Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Stan

[phnompenhandy]

An Irresistible Offer

On Monday I received shocking news from our chairman; he’d been contacted by Plymouth Argyle who’d put in a massive bid of £95000 for our goalkeeper Roberto. Whalley was very clear – he knew I fancied the boy as one for the future but frankly we need the cash now, and he’d guarantee the board released a good chunk of it for future transfers. I saw his reasoning; Reiter was doing fine and we had Bull in reserve but even so the kid had huge potential. ‘Fine’ retorted the chief, ‘We’ll slap a sell-on clause!’ On the Wednesday Stockport came in with just such an offer for Roberto but were only offering £40000 up front. With news of the interest in Roberto leaking out Bristol City and Northampton also came sniffing round. After considerable horse-trading we were left with a rather simple choice; with Argyle’s no-frills cash up front or less than half their amount with the promise of jam tomorrow. In this game if you don’t have the money today there is no tomorrow; we took the £95 grand and sent the young Spanish lad on his way with our blessings. The board actually released less than half the amount for new signings, but at least that guaranteed the ten deals I’d already made for the close season.

Then with the news that Leeds United had gone into receivership I immediately took myself down the road to the firesale to see if I could snap up a couple of youngsters. I saw three I knew of and liked who were instructed to go wherever a home could be found, so I left my shopping list with the chairman and let him get on with it. He drew a blank however – despite the instructions from the administrators, after clinching some superb bargains the kids just refused point blank to come. Spoilt brats! I took the task upon myself and decamped to the Leeds training ground for a week. The result was the same though. On hearing that Wimbledon had been relegated I took my vulturistic instincts off to Milton Keynes to procure the services of a rising star I’d heard a lot about, Serge Makofo. Unfortunately he also had this notion of himself and was holding out for something ‘better’. Sometimes the arrogance of youth of today appals me. I wasn’t that down really – spending so much time with all those teenage egos just reminded me what a great bunch of lads I’ve got and the new boys I’d arranged to bring in from lower league backgrounds were far more down-to-earth; I felt we’d be just fine next season with what we had although I was sure I’d supplement the squad a little more, but there was no rush.

[phnompenhandy]

Saturday 3rd April: Stanley 0 - 0 Margate

A home tie against a mid-table side with nothing to play for was just what we wanted at this point. They had beaten us earlier in the season so we had to respect them; I put out a strong team although Bull got a chance in goal, and Hollis and Halford started at the back. Prendergast and Calcutt were the wingers. Brannan was still faffing about with his contract; for ‘political’ reasons I left him out as his recent goals and assists were strengthening his bargaining hand. Flitcroft was in a rich vein of form so I didn’t feel that would be any risk to the outcome of the game.

Margate played a similar style to our usual one against stronger opposition or away from home – a cautious but direct 5-3-2 tactic. We prepared to contain it but we felt we were strong enough coming forward to pulverise them despite their useful counter measures. In the first half Margate didn’t come forward much but they played a very competent containing game and whilst our approach play was good the finishing wasn’t good enough to duly worry the opposition keeper. It was the sort of game where Mama would have unlocked the door but we had no one else quite like him. Whether Bhutia was missing his young friend on the pitch or whether he was starting to think about returning home I couldn’t know, but he was continuing to look quite subdued. In the second half all we could do was keep plugging away but apart from a shot cleared off the line from a corner we weren’t getting much change from a determined defensive display. For the last ten minutes we threw everything at them but to no avail. On the day it was a fair result and Calcutt was somehow selected form 22 equally worthy performances to win the man-of-the-match award.

[phnompenhandy]

The War Against Terrorism

Saturday 10th April: Gravesend & Northfleet A - A Stanley

Gravesend we in with an outside shout of a play-off place so we both badly wanted three points from this contest. The rain was tipping down again and I put out my strongest line-up with a reminder to play the long ball game, although the rain stopped an hour before kick-off and although the surface was greasy it was possible to play some football. My ‘strongest line-up’ included Flitcroft who had staked a claim for the DMC spot lately, which was fortuitous timing with Brannan too distracted by contractual issues.

We got off to the worst possible start with a goal conceded from a corner in the second minute. I was ruing dropping Hollis who is terrific in the air when Robbie Williams was beaten at the near post; Williams is by far the better wing-back but as is the way with these types, his defending could do with some attention. There was no need to panic however and remarkably within a minute we were level as Calcutt set off on an excellent dribble past host players still congratulating themselves, into the penalty area and made a nuisance of himself in the six-yard box, inducing a defender to put past his keeper for an embarrassing own goal. Before seven minutes were out there were three goals on the board; a forward outpaced Ifura to burst through and finish well. Over the next few minutes it was evident that their front two were far too quick for our back four so despite being a goal behind I had to instruct the whole team to fall back and support them. It made little difference as soon after we’d conceded a third from another corner, this time to the far post. We were falling apart, rapidly and inexplicably. I hollered more tactical changes which just confused everyone before we conceded again from yet another corner. Ifura had just got back to the zippy forward to toe the ball away for a corner but from there the damage was done from a header from the centre of the six-yard area – three different corners. Soon into the second half we were caught out by yet another corner as well as a long range strike whilst Calcutt weaved his way through a defence as slow as ours to make the score 6-2 with about twenty minutes to go when we were saved by divine (or demonic) intervention – a bomb alert forced the abandonment of the contest [Editorial input: I’m really not kidding – my game was interrupted by a bomb alert followed by the cutting of the electricity lines]. Naturally the home officials were livid but there was nothing that could be done. The match was scheduled to be re-played in the mid-week and our heaviest defeat of the season was chalked off the records.

Tuesday 13th April: Gravesend & Northfleet 3 - 0 Stanley

There’s no law in football that says you can’t make changes before replaying an abandoned fixture and I did what I could to take full advantage of the situation. A very different (and taller) defence including Hollis, Smith and Bull in goal lined up along with Prendergast on the left and Clitheroe on the right. We spent all our training sessions including extra ones on Sunday working on defending corners and psyched ourselves up to prevent lightening striking twice.

My plans were disturbed after 12 minutes when Campbell was injured; I had to pull Naylor back into midfield and send Mullin on. We defended well and gave them few chances in the first half and we defended the corners resolutely. Everything was going according to plan until Naylor conceded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area and with the last strike of the half they scored with an unstoppable strike from the free kick. With no time for considered reasoning I told the boys at half time to be more positive but still as tight at the back. Good rhetoric but logically impossible – something has to give and the resulting gaps at the back led to a second goal being conceded. We had solved our defensive vulnerabilities in the air but Smith was proving a little slow on the ground so I replaced him with Howarth. We were still on the back foot and on 83 minutes Hollis gave away a penalty from which they got their third. In the end justice was done – Gravesend still took the points and with a decent goal difference. We’d reduced our weakness defending corners but I was left with a major worry – we were clearly beginning to buckle under pressure as the finishing line approached.

[phnompenhandy]

The Pressure Mounts

Bhutia was no longer the inspirational leader he’d been all season and the team’s rhythm had gone. Only four games to go and we still had to visit a surging Shrewsbury, six points behind with a goal difference only one less than ours, as well as play third place Chester on equal points with the Shrews. Both these teams were also due to plunder easy points off Northwich Victoria who’d just been relegated. Stevenage, who’d reached the FA Trophy final were only one point behind them had a game in hand – which they won the next day to close the gap to four points (the same time as Hereford lay down and died, following Northwich down and out). Our rivals all had an easy run-in as our final three games were against sides all in the top six. Could Mama possibly return in time like the superhero he was to us? He was back in light training the following day. We were all feeling the heat and it was utterly necessary that we took three points from our next fixture at home to Aldershot.

[karanfett]

If you want, you could keep updating.

[Terk]

if you want to, you can not up topics which haven't been updated in nearly three weeks

[phnompenhandy]

Ha ha,

Sorry Karanfett and other readers! The game continued for another couple of months and we were doing so-so. Then I got involved in an online clan LLM game which was great fun but time-consuming, and then I found myself in a rural backwater in Thailand which is where I am now.

I don't have a computer at the moment but I'm looking to acquire a laptop in time for the release of FM2005 when I'm intending to launch a career with Bradford Park Avenue. Hopefully I'll have time to write up a new campaign once

I've familiarised myself with FM.

I'll be back!!!

[BobBev]

I hope so Andy - we need to keep quality writers active in the forum so hurry up with that laptop