retired_manragh

November

Stuart Green was cleared to return to full training after his ankle injury which was going to be handy seeing that Mark Kennedy wasn’t having the best of season, but being so unfit meant he would have to come back up through the reserves.

Sensational start to our catch up game against Leeds united with McAnuff heading in a corner in the second minute of play, 23 minutes seen McAnuff involved again this time chasing down a long ball down the left flank which he reached, a great cross found Scowcroft who was denied by the crossbar but Ben Watson was in quickly to the rebound and we had taken a 2-0 lead. Scowcroft made it 3-0 when he slid in and toe pocked home Tom Soares low cross in the 28th minute and then from the restart McAnuff stole the ball ran down the left flank and found Kuqi with another well placed cross, Kuqi’s powerful header seen us with a 4-0 lead in half hours play. To rub salt into the wounds right back Butterfield got tackled in the box in the dying seconds of the half and Kuqi had no problem making it 5-0 from the spot.

I didn’t have to much to say at the half time break except that the performance was farking sensational, let’s really try and humiliate them more in the second half.

6-0 with 47 on the clock but the linesman put the flag up, Scowcroft was offside so it’s back to 5, some silky passing seen us have a few more chances in the second half but Leeds had battened down the hatches so to speak and our players were pretty content to just knock it around it so the game finished at 5-0, McAnuff came down heavily in the final seconds of injury time and looks to have a bad ankle sprain, physio Paul Timson say’s if there’s no major damage then hopefully around a month before he’s back.

With our second away game out of 4 in 11 days we decided to rest centre back Darren Ward who had assumed the captaincy with Michael Hughes returned to the reserve squad, Green came into the side for the injured McAnuff despite only returning from his injury a couple days before, maybe we should of recalled Kennedy back from the reserves but he is horribly out form at the moment so I don’t think Green could do any worse.

3 minutes it took for our first injury in the Southampton game at St. Mary’s James Scowcroft went down early with a knee injury and had to be replaced by Dougie Freedman, it was a close game but in the end it we went down 1-0, it was a good game by the players just one of those games where you get no reward for effort and Southampton score with their only shot on goal. On a pleasing note Green got through 55 minutes of game time before we had to sub him, not adverse affects besides him being totally knackered.

Thankfully James injury wasn’t too serious just strained ligaments it still meant he was going to be out for around a month which means he would have to start again, but he was determined sort so I think he can back into the first team again. James was also selected in the team of the week a small comfort I suppose.

I woke up in a start “Smeg” I muttered it was all a dream, I suppose smashing Leeds 5-0 is a bit too much to ask, still we hadn’t lost McAnuff yet so it was all bad. I got out of bed, and went to the kitchen made my self a cuppa and tried desperately to remember as much of the dream as i could, now who was in that starting line up? I asked myself.

*Writers note * The match reports in these games were actually real except a bloody power failure in the area knocked the power out so I had to go back to the save just before the Leeds game…bugger

retired_manragh

November for real!

Things started of the same, well the morning anyway I received a call from physio Paul Timson that Green had infact been cleared to return to training.

The Leeds game how ever was a bit different

“Smeg” I exclaimed as I kicked the ground in disgust, Richard Cresswell had just scored in the first minute of play “That’s not suppose to happen”

“Aye, I agree” Kit said in the background, but he didn’t know what I was eluding too.

Snowcroft pulled it back to level terms with a good strike and the rest of the bench was pretty happy, I though I just lacked the enjoyment, the 5-0 drubbing we gave them in my dream had soured that game so far.

At half time we were in control of the game but we had missed a few good chances to take the lead, I was pretty animated in my talk I wanted a good win, I demanded it from the players, we must do something that resembled a good win.

We had a slow start to the second half but we were building finally with 15 to play we broke through Kuqi finished of a good move and we took the lead 2-1, I wanted more though, I told them to go for the jugular, we had a flurry of chances to go further ahead and Leeds were on the back foot for the remainder of the game grimly defending their goal, but right on the end of normal time Kuqi scored his second to give us a 3-1 win. It wasn’t the 5-0 win I had hoped but we still won the three points played a great game and this time we had no injuries, I pinched myself just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.


Our game against Southampton was a little different than how I remembered it in the dream as well, the result was better a 1-1 draw in fact but this time instead of just Scowcroft getting injured we suffered three Freedman was taken to hospital with a broken arm after playing about 20 minutes when he replaced Kuqi who copped a bad knock to the leg and couldn’t continue, Ben Watson copped a heavy knock in the game as well and would miss 2 weeks with a bad concussion.

We’d come out a point better off but suffered an extra injury, but all in all I was happy weighing up the options we were probably a little better off.

retired_manragh

retired_manragh

November the 11th seen us play our 4th away game in 11 days and again we played a good solid game and came away with the three points against Preston, Charlie Sheringham retained his spot on the subs bench after he scored against Tottenham in the cup a few days before hand and he had a hand in both our goals. Coming on in the 62 minute it took him just 8 minutes to score, Scowcroft side footed a nice pass that left Charlie with plenty of room and time and he made no mistake with the finish burying it in the back. 9 minutes later it was him and McAnuff playing a nice 1-2 and Macca smashed it past the diving keeper to put us 2 up. Preston scored a late consolation in the 90th minute but it was too little to late for the Lancashire side.

In the premiership rumours were abound that Gareth Southgate might not retain his job at Middlesbrough for too much longer if they couldn’t get some results soon, they currently sit in last place with only 7 points from their 12 games, personally I wouldn’t mind seeing the side relegated as they were our fiercest rivals when I was playing for the Toon.

My beloved Newcastle however wasn’t fairing much better under Roeder’s leadership, they currently say in 13th position with 12 points in 12 games. I had been a player at Newcastle for all of my career playing from the my days in the youth academy, reserves which I spent time at Doncaster on loan through to my first team days but two knee recons in 3 years had pretty much seen me surplus to requirements.

Me and Glenn didn’t get on at all anyway so it was no surprise when he said that he wasn’t going to renew my contract, it still hurt though to see my days over at the club I have supported and played at all my life. I was lucky in a sense though, through out my life I had always been close to my uncle and we discussed many things like tactics and he always made me think about games from all angles and when I did me knee the first time it was at his suggestion that I complete a few of my coaching badges, who knows what the future holds is something he always use to say. And so I did I got my professional coaching licenses that year. When I did my knee for the second time late last season I completed all the other badges I needed and now the only thing left for me to get is the UEFA pro license course which I need to have if I want to coach in the Premiership.

Anyway enough about me and more about the Premiership, Manchester United led that tables with 29 points while Liverpool were close by with 27, Chelsea were 7 points from United but had 2 games in hand so two wins would bring them right up within striking distance

retired_manragh

In the international round up Shefki Kuqi once again came on as a sub for Finland in their 3-0 win over Armenia, he didn’t have a chance to do much in the 10 minutes he was on, Carl Fletcher though got 50 minutes of game time in Wales 2-2 draw with Liechtenstein and did well.

Arron Fray and Gary Borrowdale both received awards before our home game against Burnley one the 18th for the week gone by, I hadn’t expected either of the two youngster’s to be so consistent this year but they pretty much been keeping their two more experienced rivals out with their good performances so far which was great for the club.

The game against Burnley was largely disappointing and we didn’t make enough good chances, Charlie Sheringham had the best chance for us in the game but he scooped it over from close range, it was the youngster’s first start for the club and he did ok, but it would be back to the reserves for him after this game.

I was given notification of three more games picked for television, our December the 17th clash at home against Birmingham, the home game against Barnsley on the 3rd February and the away clash against Luton on the 25th of February.

The match against Ipswich at home seen me invite Sir Bobby down with the rest of family, they would join Simon in the Directors box for the game, and then we would go out afterwards, the game itself seen captain Darren Ward back in the side after 2 games rest and Jobi McAnuff given a rest, Stuart Green came in at left wing, while Mark Kennedy returned to the subs bench after an impressive display in the reserves.

The game itself was pretty disappointing Ipswich got of to a great start with an early goal from Billy Clarke which spurred our guts into action and after some sustained pressure, Scowcroft scored the equaliser on half hour, after that we dropped off again, even after a rev up at half time we failed to play with any real purpose and in the end we were probably lucky to get a point.

Bobby was impressed with Ipswich’s effort in the game and said they had played with a lot more passion than they usually did, I should turn up to their games a bit more often he actually said with a wink, maybe I had erred with inviting him, but then again although his presence might have seen Ipswich play a bit better it didn’t affect how we played and we were very down.

A fantastic result for us in the last game of the month, Scowcroft’s goal in the 74th minute gave us a 1-0 win over 6th placed Leicester at the home in Walkers Stadium

retired_manragh

November Summary

Training over the month seen a few good performances Charlie seemed to shine with getting some first team actual, while Stuart Green improved a lot after recovering from his injury, 15 year old academy midfielder John Bostock was training the house down apparently there so he received an invite to come train with the first team for a few sessions.

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba won World player of the year, edging out Ruud van Nistelrooy of Real Madrid while Valencia’s David Villa came third.

Hull City’s 37 year veteran striker Dean Windass won the player of the month award while young centre back Curtis Davies continued with his impressive form and grabbed second in that award and won the young player of the month award , Steve Bruce won manager of the month from Tony Mobray of West Brom, while I managed to scrape in and grab Third.

The board meeting went well as it always seems to do lately, but we are playing well and it makes it easier when we turn a profit for the month, £529k apparently was the bottom line profit for November.

League Results

3-1 win @ Leeds –Goals CP: Scowcroft (18) Kuqi (74, 90) Leeds: Cresswell ( 1) man of the match: S Kuqi (CP)

1-1 draw @ Southampton –Goals: SH: Skacel (16) CP: Pele (og 55) INJ: Kuqi (23) Freedman (38) Watson (80) man of the match: R Skacel (SH)

2-1 win @ Preston –Goals: CP: Sheringham (70) McAnuff (79) Pres: Whaley (90) man of the match: McAnuff (CP)

0-0 draw @ home v Burnley man of the match: G Branch (Bur)

1-1 draw @ home v Ipswich –Goals: CP: Scowcroft (30) Ips: Clarke (5) man of the match: Scowcroft (CP)

1-0 win @ Leicester – Goals:CP: Scowcroft (74) man of the match: A Fray (CP)

League Cup 4th Round

3-4 loss @ Tottenham –Goals: CP: Scowcroft (17) Morrison (51) Sheringham (84) Tott: Arango (12) Defoe (16) Dawson (25) Mido (29) man of the match: Mido (Tott)

A great away from home for the month really set us up by two home draws to Burnley and Ipswich hurt us the loss of 4 points from those games could have had us in second place outright and in the automatic promotion spot.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">PtsGDDerby46+23W Brom 42+18Wolves 41+8PALACE 39+15B’ham38+7Leicester34+8</pre>

retired_manragh

December

A cold and wet miserable night in London as we played hosts to the owls in our third televised match for the year and first half performance was as miserable as the weather, Sheffield Wednesday had been very wasteful going forward though and that was the only thing that kept us in the game at 0-0. I let rip at the players at half time, I demanded a lot better in front of home supporters who had braved the crap conditions to come tonight and after 2 draws at home in the last two games they deserved a win.

The talk seemed to do the trick as we came out a different side after the break, Fangzhou came on for Scowcroft and his pace caused a few problems but it was a well worked free kick the seen us get the winner, Mark Kennedy slid the ball across goals on the penalty box line and Fray ran onto the ball unmarked a great strike back across the face of goals it was Fray’s first goal for the season. Kennedy’s game was his best of the year and he deservedly got the man of the match award.

Leeds are making all sorts of noise about signing youngster Gary Borrowdale but I made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t for sale, especially to a league rival, we have high hopes from Gary’s future and we would like to see that future as part of clubs.

Freedman returned to training after his broken arm, he looked a bit rusty and out of sorts in his first run back but I'm sure he will recapture his form soon, he hadn’t scored in 254 minutes of football before the injury so hopefully the injury break will have freshened him up

Our crowd greeted Steve Bruce warmly for our televised match against Birmingham, well if you call they rhythmic chanting of ‘Judas Judas Judas’ warmly that is. The game though seen them pretty quiet after we had two injuries in the first 15 minutes Mark Kennedy came off in the 3rd minute with suspected broken ribs and then Fletcher coming off with a bad concussion after a nasty head clash in the 13th minute.

The crowd were given something to get excited about though when just before half time Ben Watson scored his first goal for the year, a good free kick slammed in off the upright giving us the lead. After the break it was a pretty good game but we just had the edge and when Fangzhuo added our second in the 72nd minute it was game over. A good 2-0 home win seen us sitting in third spot, it was also our 12th game without loss.

Jobi McAnuff’s man of the match performance in the Birmingham game was enough to see him selected in the team of the week, the Jamaican was having an excellent season and I'm glad now that he the £2 million pound fee we offered to the Blades back in the transfer window wasn’t accepted.

retired_manragh

A busy Christmas period seen us get a good 2-2 draw with Wolves we had our chances to win by leading twice in the game but both times Jay Bothroyd levelled the scores and as such took home the man of the match award. Two injuries in the match seen Fangzhuo break a few ribs so he wouldn’t be available until late January while Flo N’Galula’s injury wasn’t so bad his arm injury would only keep him out for a week give or take a few days.

Unfortunately this year I could only make Christmas lunch at the big family gathering back in Newcastle, even then I didn’t get back to my apartment in London till around 11 pm, the traffic was horrendous but that’s Christmas for you.

More travelling, atleast this time the 200 mile trip was spent on the team bus as we travelled down to the south west coast to take on Plymouth, with the team in good form and as confident as ever we played our usual game and once again took a lead, Ben Watson scoring from another free kick in the 18th minute, Plymouth never stopped trying and showed why they were in the top half of the tables and eventually scored an equaliser in the 85th minute. A point was a fair result for both teams and it kept us in 3rd spot.

It was a pretty busy time with contracts to sort out and we had numerous players coming out of contract in 6 months time so there was some long and extensive meetings with chairman Simon Jordan, general manager Peter Morley and my assistant Kit Symons.

The main we thought could go on an out of the country Bosman was keeper Gábor Király so he was first priority but talking to his agent revealed the he wasn’t interested in talking about contracts until later in the year which was a little disappointing.

Argentinean Julián Speroni had proved himself a decent keeper at this level at 27 he would only get better so he was offered a two year extension with an upgrade to a rotational player. Arron Fray who was attracting the attention of four other championship clubs with his good form was offered an extra 3 years with a significant pay increase, £350 pounds a week to £2000. Reserves player Mark Hudson was offered a reduced wage contract, he was currently on £4k a week, we offered £3100.

That meant that Danny Granville, Dougie Freedman and couple other young players would have their contract assessed at the end of the year, while I gave veteran Michael Hughes the news he had been expecting in that we wouldn’t be renewing his contract at the end of the year.

The last game for us for 2006 was at home against Welsh side Cardiff and we got off to a great start when Kuqi headed in McAnuff’s free kick in the second minute of play, McAnuff was again the provider as Scowcroft out in our second just after the half hour.

A glimmer of hope for Cardiff in the 70th minute as Whittingham pounced on a rebound and pulled the difference back to one, but we were always really in control and Morrison sealed the game in thee 90th minute when Kuqi unselfishly passed it across goals for the Irishman to tap in. the 3-1 victory kept us within 6 points of league leaders Derby and West Brom, it also meant we hadn’t lost since late October which was pretty pleasing, that’s if you discount the League Cup loss to Tottenham.

The only bad news to come from the game was Jamaican playmaker Jobi McAnuff had twisted his knee in the game and looked to miss all of January, it was a big blow for us in the 27 appearances he had made this season he had scored 5 goals, made 14 assists and won two man of the match awards and had an average of 7.26.

Middlesbrough sacked Southgate before the transfer period started with Blackburn manager Mark Hughes tipped to be the leading contender, but I’d be surprised if he took over all though Blackburn were sitting in 15th. Leeds also sacked Dennis Wise, they were sitting in 17th place at the moment which wasn’t acceptable to their board who I presume along with the media though they would be contending for the title this year, Dutchman Bert van Merwijk who was currently without club at the moment was widely tipped to take over although I'm sure he had his eye on the Middlesbrough job as well.

We had a few bids for Speroni but seeing we had only just offered him a new contract we were going to wait and see what happened, one of the bids was from Italian club Udinese so with only a day before he could look at offers from out of the country Bosman offers it would be interesting to see what evolved there.

Manchester United’s Fernando Torres was awarded World Player of the year infront of Drogba, I could of swore last month that very same award went to Drogba, maybe I was dreaming or maybe it was a different award!

Millwall sacked Donachie, it seemed 8th in League one wasn’t acceptable, while we had a bid for Rhoys Wiggins from Hull, we had no intention of selling the highly promising Welsh left back though, who was back in training after his ACL injury, a bit of fitness back in him and a few games we could assess where he was at and then hopefully if all went well he would be back in the first team, where that left Danny Granville though was another thing that had to weighed up at the end of the year.

retired_manragh

December Summary

Simo’s training report was the same as it always was with no major problems, it seems Dougie was back training well now with a bit of confidence after his broken arm while Keeper Scott Flinders had been training hard and doing extra sessions.

Barnsley’s centre back Paul Reid won player of the month, while Gary Breen of Wolves came in second and veteran Dean Windass of Hull continued his good form from last month and took out third, West Brom’s Curtis Davies again took out the young player of the month award which was his second in a row and third so far this year while his manager Tony Mowbray won manager of the month, Roy Keane had improved Sunderland’s fortunes and came in second while I grabbed another third.

No surprises with the Boards review of the season so far they were very pleased with the situation so far and another half a mil profit for December was always going to help, a poll on the club’s website seen the majority of fans views range from excellent to very happy.

Results for December

1-0 win @ home v Sheff Wed –Goals:CP: Fray (70) man of the match: Kennedy (CP)

2-2 draw @ QPR –Goals: CP: Fangzhuo (37) McAnuff (53) QPR: Jones (10) Mancienne (85) injuries: Kuqi (12) man of the match: Kennedy (CP)

2-0 win @ home v Birmingham –Goals: CP: Watson (45) Fangzhuo (72) injuries: Kennedy (3) Fletcher (11) man of the match: McAnuff (CP)

2-2 draw @ Wolves –Goals: CP: Kuqi (26) McAnuff (43) WW: Bothroyd (40, 52) injuries: N’Galula (15) Fangzhuo (60) man of the match: Bothroyd (WW)

1-1 draw @ Plymouth –Goals: CP: Watson (18) Ply: Ebanks-Blake (85) man of the match: Watson (CP)

3-1 win @ home v Cardiff –Goals: Kuqi (3) Scowcroft (34) Morrison (90) Car: Whittingham (70) injuries McAnuff (67) man of the match: Kuqi (CP)

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">After 27 gamesPtsGDDerby58+29W Brom 58+25PALACE 51+20Wolves 51+13B’ham49+8Leicester44+8</pre>

retired_manragh

“So here we are talking with the Crystal Palace manager Jason Robson about the month of January for his side, so how did you see it Jason?”

“We got off to a great start with the 3-2 win over Hull in poor conditions, Kuqi scoring a brace helped us that day but Gazza Borrowdale had a blinder for us in defence that day made all his tackles a tower of strength in the air and near a dozen interceptions was a tremendous effort, also our backmans ability to help out each covering the Windass was a key to the victory for us that day, but we had a couple more injuries which were beginning to pop up now, Scowy hurt his knee and Mark Kennedy had a thigh strain late in the game.”

“Do you think the injuries had a toll on the FA cup game against Man City?”

“No not really, that was just a really crap effort by us, we let the fans down badly with that effort, we’re not a 5 goal worse team than anyone in England but it just shows the effort you have to put into every game. Looking ahead if we do make it to the Premier League next year any sorts of those performances are going to see those results so in a way it’s a good learning curve for the players”

“You then had a good 1-0 win over Stoke despite being reduced to 10 men in the 22 minute, how important was the early goal in that game?”

“It was important, but the effort put in by the players after the sending off was the most important factor in that win, the ability to retain possession and still mount good chances on goals was the key in not letting them continually attack us”

“You suffered your first defeat in 18 games against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, disappointed?”

“No not at all, we played a good game and I’m happy with the effort by the players and I knew it had to happen sooner or later, Roy Keane is a great manager and he has his team playing well so there is definitely no disgrace losing at their home.

“Thoughts on the Colchester game?”

“Disappointing to draw but I have to take as much blame as the players in that one, I brought back Kennedy and Jobi straight in from injury and we probably didn’t get enough drive from the wings, Dougie is still struggling to find a goal and Kuqi just had a bad game combine all that and its why we failed at looking like scoring, just one of those things that we can all learn from”

“No one in for you during the transfer window all though you did try to get Mart Poom from Arsenal, you think the squad is good enough to keep you up in the top echelon of the Championship?”

“Yeah I think we have a decent enough squad to challenge for promotion, we tried to get in Mart become Speroni rejected a contract to extend his loan and with Udinese interested we decided cash in now instead of getting nothing in six months, another reason is that we still haven’t resigned Gábor yet as he wants to wait a little longer, but we’re hopeful he will resign for us for the next few years. Apart from those areas I think our squad in general is good enough to get us to the premiership but I guess we will just have to wait and see really, there’s a lot of games in between now and the end of the season.”