[FM13] Thisted - City on the Edge of Forever

So after my last save got corrupted I had to start a new career. Having weighed my options, I decided to go home – really close to home, in fact. Not only am I a Dane managing in the Danish league. The team is my actual hometown club, the stadium literally located less than a mile from my house.

I am using two editor files, but one is a self-made name fix and the other purely to make said stadium match its real life equivalent (the Danish 2nd Division may not be the most thoroughly researched in the game). No other changes have been made to the database.

The manager is – me. For all intents and purposes. My backstory is made up but the only part that’s completely unrealistic is my own playing experience, as I felt that no manager without at least a semi-pro career behind him would ever get a job at this level in Denmark. Other than that, I will try to do the job as if it were actually me doing it.

This “realistic” approach probably means progress will be a lot slower. I will also strive for a more coherent and “narrative” writing style. I actually quite enjoy the premise of the FM Stories forum – except for one thing: the massive walls of text and the ban on images, neither of which work very well with my short attention span - ooh, shiny! So think of this as basically an FMS story, but with pictures.

Having said that, apologies for the lengthy introduction. Things will pick up once I get to the actual football. Also, any feedback is as always very welcome and much appreciated!

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is probably intended…

New beginnings

Thisted.

Lovely town. Thy, North West Jutland, at the western end of the Limfjord and close to the North Sea. To me, it was pretty much right on the edge of the known world. Sure, I had heard of it but never actually been here before we moved here. But we needed a fresh start and this seemed as good a place as any for that.

As a youngster back in Haderslev I had never imagined I would end up here, at the other end of the country. And I had certainly never thought I would end up as a high school PE teacher. At 16 I was scouted by SønderjyskE, the local professional team that I had supported all my life, and moved into their academy. The most promising striker to come through there in years, they said.

Three years later, SønderjyskE were promoted to the Superliga for the first time. I graduated high school that same summer and everything was rosy. I signed my first senior contract, made my first team debut, scored my first goal and was already mentioned as a candidate for the Under 21 national team. About halfway through the season, I busted my left knee. Torn ACL, the doctors called it. Anterior cruciate ligament.

The knee was never the same after that. A year and a couple of surgeries later, I hadn’t played another game so I guess I should have known what was coming. Still, when they told me they wouldn’t be renewing my contract, I was devastated.

Eventually, I got over it, of course. You have to, don’t you? I came to terms with the fact that professional football wasn’t going to be my life after all. At least not on the pitch. I would of course still follow my beloved SønderjyskE team – from a distance. Wasn’t quite the same, though.

Having spent a year partly on the sofa watching football and partly job hunting, I decided to try and make something of myself after all. So I moved to Aarhus, enrolled at university at studied sports science for the next five years. What else?

During my student days, I played a bit of lower league football for a local amateur side, Aarhus Fremad. It was clear that was all my knee could stand, but having the competitive streak that I did, of course I always had to do one too many sprints or dive into one too many tackles – and regretted it for days afterwards when I could hardly walk.

I also met my future wife at uni. We moved in together, we got married, we had a kid. Settling down. I even started coaching the U12 side at Fremad. Great lads.

Still, every time I watched a game on TV, that little voice in the back of my head couldn’t help but ask what could have been. I was growing restless in the city – so when my wife suggested I apply for the job in Thisted, I decided to go for it. Might be a nice change of scenery.

Being a high school teacher wasn’t that bad. I had enjoyed coaching the kids at Fremad and putting my education to use was actually kind of fulfilling. And yet that itch just wouldn’t go away.

The training grounds of the local football club were right across the street from the high school. One day my colleague Sejr invited me to join him there, as he had a part-time gig coaching the U19 side. He knew of my background and thought I might be able to teach the lads a trick or two. Sure, why not?

My casual involvement with the club would soon become a lot less casual, though...

Looking forward to this. Good luck

Back in business

I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge grading student papers when Sejr came in.

“Hey – d’ya hear the news?”

I looked up. “No, why?”

“Peter quit!”

Since football was pretty much all Sejr and I ever talked about, I guessed he meant Peter Christensen, the first team manager at TFC.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope, I just got a text from Henning”. The assman.

“Really? But why? Things were going well, weren’t they? Fourth place last season.”

“Yeah, well – apparently things weren’t so great off the pitch. Seems he and Poul Erik" - the chairman - “didn’t quite see eye to eye about things. And as you know, the club’s financial prospects aren’t exactly looking rosy, so I guess Peter just got frustrated with the whole situation. Anyway, I suggested they ask you. And they loved the idea!”

I put down my coffee mug.

“What??”

“Why not? You’re really good with the youngsters, you have a great mind for tactics – and you took the coaching license in Aarhus, so you’re obviously qualified. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the obvious choice.” He looked me straight in the eye. “And most importantly: I know how much you’re aching to get back into football!”

He hit the nail on the head there. I called my wife and quickly explained the situation. When she told me to follow my gut, I knew what to do. I scheduled an appointment with chairman Poul Erik Christensen and director Steven Christensen (no relation) and went to see them after work. Half an hour later, I had a new job...

I can't decide if the club badge is excellent or rubbish

It's terribrlliant.

Looking forward to this!

Coming from your old thread, shame it was corrupted as that had the makings of a really great story. Did you look into reinstalling the game, clearing the cache, etc.? I suppose if nothing else turning on auto-saves would do the trick.

However, I have to admit... this is a bit more interesting than your other thread in all honesty! I love reading about the more obscure leagues and can tell you are well versed in Danish football. Very much looking forward to following this.

I can't decide if the club badge is excellent or rubbish

It's terribrlliant.

Looking forward to this!

However, I have to admit... this is a bit more interesting than your other thread in all honesty! I love reading about the more obscure leagues and can tell you are well versed in Danish football. Very much looking forward to following this.

Thank you both!

I may not have exhausted all options in trying to recover the old save, but to be honest I was just more excited about this idea.

Yeah, it is kind of... interesting, trying to write a fictional version of myself as a manager for the team I actually go to see every other week. Don't know how I will cope with the conflicting emotions if we ever meet SønderjyskE in a competitive match, though...

The coffee mug is great

Good luck!

Absolutely brilliant - I too love FMS, but in some cases I feel that pictures would make some of the stories even greater. Can't wait to see how it comes along!

The team is my actual hometown club, the stadium literally located less than a mile from my house.

Is it going to be a strictly one club career or are you keeping your options open?

Is it going to be a strictly one club career or are you keeping your options open?

I certainly expect to stay at Thisted for as long as they'll let me, but never say never...

Meet the press

The next day the club had called a press conference. Maybe it was the short notice. Or maybe it was the fact that we were a third tier semi-professional club in a small backwater provincial town on the edge of nowhere and I was a complete nobody.

Either way, only one (that’s right, 1) reporter had bothered to show up, representing the local newspaper. He looked almost ten years younger than me and certainly seemed to have no idea who I was. And who could blame him? I had played about a dozen Superliga matches over a decade ago and been completely off the radar ever since. Part of me felt slightly offended that he hadn’t done his homework properly, though.

There were twice as many people on the podium as there were in attendance. DOF Steven gave a short introduction and then opened the floor (so to speak) for questions.

“Hi – Sebastian Hansen here, Thisted Dagblad. So you’re the new manager of TFC. Is this your dream job?”

Straight to the point, huh?

“Absolutely. I’m delighted to be here.”

“This is supposed to be a full time gig for you, if not for your players. How much do you plan on getting involved in the day-to-day running of the club?”

“Well, there are people around here who are much more capable than me of running the business side of things. If they want my input on anything off the pitch, like transfers and such, I will of course be happy to offer my opinion, but for now my main focus will be training and tactics. Football is what I know best and what I was brought here to do.”

“OK, so how is your approach to man management? Are you the aloof leader type or more of a father figure to the players?”

“As I’m sure you know -“ (I was quite sure he didn’t) “- I have a background as a teacher, as well as experience coaching Under 12s. So naturally I think nurturing talent and mentoring the youngsters is an important part of my job. Helping them grow, if you will – not just as footballers, but as human beings.”

What a load of b... hot air! Did I really just say that out loud? No wonder the kid looked like he was rolling his eyes.

“Aha. Now, Thisted was in the First Division only a couple of years ago. What are your goals for this season? Are you looking to get back up there?”

“I think we need to be realistic. We want to do the best we possibly can and I think a top half finish is not only within reach but a must, really, when you compare us to the opposition. But remember, only the winner gets promoted, so you need more than a bit of luck as well.”

“Fair enough, I guess. But what about long term goals? Surely you don’t plan on wasting away in the Second Division for ever, but does the club have what it takes to go further? And what about the support from the local community?”

“Sure we do. There is a lot of potential for growth within the club and I can definitely see us mounting a serious promotion challenge within a few seasons. But as everyone knows -“ (again, not sure about this guy) “- it takes money to be successful in modern football. Luckily the local businesses are very willing to back us up financially, although of course we can always use even more generous sponsors.”

“Good to know. But you say your primary focus is on the pitch. What is your tactical approach, then?”

“When the board approached me about the job, they made one thing very clear: they want results first and foremost. But they also want us to play entertaining football, as I’m sure the fans do. Entertainment means goals and I mean to make sure we score as many as possible. I mean, any team that wants to be successful needs to have a solid defence, but as I always say: It doesn’t matter how many goals your opponent scores – as long as you score more. I would rather win 3-2 than 1-0 any day.”

“Do you have the squad for that kind of football? Or are there any areas that need to be strengthened?”

“I’m happy with the players at my disposal. It’s no secret that we don’t have a huge transfer budget, so we won’t be splashing out loads of money regardless. I won’t rule out any new signings completely, but it’s unlikely that you will see much activity on that front.”

“So no new faces coming in. Will anybody be leaving, then?”

“Too early to say. I need to assess the squad properly first, but everyone will get a chance to prove themselves to me.”

“All right, then. Thank you for your time.”

Very interesting. Big gap between the second and third tier in Denmark if I recall correctly.

Very interesting. Big gap between the second and third tier in Denmark if I recall correctly.

Yes, most (if not all) D1 clubs are fully professional and most D2 clubs semi-pro. So it is very difficult to get promoted in the first place (only the winners go up) and the teams that do always seem to struggle for survival.

Will be interesting to see if Thisted ever make it...

Thisted FC – an introduction

So what was this mess I had got myself into?

Thisted FC is a club with neither a long nor a glorious history. Founded in 1989 as the successor to an older club in town, the only piece of silverware in the trophy cabinet came from winning the Second Division West (our current division) back in 2008.

Our traditional arch enemies are Nykøbing – the feud between the region of Thy and the neighbouring island of Mors is centuries old and extends way beyond sports. As in all other respects, Mors are the minnows. Other than that, our fiercest competitive rivals in recent years have probably been Blokhus, since we play in the same division, and Skive during our stint in the First Division.

By far the biggest name to ever come out of the club is Jesper Grønkjær of Ajax, Chelsea, and FC København fame.

We have no official feeder clubs but as the biggest club in this thinly populated area, we try to scour the local amateur sides of talent, develop them and sell them on for a profit – as is the lot of most clubs of our stature. Our only senior affiliate is FC Midtjylland, the Superliga side supported by most of the younger fans around here.

For the first nine years of its existence, the club played at the old Dragsbæk Stadium on the waterfront, but in 1998 moved to the newly built Lerpytter - directly translated “clay puddles”(!) - in the northern end of town, right next to the high school. Today it is known as Sparekassen Thy Arena after our main sponsor, the local bank.

As you can see, the stadium itself is not too shabby for this level but our training and youth facilities are not impressive. Especially the latter is something I want to try and improve once our finances improve. Developing our own talents will be key.

A modest deficit (remember, 1£ = ca. 10 DKK) – that is projected to grow significantly over the course of the season, however. Not much to play around with in terms of wages (and absolutely nothing in terms of transfer money), so for now we will have to make do with the players already at the club and maybe one or two free transfers – if we can somehow find someone both good and cheap...

Excellent overview of the club

I can't decide if the club badge is excellent or rubbish

All you need is Kremmen's metalic logo pack and every logo looks great lol. I can't play without it now

The version above I just pinched via Google. I acutally do have a logo pack installed. Can't remember the name, but the logo looks better in-game...

Nice start to the thread and great to see a save with Thisted here!

@dllu - I've sent you a PM.

Tidy little stadium.

Meeting the squad

Four days after my appointment, the players came back from their summer holiday. I had scheduled my first team meeting for Monday afternoon at 5 PM, bearing in mind that most of these guys had dayjobs – or school – on the side.

As I walked into the room, I saw a group of twenty-some eager faces looking towards me. Eager to get going and start the new season. Good. It was crucial to create a positive atmosphere from the start. It wouldn’t matter how much I believed in my own abilities as manager if the players didn’t.

Or maybe they just noticed that I had brought cake.

Among the eager faces were a few familiar ones. I had summoned the U19s along with the first team, and a good handful of the lads were still in high school, so I knew a bit about their potential already.

I cleared my throat.

“Hello, everybody. OK, here we are. Most of you probably have no idea who I am, so I wanted to introduce myself properly. As I’m sure you’ve all been informed, Peter resigned during the holidays and I have been asked to replace him. But don’t worry, I won’t be making any major changes. We’ve got a good thing going here and I mean to continue along the path that has already been laid out. Any questions?”

The captain, Peter Bechmann raised his hand.

“I think I speak on behalf of most of the squad when I say that we’re looking forward to the season. Sure, you may not be a big name, but anyone who can bring some fresh ideas to the side is welcome in my book!”

“Thank you, Peter, I appreciate that. I have a pretty good idea about the tactic I want to employ, but rest assured that it won’t be that different from what you’re used to. There’s no point in disrupting the team with a major overhaul. So expect the same procedure as last year, but with some minor tweaks.”

Striker Sead Gavranovic:

“Does this mean you’ll be keeping all the current players around, or should we start looking for alternatives?”

“No, no. Everyone will get the chance to prove that they deserve a place in the team – and I expect you all to do just that.“ I looked over at my now former students. “No one is guaranteed an automatic spot in the starting line-up, but work hard in training and your efforts will be rewarded.”

“So no reinforcements either?”

“Well, Sead, to be honest we don’t have the kind of money needed to bring in big stars, and I would rather rely on our own talent and the harmony in the current squad than bet on First Division rejects or washed-up has-beens from bigger clubs anyway. Of course Steven will be working the transfer market as always to see if anyone good pops up, so we might see one or two new teammates before the pre-season is over. But as with the tactics, don’t expect any major changes.”

No one (including Sead) was looking too sceptical just yet. Good.

Left back Kasper Dam:

“Sounds good to me! I’m sure we can achieve great things together. Now, I know we're supposed to stay fit and eat healthy and everything, but when are we gonna eat that cake?”

I had a feeling we would be just fine...

Ins and outs

Or rather, in and out. Singular. As in one of each. I told the press and players that I expected very little activity from the club in the transfer market. And very little is what we got.

The fans weren’t the only ones to be disappointed with his departure. Mathias is a local lad and one of the bigger talents to come through our own ranks in recent years. I knew him from the school – he graduated this summer but already had more than 30 first team appearances under his belt, so we offered him a part-time deal. Unfortunately Skive - of all teams! - came along with a better offer and since he was on an amateur contract, we don’t even get any compensation. I can’t say that I’m not disappointed, but I do understand how he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to play in the First Division. He will keep his flat in Thisted and commute the 60 km to Skive.

Silver linings, though. Just a few days after I had spoken to Mathias, DOF Steven came to me with news of the more positive sort:

I wouldn’t say this qualifies as a scoop, but Mads is a quality player and will slide right into our starting lineup. A city boy from the nation's capital, he started his career at FC København, coming up through their and making 9 Superliga appearances before moving on to Herfølge in the First Division. Unfortunately his career was hampered by injuries early on, so he never quite got his big breakthrough. Mads comes to us on a free transfer after playing for other Copenhagen clubs in the Second Division East for the last couple of years, and his experience will certainly be a big boost to our otherwise quite young squad. From what I’ve seen in training so far, I am especially happy with his movement on the ball and his professional attitude. Hopefully the latter will rub off on some of the youngsters.

With the signing of Mads our wage budget is pretty much maxed out, so I expect that will be it for now...

The squad

With the departure of Mathias Pedersen and the arrival of Mads Westh, the squad at the beginning of the season looks as follows:

Not too bad, considering our status. Ideally I could have wished for a little more depth, though. I guess I’ll just have to hope we don’t get plagued by too many injuries this fall. If we do, the youngsters will have to show me what they’re really made off!

The key players:

Our vice-captain Daniel Kristensen is an experienced midfielder and a real team player. He is also quite skilled when it comes to set pieces – not the worst kind of player to have on your side. He works as a clerk at the local bank (and our main sponsor), Sparekassen Thy, and is definitely a man I would trust with my money as well as my set pieces.

Kingsley Onyenekwe, or Mojo to his friends, is our solid centre-back, the class clown, and a real fan favourite. The supporters love him as do his teammates – and the kids at the local daycare center where he works during the day. He also has two U20 caps for Nigeria.

Our last line of defense is Kristian Kirk who is currently doing his second spell at his hometown club after having played for Viborg in the First Division for a couple of seasons. He is also studying to become a teacher. His main strengths are his agility and reflexes.

Left winger Martin Nielsen’s main weapon is his speed which is quite impressive for this level. His weakness: He tends to be a bit lazy, especially when it comes to defensive duties. As a “civilian”, he works as a carpenter.

Mr. Thisted himself, Peter Bechmann is our captain and our best striker. His height gives him a natural advantage in the air. He also has both the strength and the work rate of an ox. A true professional (ironically) and a great role model for the younger players, Peter’s dayjob is as a sales manager at the local branch of a major hardware supply chain.

Good stuff!

Bechmann looks especially good for this level. May I ask how accurate those backstories are? Really cool either way.

Never really thought about adding so much back-story, but this is really enjoyable already! KUTGW

May I ask how accurate those backstories are?

The dayjobs are real.

Pre-season miscellany

As mentioned previously, the sports journalists had us pegged for a top-6 finish. The bookies were slightly more optimistic on our behalf with a top-4 prediction and 12-1 odds:

If we can live up to expectations, it looks like we’re in for a battle with our rivals Blokhus for a top spot. Still, any team needs a bit of time to get used to a new manager, so I’m glad the board is only expecting a mid-table finish. That should keep me safe in the job for now.

The draw for the first round of the cup was made this week and we get to welcome Vejle-Kolding to Lerpytter.

They are among the promotion favourites in the First Division, so not exactly what I had wished for. As a smaller club, ideally you want either a non-league amateur side (to win the game without too much effort) or a Superliga side (to draw a big crowd and get some extra income). This is neither. I suspect the first round will be the only one for us this season, but we will do our best and hope for an upset. Maybe Vejle-Kolding will underestimate us and field one too many reserves.

On a more positive note, I got a piece of good news from DOF Steven:

This takes our junior coaching from a basic to an adequate rating. Not a huge improvement, but still, baby steps – our youngsters should at least be able to develop their potential just a little bit better now.

The pre-season friendlies were all arranged before I arrived, but went well – except that captain Bechmann was injured in the Vorup game and will miss the first couple of league rounds.

A very nice win against First Division side Hjørring was followed by a hard-fought draw against another D1 team (our rivals from Skive) and an expected defeat at the hands of Silkeborg from the Superliga. We ended with three games against non-league sides to boost morale. Especially the thumping of Nykøbing was very well received by the fans who are now as eager to get cracking as I am. Three home games out of four and none of the serious candidates for promotion in the first month means we have every chance of getting a flying start...

Thisted v Marienlyst (D2W)

With captain Bechmann out, I had to come up with an alternative, so VC Kristensen took over the armband while Mickey Berg took his place up front. He is really a right winger, but our new man Westh has conquered that position.

The board want attacking football, so that is what they will get. I have opted for a 4-2-4 with Berg (in lieu of Bechmann) as AF, Gavranovic as TM and Kristensen as the main playmaker.

Marienlyst are pegged to finish in the bottom half and a team we should be beating, but things are never that easy, are they? Especially debuts.

And so it turned out. The first half was absolutely horrendous. A rather lucky header strike by Rasmussen following a corner and Udesen beating our offside trap because Mojo couldn’t get his lazy a*** forward in time! To top it all off, Overgaard completely botched an attempt to clear the ball and it ended up behind Kirk to bring us down 0-3 at half time.

I couldn’t even fault the players. A couple of personal mistakes, sure, but apart from that we had plenty of possession. We just weren't creating chances and our crosses were not connecting at all. So back to shorter passes and a more patient approach, working the ball into the box instead. I also told the lads to start pressing some more to try and stress the opponents.

And it worked – almost. Berg seemed really fired up for the second half and bagged two goals. The first one after a nice combination from Markussen and Kristensen, the second a total fluke from well outside the area. But hey, if you don’t shoot you won’t score.

Less than two minutes later Kristensen shone again when he found debutant Westh with a beautiful pass through the middle. 3-3! I really thought we might get something from the game after all, so Mikkelsen’s late winner was a real kick in the teeth.

In the end, my first two competitive halves turned out to be as different as night and day. The defeat is all my responsibility – the tactic I had chosen from the start just turned out not to work at all while the changes we made at half time worked wonders. In the end we were unlucky not to get the one point, but if we can just keep playing like we did after the break...

Just to add to Overgaard’s misery, he had to be carried off in the dying seconds of the game and turned out to have broken his wrist, so we won’t be seeing much of him in the near future.

Næsby v Thisted (D2W)

Næsby are among the contenders for promotion, so as we head to the island of Funen and the city of Odense (the third largest in Denmark), one might expect us to adopt a more defensive approach.

Not on my watch. What I saw in the second half against Marienlyst was so encouraging that I am keeping the formation with the added tweaks. Only change: 20-year old Jeppe Kirk replaces the injured Overgaard as right back. Bechmann is injury-free but needs to regain his fitness before he gets to play again, so he will have to wait for the cup game on Tuesday night to make his season debut.

First half and we were looking good – much better than last week, anyway. 11th minute and Berg found Høvenhoff who placed the ball right in front of Gavranovic. Sead hit the volley with a vengeance and blasted it past the keeper – but offside by a fraction of an inch! If that much! I kept my mouth shut but I’m still not sure that ruling was correct, especially after watching the replay. We do need to work on our timing in those situations, though, both when attacking and defending.

Our short passes were much more on target this time, and towards the end of the first half Gavranovic made up for falling into the offside trap earlier. A freekick from Kristensen hit the woodwork and defender Martin Henriksen beat Berg to the rebound to clear the ball. Lucky for us, his clearance fell right at the feet of Gavranovic. No risk of an offside this time – 1-0!

The second half saw us trying – and failing – to get that second goal that would have closed the match. On the other hand, Næsby had several half-chances but no really dangerous ones. We got a couple of bookings, but as long as the freekicks are necessary, I’m happy to see my players getting stuck in.

I almost thought we were going to throw it away a couple of times, especially towards the end as Næsby threw everything at us and we in turn clung to our narrow lead. In the end we did it. I am glad that my new game plan worked and very proud of the lads for sticking to it. This could very well turn out to be an important win come the end of the season.

Thisted v Vejle-Kolding (Danish Cup)

Vejle are a relatively big club by Danish standards. Or rather used to be but have fallen from grace somewhat in the last couple of decades. They have a total of five Danish championships and six cup titles, were (and to a certain degree still are) known for their youth work and spawned many great players over the years. However, they haven’t won anything of note since 1984(!) and have been going back and forth between the first and second tier in recent years. The low-point to many fans came in 2011 when they merged with their neighbours (and rivals) Kolding. Both clubs were also local rivals of my beloved SønderjyskE, so naturally my hate for the new Vejle-Kolding construction has more than doubled.

At the moment, though, the merger seems to be a success. The club is undefeated in five league games so far and sitting pretty at the top of the First Division, so we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us. Hence the (slightly) more defensive strategy. Berg alone on top and instead of Gavranovic, Antonsen got his first start of the season in midfield while Høvenhoff was moved down as anchor man. We also tried to stay back a bit more and rely on counters.

No need to drag it out: We were outclassed, plain and simple. After our two more than decent results against D1 teams in pre-season I had hoped we could at least have put up more of a fight, but the difference in quality was just too apparent throughout.

Bødker gave Vejle-Kolding the lead with a well-timed finish from close range after less than a quarter of an hour, and they were in complete control after that, happy to let us keep the ball while we struggled to get anything useful from our possession. Agger doubled the lead, again from inside the area, with around 15 minutes to go and Sivebæk put the last nail in the coffin with a real scorcher of a longshot in injury time.

Not much to say. Although the score line was perhaps a bit too one-sided, none of our lads embarrassed themselves. We simply lost to a better team and can now focus 100% on the league. I was also pleased to see captain Bechmann make an encouraging return from his injury and getting the first 20 minutes of the season under his belt.

Middelfart - what a strange, beautiful name for a football club

Tough loss in the Cup, but no embarrassement in losing to a bigger club. Loving the updates, keep it up!

Middelfart - what a strange, beautiful name for a football club

You know, I hadn't even thought about pronouncing it in English until now.

(In Danish, it just means somthing as boring as "middle way" or "middle passage", because it's located at the strait between Jutland and Funen.)

Thisted v Brabrand (D2W)

For the game against Brabrand, we went back to our trusted 4-2-4. Antonsen returned to his usual left-back position and captain Bechmann was in the starting line-up for the first time this season.

Not much to report from the first half. A couple of half-hearted attempt from both sides and two justified bookings for Brabrand after rough tackles.

After the break, things picked up. And how. Bechmann once again showed his importantce to the team – off and on the pitch. A pass from Høvenhoff found Berg inside the penalty area. He chipped it on to the captain who was positioned perfectly – as so often before – and just had to apply the finish.

Our joy was short-lived, though. First Nørdam scored an almost exact replica of Bechmann’s goal after an excellent pass from Gertsen. Just six minutes later, Nørdam was on the prowl again with yet another inspired move. This time Kirk did manage to block the shot but Laustsen pounced on the rebound.

Nørdam almost won the game single-handedly for Brabrand with his goal and assist, and our frustration in not being able to stop him showed when we were at the receiving end of a couple of unnecessary yellow cards. Luckily Kristensen also put his frustrations to good use when he managed to bag his first goal of the season after a cross from Bechmann to give us a single point after all. The Brabrand players argued furiously for an offside but to no avail. I’m not sure if they had a case or not, but either way the result stands.

All things considered, a fair result against a Brabrand team in fine form and especially a Nørdam on fire.

We had a guy do a video Marienlyst career a few years ago.

Thisted v Søllerød-Vedbæk (D2W)

No changes from the Brabrand game. Søllerød-Vedbæk are Mads Westh’s old club so I asked him to give us a few pointers about his former teammates. He told us to look out for left wing Stelian Trasborg who is both fast and an accomplished crosser.

We got off to a good start with another classic Berg-Bechmann combination as Mickey picked up on a quick pass from Emil Antonsen to set Peter up perfectly in front of the goal. A header to the bottom left corner and no chance for the keeper.

We took the 1-0 lead to half time and had a chance to double it shortly after the break when Berg wrestled himself free from two defenders after a corner, but a freekick was awarded and the goal disallowed.

The 2-0 came not long after that, though, when Antonsen scored a total fluke that should be a candidate for goal of the year. The left-back came forward on a counter attack and tried to centre the ball from the touch-line, low and hard. I’m sure he will tell you it was intentional, but somehow the ball hit a knoll in the grass, completely fooled the keeper and sailed into the net.

Just after an hour of play, Høvenhoff was beginning to look both tired and bit too aggressive out there. Since he already had a booking, I decided to pull him out and signalled the fourth official for a substitution. Before the next stop, he swept the legs of midfielder Andersson – and was dismissed. Quite rightly too. I will have to have a very serious talk him about this. The lad is a real fighter – but he needs to learn how to control his temper.

Down to ten players, I took out Berg instead, put Kirk in midfield and went for a slightly more cautious formation with Bechmann alone on top to avoid taking too many risks.

The match was decided by four goals in less than ten minutes. Mojo had the goal at his mercy after a corner and did not let us down. 3-0 and now it was really a matter of preserving our lead. Eight minutes later the score was 4-2. Two goals from Søllerød-Vedbæk, making full use of their advantage.

And in between – a second goal by Antonsen, an almost exact replica of the first. This time it wasn’t a drilled cross, though, but a floating one that grazed the underside of the bar and went in. I don’t think I have ever seen a player score, not one but two crazy goals like that in the same game. Naturally he got man of the match. Deservedly so.

The stats belie our control of the game. Naturally Søllerød-Vedbæk dominated possession after Høvenhoff’s early exit, but in reality we never looked like losing.

August recap

A mixed bag of nuts in my first month as manager, but if we disregard the abysmal first half against Marienlyst and the expected cup exit against Vejle-Kolding, we actually managed to stay undefeated. My gung-ho tactic means we have conceded a few more goals than I might have liked, but I do have an 80% approval rate from the board on the promise to play attacking football (one I did not choose myself, I might add!) and a stable 53% on my general performance. So definitely an acceptable if unremarkable start.

This is also reflected in the table where we are sitting pretty in 5th place. I am very impressed with my old club, Aarhus Fremad. They are four for four so far, which is amazing for an all-amateur team consisting almost exclusively of university students – they are a very much a “cult club” and in many ways the Danish equivalent of Queen’s Park in Scotland. Kudos to them!

Player of the month

An easy choice. Peter Bechmann may only have played two games and a bit after his injury, but with 2 goals and 2 assists he demonstrated why he is wearing the captain’s armband. A true leader of men, both on and off the pitch.

Flop of the month

Allan Høvenhoff has disappointed me so far. His general performance has been sub-standard and he has topped it off with 3 yellow cards and 1 red in just five games. Maybe that’s what you get for signing players from your rivals (in this case Skive). Mind you, he is actually a genuinely nice guy, but for some reason he just acts like some sort of Tasmanian Devil as soon as the whistle goes.

Towards the end of the month, we got a great piece of news as Sead Gavranovic received his first international call-up:

He has dual nationality, but as he is nowhere near the Danish national youth teams I am not surprised that he has chosen to represent Bosnia-Herzegovina at the youth level. Hopefully he will even make it to their A side someday – although that would probably either require him to change clubs or Thisted to get promoted a couple of times.

This is what our schedule for the coming month looks like. Four out of five games away which looks really tough. On the other hand, three of our games are against the current bottom three in the division, so we should be able to scrape together some points. And hopefully Aarhus Fremad’s form will have returned to a more realistic level when we face them...

All looking pretty good so far. No dramas being knocked out of the cup either, especially when you consider how little money is available in prize money from it.

Remind me, how long is the winter break at this level? I seem to recall the second half of the season is pretty intense with games every few days...

It's almost four months (mid-November to early March), so practically two separate seasons...

Yeah, the winter break in Danish lower leagues is around 130 days, it's a massive pain to sit through, because the players are away on holidays and you can't even arrange friendlies until late March. I'm managing AB at the moment after moving from Odder and Thisted are definitely my bogey team, keep up the decent performances!

Yes, I really don't understand why they don't change the season to follow the calendar year like in every other Nordic country. The climate dictates that we can't really play during the winter months as only very few stadiums have undersoil heating (it is a requirement in the Superliga IRL, though). So why not just play from March to October with no break in odd-numbered years and a one-month break for international finals in even-numbered years? They actually used to do that until the early 1990s.

Oh well, the day I become chairman of the Danish FA...

Thisted are definitely my bogey team, keep up the decent performances!

Thank you. Hopefully I'll get to play AB in the First Division before too long!

Skovbakken v Thisted (D2W)

With Høvenhoff suspended, Bechmann is moved down to the midfield and Gavranovic takes his place up front.

Skovbakken play in Vejlby, a suburb of Aarhus, so I know them fairly well from the old days. They are a team we really should be beating. Struggling at the bottom of the division and struggling to score goals, so our attacking mentality should work perfectly here.

Or so I thought. Neither team seemed to able to produce anything much when they were on the ball – and when we were off the ball, our pressing style became a little too… well, pressing. We are simply committing way too many fouls. Sure, every free kick disrupts our opponent’s rhythm, but it also disrupts our own. This is real football, after all – not that American “rugby light” thingy.

Consequently, there is nothing much to report from the first 92 minutes of stalemate. As we hit injury time, I shouted at my players to just throw everything forward in an effort to get that goal. And it worked. I had just replaced Berg with our young talented striker Alexander Odgaard (one of my former students) when the 18-year old pulled a perfect pass out of who knows where and gave Westh an opportunity from short range that he couldn’t miss. 1-0!

My elation lasted less than the two minutes left of the game. A cross from the left to Marco Agger who caught our entire defense napping and scored an extremely easy goal – his first ever for the club.

You know the tired old expression “tearing up your notes”? Well, I did that today. Literally. I don’t know if I looked like the Incredible Hulk afterwards in the changing room, but I made sure the players understood two things very clearly.

One: we need our game to be more fluent. If they don’t stop with the fouls and start with the clean tackles instead, maybe they shouldn’t be playing real football for Thisted FC but American football for Thisted Brewers right next door.

Two: If I ever see them lose their concentration like that and concede a goal like that after scoring themselves, I will have the entire squad deported to Greenland...

There's an American Football team as well?

There's an American Football team as well?

Oh yes, there are somewhere around 70 AF clubs in Denmark. All of them crap, of course...

Svendborg v Thisted (D2W)

Allan Høvenhoff back in midfield and Peter Bechmann back on top for our trip to the island of Funen to face Svendborg. We didn’t have much luck opening up their extremely tight defence in the first half, so in an attempt to counter their narrow formation I instructed the lads to start exploiting the flanks more after the break.

And it worked wonders. Martin Nielsen finally got us going when he put in a cross from left wing to the far post, where Bechmann found himself with plenty of time to direct the header past the keeper.

Bechmann’s goal really got Mickey Berg fired up. Just four minutes later, he found himself with the goal at his mercy and doubled our lead. He then added to his tally after an impressive solo-run from midfield before completing his hattrick in just six minutes with an almost exact copy of the previous goal.

Our best game of the season so far – and I think I may just have found the secret recipe with this flanks thingy...

International interlude

This being the third tier, there are no breaks to allow for international matches, so we had to play our match against Svendborg while Sead Gavranovic was away on U21 duty with Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Those curmudgeons in the Danish sports press were a little harsh on him. This was Sead’s international debut in any age group and I think he could be satisfied with his performance in the first match – and more than happy with the second.

In other international news, I had to share this result from the World Cup 2014 qualifiers, as Malta caused a major upset and Denmark suffered one of their most humiliating defeats in a long time:

They really need to get rid of Morten Olsen, the sooner the better...

Thisted v Otterup (D2W)

Never change a winning team, so we start with the same formation as in our demolition of Svendborg.

For the second week in a row we faced a team from Funen, although this time Otterup had made the long trip to the Wild Wild (North)west to visit Lerpytter. We meant to make it an even longer and not very pleasant trip back home for them.

And so we did. We took a while to get going, but a slow first half was drawing to a close when left-back Emil Antonsen intercepted a pass and opened the scoring with a thunderous strike.

In the second half, we once again saw three goals in less than ten minutes, although not all of three of them were in our favour this time. Our wide play paid off again as Mojo found Antonsen who surged forward – I didn’t even know the lad had that kind of speed – and delivered a cross to the feet of Mickey Berg who drove it in low. He quickly continued his fine form with a second goal, this time a header after a cross from left winger Kasper Østervemb who had just replaced Kasper Nielsen.

Striker Overgård reduced our lead on a counter attack shortly after Berg’s double salvo, but that was one of just two Otterup shots that hit the target. They simply couldn’t find the goal and Allan Høvenhoff put the final nail in the coffin when he volleyed a free kick from Daniel Kristensen into the goal in injury time.

As the stats imply, we never looked like losing. Berg had another great game and if he keeps this up, it's a question of whether we will get to keep him past the winter transfer window...

To feed or be fed?

You never know what to expect when your phone rings and it’s the DOF, so as always I was slightly apprehensive in picking it up.

“Hello, Steven...”

“Michael – great news!”

“Yeah?”

“Yes – well, good news, anyway. remember how at the start of the season you were complaining that we only had FC Midtjylland as a senior affiliate but no feeder clubs of our own?”

“Yes...?”

“And how I promised that I would see what I could do about it?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, consider it done. I’ve been in contact with a number of non-league clubs in both North and West Jutland to try and find someone who might want to cooperate with us. And I finally found a club!”

“Really? And who might that be?”

“Lindholm.”

“Lindholm IF? But I thought they were already affiliated with AaB. Makes sense, what with Lindholm being a suburb of Aalborg and –“

“I know and they were, but apparently the management at Lindholm and the new DOF at AaB had... well, different football philosophies. Anyway, their loss! Aalborg is only about an hour and a half away, so a reasonable distance. And Lindholm play in Danmarksserien, just one tier below us. Should provide any players we send there on loan with some valuable match experience.”

“Oh, absolutely. But what about the financial aspect? We don’t exactly have that much to spare, as I understand it.”

“Not to worry. No hidden fees or anything. All they want in return is a yearly friendly!”

“OK – I think we can manage that.”

“That’s what I told them.”

“Great. Well, that does sound like good news indeed, Steven.”

“I knew you’d like it, Michael. See ya!”

Skanderborg v Thisted (D2W)

For the third time in a row, I chose the exact same lineup that had won us the last two games, scoring eight goals in the process, as we made our way to the town of Skanderborg in East Jutland, just south of Aarhus.

It was clear from the start that this was going to be a rough game. It’s not often we meet a team that plays more roughly than us, but my players did seem to have gotten the message about taking it a bit easier on the tackles. At the same time, Skanderborg didn’t really seem to have any other ways to stop our fast attacks, so a lot of freekicks, a lot of fouls and a lot of yellow cards meant it was difficult for us to get our usual fluent game going. When Schjødt went in very late in a tackle on Mads Westh, it looked especially ugly and in my book could just as well have earned him an early bath. Luckily Westh was able to shake it off and play on.

However, they interrupted their own game as much as they did ours with all those fouls – and when we did manage to get through their tightly knit defence, the difference in quality showed. Not a single shot on target from Skanderborg throughout the game(!). No wonder they’re bottom of the table.

We did what was needed - but not much more - on what ended up a fairly comfortable day at the office. Mickey Berg scored his almost mandatory goal when he followed up on a trademark Daniel Kristensen freekick that hit the post – a clear example of a costly foul from Skanderborg – and captain Bechmann effectively closed the game with a header after a beautiful cross from Westh. The lads more or less went on cruise control after the break. I would have liked them to keep the pressure on, but I’ll take the three points and the fact that we got them almost without breaking a sweat - and thankfully without breaking any bones...