FM16: The Frozen Throne

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - September 2052 - Rochdale

League 1





We took full advantage of an easier run of games.

Easier than usual still doesn't mean easy in League One though. The Shrewsbury game was exactly the kind of game you want to see when you randomly stumble upon football while browsing TV channels. It was very lively and could have gone either way really as both teams had their chances. It was us who landed the first punch - in the 35th minute a lifted through ball from Fraser Foster reached Marcus Brook, who went around the goalkeeper and applied the easy finish. The hosts managed to equalise through Callum Keeble shortly before half time, and in the 71st minute their striker doubled his goal tally, benefiting from horrible marking on our central defenders' part. We kept their celebrations to a minimum - just two minutes later a wonderful pass from Karl Burke was finished off by Foster. A decent result, I guess.

Oxford was our first game this season - if you don't count the first half against Newcastle - where we were simply the better team, and fully deserved to grab full points. After wasting some good chances we finally got in front in the 36th minute. A corner was cleared too shortly, and Neil Devlin headed the ball down to Fraser Foster for a powerful shot that took a deflection on its way into the back of the net. We kept playing well, but in the 52nd minute we made the mistake of allowing the visitors close to our goal for the first time, and that was punished by their wonderfully named defender Barry Barry. So good they named him twice, eh? I was fearing we would give the game away, especially as we kept blowing the opportunities we created, but in the 87th minute Jordon Mercer of all people found himself on the end of Matthew Belford's cross and managed to get his point blank range tap-in on target. Abadaki must have been cheering.

Next up, Bolton. On paper they seemed weaker than us, but we came uncomfortably close to falling behind early on. Luckily, Jack Staunton did a wonderful job, saving Francisco Echeverría's penalty in the 12th minute, really giving us a second chance there. And we took it - in the 39th minute a long ball from Alex Glassey reached Brook making a wide run, and our striker surprised everyone by a powerful driven strike from a tight angle, which went in under the goalkeeper's armpit. We doubled our lead exactly at the hour mark, Jordon Mercer deciding not to shoot from a 20-yard free kick, but lob the ball into the pile-up in front of goal, finding Duncan Millen, who kept a cool head and applied a calm finish. Jamie Dymond's goal in the 83rd minute restored some hope in the hosts' hearts, but we did well to keep them at bay.

Another game brought us another comfortable victory. Tranmere probably didn't even know what hit them in the 3rd minute when a wonderful deep cross from John Jones matched Brook's run, and the striker hammered the ball into the net from the edge of the six yard box. The best sign of our advantage is the fact that we didn't allow a single shot on target from the visitors. We didn't dominate though - it was more of a hard-fought midfield battle, the referee happy to dish out some yellow cards. Obviously, 1:0 is always a dangerous result, but in the 86th minute any doubt was erased when a fantastic through ball from Burke set up Brook for his second goal of the day. We really do have a wonderful playmaker in our ranks.

And finally, Bristol Rovers. This really had all the makings of the classic frustrating game against the team sitting bottom of the league. We were all over them right from the start, but struggled immensely with our finishing. On a better day, we could have put six or seven past them. I guess we'll have to settle for what we got though. We grabbed the lead in the 18th minute - Foster decided it would be better to shoot straight at the goalkeeper in a promising position, but the ball rolled over to Neil Devlin, who got his rebound in from a tight angle and not without trouble. The second goal was scored in the 58th minute, and it was Brook, who should be kicking himself for not leaving Bristol with at least a hat-trick to his name. This once though the cross from Luke Smith was simply too good to blast into the stands. The hosts got one back through Cameron Engwell in the 61st minute, but, thankfully, that was it. Four wins in a row, who would have thought?

Johnstone's Paint Trophy



This shouldn't have happened.

We might have taken more shots and had more of the ball, but it was Middlesbrough who looked far more dangerous with their attacking attempts. Aaron Miller's goal in the 36th minute was just a deserved confirmation of that, as we couldn't deal with a really nice passing move put together by the hosts. The second goal, on the other hand, we simply decided to give them - in the 49th minute Duncan Millan fiddled with the ball so long that Stuart Bate finally decided to simply take it away from him and run free on goal. We got one back in the 79th minute - Foster attempted a low cross towards the far post, and Middlesbrough's defender Ted Bond ended up putting it in their own net while attempting to intercept it with a sliding challenge. That's one cup less to worry about then.

[Rikulec]

****'s sake.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - October 2052 - Rochdale

League 1





A good month after all.

Who knows how the Yeovil game would have gone if we hadn't fallen behind in the 2nd minute - a beautiful passing move left our defence in its tracks as Rafael Catalán tapped the ball into an empty net. The visitors felt really strong after scoring, and looked likely to extend their lead, with us struggling to find our feet. The unexpected equaliser came just before half time - a corner arrived into the box and was nodded on by Neil Curran before falling to the volley of Simon Bannister, who used simple brute force to get it past the goalkeeper and into the net. The second half didn't start well for us as Tim Henry put Yeovil back in front in the 50th minute, but just five minutes later we equalised again. Again it was a corner, the ball was cleared away and then headed back into the box by Fraser Foster, and Jordon Mercer unleashed an absolute rocket from just inside the area and into the top corner. What a belter. We were close to escaping with the draw, but in the 87th minute Kingsley Tuzo had the ball roll to his feet after a sliding tackle and put it past Jack Staunton to give his tim the win. A deserved one, in all honesty.

The Preston game was a rather strange one. I felt like we were pinned down by their constant stream of attacks, and yet all the statistics actually pointed to our advantage. We opened the scoreline in the 10th minute, and we did it in style - Karl Burke decided to have a try from 25 yards out and got it in off the far post. The goalkeeper didn't even move. Then we lost Marcus Brook to what turned out to be a hip injury. Then in the 44th minute the hosts' wave of attacks finally came into effect as Callum Davies grabbed an equaliser for them with a close range strike. The second half had a very unlikely hero. Jordon Mercer of all people had to be moved to the striker position, and, guess what, he scored. Twice. First in the 47th minute after intercepting a backpass and then in the 68th after Neil Devlin's cross. Is the end of the world approaching? Possibly, as we'll have to play Mercer up front every game now.

Next up, Mansfield, by far the most dull and boring clash of all this month. Instead of collecting highlights, we focused on collecting yellow cards, eventually stopping at six. We got the lead early on - in the 14th minute Devlin laid the ball out to the edge of the box and Foster managed to find the net despite the goalkeeper getting his hand to the shot. Maybe because he palmed it in instead of pushing it away from goal. Yeah, this was definitely not a high quality football match. I'm just happy we managed to win it.

Chesterfield was always going to be a difficult confrontation. They are among the promotion favourites this season, and I don't believe us to be at their level just yet, and beating them in the Capital One Cup last season doesn't really change anything in that matter. And yet we did reasonably well shutting them out for the big part of the game, and we even had a wonderful opportunity to get in front in the first half after a great through ball from Foster, but... yeah, Mercer. Still, we came really close to snatching a 0:0. Unfortunately, they had Adam Ohemeng. In the 88th minute former Wigan man received a pinpoint cross standing just a couple of yards away from goal, a chance he was never going to waste.

Luckily we got the perfect opportunity to finish the month on a high note. We needed some time to break through Bury's deeply-sitting defence, but once we did, they started to look more and more vulnerable each minute. Well, to be precise, it was them who did our job for us - in the 34th minute a clearance attempt hit Dylan Cross straight in the face and was sent rolling towards the net, quickly enough to catch the goalkeeper sleeping. We doubled our lead seconds before the half time whistle - Mercer wasted a wonderful chance, only to recover the ball and lay it out to Alex Glassey, who knew where it should go and how to make that happen. But Mercer hadn't said his final words - in the 58th minute he grabbed a goal for himself, finishing a one-on-one situation with surprisingly clinical precision. The last goal of the month was scored by Foster in the 87th minute, Iain Challinor with a nice through ball to assist him.

[Adonalsium]

You're doing very well even without Brook! I'm a bit surprised by that.

[Rikulec]

You're doing very well even without Brook! I'm a bit surprised by that.

So am I! I thought we would crash with Mercer up front, but we're doing really well so far.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - November 2052 - Rochdale

League 1





Somehow we're still up there.

It's hard to tell whether we were really lucky or really unlucky against Burnley. On one hand, the only reason why we didn't put a few goals past them was the atrocious quality of our finishing. On the other hand, we had a couple of really lucky moments. In the 28th minute a penalty was given for a handball by Neil Curran, but Ted Kamara's strike was denied by Jack Staunton. That didn't prevent us from eventually falling behind shortly before half time though - a cross from the right wing was tapped into the net by Ales Rada. We had multiple opportunities to turn the tables, but with Jordon Mercer being Jordon Mercer and Fraser Foster not being Fraser Foster it was extremely difficult. We finally struck lucky in the 76th minute - Neil Devlin's header bounced off the post, but then it hit their goalkeeper Peter Harrison's back and went back in. I guess everything balanced out in the end.

Despite having the opportunity to postpone the Swindon game, I decided not to - after all, it worked against Preston, so why bother? Well, it turned out we underestimated the opposition and, as crippled as we were by injuries and players away on international duty, we simply stood no chance. The visitors' loanee striker Joe Jones did all the work by himself. In the 17th minute he opened the scoreline after a beautiful through ball that sliced right inbetween our central defenders, and then in the 34th minute he doubled his goal tally with a 30-yard free kick that Jack Staunton should have done much better to keep out. We had some attempts, but mostly they weren't very worthwhile.

Wycombe was the first of the two clashes with sides we already know quite well. Last season we failed to beat them, losing at their place and drawing at home, and this time was no different, even though we came within touching distance of finally breaking this little curse. We really should have wrapped everything up in the first half, but our improvised strike partnership couldn't hit the barn door with the form they're on. I was fuming while looking at both Mercer and Foster failing to finish from seemingly very simple position. In the 45th minute Alex Glassey put them to shame with a wonderful strike into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area, Karl Burke with the assist. And probably everything would have been fine if I hadn't made the mistake of taking Simon Bannister off with fifteen minutes to go. Wycombe really sniffed their chance and decided to have a go. We nearly managed to held them off, but their last-ditch effort ended with Sam Kitchen netting the equaliser with exactly eight seconds to go. Balls.

Our final game of the month wasn't exactly the nicest one of all. We had two interesting clashes with Gillingham back in League Two, but this time we created a show of what is called antifootball. There's not much to talk about in terms of goalscoring chances on either end of the pitch, as there were next to none. At least we can excuse ourselves with the absence of Burke caused by five yellow cards. Oh, yeah, and we also scored a goal. In the 88th minute Jon Dore somehow managed to win us a penalty, and Neil Devlin gave us a very hard-fought victory with the spot kick. At least we didn't end the month winless!

FA Cup



That wasn't the kindest of draws.

Out of all teams we could have been paired with, it had to be Newcastle, of course. Taking all our absences into account, the only real option for us was parking the bus and praying. As a result, we didn't even manage a single shot on target, something that hasn't happened to me for a while. Surprisingly enough, our strategy was kind of working for quite a long time. But then the 73rd minute came, and a wonder hit from Daniel Tiago sent us crashing out of the cup at the first hurdle. An exceptionally tall one at this stage, you have to admit.

[Adonalsium]

Well, well, well. First time after relegation and already in the top 5, with two of your top strikers sidelined from injuries. Next year you'll be battling for promotion.

[Rikulec]

Well, well, well. First time after relegation and already in the top 5, with two of your top strikers sidelined from injuries. Next year you'll be battling for promotion.

To make things better, Abadaki and Brook both recovered almost exactly at the same time. Thanks for the comment as always.

[Adonalsium]

Well, it's just 5 points off of the 1st place. With a bit of luck Rochdale can still clinch the title.

[Rikulec]

Well, it's just 5 points off of the 1st place. With a bit of luck Rochdale can still clinch the title.

I wouldn't go that far yet, although if we can get lucky in most of our games... maybe. Just maybe. But we're nowhere near ready for the Championship, that would require a proper revolution in the squad.

[Rikulec]

This was a matter of time.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - December 2052 - Rochdale

League 1





The dream lives on.

Despite the rather dull scoreline, the Barnet game was quite an interesting one, and with better finishing - again! - we could have made it a bit more impressive. After building an advantage in the first half, we finally got in front in the 39th minute - Karl Burke played a deep free kick into the box, and Neil Cromie scored his first ever goal for the club with a powerful strike from just inside the box. Another important moment of the match was Patrick Abadaki's appearance - he replaced Burke in the 57th minute. The sooner he gains his match sharpness back, the better.

I have no idea how we managed to go three up in the season opener against Newcastle. For the second time in a row, they absolutely smashed us and left us with pretty much no chance to respond to their furious waves of attacks. We're lucky to have escaped with a narrow defeat. For the second match in a row for us, the deciding goal was scored in the 39th minute - unfortunately, this time it didn't go in our favour as Shaquille Haynes gave his team three points with a powerful strike following a good square ball from the right wing. On the other hand, he was forced off the pitch with a twisted ankle in the second half. Serves him right.

Neil Cromie didn't stop at one goal this month. Our defensive midfielder opened the scoreline in the 3rd minute of the Ipswich game, this time with a very precise strike after Marcus Brook recovered the ball after a corner and headed it down to him. Of course, the hosts weren't going to give up easily, but at the same time we looked very dangerous on the break. That made up for a very interesting encounter, the fans in the stands surely weren't bored. In the 38th minute Ipswich grabbed the equaliser - John Jones failed to intercept a cross he really should have cleared away, and Craig Bastock tapped the ball into an empty net. The goal didn't change the flow of the game too much, and in the 53rd minute we tipped the scales our way. We won the ball in midfield and launched an immediate attack - Burke played a long ball towards Brook, and our striker clinically took his one-on-one chance. Massive, massive result for us.

The Kidderminster result looks good, but it was probably the most hard-fought victory of the month. Yes, it was a game even tighter than the Ipswich one. We weren't helped by the fact that our opponents had their previous match rescheduled due to bad weather, and had much fresher legs than we did. Still, we only went and bloody did it. The scoreline was opened in the 40th minute. Neil Devlin played a low cross in from the right wing, and Fraser Foster finally ended his lengthy goal drought, taking two attempts and stripping his teammate off the well deserved assist while doing it. But it was probably the 63rd minute that really set things on fire, or at least it did for me - a cross from Phil Egan on the left wing landed at the feet of Patrick Abadaki, and the Nigerian grabbed his first goal after the injury. We managed to steer clear of trouble, and finished things off with a clean sheet. Oh, and we moved into a promotion spot at the halfway point of the season. Happy times.

[Adonalsium]

So close. One more push.

[Rikulec]

So close. One more push.

Let's just not jinx it, shall we?

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - January 2053 - Rochdale

League 1





Well, here we are. I think we can be considered promotion candidates now.

On paper, the MK Dons game loomed as a really tough one. In reality, I was blown away with how much quality and confidence we showed in there. We genuinely looked like a team whose aim is to move a league up already. After 45 minutes of total undisputed domination, in the first half's injury time Marcus Brook received a square ball from Karl Burke and, after setting himself up with a good first touch, he unleashed an absolute thunderbolt into the bottom corner, way out of the goalkeeper's reach. That was the Brook I remember from last season. We doubled our lead in the 58th minute - Matthew Belford put in a cross so good that not even Jordon Mercer was able to waste the chance it created. The visitors were restricted to very hopeful attempts from difficult positions. We were pure class.

We were missing Neil Curran in the Wolves game, and it showed. I bet he wouldn't have made the mistakes that led to their goals. In the 11th minute Duncan Millen lost a physical battle with Miquel Valero, allowing him to go one-on-one with Jack Staunton and open the scoreline. We weren't going to back down easily though, and we managed not only to equalise, but also to grab the lead. In the 26th minute Patrick Abadaki played his trademark pass into the box, and Fraser Foster calmly took the chance. Thirteen minutes later we constructed a wonderful passing move - Abadaki switched play to Alex Glassey on the other side of the box, the winger allowed two defenders to attack him, and laid the ball out to Foster on the edge of the six yard box. Nine times out of ten this would have ended with Glassey attempting a shot, but he made the best decision possible. We couldn't hold onto the result though - in the 76th minute poor marking allowed Valero through once again, and once again he proved to be a clinical finisher. Still, I'm quite satisfied with our efforts there.

There's usually not much to talk about in the 0:0 games, and the Northampton one is no different. They were slightly better than us in the beginning, but the scales were tipping our way with time, up to the point where better finishing would have probably won us the game. I guess we simply can't edge it out every week. Fair enough.

If the York game wasn't a clear manifestation of our strength, then I don't know what would be. We got off to a very smooth start - in the 11th minute a cross from Belford was met with a wonderful volley from Brook, who's definitely back in his shooting boots. Three minutes later we received what seemed to be a huge blow - Duncan Millen was sent off for a two-footer. I switched to a narrow 4-3-2... and we started to absolutely dominate the game, creating chance after chance and hardly ever allowing York to cross the halfway line. In the 30th minute Brook doubled his goal tally with his trademark power strike, Mercer with quite a nice assist there. Not as nice as what Brook did four minutes later though - the striker switched roles with Karl Burke, setting him up with a wonderful through ball and then watching him apply a calm, precise finish. We got our final goal in the 65th minute - a corner came in and Neil Curran headed the ball down to Simon Bannister for a simple tap-in. What a win, what a performance.

Unfortunately, we couldn't maintain consistency in our responding to red cards. The Leyton Orient game started in a wonderful fashion for us - in the 7th minute a cross from Abadaki was nicely finished off by Brook. Twenty minutes later we lost Karl Burke, this time it wasn't a straight red, but two yellow cards. We repeated the 4-3-2 maneuver, but this time it did the exact opposite, as we got torn apart by crossing and overlapping full backs. A quickfire double from Lewis Daniels in the 39th and 40th minute - both goals coming from crosses - completely turned things around, and another goal from Kieran Hampson in the 52nd minute - yes, a cross again - pretty much put an end to our dreams. The other results went in our favour though, and we maintained the top spot after claiming it by beating York.

[Rikulec]

Ouch.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - February 2053 - Rochdale

League 1





It's getting hot up here!

First up, Shrewsbury. A pure, ruthless manifestation of our strength. We grabbed the lead four minutes into the game, Marcus Brook applying the finish to a wonderfully timed through ball from Neil Cromie. We kept pushing for more really hard, and finally in the 32nd minute Patrick Abadaki received a pass from Jon Dore, jumped over a defender making a tackle and slotted the ball home with a classy left footed strike. This fantastic goal was met with an immediate response from the visitors - a goal from Jordan McLean, to be precise - but then in the 39th minute Brook doubled his goal tally, unleashing an absolute beauty into the far corner from just outside the box. The way we played just screamed confidence, and what better proof of that could we receive than an improbably clinical strike from Jordon Mercer to make it 4:1 straight after half time? Shame we didn't score more really, as we certainly could have done so.
 
Speaking of good starts, we only needed sixteen seconds to score against Oxford - Neil Devlin pulled away from his marker on the right wing, and played an inch-perfect cross to Fraser Foster, who had no trouble smashing the ball in from close range. This obviously gave us an advantage, and for the better part of the game we looked like we were going to score again and kill it off. But we didn't, despite the opportunities we had, and we got punished for that. In the 57th minute the hosts equalised after a nicely constructed counter attack rounded off by Luke Millington, and fourteen minutes later Lewis Craig gave them the winner after receiving the ball from a free kick. We shouldn't have given that away.

I was hoping to beat Bolton quite comfortably, and we just about did it. The opening minutes were rather quiet, but in the 16th minute a near post corner taken by Karl Burke was converted by Neil Curran. We waited until the end of the first half to properly turn the tempo up - in the 41st minute a fantastic passing move ended with Foster supplying Neil Devlin with a wonderful through ball and the winger delivering a precise finish, and four minutes later Burke made it 3:0 with a drilled long range strike. We didn't push too hard after the break anymore, and Bolton got one back through Roy Harding in the 66th minute, but that was it. Job done, move on.

Tranmere was another relatively easy game on paper, but instead of a convincing victory, we went for the smash-and-grab approach. Generally we seemed to be the better team, but we couldn't build an advantage visible enough to allow ourselves to become comfortable on the pitch. We also had to wait quite long to finally break the deadlock. In the 69th minute a through ball from Foster was met with a beautiful finish from Abadaki, his soft shot going in off the crossbar. This may not have been the most beautiful of our wins, but it was certainly a well fought one.

The Bristol Rovers game, on the other hand, was a complete and utter disaster. All of a sudden we forgot how to play football. We kept giving the ball away in seemingly simple situations, we didn't work together as a team, we pretty much created opportunities for the visitors. They opened the scoreline in the 9th minute - a long ball was launched upfield, Jack Staunton attempted to come out of the box and clear it away, but Cameron Engwell got to it first, went around the goalkeeper, and tapped it into an empty net. Six minutes later Jack Sanders made it 2:0, taking advantage of a series of absurd defensive mistakes and borderline indecisiveness. Sanders doubled his goal tally just before the break with a powerful low strike that went in at the near post. Oh, did I mention that we also lost Abadaki for the rest of the season? Yeah, this wasn't a good day for us.

[Adonalsium]

Is it just me or is the BBCode here broken? Apparently it also caused like a 30+ increase in page count.

 

Looks like you're about to get promoted, though. For better or worse, considering that the team is not ready for Premier Division.

[Rikulec]

1 hour ago, Adonalsium said:

Is it just me or is the BBCode here broken? Apparently it also caused like a 30+ increase in page count.

 

Looks like you're about to get promoted, though. For better or worse, considering that the team is not ready for Premier Division.

We're not ready for the Championship, let alone the Prem!

 

Yeah, the BBCode is broken all over the forums, something that is hopefully going to be fixed in the next few days.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - March 2053 - Rochdale

League 1

Brilliant.

The Yeovil game was the first of the six-pointers we had to play this month, and, despite my obvious fears, we all but wiped the floor with them. Our performance up front was one thing, but a special mention goes to Simon Bannister, who achieved a 9,0 rating, pretty much keeping the opposition at bay all by himself. The first two goals we scored were almost identical to each other - in the 17th minute Fraser Foster came deep to receive the ball and sent it towards Neil Devlin making a run inside the box for the winger to find the back of the net, and in the 61st minute the duo repeated this maneuver to double our lead. Marcus Brook made it 3:0 in the 77th minute, hammering the ball into the top corner after a wonderful one-two with Jordon Mercer.

Of course, not everything could go our way. Denied three times by the woodwork among other unfortunate events, we simply couldn't find our way past the Preston goalkeeper. We were horribly wasteful up front, and the visitors looked really dangerous on the break. In all honesty, this could have been a 5:3 victory for us on another day.

Scraping wins is something we really seem to have learnt this season though, battling it out with obviously better teams than last season. We got off to a not very promising start, conceding from a free kick in the 5th minute, Kevin Mooney with the goal. And when nothing goes your way, you always have to hope for some help. This time we received it - in the 14th minute the first penalty for a foul on Karl Burke was given, and Brook stepped up and buried the ball in the bottom corner. And just as the first half was about to end, another penalty was given - this time it was Neil Curran who won it - and our striker did exactly the same thing once again. We struck lucky, but I don't care, as long as the points keep coming.

Our fortunes seemed to turn during the week before the Chesterfield game - we lost both Neil Devlin and Jordon Mercer to injuries, meaning we had to replace them somehow. In the end, I moved John Jones up to the right winger slot. Long story short, I would have never thought it could work so well. In the 14th minute our improvised winger opened the scoreline against Chesterfield, Foster with the assist. Generally our performance simply screamed confidence. Not like we were particularly attacking, but no matter what we did, we couldn't be stopped. We killed off the game in the 77th minute - the visitors' defender cleared the ball away after a cross, but it fell straight to the feet of Burke, who made it 2:0 with a sensational 25-yard volley. This guy is well and truly capable of producing magic, and that was one of his moments.

Next up, Bury. Easy on paper, in reality... maybe not as much as expected. Everything seemed in place when we opened the scoreline in the 6th minute, Brook with his trademark power strike after Foster's clever backheel pass. But then we let our concentration slip, and in the 18th minute Michael Johnson took full advantage of that. We replied in the very next minute though, Alex Glassey with a classy strike and Brook with the assist. The final goal of the game was scored in the 28th minute, and, guess what, it was Jones again, tapping the ball into an empty net after a poorly aimed tackle by one of the hosts' defenders. From then on both teams kept creating chances, but none of them was taken in the end.

I just love these moments when a seemingly tragic injury allows another player to emerge and replace the one that went out. Fraser Foster has certainly been enjoying himself since the Abadaki incident. He got his first assist against Burnley in the 5th minute, and, believe it or not, Jones scored once more with a very calm and precise effort. Maybe it was him who I should have retrained in the first place? But it was not him who stole the show this time. Foster assisted again in the 17th minute, allowing Brook to calmly take a one-on-one. And finally in the 48th minute our legendary strike partnership produced the 3:0 goal, the creator with a wonderful through ball and the finisher with an unstoppable rocket. It feels like League Two again, happy times.

Swindon was one of the toughest game of the month for us, and it showed. This was a proper hard-fought victory. As it often happens in such close encounters, the deadlock was broken by a set piece - in the 26th minute Simon Bannister nodded a corner on and Duncan Millen squeezed his header in from a tight angle. Oh, yeah, and we also have Brook. In the 47th minute our striker doubled our lead, Burke with a fantastic long ball to assist him. A drilled cross from the right wing allowed Craig Clarkson to get one back for the hosts in the 74th minute, but that was all they had to offer. What a brilliant month it was for us, exactly when we needed it. One more push could do it for us.

Youth Intake

Horrendous.

[Rikulec]

I find the lack of Fraser Foster in the top three offensive.

[Rikulec]

Let's see how this turns out.

[Rikulec]

And another anniversary just two games later.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - April 2053 - Rochdale

League 1

Right, just as I forgot how this feels.

For some reason I had a hunch. I knew the Bristol Rovers game was going to go balls up. The absence of Simon Bannister might have had something to do with us, especially as his replacement, Duncan Millen, left the pitch with a glorious 4,7 rating. The visitors grabbed the lead through Nathan Kerr's tap-in in the 6th minute, Millen at fault for not intercepting a long pass into the box. To make our situation even more difficult, Neil Cromie picked up his second yellow card of the game just a couple of seconds before half time, obviously he had to commit that foul. And obviously Millen had to give away another goal with another missed header, Rod Kavanagh scoring in the 50th minute. We got one back through Marcus Brook eight minutes later - Fraser Foster with the assist - but in the 69th minute Tommy Tabb put a violent end to our hopes. Not good.

Two defeats in a row, even worse. I'd go as far as saying we would have beaten MK Dons if we hadn't lost to Bristol Rovers. We seem to have taken a huge confidence blow, and that could cost us big time. We couldn't get into clear positions or get our shots on target, which eventually led to the hosts creating an optical advantage, getting more dangerous opportunities, and, finally, scoring in the 65th minute, Matthew Jackson on the scoresheet. I just can't shake off the feeling that we used to be winning these games.

The Gillingham game was all but another disaster. We started brilliantly, trying to hit them with everything we got, creating chance after chance and taking shot after shot for the first fifteen or twenty minutes. We didn't score though, and with time, our advantage evaporated. And of course, the visitors were only waiting for that. In the 42nd minute they punished us, Jason Chartier putting a successful end to their counter attacking move. After the break we started strongly again, only this time we made it count - the Foster-Brook duo produced yet another wonderful moment, the former assisting the latter. But that was it. We couldn't beat a team struggling to avoid relegation. At home. With so few games left to go this season.

Kidderminster, more of the same. We conceded at the first time of asking, with Aaron Brown pouncing on the rebound after Jack Staunton did well to keep a header following a corner away. The lack of reaction from the defenders didn't help him, either. We had chances, they had chances. The game could have gone either way, but it went theirs. We have Ipswich at home and Barnet away coming up. Theoretically, we can win promotion with a game to spare. In a different scenario... well, this may be a longer season than initially expected.

 

[Adonalsium]

Damn... well, this was bound to happen at some point, The FM gods can't let a player go through a season with at least one bad run of however many games they want to plague you with.

[Rikulec]

14 minutes ago, Adonalsium said:

Damn... well, this was bound to happen at some point, The FM gods can't let a player go through a season with at least one bad run of however many games they want to plague you with.

Oh yeah, I've seen that happen. Especially at this stage of the season.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - May 2053 - Rochdale

League 1

Nobody ever doubted this, of course.

The Ipswich game got off to the worst start I could possibly imagine, with the visitors getting in front almost right away, Patrick Morrison scoring in the 2nd minute. Shirts being torn apart, scarves thrown on the ground, et cetera. Those of our fans who had more patience were rewarded quickly though - just six minutes later a lightning-quick counter attack ended with Marcus Brook squaring the ball out to Jon Dore and our left winger scoring his first goal of the season. He couldn't have picked a better moment really. That wasn't all in terms of picking the best moment, either. You may not have noticed, but Fraser Foster was on a 20-game goal drought prior to this match. Was. In the 37th minute he fought the ball off a defender on the edge of the box and placed it in the top corner with a wonderful strike. The second half kept me on the edge of my seat, but we held on. That eliminated Ipswich from the automatic promotion battle, but there was still one more hurdle for us.

Our final match of the season was by no means a lively or entertaining one. Barnet didn't fancy their chances of staying up too much, and decided to just park the bus, something we really struggled to cope with. The deadlock was finally broken in the 63rd minute, but it didn't go in our favour as Aaron Sutton outjumped everyone after a free kick cross to give the hosts a lead. A lead they could only hold onto for five minutes - Jordon Mercer squared the ball to Foster, who equalised with a soft placed effort from just inside the box. In the 81st minute Barnet's defender Iván Herrera was sent off for a professional foul, but that changed very little. What really mattered was that Leyton Orient lost at Kidderminster, which allowed us to move above them on goal difference. Two promotions in two years, both after winning the respective leagues. Who would have thought?!

[Rikulec]

Happy times indeed.

[Adonalsium]

If you get promoted though, it's about to turn from good to...

[Rikulec]

41 minutes ago, Adonalsium said:

If you get promoted though, it's about to turn from good to...

I'd rather just focus on survival for now.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - Season Review - 2052/53 - Rochdale

Sky Bet League 1

Results (Aug-Dec) - Results (Jan-May)

Competition Performance: Winners

So, we went and won the whole thing at the first time of asking. Before the season started, I wouldn't dare to think we would challenge for anything more than maybe a top half finish at a push. But then we simply started to collect points, and with other teams dropping them all the way, we somehow finished top of the league. I don't think anyone could possibly see that coming.

FA Cup

Competition Performance: First Round

Disappointment, part one...

Capital One Cup

Competition Performance: First Round

...part two...

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Competition Performance: First Round

...part three.

Squad

For League One, this was okay. For the Championship, it won't be. Massive, massive rebuild inbound.

Transfers - Finances

Another decent transfer period. Maybe not very spectacular, but we made a nice profit once again, and Karl Burke proved to be a wonderful addition to the squad. I'm happy.

The financial situation isn't looking very bright at the moment, but, judging by the funds I've just been given, we're expecting some big payout. Maybe it won't be so bad.

Player of the Season

1st - Karl Burke - the playmaker, the heart and the brain of the team. His attributes looked out of this world for League One right from the start, and he managed to live up to the expectations. Ten assists may not seem massive, but his amazing creativity helped out many, many more of our attacking moves. Well and truly our number 10.

2nd - Marcus Brook - another great season for our striker, he fell just two goals short of matching his last season's result in the league, and that's despite having played nine games fewer and obviously at a higher level. Despite being 30, I feel he's becoming better and better instead of showing early signs of decline. Long it may continue.

3rd - Fraser Foster - not as sensational and spectacular as last season, but he still contributed massively to our efforts up front. 11 goals and 16 assists in the league tell the whole story really - he was a vital part of our creative force. He had trouble scoring goals for quite some time, but he put an end to that at the best moment possible, effectively sending us up at the very final stage of the season.

Next Season

I won't risk any predictions. Let's just see what's going to happen.

[EvilDave]

Surely Gylfi must be in demand after that? Brilliant season, good to get some more points on the HoF board too I imagine? Great work and a great thread 

[Rikulec]

7 minutes ago, EvilDave said:

Surely Gylfi must be in demand after that? Brilliant season, good to get some more points on the HoF board too I imagine? Great work and a great thread 

Cheers mate. Apart from some speculations about the Stevenage job in the Championship back in January I think, there hasn't really been too much demand for Gylfi, surprisingly. The HoF looks like this so far.

Still some way to go then.

[Rikulec]

We're writing history here!

[Adonalsium]

This is quite the awesome beginning for an even more awesome career, you could say. Can't wait to see what Gylfi's got in store for Rochdale next - starting from the Rochdale Amazing Total Overhaul (R.A.T.O.M, and yes I modified it to get RAT in it) (or whatever)

But, will be interesting to see what kind of players you're able to bring in now that you've that much more cash.

[Rikulec]

26 minutes ago, Adonalsium said:

This is quite the awesome beginning for an even more awesome career, you could say. Can't wait to see what Gylfi's got in store for Rochdale next - starting from the Rochdale Amazing Total Overhaul (R.A.T.O.M, and yes I modified it to get RAT in it) (or whatever)

But, will be interesting to see what kind of players you're able to bring in now that you've that much more cash.

The problem is, we do have the money to bring players in, but we don't have the reputation to attract those who actually have the ability to take our squad to the next level. I can see us struggling big, big time next season.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - Season Preview - 2053/54 - Rochdale

Board Expectations:

Sky Bet Championship: Avoid relegation
FA Cup: Third Round
Capital One Cup: Second Round

My Expectations:

Sky Bet Championship: Survive, by any means necessary.
FA Cup: I'm not too bothered.
Capital One Cup: Not important.

Budgets:

Transfer: £1,455,922
Wage: £54,968 (currently spending £30,069)
Balance: £179,420

[Rikulec]

After some consideration, I decided it wouldn't feel right.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2053/54 - Rochdale

Friendlies

Most importantly, no injuries.

Transfers

Seven... alright, six new faces and a familiar one. I did my best.

Phil Egan - I decided to snap him up after his contract ran out. He'll compete for his place in the left back slot.

Bojan Spasojevic - we needed a left winger, so we went and got one. I just hope he'll turn out okay.

Gustav Nordmark - similar story as with Spasojevic, but this concerns the centre of midfield. Gustav will be the more defensive of the two, provided he plays.

Tiá Maroto - alright, there may be some hope after all. This arrival means I'll be retraining Karl Burke to play deep-lying forward in order to fit these two in. Interesting times ahead.

Aytaç Tunar - we have a new right winger as well. I can't imagine anyone possibly being worse than Mercer.

Josh Dixon - he's better than Staunton already, maybe if he develops, we can snap him up when his contract runs out.

Shane Purcell - another loan to boost the competition in the centre of defence. Potentially a starting XI player.

[Adonalsium]

10 hours ago, Adonalsium said:

This is quite the awesome beginning for an even more awesome career, you could say. Can't wait to see what Gylfi's got in store for Rochdale next - starting from the Rochdale Amazing Total Overhaul (R.A.T.O.M, and yes I modified it to get RAT in it) (or whatever)

But, will be interesting to see what kind of players you're able to bring in now that you've that much more cash.

I had the same problem, but I managed to find a surprising way to get around this. I first negotiated a loan deal for the player I want but can't afford, then after a season I approach to sign him - and lo and behold, it actually lets me put the wage to match his demands.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - August 2053 - Rochdale

Championship

Ooft.

I was quite hopeful ahead of the Leeds clash, seeing they weren't exactly among the division's big boys. It turned out I had the right to think so - the game quickly turned into an entertaining two-way battle, with us generally having the upper hand. Finally in the 49th minute we grabbed our first goal of the campaign. Marcus Brook sent Bojan Spasojevic through, and the winger managed to find the net despite being forced to shoot from an extremely tight angle. We looked good and I was starting to think we would hold onto the lead, but in the 85th minute a corner landed on the head of Gylfi's fellow countryman, Ásgeir Þór Hallfreðsson, who sent it into the net. Balls.

Craig Bastock - three. Rochdale - three. We faced up to Peterborough, and once again we were the better team, but we just couldn't stop their striker. In the 19th minute he opened the scoreline, going around our defence and beating Josh Dixon after rounding him as well. We equalised nine minutes later, Spasojevic squeezing it in from a tight angle once again, Tià Maroto with the assist. Bastock made it 2:1 to the hosts in the 52nd minute, once again beating all of our defenders before unleashing a thunderbolt into the top corner. But after just three minutes Brook tapped the ball into an empty net after Aytaç Tunar's cross, and ten more minutes later Patrick Abadaki put us in front, Spasojevic assisting him from the left wing. Once again we fell to a late goal though, Bastock setting the final scoreline with a close range header in the 83rd minute. We really shouldn't have thrown away these points.

The Derby game was a different story. The visitors grabbed the lead with the first highlight of the game, Fernando Prieto with an extremely precise tight angle header in the 7th minute. Then they got visibly satisfied with that, and concentrated simply on holding us off. Not that we made it particularly comfortable for them - we played really well, and created loads of chances. How we failed to score is well beyond me. Three clear cut chances, one half chance. Not enough.

Another game, another game thrown away. I don't even feel like we're much worse than these teams, it's just that they take their chances and we don't. We got in front against Coventry in the 17th minute, and it was quite a lucky goal - Brook smashed the ball straight at the goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation, but then in bounced off Thomas Brazil's shinpads and crossed the goal line despite his desperate pursuit. A quickfire double from the hosts put them in the driving seat shortly after though - Alex Nart applied the finish to a counter attack in the 25th minute and four minutes later Alexandre headed the ball in after a cross from the right wing. Luckily, we managed to find the equaliser - in the 74th minute a cross from Spasojevic was smashed into the net by Karl Burke. And then we had a few wonderful chances to tip the scales our way - Aytaç Tunar smashing the ball at the goalkeeper despite having an open net in stoppage time, most notably - but we just couldn't. Or chose not to.

Crystal Palace took only one more shot than we did. Hell, we had 60% possession. But you can all see the scoreline, right? Everything happened very quickly. Mathieu Chevalier put them in front in the 9th minute, five minutes later Aaron May doubled the lead, and just two minutes after that a desperate powerful strike from the byline by one of the visitors' players bounced off Matthew Belford, causing him to score an own goal. The Londoners simply controlled things from then on. In the 53rd minute they made it 4:0 through Phil Kendall's powerful long shot. An absolute beauty from Brook in the 75th minute got us one back, but just three minutes later James Forrest punished us for that. Let's just forget this match happened, shall we?

Capital One Cup

Hey, that went well.

Despite a good-looking result, our reserves struggled to find their rhythm against Crewe for quite some time. Finally we were helped when Fred Mahoney picked up his second yellow card just seconds before the half time whistle, and after the break we were all over them. A quickfire double did the job for us. In the 54th minute an amazing pass from Fraser Foster was finished off by Jordon Mercer, and three minutes later Foster grabbed a goal for himself, Patrick Abadaki with a perfectly timed through ball to assist him. All in all, it was quite a confident performance, despite a few possibilities of conceding before the break.

We only had one chance to steal something from a Premier League side Hull - park the bus and pray. And it was working quite well. Obviously, the hosts dominated us and kept taking shots, but we restricted them from getting into actual good positions, and that really helped us hold onto the clean sheet. Then after an hour Karl Burke replaced Abadaki, and some weird stuff started to happen. All of a sudden, we started to counter the life out of them. Foster could have scored four or five times inside the space of thirty minutes. He stopped at one though - in the 70th minute a wonderful long ball from Burke was met with the striker's fantastic effort from 20 yards out. The best opportunity to double our lead fell to the feet of Neil Devlin, but he wasted the penalty given for a foul on Foster in the 80th minute. Still, we managed to snatch a very unlikely win. How could I complain?

Another Premier League team, QPR, will come to our place for the Third Round.

[oriole01]

Congrats on the promotion again! Nice to hear that the reason you won the league was the result of Kidderminster's work. Sad to see they won't be joining you up the ranks again. Your Championship start isn't too bad, from your descriptions it seems that you're getting close to winning games, and I think you'll be fine in mid-table in the end. Doing well in the League Cup though, keep it up and you will get better results!

[tyler16]

Rough start but decent GD in all honesty. I'm sure you'll be able to turn it around and snatch some points.

[Rikulec]

1 hour ago, oriole01 said:

Congrats on the promotion again! Nice to hear that the reason you won the league was the result of Kidderminster's work. Sad to see they won't be joining you up the ranks again. Your Championship start isn't too bad, from your descriptions it seems that you're getting close to winning games, and I think you'll be fine in mid-table in the end. Doing well in the League Cup though, keep it up and you will get better results!

Kidderminster have been a very helpful lot indeed. With some more luck we could have found ourselves in the top half of the table at the end of the month, so it's not all shambles. We need to start picking up points though.

1 hour ago, tyler16 said:

Rough start but decent GD in all honesty. I'm sure you'll be able to turn it around and snatch some points.

Yeah, we don't look terrible, hopefully we can turn things around and get going.

[Adonalsium]

That 3-3 draw against Celtic looked really promising. With your current squad, I don't think a relegation battle is in the books - lower half finish probably.

Then again, you've been beating the odds the past couple of seasons, so who knows, maybe you'll end up mid-table or upper half finish.

[Rikulec]

5 minutes ago, Adonalsium said:

That 3-3 draw against Celtic looked really promising. With your current squad, I don't think a relegation battle is in the books - lower half finish probably.

Then again, you've been beating the odds the past couple of seasons, so who knows, maybe you'll end up mid-table or upper half finish.

I wouldn't overrate our squad. Let's see what we can do against the odds this time.

[Adonalsium]

Well, you can always do a comparison - get a team report of some random team in your league, go to squad depth report, select the section where it compares their attributes to your players.

[Rikulec]

14 minutes ago, Adonalsium said:

Well, you can always do a comparison - get a team report of some random team in your league, go to squad depth report, select the section where it compares their attributes to your players.

I've looked through the other teams' squads, well... we don't compare too well.

[Rikulec]

Gylfi Elvarsson's Management Career - September 2053 - Rochdale

Championship

Back among the living.

We had to play our backup keeper Steven Scott against Aston Villa, since Josh Digby is obviously their player. Seeing how superior they were to us, I decided to park the bus... and we turned out to create more chances than the opposition, including two wonderful ones in the opening minutes. But we fluffed them, and then a quickfire double from their striker Johan Jäderström saw us trail by two goals in the 20th minute. Even that couldn't stop us from trying our best, and in the 74th minute our efforts were finally rewarded when a free kick from Aytaç Tunar was converted by Marcus Brook. Villa tightened up after that goal though, and we couldn't get anything more past them. Still, it really was a decent showing from us.

If we wanted to declare the intention of staying up, a good result against Barnsley was a necessity. That was precisely the point beyond which there was no room for failure. We started well - in the 21st minute Tià Maroto carried the ball for some time before sending Karl Burke through with a nice pass, a chance the Englishman didn't waste. But it wasn't us who were in front at half time - three minutes after that Lee Noon bagged the equaliser, and seven more minutes later Daniel Barton gave the visitors the lead. Of course, we weren't going to give up. In the 63rd minute a through ball from Abadaki was converted by Brook, and finally in the 79th minute a wonderful cross from Jon Dore fresh off the bench was headed in from close range by Aytaç Tunar. It really was high time we had won something.

The Swindon game was probably the most straightforward one for us ever since we got promoted to the Championship. We chose quite a way to set the scene for ourselves - in the 16th minute Neil Cromie took advantage of the goalkeeper moving slowly on his line, unleashing a sensational first time 25-yarder into the top corner. It's been a while since a Rochdale player scored like that. Our lead was doubled by the usual suspect seconds before half time - Brook kept a cool head in a goalmouth scramble caused by Aytaç Tunar's cross. The second half was just about keeping the ball at our feet and the opposition at bay, both of which we succeeded in.

Alright, it's time to turn it up. The Brighton fans who came to the stadium a few minutes late must have been quite surprised - first we opened the scoreline precisely after sixty seconds of football, and just five minutes later we doubled it. The first time, it was Brook smashing the ball home from close range, served by a brilliant cross from Aytaç Tunar. The second, Brook pouncing on the rebound after the goalkeeper failed to hold onto Karl Burke's free kick. The hosts finally attempted to fight back after they realised what was going on, but we were really dangerous on the break as well. And we made it count - in the 64th minute the Aytaç Tunar-Marcus Brook duo put an end to any doubt in their usual manner. Never too late to grab your first Championship hat-trick, is it?

Forest were a whole different level. Considered to be promotion candidates this season, they are a few shelves above us in terms of quality. And we wiped the floor with them. We showed them no respect whatsoever. We beat them with Jordon ****ing Mercer... and a few others. The opening minutes weren't very promising for us - in the 15th minute we fell behind to a Svend Kjeldgaard goal. The twist happened five minutes before the break. Mercer ran into the visitors' box with the ball like a headless chicken, and somehow managed to win us a penalty. Brook stepped up, and you can guess what happened next. From then on, we were all over them. We were a completely different team. Something else. In the 58th minute Brook doubled his goal tally after an incredible through ball from Mercer (of all people!), and just three minutes later Aytaç Tunar allowed Bojan Spasojevic to apply a perfect countering header to a fantastic cross. And you know what? It could have been more. We were out of this world.

Capital One Cup

We really gave it a good go.

If only things hadn't started so bad for us - it was a really minor defensive mistake, one that would most likely go unnoticed in the league, but a striker like Pablo Sandoval was simply not going to waste his chance, smashing the ball into the roof of the net in the 10th minute. From then on, surprisingly, it was a two-way battle. If we weren't up against world class defenders, we would have probably got something in. Given how good QPR have become - regularly challenging for the European spots - I'm proud of our performance. On another day, we could have sneaked past them.

[Rikulec]

Brook is on fire, your defence is terrified!