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September 2005
At the start of the month, we suffered a rather nasty setback. Our goalkeepers, Matt Murray and Michael Oakes were both injured and would be out for a minimum of 3 weeks each. And to make matters worse, both had broken a finger in training. I had to call back an 18 year old player, Wayne Hennessey, from his loan deal at Rotherham. I was forced to do that, due to having no goalkeepers left to be backup to Paul Jones. Fortunately Paul Ince and Mark Kennedy returned to full training, but I wonder if we're jinxed when it comes to injuries.
The first match in September wouldn't be played until the 10th, due to international fixtures taking place in the preceeding week. The first match would be played at Kenilworth Road against Luton, who were struggling at the foot of the table. We pressured them all through the first half without success and I was stalking around the box, in front of our dugout, for the entire half. No matter what we tried, the ball just couldn't take that short trip over the line. At halftime I told the lads that I was positive they could win it, all they needed was a tiny break. On 55 minutes, Olofinjana finally broke the ice, when he enthusiastically thumped the ball into the net from 12 yards. Luton came out of their shell after that and we finally punished them for it in the 75th minute, when Kenny Miller scored a nice goal, after being put through following a fast interplay that involved Olofinjana, Kennedy and Clarke. 0-2 and we couldn't be happier. We were sitting in 2nd place in the Championship, 1 goal behind Sheffield United. Following the match, the top six looked something like this:
Following the match though, more injury problems. Jackie McNamara twisted his ankle in training and would be out for anything from 2 weeks and a month. Worse still, Paul Jones suffered from a hip problem and the only way of treating that was to send him to see a specialist. That's what I decided to do, keeping him out for between 2 and 5 months. That left us with an 18 year old goalkeeper as our main stopper. Not a very bright outlook for us.
Our next match saw Ipswich Town come in for a visit and prior to the game, we were the bookkeepers' favourites to win. Unfortunately the lads were in a complacent mood and didn't really do themselves justice. We took the lead in the 17th minute, when Kenny Miller found enough space to drill the ball home. Dean Bowditch managed to equalise in injury time of the first half, much to my anger. In the second half, Olofinjana thundered home a delightful 25 yard drive. But all came to nought when the lads dallied up the pitch and Richard Naylor managed to pull the Tractor Boys level again. I really tore into the lads after the match, berating them for this crappy performance. This was something I didn't want to see again. I also made a point of criticising young Ryan Garry for his poor performance.
Following the match, one of the journos asked me what I thought of Paul Wotton's debut. I told them that I thought he'd done well and that when he got used to the way we played, they'd start to see the best of his game. That comment seemed to have gone down well with Paul, because the effort he was putting in in training was something else.
03-05-2006, 04:01 PM
Dancing with Wolves or was it bears? We Were Once Great Challenge 2006 Post #14
Our next match was to be against Leicester and coming into the match, we were 6-4 favourites to win the match. But in the first half we looked anything but favourites. The players were fast asleep and it came as no surprise when Leicester took the lead through Dion Dublin's 39th minute header. I totally lost my temper with the team at halftime, as Rob Edwards revealed to the press after the match, and gave them the full verbal treatment. I also substituted Carl Cort out of the match, for his poor display, replacing him with Leon Clarke. That would prove to be an inspired substitution, because Leon went on to score a hattrick and really show how much he wanted to secure a starting place on the team. Ryan Garry and Paul Ince came on for Calum Davenport and Rohan Ricketts, respectively, and Garry thanked me by scoring a great goal with a powerful header from a corner. The 4-1 scoreline didn't flatter our second half display in the least, because Leicester basically broke down once we got into the goals.
After the match I really went ballistic with the praise, because the lads had shown such tremendous fighting skills, by coming back from this first half lethargy.
In a post match interview Paul Wotton thanked me for waking them up at halftime, because he hadn't been at his best in the first half, any more than the rest of the lads. The bombardment had been necessary and the lads really wanted to avoid another such display after the match.
When I got to the office on the Sunday, I received a phonecall from Rick Hayward. ”Hi Tomas. What a match yesterday. What the hell did you tell the lads at halftime? They seemed more scared of you than of injuries, looking at their performance in the second half.” ”I told them that I'd come to their houses and scr€w their wives and girlfriends, if their performance wouldn't be better in the second half”, I replied and fully expected a guffaw or some other strange exclamation from Rick. ”Please tell me that you're joking Tomas”, was the prompt reply from Rick. ”Yes, though it might be incredibly funny to see the looks on their faces, if I used that one. I just told them that if they didn't perform better in the second half, I'd leave them out of the team for the next match and that's something that professional footballers don't want. Then of course I told them to go out there and play for the fans. Never mind me and my sorry reputation, it's the fans they need to please, because they're the lifeblood of the club.” ”It never amazes me how well the fan bit works for you managers. But you're right. If the fans don't like players for their lack of effort, they'll let them know everywhere they meet them. And meeting up with mad fans is not something a footballer wants.” ”You got that right Rick, though this is the first time I've used this bit and I'd rather not have to repeat it, because they'll stop paying it any heed.”
Following this we just chatted about the club and how things were progressing and he claimed that he was very happy with our work so far. He claimed that the way we beat Leicester made him proud to be a fan and it reminded him of why he became a fan in the first place.
I also found a report on my desk, when I'd finished the conversation with Rick. Gary Anderson, our head physio, reported that Gábor Gyepes had injured himself in training. Apparently he had a damaged knee cap and he recommended terminating the loan deal, so he could seek professional assistance at his home club. I decided to have him treated by a specialist here in England, because we'd need him when he returned to full training in a month.
The following Tuesday we had a visit from Portsmouth in the League Cup. I started stirring things up pre-match, by telling them that they must be dreaming if they thought for one second that they'd get away with anything from the match.
Then the match got underway and we took a 2-0 lead through Leon Clarke and Rohan Ricketts. Vukic got one back for the visitors near the end of the second half, but that was as close as they'd get.
The press went on about how lucky we were to win the match, but I retorted quite harshly to them and told them that they had obviously not been watching the same match as us, because we controlled the match until the final 5 minutes. Granted our young goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, made some important saves in the match, but Sander Westerveld had to do the same at the other end and eventually we showed our class by beating them. Then I followed that up by asking the press to send some knowledgeable pundits to our matches, because the current crop had about as much knowledge about the game as the cats outside the stadium, no disrespect to the cats.
For the next round of the League Cup, we'd be facing League One outfit Scunthorpe United. We should pass them by without too much trouble, but we had better not disrespect them, because that would ensure our exit from the competition.
Come weekend and we faced Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. I didn't really know what to expect before the match, though the bookies had us as the 6-4 favourites to win. But in the 4th minute Leon Clarke scored the opening goal, after a dreadful mistake by Murphy in his own penalty box, and then Kevin Miller managed to go on a mazy run and add another goal in the 15th minute. 2-0 at halftime and it looked like The Blades were on their way to a horrible flogging at home. 6 minutes into the second half and Colin Cameron scored his first goal of the season, to put us 3-0 up. I made a triple substitution in the 55th minute, calling Cameron, Ricketts and Clarke off, for Kabeya, Mark Kennedy and Carl Cort. Unfortunately Kennedy got injured after only 6 minutes on the pitch, with a pulled hamstring. That could keep him out for a month, so that injury jinx is still wreaking havoc on our players. Steven Kabba pulled one back for the home team, but it was too little and too late and the final score of 3-1 to us didn't flatter us in the least.
After the match I told the lads that after their good performance and the fact that we had a hard match in a couple of days, I gave them the Monday off from training. I also sent out Kevin Lowe on loan to Macclesfield, where he'd hopefully get some first team experience for that 3 month spell.
On the day of our next match, I finally received some positive news from our physioroom staff. Seol Ki-Hyeon returned to full training on the day and would add depth to our squad, especially since the left side of midfield was pretty thin with Kennedy out injured.
Preston North End were our next opponents at Molineux and the bookies had us as the 5-4 favourites to win. Now such low odds usually freak me out, because people have too high expectations of us at times. Sure enough, we came out really badly and the lads never got going and in the first half we were lucky not to trail by a considerable marging, but thanks to Wayne Hennessey we stayed at 0-0 at halftime. In the second half we kept on playing like a right bunch of twonks and the game ended goalless, which got me to yell at the lads for almost an hour. When I finally let them out, there were a lot of pale players leaving the stadium.
October 2005
The first task of the month was to go visit Burnley at Turf Moor. We knew in advance that it would be a tough task and, sure enough, Burnley came into the match full of spirit and were 2-0 up after 16 minutes, courtesy of Gifton Noel Williams and a brilliantly taken freekick from Garreth O'Connor. It didn't seem to matter what we tried, nothing came off and no matter how loud I yelled at halftime, our lads just couldn't get back into it. At the end of the match I told them that this had been an embarrassing result, because we shouldn't have conceded two such soft goals so early. I also told Leon Clarke that he'd not be starting our next match, because his application in this one had not been of the required standard. He'd have to prove me wrong in training and the next few matches.
Following the match we had two weeks off, due to call-ups to international teams. My main hope was that all the players would come back unscathed, especially Wayne Hennessey, who was called up to the Welsh U-21 squad. If he got injured, then we'd be left with no fit goalkeepers at the club, not even youth players.
To try to bolster our club with quality players, I offered Demetrio Albertini to come to us on a 3 week trial, which he could use to get in some sort of shape and with an eye on a possible contract with us. He didn't seem too sold on the idea, but at least he'd think it over. When he got back to us, it was to inform us that he'd not be interested in leaving Italy, so that idea fell over itself. Yet it had been worth a try.
Then I got the news that I dreaded the most. Wayne broke his finger when he mistimed an attempt to catch a ball during training and could be out for a month or two. What to do now?? Our only hope would be for either Matt Murray or Michael Oakes to return from their respective injuries ahead of time. But what were the chances of that happening?
In order to find a way to bolster our goalkeeping woes, I decided to cut the loan deal short for Gábor Gyepes. He was still seeing a specialist about his injury and wouldn't be available for selection again for almost 2 months, so it was better to let him recover at home, rather than let him rot in a hotel room in Wolverhampton. Darren Anderton returned from injury, so that meant we'd have some cover on the right wing.
I put in a loan bid for Lenny Pilkington, who's performing reserve team duties at Chelsea, though I didn't think I had much of a chance of securing his services. But it had to be done and quickly. Unfortunately they didn't want us to have the player on loan, bloody Moaninho
Tuesday October 11th 2005
Fortunately some of the players were now returning from the physio's care, most notably Rob Edwards, who'd go straight into the starting lineup against Q.P.R., at right back, since McNamara wouldn't be ready in time. Matt Murray looked like he'd be in a playable state in that match, so I decided to put him into the starting lineup as well. Hey, it's better to have half a goalie between the sticks than none at all.
Michael Oakes also returned to some light training on the following Friday, which ensured that I'd have a backup goalkeeper on the bench, in case things went pearshaped in our next match. Jackie McNamara also returned to full training, which was a good thing, because we were getting quite thin on the ground.
The R's came in at high speed when the match got underway and we had to endure long stretches of their dominance on the pitch. Fortunately Murray was in fine form and, despite his lack of recent training, he saved our bacon more than once in the match. It was somewhat against the flow of play when we took the lead through Paul Wotton's thunderous freekick in the 30th minute, from 35 yards. 7 minutes later Rohan Ricketts got injured in a challenge with Gallen. That meant I had to put Anderton on as a substitute, even if he wasn't in any shape to play for a long time. I'd planned to send him on with about 20 minutes left, but this got turned on it's head right there. QPR attacked us like men possessed for the rest of the match and our inability to string two passes together caused us great trouble at the back. Murray decided to ignore his lack of match fitness and saved everything thrown his way, including a injury time penalty, that Lescott gave away, when he handled the ball in the box. 10 seconds later, Naylor saw his second yellow of the day and a subsequent red card, following a wreckless tackle on the byline, just outside our area. Fortunately, nothing came of it and we celebrated a hard fought victory, which we didn't really deserve, if truth be told. After the match I warned the lads against complacancy and told them that nothing was gained yet. 33 matches left of the season and we'd have to ensure that we performed well throughout.
In the post-match interview Ian Holloway tipped us for promotion, seeing as we'd ground out a result, despite not being at our best in the match. We've got a good relationship going, because we can both see that we respect the work that the other is doing and are on good communication terms through that.
Naylor received a one match suspension following his expulsion from the game and I gave him an official warning for his conduct. He ought to know better than going in hard on someone who's moving away from our penalty area. He accepted that he deserved the warning and promised to try his best to avoid a repeat.
The Times came out with a strange article about us in their Sunday edition. They started off nicely enough, stating the obvious that we'd set off by basing our success on a mean defence. Nothing that we didn't know about previously of course. Especially since we've only conceded 11 goals in 15 matches so far, including the League Cup matches. Surprisingly enough, we were top of the Championship after the weekend, since Crystal Palace suffered a goalless draw against Burnley. The article concluded though, that I had a developed a dislike for David O'Leary, because I had supposedly let go some derogatory remarks about him. The thing was, I never said anything against him, which hadn't been instigated by himself through the press. Daft and lazy journos at their best obviously.
Ricketts would be out for 2 weeks, after his injury, so our Korean lad would get a chance to shine. Mark Kennedy would be back soon as well, so competition for the left wing spot would increase again.
03-12-2006, 12:37 AM
Dancing with Wolves or was it bears? We Were Once Great Challenge 2006 Post #16
Tuesday 18th October 2005
We didn't get much rest after the win against QPR. Tuesday saw us on the road to sunny Hull to face The Tigers at The Circle. Both teams started at pace and it came as no surprise when Carl Cort managed to outmanoeuvre the home defenders and score a nice goal. 4 minutes later Olofinjana was fouled just inside the corner of the homeside's penalty area and Paul Wotton made no mistakes from the spot. 2 minutes after that, the result was all but sealed, when Damien Delaney got himself sent off for a professional foul on Colin Cameron. We subjected them to an attacking onslaught for the rest of the match, which should have yielded at least 3 more goals, but somehow Wotton, Clarke and Seol Ki-Hyeon all managed to shoot wide, when it was much easier to hit the goal. We had one scary moment in the match, when Carl Cort's backpass missed all our defenders, but fortunately Murray was equal to Nick Barmby's tame shot.
Rick Hayward called me on my mobile phone, while we were on our way back from Hull, congratulating us on this victory. His greeting was met with a rapturous cheer from the lads, who had every reason to be happy about their performance. I could almost hear his smile from the other end of the line when the lads cheered. I presume the man was very happy about the way we won this match.
More injuries hit us as the week carried on, next to head for the physioroom was striker Kenny Miller. He managed to strain knee ligaments during training and would be out for 2 months. Lucky for us, we have some cover, though none with his pace. Michael Oakes returned to full training on the same day, so that put a dampener on the shock somewhat. At least we had two fit goalkeepers on the roster in our next match.
The weekend saw us on the road again, this time at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. We should have scored in the first half, but poor finishing left us frustrated at the half, though I did my best to encourage the lads to bigger and better things. Unfortunately Marco Reich got a chance to show his freekick ability, when he scored a wondergoal from one such in the 52nd minute. I responded by changing things around and go to a more attacking mindset, and it seemed to be working nicely, when Darren Ward got sent off for his second bookable offence. Instead of taking the match by the scruff of the neck, we conceded another wondergoal, when Andrew Johnson won the ball 30 yards from our goal and then blasted an unstoppable piledriver into the top corner. After the match I took the lads on and told them a few home truths. All the hard work we'd done in the first half had been undone by some idiotic mistakes, that cost us the aforementioned goals.
I was absolutely fuming on the bus and told the lads to totally leave me alone on the drive back, because I couldn't promise them that I'd contain my fists. They were extremely shocked at this exclamation and some of them actually must have believed that I'd be off my old rocker. Who knows, they might be right.
When we got back to Wolverhampton, I found out that Paul Wotton would be out for the next 2 months, since his twisted ankle wouldn't be on the mend until the physio had done his magic on him.
Wednesday 21st October 2005
A League Cup night at Molineux and one match I told the lads we'd have to win comfortably, if only to rebuild our confidence after the weekend's disaster. Though the match against Scunthorpe turned out to be anything but comfortable. Granted we won 1-0, but the solitary goal came in the last seconds of injury time and Ganea really deserved to score after coming on as a substitute. After the match I had a bit of praise for Ganea, Ince and Naylor, but the rest of them got a serious tongue lashing, because they had played like they couldn't care about how things went on. And they call themselves professionals. I wish.....
The following Saturday, just before our league game against Derby, we were drawn out of a hat for the fourth round of the League Cup. Fate would dictate that we'd end up playing against our neighbours Aston Villa, away. Now that would be one massive match for us and one that I hoped the lads would be well up for.
The match against Derby proved to be a mix of good football and howling errors that wouldn't even be seen in the Sunday leagues around the country. Leon Clarke and Colin Cameron had given us a two goal lead in the first half, but our inability to kill off the game came back to haunt us in the second half, even if we won it in the end. Of all people, Jackie McNamara decided to gift the visitors a goal in the second half, when he was too careless in keeping possession under pressure. Tommy Smith was quick to punish him for that and scored an easy goal. Lucky enough, Michael Oakes, who'd come on at halftime for Murray due to a minor injury, was equal to the rest of Derby's attempts at scoring.
I wasn't very complimentary to the lads after the match. I specifically warned them against complacancy, again, and gave McNamara a severe dressing own for the unforced error. As experienced player as him shouldn't have made such a horrible error of judgement. I told him that I'd give him another chance of proving his merits and if he failed, then I'd demote him from the starting lineup.
After the match, I finally received some good news. After the failure in securing a loan deal for a goalkeeper, I ended up putting in an offer to Liverpool to loan Darren Potter for the next 3 months. They agreed to our offer, as well as to an offer from Port Vale, but Potter decided that he'd rather come to us. So here he was, ready to rumble on with us, for the duration of the loan deal. He also let it slip that he'd be willing to secure a permanent deal, should his desire to stay at Anfield not be fulfilled. I decided to give it a long hard thought and I'd most certainly try to extend his loan spell towards the end of season, should the opportunity arise.
Thus endeth our difficult, but strangely productive, month of October.
Thanks Suma
I'll be trying to write more later today, though I can't guarantee anything. I also have to figure out a way to get into my assistant's panties
So far my brain has come up empty, but I'm sure the old nut will wake up once again and get something going.
The main problem that I'm facing is the amount of injuries in training. I can't really understand how high the rate of injuries to key players is, but I guess that's where team rotation comes in.
03-13-2006, 12:43 PM
Dancing with Wolves or was it bears? We Were Once Great Challenge 2006 Post #19
November 2005
Our first assignment of November was visiting Coventry City at The Ricoh Arena, which is a stadium name that I don't particularly like. I liked the old name better, as it had links to the club's past. They caught us by surprise early in the match, when Claus Jörgensen arrived unmarked at the backpost and swept the ball easily into the net. That seemed to wake us up and in a two minute spell we took the lead, through Leon Clarke and Rohan Ricketts. 4 minutes from halftime Carl Cort added our third and we were coasting now. We did have some shaky moments at the back, due to the pace of the Coventry attacking line, but fortunately they seemed to have lost their shooting boots. Carl Cort then suffered a broken arm in the 44th minute and would likely be out for the next 2 months or so. Leon Clarke added his second and our fourth in the 69th minute, following a great unselfish play by Ganea. I gave Darren Potter his debut appearance with 35 minutes to go, when I had to give Mark Kennedy a rest. I also had to relieve Naylor at left back, because he couldn't cope with the fast winger on his side, so Ryan Garry stepped in and put him to sleep. A thoroughly deserved win and one we'd have taken in a heartbeat before the match.
Rick was ecstatic with the win and said that the sort of attacking football we were playing, was the reason he came back to games, time and again. He hadn't enjoyed his football watching so much for a long time and wanted to be there for us when we secured Premiership football. I only hope he hasn't jinxed us with his enthusiasm.
Next day I got the news that Olofinjana would be out for a few weeks with a pulled hamstring. I just hoped that he'd only miss the one match against Cardiff, but usually things tended to go a bit pear shaped for us when it came to injuries lasting too long.
The match at Ninian Park turned out to be highly entertaining for the neutrals, but nerve wrecking for supporters. We conceded a goal from a stupid, stupid mistake by Jackie McNamara. The second match where he costs us a goal and this time it cost us the match. Ince lost the ball in midfield, but immediately won it back, with a tough tackle that bounced the ball to McNamara. He didn't even try to pass the ball, mainly dallied on it for no good reason and got punished when Cooper stole the ball from him. As Davenport challenged the winger, he slipped the ball past him to Jerome, who then crossed it to Boyd when Lescott tried to close him down. Boyd had no trouble tucking away the chance, as he was all alone in the box, since the defence had been pulled out of position and nobody was left to pick up the slack. I immediately substituted McNamara and that settled the right side of the team for us. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half and when we got some half chances, Alexander was equal to them. His best save was made in the first half though, when he managed to get to a 25 yard thunderbolt from Ince, though everybody thought it would end up in the net.
I kept the team in the dressing room after the match, really giving them a piece of my mind. I was so furious at their inability to do anything in this match and I also knew that they should have been able to win this game without too much trouble. McNamara revealed this to the press in his post-match interview. He looked rather pale in the interview, due to the extra dressing down he got. He'll play second fiddle to Edwards from now on, as his decision making on the pitch is highly suspect and I need a no-nonsense man on the pitch instead.
When we got back the Wolverhampton, I was greeted with the bad news that Mark Clyde had injured himself during a weight training session. He should know better than to be training on his own in there, silly git. This would leave him out of contention for at least 2 weeks.
When I had decided upon placing Edwards into the first team, I got the news that he'd broken down in training and would need to see a specialist to recover. As well as leaving him out for 3 months, it would force McNamara's lack of concentration upon the team. Damn this team is jinxed. Other and better news came from the physio, when he told me that Paul Jones was now coming back from his injury and it could take him up to 3 weeks to be back in contention for the starting spot in goal. A good thing that we have such depth there.
And with that we entered another international break.
03-14-2006, 03:08 AM
Dancing with Wolves or was it bears? We Were Once Great Challenge 2006 Post #20
When the international matches had been played, we found out that Seol Ki-Hyeon would be out 2 months with strained knee ligaments, following a sharp twist to his knee in training with the South-Korean national team. That's bad news for us, as we're not exactly rich in cover up front and neither on the wings. Hopefully nothing else would go wrong, because we simply couldn't afford that.
Our on-loan Teddy Bjarnason, who came in from Celtic, got seriously injured in training, when he ruptured his achilles tendon. Since he only had one month left of his loan, it was better to cut the loan deal short, so he could seek specialist help through his own club. In other news, Paul Jones and Wayne Hennessey both returned to full training, after their respective injuries, so we now had four goalkeepers battling it out for a place between the sticks.
Our next match was at home against Millwall. For the most part, we played badly. No creativity, no enthusiasm and, more or less, no drive to do anything. Brian Deane gave Millwall the lead in the 52nd minute and from that moment on, we didn't have a chance. Our cause wasn't helped when Leon Clarke limped off with a severely bruised thigh, something that would keep him out of the squad for anything between 5 days and 2 weeks. So a tactical reshuffle was needed, unless someone else returned from injury. I berated the team after the match and told them that they'd been an embarrassment to the club and they'd broken the fans' hearts and that was inexcusable. Then I stormed out of the dressing room, slamming the door behind me.
The next day Ryan Garry suffered a damaged heel, when he jumped for an aerial challenge in training. I decided to have the physios administer painkiller injections, in case we needed him in our next couple of matches. I knew that it might backfire, but we were just running out of options. Fortunately Paul Wotton returned to training that same week, so our options in midfield and at the back were opening up again.
Our next match was against Watford, who were expected to give us a hard game and I expected as much. Though the first half didn't give any indications that they'd be that difficult to handle. Darren Anderton opened the scoring for us in the 15th minute, his first for the club, with Ganea adding to the tally in the 45th. I encouraged the lads to keep it up in the second half, but for some reason they fell asleep and it cost us 2 goals in 4 minutes. First Henderson managed to rise above both McNamara and Murray to head the ball home and then Naylor stupidly tripped Henderson, though it looked to be a rather harsh decision from the dugout. After the match the replay indicated that the referee had made the correct call. Marlon King scored from the ensuing penalty and suddenly our whole game was way open. I responded by making three substitutions. Potter came on for Ince, who'd gotten a knock in the first half, Kabeya came on for Anderton and Garry replaced Davenport in defence. That made us tighter again, since the lads were all tiring at that point. Mark Kennedy then scored our third goal, from a 20 yard freekick, in the 69th minute and then he was on hand to blast the rebound home, following Foster's parry of Ganea's shot, in the 87th minute. We had dominated the match, with the exception of the first 10 minutes of the second half, so this was a win we felt we deserved.
At this point in the season we were 3rd, on goal difference behind Crystal Palace, with Southampton leading the division. The lost games were now looking like they could cost us an automatic promotion spot, due to the heavy competitiveness of the top group of clubs. Only 5 points separated the clubs in 1st and 6th place, so that's an indication of the fierce battle that was going on at this stage.
Our final match of November was the League Cup match against our neighbours, Aston Villa. I didn't expect the lads to need any special pre-match talk, since it would have been a great performance to get a good result at Villa Park. Unfortunately nobody was at the races and when Villa finally scored their opening goal, they realistically should have been 4-0 up already. Thankfully it wasn't until the 38th minute when Luke Moore scored the first goal of the match, following a rather unfortunate bit of bad judgement from Mark Kennedy. He had gotten the ball in midfield and was looking upfield to see if Ganea was there, but he had stupidly cruised too far back on the pitch and that cost us a stolen ball, through ball and a goal. In the second half we just couldn't string two passes together and that was to cost us dearly, when first Andy Webster and then Milan Baros added goals. We had a few opportunities to rectify things in the match, but our players either took too long to go for the shots, or tried to take shots that were way out of their range. Either way, 3-0 was the deserved home win and we were eliminated from the League Cup. Our cause wasn't helped either by a card happy referee, who was more than happy to card our players for the smallest infractions of the rules, while the home team nearly got away with murder, until the match was safe that is. Then he issued a yellow card to Mellberg, but it was never going to get any further than that from that stupid tart of a referee.
After the match I told the lads that I'd never seen a more sorry bunch of sad and underperfoming weaklings on a football pitch. There was no reason to respect our more illustrious neighbours so much, especially not in a cup competition. So with this little fit of mine, I told them to get their sorry @rses back to the bus, without a chance to shower. That served them right for their horribly poor performance.
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