retired_lydiadiebolt

28th of January 2005

Segunda Liga B – Group 4, Game 23: Cartagena v Badajoz

Nothing quite like Friday night football on the television to stir the senses! Still on a high from our comprehensive thrashing of poor DÃ*ter Zafra, I make one change to the eleven, with Regi Blinker dropped in place of Óscar Silva, who served his one match ban last weekend. As could be expected from two teams relatively close to each other on the table, the opening stanzas of the game are evenly poised, and you get the feeling that a single goal could decide the game. Fortunately, it is scored by Cartagena’s Fran Nogueira who magnificently heads home Silva’s corner for our first goal from a corner this season, on 43 minutes.

It’s a tremendous way to enter half-time, and I ask the boys to dig deep to find that second goal to kill the game off. Eduardo Conget obliges, banging home the rebound from SÃ*vori’s partially saved shot on 78 minutes. SÃ*vori should have done better with Silva’s excellent cross as he was completely unmarked, but it doesn’t matter. The card-happy referee also managed to send off Badajoz’s Manel on 83 minutes; he dished out 8 yellow cards to both sides, and the red card, as I mentioned.

Cartagena (4-4-1-1): Iñaki; Alain, Rambier (c), Merino, Conget; Silva, Trobbiani, Puig, Jordi; SÃ*vori; Fran Nogueira.

Badajoz (4-4-2): Casto; Traversa, Jano (Tomillo 75), Carmona, Sergio Ramos; Juanma (Alejo 66), Dani, Jordi López, Manel (s/o 83); Jorge (Guzmán 62), Josemi.

Final score: Cartagena 2:0 Badajoz
MoM – Paulo Marcelo Trobbiani

Tonight’s game was attended by our largest crowd of the season, too – 952 people came down to the Estádio Municipal de Cartagena to witness us defeat Badajoz. I think our recent upturn in form is attracting more people to the club.

Alerted by interest from non-league Italian club Igea Virtus, I lodge a £5,000 bid with Linares for their Argentine striker Gabriel Bordi, who holds an Italian passport. The 29 year old striker looks reasonably good but has not had a look-in at Linares. I hope that he can add some more firepower to our squad, but the deal needs to be concluded quickly with the transfer and registration windows closing on 31st of January.

retired_lydiadiebolt

30th of January 2005

My bid for Bordi is accepted and I prepare a contract for him. Mindful that there are a stack of Italian clubs after him, I am prepared to be more generous than the Board will like me to be, but I believe this player would be worth the money.

In any event, it looks like that I’ll be short a right winger come next season. Carlos Isach’s contract expires at the end of the current season and despite more than a month of negotiation, we are no closer to finding a resolution. Unfortunately, a host of clubs have caught wind of this via his agent and are offering him contracts to leave the Estádio Municipal de Cartagena. Although he is now fit after his injury, Jordi has signed a contract and is prepared to stay with us, so Jordi is in ahead of Isach.

We move into sixth position on the ladder after the round is completed. Jaén, in fourth spot, are three points ahead of us.

I can announce our first Bosman signing of the season, with 32 year old left winger José Manuel Ortiz agreeing to a move to the Estádio Municipal de Cartagena in the summer. The Linares winger is a free kick and corner specialist and is still quite an accomplished player for his age. Silva will have his work cut out for him when Ortiz joins in the summer.

31st of January 2005

Bordi signs for Cartagena, and I give him a place in the squad ahead of the unlucky Nacho GarcÃ*a. Bordi will be competing with Ongala and Loreto at the moment, as both SÃ*vori and Fran Nogueira have established themselves quite well, I think.

Having carefully reviewed my squad, I believe that I’m happy with the following:

Goalkeepers

Iñaki (35 y/o, ESP, GK): 23 apps, 12 conceded, 14 clean sheets, 5 MoMs, av. rating: 7.22
José Esteban Yepes (32 y/o, ESP, GK): 0 apps

Defenders

Juanmi (22 y/o, ESP, D L): 1 app, av. rating: 7.00
Manu (32 y/o, ESP, D C): 3(2) apps, av. rating: 7.40
Alberto Merino (29 y/o, ESP, D C): 20 apps, av. rating: 7.30
Romain Rambier (23 y/o, FRA, D C): 23 apps, 2 assists, av. rating: 7.26
Alain (27 y/o, ESP, D/DM L): 23 apps, 1 assist, av. rating: 7.26
Juan José Herviás (21 y/o, ESP, D/DM C): 0 apps
Eduardo Conget (27 y/o, ESP, DM RC): 22 apps, 1 goal, 3 assists, av. rating: 7.27

Midfielders

Julio Puig (27 y/o, ESP, D/M C): 18(1) apps, 2 goals, 2 assists, av. rating: 7.26
Juan Ignacio Piombo (22 y/o, ARG, DM C): 11(1) apps, 1 goal, av. rating: 7.33
Jordi (28 y/o, ESP, M R): 7(1) apps, 1 goal, 4 assists, av. rating: 7.38
Pablo Marcelo Trobbiani (28 y/o, ESP, M C): 14 apps, 3 assists, 2 MoMs, av. rating: 7.71
Carlos Isach (26 y/o, ESP, AM RC): 16 apps, 3 assists, av. rating: 7.38
Óscar Silva (27 y/o, ESP, AM L): 22 apps, 3 goals, 9 assists, 2 MoMs, av. rating: 7.77
Regi Blinker (35 y/o, NED 3 caps, AM LC): 11(1) apps, 1 goal, 2 assists, av. rating: 7.25
Nando Sanz (29 y/o, ESP, AM C): 0(2) apps, 1 goal, av. rating: 7.00

Forwards

Kali Ongala (25 y/o, CGO, F C): 0(4) apps, av. rating: 7.00
SÃ*vori (28 y/o, ESP, F C): 14(3) apps, 12 goals, 4 assists, 4 MoMs, av. rating: 7.71
Gabriel Bordi (29 y/o, ARG, S C): 0 apps
Fran Nogueira (32 y/o, ESP, S C): 14(1) apps, 9 goals, av. rating: 7.00
Loreto (33 y/o, ESP, S C): 7(6) apps, 3 goals, 1 assist, 1 MoM, av. rating: 6.85

retired_lydiadiebolt

1st of February 2005

Fran Nogueira commits to a new contract with Cartagena.

2nd of February 2005

Unfortunately, I cannot reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with Isach and I’m almost resigned to losing him at the end of the season. He simply wants too much money and the club, already well over its weekly wage budget, will not cut me sufficient slack to accommodate him.

In any event, should we achieve promotion to the Segunda Liga, I believe that Isach would be found out, as he is a good Segunda Liga B player but does not have the talent to succeed at a higher level.

3rd of February 2005

Blinker extends his contract by another season.

4th of February 2005

We have a good opportunity pull away from Badajoz after they were defeated this evening by Melilla. We’re currently level on points and have a televised home game against Sevilla B tomorrow night.

5th of February 2005

Segunda Liga B – Group 4, Game 24: Cartagena v Sevilla B

Second home match and second televised game in a row. Hopefully the growing confidence amongst the players will help us over the line against the dangerous Sevilla B. I make but one change to the squad – Kali Ongala is omitted from the bench and new signing Gabriel Bordi takes his place. I prefer the same starting eleven, though.

A bright start is what I ordered and it is precisely what I get when on 3 minutes, Ortiz fails to judge properly Alain’s clearance and it falls nicely for Silva to run with the ball down the left wing. Silva looks up and spots SÃ*vori haring towards the penalty box. The winger plays in a superb ball and SÃ*vori, having too much space and time, simply puts it in the net. Just on 14 minutes, Jordi cleverly plays a through-ball to Nogueira’s advantage, and the veteran striker hits it well to beat the Sevilla B keeper at the far post to extend our lead to 2-0. A quick counter-attack on 54 minutes leaves Silva without a man and he takes Trobbiani’s pass before sliding it in towards the unmarked SÃ*vori. He cannot believe his luck to find himself unmarked and completely alone inside the Sevilla B penalty box and he makes them pay by smashing the ball into the back of the net.

In the end, we could have won by more goals, but substitutes Nando Sanz and Gabriel Bordi do not make their chances count. We ease by Sevilla B comfortably with a fully deserved 3-0 win.

Cartagena (4-4-1-1): Iñaki; Alain, Rambier (c), Merino, Conget; Silva, Trobbiani, Puig, Jordi; SÃ*vori (Nando Sanz 75); Nogueira (Bordi 75).

Sevilla B (4-4-2): Thorices; Fernando Vega, Juli, David Prieto, Ortiz (Lolo 69); Pinto (José Manuel 55), Roberto, Redondo, Juan Jesús (Guille 55); Moreno, Kepa.

Final score: Cartagena 3:0 Sevilla B
MoM – Óscar Silva

retired_lydiadiebolt

The win puts us level on points with third-placed Jaén and fourth-placed Algeciras. However, both clubs play tomorrow, with the former facing a tough assignment away to second-placed Linares, but the latter visiting relegation-threatened Don Benito.

Extremadura is only two points behind us and host last-placed DÃ*ter Zafra. Unless a monumental boilover occurs, we’ll probably drop back a place after tomorrow.

The media is hailing our success over Sevilla B as the form of potential title challengers. Before the season began, we were expected only to finish top-ten in the Group, but our rich vein of form has pushed us into title contention. Of course, the media still have reservations about our credentials, and I certainly am not yet thinking about claiming the top spot – fourth will do me just nicely at this stage.

6th of February 2005

As I predicted, we drop to sixth after the round is completed. Extremadura rout DÃ*ter Zafra 4-0 at home; Algeciras thrash Don Benito 3-0 while Linares defeats Jaén 2-0.

Currently, the top ten looks like this:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag GD Pts1 Ceuta 24 15 7 2 44 14 +30 522 Linares 24 14 5 5 40 17 +23 473 Algeciras 24 13 7 4 42 21 +21 464 Extremadura 24 13 5 6 45 28 +17 445 Jaén 24 12 7 5 35 20 +15 436 Cartagena 24 11 10 3 38 12 +26 437 Badajoz 24 12 4 8 32 26 +6 408 Conquense 24 11 4 9 30 25 +5 379 Melilla 24 9 9 6 35 24 +11 3610 Sevilla B 24 10 5 9 26 29 -3 35</pre>

retired_lydiadiebolt

13th of February 2005

Segunda Liga B – Group 4, Game 25: Arenas C.D. v Cartagena

We continue our winning streak with a comfortable 4-0 win over our hosts. Fran Nogueira is instrumental in the win, scoring the first two goals of the game on 12 minutes and in injury time at the end of the first half. The first goal is created by Trobbiani, who plays a brilliantly timed ball for Nogueira to run on to and the burly striker did the rest. For the second goal, Silva timed the cross to perfection, allowing Nogueira to climb above two Arenas defenders and to nod into the back of the Arenas net. SÃ*vori converted a penalty earned by Nogueira on 54 minutes to make it 3-0, and Trobbiani capped a great day for himself by scoring his first competitive goal for the club on 84 minutes when he powered the ball home from about 25 yards – hint of a slight deflection off SÃ*vori’s body, but the latter hardly knew anything about it, so Trobbiani was ecstatic to claim the goal.

Arenas C.D. (4-4-2): Manolo; Cristóbal (c), Moi Olivera, Garrido, Óscar (Héctor 77); Higinio, Dani, Kuni, Vicente (Rafa Payán 45); Luismi (Rufo 67), David Hernández.

Cartagena (4-4-1-1): Iñaki; Alain, Rambier (c), Merino, Conget; Silva, Trobbiani, Puig, Jordi; SÃ*vori; Nogueira.

Final score: Arenas C.D. 0:4 Cartagena
MoM – Fran Nogueira

Extremadura lost 3-0 to Ceuta on Friday night, so we move to fifth on the table, level on points with Jaén as we extend our winning streak to five games and our unbeaten streak to nine games.

Having a quick look at the other groups, our 46 points would entrench us quite comfortably in the top four, but the top four in Group 4 are quite good and have racked up a fair few points during the season.

The Chairman of the Board talks to the press, declaring his delight with our string of victories and the ease with which we brushed aside Arenas. The media continues to talk up our chances of snatching the title, but I suspect they’re only doing so because they expect us to crash and burn, allowing them to turn on us.

retired_lydiadiebolt

14th of February 2005

I persuade Huracán to take Argentine central midfielder Mauricio Levato off our hands. Without an EU passport, Levato cannot play in the Segunda Liga B, and if I understand the rules correctly, only one non-EU player can be in the squad in the Segunda Liga, and I believe Nunens will take that place. Therefore, paying Levato £1,100 per week is not good for business and I parted with him as soon as I could: Mauricio Levato (25 y/o, ARG, M C): 0 apps

Selling Levato reduces our wage budget to approximately £1,000 per week over the Board’s limit.

18th of February 2005

Senor Flatline, signing off for the moment.

retired_liew wai kheng

The legend returns

Uknowmehfo

\o/ Finally a story to follow. :thup:

Might this story live as strong and long as your Cartagonova exploits, Mr. Flatline.

retired_lydiadiebolt

Where?

Thanks, mate! :cool:

retired_lydiadiebolt

Not a problem, though I'm not sure whether I want this one to drag on like the last one - which lasted almost 4 years and if I could get my act together could still go on.