retired_manragh

My holidays were spent relaxing up in my home in Newcastle it was good to sit back and recoup some of the spent energy, it’s great when things are going well but when a few things go wrong and your wrestling with form trying to figure things out, it’s a mental drain.

As usual spent a lot of time with Bob talking and chatting and he said it was a great season for us, we just needed to build on it, and hopefully the second year blues wouldn’t get us, he said the second year sometimes tends to be the hardest, the players are all comfortable now with me and not all out trying to impress the new boss, now I was wary was the excellent start to last season just everyone trying to impress me and the last part of the season a true indication of where the team was, I could only hope not.

“Was it hard to get Ipswich into the first division back then?” I asked

Bob took a bit of time to answer “Well” he said “They were already in the top flight when I took them over, they were promoted that year thanks to Bill McGarry, but he left to take over Wolves I think it was, from there it was just keeping them up which we had two hard long season’s doing before we started to get a little success”

“Ah, I thought you got them promoted, oh well, hopefully that’s on the cards for this season”.

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On arrival back to the club from holidays on Wednesday the 20th of June, Simon dropped a bombshell on me, he had just told me that both him and Roman Abramovich had come to a deal which would see an affiliation between both the clubs, Palace and Chelsea, there was a loan agreement and also an annual friendly between the two clubs, It’s a pretty sweet deal for the club although I'm not sure how many of their players will be interested in coming over to Palace. Lassana Diarra was announced that he would be the first of their players to be linked with our club, no surprise to see a few days later he accepted an offer to one of their other affiliates Westerlo.

retired_manragh

Pre – Season

July was a gruelling month for the players and even myself, with new fitness man Ed Baranowski in charge I told him I wanted the team faster, fitter and stronger than last year and he thought he could do it, I wanted the core fitness of the team to be better so hopefully we didn’t have the drop off that we did last year. Ed warned me we might get a few injuries early but it was an acceptable risk for me so I authorized the training regime he put in place.

For myself I decided I would be more a disciplinarian this year, and I gave all this information to the squad once all the players had arrived, there would be no more getting away with speaking out of turn or bagging fellow team mates or whinging to the press if we wanted promotion we had to be mentally tougher as well as being physically fit, and anyone who didn’t want to be here could have a transfer out.

Players who left the club – Up to the start of August 2007

Victor Moses 16 yo to Manchester City for £110k +%30 sell, looks a promising forward, but we wont have the facilities necessary to develop his talents better.

Gábor Király Stuttgart for free: Great goalkeeper but left it to late to sign for the club so we brought in Enckelman instead, love to still have him, but I want players who want to be here.

Jobi McAnuff Portsmouth £1.2m : great winger but wanted to leave, wasn’t going to sell so cheap but with the acquisition of a couple new Dutchman I think we can cover his position

Mark Hudson £60k to Notts Forest: Decent centre back but at 25 we have better option who are playing, and he has made it known he wants to play first league football so we let him go for those reasons

Ryan Hall £35k to Brentford: received the bid found no reason to keep another left back

Michael Hughes Released, not required –veteran midfielder backup now

Dougie Freedman Released, not required – veternan striker have better options

Tom Lyons Released, not required – young striker, not good enough

David Wilkinson Released, not required – keeper not good enough

Martin Pearson Released, not required – young keeper not good enough

Aaron Fehmi Released, not required – young left winger, not good enough

Jerahl Hughes Released, not required – young winger, not good enough

Danny Granville Released, not required – veteran left back, have better options

PLAYERS brought in to the squad

Max Houttuin 29 year old DM AM RC, the Dutch player is a great technical player and will be able to cover the defensive midfield spot aswell as right wing if we need to, a little slow but make up for that with good pitch know how, FREE

Raymond Fafiani 23 year old AM L, another Dutch player this youngster is lightning quick, excellent dribbler, and great at crossing and passing, plus works very hard FREE

Peter Enckelman £325k from Blackburn: Veteran keeper and pretty well respected around the circles not much difference between him and Gábor and seeing he was available and Gábor would sign a contract when we wanted him too, we jumped at the chance to get Peter

Craig Gardner £1.3m from Aston Villa: The 20 year old has talent in abundance, really good technical ability, good speed and stamina and plenty of fire, had a decent season last year on loan at Preston in a crap team so we know he can play at this level.

Odds and Ends

Well that pretty much has the squad, were pretty confident of another decent season and I think with the new training we can have a real good season, a few people will have to step up for us to do well, but with a year’s experience under my belt I think I will be able to better cope with certain situations, or I hope I’ll be able too any way.

The pre-season games went ok we had a good 6-0 win over AFC Wimbledon first at their home, but followed that up with a 1-0 loss to Port Vale away where Sam Sodje’s brother Akpo plays, he even scored the goal so I'm sure Sam will be hearing all about that. Back onto the winners list with a good hard fought 1-0 win over Bristol Rovers, and then we had a double header against Lazio at home, we were unlucky to draw in the first game 1-1 but the second game seen the Italian Serie A team hit their straps and take away a good 1-0 win, still it was a decent effort by the lads so its not all doom and gloom!

There have been lots of rumours about some of our players leaving including Scott Flinders, Gary Borrowdale, Rhoys Wiggins, Ben Watson, Tom Soares, Lewis Grabban and young Charlie Sheringham and we’ve fielded offers on most of them but they are all pretty happy here and players like Scott, Gary and Ben just signed new contracts which is particularly pleasing.

We did have a backlash from Danny Butterfield when we I sold Jobi, stating that by selling him we lacked ambition to win trophies, I wasn’t impressed and fined him a weeks wages for his comments and then gave him an earful in the paper about I make the decisions on what we need and if he didn’t like he can request a transfer, he printed an apology pretty quickly. A few of the players were not happy with the fine but at least now they know what’s going to happen.

The odds from Totalbet came in and its not surprise that Middlesbrough, Wolves and Wigan are 7/4 co favourites with Watford at 2’s, Leicester at 5/2 and then us at 5’s. Once again were picked for the play offs and that’s what we will be aiming for once again, hopefully this time though we can be more consistent coming into the end of the season.

My own rehab had gone pretty well and I was even doing a bit of training and fitness work getting back into shape, I was only 31 after all, although the knee had come along slowly that was mainly due to me managing Palace where I didn’t devote enough of my time and efforts into getting it better, if I had been solely a player I would have been playing already by now, but strangely enough I had lost a bit of the urge to get back on the field.

retired_bbcarr

Hard luck with the play-off defeat; I always find losing in the play-offs just so frustrating. Some nice signings though, Gardner in particular could be a very good buy. Good luck for the season ahead :thup:

retired_manragh

[i] Thanks Terk, yeah it was pretty bloody disappointing but we choked it into the play-offs anyway, I actually threw my bottle top lid at the screen in disgust when they scored the second goal, Wolves had a lot of the better players out so that hurt, hopefully this year is a bit better.

Marking really craps me off in the game as man marking specific players is pretty screwed, hopefully its fixed in the fm08

retired_manragh

Opening Week

And so the season starts again and we decide to play the 442 system we played so well in the early stages of last year, it was bit of a new look line up the team but despite us losing to Leicester in our last home game against them, we were made favourites in this one.

Enckleman, Gardiner and Fafiani were all making their debut’s today and seeing our first choice strike partnership was out in Kuqi and Scowcroft it was Clinton Morrison and Charlie Sheringham who would start with 19 year Lewis Grabban on the bench as the backup looking to make his debut for the club.

We played a decent game, mainly just felt out the opposition with out really committing to anything whole heartedly, with so many debutants it was probably to be expected, but it was still a little disappointing to play out a 0-0 draw on the opening day, although we did play a fellow play off contender so it was in that respect it was good not to lose.

Sammy Sodje played a good game in defence as did Darren Ward who was made full captain for at least the next few years as we secured his signature in a new contract. New recruits Gardner and Fafiani had decent games without doing anything too special. Charlie and Clinton up front were pretty lack lustre and it’s an area we will have to improve on, we have a bid to get Blackburn reserves player Francis Jeffers here on loan.

We had three days rest before our trip to Sheffield to play Wednesday and we didn’t make to many changes, N’Galula came in for Watson to make the midfield more defensive while Lewis Grabban came in for his start in his career.

We suffered an early set back in the game when Richard Wood headed home Jermaine Johnson’s free kick but were quickly back on level terms when Lewis Grabban slid one across goals for Clinton Morrison to tap in on the back corner, it opened our account for the year.

A few good chances eventuated into another goal for us, Lewis Grabben again with assist with a cheeky back heel that allowed Tom Soares to run in from behind him and have a free shot, the ball went low and hard toward the right post just beating the keeper for us to take the lead on 50 minutes.

A good effort for the remaining 40 allowed us to hold onto the lead and record our first win for the season, it’s always handy to get off to a good start as playing catch-up can have bad effects. Tom Soares had a great game and was awarded the man of the match award, while new keeper Enckelman also had a good game. Craig Gardner had a good game in midfield and controlled the proceedings around there and Lewis Grabban showed why he had premier league clubs chasing him, a great showing with 2 assists.

Rhoys Wiggins was also drawing quite a bit of attention so in the best interests for him we allowed him to go out on loan for 5 months at Gillingham, 20+ clubs were interested in securing his services with premiership clubs Birmingham, Derby, Newcastle and Sheffield United all interested in signing the young Welshman.

Jeffers rejected coming to the club which I found a bit surprising considering he was playing reserves at Blackburn with no hope of getting a senior game, but I suppose him being on the transfer list maybe he wanted something more permanent. Our other loan attempt chose Southampton over us and Ipswich, Paul Gallagher could have been a great asset to the club but these things happen.

Just the one change for our home game against Wolves, Kennedy comes back in on the left while new recruit Fafiani goes back to the bench.

Despite having the majority of possession and the better of the chances we went in 1 down at the break thanks to a Jamie Clapham goal from a freekick, the left back hit a good free kick that whistled just over the wall and dipped into top left corner of the net, a well hit free kick indeed.

Watson replaced Flo for the second half in a bid to give us a bit attacking mindedness to the midfield, seeing we were still 1 down with 20 to play Sheringham came on for Grabban who couldn’t reproduce last games form and Fafiani came on for Kennedy, that move didn’t last long as Fafiani came off 5 minutes later with an injury, which meant we were down to 10 for the last 15 minutes. It looked like a loss was on the cards until Sheringham pounced on a ricochet in injury time, in which the keeper came out for, but Charlie was a bit quicker and showed good composure lobbing Matt Murray to give us the equaliser. I was pretty elated with the team’s effort and never say day attitude.

The opening week hadn’t been to bad, but two draws at home didn’t help the cause, the win at Sheffield added a little respectability though, Fafiani’s arm injury proved to be a little worse than first though, with a hairline fracture being found it meant he was on the sidelines for a month.

retired_manragh

Opening day of the Premier League got underway and in a replay of last years community shield the results were reversed as Chelsea grabbed the win this time, personally I’m not the biggest fan of Chelsea or Mourinho but now we have an affiliation with the Giants of London and England I have to have the clubs interests in my thoughts at all times, so it was a great win for our Parent club!

Sunday the 12th seen Wigan make a bid for Tom Soares £200k plus Emmerson Boyce, it was an easy offer to reject, Tom was a required player here and there was no way he was going to another club in this division especially one of our rivals for promotion.

Ifill returned back to full training in the week but a collision with Arron Fray would leave them both our, Ifill for 2 weeks weeks with a facial injury and Fray with an injured wrist after falling on it badly after the collision. A thigh strain to Max Houttuin later in the week would rule him out for another month.

In a bid to give us a bit more bite up front I approached Man United for Alan Smith’s services and also approached West Ham for Marlon Harewood, I’d be lucky to get either of them but you never know if you don’t ask, as it turned out both clubs rejected our advances.

So off to Wales we went to take on Cardiff, Ben Watson was back in the staring line up at Flo’s expense while Morrison came to the bench to give Sheringham another start, Lawrence also started his first game for the year at the expense of the injured Fray.

Another game where we dominated early but came into the break behind, Chopra scored a pretty easy goal for them while down the other end Grabban and Sheringham both missed good chances, but 10 minutes after half time Ben Watson showed why he was being targeted by other clubs with a great goal. The restart seen Cardiff go back ahead with a soft goal caused by really bad defending.

A good effort but a bad loss in the context of the game, two really soft goals caused by poor marking was our downfall and now the season start looks all the worse with us sitting in 15th place with a win a loss and 2 draws.

Our bid for Brian McBride was accepted by Fulham who take a heavy 4-0 defeat to Derby in the opening game for the season, but the big American wasn’t really interested in discussing terms at the moment all though he would in the future, we offered him a pretty decent 2 year contract with the instructions that there would be no other time if this was rejected out of hand. We also put in a loan offer for last years Championship leader scorer Arturo Lupolia at Arsenal and also somewhat cheekily asked if Theo Walcott was available to loan. McBride rejected the offer out of hand while we got a surprising reaction from Arsenal about Walcott, put up an acceptable amount for his wages and we will consider it.

Kuqi was back in training for our League cup match against MK Dons, but both him and Enckelman were away with Finland on international duty so it meant Flinders took up the position between the uprights.

Sheringham put us ahead after 22 minutes after only minutes before having his shot thunder of the right upright and Grabban should of made it 2-0 shortly after but unfortunately his finishing was not quite as good as his ball skills and running. Sheringham grabbed his second goal of the game though with 10 minutes left in the half, a bit of goal mouth scramble after Kennedy hit in a low cross. No more scores in the second half seen us have a comfortable 2-0 win, Sammy Sodje with the man of the match.

Enckelman had a good game for Finland in their 3-0 win over Kazakhstan, while Kuqi remained an unused sub in the game, Walcott’s loan bid was rejected again when we could only offer 70% of his wages, oh well I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t of come anyway, we were just hoping his team mate would agree to come.

Last years Champions League winners Milan edged out Manchester United 1-0 in the European Super cup, while we were drawn to play Luton at home in the second round of the League Cup which was done on the same day, Lupoli also rejected our offer to get him here at the club which was disappointing.

We needed a win to say the least in our home game against QPR who were currently sitting in 5th place, Morrison was back on the field starting while Grabban sat out this game as Kuqi came back into the squad, and although very unfit we felt he might be able to make an impact as a sub.

45 minutes down seen me a very frustrated man we had had 5 very good chances but we were still level at 0-0 a piece at the break, I just told the team to persist with what we are doing and give the fans something to cheer about.

3 minutes in and Morrison slotted home out first goal after Sheringham’s shot was parried, Morrison disposed the defender and quickly shot the ball, an opportunists goal at the best, 1-0 up. We should have been a couple up by the end but I guess we were just unlucky but as I tell the players luck is what you make of it, QPR made the most of their luck in injury time when Sodje missed a clearance and Stefan Moore was there to stop our first home win 1-1 the final score, very very frustrated.

Even more frustrating was the injury to Scowcroft who hurt his neck in training straight after coming back to the side from injuring his ribs.

retired_manragh

Away at Hull and we needed to win badly, Hull were struggling in 24th spot at the moment so we decided to risk playing unfit Kuqi from the start in the hope to getting an early goal, when Mark Kennedy was sent off in the 4th minute with a straight red well that wasn’t going to help the cause, he had actually had to be pulled away by team mates Ben Watson and Tom Soares as he ripped in to the ref, he wasn’t happy with the decision and either was I, I have no clue what the card was for.

Shipperley rubbed salt in to the wounds scoring a few minutes later, we held on till half time with just being a goal down, I don’t know how but we did, after the break Hull came at us again and despite my clear concise instructions to mark Shipperly tightly and close him down fast he managed to find 10 yards of space in our box and score a second, to say I was annoyed was like saying the.. well that the.. well let’s just say I was farking pee’d off beyond any stretch of the imagination.

I brought Morrison on to take up the lone striking role forward and brought of young Tom Soares for Fletcher who slipped back into the middle of midfield while I gave Gardner the right centre midfield role with license to get forward as much as he can and it paid off, when he scored in the 72 minute for us, his first ever goal for the club. Hull went a little to defensive early which allowed us more time on the ball going forward and a good cross from Borrowdale met the head of Gardner, his glancing header went across goals an into the right corner to give us the equaliser.

Hull went back on the attack and with 93 minutes on the clock the had the winner, which seen me swearing like a trooper on the sideline, I didn’t even hear the whistle go until Kit told me to calm down a bit, its been disallowed.

I didn’t know what to say after the game to the players, so many emotions went through me in that 90 from anger, to disappointment, rage, to happy and relieved and back to rage and then back to pleased, so I stuck with the last one for the majority I was pleased with the fight back to get the draw, but we should of never been in that position in the first place.

Despite our efforts to get Mikael Forssell on a more permanent deal on the 31st of August where we were in talks for over 7 hours in trying to hammer out deals that were acceptable to both clubs the deal ended up falling through when we wouldn’t give Forssell and 4 year contract on the wages he wanted, we were prepared to offer 2 years and meet all his other demands and see how he went but he wouldn’t budge so the deal fell through, we offered to take him on loan for 3 months which was agreeable to Birmingham, but Forssell rejected the offer, what a ‘smeg head’

Despite appealing the Mark Kennedy’s red card the FA said we had no grounds for appeal even though the two footed tackle got the entire ball first and then their player tripped over his legs it was deemed to be a dirty tackle and unbelievable he was giving an extra two weeks, these guys at the FA were just total wankers, what’s the point in appealing a decision when they automatically dismiss the claims despite having conclusive proof from video footage.
Peter Enckelman twisted his ankle so he would be unavailable for a few weeks which seemed to hurt Finland as they went down 2-0 in the away game against Serbia, Kuqi got 20 minutes in the game but didn’t do to much in changing the game, other international games seen Carl Fletcher play in Wales 4-1 loss at home but he has even less time to do something than Kuqi, Fletcher was brought on in the 83rd minute.

England crushed Israel though in their game with Rooney grabbing a double, and Carrick, Gerrard and Downing the others, it moved them 5 points clear of Russia in Group E of the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Home against Leeds and another heartache as we went down 1-0 despite dominating the play and shots, Enckelman, Fletcher and Kuqi being away on internationals didn’t help as did having Kennedy out through suspension, but it seems our form is carrying on from last season, it must be a yearly thing!

Finally something to get happy about, our first home win for the season as we beat Sunderland 2-1 in a pressure cooker of a game, Kuqi back in the line up did wonders and double in 3 minutes seen us carry a 2-0 lead into the break. After the break we had a few chances here and there but it was Sunderland who were hell bent on scoring, the 55th minute seen Elliott reduce the difference to one and from then on in it was desperate defending and we managed to hang on well, Sammy Sodje brilliant at centre back deserved the man of the match award and got it, while Scott Flinders in goals had a good game aswell as goal scorer Kuqi, all in a great effort and hopefully this will be the catalyst to see us moving up the tables.

retired_manragh

League Cup 2nd Round

Ups and downs for us in our league cup game against Luton, the upside we played well again and for the second game in a row we got goals on the board, Soarers scored our first in the 74th minute when a Gary Borrowdale cross found him at the far post and then it was soars who turned provider from the opposite wing with a similar cross that Charlie Sheringham headed home. The only thing that soured it was Matt Lawrence’s injury, it turned out to be a badly torn calf that will see him miss atleast the rest of this year.

Battle of the disappointing League starts at JJB stadium was next for us, Wigan were 15th in the league while we were 14th, but with 2 good wins of late I was confident we were on the right track while I bet Southgate was hoping the same things as their team had had two good wins of late aswell.

The game itself was pretty boring with neither team not wanting to lose it wasn’t riddled with chances, Wigan had a good period towards the end but our defence was pretty strong, Sammy Sodje picked up his 3rd man of the match in row.

Scowcroft marked an impressive return back to Football with 2 goals as he captained the reserves to a 4-0 win at Grays, all he needs now is a bit of fitness under his belt and he will be back in the first team.

Away at Plymouth against a team that hadn’t won in 5 games and was sitting 19th it was imperative we got a good result so we could move up the tables, but a howler from Scott Flinders gifted them their first goal as the ball went between his legs, the second they scored on half time but atleast that was a well worked goal, still I was pretty angry at the break, our second half effort could only be described as border line ****house, 3-0 loss against a team that hadn’t won in 5, but then again I suppose we were nothing flash so far this season especially seeing we now occupied 20th position

retired_manragh

October

It’s a given to say that everyone at the club is concerned with our start to the season, the board meeting seen the normally good spirits turn into a two questions sort of thing asking what I was planning on doing to get us out of this slump, how we was going to rectify the goal scoring situation, if I had any possible targets, at the end I think I did enough to make them see that things were improving.

The staff meeting seen us go over the tactics, what are we doing wrong, what are we doing right in the end it was go back to what we knew, 442 but go a little more offensively minded and lets use the width of the ground a bit more, with Scowcroft back he would relish those conditions, injuries to key people was also another problem we had this year that we didn’t last, training had already been toned down into a more season orientated schedule, we discussed whether or not to tone it down more but in the end we decided to just let it go for another month and assess the situation then.

The team also had their own meetings, I had asked captain Darren Ward to call one and see if everyone could bandy together for the betterment of the team, we needed a good month in October and if results didn’t go our way then chasing promotion was going to be more like chasing a mid table result or if it continued to get worse fighting for survival. Darren came back and said things went reasonably well, there were still some concerns but he think a lot more positives came out of the meeting and with a bit of luck we could look forward to an improvement on the pitch.

retired_manragh

“F**K” I yelled as I slammed down the phone, Physio Paul Tilson had just informed me that Scowcroft was out again, this time a corked thigh after a collision at training, I just needed to catch a break and this wasn’t it, 4 days to go out of our two and half week break till we played Ipswich at home, hopefully no more bad news would come.

Tottenham released Egypt’s Hossam Ghaly he was a very talented player and already resided in London, I was seriously thinking about making a play for him but we had quite a few midfielders already, I wasn’t sure if we needed another, it couldn’t hurt, could it, we talked to his agent and offered him a contract.

In international news Fletcher was recalled to the Wales squad to cover Ryan Giggs’s injury while Kuqi got a start and played quite well in Finland’s 2-1 loss to Belgium, Enckelman who had just recovered from a twisted ankle sat on the bench for the game.

The game had me praying for an early goal to settle the nerves a bit, god we needed a good win and when Kuqi scored in the 12th minute I was thanking my lucky stars, when Morrison made it 2-0 on the quarter hour well the confidence was starting to build. Billy Clarke brought the difference back to 1 when he scored just after the half hour which caused more anxious moments.

The half time break I just emphasized to the players how well we were doing, and just to keep it up, we have more goals in us, lets try and bury the game.

An early scare when Clarke grazed the post in the first couple minutes but it was who scored first in the second half and it was Kuqi who put us 3-1 up in the 50th minute, a deft touch to get around a defender and then placed carefully into the net. We didn’t stop there though which was great and after some great pressure Kuqi smashed his hattrick in the 76th minute to the delight of the crowd. 4-1 up and we had the three points in the bag.

I brought off Kuqi after his hattrick and the Fin received a standing ovation from the crowd for his part in the match, also coming off was Tom Soares who had played a good game on the right, their replacements were Charlie and Ifill.

Ipswich scored in the 88th minute we had switched of a little with such a big lead and it was an easy goal they scored, but I wasn’t to worried, the win was the important bit at the moment, Ifill restored the 3 goal deficit anyway within a minute when he headed in Fafiani’s cross for his first ever for the club. 5-2 absolutely fantastic!

All though we had played an extra game the win moved us from 20th to 11th!

Ghaly accepted our offer which was great, all that we needed now was the work permit to be given.

Next up was our trip to Coventry and they were struggling again down in 17th but we were finding it hard so far this season as well, a win here would hold us in good stead, a draw would be ok, a loss demoralising.

The game started of very well for us as we took the lead when Kuqi’s shot was only parried and Morrison was on hand to knock it in, and the Kuqi made it 2-0 with 26 minutes played. After that though there was no joy for us, Brooker had a simple tap in when he found himself 6 yards out with no one within 10 except for the keeper and he was on the ground to give them a lifeline.

The break seen me giving plenty of encouragement and we had a couple of half chances but Kevin Kyle made it all square in the 54th minute when he too found himself in acre’s of space when a rebound found him, crappy defending at its best and then to really rub it, he scored again 3 minutes before time again not an effing defender in sight.

Effing 17th

The League Cup third round seen us travel to Stamford Bridge and we played a good game but in the end were totally outclassed as expected and went down 3-0 against a pretty much full strength Chelsea side, can’t fault the players for their endeavour but its another loss, and its not what we need at the moment.

Sam Sodje was once again the best player on the park as we beat Barnsley 1-0 at home, it was a good performance by the players who never really gave Barnsley a sniff, we also experimented with a 4-3-3 system with the loan striker and two attacking wingers, it seemed to work quite well in that we dominated the midfield possession which meant we dictated play through out the game.

Last game for the month 18th Southampton are hosting us (12th) hopefully we will win but, I’m just playing it by ear at the moment, all the tinkering with tactics is probably not having a good affect, so were just going to keep persisting for this, well for this game anyway!

It was all slaps on the backs in the change rooms after the game, Kuqi’s goal in the 30th minute proved to be the winner as we grabbed a some what fortuitist win, Southampton deserved to atleast get a point but it’s 2 in a row for us now, and with that we move up into 8th spot.

3 wins out of 4 for the month relieves a lot of the pressure and I even manage to grab second in the manager of the month award, the board seem happier with the improvement so another good month should see us back in the hunt for promotion.