Press Conference revamp – Not just a new look, and not just 150+ new press conference questions, but also all of the previous 500+ press conference questions have been fully reviewed, with possible answers revised where necessary, leading to press conferences being more intuitive and in situ.

Newgen revamp – Newly generated players, or newgens as we call them, are now created using a new system that looks at player templates for different styles of player, as well as taking national traits into account, to ensure that the types of player in the game are constant throughout the life of your own saved game.

Squad registration / squad number split – We’ve separated out the squad registration and squad numbering screens, so you can now give squad numbers to players who don’t need to be registered.

Match analysis improvements – lots of new options available on the match analysis chalkboard, with offsides, free kicks, corners, throw ins, clear cut chances, half chances all now available to analyse via the system, as well as the option to show match actions for all the players of the team at the same time, rather than having to look at them all separately. There is also a new view for average positions of players during the match and a heat map view showing where they’ve spent most time on the pitch.

So, what do you think about these new features and improvements? I like the match analysis improvements to be honest, especially the heat map

We started the New Year away to Coventry in the 3rd round of The FA Cup and got off to a dramatic start as Jason Demetriou was pushed over running into the box and Barowman stepped up to convert the penalty to give us the lead after only 3 minutes. Omar Koroma had a great chance to double the lead but his long range effort rattled the underside of the bar and did the ball go over the line? At the other end Coventry were blasting away at us but most chances were erratic and so the score remained unchanged at half time. The second half produced far less chances for us as we chased Coventry around the park and my lads began to tire quickly. As the match drew to a close a memorable victory was in sight until we pushed too far forward for a free kick and got caught on the break and the home side equalized 4 minutes into injury time. It was a great effort though I was disappointed  at how things ended up.

Our first league game of 2011 was away to Wycombe and we fell behind in the opening 5 minutes by giving away a penalty on their first attack. We soon equalized as Hooks’ through ball found Koroma whose shot easily beat the keeper. From there on in it was pretty much an even  game though we took the lead after the break when Hooks headed in from a corner and Wiktorski added a third to cement the victory. With an injury to Steve Irwin who will be out for 6 weeks Dominick Hofbauer has come in from Aston Villa again on a short term loan. Players from my parent club Arsenal once more refused to join the club even on short term loans.

The next match was at home to sixth place Hartelepool and Omar Koroma gave us an early lead  picking up a through ball from Wroe and drilling it past the Hartlepool keeper. The visiting team then took over the game in terms of chances and it was only the woodwork and some great saves that kept the scoreline at 1-0 by halftime. Just on the hour Jamie Adams( more on him in a moment) headed in our second from a corner and it looked like we were set for three points. Hartlepool pulled one back in the 67^th minute and scored a dramtic equalizer in injury time. We just weren’t able to cope with their attacks and have dropped a valuable two points and three places in the table!

Here’s Jamie Adams who I signed before the season started but an early injury placed him in the reserve side where he was totally forgotten about. Looking at his attributes I decided to re-train him as a central defender as I was still having difficulty in loaning anynone.

Following the game with Hartlepool I received some terrible news from the medical team. Striker Guidetti out for 2 weeks, ML, Eunan O’Kane out 4 weeks and Andrew Barrowman out 6 weeks! As  far as I was concerned that’s nothing short of a disaster especially as we have an FA Cup replay against Coventry and then meet new league leaders Norwich afterwards.

We travelled to Coventry next for our FA Cup replay and as anticipated the home side dominated the proceedings and we failed to make any real impact up front. I had brought in Jonathan Obika to replace Barrowman but he struggled against a well organized Coventry defence. We managed to hold them until the interval but they finally broke us down with two second half goals and ended our cup run.

Here’s Jonathan Obika on loan from Spurs

Finally a central defender would come to Torquay and not exactly the best of choices but he’ll do for a short term loan

Our next game was also away to league leaders Norwich at Carrow Road. The home side took the lead after only two minutes as we stood around watching them pass the ball from the halfway line to the goal without any serious challenge. Josh Payne who came on for the injured Livermore set up captain Nicky Wroe for the equalizer with a lovely shot from just outside the box.After that we rarely saw the other end of the field again as Norwich kept us on the back foot and with the team struggling with fatigue they got their inevitable winning goal. The bad news kept piling up as Livermore will be out for 4 weeks.

What seemed like one of Johnnys road trips continued on with a visit to MK Dons. With two back to back defeats behind us I told the players the pressure is off for a victory. This seemed to spur them on and we produced a rock solid dominating performance which saw the likes of Carolan, Falkingham and Benyon return to the first team after long absences.  As usual Wroe hit the woodwork which seems to be his trademark and a vicious strike by Koroma also thundered against the post but the hero of the day was teenager Wiktorski who headed in the winner in the last minute of the game for a valuable three points.

Finally we were back at the Plainmoor Stadium for the visit of Barnsley. We really had to get  a victory here as Norwich had firmly established themselves at the top of the table with Southampton tucked in behind. Danny Stevens who had been a reserve player since I took over  gave us the lead after 12 minutes with a beautiful curling shot from outside the box after Barnsley had cleared a free kick. Three minutes later he rattled the woodwork after a terrific strike following a solo run down the right flank. We held the lead until half time when I gave Obika a stern talking too for a lousy effort and he came right back out on the field an made it 2-0 within 4 minutes of the restart. Omar Koroma was desperately unlucky in having two goals disallowed but it was a satisfying win overall.

We travelled to London for the final game of the month against Orient. The match was played in an absolute downpour. Although we had the greater possession we allowed Orient far too many opportunites but somehow the game was tied at the interval. After the break we stepped up the pace and a Danny Stevens cross found the head of Obika and it was 1-0. Orient though equalized with a spectacular long range effort and so we ended up with a point though we should have lost.

Injury Table

Here’s Danny Stevens who has come in from the reserves and has done really well. Also another short term loan signing Barry Bannan from Aston Villa.

Kamil Wiktorski who I featured in an earlier post signed a new contract during January. Thanks for the tip Johnny!!

I did get my first job offer this month from Leicester City but turned it down.

Results at a glance

Current League Table

Next Months Fixtures

We only have five games next month with three of them at home so I hope to take full advantage of that though the first of them is a derby encounter with Exeter.

Thanks for reading this longer than normal post

With Mark Simmons sent to the reserves team (he failed to report for a match if you remember…) I felt we needed to bring in another striker on loan and I managed to snap up Liam Parker on transfer deadline day, a talented youngster from Manchester United. He can also play as a right winger so I guess he might provide good cover throughout the season.

On to our first game of the month, we were playing away at top of the table Coventry. They were a newly-promoted team just like us but they got off to a fabulous start and were unbeaten in 5 games! We were coming from two straight defeats so we had to do something. Unfortunately there isn’t much I can tell about the game, it was the most boring match I have ever witnessed and it couldn’t finish any other way than with a 0-0 draw. The two sets of players chased the ball around for 90 minutes but they looked more like track and field athletes than actual football players.

Our next game was away at 16th placed Scunthorpe, we had to get out of the poor run… The first half didn’t give me too many reasons to be happy, we were unable to keep possession and Scunthorpe dominated the game. We defended well though, that was the only positive note. Our game improved after the interval, we were playing much better and even managed to create quite a few clear chances. Unfortunately we wasted all of those chances, the biggest one fell to midfielder Javier Vila but he hit the post from close range.

Our first home game of the month was a tough one as we had to face 5th placed Swansea. I was hoping to get a win though but things got off to a bad start as Swansea took the lead early on thanks to a good shot from distance. We were unable to get it together until half time, Swansea were in control of the game without breaking too much sweat. We came out with a better approach after the interval and it finally paid off as Omar Koroma was brought down inside the penalty area, he was clean through so we got a penalty and a red card for the opposition centre back. Mancini stepped up and slotted home the penalty kick, his first goal for the club. Swansea missed a great chance on a counter attack a few minutes later but then we took over, created chances again and missed them again as our strikers were looking bereft of confidence.

Before moving on to the next game, let’s remember what happened last month with 18-year-old striker Mark Simmons. He failed to report for a league game after being seen walking out of a bar in the middle of the night. I handed him a fine and he replied that he felt I treated him unfairly. As a response I moved him to the reserves team and that seemed to have done him some good as he issued a statement in which he admitted that he made a mistake. He will remain with the reserves until the beginning of October though, forgiveness is not that easy to earn. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

We started the monthwith our first Champions League game of the season, at home against Shakhtar, a decent side so I was expecting a tight game. We started the game quite well, knocking the ball around nicely, and we created a few decent chances. It was a very good goal that put us ahead though, Pablo Hernandez’s venomous shot from a tight angle was too much for their keeper. We continued our good display after the break, and we got a deserved second in the 56th minute, Edinson Cavani’s superb pass found Guilherme who finished one-on-one withthe keeper. Just 5 minutes later Shakhtar hit back, I was disappointed with the players for giving them a lifeline. That didn’t matter in the end though, Arend Werdens, on as a sub hammered home a third for us in the last minute, which completed a very satisfying win.

It was back to the Premier League for the next game, away at West Ham. We had a minor injury crisis. After the Shakhtar game Diego Benaglio tore his hamstring, he’ll be out for between 2-3 months, a big blow, now 19 year old Lee Ryan, who is talented but inexperienced will have to play every game until Benaglio’s back. Also injured was Guilherme, who would be out for 3 weeks, Ikechukwu Uche, also out for 3 weeks, and Darren Ward, yep, you guessed it, out for 3 weeks.

Anyway, back to the game, and we dominated the opening stages, it took us 29 minutes to go ahead, Jo turning and firing home. We continued as the better side throughout the game, we looked like the home side, as we had far more possession. It took us a long time to kill the game off, but we finally did it in the 87th minute, Jo nodding in his second from close range to complete a relatively comfortable win for us.

We were back at home for the next game, against Birmingham, I wanted a win to give us a lead at the top of the table. Once again we dominated possession and most of the play, but we couldn’t break down their very solid defence for a long time. We were frustrated until the 70th minute when Jo came to the rescue, jumping higher than everyone else to head home from a corner. I thought that was the winning goal, as Birmingham had offered no attacking threat. I was sadly mistaken though, completely out of the blue Cameron Jerome smashed in from 20 yards, and we could only manage a point.

We had our biggest game of the season so far next, Inter were coming to Boundary Park. To be honest the match was a very poor one, only one clear chance was created and we wasted that. Inter had lots of long shots but never really threatened, and we never really troubled them either. It was no surprise that the game finished 0-0, a boring game that didn’t live up to the hype before it.

Our last game of the month was again at home, Tottenham were the visitors, and we surely needed to play better than against Birmingham. Thankfully we did that from the very first minute, we came flying out of the blocks and it took us just 8 minutes to go ahead, Andrew Driver blasted into the bottom corner from a tight angle after a nice move. The two wingers were ripping Tottenham’s defence apart, in the 40th minute Pablo Hernandez drifted inside and placed a shot in, 2-0 to us. On the stroke of half time we got another goal when Cavani’s shot was saved and then somehow trickled in off Gomes’ back. We were playing fantastically well, and the game was all over by the second half, although we did get another goal when Uche punished some sloppy defending. Our clean sheet was spoilt in the last minute, but I’m not too bothered, it was a good win for us.

We are still top of the table, but only on goal difference, it’s incredibly tight at the top. Hopefully we can continue our unbeaten run for a while longer, although the number of draws is a bit high for my liking.

Next month we have a lot of fixtures, some of them are really difficult, particularly the away game against Inter. November will stretch our squad I’m sure, but hopefully we’ll be ok.

You may remember in my last post I’d all but qualified for the World Cup with Nigeria. We had two games in October with them, and we only had to win one of them to qualify. I wanted us to beat Gabon in the first game, so that we had no pressure on us in the last game.

We dominated the game throughout, but we really struggled to create chances, which is the opposite of most previous. However, Gabon didn’t deserve to go ahead, but they did, in the 18th minute. Suddenly I was a bit worried, but only for 20 minutes, because Michael Eneramo turned and fired the ball in from all of 25 yards. It was a brilliant goal, but we then got frustrated, Gabon defended very well. With the game entering the final minutes it looked like finishing level, but then we managed to launch a good attack, which was rare in this game. Yakubu slipped the ball through and Eneramoraced onto it, sliding home to book our safe passage into the World Cup 2014! We didn’t play very well, but we are there now, and we deserve it overall, we dominated this group.

Ourt victory in that game meant that the final match was a dead rubber. Still, the players wanted to win, and win they did, a fabulous first half performance giving us another 3 points. Goals from Chinedu Obasi and a double from Yakubu sealed another nice win.

The final group table looks like this then, we thoroughly deserve to be going to the World Cup, and now we can look forward to competing in Brazil in the summer.

Right then folks, that’s all for now, thanks for reading!

We were going to start with a very difficult home game as the visitors were recently-relegated West Brom, they were predicted to bounce back up to the Premier League right away. The game didn’t start too well for us as I was forced to take off striker Mohammed Tchite due to an injury but we defended pretty well until half time and held West Brom to a goalless draw. They upped the tempo after the break and we were literally under siege. We stood firm for a while but not too long as West Brom took the lead through Chris Wood on 57 minutes. My lads were not impressed though and we managed to score the equaliser only three minutes later: Peter Singh showed good vision to pick out Matt Richards‘ run and the left winger volleyed the ball home! West Brom resumed their attacks but my new goalkeeper Davide La Rocca pulled off a couple of miraculous saves and we managed to walk away with a draw.

We had an easier game after that, the Carling Cup first round match against League Two side Barnet. Tchite was out for 10 days following the injury during the previous game and I was forced to take another striker off during the Barnet match, Peter Singh got injured. We dominated the game, that was quite obvious, but I can’t believe how wasteful we were. Barnet didn’t manage to get a single shot on target in 120 minutes but they won the tie after the penalty shoot-out, frustrating is a mild word to describe what happened there. I was quite disappointed to say the least.

Back to the league, we had another very tough game against a recently-relegated side, Bristol City. They were predicted to finish third this season so we were clear underdogs for that match. I am pleased to say that we dominated the first half, had good ball possession but didn’t manage to create any chances. The second half was a bit different, our opponents pushed forward with greater impetus but my defense looked rock-solid. We were still unbeaten after meeting two of the best teams in the league, not bad…

We had a record to celebrate after the Bristol City game, 16-year-old striker Neil Hayter was sent in after half time and he became our youngest player ever to appear in a competitive game! He is a product of our own youth setup so I will be taking special care of him

We had yet another tough game coming up, at home with Sheffield United, the team that was predicted to finish 6th this season. The first half was fairly even but Sheffield United made the difference through better finishing, they hit the target on 17 minutes while my Mohammed Tchite hit the post two minutes before half time. Then he went on to miss a huge chance a few seconds after the break but Omar Koroma did justice four minutes into the second half with a powerful finish. The team started to play even better after the goal and we missed another couple of chances before Koroma slotted home his second goal of the game. Sheffield United missed a good chance to get back on level terms only a few minutes after our second goal but then we took control of the game and grabbed our first win of the season! Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.