FM16: The Frozen Throne

[Adonalsium]

I'll get back to you with first-hand, totally not falsified evidence of its effectiveness.

[Rikulec]

I'll get back to you with first-hand, totally not falsified evidence of its effectiveness.

At this point, any help will be much welcome.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - January 2051 - Dagenham & Redbridge





The cripple fight is on.

How much could I expect from a trip to a team who were the leaders at the time of asking? I don't think there was a single logical argument for us beating Crawley. We set out parking the bus and hoping for the best. The start wasn't very encouraging - in the 8th minute Armani De'ath (what a name for a striker!) put the favourites in front, losing his marker before converting a good cross from the right wing. The game was pretty much going to plan - the hosts were clearly the better team, with us rarely trying to put some attacking move together. And then the 54th minute came, and suddenly it was all square again - a perfectly timed pass from Lee Morgan allowed Robert Hickman to equalise with a nice driven effort from the edge of the box. Unfortunately, we fell short of stealing a draw - in the 82nd minute we got undone by yet another cross, and Ryan Peters secured a victory for Crawley. A deserved one, in all honesty, but we did put up a decent fight.

Don't let yourselves get fooled by the Cambridge result. Yes, it's a massive one for our dogfight, but it's nowhere near telling the true story of the confrontation. We got in front in the 15th minute, Drago Lucic getting lucky enough to have the ball sent straight to his feet by a sliding tackle by one of the opposition's defenders. From then on, we had to withstand a storm. It was a very strange one though - even though the hosts dominated, they couldn't get anything flying on target. Out of their ten shots, only one was going in. It was a penalty taken by David Warren and saved by Liam Whitehurst in the 50th minute. Finally in the 67th minute we created a bit of breathing space for ourselves - Lee Morgan let off an absolute beauty of a free kick from 25 yards out, and their goalkeeper was helpless. It was also Morgan who grabbed the final goal for us ten minutes later, tapping the ball into an empty net after having it squared to him by David Goodall in a quick counter attack. What a huge result for us.

Karma always strikes back though. In all honesty, I have no idea how we managed not to beat Wycombe. Yes, they are a superior team to us, but on the pitch it was the exact opposite. We got in front quite early on - a pass into the box from Josh Brown to David Goodall was met with a surprising shot from a tight angle that went in just past the near post. Six minutes later the visitors managed to equalise against the run of play though, Shaun Varney on the scoresheet. That didn't kill our momentum, as we kept coming at them furiously. The only problem? We couldn't finish. And of course they could. Of course all the other teams only have to come close to our goal to find the net. Of course Darren Gray had to put them in front in the 56th minute. Of course. I guess in the end we got bloody lucky - a horrendous backpass allowed Goodall to make it 2:2 in the 63rd minute. And that was it. End of story.

Kidderminster, on the other hand, was a fully deserved beating. In some games we look like we're actually trying to avoid relegation and doing our best to scrape whatever result we can. In other games, we lay down and wait for the opposition to run over us. Guess which one this was. Eddie Rossiter opened the scoreline in the 26th minute, and of course it had to be a cross. How obvious is that? Alright, I admit, not as obvious as I catch myself thinking sometimes - and Rossiter proved this to us in the 64th minute, doubling his goal tally after receiving a through ball right through the centre of our ever-so-solid defence. Four minutes later a header from outside the area fell into it, and none of our players seemed to have an idea what to do with it - Ed Skinner did though, as he settled the eventual scoreline with a powerful close range effort. Alright then, in the next game we'll do better, all that.

Honestly? After the Newport County game I was strongly considering resignation, and the only thing that stopped me was Cambridge getting beaten twice and not extending their lead over us. Everything started sooo beautifully - first Nicky Gummery hammered the ball into an empty net in the 8th minute after it luckily made it all the way across the area, and then we had three wonderful opportunities to make it 2:0 inside maybe five seconds, only to fluff all of them. And then we allowed the visitors off their own half for the first time. Well, we did it twice, to be precise. 22nd minute, Peter Kane with a ridiculously powerful shot from a ridiculously tight angle that went right into the top far corner. 25th minute, Tom Travers with a close range tap-in after two of our centre back collided and allowed a scruffy cross to make it to the far post. And that wasn't the end of the plagues that fell upon us. In the 61st minute Terry McMillan decided to get himself sent off for a brutal two-footer, and two minutes later Ashley Crosby - brought on as my final sub following that red card - was stretchered off the pitch with torn knee ligaments, leaving us with just nine men. This couldn't end well. 69th mintue, Peter Kane once again. 73rd minute, Blair Comrie. And luckily they stopped at that. I guess I should be thankful.

Transfers

Jamie Whelan - a loanee from Liverpool boosts our numbers in the middle of the park.

[Rikulec]

Yeah. Our parent club Leeds won't be happy about this.

[Rikulec]

I've nearly run out of midfielders now.

[Adonalsium]

Oh, damn. This is the moment I would hit the scouting lists in a panic, hoping to find ANYONE for the midfield.

Speaking of which, I've been devising a strategy to beat Shakhtar (we miraculously beat them 2-0 the first time around) in the Champions Group Stage. They're a better team and all of their players are practically equivalent to star players in our teams. And the worst of all? My second-best centre back and best midfielder, alongside an on-form winger are all out of the action. Meanwhile they've got NO injured players. #GoodGameDesign

Maybe it's time to turn to the youth squad as well.

[Rikulec]

Oh, damn. This is the moment I would hit the scouting lists in a panic, hoping to find ANYONE for the midfield.

Speaking of which, I've been devising a strategy to beat Shakhtar (we miraculously beat them 2-0 the first time around) in the Champions Group Stage. They're a better team and all of their players are practically equivalent to star players in our teams. And the worst of all? My second-best centre back and best midfielder, alongside an on-form winger are all out of the action. Meanwhile they've got NO injured players. #GoodGameDesign

Maybe it's time to turn to the youth squad as well.

If only we weren't already above our wage budget. Our situation is going from bad to worse pretty much each day.

[Rikulec]

Hooray.

[Adonalsium]

Blackpool! That's the team I once read a football comic about. Hmm... nah I'll root for you.

Just watch out for those comic supertalents.

[Rikulec]

Blackpool! That's the team I once read a football comic about. Hmm... nah I'll root for you.

Just watch out for those comic supertalents.

I will, thanks for the heads up.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - February 2051 - Dagenham & Redbridge





A slight upturn in results for us... and a huge one for Cambridge.

We made a tactical change, switching from the 4-4-2 to a 0-5-5 overload... errr, 4-1-4-1, in an attempt to bore the living crap out of everyone with negative football before striking unexpectedly. And it worked like a charm against Morecambe. Our goal came from what could be described as the only moderately interesting thing that happened throughout the 90 minutes. In the 32nd minute a through ball from Lee Morgan reached Robert Hickman making an overlapping run, and our loanee midfielder let out a strike from just outside the box that caught the goalkeeper wrong-footed and rolled into the net. Shame he also picked up an injury that most likely ends his season already.

Unfortunately we failed to turn the Cheltenham game into a similar borefest, and, as a result, we couldn't grab our second victory in a row. Everything started really well for us though - Josh Brown played a through ball into the box and David Goodall finished it off with some slight help of a poor save attempt from the visitors' goalkeeper. But, while our new tactic seems to have shut midfield down quite efficiently, we're still **** poor at defending crosses, and in the 35th minute Adam Bull took full advantage of that, netting an equaliser from close range. We managed to get back into the driving seat shortly before the break when a free kick taken by Ricardo Silva landed on Danny Scott's left foot and was sent straight into the back of the net. We only had to hold onto that, but in the 78th minute Cheltenham decided they would try a cross once again, and Onell Dujon killed our dream.

Another funny thing about our tactic is that from time to time it's going to produce a really dominant performance, which sees us reach, in this particular case, 65% possession. We really had everything we needed to beat Blackburn. The opening minutes went well to plan, because literally nothing happened, apart from a very early yellow card for our youngster defensive midfielder Ashley Dennis. Yeah, you've probably guessed where this is going. In the 40th minute we broke the deadlock - a fantastic passing move ended with Brown laying the ball out to Morgan for a simple tap-in. Unfortunately, Blackburn equalised straight away through James Daly. And the second half was just trouble - first, Brown got stretchered off. Second, Dennis picked up his second yellow card in the 65th minute. And finally thirteen minutes later Daly doubled his goal tally to send us home with nothing. And at the same time Cambridge were starting to gain momentum...

Hartlepool was a very tough game on paper and we were pretty much expected to lose, but we did very well standing up to them and on another day the result could have gone the other way easily. The visitors opened the scoreline in the 14th minute - guess what, it was a cross from the right wing and John Bull taking two attempts to get it past Liam Whitehurst and into the net. We got the equaliser just five minutes later though, Ricardo Silva rebounding Lee Morgan's long shot that was wonderfully saved by their goalkeeper. From then on the game turned into a two-way battle, and, unfortunately, it was Hartlepool who managed to land a punch - Bull put them back in front in the 61st minute. We had to take more risks with the final whistle approaching, and in the 82nd minute the visitors caught us on the break, with Steve Walsh performing the execution. Oh yeah, and Cambridge won again.

The Tranmere game didn't really contain too much things to talk about. It was the kind of 0:0 we were kind of aiming for, not really expecting much from a trip to a far superior team and just trying to limit the damages to an absolute minimum. All in all, I guess I should be satisfied with this. It was also our second clean sheet of the month, a very rare sight.

The month ended on a high note as comicbook heroes Blackpool couldn't stand up to the heroes in the making (ha, ha). I made one important tactical change, dropping the advanced playmaker in favour of making Morgan a target man. I regretted it at first when he missed an open net with 0:0 on the scoreboard, but in the 31st minute he made up for that, stealing the ball off a defender before slotting it home with a calm and precise effort aimed at the far bottom corner. It was also Morgan who doubled our lead in the 68th minute, and it was quite a nice one - Callum Callaghan played a lovely chipped through ball into the box, and the striker finished it off with a powerful left-footed volley. We could have ended this with a clean sheet as well, but in the 91st minute Tom Woodward proved to be one hell of a ****, taking the ball after Danny Scott went down injured and beating Whitehurst in a one-on-one. I'm sure karma will get to him at some point.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - March 2051 - Dagenham & Redbridge





You know what comes next.

The Burton game was just 90 minutes of horrendous football from both sides. Seriously, probably the only reason why it didn't finish at 0:0 was that we're so ****. The only goal of the game was scored in the 20th minute. A drilled cross from the right wing, Paul Breach, 1:0. We didn't even try to find an equaliser, and the hosts didn't seem particularly keen on coming forward and trying to extend their lead. It looked as if both sides were satisfied with the scoreline. Awful.

We were only slightly better away at Rochdale the next week. This time we managed to dominate possession, but nothing seemed to come out of this despite a relatively promising start where we almost created a good chance and had another one ruled out for a rather dubious offside. Finally in the 41st minute the hosts reminded us of our place in the league - a long ball fell right between our central defenders for Ben Wright to find the net with a nice first time finish. We tried to come forward more and more desperately as the time was passing, and for the dying minutes I actually went with the 0-5-5. Not to a good effect - an easily constructed counter attack allowed Wright to double his goal tally in the 89th minute of the game, sending us straight into the abyss with ten games to go. Only a miracle can save Dag & Red now.

And right after the match...

[Rikulec]

Going there simply made no sense to me, given the performances of the team and the ridiculous number of injuries forcing us to play youngsters.



What now? I have no idea.

[Rikulec]

Jump right back in?



Of course not.

[Rikulec]

So, first they beat me to force me to resign from Dag & Red (who eventually got relegated, as a side note), then they sacked their manager after finishing 18th in the league, and now... well, this could be a funny twist.

[Rikulec]

I knew it. They had it all planned.



Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - New Club - Rochdale



I guess this counts as a step up. For a supposedly young and talented managed with a father who actually achieved something in football, this would probably work.

Club Name: Rochdale

Nickname: The Dale

Year Founded: 1907

Status: Professional

Stadium: Spotland (10,208 capacity, 8,310 seated)



Not much history to be proud of, they won three League Two titles in 2017, 2032, and 2044, as well as a Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2018. There's still plenty of room in the cabinet to fill.



The first good thing is that they have some actual League Two standard players at their disposal. I don't think a revolution will be needed in the transfer window, just a couple of holes to patch up.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - Season Preview - 2051/52 - Rochdale

Board Expectations:

Sky Bet League Two: Mid-table finish

FA Cup: Second Round

Capital One Cup: First Round

My Expectations:

Sky Bet League Two: I'll be happy just meeting the board's expectations, but I have a feeling we could do much better than that.

FA Cup: A decent run would certainly help us.

Capital One Cup: Not important.

Budgets:

Transfer: £1,402

Wage: £21,851 (currently spending £18,476)

Balance: £43,949

[Northernpilgrim]

Good luck with Rochdale mate

[Rikulec]

Good luck with Rochdale mate

Cheers mate.

[ManUtd1]

Good luck with Rochdale, indeed!

[Rikulec]

Good luck with Rochdale, indeed!

Cheers, our transfer business so far has made me cautiously optimistic.

[Rikulec]

Rearguard action, riiight.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2051/52 - Rochdale

Friendlies



A wonderful preparation period carried out by my assistant as usual.

Transfers



Really happy with the quality of players brought in.

Jon Dore - we start with a bang. This guy will go straight into the first team, he looks literally out of this league.

Alex Glassey - another good player who will probably get his minutes, but I can't see him starting in front of Dore regularly.

Neil Curran - and again we bring in someone who shouldn't even have agreed to come that low in the pyramid. What a wonderful signing.

Marcus Brook - a very good finisher who should become a starter for us.

Neil Devlin - he's already good enough to sneak into the starting XI, and I can only see him getting better.

Jake Taylor - he should give his competitor a good run for the place in the team on the right wing.

[Adonalsium]

Neil Devlin especially looks like a wonder for this level. Dore, Brook and Curran are also great additions. With this team, you might not even need the 0-5-5's explosive* strength!

*explosions may happen at own defense

[Rikulec]

Neil Devlin especially looks like a wonder for this level. Dore, Brook and Curran are also great additions. With this team, you might not even need the 0-5-5's explosive* strength!

*explosions may happen at own defense

Hopefully I won't.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - August 2051 - Rochdale

League 2





I'd be over the moon with the start but for the draw at the end.

We started our fight with a potentially tricky trip to Walsall. Hell, most of our trips are going to be tricky here. This time round we got uncomfortably close to leaving with a huge bag of frustration. We got off to a strong start, and in the 8th minute we caused massive chaos in the hosts' penalty area before our loanee centre back from Coventry Reis Higby scored the easiest goal you could possibly imagine. Nineteen minutes later our support striker Fraser Foster (welcome back, 4-4-2) doubled our lead with a nice header from Jon Dore's cross. Despite scoring twice, we couldn't even hold onto the slimmest of leads until half time - Osman Asiamah and Lucas Nicholas ensured that with goals in the 37th and 44th minute respectively. In the second half we were undoubtedly the better team, but struggled immensely to break through the opposition's organised defence. Until the 85th minute - Foster tried to shoot from a difficult position inside the box under a defender's pressure, but managed to find the net thanks to incredible precision on the hit. Three minutes later our substitute centre back Mark Elliott put an end to any doubt about the result, Dore picking up his third assist on his debut with a free kick cross. Certainly not the worst start, that.

Bradford City have just been relegated from League One. Straight into the rancor pit - and guess who's the rancor. The show began in the 18th minute with Foster grabbing his third goal of the season, Marcus Brook with a good delivery from the left wing. And then Brook started scoring himself. In the 29th minute Foster thanked him for the assist, heading the ball across the area for our advanced forward to smash it in from close range. Brook doubled his goal tally shortly before the break, slide-tackling it in after a drilled cross from our right back John Jones. And in the 56th minute he completed his hat-trick with a goal that reminded a certain old Icelander in the stands of a certain Brinquedo who used to play for a certain Danish side. The English striker played a nice one-two with Neil Devlin before finding the far bottom corner with an extremely powerful first time strike from just inside the penalty area. To make things worse for Bradford, their defender Amadou Faye was sent off for a second yellow card in the 84th minute. Shame we couldn't make it five really.

Quality, not quantity was our motto when we travelled to Burton for what turned out to be a very confident result brought from not such a confident performance. I believe we were helped either by the referee or a game bug - in the 24th minute we got awarded a penalty for a foul on Jordan Mercer which seemed to have occured outside the area. Brook didn't care though, as his strike down the middle gave us the lead. Four minutes later he doubled our lead with a perfectly legitimate goal, Mercer with the assist from the right wing and our striker with a simple tap-in. Foster decided he couldn't do any worse, and scored twice as well - first in the 39th minute from Brook's kind square ball and then in the 58th from Alex Glassey's cross. Burton got one back through Steve Jackson in the 86th minute, but that mattered very little.

I guess Grimsby simply turned out too weak for us to take them seriously. On paper, they were our weakest opponent of the month. On the pitch, they would often be shown exchanging a few passes before starting our own attacking move by giving the ball away to us. And in the beginning we looked like we were going to take full advantage - in the 19th minute a cross by Glassey was calmly converted by Foster. But time was passing, and we kept not only wasting good opportunities, but also allowing the visitors to create theirs more often than I would have liked us to. And finally in the 71st minute they made it count - Steven Scott couldn't hold onto a free kick he saved, and Luke Short pounced on the rebound to steal a point for his team. I just hope this won't kill our momentum.

Capital One Cup



We've already written a wonderful chapter here.

To be honest, I wasn't particularly bothered by the Chesterfield game. I wouldn't have cried had we crashed out at that point. But the players created a wonderful show, and fully deserved to go through. The start wasn't very promising though, and in the 15th minute the visitors went in front thanks to Tony Taylor. After another quarter an hour we dealt them two massive blows in extremely quick succession - first Neil Curran scored his first ever goal for the club, heading the ball in after Neil Devlin's corner, and in the very next minute Marcus Brook made it 2:1 with a very difficult tight angle strike, Fraser Foster with the assist. Our celebrations didn't last very long, as Luke Booth equalised in the 38th minute with massive help of a pinball situation in our penalty area following a corner. It was Brook who had the final say that evening though, and in the 66th minute he scored the winning goal from Jake Taylor's cross. We were through, but were going to face an almost impossible task - a Premier League side at their place.

The lion's nest didn't give us a warm welcome - Reading's striker Yanis Padovani put them in front after just four minutes of play, heading the ball in after a cross from the left wing. After some time of their absolute domination I decided to counter their 4-3-3 by man-marking their full backs to stop crosses from coming. It didn't turn the game around, but it stopped most of their attacks from coming. The beginning of the second half brought a massive surprise though - Jon Dore found just enough space to put a cross in, and Fraser Foster headed it into the back of the net to make things all square. I was far from excited though, as I thought Reading were inevitably going to break through the bus we parked and put a few past us. But the time was passing, and despite them creating good chances from time to time, they didn't really put us against a wall, and Jake Staunton did very well between the sticks to stop whatever the defence let through. So, finally it went to penalties. We scored our first goal as late as three rounds in, but the hosts were even worse - only one of their five attempts found the net, three being stopped by Staunton and the final bouncing off the crossbar to send us into the Third Round. Amazing.

Our next opponent will be Plymouth, rock bottom of the Championship at the moment. We're hosting them, and you know what? It could be doable.

[Rikulec]

The numbers speak for themselves.

[ManUtd1]

Somewhere, in a pub, a group of Dag & Red supporters are slating their Chairman mercilessly. Well done!!!

[Rikulec]

Somewhere, in a pub, a group of Dag & Red supporters are slating their Chairman mercilessly. Well done!!!

Not yet, but they will. Cheers mate.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - September 2051 - Rochdale

League 2





Still unbeaten, because why not?

The Middlesbrough trip looked really tough on paper, and it proved to be so. Despite us taking three times as many shots as they did, I feel the draw is the result that does it the most justice. We made a decent start to the match, and finally in the 34th minute we made it count - Alex Glassey's corner landed on the head of Neil Curran at the near post, 1:0. The hosts weren't going to let us beat them at their place too easily though - they did well to stop us from getting into dangerous positions, and in the 61st minute they managed to respond to our goal with an equaliser from Sam Jackson. All in all, I'm happy though. I'd have taken a draw beforehand.

I wanted to give Cambridge a proper chasing, not only as a revenge for them staying in the league at Dag & Red's expense, but purely for the sake of it. And the opening minutes showed some great promise, we were all over them. We opened the scoreline as quick as two minutes in, Marcus Brook with a short pass into the area and Jon Dore with a rather lucky effort that was pretty much palmed into the net by the visitors' goalkeeper. Twelve minutes later we doubled our lead through Jordon Mercer's header, Dore with the assist. We continued to push for a few more minutes, and then we inexplicably stopped. Was that fatigue getting to us after a mad fixture congestion? Possibly. When Bernard Boakye pulled one back for Cambridge with a wonderful free kick from just outside the box, we started to look really shaky. The visitors were the better team in the second half, and a draw was looking more and more likely with each minute, but luckily we held on. Still, we should be beating sides like this much more convincingly.

When Everton were opening their shiny 51,946 Avramenko Stadium in 2040, they probably didn't expect it would witness a League Two game just eleven years later, and see its owner get involved in a second relegation battle in a row after losing the first one. And no one could expect a thrashing like the one we gave them. Two quickfire doubles did the job for us. Dore opened the scoreline in the 24th minute, rebounding Brook's strike that was denied by the goalkeeper. Three minutes later a free kick by Devlin was headed into the net by Mercer. From then on we switched to the keep the ball, pass it around mode, but decided to strike again when the opposition weren't expecting. In the 87th minute Brook ended his short goal drought, smashing home a wonderful drilled cross from our left back Scott Naismith, and three minutes later he doubled his goal tally from the penalty spot after a foul on Mercer. Easy.

Cheltenham didn't trouble us too much, either. You could say it was a typical 2:0 game. Once again we looked strong right from the start, and in the 18th minute a cross from our second choice right back Spencer Wills fell right between their defenders and the goalkeeper for Mercer to smash it in from close range after losing his marker in a nice off the ball run. After that we created a few good opportunities to score, but instead of converting the easier ones, we took the scenic route - in the 68th minute a 25-yard thunderbolt from Iain Challinor doubled our lead and sent the crowd roaring. From then on, smooth sailing right until the end. Very, very confident.

The same can't be said about the Forest Green game. You know, the things that happen when I meet the team that's bottom of the league. This time the main theme was free kicks. A free kick led to the hosts grabbing the lead through Terry Green in the 8th minute. Every action they had seemed to begin with a free kick. Luckily, we had more to say than that. In the 27th minute a square ball from Jake Taylor rolled to the feet of Marcus Brook, and well, I don't remember even Brinquedo shooting that powerfully. It was a rocket. And our top marksman didn't stop at that - in the 68th minute he put us in front with a precise finish after having a defender smash the ball into his shins with a failed clearance attempt. When I thought we had things under control, in the 83rd minute yet another bloody free kick allowed Richard Johnston to equalise. But what do we have Brook for? With the last kick of the game, our striker found himself on the end of a through ball by our 16-year-old talent Nicholas Heaton and smashed the ball home with his supposedly weaker left foot, which is not weak at all.

And finally, Crawley. This was never going to be easy. A goal from Maxwell Agbo which put them in front in the 13th minute perfectly reminded me of that. The visitors did a wonderful job of killing large chunks of the game off despite us trying our best to get through their well organised defence. Luckily, our team is just so well rounded that we always seem to find a way. This time it was probably the least noble one - in the 71st minute a free kick pumped into the box by Glassey was headed into the net by Curran, which pretty much made the month go full circle - remember the Middlesbrough game? Most importantly though, Gillingham lost for the first time this season, which put us one point clear at the top of the table. The top, baby.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy



A good win to kick things off.

The start was a little unsettling though - a header from Orville Tuyp looked really soft and took ages to reach its target, yet it somehow found its way into the net off the near post. Jack Staunton should have done better there. 1:0 down then, but from then on we were all over Notts County. Finally we managed to grab the equaliser shortly before the break, Neil Devlin scoring from just inside the area after a nice pass from Fraser Foster that fooled the visitors' defence and presented the addressee with a clear shot. And in the final quarter a quickfire double ultimately did the job - in the 78th minute Jon Dore served Mark Elliott with an inch-perfect corner, and just two minutes later Foster grabbed a goal for himself, Dore with the assist again.

In the Second Round we'll pay a visit to Bradford City.

Capital One Cup



Not this time.

Plymouth were better than us. Simple as that. We managed to limit their wave of attacks at first, but in the 23rd minute a powerful strike from Adam Smith following a very dynamic attacking move found its way past us. It was also Smith who doubled the visitors' lead shortly after the break, applying the finishing touch to a lightning-quick counter attack that our free kick was met with. All we could muster was a penalty won by Jordon Mercer and converted by Marcus Brook in the 78th minute, but instead of us chasing the result, it was Plymouth who still found enough time to punish us once again through Clive Roberts in the 89th minute. Still, I think we made a very respectable showing in the competition, getting further than any other League Two side.

[Rikulec]

Both made me equally happy.

[Adonalsium]

Gotta love that toothy smile. Like a bald albino ogre.

[Rikulec]

Gotta love that toothy smile. Like a bald albino ogre.

Say that to his face!

[Adonalsium]

The Shrek of Iceland. Favourite home tactic: yell at opposition manager to "get out of his stadium".

In the end it's just a brilliant distraction tactic however, while the manager is too busy staring in confusion at Gylfi, Brook is already running towards the goal like a madman...

[Rikulec]

The Shrek of Iceland. Favourite home tactic: yell at opposition manager to "get out of his stadium".

In the end it's just a brilliant distraction tactic however, while the manager is too busy staring in confusion at Gylfi, Brook is already running towards the goal like a madman...

You're probably one of the best tactitians these forums have ever seen.

[Adonalsium]

Goes brilliantly with the 0-5-5, too. Just make the goalkeeper wear a Gylfi facemask!

[deltablue]

Good to see Rochdale going a lot better.

[Adonalsium]

Yah, the new signings are a real superhero squad!

[Rikulec]

Goes brilliantly with the 0-5-5, too. Just make the goalkeeper wear a Gylfi facemask!

I don't think the players are prepared for this.

Good to see Rochdale going a lot better.

Thanks mate.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - October 2051 - Rochdale

League 2







...and tits.

The Gillingham game well and truly set the theme for the remainder of the month. For whatever reason we started to make silly mistakes like we never had before. We conceded at the first opportunity, Enis Ünal rebounding the ball into an empty net in the 6th minute. After twenty more minutes of boring nothing we gave away a penalty after a horrendous case of defensive miscommunication, and Frankie Cole didn't waste the chance to double his team's lead. After that we finally seemed to wake up, and in the 38th minute we pulled one back through Neil Devlin's wonder goal from a very difficult position on the right hand side of the box. The second half started with a disaster though - the same Devlin scored an own goal after Gillingham's corner for no apparent reason really, he just allowed the ball to bounce off him. All we could reply with was a consolation goal from Jordon Mercer in injury time. Ouch.

Next up, Blackburn, which turned into a proper source of frustration. It was a classic game of us being all over them and creating chance after chance, smashing all of them into the stands or, in best case scenario, straight at the visitors' goalkeeper. And, as it often happens in football, our inability to score turned everything around us - in the 75th minute a free kick flew into our box, all our defenders missed the ball on its way towards the far post and finally Ben Keenan tapped it into an empty net. One defeat could have been a slip, two in a row emerge as a bigger problem.

In these circumstances, the Crewe game emerged as one much bigger than originally expected. And we were dealt a massive blow right at the start - Marcus Brook was forced off the pitch with an injury that would keep him out for a month. The remaining players seemed to understande the importance of the match though, and made that visible - we kept creating chances in very regular intervals. Finally in the 29th minute we broke through, and we did so in style - Mercer laid the ball out for Foster, and the striker placed it in the top far corner with the inside of his foot, a very classy strike. Of course, we had to make things more difficult for us - just four minutes later Crewe equalised through Colin McLoughlin, and once again it was a bloody free kick. Can you see a pattern emerging here? Well, we responded to that in the perfect fashion - we scored from a free kick ourselves. 91st minute, Alex Glassey, 20 yards out. What a hit. What a relief.

Morecambe looked easy on paper. But the difficulty level smashed its way through the ceiling in the 2nd minute of the game, when a hopeless overhit cross from Grant Anderson flew over Jack Staunton's head and ended its route in the back of the net. From then on we proceeded to what I hope won't become a regular occurence - multiple chances created, all blown. The visitors were pretty much non-existent... right up until the 56th minute, when a through ball to Levent Çalışkan was clinically finished off. An obvious offside missed by the linesman really didn't help us in this case. Not that we looked particularly determined to help ourselves. Things were starting to get out of hand at this point.

We created three good - or very good, depending on one's perception really - chances to open the scoreline in the Carlisle game. Guess what happened in the 11th minute? Congratulations, you've guessed it. David Buchanan was the luckiest man in a goalmouth scramble that looked extremely alike to one that occured in the hosts' area just a couple of minutes earlier, only this time the ball found its way in. So, one stupid goal down, but the game still needed a free kick to properly wind me up. Oh, wait. 56th minute, a deep free kick into the box, Mark Elliott missed the ball, Buchanan attempted a strike from a tight angle, Staunton got his hand to it, but palmed it the wrong way. Jesus Christ, I was joking. Fifteen minutes later Neil Devlin restored some hope in our hearts from the spot following a foul on Jake Taylor, but that turned out to be the final highlight of the game and of this ridiculous month. Surely this bad luck has to end at one point?

Johnstone's Paint Trophy



Of course.

The Bradford game followed the theme set by our league struggles. Just to give you an idea - their goalkeeper Adam Albrighton won the PotM award with a rating of 8.4, and the quality of our finishing really helped him to it. Hey, at least their goal wasn't a free kick! Instead, it was a very poor cross from the wing that still reached John Bull thanks to miscommunication between our goalkeeper and the defenders, which helped the hosts' striker to an easy finish in the 32nd minute. We didn't look particularly interested in equalising, instead we kept letting them create chances right through the middle. This was probably our most deserved defeat this month.

[Rikulec]

Good for him.

[Rikulec]

Look, that fool thought he would finally play his lethal striker duo up front when Brook recovered from injury



No, seriously. This is starting to look like Dag & Red all over again. Injuries, players who can't be arsed, and more injuries.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - November 2051 - Rochdale

League 2





First nine games, twenty three points. Next nine games, five points. #GylfiOut

The Wigan game followed the oh-so-well known pattern at the beginning. The opening minutes showed promise for us, but then yet another ridiculous mistake in our defensive ranks allowed the ball to fall between the back line and the goalkeeper for the unobstructed Adam Ohemeng to smash it into the back of the net. Ten minutes later we conceded an even greater classic - a deep free kick was put into our box and everyone just stopped, waiting for it to cross the line. It didn't - Ohemeng got to it, smashed it at Staunton to have a perfect rebound laid out, and finally made it 2:0. But wait, there's more! This time we actually fought back! Not for the whole game, only when we needed to, but still, it was nice to see some commitment from the lads once again. And so, a corner from Jon Dore was finished off by Ashley Arthur seconds before half time, and in the 50th minute a nice pass into the box from Fraser Foster was beautifully finished off by Jordon Mercer. Shame they didn't want to win really.

Kidderminster, even more of the same. Only this time there was one change - the goal really killed us off. A counter attack in the 22nd minute - obviously the first opportunity for the visitors following a few missed by us, a powerful shot by Foster denied by the crossbar to name just one - was finished off by Ed Skinner, and from then on we pretty much gave up. Sure, Kidderminster were on a very good run prior to this game (and we... yeah), but still, we gave it away too easily. And as you already know, we lost Foster. Another fun fact - a couple of days after this match I was offered a new contract. I rejected. It's too early for this. We could still go down.

You could say we made progress with the Wycombe game. This time we only found enough time to waste one good chance before Kieran Chirchlow put the hosts in front after dispossessing Neil Curran (why him of all people? He was the only dependable one!), who was the last man, and proving that strikers can score one on ones after all. We didn't even go into complete meltdown, we just casually carried on blowing good chances. Even the presence of Marcus Brook on the pitch didn't help. Hell, he didn't even get a good chance for himself. In the 68th minute Christian Gill made it 2:0, converting a good cross from the left wing. Fade out.

FA Cup



GET IN... oh, wait.

Let's be honest. If we hadn't beaten Harrogate, we probably wouldn't beat anyone. And, surprise surprise, we even managed to make it look confident and comfortable! The scoring started in the 24th minute with Jake Taylor finally scoring his first goal of the season with a rather scruffy effort from a tight angle. Four minutes later our 16-year-old prospect Nicholas Heaton managed to score despite being pressured by two defenders and taking absolute ages to finally turn and shoot with his weaker foot after receiving a square ball from Alex Glassey. Our left winger also managed to get one for himself just before the half time whistle, Spencer Wills with the assist from the right wing. The next hero to put his name on the scoresheet was Neil Curran in the 49th minute - Glassey's corner aimed at the far post was headed across the goal by Mark Elliott and finally into the net by the other central defender. And finally in the 62nd minute Heaton doubled his goal tally, showing great ambition with a sliding tackle that paid off. That's good, I guess.

League One leaders Leyton Orient wait for us at their place in our last... I mean, the Second Round.

[Northernpilgrim]

Tough going at the moment, but you can definitely turn it round, still time to cement that playoff spot

[Rikulec]

Tough going at the moment, but you can definitely turn it round, still time to cement that playoff spot

Here's hoping! Cheers mate.

[Adonalsium]

All it needs is another unbeaten run like in the beginning!

[Rikulec]

All it needs is another unbeaten run like in the beginning!

Yeah, if only it was that easy.

[ManUtd1]

Brutal run of form, man. Just don't overreact with changes to the tactic, etc. It will come back together.

[Rikulec]

Brutal run of form, man. Just don't overreact with changes to the tactic, etc. It Wii come back together.

I've just nearly smashed my monitor with the keyboard during a match. But thanks anyway.

[Adonalsium]

Oh yeah. That happened to me when I first destroyed Shakhtar 4-0 at home, then narrowly lost 1-2 at away... and I could've even graduated from the group stage.