retired_xs2khizar

Sunday 27th February 2005

Daniel Fonseca pulled up in training this week complaining about his heel, and despite our efforts to get him ready for this weekend he has not been deemed fit enough to play. Stefano Guastella and Manolo Manoni return from injury, but with most of our defence still missing I have to ask Marco Cirillo to stay at centre back.

Serie C2/C
Gladiator v Ragusa

Ragusa lineup - Cinalli; Guastella, Italia, Cirillo, Sabellini(c); Bonaffini, Caramel, Gallicchio, Chiavarini; Lupo, Baggio.

Gladiator currently lie 13th, but they have proven themselves to be strong at home and you never know quite what to expect from them. They gave us an early warning about their mood when Borrelli smacked a long range effort off Cinalli's left hand post in the opening minutes.

The home team continued brightly, and in the 12th minute Pasquale Ottobre showed his teammate how it should be done by sending a rising shot into the roof of the net from some 25 yards. Ah, one of those days then...

Midway through the first half Eddy Baggio came out of a challenge limping, and I immediately dragged him off the pitch as a precaution. Manolo Manoni went on to the left, Bonaffini moved inside, and Gallicchio pushed forward to join Lupo in attack. With even more restructuring going on in our already ramshackle side, Gladiator capitalised in the 33rd minute when Alberti pounced on a Cinalli save to stab the ball into the net.

2-0 down at half-time and without much option to change things around, we attempted to grit our teeth and see out the second half. It was going okay until the 82nd minute, when Bonaffini pulled a Gladiator player down in the area and Borrelli converted the penalty.

Final score: Gladiator 3 - 0 Ragusa


Everything felt wrong about that match from the start, it was really too much to ask our injury ravaged side to play away and face a Gladiator team in one of their occasional good moods. We were still capable of playing better than we did, but the second goal killed the game stone dead and there didn't look like there was any way for us to get back into it. That game is now over though, and we can concentrate on attempting to get back to winning ways when Paterno come to visit next weekend.

Miraculously, Varese slump to their third straight defeat and we are lucky enough to keep our 2 point lead.

retired_xs2khizar

Monday 28th February 2005

Last week we made a tentative enquiry to Fidelis Andria about their left footed defender Stefano Fumagalli, to the tune of £1,000. That deliberately underestimated bid was rejected and returned with a £6,000 valuation, to which we have responded with a new bid of £5,000. Stefano apparently wants to leave the cash-strapped club, but he will have to take a significant pay cut if he's interested in coming to Ragusa. It would be great to have him on board, as he can play both centre back and left back and is only 23 years old.

After various tests run by Salvatore today, Eddy Baggio proved that the injury sustained yesterday is not serious and he should be fit enough to train in time for the coming Sunday.


Saturday 5th March 2005

My assistant Antonio and I travelled across to Andria on the heel of Italy, close to Bari, to meet with Stefano Fumagalli after Fidelis Andria accepted our £5,000 offer. Stefano is a very polite and well spoken young man and we took to him immediately, especially when it turned out that his personal demands were very reasonable! Talks progressed well and Stefano will take a few days to consider whether the move is right for him.

Manolo Manoni is the latest squad member to succumb to another injury, putting himself out for 2 weeks with a calf strain.


Over in England, much despised Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis has brought an early end to the reign of another Villa manager. Dutch boss Bert van Marwijk lasted less than a year in the role, from the end of April 2004 to the beginning of March 2005, after the Midlands club had spent all season wallowing below midtable and had been knocked out by Liverpool in the League Cup semi final. Contrary to popular belief 'Deadly' Doug Ellis' nickname does not come from a reputation as a powerful and ruthless presence in football, but was given to him by Jimmy Greaves on a river bank after Doug dispatched the fish they caught with a swift blow to the head. Don't say I never teach you anything

retired_xs2khizar

Sunday 27th March 2005

With the eventual return of Stuart Attewell, it is a blissfully injury-free entire Ragusa squad that makes the short hop along the south coast of Sicily to meet local rivals Gela. Gela are 16th in the league and have never been able to recover from the loss of their star player Francesco Erbini a year ago.

Serie C2/C
Gela v Ragusa

Ragusa lineup - Cinalli; Tamburro(c), Attewell, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Caramel, Cirillo, Pellegrino, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio.

"Get stuck in Franco, come on!". As the first half drew to a close I was becoming increasingly frustrated by the lacklustre display of our team. Gela had already had the ball in the net when Bellomo broke through in the 32nd minute, but we had rode our luck and been saved by the linesman's flag. If we weren't careful we were in danger of pushing our luck too far, and I was only too happy to get my players into the changing room at halftime.

Needing to kick some life into the team, I urge a more attacking mindset for the second period. Our best effort in the first 45 minutes had been an Eddy Baggio header charged down by the Gela defence, who were clearly more up for it than we were, and we need to start threatening more in the remainder. It had worked at Latina so I again gave the nod to Caramel, Chiavarini and Cirillo to start bombing forward more from midfield to try and unsettle the home team.

In the 51st minute our defenders slapped the self destruct button again, when a routine cross from the left was handled in the area by an uncertain Stuart Attewell. Gela's Cundari gratefully stroked the spot kick in to give his side the 1-0 lead, and for all my ranting on the touchline that's how it stayed.

Final score: Gela 1 - 0 Ragusa


I think the coffee cup glancing off the angle of the whiteboard got their attention. Luckily it was only plastic.

"What was that? What was it?"

Silence.

"I'll tell you what it was. A bunch of so-called first teamers thinking they own their place in the team. Think they deserve the shirt, 'their' shirt. Well as long as I'm here, you will bloody well earn this blue shirt every single time you are lucky enough to wear it".

Twenty-two eyes searched the tiled floor uneasily, a floor which quickly became the recipient of the scrunched blue jersey that had been closest to hand at the time.

"There are other players in this squad who have worked their backsides off for the club while some of you have been nursing a couple of cuts and bruises. If I EVER have to be embarassed by dross like that again, the only injuries you lot are getting will be splinters from the subs bench. If you think for a minute that you can swan back into the side with weak performances like that..."

retired_xs2khizar

Monday 28th March 2005

It took most of the last twenty-four hours, but I have calmed down from the aftermath of the derby game. Much of my post match 'chat' had been a result of rising anger and frustration at our second successive poor performance, but secretly part of it was pre-meditated. I'm not usually a ranter or a shouter and the players know that, which I hope will work in my favour by causing it to come as a bigger shock. I think as much of it came out in English as Italian, but I could have been speaking Japanese and they would probably have got the picture.

I felt that they needed a quick shake up. February and March have brought with them our worst form of the season, losing 5 of our last 9 matches compared to 4 losses in our first 18. There are players coming back into the side lacking a bit of match fitness and perhaps feeling a bit apprehensive about the chances of recurring injuries, but now is not the time to be holding back. Right through to Christmas I had been enjoying our rise to the top of the table and treating it as an enjoyable start for once, but that progress has been sustained to an extent, and as we enter the last 6 weeks of the season it has already started to get serious.

We cannot afford to start dropping points like we have done in the last fortnight. By a stroke of good fortune, other teams like Varese have also been stumbling through the last couple of months and have failed to capitalise on our capitulation. Like this weekend for example, Varese were held to a 2-2 draw at Paterno and we are still only 2 points off the leaders, though Imolese's win brings them to just 5 points behind in 3rd place. We are well on target to meet my initial goal of playoff contention, but we are also in with a damn good shot at the single automatic promotion spot that comes attached to the divisional title. To throw that away now would be a waste.

retired_foolishnina

Ahh the february lull. What a delight. Good luck mate.

retired_xs2khizar

Thanks veelhousen. Don't you just love that part of the season?


Saturday 2nd April 2005

The training ground carries an air of simmering determination in the midst of our 2 week break between league fixtures. This afternoon I called Claudio Gallicchio into my office and informed him that we wish to reward his dedication to the team's cause with a new contract until 2008, which he was very happy about. In fairness I have been pleased with Claudio's attitude, he's the sort of player who will always give his all and he has taken his exclusion from the starting lineup in the last 12 months without much complaint, but the new deal is largely intended as a timely incentive to the other members of the squad.

Another player extending his stay here is mercurial forward Daniel Fonseca, a player with a temperamental past who I wanted to test to see if he had taken my scalding the right way. As suspected, I got exactly the response I was looking for, as Daniel signalled his intention to see out his career in Ragusa by signing a new contract until July 2007. The Uruguayan will be 36 this September so I don't necessarily expect him to continue all the way through to see his contract expire, but his 24 goals and numerous assists this season have shown that he's more than capable of carrying on at Serie C level.


Lecce, currently 5th in Serie B, have announced the arrival of receivers to help deal with their financial difficulties.

retired_xs2khizar

Sunday 10th April 2005

Giugliano are just below midtable in 12th position, and arrive in Ragusa on the back of three straight defeats. We have won 4 of the previous 5 meetings between the two clubs, but that is all history and I'm more concerned about now. Claudio Gallicchio earns his start in the centre, but I resist making wholesale changes despite recent disappointments; These players need the match fitness for the final run in and if they have any sense then they will be smarting and looking to regain some lost pride.

I have a few more motivational words before kick-off, but all that needed to be said had been spoken in the fortnight since we sloped off the pitch at Gela.

Serie C2/C
Ragusa v Giugliano

Ragusa lineup - Cinalli; Tamburro(c), Attewell, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Caramel, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio.

The early fire shows signs that it is back, but it takes 22 minutes for the Aldo Campo Selvaggio to be raised to its feet. A long goalkick from Cinalli is flicked on by the strong Eddy Baggio, Daniel Fonseca controls, takes his time as if the defenders are nowhere near him, and fires the ball into the net off goalkeeper Spinetta's legs. In the 40th minute the responsibility belongs to his strike partner, when Eddy Baggio races onto the end of Stuart Attewell's powerful header to sweep a second goal into the corner with his less favoured left foot.

At half-time we are cruising and still looking hungry, 2-0 up without having allowed our opponents so much as a glance at our goal. With that in mind and knowing that Danilo Sabellini had picked up a yellow card and a lecture from the referee, Giuseppe Lenea and Stefano Guastella come on to take over as goalkeeper and right-back respectively.

In the 63rd minute Claudio Gallicchio fed the ball into Daniel Fonseca's feet, who looked sideways and found Eddy Baggio. Baggio took the ball on, drew the keeper, and swung it back across for Fonseca to finish with an easy header. The hattrick was completed just 7 minutes later through work of his own, when he stole the ball and turned his marker to race clear on goal, striking home with convinction into the far top corner.

Alessandro Bonaffini appeared in the second half to give Vladimiro Caramel some rest, and there was still time for Fonseca to crown the 5-0 victory with a curling 35 yard free kick in the final minute.

Final score: Ragusa 5 - 0 Giugliano


Now that's the response that I was after! An emphatic win if ever there was one, administered by almost the same team that suffered my partly-staged wrath in Gela 2 weeks ago. Eddy Baggio and Daniel Fonseca were back to their shining best, a goal and 3 assists for Eddy and 4 goals for man-of-the-match Daniel, but Pellegrino and Gallicchio were simply excellent in midfield and the whole team pulled together.

In Varese, an early goal from Fabio Lorieri saw the league leaders beat Meda 1-0. The gap remains 2 points with 6 fixtures to go.

retired_xs2khizar

Wednesday 13th April 2005

Contract talks continue, with Franco Chiavarini extending his deal to 2008 with a small pay cut, and Pietro Alderuccio boosting his earnings slightly with higher pay until 2008 after interest in the defender was shown by Forli, Sanremese and Astrea. With all the recent contract renewals we have now managed to succesfully duck below the wage budget that we had previously overstepped.


Thursday 14th April 2005

I make no changes to the team for the trip to Imolese, and treat it exactly how we would approach a home game. No worrying about playing more defensively, no sitting back and soaking up, just go out and play like we did on Sunday. We need to start building up a momentum with a run of wins, and I'm willing to gamble on this game to try and give us that boost.

Serie C2/C
Imolese v Ragusa

Ragusa lineup - Cinalli; Tamburro(c), Attewell, Alderuccio, Sabellini; Caramel, Gallicchio, Pellegrino, Chiavarini; Fonseca, Baggio.

We roared out of the starting blocks, when Eddy Baggio was first to reach a headed clearance in the 5th minute and bounded around the goalkeeper to pass into the empty net. Two minutes later Claudio Gallicchio dove into a tackle in midfield, ran forwards with the ball as the shellshocked Imolese defence backed away, and let fly a shot that shaved the outside of the post.

In the 10th minute our aggressive start reaped more rewards. Chiavarini shaped up and drove a high crossfield ball to seek out Vladimiro Caramel on the left wing, he got to the byline, and when his typically accurate cross reached the near post, Eddy Baggio was darting across the front of his marker to head home goal number two.

After that we seemed to take our foot off the pedal and relax too much. A stylish one-two between Imolese players Cacciatori and Parma allowed the latter to finish with an accurate sidefoot shot inside the near post, giving the home side a goal back in the 13th minute. They were encouraged by this quick response and set about putting us on the back foot, and in the 27th minute Parma pounced again. Pietro Alderuccio made a glaring error by badly misjudging the flight of the ball, and the Imolese striker accepted the gift by thrashing a shot across Cinalli into the top corner. From 2-0 up we had been pegged back to 2-2!

Worried about collapsing any further, I stepped out to the touchline and yelled at Franco to be less attack minded and for Gaspare to sit back a bit further and just hold in front of the defence. The tweaks seemed to work and we began to gain the upper hand in the possession stakes. After Gaspare Pellegrino had directed some keep-ball deep in midfield and exchanged a few passes with Danilo Sabellini, the midfielder turned and surprised Imolese by swinging a long ball over the top looking for Daniel Fonseca. Fonseca brought the pass down with instant control, and noncholantly chipped Imolese goalkeeper Betti to give us a 3-2 lead.

The lead was seemingly going to last until half-time, but then a long ball forward from Romano evaded both Parma and his marker Alderuccio, and suddenly Cacciatori was there drifting in behind to level things back up again just before the half-time whistle. At the break I had a decision to make - do we continue to attack and go for the win? Do we go more defensive, stop this crazy end-to-end football, and just try to steal a goal if we can? Sitting back could put us in danger of Imolese gaining too much of an advantage, and I was worried about allowing the opposition to take the initiative. Eddy Baggio and Daniel Fonseca seemed in the mood and there's nobody in this division who can match them this season, so I decide to carry on attacking and see if we can simply outscore the home team. Slightly Keegan-esque and not usually my style, but at this stage in the season a draw or a loss might not be good enough.

Imolese appeared to have the same idea and lined up with three in attack for the second half, so I advised Sabellini and Tamburro to stay disciplined and make sure they are there to cover for our two centre backs. The first major event of the second half does not arrive until the 65th minute, when Imolese's Cacciatori lines himself up just outside the area and powers the ball towards goal. It screamed over Cinalli and thumped off the crossbar, and although Parma got to the rebound, Alderuccio was on hand to smother any chance of a follow-up and Cinalli recovered to collect the ball.

The rattling of the woodwork seemed to reverberate through our team and shocked us back into life. Barely sixty seconds afterwards, Stuart Attewell put the reducer on Imolese number seven Da Costa with a crunching tackle and played a simple ball to Eddy Baggio. Baggio turned and looked for Daniel Fonseca, and the next thing you knew, a rasping 20 yard shot had flown into the roof of the Imolese net. 4-3, we had the lead back.

Falling behind yet again seemed to hit Imolese hard, and the home fans started to get agitated as their side laboured to get back into the game. In the 82nd minute Pietro Alderuccio foiled them again with a great interception, and sent a long ball forward towards Eddy Baggio on the break. Baggio slipped the ball on to Fonseca as our strikers linked on the counter attack, not for the first time, and on this occasion the Uruguayan dribbled around goalkeeper Betti to complete his hattrick.

It was Daniel's 4th hattrick of the season and his 7th goal in 2 matches, and it finally killed off a lively game. I withdrew Caramel to rest him and sent Alessandro Bonaffini on with instructions to make the midfield more defensive, there was no way back for Imolese this time.

Final score: Imolese 3 - 5 Ragusa

retired_xs2khizar

Friday 15th April 2005

What a game! - I don't think I could cope with rollercoasters like that every week. Each time we stepped in front in the first half, Imolese dragged us back level, and it was such an open game that for most of it you had no idea who was going to strike next. Fortunately our quality told in the second half. Daniel Fonseca was man-of-the-match with another three goals, Eddy Baggio claimed two assists, and although Pietro Alderuccio was poor in the first half, he really stepped up in the second. Pellegrino and Gallicchio were strong throughout in the centre of midfield again.

There's hardly time to catch our breath before we are really thrown into the fire on Sunday. We have today and tomorrow to prepare for what could be a title decider, or certainly a turning point in the race for the championship. Varese, who won 2-0 at Giugliano yesterday to maintain their 2 point lead over us at the top, will be in Ragusa in 48 hours.

retired_beacj07

out of all the places to end!!! A true cliff hanger.

Great story mate. Its kept me up into the wee hours. Ever thought of writing a comedy football autbiography?? it would be better than most!

You better keep it goin..im hooked