thomas makes a great tackle before anything bad can happen. Chesterfield is controlling the ball though, they pass it around forever in their end when a highlight comes up.

31': Chesterfield midfielder with a brialliant pass to the right side of the arae, a hard shot is blocked by Lynch! Nikolaou is there to clear the rebound. That's the first clear cut chance for either side, we got lucky.

36': Yellow card for a Chesterfield midfielder.

HALF: A dull one so far. Chesterfield manages only two shots, one of them the scary one I mentioned above. We get 4 shots, one of them is a weak header on target, the rest aren't close. Possession is even at 51/49, which is good for us, early in the half Chesterfield was looking to dominate time with the ball. One thing I notice is we are dominant in the air today winning 74% of our headers, to only 39% from Chesterfield. Downes has been a bit of a non factor with a 6.0 rating. Everyone else is in a respectable 6.6-6.8 range.

49': After a little back and forth in the middle Downes receveis a pass and sprints down the side, a cross is blocked back for a corner. Corner comes to nothing though.

53': Chesterfield earn a corner the same way, a cross down the rigth side is blocked behind. We head the corner attempt behind for a second one... second one is headed away to the sideline for a throwin. Finally we clear after a bad throw.

60': We fail to clear a deep throwin and they get a hard shot from the edge of the box... Lynch with the nice save.

61': We counter quickly and Clapham delivers a solid cross, Subotic gets his head to it but its saved easily.

62': Pulis in for Upson, Sole in for Pablo, both fatigue related.

67': midfielder Rees for Chestefield trips one of our guys and gets a yellow

73': Free kick from 35 yards out for Chesterfield is blasted towards the goal and hits the right post! Whew.

76': After minimal buildup, Sole sees an opening from 20 yards out and fires a shot at the goal. Its on target but saved.

83': Midfielder Warburton with a yellow 25 yards from the net... Pulis steps up to the free kick and blasts the ball off the wall and behind. Corner is completely wasted.


And that's the game. I debated a few times trying to turn on an attack or counter late, but we've been struggling to score and pressing a decent team on the road didn't seem the time to try to get out of our funk.

Chesterfield 0 : 0 Woking

Nikolaou is man of the match with a 7.4 rating in defense. Williams 7.2, Lynch 7.2, Thomas 7.0 in the back. Clapham made some good plays up front and earned a 7.3 rating but we couldn't do much with our few chances.

We shot 9 times, they shot 7 times. We each put 3 on target. 5 of our 9 shots were from long range. Watching the highlights it never felt like we seriously threatened while they had a couple very dangerous moments that we took care of.


-- Kevin Lynch made is 150th league appearance today. Not bad for a kid that just turned 22 last month.


We fall to 11th with our 4th straight 0:0 draw.

[Radii]

--We learn in a coaching meeting that Stelios Nikolaou has made tactical improvements this month. After a good training report last month I'm thrilled. His Technique is up, as is his Stamina. This kid is 20 and has been one of my better performers.

--Zoltan Harsanyi has resumed training after his injury. He won't be availble for our FA Cup Match coming up, but he'll add much needed depth as we have 6 matches still to play this month from the 11th to the 31st.


December 11th, 2013

FA Cup Round 2 Replay

Woking (10th in League 2) @ Peterborough (4th in League 1)

We are 9:1 dogs to pull out a win today. 1:4 favorites for Peterborough. Do we defend and hope for the best or come out attacking and try to catch them off guard? Perhaps we try a counter attack.

We basically play whoever is rested today.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Smith/Thomas/Agogo
MC: Pulis/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Ademola
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Nikolaou and Upson are noticible scratches. They are both available if its close late.

12': The peterborough physio has come on 3 times already, perhaps giving us a prayer if they get a bit depleted?

14': We pack it in for a deep throwin, lose the ball quickly, a long outlet pass creates a 2v2 opportunity, our defenders both rush the ball, an easy cross is made and a simple finish puts us behind. 0-1

25': A Peterborough shot from outside the box hits the crossbar, that was close.

29': Through ball to striker Mackall-Smith, it was close to being offsides but not called, he scoots the ball by Lynch for his second goal. 0-2

38': O'Sullivan with a beautiful through ball that Subotic runs on to, it seems like he's going to get a clear cut strike from about 12 yards away, but he doesn't control the ball well and its taken away.

HALF: Not much we can do here it seems. They shoot 6 times to our 2 and truly outclass us here.

49': Oh a chance to get into it! Subotic with the ball 25 yards out, he slides it over to Jesus in the left half of the penalty area, a hard shot... the keeper dives for it and saves it.

61': A dangerous throwin sees three different Peterborough players control the ball in the penalty area but all they can manage is a shot taht Lynch blocks eaisly.

64': A quick attack by Peterborough, a long shot is blocked by Lynch but they have a man there for the rebound to put it into the open net. 0-3

67': Peterborough Striker Watts with a one on one move to embarrass our DC's and generate his own wide open look... Lynch is powerless to stop it. 0-4

73': I sub out starters to rest them. Ogogo ,O'Sullivan, Subotic out. Anane, Herd, Sole in.


Peterborough 4 : 0 Woking

About what should have been expected, it sucks it got that out of hand though. They ended up with two goals from Mackail-Smith and two from Dale Watts who didn't even come on to the pitch until the 56 minute mark.

Ogogo with a 5.9, Ademola a 5.7. Everyone else at least tried to hold their own today and stayed above a 6 rating. We allowed 14 shots, 6 on targe. We took 8 shots, 3 on target. One was a clear cut chance, probably the Jesus strike early in the 2nd half.


Our next league match is in 3 days so its time to put the focus on scoring in a league match again and staying in the top half of the table.

[Radii]

December 14th, 2013

Kidderminster (10-7-3, 4th) @ Woking (7-8-5, 11th)

The odds are basically even. 6:4 for kidder to win, 13:8 for us to win, 2:1 to draw. We need to win, and we *really* need to score. We know these guys pretty well. We're 3-0-2 against them, our last meeting was the playoff finals to promote out of the BS Premier to end the 11/12 season. They beat us 3:2 and forced us to spend another year in the BS Premier.


GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Subotic/Sole

Sole with a rare start. Pablo hasn't been playing great and is tired, he's sitting out today. Harsanyi is available for the 2nd half if we need him.

10': After a throwin in their 3rd of the field, we control the ball on the left side. Upson passes over ot O'Sullivan. He's a long way out but doesn't haev anyone near him. He takes a few steps foward and fires a strong shot from 25 yards out. The keeper dives but has no chance at all... but the ball hits the right post and bounces away. If it was on target the keeper was just not there, close!

16': They have a thorwin on their end. Upson with a long clearance of a bad pass, Subotic runs on to it and there's no defender in front of him... he takes it into the right side of the penalty area... one on one with the keeper... and fires a shot off the keeper where it falls safely away. That was a clear cut strike, I don't know how he didn't score.

39': Trhowin by Kidder, we deflect it away but it falls to the 20 yard mark straight in front of the goal. There's a scramble to get there, a Kidder striker is there first and he fires a shot that beats Lynch in the right side of the net. 0-1

46': A long pass down the left side for kidder... Ogogo gets to it first but doens't clear it well, it ends up practically being a centering pass for them, a striker runs on to it and fires it past lynch. 0-2


HALF: we didn't see a lot in the way of highlights here. Two good chances for us squandered, two good chances for them, both converted. Disaster.

-- jesus is exhausted. Clapham is in for the second half. Harsanyi is going to get into the mix as well.

49': Out of nowhere!!! Clapham has a freek kick from nearly midfield. He places a ball nicely into the area, Downes gets his head to it and puts it into the net!! Its a goal! 1-2

64': We delay in possession on their end of the field, O'Sullivan to downes, he betas his man and triggers a run down the right side, a cross... Upson gets his head on it... just over.

68': Harsanyi ends up one on one about 20 feet away but puts a shot wide.

82': We have a throwin deep in their end, there's a cross from Clapham, Ogogo gets his head to it in the 6 yard box... just wide! Gah! That was out THIRD clear cut strike and we have just 1 goal.

83': Ademola in for an exhausted downes.

88': We go all out pressing to try to generate a goal. They break us down immediately and Lynch makes a brilliant save.

92': Harsayni with a cross after a deep throwin... he sends the cross over everyone and out. He'll get his touch back, don't worry.

That was our last chance.

Woking 1 : 2 Kidderminster

We shoot 13 times, they shoot 8. But we both manage 4 on target, they just finished theirs and got out to the big lead. Downes has our goal (7.2), Clapham with the assist off the bench (6.9). Upson played well also putting up a 7.2. Sole was bad, 5.8 and out at the half. No one else stands out. Kidderminster is near the top of the league so we shouldn't be too upset, but, I don't like losing at home. Thank god we scored a goal. We drop to 13th with the loss.


Last game the Media called out Mike Williams for a string of non-exceptional performances in defense. Today they're going after Subotic. With Harsanyi back I do intend to rotate my strikers around and see if I can get something working.

[Radii]

We get a full week off before our next game. We finish the month with games on the 21st, 26th, 28th, and 31st.

-- In my pre-match press conference I'm asked about Subotic and I say that I do believe he can play better.

December 21st, 2013

Woking (7-8-6, 13th) @ Stockport (10-9-2, 4th)

The media headling going into the match is "Woking face the impossible" ... We're 10:1 dogs. They are amazing 1:6 favorites. Stockport have the fewest losses in the league but draw far more than the other teams at the top and find themselves a point out of automatic promotion. This is our first ever meeting with Stockport.

We're rested and i'm free to start my best, I make two lineup changes based on form though.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Anane
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Harsanyi

Subotic is not going to play today, maybe a break will slow all the critisicm he's seeing. Ogogo's morale is poor, he isn't unahppy but maybe he dips quickly when we aer losing. I put Anane out there in his place. Other than that i'm starting my best guys.


Stockport uses a sweeper, then two DC's, two DMs on the outside, three MC's and two forwards. We open in a defensive mindset.


11': Wow. Their striker Hutchinson gets the ball out to the right about 20 yards out, he embarrasses Williams and attacks and scores quite easily. 0-1

23': We clear teh ball out of defense, but they get ot it and head it back in. Upson with a header from the 25 yard mark or so... he heads it back into our box, Hutchinson runs on to it and puts it by Lynxh. Huge error. 0-2

36': Two quick highlights, in one Jesus with a cross to the feet of Downes, he strikes it and the keeper makes a great save. Another we collect the ball in midfield and theer's a quick lob ahead to Harsanyi. He has a decent look from maybe 15 yards out on the right side of the area but the keeper blocks it.

46': Almost! Upson places a beautiful pass onto the penalty spot. Downes is right there, he has a great look, but he hits it right at the keeper. Our first/only clear cut chance so far and we couldn't finish.

HALF: 2-0 feels insurmountable. We generated some chances but its just not looking good. Lets keep pushing and see if we can do anything.

55': Upson is hurt and we bring in Pulis for him immediately.

66': Mike Williams picks up a yellow going after a ball in the air in midfield.

74': AFter a throwin in our end, the ball end sup floating high in the air right in front of the net, a stockport player gets his head to it and Lynch makes a brilliant save.

77': Clapham in for Jesus, Ball in for O'Sullivan.

86': Clapham takes a corner, its headed by Downes... off the post, so close!

Stockport 2 : 0 Woking

Most of the match felt relatively even. Of course that could be because Stockport got off to a quick 2 goal lead and could let up. We were just totally outclassed by their scorer Hutchinson, obviously man of the amtch.

Upson put up a 7.1 before coming out with a little injury(hopefully little). Anane 5.8. Williams was at a 5.4 in teh first half but picked it up and finished with a 6.7 rating.


We learn after the match that we have now gone 8 matches without a win. Oof. We fall to 15th.

I'm worried about confidence and Morale issues especially among the strikers since so many guys are on long scoring droughts.

[Radii]

--Its not getting any easier as we play Lincoln who is in 1st place next. A report comes out that attendance is expected to be down.

Contract Update

We get 21 messages about expiring contracts, many are coaches. Noteworthy players:

--DC Aswad Thomas - Making $875/wk, wants a bigger apperance fee but will take $825/wk. Cutting $50/wk would be nice and he doesn't play a ton.

--DC Mike Williams - currently $825/wk, will take $800 but wants a bigger appearance bonus. I try to lower the appearance bonus and make an offer.

--ST Danijel Subotic - straight up extension, he makes $2100/wk and is slumping a little now but I believe he's a guy I need to keep around.

--GK Kevin Lynch - Wants a small raise and I try to lock him in for longer than a year.

--MC Joe O'Sullivan - still has self esteem issues. He's my starter and he's playing well at this level, he only asks for $375/wk. I offer him $525/wk (his current salary) extended out to 2017.

AMR Ademola, AML/Utility Sloma, MC Arter, DR Anane are all up this year and will free up about $3500/wk total salary.



December 26st, 2013

Lincoln (14-6-2, 1st) @ Woking (7-8-7, 15th)

We're 7-2 dogs today in a game that brings us to the halfway point of the season. Lincoln are 4:6 favorites. We've never played these guys before. I'm not looking forward to it.

Lincoln's big scorer is Chris Fagan who has 12 goals. Johnathan Hughes has more goals than our top scorer with 7.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Downes
ST: Pablo/Harsanyi

O'Sullivan and Jesus sit today. Lincoln runs a straight 3-5-2 formation.

2': A long free kick into the area... Harsany with the header, just saved! Nifty start.

6': Nikolaou falls over missing a tackle and is out of the play... a cross by Lincoln, the ball is headed around the area multiple times before being cleared behind. Corner for Lincoln comes to nothing. Pulis suffers a small knock.

24': Lincoln with the ball just over midfield, there's a 20 yard through ball run on to beautifully by Hughes... he strikes past Lynch... pretty goal, very quick strike. 0-1

28': Pulis with a free kick from 20 yards out, bent nicely around the wall, turned behind by the keeper. Two corner attempts go nowhere.

36': We earn our 7th corner... not a one has come close to connecting.

42': Pulis with a shot out of nowhere from 30 yards, he just misses wide.

HALF: We aren't playing bad. We've generated 8 shots, put 2 on target and had 4 blocked... our corner attempts aer awful. Lincoln with 5 shots, only one was on target, nothing blocked, they aer just whiffing. But that one on target was a great goal.

58': The second Lincoln goal is as quick as the first... A missed interception by Christian Smith is blamed for it, there's a long outlet from behind midfield, Hughes is onside but breaks perfectly and receives the ball just outside the box with no one near him, and he completes the finish. 0-2

69': Ball in for Upson, Thomas in for Williams, Ademola in for Downes. All three subs are based on resting important players for our next match.

79': Christian Smith goes down and he's out for the rest of the match. We've used up our subs so we drop back to a 4-4-1.

87': Ademola with a great cross, Pablo with the header... keeper makes a solid save.


Not unexpected but depressing.

Woking 0 : 2 Lincoln

Their goalscorer is obviously man of the match. Mike Williams with a 5.1 today, Ogogo 5.8.



Contract Update

O'Sullivan and Thomas immediately accept their new deals.

[Radii]

Starting DC Chrisitan Smith is out for 3 weeks.

[Radii]

Contract Update

Mike Williams accepts his new contract offer. GK Kevin Lynch does not, I tried to lock him up long term, he countered and I was pleased that it was for a slightly higher salary ($825/wk) but still a long term deal out to 2018. I didn't bother trying to negotiate that down anymore, the guy has started every game of this dyansty for me when he's been healthy, he's worth way more to me.



Midseason Table

We are halfway through the league season with 23 games played. Here's how things stand.

1. Lincoln - 15-6-2 - 51 pts
2. Rushden - 13-4-6 - 43 pts
3. Stockport - 11-10-2 - 43 pts
------------------------------
4. Oxford - 13-4-6 - 43 pts
5. Kidderminster - 11-8-4 - 41 pts
6. Rochdale - 11-7-5 - 40 pts
7. Leyton Orient - 9-11-3 - 38 pts
--------------------------------
8. Exeter - 10-5-8 - 35 pts
9. Dag & Red - 10-4-9 - 34 pts
10. Crewe - 10-4-9 - 34 pts
11. Grimsby - 10-4-9 - 34 pts
12. Wycombe - 9-7-7 - 34 pts
13. Port Vale - 9-6-8 - 33 pts
14. Chesterfield - 8-6-9 - 30 pts
15. Woking - 7-8-8 - 29 pts
16. Northampton - 7-8-8 - 29 pts
17. Brighton - 7-7-9 - 28 pts
18. Bury - 5-9-9 - 24 pts
19. Barnet - 7-3-13 - 24 pts
20. Notts Co - 5-7-11 - 22 pts
21. Hereford - 3-10-10 - 19 pts
22. Tranmere - 4-7-12 - 19 pts
---------------------------------
23. Macclesfield - 4-2-17 - 14 pts
24. Morecambe - 0-8-15 - 8 pts


We've been in a tailspin but this is our first year in league 2, we just need to avoid relegation. The bottom two teams are so bad that seems like it should be a breeze, but I know how losing streaks can lead to huge morale problems and things coming completely apart, so I'm not declaring myself 100% safe yet.

League Goal Scorers

Clayton Donaldson - Crewe - 16
James Lawrie - Port Vale - 13
Calvin Zola - Crewe - 12
Chris Fagan - Lincoln - 12
Sam Smith - Rushden - 11

Pablo leads us with 6 goals, Subotic and Harsanyi 4 each, Downes 3, others with 2 and 1. We are not scoring a lot at all.


League Assists

John Musinho - Crewe - 8
Many, many - 7

Subotic leads us with 5 assists, Jesus, Upson and Harsanyi with 3


Team Ratings

Ed Upson - 7.30
Pablo - 7.11
Joe O'Sullivan - 7.05
Stelios Nikolaou - 6.95
Jesus - 6.92
Zoltan Harsanyi - 6.90
Anthony Pulis - 6.86
Danijel Subotic - 6.84
Aidan Downes - 6.83
Abu Agogo - 6.81
Christian Smith - 6.77
Kevin Lynch - 6.76
Mike Williams - 6.70


We start our second trip through the league hosting Oxford(4th) then Rushden (2nd) before it gets any easier.

[Radii]

-- Danijel Subotic signs his new contract, he's here for another 3 seasons. That's a very expensive deal so he needs to start scoring and playing up to his ratings!

December 28th, 2013

Oxford (13-4-6, 4th) @ Woking (7-8-8, 15th)

We lost 2-0 at their place early in the year. Oxford remain favorites at our house as well, 4:5, we're just 3:1 to grab a win. We've played Oxford 3 times, scoring only 1 goal and giving up 5, we've lost all 3.

We played two days ago so we're exhausted, lots of changes:

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Ademola
ST: Subotic/Harsanyi

Nikolaou and Upson will almost certainly not make it 90 minutes. Sam Sloma is avaliable for a rare appearance at DL with DC Smith hurt and limiting our back line depth. Morale is really bad, lots of "poor"


4': We earn a corner, Ademola takes it short to Thomas who passes to Upson at the 18 yard line, he has a decent look but the keeper blocks it.

5': O'Sullivan with a graet ball foward to Ademola, he's in the penalty area but the keeper closes in and forces a bad shot wide.

12': Lots of buildup sees the wide defenders forward, Ademola slides the ball down the right sideline to Ogogo who places a really pretty cross towards the far post, Jesus is there and his header is IN! I don't know how long its been since we've had a lead, holy crap what a good feeling. 1-0

23': Their top striker Taylor receives a long through ball in a decent position, Thomas has to race to get the tackle and force it behind... corner comes to nothing.

31': Harsanyi down the left sidline, a short pa into the area for Jesus, he tries a shot, blocked, the ball sits in the middle of the penalty area for a bit before being cleared behind. First corner comes to nothing. We earn a second... Good cross but their keeper just gets to it and punches it away, a deep throwin... nope we get nothing out of that stretch.

36': We counter after blocking a shot... O'Sullivan to Ademola, he has a very long run down the right side, its another well placed cross to Jesus, diving header... diving save by the keeper! So close.

HALF: We take a lead into the half for the first time in forever. Jesus has a bit of an injury which is going to hurt us b/c our first two subs are pre-determined based on our fitness. Jesus has to come out right now though, Clapham is in. I'll delay the others for a little while. Harsanyi and Williams are struggling with 5.9 ratings, A few are over 7 at the half. Each team has 7 shots but we have 3 on target to just one for them. Possession is dead even at 50%, we are not tackling well(60%) whiel they are (84%). We'll take a defensive mindset into the second half and see what happens.

55': After a throwin in our end they try to counter attack, a long ball foward to their star Taylor and he's off to the races... Williams comes in though with a really great tackle to save it.

57': Oxford with a goal but its so clearly offsides I can't even put any sort of drama behind writing about it.

63': They get a winger charging down the right side, beating multiple men including Ogogo deep in our end but he cannot put a shot on target.

67': After some buildup in midfield Harsanyi receives the ball just outside the penalty area, he turns by his man and fires a shot.. but its well wide.

72': a nice through ball leads to a dangerous shot from about 15 yards out by an Oxford attacker, his shot is parried away by Lynch and quickly cleared by Thomas.

-- After this the next 15 minutes ran off the clock without a highlight, it caught me by surprise and I was very late to get my subs in.

88': Ball in for Upson, sloma in for Nikolaou

Oxford try to attack but we make a couple key interceptions in midfield to prevent them from setting anything up.

Woking 1 : 0 Oxford

We get a desparately needed win. That ends an 8 match league winless streak.

Agogo has our assist and earns man of the match honors with a 7.9 rating. Jesus has the goal and a 7.3 rating. Nikolaou (7.7), thomas (7.1), Upson (7.0) also had noteworthy performances. Harsanyi put up a 5.9 and really struggled.


Injury

Jesus twisted his ankle and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Ugh.


-- Ogogo's morale has been way down so I'm very quick to praise his play today in the media and hopefully keep him happy.

[Radii]

-- Lynch rejected another contract offer, I forgot how this worked, I thougth he was presenting me with a counter, I needed to adjust. He wants $825/wk til 2016 (2 years), I make him that offer now.

-- Ogogo is amused that I feel the need to praise him because he thinks he's playing like shit. Not exactly what it says but close enough!

-- Lynch finally accepts an offer, i've got him for two more seasons.

December 31st, 2013

Woking (8-8-8, 15th) @ Rushden (14-4-6, 2nd)

We were able to play Rushden to a 1-1 draw at our place back in August. Their house will be much tougher. Sam Smith is one of the league's leading goal scorers with 13 goals. We have a long history against Rushden and its not very good. We're 1-3-3 against them. Our only victory over them was in the 11/12 season in the BS Premier league. We've lost twice and tied twice since. They are 4:7 favorites at home.

More lineup changes with injuries and fatigue:

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Fenton/Thomas/Ogogo
MC: Pulis/O'Sullivan
AM: Clapham/Downes
ST: Subotic/Pablo

Nick Fenton has played in 6 matches this year nd done poorly. I'm not happy about needing to start him.

7': We earn a couple corners.. the second is placed beautifuly by Clapham to Fenton, the keeper dives out to try to punch it away and misses completely, the net is open, and Fenton puts it over the bar.

27': Very little action, 5 shots total and i've only seen a couple in highlights.

34': Rushden with a long through ball, a little too long though, their striker gets it near the end line way too far right and can only manage to shoot it into the side netting.

40': Fenton is hurt on the offensive end during a corner kick, and his day is done immediately. Williams comes in off the bench.

HALF: We're playing with a defensive mindset so I'm pretty happy to see the half fly by with few highlights of us defending. We each have 3 shots, none on target. Possession is 52/48, stats are pretty even all around. Maybe we could squeak out a goal but I'd be thrilled to keep this up. It looks like Rushden has been playing a lot lately too, Sam Smith shows at 59% energy level at the half, a couple other guys in the 60% range.

50': Complete defensive breakdown. Rushden controls the ball in the middle of the field, a through ball to the penalty spot... and no one goes for it. Our DCs are just not in position and not tracking to the ball. Lynch makes a great save but there's a rebound put into an open net. 0-1

58': We control the ball in their end, a through ball to Downes on the right side of the area but they close in and tackle it away before he can shoot. They clear but Nikolaou very aggressively comes up after picking up the ball at midfield on the clearance, he puts a ball deep on the left side, Pablo runs on to it but the angle it too tough, he basically plays it right across the net and it goes behind for a goal kick.

60': O'Sullivan goes down hard... and he has to come out. His day is over. Ball is in.

69': After a little possession in the middle Ball plays a great ball forward to Subotic, he picks it up in the area... but seems to strugle with it and can't get a shot off.

71': NOOO. We intercept a poor pass on their end and there's a long ball played forward to Pablo, he receives it and has a breakaway against the keeper... he pulls u pabout 15 yards away... and its just wide. Clear cut strike and he blew it. That was our chance to tie it.

83': Sloma in for Clapham who picks up an injury that hopefully isn't as badas the other two we've had today, this could be terrible. We'll try to attack to get the tying goal.

Nothing happens the rest of the way.

Rushden 1 : 0 Woking

I'm pretty much furious with Pablo. I sympathise with eveyrone else for the loss and get Pablo the "express your anger at his performance" pep talk separately.

Nikolaou plays well, 7.3. Pulis and O'Sullivan were in there with a 7.1 and 7.0 as well. Clapham struggled and put up a 5.9 and pablo had a 5.5 with the big failure to get us a draw here.



Injury Update

--O'Sullivan has a knee injury, 4 weeks

--Fenton is out 5-6 weeks with an ankle injury.

O'Sullivan is a better player but Fenton is a bigger loss. We have a lot of MC depth. With Christian Smith already hurt losing Fenton is really bad.

[Radii]

January Update

The schedule for January looks reasonable, we'll get to rest up and recover from injury with just a few games. There's a transfer window but we don't have any salary room this year.

The board remains delighted. Ed Upson's signing is listed as a positive while getting crushed in the FA Cup by Peterborough is a negative. We lost $31k last month.


January 4th, 2014

Woking (8-8-9, 15th) @ Tranmere (4-7-14, 22nd)

We're considered to be outperforming expectations and Tranmere is underperforming. They are favored at their place as even money favorites while we're 11:5 dogs. We played Tranmere in our first ever league 2 match back in early August and crushed them 5-0.

Lineup changes with our injuries:

GK: Lynch
D: Sloma/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Ademola
ST: Pablo/Harsanyi

Nikolaou desparately needs a day off so Sloma gets a start.

5': Goal kick by Lynch, it clears the defense and Harsanyi runs onto it in the penalty area, huge mistake by the defense... but the keeper is right on top of it and its listed as a clear cut chance but I don't see how he would beat the keeper.

13': free kick for tranmere from the right side of the pitch just outside the penalty area... they take it to the far post and its headed in... Upson is blamed for losing his man. 0-1

34': Upson with a beautiful long ball from 40 yards out into the penalty area, Ademola runs onto it but his first touch is poor and he doesn't even get a shot off.

37': Harsanyi beats his man into the penalty area, he's closed down on and finds a way to get the ball to Pablo who is about 12 yards out, keeper out of position, no one in front of him, and he hits the left upright. Jesus. 2 clear cut chances, no goals.

HALF: So frustrating. 4 shots for Tranmere, the only one on target was their goal. We shoot 6 times, 3 times on target, two clear cut chances, 57% of the possession.. and we trail by 1.

50': Harsanyi receives a ball about 20 yards out, beats two men to get deep into the penalty area... he goes down and the ball goes out, no penalty, just a corner kick that we can't convert.

56': Tranmere with a good bit of possession in our end, Williams misses a tackle allowing a cross to the 6 yard box and there's a header that Lynch doens't even seem to make a play on... over his head and into the net. The team wants an offsides call but its not coming. 0-2

61': Sole in for Clapham, Harsanyi moves to AML. Ball in for Pulis.

68': Harsanyi makes a long run down the left side, he crosses into the area, the defense is not ready for it, Sole runs right by their DC's and heads it into the right side of the net! 1-2

79': Thomas throws it in to Pablo, a pass into the area by Upson, he dribbles deftly to the 6 yard box, centers the ball, a Tranmere defender and Ademola both go after it... the defender puts it into his own net!!! own goal, tie game! 2-2


That'll do it.

Tranmere 2 : 2 Woking

I'll pretty much always be ok with a draw on the road. This was a bad team so I'd like a win but after our awful start pulling even was pretty sweet. Weird game, lots of comments about the refs and an own goal.

Even after making a mistake to give up the first Tranmere goal, Ed Upson is man of the match with a 7.9 rating. Sole with a 7.2 and our only credited goal, Harsanyi a 7.9 with the assist. That's really it, Ademola was bad with a 5.9 rating, everyone else in the middle.

[Radii]

--A report comes out that the chairman currently running Woking may be looking to step down soon. Nothing we can do about that but it makes me wonder if the way we run things will have to change down the road.

January 11th, 2014

Wycombe (9-8-9, 14th) @ Woking (8-9-9, 16th)

We're small favorites today. 6:4 for us vs 13:8 for Wycombe. We have an advantage here in that we've had a week off and Wycombe played 3 days ago. We played to a scoreless draw at their place back in August.


Lineup changes with our injuries:

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Harsanyi/Downes
ST: Subotic/Pablo

Clapham's morale is poor and Harsanyi played very well the last time he was forced to the AML spot so I am putting him there to just mix things up a bit and see what happens really.

6': Harsanyi with a long open run down the left side, a cross, Subotic gets his head on it... but over the bar! Harsanyi wasn't challenged at all there.

11': A cross by Downes is cleared out, Upson picks it up and takes a very long shot... of the right post!

13': Harsanyi with a cross in, Downes gets a strong head on it... right at the keeper.

30': Downes with a clear cut strike, Subotic lays a little through ball to him... he's right in front of the net... and puts it like 5 feet wide holy crap really??

34': Wycombe has a guy make a long run down the left side into the penalty area, he only has Thomas to beat, Thomas with the tackle... his man goes down, penalty! Guh. They line up to take it... SAVED! Lynch with the save! We clear it out.

41': Midfielder Atkinson brings Ogogo down hard and gets a yellow card.

HALF: We generate 8 shots... but only put one on target, and we're not having them blocked or anything, 5 of them are just off target and not challenging anyone. Downes failure to finish was staggeringly bad. Wycombe only has 3 shots, 2 are on target, one is the penalty that Lynch saved. We have 65% of the possession and we just need to finish. I've used this word a bunch lately i think... frustrating!!

47': Nikolaou gets a yellow for a bad tackle in the midfield.

52': A throwin to nikolaou... ahead to upson... centered for Pulis about 20 yards out... a hard strike! the keeper just gets his fingers to it. corner comes to nothing.

65': Clapham in for Pablo... Harsanyi up to striker, Clapham AML. Ball in for a tiring Upson.

80': We earn a corner... its taken short to Mike Wiliams who shoots immediatey... saved but not held, we get a little poke at it, but then the keeper falls on it. Nothin.

82': Thomas with a yellow for a tackle in midfield.

83': Ball with a pass to Subotic, he beats his man, draws a defender and slides the ball ahead to Downes... its our second clear cut chance, he's got a great look... saved... parried away and we can't do anything with the corner.

92': A corner kick is deflected back out, Thomas picks it up and sends it up the left side, there's a cross... its met by the head of Downes... its his 3rd clear cut chance of the match, the keeper is way over to the left side of the net, a huge portion of it is wide open... Downes heads it weakly and the keeper still has to make a diving save but he gets to it.

That'll do it.

Woking 0 : 0 Wycombe

Aiden downes has to feel like crap today. He could have easily had a hat trick and really needed to find the net with one of those shots, but came away with nothing and we end up with a draw. Ed Upson is man of the match with a 7.5 rating. Nikolaou a 7.4, Ogogo 7.3. Pablo and Downes were in the very low 6's when no one else on the team was, they both struggled a lot.

We shot 17 times, only putting 4 of them on target. Possession 61/39 in our favor, only allowed 4 total shots, one in the second half. Coming away with less than 3 points really sucks.

[Radii]

I was debating if I should change something up since we are struggling so much to score goals, when for our next match our coaches recommend in the pre-match meeting that Crew struggles greatly against 4-5-1 formations and we should try that out. Fine with me, lets mix it up.

-- Christian Smith has begun training again and will see some minutes in our next match.

January 18th, 2014

Woking (8-10-9, 17th) @ Crewe (10-5-12, 15th)

They're 4:5 favorites today. We're 3:1 dogs. We beat these guys 1-0 at our place back in August, but we weren't playing like crap every match then so totally different. Crewe scores a lot more than most mid-table teams, 40 goals in 27 matches, and two players dominate. Clayton Donaldson has 17 goals and Calvin Zola has 12. Wow.

The 4-5-1 recommended by the coaches has a DMC, two MC, two AM, one striker. Here's what we are doing today.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
DMC: Smith
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Harsanyi/Downes
ST: Subotic

We're playing with a defensive mindset and telling our back line to drop deep based on a scouting report that Crewe love to counterattack and use their speed to take advantage.

19': Smith gets a yellow for grabbing a jersey while going up for a header. 3 total shots all off target is it so far.

33': The first on target shot is from 30 yards out by Crewe, Lynch grabs it... yawner so far big time.

38': Subotic starts the attack, pushign the defense back as he runs with the ball from midfield... back to pulis, ahead to subotic, he runs into the box and slides it out wide to harsanyi, a cross goes in, Upson gets his head on it... the keeper with a reflex save, pushing the ball away, it so looked like that was going in. Close! Upson comes down hurt to add injury to... not scoring I guess.

HALF: We have 4 shots, just the one on target. Crewe has 5 shots, just 2 on target, 4 of their 5 are from long range. We're dominating possession at 61/39 just struggling to get anything going forward. Upson is coming out, Ball is in. Pablo is in for Subotic as well.

59': Zola gets free i nthe penalty area and has a strike on goal but its right at Lynch and he holds it well.

75': Little used HArry Arter is in at DMC for Smith. Arter could see more time on the field if we switch to this permanently.

83': There's a long ball forward by Crewe to right midfielder Bennett, he recives the ball cleanly and strikes... off the crossbar! We clear it.

84': We generate a counterattack, Pablo with a loooong run with the ball from behind midfield down the left, wide of the penalty area, he crosses and we kind ahave numbers here... there's a header by Pulis, it grazes the crossbar as it goes over.

That'll do it.

Crewe 0 : 0 Woking

We stayed in a defensive mindset all match and ended with a draw on the road against a team that scores a lot more than we do. This is one that we'll take.

Nikolaou has a brilliant perforamnce with a 7.8 rating in the back. Thomas 7.2, Lynch 7.1, Harsanyi 7.3 as the left attacking midfielder. Pablo was poor in the second half with a 5.8 rating.


-- "Subotic has not scored in over 15 hours of competitive football but insists he remains confident"
-- "Pablo has now played over 15 hours of competitive soccer and looks badly short of confidence"

[Radii]

-- Jesus resumes full training, hooray!

-- Abu Agogo collides with Danijel Subotic in practice and picks up a thigh bruise. He'll be out 5-8 days and will likely miss our next match.

-- Chelsea destroys Championship side Middlesborough and Arsenal beats Newcastle, the two will meet in the League Cup finals.


January 25th, 2014

Notts Co (7-8-13, 19th) @ Woking (8-11-9, 16th)

Notts are even money favorites to win at our place. We've really fallen lately. We lost 2:0 at their place back in September.


GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Anane
DMC: Smith
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Harsanyi

Jesus won't be ble to go the whole way but we'll start him to get him back into the mix. Most likey Harsanyi moves to AML and Pablo comes in later. ogogo is out due to his training injury so Anane will play the whole match if possible today.

We start out with an attacking mindset

14': The first on target shot is by Ed Upson, but its a pretty weak effort from 20 yards out that is easily held by the keeper.

17': Notts Defender Cutler picks up a yellow.

22': We bring the ball up the left side, a pass goes in to Pulis at the edge of the penalty area, a hard shot... keeper dives... off the crossbar! they clear... so close.

30': There's a long ball foward by Notts, a striker gets it in a really dangerous spot, Thomas is there but the man gets off a very powerful shot from about 15 yards out... great save by Lynch, pehaps Thomas annoyed him enough as well. Whew.

HALF: Nothing much happens the rest of the half, that's not really good for us since we're the ones trying to press a bit for a goal. Williams and Harsanyi struggle in the ratnigs a bit this half, hopefully they'll pick it up. Each team shoots 4 times, each team puts one on target. We have pretty good control of possession, 55/45. We're doing terrible in the air winning just 38% of our headers, nothing else stands out much.

47: Christian Smith picks up a yellow trying ot make a tackle.

48': Defender Franklin with a yellow on their end for a trip.

54': Pablo in for Jesus.

58': We intercept a pass near midfield and counter quickly... pass up to Upson, ahead ot Pulis, a nice give and go, Upson is in the penlty area, and he slides the ball near post under the diving keeper for a goal!!! 1-0

63': We have a defensive lapse but they settle for a long shot... Lynch is out of position but the shot just curls wide.

65': Downes with a long run, into the area... tripped up by a defender and the ball is pushed out, Smith picks it up 25 yards away and blasts it, well over.

70': Downes picks up a bit of an injury and we take him out, Ademola in. Ball in for a tired Pulis as well.

74': We drop from an attacking back to a standard mindset.

81': After a quick pass foward a Notts attacker takes a shot from 20 yards out, Lynch dives but it curves well wide, not a huge threat.

87': Midfielder Taylor for Notts picks up a red card, its for a foul but I'm not sure exactly what the guy did... "his teammates haev to drag him away" from the ref, har!

They can't threaten after going a man down.

Woking 1 : 0 Notts Co

Upson has our only goal and is man of the match with an 8.1 rating. Anane 7.6, Nikolaou 7.4, Pulis 7.1. Our attackers seem to not be doing so well in this formation so far. i'm not sure what to make of it. Our attackers weren't doing well before either though.

We ended up with 9 shots, they had 10, but they didn't put a single one on target in the second half. They had some attacks that looked like they might be scary then the shots went all over the place. We only put 3 shots on target but Upson's finish was a really solid one.

-- Kevin Lynch has now played 304 minutes without conceding a goal.

[Radii]

--Downes will miss about 2 weeks with a leg injury he picked up in today's match.

--Joe O'Sullivan resumes full training.

--We haven't been doing great lately but our goal is to avoid relegation in our first year in League 2. With 17 matches left, we're 6 spots clear of relegation and a full 21 points ahead of 23rd place Macclesfield. Our early wins plus the fact that we're picking up a lot of draws has us in solid shape. I'd love to make a little run to finish in the top 10 or at least the top half but really it'll be a success if we stay right where we are.

--Ed Upson has now been man of the match 8 times this year. That is a single season record for Woking. Sole had 7 man of the match awards in 09/10, and O'Sullivan had 7 in 11/12.

-- I didn't say much aobut it but the transfer deadline comes and goes. I tried a few short term loan offers for players who would be clearly better than anyone we had, but had no luck.

February 1st, 2014

Woking (9-11-9, 16th) @ Port Vale (12-7-10, 10th)

Port Vale are big favorites at their place, 2:5, we're 13:2 to win and only 11:4 to pull out a draw even. We lost 2:1 at our place in September. We fell behind 2-0 and managed one goal late. Port Vale's James Lawrie has 15 goals.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Ogogo
DMC: Smith
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Jesus/Ademola
ST: Subotic

Downes is hurt, Ademola in. Ogogo is back in as he's recovered from his short injury. We'll try Subotic up front today /shrug.

We're happy to defend on the road.

1': Lawrie receives a pass foward and gets itno the area, Williams is there at the last second to block what otherwise would have been a point blank shot with Lynch rushing out. Thomas clears.

14': Port Vale have 9 shots... 6 blocked/2 off target. They just took one that Lynch ahd to dive to save.

15': Only a matter of time the way this has gone. Lawrie shoots, blocked... rigth back to him and he plays a nice pass forward to midfielder Hough who puts it in very easily.

21': defender Rushton picks up a yellow for tripping Pulis.

24': We spend 3 minutes in their end, earning a corner, a couple throwins and finally a freek kick 25 yards out. Upson shoots on that free kick and that's our first shot of the match. Its blocked and goes behidn for a corner which is instantly cleared away.

31': We take our second shot, another free kick, another shot is blocked behind, 1st corner is headed behind, 2nd corner is eaisly cleared.

40': We end up with the abll in their end, Ademola has it at the top o the penalty area, its areally great through ball that Upson runs on to, but he doesn't shoot with his first touch and a defender gets there to tackle it away.

HALF: They ahve 60% of the possession which is pretty good b/c 25 minutes in it was 77/23. They have 16 shots... 2 on target, 6 off target, 8 blocked. Most of them are from long range but with that much volume it puts all kind of pressure on us. We only generated two shots, both of them on free kicks and both went off the wall. We'll try a standard mindset to generate more shots i nthe second half... but I feel its just as likely we get blown out.


62': They're up to 22 shots, a few on target but all long and nothing scary. Harsanyi in for Jesus, O'Sullivan in for Upson.

64': We earn a corner and take our 3rd shot of the match, O'Sulliavn gets his head onto the corner and puts it wildly over the bar.

69': ohhhhhh.... Harsanyi receives a cleared ball deep in our end... he runs down the left side, he controls it forever, taking it 60 yards down field himself, he lofts a cross into the area, Ademola gets to it, the header... hits the crossbar, ugh!! An inch lower and we tie it up. It bounces back into the area but they get to it first and clear it out.

78': Ball in for Upson and we'll try to attack to get a goal.

81': Nikolaou is hurt and very hobbled but we can't sub him now.

Port Vale 1 : 0 Woking

We get the ball forward a number of times in the final minutes but its intercepted/cleared before we can generate any kind of reasonable attack. Their star Lawrie is man of the match with a 9.0 rating. On our end Nikolaou with a 7.3, no one else over 7. No one was really bad... Subotic with a 6.2 but I can't blame him, we never got the ball foward to do anything at all.

They shot 27 times, just ridiculous. 20 were long shots so maybe its not as bad as it sounds. We shot 5 times, 1 on target, i don't even remember that one to be honest.

One thing I did note was that Christian Smith probably needs to get back on the defensive line. He cannot pass for shit out of that DMC spot.

[Radii]

February Update

The board is "very pleased" with me. That's down from delighted but still just fine. Ed Upson's signing is still a higlight, and the disappointment from losing captain Mark Ricketts is back. They ask for

my patience while speculation about the club's future is dealt with. The board chairman will likely change soon, maybe during the offseason.

We lost a ton of money last month, 126k. Only 4 total matches and only 2 at home wil do that.

We play 5 matches in February... 4 left after the one we already lost on the 1st.

-- Uh, oops. Kevin Lynch hurts his elbow in training and may miss the next 2-3 matches. I've allowed my backup to go out on loan and he is hurt too, lets see who we have on the reserve squad! Oh right, my #3 GK Matt Pegler is still around. I had forgotten about him until I went to look.


February 8th, 2014

Brighton(9-8-13, 18th) @ Woking (9-11-10, 16th)

Brighton are even money favorites today. I can't help but wonder what they would be if Lynch was playing. But he's not. We beat them 3-1 at their place when we were playing our best soccer earlier in the year. Brighton has massive issues scoring, even worse than us, their leading goalscorer has 3 goals.

GK: Pegler
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
DMC: Arter
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Harsanyi

Pegler is at GK. Smith is back in the defensive line, Arter is our DMC. Downes and O'Sulivan are back in the lineup after their injuries, though Downes won't make it 90 minutes today. Harsanyi is my random "maybe someone will break through at striker" option today.

We'll try to attack and keep the pressure off of Pegler.

16': Throwin Brighton, its a through ball up to forward Reid, he's deep in our defense, passes it across the face of the goal to anothe forward to taps it into the net easily. Christian Smith missed an interception that allowed the goal. 0-1

18': Harsanyi recives a pass and beats the only man in front of him... he's 15 yards away, the keeper charging, its a great chance for us... but he puts it about 5 yards wide. Not even close.

23': Short corner taken by Brighton, their man Ocak turns, fires, and Pegler can't stop it... I have to feel like Lynch would have. 0-2

40': Jesus and Arter with a really nice give and go, Jesus gets into the penalty area but his shot is right at the keeper and saved. A nice move until the finish.

41': A Brighton Midfielder picks up a yellow, Harsanyi with the free kick from 35 yards out... its parried away by the keeper, they get to it and clear it out for a throwin, which we can't do anything with.

HALF: We have 8 shots, 3 on target, only 2 long shots, we've been generating some looks but just putting headers way over or missing open looks. They ahve 4 shots, only 2 on target but both are goals. Christian Smith is devastated by his mistake and has a 4.9 rating right now. I yell at the team a bit at halftime but it seems like we just have huge confidence issues and can't get anything goign anywhere.

49': Nikolaou goes down with an injury, he doesn't have to come out but he's hobbled a bit.

Nothing worth mentioning in a crappy 0-2 game happens the rest o the half.

Woking 0 : 2 Brighton

We don't manage a single shot in the second half. Brighton only takes a couple, none of them on target. so they put 2 shots on target all match and scored on both.

Smith 5.0, Harsanyi 5.4. No one has a good game. Pegler 6.1. I tell the team their performance was embarrassing and get out of this one as soon as possible.

[Radii]

-- Journalists are questioning both the play of Abu Agogo and Christian Smith. Neither are playing as well as I'd hoped and its frustrating, though our inability to score is certainly more frustrating.

-- Stories aobut the takeover of Woking are coming out every couple days now. Maybe we're close to having new management... maybe not.

February 15th, 2014

Woking (9-11-11, 16th) @ Macclesfield (4-6-21, 23rd)

Macclesfield are pick'em favorites to win at home today. We are greatly embarrassed by that. We're 20 points up on these guys. We won 1:0 at our place early in the year and have never lost to them, 2-1-0 lifetime including one season spent in the BS Premier league together.

We're going back to our 4-2-4 formation.

GK: Pegler
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Harsanyi/Pablo

1': Thomas receives a short corner and is brought down hard... no penalty, but he's sure hurt. He can come back in though.

21': Williams makes it deep down the left side and plays a cross... headed by Downes but into the side netting. Not a lot of highlights, possession and all the shots are ours so far though.

32': They clear it out of their end... and we just arne't there, striker Guy for Macclesfield is first to it and has a free run at the keeper, he places a shot well and scores. Sigh. 0-1

HALF: Disgusting heh. We have Smith and Thomas down under 6 for their poor play in the back to allow the counterattack. They only have 2 shots and 39% of the possession. We have 5 shots, 1 on target and a couple blocked. I just don't know what it takes at this point to get someone a goal.

55': Draper of Macclesfield is given a yellow, the 3rd foul of his they've shown in hgihlights, shoulda had one already imo.

57': Jesus picks up a yellow for us to even things out.

61': Draper with another bad tackle... and he's getting another card, red card for Macclesfield and we're a man up the rest of the way.

63': Ogogo with rough tackle and he gets a card. This is getting messy.

64': Macclesfield control the ball outside our penlty area forever... finally a through ball goes to Guy who has a good look, its their 2nd clear cut chance of the match, but Pegler gets a big save.

65': Harsanyi with a yellow... sheesh.

66': Pablo receives a ball deep down the right side, he places a nice cross to Jesus near the left end of the 6 yard area, header... keeper has it. Our 2nd clear cut strike of the match, ugly.

72': We counterattack after winning possession in their end, Harsanyi with a long run down the left side... he lays the ball back to Upson trailing the play, Upson strikes it, the keeper dives, deflects it, but its still in the back of the net!!! 1-1

75': O'Sullivan with our 4th yellow of the match.

81': Subotic in for Pablo, Pulis in for O'Sullivan, Fenton in for Thomas. all fatigue based but Pablo, just a random change b/c our strikers never score.

No action the rest of the way.

Macclesfield 1 : 1 Woking

Ed Upson has our goal and an 8.2 rating and man of the match. Harsanyi only puts up a 6.8 despite the assist. Pegler 7.0, Williams 7.1. that's it for strong numbers today.

[Radii]

--Fans were pleased at our draw on the road against Macclesfield.

--Kevin Lynch resumes full training. Thank god.

February 22nd, 2014

Exeter (12-9-11, 13th) @ Woking (9-12-11, 17th)

Exeter are only 5:4 favorites today, we're 7:4. That's about as even as we've seen in awhile. We tied them at their place October 1st in league play, then lost to them at their place October 9th in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Pablo scored all 3 of our goals against them. Their striker Luke Daley has 12 goals and is their biggest threat by far. We're going to try to close down on him quickly.


GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Harsanyi/Pablo

Nikolaou is fully recovered from his little injury and is in the lineup today again.

1': Exeter with a long run down the right side, we knock a cross behind... corner comes to nothing.

4': Ogogo goes down and has a bit of an injury, another Exeter attack and corner. We struggle to clear this one out but eventually do.

9': Some nice passing is finally shut down earning us a corner. Pablo takes it short to Williams. Williams turns by his man, holds for a moment, then fires a shot hard into the upper left corner of the net by the keeper!!! 1-0

12': Downes with a long run down the right, he gets his cross into the area, Harsanyi meets it but its saved by the keeper, deflected wide to Jesus who puts it back into the area but its cleared out.

23': A long free kick taken by Downes, he fires it into the area, Smith brings it down, they try to clear but fail, Harsanyi runs onto it and puts it into the back of the net!!! 2-0 This may be our first goal by a forward in like 15 matches, no exaggeration. I think his drought was up over 1100 minutes.

27': We're defending, tehy're passing it around outside our box, Chandler randomly turns and strikes from 25 yards out and Lynch just doens't get there... sheesh. 2-1

37': Pablo receives a pass about 30 yards out, his man is injured... he turns by him and burns him easily, into the box, he shoots... saved by the keeper, deflected back for a corner that we do nothing with.

43': Smith picks up a yellow for a tackle out near midfield

45': Jesus with a great run down the left side and we have 3 men charging into the penalty area, but his cross is a very poor one and is cleared out.

HALF: We lead but this seems like the type of match where 2 goals may not be enough here. We have 10 shots, 5 of them on target and we have 1 clear cut strike, I believe it was Harsanyi's goal. Exeter has 4 shots, only one on target. Possession is 50/50. We were attacking all half, we'll dorp back to a standard mindset for the second half.

65': Deep throwin by Exeter, they give it right back to the man that throws it in, he passes it up high, there's a cross... header... goal. We did nothing to disrupt anything that they were doing, we let all that happen. 2-2

72': Anane in for Ogogo, Fenton in for Smith. We're back on the attack. I don't care about a point here, lets try to score some more!

Nope, no more opportunities.

Woking 2 : 2 Exeter

Maybe I should have backed off and gone defensive but we've played these guys to high scoring games 3 times and I wanted to keep some pressure on them. Jamie Chandler for Exeter gets both their goals and is man of teh match. We get goals from Williams (7.9) and Harsanyi (7.3). Assists from Downes (8.0) and Pablo (7.1). Nikolaou with a 7.0 in the back. Ogogo sucked it up today putting up a 5.8 rating.

Harsanyi went 1210 minutes without a goal before the one he had today. Unbelievable.

[Radii]

February 25th, 2014

Woking (9-12-12, 17th) @ Barnet(8-5-20, 21st)

As bad as Barnet is they are stil 10 points head of relegation with just 13 matches to go. We're 21 points ahead and extremely safe now. Barnet are slim 5:4 favorites today. We tied 1:1 at our place back in October.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Thomas/Anane
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Ademola
ST: Harsanyi/Subotic

We make tons of lineup changes today on 3 days rest.

8': We control the ball on their end for a good long while, finally Pulis turns foward and puts athrough ball into the area. Ademola with a great run onto it, its a clear cut chance for us... but he fires it wide left, so close!

22': Pulis gets it forward to Harsanyi, he has to fight for possession, he wins it and dribbles forward a bit, he's still a long ways out but fires from 25 yards, its a great strike and the keeper has to dive to turn it behind. Corner comes to nothing though.

29': Ademola works it to Upson... back to Ademola, back to Upson, Upson with a ball forward, Subotic breaks on it well, the keeper is in a good position though and Subotic cannot put it by, keeper makes the save. It looked pretty nice but it wasn't the easiest angle in the world.

44': I watch Clapham completely fail to beat his man to try to generate a bit of a run for us, dispossessed easily twice in a row. We get a throwin though, Nikolaou gets to run with it a good bit, he lays the ball back for Upson who tries a shot from just outside the penalty area... it hits the crossbar and goes straight up into the air, just behind for a goal kick.

HALF: Its yet another match where we play well for a half but cannot find the net. We have 11 shots to their 2, but only 2 of ours are on target. We dominate possession 59/41, pass well, tackle well, win headers... just can't score. Jesus is in for Clapham at the half, O'Sullivan in for Pulis who got hurt a bit in the frst half and is fatigued.

66': Pablo in for Harsanyi

68': Barnet with a long run, Lockhart down the left sideline, we get out of positoin somehow even though its really a 2 on 4... we allow Lockhart to easily lay the ball to the charging forward itno the box, our defenders are not in a position to stop him from taking a point blank shot, Lynch gets to it but it squirts through his arms and into the net, it was a very powerfully taken strike. 0-1

74': Jesus with a quick run down the left side, a cross... Subotic gets his head to it but its contested I think and pops up into the air a bit, Upson is theer, but can't head it by the keeper.

77': While i'm typing our last failure up there's a run down the right, a cross, a header and a goal for Barnet. God the second half of this season has been frustrating. 0-2

85': How can we possibly fail this bad. Thomas with a gret clearance after a corner. Subotic picks it up at midfield, he beats his man, theer's a central defender behind him... he charges down the right side, pulls the defender out of position, slides a pass over to Jesus, Jesus is all alone 15 yards out... the keeper tries to charge, and Jesus puts it wide...

87': Finally! Pablo ends up wide left, he crosses nearly to the goal, the keeper... i dunno what he was doing, but he lets Subotic get his head on it from just a yard or two away and he drills it in. 1-2

We get one more try on offense that I saw but Pablo put a header well over.

Barnet 2 : 1 Woking

A rare man of the match performance in a loss. Subotic puts up an 8.6 rating with his goal and earns man of the match. No one else is over 7. Pablo has a 6.8 and the assist in just 24 minutes of play. Maybe Harsanyi scoring last match and Subotic this one will get us on track at least a little?

I just want this season over now though. Even though we're exceeding expectations left and right this is depressing. We outshot them 21-6 today, but lost 2-1. We took too many long shots, but still, we really controlled most of the match, we just cannot buy a goal sometimes.

[Tellistto]

Certainly seems like a new ownership group with hopefully some money would do your team a great deal of good. Just looks like you need some infusion of talent, really.

Tell

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

Certainly seems like a new ownership group with hopefully some money would do your team a great deal of good. Just looks like you need some infusion of talent, really.

Yep. I ran up to my salary limit quickly earlier this year so I didn't have any room to do anything at all when the January transfer window opened up. As long as the budget stays the same next year I'm not renewing a number of players and will be able to pick some new guys next season. If we get a bigger budget awesome. I'm worried we might get a lower one b/c we do lose money consistently.

[Radii]

--Stelios Nikolaou is called up for a Cyprus U-21 match on March 4th.

-- Alternating messages about the ownership takeover being close and on the rocks continue to come every few days.

March 1st, 2014

Morecambe (2-9-23, 24th) @ Woking (9-13-12, 17th)

Hey its a match we're favored to win! We're even money favorites against the worst team in the league at home. We crushed them 3-0 at their place back in October. We've been scoring a bit lately, we have 4 goals in our last 3 matches, so maybe the offense is starting to come around a little.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Pulis/O'Sulllivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Back to a better lineup all-around, Upson is resting today though. We'll open attacking.

10': Jesus burns by his man and puts in a decent cross, a defender with a nice header to keep Subotic from getting an easy goal.

13': Williams picks up a yellow.

17': We get the ball deep down the left side, Pablo has it in the corner, he turns and palces a nice pass into the area for Pulis, a shot... keeper is able to deflect it away. Its a corner that we don't do anything with. Good pass by Pablo there, too bad.

26': Pablo with a pass to the center to O'Sullivan, he places a nice pass between two defenders, Subotic is out on the left side, he fires near post... under the keeper and into the net!! 1-0

HALF: Was chatting w/ a friend and missed a couple higlights. We almost let them score on a breakaway goal, their striker Shakespeare keeps trying to scoot behind our defensive line and it worked once but he put a shot over. Pulis almost scored on a free kick and on another shot from 18 yards out. Two good strike sthat barely missed. We take a 1-0 lead into the locker room. We outshoot them 6-3, 2-1 on target.

51': We back into a defensive mindset.

62': Mainly due to Jesus being able to beat everyone down the left sideline we generate decent looks for both O'Sullivan and Pablo but both are nicely saved.

71': Defender Edgar picks u pa yellow for tripping Jesus. that's one way to slow him down I guess.

72': Jesus beats a man, met by another defender he gets it further forward to Pablo. Pablo places a nice cross, the keeper can't get to it, but a defender wins it so Subotic doesn't get to head it into the now open net. We earn a corner, taken short to Williams. Wliliams it tackled in the penalty area, foul!!! Williams takes the penalty and converts it! 2-0

78': Downes with a run out to the rigth side... he tries a cross in, a defender deflects it, a failed clearance really, the ball falls right to the foot of Subotic and the keeper hasn't reactetd to the deflection yet. Subotic buries it from 15 yards out!! 3-0


We finish this one off easily in the final minutes.

Woking 3 : 0 Morecambe

Subotic scores 2 goals today and earns an 8.8 rating, easily man of the match. Before his second goal I thought that Jesus was likely going to earn that award. Jesus puts up an 8.0 rating. Williams with our 3rd goal for a 7.4. O'Sullivan with an assist and a 7.2, Downes an assist and a 7.1. Pbalo 7.1. Ogogo 7.4, Nikolaou 7.7, Smith 7.0. The entire team played great. Pulis with a 6.9, Lynch a 6.9, the only two under 7 today.

I'm really really happy for Subotic after all of the trouble he had for so long to now find 3 goals in the last two matches.


March Update

We've got 5 matches coming up this month, 4 more after the one we won today.

The board is delighted with my performance. Ed Upson's signing remains the biggest positive. There is no negative listed. We lost only $65k last month(much less than January).

[Radii]

-- Chlesea beats Arsenal 2-0 to win the league cup final.

-- I praise Williams and Subotic in the media, both of them are pleased w/ the praise and feel they are playing well.

March 8th, 2014

Woking (10-13-12, 15th) @ Northampton (10-11-14, 17th)

This one matters a lot for our final position in the league. Realistically we could finish anywhere between 14th and 20th. If we got really hot as high as 11th might not be impossible. Northampton are slight favorites today, 6:4 vs 13:8. We beat them 2:0 at our place when we were super hot back in October.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sulllivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

The only change from our last match is Upson is back in the lineup, Pulis is out. We'll open defensively on the road.

1': We move the ball forward right away, Subotic with it around the 20 yard mark, he pushes it ahead for Downes, they get to it and clear it back. On the corner Subotic puts a header off the crossbar, doh!

8': Subotic picks up an injury, he can stay in but he gets the "injured" symbol over his head, I fear this hurting his momentum, bleh.

22': A Northampton attacker controls the ball about 18 yards out, he does all the work himself to generate a shot, Lynch makes a diving save and we clear it out, nice shot attempt.

38': Downes is hurt... he can stay in as well and its just in game hopefully, no injury symbol for him. Not a lot of action either to speak of.

44': Midfielder Byles for Northampton picks up a yellow for holding on to O'Sullivan's shirt. I thought this could have been a red for preventing a breakaway, but no.

HALF: Pretty even and boring so far. We haev 3 shots, 2 on target, they have 6 shots but 3 of them long and only 1 on target. I bring Harsanyi in for Subotic due to the injury.

60': We build up in the midfield a bit, Nikolaou ahead to Jesus, he runs at the penalty area, draws a defender and pushes the ball foward to Upson. Upson has a great look from about 17 yards away, the keeper just gets a hand to it and deflects it over. Corner comes to nothing.

67': A yellow for A northampton defender. We take the free kick from 30 ayrds out and earn a corner out of it as we try to cross it into the area. Corner is cleared.

70': Ademola in for a tired Downes.

76': O'Sullivan with a yellow for a tackle on the offensive end.

87': Nikolaou is hurt... he can stay in and will since its so late but that's two injuries today.

92': They have a throw in deep in their defensive end... they try to clear it but we intercept the ball and start the attack. O'Sullivan places a very nice long ball into the area. Pablo is right there, its an obvoius clear cut chance for us, and Pablo sends it way wide left. "That should have been a goal"

The match ends with "Pablo has to feel he could haev won that for Woking today"

sigh!

Northampton 0 : 0 Woking

A draw on the road is ok again... but we had chances. Christian Smith is man of the match with a 7.4 rating. Ogogo and Nikolaou put up 7.4 as well, Jesus 7.3, Upson 7.1. The usual suspects really.

[Young Drachma]

You've got me firing up FM now because of this thread...been reading for days now.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

You've got me firing up FM now because of this thread...been reading for days now.

awesome, thanks for reading!

[Radii]

-- Nikolaou is out 5-8 days with a "facial injury"... no report on Subotic, he's fine.

-- We had a match scheduled for March 15th, but its re-scheduled as our field has become waterlogged and is unplayable. Now instaed of games on the 15th/22nd/29th we play on the 22nd/25th/29th.


Woking Takeover Completed

Not sure how big a deal this will be yet, but Mark McShane has taken over Woking, replacing Shahid Azeem. We get a personal message from the new chairman a day later. MarK McShane tahnks me for my patience during this stressful time. McShane informs you that there are no plans to provide the club with any investment at this time.

-- That's potentially an issue. We've been getting the occcasional "cash infusion" as we have a slow and steady loss of cash whenever we run up against our allowed budget.

March 22th, 2014

Woking (10-14-12, 16th) @ Hereford(9-15-13, 19th)

We've played one less match than everyone now. We're one point behind 15th and 7 points behind 14th. Only points ahead of 19th. Hereford are big 4:5 favorites at home. We're only 3:1 to get a win, 2:1 for a tie. At our house back near Thanksgiving we played to a scoreless draw. Hereford is led by Mathieu Mansset with 11 goals. Subotic is now our leading scorer with 7 after scoring 3 in the last 2 matches. Pablo has been stuck on 6 for literally 2 months I believe.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sulllivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Hereford really packs it in with a 4-2-3-1 formation, two DM's, 3 AM's and a striker. We start in a defensive mindset.

2': We have a nice slow buildup before Jesus gets a cross in, O'Sullivan heads it over, but our control was pretty solid.

14': Pablo works a give and go with Jesus, Pablo receives a ball beautifully, he's got a man nearby but he's got a step... he runs right up in front of the goal, the keeper is not covering this well, he's got a free look at the net, and soemhow he puts it off the right crossbar. They clear it out. its a clear cut chance and I don't have any idea how he possibly missed that.

28': O'Sullivan with a yellow for a hard tackle.

38': Upson gets the ball ahead to Pablo this time, not nearly as easy a look, but Pablo gets a powerful shot off... the keeper deflects it behind. Corner comes to nothing.

HALF: We take 4 shots, 1 on target. They only take one shot and its way over from distance. We're doing a good job limiting their chances on the road, but as I've said so many times in the past 6 game weeks... we've had good looks and we just aren't converting.

47': We have a throwin deep in their end. its thrown to O'Sullivan, he pushes it back out to Ogogo who took the throw, crossed in, Upson gets his head on it, its on target... quick reaction from the keeper to turn it behind. Corner comes to nothing.

51': O'Sullivan with a through ball up the right side, Downes gets to it but has to take a shot from a very tough angle and the keeper stops it with relative ease.

59': Long ball forward to Pablo, Pablo apears to have a free run into the area... he's brought down from behind, I was sure it was a penalty but the ref puts the ball down a yard outside the area. I'm sure it should be a red card too, but its only given as a yellow. Free kick is saved. We earn a corner though, on the corner Pablo feels he was brought down and a penalty should be given. He complains loudly and earns a yellow for his troubles.

73': Harsanyi in for Pablo, Pulis in for O'Sullivan.


The game only goes into highlight mode momentarily after that. On the road 0-0 is ok.

Hereford 0 : 0 woking

Their keeper is man of the match. On our end Ogogo 7.3, Nikolaou 7.5, Jesus 7.3. Mike Williams 7.0. The usuals, Upson under 7 is a rarity. We take 8 shots, putting 4 on target, they take 4 shots with just one on target. Possession was even at 50/50, we dominated in the air but it ouside a couple nice chances for Pablo in the first half it seemed pretty even.

[Radii]

March 25th, 2014

Rochdale (18-9-10, 7th) @ Woking (10-15-12, 17th)

Rochdale are even money favorites at our house today. They crushed us 4-1 earlier in the year. Rochdale is fighting for a playoff spot so every match is huge for them. They're 4 points behind automatic promotion(3rd) and 2 points ahead of the first team out of the playoffs (8th).

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Anane
MC: Upson/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Ademola
ST: Pablo/Harsanyi

We're sitting a lot of guys on 3 days rest.

13': Soooo obviously offsides, but it looked nice! Clapham to Pablo to Harsanyi who beat the keeper one on one. But Harsanyi was super obvoiusly offsides.

25': We concede a corenr, they take it to the far post... a clean header... just off the crossbar, whew. They recover it but we tackle it away and clear it.

29': Nikolaou up ahead to Clapham... into the area to Pablo, he slides it back to Upson who atkes a hard shot from 25 yards out, but its saved.

HALF: There have been some shots but this is just a pretty boring one. We have 6 shots but onl 2 on target, one of them super far out on a free kick. They have 7 shots, 3 on target. Jesus is in for Clapham. In this formation I believe Jesus is our most important player. Clapham just doesn't generate the chances down the left side that Jesus does.

52': Rochdale with a little 2 on 2 break... there's a great through ball, a clear cut strike right in front of Lynch... save! Lynch with a huge save!

55': Attacker Russell for Rochdale picks up a yellow for a handball.

59': Jesus with a long free kick from about 30 yards out on the left side... he curls it into the area, Harsanyi with a strong header... its inches over the bar! Doh!

63': It looks like a broken down attack... Harsanyi receives the ball 25 yards out, the defense is way out of position, a through ball forward to Pablo and he can run right at the keeper... but Harsanyi just passes it over, not foward at all... its a really shitty pass... Pablo takes it where he stands and launches a shot from 25 ayrds, it curls into the upper left corner!!! GOAL!! 1-0

71': Ball in for Upson, we siwtch to a defensive mindset.

80': A defensive breakdown as we allow a little pass over our defensive line, one of their attackers runs onto it and has a clean look from 8-10 yards away... Lynch with an amazing save!!! Lynch should be man of the match if we hold on. 3 clear cut chances for Rochdale, two saved brilliantly by Lynch.

83': Fenton in for Pablo. We drop back to a 5-2-2-1 formation. They're bringing their keeper out pretty far, they desparately need points for their playoff run so they're taking risks.

We hold things off for the final 10 minutes with nothing scary happening. Big win!

Woking 1 : 0 Rochdale

I'm always glad when my view of the match jives with the ratings. Lynch earns a 7.5 rating and man of the match, totally deserved. Nikolaou 7.2, Smith 7.1. Pablo 7.2 with the goal. Harsanyi with a 6.9 and the assist. Mike Williams struggled badly with a 5.5 today. I expected our ratings to be a bit higher. We took 13 shots, 6 on target, 52% of the possession was ours. They took 15 shots, 7 on target, 3 clear cut chances, all saved.

--Pablo's goal ends a 1416 minute scoring drought. After not getting a goal from a foward in seemingly forever, Harsanyi, Subotic and Pablo have all broken out and scored in recent play.

[Radii]

Everyone has 8 matches to go now, here's a standings update:

1. Lincoln - 81 points
2. Rushden - 80 points
3. Oxford - 67 points
----------------------
4. Crewe - 64 points
5. Dag & Red - 64 points
6. Leyton Orient - 63 points
7. Rochdale - 63 points
----------------------
8. Stockport - 61 points
9. Chesterfield - 59 points
10. Exeter - 58 points
11. Kidderminster - 56 points
12. Port Vale - 55 points
13. Wycombe - 51 points
14. Grimsby - 51 points
15. Woking - 48 points
16. Notts Co - 47 points
17. Bury - 46 points
18. Northampton - 43 points
19. Hereford - 43 points
20. Brighton - 41 points
21. Tranmere - 34 points
22. Barnet - 32 points
-----------------------
23. Macclesfield - 23 points
24. Morecambe - 16 points


Lincoln and Rushden could clinch promotion in a couple games, realistically they are advancing for sure. Oxford in 3rd only has a +7 goal differential. Everyone else in the playoff picture is higher so they need to keep their points lead.

Morecambe is completely screwed for relegation, Macclesfield is 9 points behind Barnet so they need a big run to stay up as well.

[Radii]

March 29th, 2014

Woking (11-15-12, 15th) @ Leyton Orient (16-15-7, 6th)

Leyton Orient are huge favorites at their place today, 4:7 to win. We beat Rochdale a few days ago and these guys are tied for them in points. Its our chance to play spoiler. We beat them 2:1 at our place back in November. They ahve 3 guys who have scored 10+ goals. Higdon with 12, Fitzpatrick and Kermorgant with 10. Fitzpatrick is a midfielder that our scouts say is their biggest danger.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Most of our changes again due to the need to rest some guys. We open in a defensive mindset and with instructions to close down on Fitzpatrick.

10': Slow buildup for Leyton Orient, down the left side, Fitzpatrick finds midfielder Fraser in the left side of the penalty area... he gets off a clean shot, its by Lynch in the left side of the net. We had defenders there but he found space anyway. 0-1

25': Whoa!!! Downes with a nice long pass from 40-45 yards out, Subotic brings it in and takes it just outside the left side of the penalty area, he draws two defenders and passes it to Upson. Upson fires a shot from 25 yards out... its by the keeper!!! Goal!!!! that really came out of nowhere. 1-1

29': We actually have 7 shots but i've only seen 3 of them in highlihts... upsons goal and two free kicks that went off the wall.

31': Their man fitzpatrick goes down with a bit of an injury. He stays in but hopefully he's slowed.

37': Very nice cross by Leyton Orient leads to a header into the ground, Lynch has to dive but he gets to it and makes a very nice save.

38': Fraser with a yellow for bringing down O'sullivan.

41': midfielder walton with a yellow , not exactly sure what for.

43': We try to clear the ball, they have a defender playing pretty far foward who keeps it in our defensive end... cross come sin from the right and one of their strikers gets a strong foot to it, placing it under a diving Lynch and in. 1-2

HALF: Subotic picked up an injury at the very end of the half and he is going to have to come out. Harsanyi is in. I'm really impressed with our tying goal, once they went ahead early I figured it was over. They've scored a second though and keeping up with these guys on the road is not something I expect us to be able to do. I'm pleased that we're still fighting though. Each team has 8 shots, we only have 2 on target, they have 4. We actually control possession pretty well, 57/43 in our favor.

53': We take two quick long shots, a volley by Pablo from distance and an O'Sullivan shot... both are saved but both had some power and were on target, worth pointing out.

61': We allow their fowards into the area but recover nicely, thomas putting the ball behind before Higdon can turn and shoot. A better first touch and we're probably down 3-1.

65': Pablo with a cross into the area from 35 yards out... they miss in interception, Downes almost gets there before a defender puts it behind. Corner comes to nothing.

67': Terrible terrible defense. They got two men behind our central defenders.. Ogogo was being lazy and kept them onsides, a through ball and a shot, easy goal. 1-3

70': O'Sullivan gets a ball up to Harsanyi, he plays it foward to Pablo, Pablo was leaning the wrong way but so was the defender... Pablo gets to it first and puts it by the keeper!!! 2-3 We're not out of it yet!

72': AGAIN!!!! O'Sullivan is 40 yards out... a long ball on the ground, the defense just doesn't react, Pablo sprints by his man and gets to the ball 2-3 yards ahead of the defender... again, he finishes!! into the left side of the net, smoothly pushed by the keeper! 3-3

79': Midfielder Lees with a yellow backing into Upson going for a goal kick.

82': Lynch keeps us alive. A throwin leads to a quick long cross to the far post... header, that was a clear cut strike for Leyton Orient... Lynch dives for it and somehow makes the save.

85': Clapham in for Jesus, Ademola in for Downes.

90': Ademola shows some nice control making his way down the right side, he gets a cross in, upson gets his head on it... and its a very poor header, miles over.

What a thrilling comeback!!! We'll take a point, what a fun game.

Leyton Orient 3 : 3 Woking

Leyton Orient took 18 shots, 8 on target, 3 clear cut strikes. We took 16 shots, 7 on target, 2 clear cut strikes. Possesion 51/49 in our favor. We tackled slightly better, neither team was great in the air (57% for us, 59% for them). It was pretty damn even.

Pablo scores twice and is man of the match with an 8.8 rating. Upson with an 8.0 and his one goal. Assists from O'Sullivan (7.6), Subotic (6.9), and Harsanyi (6.9).

[Radii]

-- Norwich beats Preston (both league 1 sides) 4-1 to win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

April Update

We play 5 matches in April, the season is getting close to finishing up here. We have a critical offseason ahead of us and the world cup coming up soon. We have an $850k loan that we start repaying this month... $3500/mo goes towards that. Uh yeah I don't remember seeing any info on that loan but apparently the new chairman took it out or it was part of the deal or something... we made a profit of over $900k last month and $850k of it is from "investments". This loan allows us a positive balance... barely. I'm worried what will happen next season when we dip well back into the red. I fully intend to spend the money I'm allowed to spend to try to make the team successful, I don't have an order to turn a profit or anything. And I don't have any breakout players who I could try to sell either. Nikolaou is valued at $180k, no one else is over $60k.

-- Sole is injured by Christian Smith in training.

April 5th, 2014

Dag & Red (20-7-12, 3rd) @ Woking (11-16-12, 15th)

Dag & Red are pick em favorites at our place. We're 11:5 to get a draw or a win equally. They're tied in points for 3rd but have a better goal differential than Oxford, so they're fighing for auto-promotion and have tons to play for. We tied 0:0 at their place in late november. Izale McLeod has 16 goals and Jason Bradley 13 for Dag & Red, the two names to keep an eye out for. Pablo is up to 9 now for us after his little scoring outbreak the last couple matches.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Williams/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

We're completely rested. This is, I believe, the best lineup we're capable of fielding.

1': Bright for Dag & Red with a yellow for taking down O'Sullivan. Two fouls by them in the first minute.

3': Long outlet by Dag & Red, our defensive line is up very high... their forward wins the race to the ball but Lynch makes a good save to force a corner, which we defend well.

14': clear cut chance for Dag & Red on a long cross.. but a header is taken incredibly weakly and is an easy save for lynch.

16': we manage our first shot, a poor header by O'Sullivan after a long cross into the box on a free kick.

21': We build up possession, getting the ball to Jesus, a cross into the box, its a strong header... I think by Pablo, saved and deflected over by the keeper. first corner is headed back, second we waste.

32': O'Sullivan picks up a yellow

40': Huge error on our part... a through ball and Christian Smith thought his man was offsides and appears to pretty much stop. they shoot, Lynch saves but its deflected back into play, the rebond is put into the net. 0-1. Dag & Red has 4 clear cut strikes now... we are giving up too many easy looks.

46': Dudgeon for Dag & Red with a yellow.

HALF: We control 58% of the possesion, shooting 5 times but only putting one on target. They shoot 6 times, 5 are on target and 4 are clear cut strikes. They aren't doing much but when they do generate a chance its a really dangerous one. We need to get something going to get that goal back.

50': Smith takes a corner, its put into the 6 yard box, williams runs onto it and gets his head to it, but its over the bar.

52': they take a long goal kick, Lynch comes all the way out of the penalty area but botches a header... it falls to a Dag & Red attacker who takes advantage of their 5th clear cut chance of the match to pu the ball into the now empty net. Terrible decision by Lynch. It felt like our defenders were there ad would not have allowed a good look. 0-2

60': Long clearance by our guys... O'Sullivan forward to Downes, Downes is behidn the defense, he controls the ball in the penalty area, shoots, its off the left post, and ricochets into the net!!! 1-2

70': Harsanyi in for a tiring Jesus.

73': Upson feeds the ball into the area for Subotic. Subotic tries to turn on his man to get a shot off.. he's brought down... the ref gives the penalty!! Williams will take it. He puts it into the net! 2-2

80': Harsanyi with a very nice ball forward to Subotic, he's tripped before he can make it into the penalty area. Yellow card for defender Doe, but we can't do anything with the free kick.

83': We allow them to get very deep in our end, a nice turn by attacker Scott to get a cross into the 6 yard box. Their man Lee goes up with Nikolaou... Lee gets to it, and heads it easily into the net. 2-3

93': A great play forward by our midfield, Harsanyi to Upson, Upson with a ball into the area for O'Sullivan, O'Sullivan is brought down, and hard! He's hurt, like legitimately hurt with an injury symbol over his head, but there is no penalty given! We earn a corner, Ed Upson goes nuts about the lack of a penalty and gets a yellow card. We can do nothing with the corner kick and that is basically the end of the match.

Woking 2 : 3 Dag & Red

Joe O'Sullivan is man of the match with a 7.9 rating today and an assist. Goals come from Williams (6.6) and Downes (7.2). Our other assist from Subotic (7.5). Elsewhere, Christian Smith puts up a 7.0 and Upson a 7.0.

Nikolaou and O'Sullivan both pick up bad looking injuries (based on the fatigue hit) in the final 5 minutes.

We shoot 15 times but can only manage to put 3 shots on target. They shoot 10 times, but get 8 of them on target and generate a whopping 5 clear cut chances. We did pretty well to make it a 3-2 game as poorly as our defense played.



-- Nikolaou is out for 3-4 weeks. O'Sullivan is ok after all.

-- There is no press conference after the match. Since O'Sullivan went down injured at the end I was going to call out the ref, something I very rarely take the risk of doing.

[Radii]

April 12th, 2014

Grimsby(15-7-18, 14th) @ Woking (11-16-13, 16th)

We're favored today, 5:4 to win compared to Grimsby's 7:4. We lost pretty badly 3:1 at their place earlier in the year. Tom Corner scored two goals for Grimsby in that match. He's only their 3rd leading scorer with 9 goals. Rene Howe has 12, Richard Peniket has 11.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Williams will play DL for awhile with Nikolaou out, Thomas will get a few more starts. We set out to close down on ML Karl Moore, their top playmaker.

2': Downes receives a long ball, we have other men forward but there's really no lane to try to get them the ball... Downes beats one defender... he beats a second defender, a shot from 20 yards out... just wide! Nice move.

12': So much for closing down on Moore? We try to clear a corner kick attempt, moore ends up with it 30 yards out... he is allowed to run forward nearly into the penalty area before a nice pass over to the left side... its a shot from a tough angle but its a great shot, Lynch can't get to it and its a goal. 0-1

17': We control possession for a good long time, but cannot generate anything with our fowards, finally Upson takes a shot from 30 yards out and hits the crossbar. Its a powerful strike, not a bad effort. We need to get it in closer though!

24': Another strong attack for us, Jesus makes it into the area with solid control of the ball, he plays a little through ball to Subotic... easy goal if he gets to it first, but its defended well and cleared behind for a corner which we can't convert.

33': Upson ahead to Pablo... he draws a defender and gets it to Subotic, Subotic with our first clear cut strike of the match, its powerful and low and o ntarget... amazing save by their keeper, wow. Dunno how we didn't score there!

37': Grimsby with a counter attack, our defense is beaten badly, their striker Peniket is 10 yards clear of the defense when he gets the ball and runs at the keeper... he isn't going to miss this. 0-2

HALF: Our defense is getting rocked. Williams 5.7, Smith 5.6, Thomas 5.5. We've pressured them quite a bit, taking 11 shots, 4 of them on target, our best shot was saved brilliantly by their keeper. Grimsby have 5 shots and only 2 on target, one was a great strike, the other a massive defensive letdown.

55': Short corner taken by Grimsby to Howe... he jukes by downes and is into the 6 yard area... fires a shot... Lynch has no chance. 0-3

56': Jesus down the left side, ahead to Pablo, Pablo takes it wide, centers it to Subotic who runs onto it perfectly and puts the ball into the net from near point blank range. A little too late it would seem. 1-3

60': Seriously why can't we do this in the first half of games!? Ogogo is out wide, he plays a ball to Subotic in the center of the field, Downes cuts to the goal from his right position, Subotic plays it perfectly to him, Downes is there, and he puts it into the net! 2-3

76': Clapham in for Jesus who picked up a small injury, Ball in for a tired O'Sullivan.

81': A furious flurry... Ball plays a ball foward to Pablo, Pablo with the shot... saved, the rebound to Clapham, I thought for sure this would be our goal... but its saved... rebound to Pablo and he puts it wide.

89': Thomas brings down a man winning the ball in the midfield.. foward to clapham, foward to Pablo, he turns and beats his man, shoots... but its wide. He had a good look.

Well, for a long time we couldn't score at all, i'm pleased we're generating goals again, now we have to find a way to do it before we fall behind by 2 or 3 goals.

Woking 2 : Grimsby 3

Aiden Downes is man of the match in defeat today with a 7.8 rating and one of our two goals. Subotic with a goal and an assist and a 7.6 rating. The other assist to Pablo who struggled pretty badly with a 6.6 today. Jesus put up a 7.1. In defense Williams never really recovered from his poor start and ended up with a 5.6 today. The other defenders weer in the low 6 range, 6.2/6.3. We need to see a bit better than that.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

You've got me firing up FM now because of this thread...been reading for days now.

Better that you can spread it out over several days, DC... I've done this all at one go. Exams will just have to suffer on their own.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Better that you can spread it out over several days, DC... I've done this all at one go. Exams will just have to suffer on their own.

woohoo!

[Radii]

April 15th, 2014

Woking (11-16-14, 17th) @ Bury(12-14-15, 16th)

Bury are favored big at their place, 4:7 to win. Scoreless draw at our place, I don't expect that today what with the way these matches have been going recently! Scott Rendell leads them with 14 goals this year, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has 10.

GK: Lynch
D: Sloma/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Herd/O'Sullivan
AM: Harsanyi/Ademola
ST: Cousins/Subotic

Tons of changes today on short rest. Anson cousins is back from loan and will get an extremely rare start. Sloma and Chris Herd are in as well. With the season winding down we're giving a few guys a last look. We're defensive on the road

7': Clear cut try for Bury, a little pass from one side of the penalty area to the other sets up an easy looking header but its weak and Lynch is right there.

27': O'Sullivan with a rather random long shot that goes just barely wide.

35': Beautiful move!! Ogogo takes a throwin, plays a long ball forward to Subotic, he runs into the area, abruptly stops and passes it back to a charging O'Sullivan, he takes the shot... its off the bottom of the crossbar and deflects in!!! Subotic was pretty far right and didn't have an angle to shoot, his pass in a crowded penalty area was just beautiful. 1-0

HALF: Very few highlights today and I'm happy with that. I'm maybe writing up a little less than normal b/c I'm a bit tired too We've taken 5 shots, and put two on target. We've allowed 5 shots, 2 on target. Possession is even as are most of the stats, its a pretty even matchup, a great thing for us given some of the deep bench guys we have in there today.

64': They've taken a couple shots, both from distance and way off target. We just had a breakaway aftera long clearance but Harsanyi made a terrible pass giving up our advantage.

67': They move the ball down the left sideline... there's a cross, Lynch runs out... WHY. He can't get to the man about to take the header, and he ends up in no mans land about 5 yards out, unable to stop anything at all. the header is on target and we're tied. 1-1

72': Harsanyi is on target this time!! He has the ball 25 ayrds out and plays a graet through ball to Ademola, Ademola receives it at a tough angle but puts it in with a solid strike! 2-1

73': Ugh... instant equalising. Our defense is awful, a through ball finds attacker Marshall wide open, we have tons of defenders back but no one in the right spot. They tie it up easily. 2-2

83': Ball in for O'Sullivan, Jesus in for Subotic, Harsanyi moves to foward/Jesus AML.

Lynch has to make one good save in the closing minutes, but we end up tied.

Bury 2 : 2 Woking

Well, we got ahead today, that's an improvement! Sloma and Cousins were awful, 5.7 and 5.5. O'Sullivan had a 7.6 and a goal, Ademola 7.2 and a goal. Assists from Harsanyi (7.3) and Subotic(6.8). One of their scorers earns man of the match honors.

[Radii]

-Chesterfield, 8th in League 2, fire their head coach after changing management. I release a statement denying interest in the job.

-- The Woking board are delighted that I reaffirm my committment to the club by refuting my interest in the Chesterfield job.

April 21th, 2014

Chesterfield(19-10-13, 8th) @ Woking (11-17-14, 17th)

Oh, so I just told my next opponent they aren't worthy of my leadership. Hrrm. They are 4:6 favorites today and we've played a couple teams in the playoffs recently but this is the most important one for our opponents by far. The top 7 make the playoffs. Chesterfield is 1 point behind Exeter, just out of the playoffs today. They desparately need wins over teams like ours. Back in December we had a scoreless draw at their place. Chesterfield are a one man team.. Ryan Blackwell has 24 goals. Their second leading scorer has 8.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Pablo/Subotic

Back to a normal lineup today after resting up. We're going after their star scorer today, Blackwell, closing down and tackling hard.

7': Their star Blackwell with a great long pass... they steal the ball in midfield, Blackwell with a long ball foward to the other striker Vickers who cuts perfectly and gets behind the defense. Its a clear ut strike and he isn't missing as he runs into the penalty area and challenges Lynch. 0-1

20': Pretty!! Jesus at midfield, give and go with Pablo, Jesus receives it right back and makes a good run down the left side... he places a cross into the area. Joe O'Sullivan runs onto it and gets his head to it, the keeper cant get to it and its in! 1-1

22': Jesus. Not our player, but Jesus Christ what just happened. Highlight starts, there's a pass to Blackwell. He's on the right side of the field about 30 yards away. He just stops and shoots... and scores. No wonder he has 20+ goals... 1-2

29': Upson tries to get it back... after a few headers to determine possession Upson receives a pass about 30 yards out and fires... he hits the crossbar, very close!

30': Midfielder Bradly passes to striker Vickers, Blackwell cuts to the goal... Vickers with a through ball, Blackwell receives it behind our defense... and easily scores. 1-3

HALF: things slow up after that. A wild half but we are way on the worse end of this. We take 10 shots, they take 8. Both of us put 4 on target but they have the best player on the pitch and its not even close.

55': Harsanyi in for Subotic who was havign an awful day.

60': Ademola in for Downes who was also having a horrible day.

64': Jesus does most of the work himself, he starts naer midfield, beats two defenders as he charges down the left side, places a beautiful cross right at the 6 yard line, O'Sullivan meets it for his second headed goal of the day!! 2-3 "Jesus showed great creativity and vision to create that goal"

Just a couple highlights the rest of the way, they do a good job killing time and getting the 3 points they desparately need.

Woking 2 : 3 Chesterfield

Jesus is man of the match in the loss. He had two assists and was brilliant, earning a 9.0 rating. O'Sullivan with both goals and an 8.8 rating. Williams 7.0. On the other end, Downes 6.0 and Subotic 5.7 were really not on their game before being subbed out.


With just 3 matches left Rushden and Lincoln have clinched promotion. The rest of the playoff race:

3. Dag & Red - 74 pts
=====================
4. Rochdale - 73 pts
5. Crewe - 73 pts
6. Oxford - 72 pts
7. Exeter - 71 pts
=====================
8. Chesterfield - 70 pts
9. Leyton Orient - 67 pts

[Radii]

April 26th, 2014

Woking (11-17-15, 17th) @ Kidderminster(17-13-13, 11th)

Kidderminster are 4:6 favorites at home. We're 7:2 to get a win. They're out of the playoff hunt. We lost 2-1 at home to these guys. We have a history with Kidderminster as long as we do with anyone. We're 3-0-3 lifetime against them, scoring 11 and allowing 10 goals in those 6 matches. We've lost the last two though.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Downes
ST: Subotic/Sole

Sole hasn't played in awhile and Pablo could use a day off.

1': Whoa! We kick off and move right down the field. Subotic to Jesus, back to Subotic, through ball to Sole, his shot is saved but there's a rebound, O'Sullivan runs onto it and puts it home!! 1-0

9': A great through ball for Kidder leads toa clear cut chance but Lynch makes an incredible save.

11': Sole sends it wide to Jesus who plays it forward immediately to a breaking Subotic... its a little long though and the keeper comes out and gets to it before Subotic can get there.

15': Missed tackle by Smith leads to a near point blank shot for Kidderminster, their 2nd clear cut strike in 3 shots, and Lynch again makes an amazing save to turn it behind. corner comes to nothing.

28': Jesus and Subotic are working great together, this is the 3rd time i've seen Subotic break on ball perfectly to get behind the defense, this time he takes a shot from 18 yards out as the keeper is charging and he places it nicely into the net! 2-0

38': Deep throwin for us, Downes with a pass into the area, they miss a clearance and Subotic takes a shot but its parried by the keeper.

42': Thomas goes to clear out a long ball and i dunno what he does... whiff? trip? pick some flowers? An attacker runs onto the ball and fires a quick shot, the FOURTH clear cut chance of the first half for Kidderminster, and Lynch is there again. Lynch is saving the defense today.

HALF: Kidderminster ends up with 12 shots, most of them not worth reporting on, 6 of them on target but a few of them were long tries. But really.. four clear cut chances in the half, and Lynch was there for three to make great saves. We've got 6 shots, 4 on target. We've been in a defensive mindset since about the 3rd minute (only b/c I forgot to set it pre-game). Sole is holding his own today up at striker so far. Subotic at the left/supporting deep lying forward role looks great. I've not used him there much(preferring Pablo) b/c he's a big guy and I've put him up front as a target guy. But this seems solid.

49': After so many great saves Lynch just lets one by... Midfielder O'Grady beats a man, gets near the area and fires... its high, but right at lynch, and he just cannot hang on, the ball is through his arms and in. 2-1

63': Kidderminster has really kept the pressure on, nothing really scary but they have 17 shots now, they are trying to force something.

76': Still.. we have one shot, Kidder earn yet another corner that we clear out, they have 18 shots but we still lead by 1.

78': Through ball that leads to a shot from a tough angle... Lynch saves and Thomas clears, that was a little scary.

82': Sloma in for Sole. 5-4-1 formation, Sloma at DL, Williams slides over to DC, only Subotic ahead.

We only manage to take two shots in the second half but the defense holds strong after letting them back in it early in the half. Great win!

Kidderminster 1 : 2 Woking

They take 19 shots, we take 8. 10 of theirs are on target, 4 clear cut chances, all in the first half. Possession ends up even but they really pushed it when they had the ball.

Jesus is man of the match with a 7.8 rating and an assist. Goals from O'Sullivan (7.3) and Subotic (7.3). Sole the other assist (6.7). Additionally Williams earns a 7.2 rating.


We're down to 2 matches remaining:

3. Dag & Red - 77 pts
---------------------
4. Exeter - 74 pts
5. Rochdale - 73 pts
6. Crewe - 72 pts
7. Chesterfield - 73 pts
---------------------
8. Oxford - 72 pts
9. Leyton Orient - 70 pts

A win for Exeter pushes them from 7th to 4th. An Oxford loss and Chesterfield win see them switch positions, Oxford is a point out now. Dag & Red is in great shape to earn auto promotion but haven't even clinched a playoff spot, very exciting finish!

[Radii]

-- Jesus is placed on the League 2 Team of the Week/

May Update

--Jesus is the Young Player of the Month in league two. He's been playing great since we went back to the 4-2-2-2 formation.

--Our last two games are on the 3rd and 10th of the month, then we'll just be reporting on the rest of the league for awhile.

-- The board is very pleased in my leadership. Success in League 2 (remember, expectations were to avoid relegation) is a positive, Aswad Thomas' poor play in the defense is a negative. We need to ditch Thomas, Fenton and Anane and bolster our defense next year, that's probably our top priority in addition to filling the holes our loaners will be filling. We lost $106k last month.

Playoff Update

The playoff contenders matchups today:

#21 Barnet vs #5 Rochdale
#19 Brighton vs #9 Leyton Orient
#6 Crewe vs #7 Chesterfield
#4 Exeter vs #18 Hereford
#8 Oxford vs #22 Tranmere
#13 Port Vale vs #3 Dag & Red

Crewe vs Chesterfield is the game of the week by far.

May 3rd, 2014

Stockport(15-21-8, 10th) @ Woking (12-17-15, 17th)

Very similar to our last game with Kidderminster, we're playing a team that very recently became mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. They are pick'em favorites, we're 11:5 dogs at home. We lost 2-0 at their place earlier in the year. Stockport has not won in their last 11 matches. They've played 0-0 draws in their last 4.

GK: Lynch
D: Williams/Thomas/Smith/Ogogo
MC: Upson/O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus/Ademola
ST: Subotic/Harsanyi

A couple changes to the lineup today. Nikolaou is back to full training but not full strength yet. He might come in as a backup.

25': We have 5 shots but 3 are long and none have had a chance. They have 2 shots and a ton of dead time in this one.

30': Ogogo a throwin to Ademola, he passes to O'Sullivan and cuts towards the gaol, a great through ball, Ademola runs onto it, our first clear cut strike of the match... saved! Damn, that looked nice. Downes might have finished there.

45': Jesus is brought down in the midfield by a hard sliding tackle... he's done for the day and has to come out immediately. Pablo is in at striker, Harsanyi to AML.

HALF: We take 8 shots but its not really as good as it sounds, as you can see from the reporting on the match. They take 4, one on target, 2 blocked.... just nothing troubling Lynch at all either. I'll try to attack more in the second half b/c what do we have to lose.

67': After an early attack on our part the game skips ahead to the 67 minute mark... they are attacking, there's a cross from the left side, striker Bennett gets by Williams and heads the ball in. Very disappointing, our defenders were there and just played it terribly. 0-1

89': That's right, we skip ahead 22 more minutes before another highlight. We're bringing the ball out of teh defensive end, a long ball forward to Subotic, he goes wide, the keeper comes out his way and is well out of position, Subotic a cross... the defense is challenging it but Pablo gets his head to it... and its inches over.

That was one of the most boring games i've ever watched.

Woking 0 : 1 Stockport

One very quick strike for Stockport. Some shots where there... 10 for us, 8 for them, but only 6 on target total and most of them weak efforts. Just a very dull, boring game where we had one great chance and couldn't finish and we allowed one serious chance and they converted.

They have a defender putting up a 7.9 rating to earn man of the match. Williams has a 7.2, Thomas a 7.2, Jesus a 72. That's it. O'Sullivan with a rare weaker game with a 6.5 rating. Yawn!

After that one, i'm officially ready for the offseason.


Playoff update

#21 Barnet (1) ties (1) #5 Rochdale
#19 Brighton (1) loses to (2) #9 Leyton Orient
#6 Crewe (0) loses to (1) #7 Chesterfield
#4 Exeter (0) loses to (1) #18 Hereford
#8 Oxford (2) beats (1) #22 Tranmere
#13 Port Vale (3) beats (2) #3 Dag & Red


So how do the playoff standings change?

3. Dag & Red - 77 pts
----------------------
4. Chesterfield - 76 pts
5. Oxford - 75 pts
6. Rochdale - 74 pts
7. Exeter - 74 pts
----------------------
8. Leyton Orient - 73 pts
9. Crewe - 73 pts

Dag & Red have now clinched a playoff spot. No one else has. And if Dag & Red were to lose their last match, any of the 4 teams behind them could earn auto promotion if things shake out right for them.

[Radii]

-- Jesus is hurt and will miss our last game.

-- Rushden have officially won league 2. They'd already clinched promotion but I'm sure finishing first is nice on top of that!

Playoff Update

The playoff contenders matchups today:

4. Chesterfield vs 16. Notts Co
3. Dag & Red vs 19. Brighton
14. Grimsby vs 7. Exeter
11. Kidderminster vs 9. Crewe
8. Leyton Orient vs 23. Macclesfield
5. Oxford vs 1. Rushden
6. rochdale vs 24. Morecambe

3rd place auto promotes, 4 through 7 make the playoffs. Even the 4th place team isn't safe if they lose and #8 wins so its wide open. Oxford is in big trouble if Rushden wants to try today, especially with Leyton Orient playing the next to worst team in the league.

May 10rd, 2014

Woking (12-17-16, 17th) @ Lincoln (25-13-7, 2nd)

They're 2:5 favorites at home. Ouch. We're not really trying today either, lets get some guys on the field and have some fun.

GK: Martin
D: Sloma/Thomas/Fenton/Anane
MC: Arter/Pulis
AM: Clapham/Ademola
ST: Sole/Cousins

As many as half of these guys will not be with the team next year. We'll play defensive today.

15': 3 total shots, all off target so far.

31': The game just flew forward 16 minutes without a highlight. We are controlling the ball well but not generating any good shots really.

41': Yellow for midfielder McHearon for a rough tackle. Another yellow for a defender minutes later, Swibu or something.

HALF: They take 7 shots, all off target and 5 long. I only saw two of them in the highlights. We take 3 shots, all off target. We have a 57/43 possession edge. Season's almost over boys, go out and win one with the backups!

46': they attack out of the gate and generate a decent look from about 18 yards out. Martin does a nice job to save it.

50': Only a matter of time I suppose. We lose the ball in the midfield, there's a quick pass down the left sideline, a cross, a header with Sloma out of position and not challenging it properly, and they get a goal. 0-1

59': Arter has gone down hard a couple times today and he picks up an injury. Ball comes in for him.

63': They cross it into the penalty area, Anane goes ot make a tackle and trips the opposition. They won't miss the penalty kick. 0-2

We watch a few more highlights the rest of the way but they are all attacks for Lincoln, two nice saves made by Martin... we only take one shot in the second half and it was a long effort not shown in a highlight.

Lincoln 2 : 0 Woking

Anane 5.4, Sloma 6.0, Cousins 5.7. Clapham played well with a 7.0 today. Season's over, good first year in League 2, we have a lot of work to do on the roster.


Playoff Update


4. Chesterfield (3) beats (0) 16. Notts Co
3. Dag & Red (1) beats (0) 19. Brighton
14. Grimsby (1) loses to (2) 7. Exeter
11. Kidderminster (1) loses to (3) 9. Crewe
8. Leyton Orient (1) ties (1) 23. Macclesfield
5. Oxford (1) loses to (3) 1. Rushden
6. rochdale (6) beats (3) 24. Morecambe

Its basically exactly what I thought might happen, Oxford loses to the best team in the league and it knocks them out of the playoffs on the last day. Oxford with that loss falls to 8th. Leyton Orient will be kicking themselves, unable to pull out a win to beat the next to last team in the league. A win would have put them in the playoffs. Instead the team coming into the day 9th, Crewe, jumps up to 7th and is in. More on this as we do season review and postseason and all that jazz over the weekend.

Dag & Red got the win they needed to clinch a promotion spot as well.

[Radii]

Goalkeepers

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GA	SO	MoM	Yel	Red	Avg
Kevin Lynch	22	$825	48	61	19	1	1	0	6.71
Lewis Martin	20	$325	1	2	0	0	0	0	6.5
Matt Pegler	21	$90	2	3	0	0	0	0	6.55

**GA = Goals Allowed | SO = Shutouts


Lynch's Average Rating is down about .2 from last year, he only gave up a few more goals and onlyhad one less shutout this year though.


Defenders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Stelios Nikolaou	20	$650	36 (1)	0	1	2	1	0	3.59	76%	7.12
Abu Agogo	24	$2600	40(1)	0	1	2	1	0	3.94	71%	6.83
Mike Williams	27	$800	44(1)	4	1	0	4	0	2.73	74%	6.75
Christian Smith	26	$1200	43	0	0	1	5	0	3.50	66%	6.71
Aswad Thomas	24	$825	23(3)	0	0	0	1	0	2.86	75%	6.61
Ricky Anane	24	$975	11(3)	0	0	0	0	0	2.31	71%	6.46
Nick Fenton	34	$800	6(5)	0	0	0	3	0	2.08	66%	6.38

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


The entire defense is down this year. I'm really unhappy with our play here. Agogo at $2600/wk needs to do better. Nikolaou and Williams down about .2 from last year, I expected better from Smith. Thomas actually did ok when needed compared to last year, Anane and Fenton were awful.

[Radii]

Central Midfielders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Ed Upson	24	2600	35(3)	4	4	9	1	0	3.53	73%	7.25
Joe O'Sullivan	22	$525	36(4)	5	5	3	8	0	3.13	78%	7.03
Anthony Pulis	29	$1200	23(9)	1	3	1	0	0	2.99	77%	6.85
Chris Herd	25	$1100	2(7)	0	0	0	0	0	4.14	75%	6.84
Matthew Ball	21	LOAN	5(19)	0	0	0	1	0	4.35	70%	6.79
Harry Arter	24	$1200	2(1)	0	0	0	0	0	1.64	80%	6.77
Sam Sloma	31	$600	4(6)	0	0	0	0	0	3.36	68%	6.17

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


I felt the midfield held up pretty well. Upson is a solid addition, O'Sullivan and Pulis I'm clearly still happey with. Ball not so much for a season long loan.


Attacking Midfielders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Drb	Pass	Avg
Jesus	19	LOAN	35(5)	3	6	2	1	0	5.21	65%	7.00
Aidan Downes	25	$1000	35(2)	5	4	2	0	0	4.03	56%	6.79
Steve Clapham	19	LOAN	12(16)	2	3	0	1	0	5.48	50%	6.63
Moses Ademola	24	$1100	16(12)	1	0	0	0	0	4.27	54%	6.59

**GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/game


Jesus could have been so much more I think. So many great runs, and good crosses where our strikers were just all going 1200 minutes without scoring. I guess its possible its the fault of the delivery some too but I thought Jesus was quite special and our scorers just couldn't do anything this year.


Attackers

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Drb	Pass	Avg
Pablo	19	LOAN	33(4)	11	4	2	3	0	3.27	66%	6.92
Danijel Subotic	25	$2100	32(7)	10	10	5	0	0	2.83	66%	6.91
Zoltan Harsanyi	26	$2000	29(9)	6	8	0	1	0	3.66	70%	6.81
Giuseppe Sole	26	$975	5(5)	2	1	0	0	0	2.20	64%	6.36
Anson Cousins	22	$210	3(1)	0	0	0	0	0	2.01	71%	5.97

** GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/Game


Subotic ended up ok in the end, his numbers were similar to last year, but Harsanyi was a dominant threat last year in the BS Premier league with 30 goals and could not do anything this year. His dropoff was the biggest individual issue we had all year.

[Radii]

Coca Cola League 2 Final Table

1. Rushden - 29-8-9 - 95 pts
2. Lincoln - 26-13-7 - 91 pts
3. Dag & Red - 24-8-14 - 80 pts
-------------------------------
4. Chesterfield - 23-10-13 - 79 pts
5. Rochdale - 22-11-13 - 77 pts
6. Exeter - 22-11-13 - 77 pts
7. Crewe - 22-10-14 - 76 pts
-------------------------------
8. Oxford - 21-12-13 - 75 pts
9. Leyton Orient - 19-17-10 - 74 pts
10. Stockport - 16-22-8 - 70 pts
11. Port Vale - 18-12-16 - 66 pts
12. Kidderminster - 17-14-15 - 65 pts
13. Wycombe - 17-14-15 - 65 pts
14. Bury - 13-17-16 - 56 pts
15. Grimsby - 16-8-22 - 56 pts
16. Notts Co - 15-10-21 - 55 pts
17. Hereford - 12-18-16 - 54 pts
18. Woking - 12-17-17 - 53 pts
19. Brighton - 12-13-21 - 49 pts
20. Northampton - 10-17-19 - 47 pts
21. Barnet - 11-9-26 - 42 pts
22. Tranmere - 9-11-26 - 39 pts
--------------------------------------
23. Macclesfield - 9-11-26 - 38 pts
24. Morecambe - 3-13-30 - 22 pts

[Radii]

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


This year:

Top Goalscorer - Pablo - 11 goals
Top League Goalscorer - Pablo/Danijel Subotic - 9 goals each
Most Assists - Danijel Subotic - 10 assists
Highest Average Rating - Ed Upson - 7.25 (38 apps)
Most Man of the Match - Ed Upson - 9

[Radii]

Looking back at the first time we gained promotion from the BS South to BS Premier league, our first season in the new league was almost identical to this one.


-- Our 4 season long loaners all head back to their teams. I'd love to have Jesus and maybe Pablo for another year.

-- Man City beats West Ham 3-2 to win the FA Cup


League 2 Playoffs
Semi-finals (2 legs)

Exeter 3 : 0 Rochdale
Rochdale 2 : 0 Exeter

Exeter advance on a 3-2 total.

Crewe 4 : 1 Chesterfield
Chesterfield 2 : 0 Crewe

Crewe advance on a 4-3 total.

Final

Exeter 2 : 0 Crewe


Rushden, Lincoln, Dag & Red, and Exeter are promoted up to League 1.

[Radii]

June Update

The board is pleased with the job i'm doing. That's down from delighted most of the year and down from "very pleased" just last month. I'm very worried that financials will make this impossible next season.

We lost $80k last month.


England Year in Review

The season summary showing what happened in all English leagues is one of my favorites.

Premier League

Winner: Chelsea
Relegation: Stoke, Burnley, Southampton
Top Scorer: Gabby Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) - 25 goals

Championship League

Winner: Nottingham Forest
Promoted: Nottingham Forest, Ipswich, Hull
Relegated: Middlesborough, Barnsley, Doncaster
Top Scorer: Jon Stead (Ipswich) - 23 goals

League 1

Winner: Preston
Promoted: Preston, Gillingham, Peterborough
Relegated: Hartlepool, Walsall, Luton, Bristol Rovers
Top Scorer: Caleb Folan (Crystal Palace) - 25 goals

League 2

Winners: Rushden
Promoted: Rushden, Lincoln, Dag & Red, Exeter
Relegated: Macclesfield, Morecambe
Top Scorer: Ryan Blackwell (Chesterfield) - 30 goals

Blue Square Premier

Winner: Accrington
Promoted: Accrington, Wrexham
Relegated: Alfreton, Eastleigh, Yeovil, Ebbsfleet
Top Scorer: Daniel Pilgrim (Accrington) - 24 goals


The world cup has begun and we'll document that a bit over the next couple posts. A reminder on the draw:

Group A: Paraguay, Italy, Germany, South Korea
Group B: Australia, Cameroon, Serbia, Colombia
Group C: Bahrain, Uruguay, Portugal, Croatia
Group D: Slovenia, Chile, South Africa, Spain
Group E: Mexico, Greece, Iraq, Brazil
Group F: Holland, France, Canada, Ivory Coast
Group G: USA, Czech Republic, Ghana, Argentina
Group H: England, Switzerland, Nigeria, Iran

[Radii]

Fans Player of the Year

Ed Upson is no surprise as the winner of this award this year.


Woking Best Eleven

No surprise here either.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou, Williams, Smith, Ogogo
MC: Upson, O'Sullivan
AM: Jesus, Downes
ST: Subotic, Pablo

Bench: GK Pegler, MC Pulis, ST Harsanyi, MC Ball, DC Thomas, DR Anane, AMR Ademola.


Woking All Time Best Eleven

Stelios Nikolaou is now listed as a starter in the all time best eleven. Subotic is on the team as well.

GK: Kevin Lynch (194 apps/6.71 rating)
DL: Stelios Nikolaou (64 apps/7.22 rating)
DC: Mike Williams (107 apps/12 goals/6.87 rating)
DC: Nick Fenton (105 apps/3 goals/6.89 rating)
DR: Mark Ricketts (153 apps/3 goals/6.86 rating)
ML: Niky Nicolau (46 apps/4 goals/7.10 rating)
MC: Anthony Pulis (115 apps/6 goals/6.95 rating)
MC: Joe O'Sullivan (142 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating)
MR: Moses Ademola (167 apps/37 goals/6.85 rating)
FC: Giusepe Sole (130 apps/62 goals/6.94 rating)
FC: Mark Cullen (52 apps/25 goals/7.11 rating)


Schedule Announced

We play Crewe at home on August 9th. rarr!

TV Rights Money

We get $437,000 for TV Rights for the season. We got this last year and still lost boatloads of money.


Season Expectations

For "attempting to avoid relegation" we can get a payroll of $28k/week. This is 2k/wk more than last year. I can up the expectation to "Avoid Relegation" and get our wage budget bumped up to $32k/wk. This seems like a reasonable goal, and that's exactly what I do.

We're currently at $26,178/wk in salaries. We'll be losing a few players but also paying out more due to 10% raise clauses. We should be able to go after 4 or 5 new players at 2k/wk or more depth at lower rates.


Parachute Payment??

I don't understand this one. "Due to the promotion achieved by Nottingham Forest, the parachute payment due for the club has been split between teams from Coca-Cola Championship down to Coca-Cola League 2. Woking have received a total of $49.49k from the arrangement"

What's that?


New Youth Pulls

I don't usually mention this as our youth system is practically non-existent. But we have a 16 year old DL named Dominic Broughton join us. His Physical Abilities will need to improve some, 12 sta/12 fitness, nothing else above 10. but if they can improve he's a little intriguing. 19 teamwork/16 work rate/13 composure. 10 passing/9 tackling/7 marking. If he were to be able to develop those all up by +5 or so he'd be awesome. I don't know a lot about youth development since I always do LLM, dunno if that's good enough potential or not. Its way more than we usually have though.



Whew, that was a lot of stuff! I'm very very happy to see our wage budget increase so much. I really was afraid of it going down with the new chairman.

[britrock88]

Parachute payments... the EPL pays fractional shares of its TV revenues to teams that are relegated from it, to ease their landing in the Championship. But if a team is promoted back into the EPL the next year, the parachute payment intended for it (since there are payments for two seasons) are disbursed among the lower leagues' teams.