retired_tonytranbg79

Second page \o/

Enjoying this Taxman keep it up

retired_jeja111

Hehe. I didn't even realise I was calling him Charlton Cole. Oh well it's working so I'll keep it up

retired_jeja111

26th December, 2004

EPL, Game 20
Aston Villa vs. Birmingham

Into the 2nd half of the season for the 3rd Derby of the season - we had already won. Carlton Cole, whose estimated market value had soared to 7.25M (and was pricing himself out of our market), was suspended for the match. Postma was in goals again and so we were vulnerable.

Form tends to go out the window in derby's, luckily for Brum, because we were flying. But they went ahead after 18 minutes when Mikael Forssell, a possible target for us if we cannot land Cole on a permenant basis, put them ahead with a long range shot which Postma really should have gotten. But this was Posta and we were stuck with him for 5 more days...

...we were really lacking attacking flair in this match and we came up to half time with nothing really of note happening....

Into the 2nd half and the game was becoming a good old scrap in the wet weather and we began to take it right up to them. We got our reply just before the hour mark when Torrado's shot hit the crossbar, but their captain Kenny Cunningham knocked the ball back into his own net for an own goal.

The game was a scrap through and through though, both sides gave and took nothing and the game ended in a somewhat boring stalemate.

Aston Villa 1
Cunningham o/g 58
Birmingham 1
Forssell 19

Amazingly Man Utd have been kept to another home draw, 0-0 again, by West Brom this time, so we remain in 3rd place. We had only 2 days break before a trip to Ewood Park to face Blackburn...

EPL, Game 21
Blackburn vs. Aston Villa

Damn that Postma in goals, two shoddy performances and I wasn't very confident of keeping a clean sheet at all. And as last game showed, we cannot rely on our attack to win us the game on their own every time....not to mention Solano who was out for this game with a small injury to his shin (although Cole was back in).

I decided to take a risk and put Robert Olejnik, the young Austrian, in goals for Postma. I wanted to see what he had in him before we get our new goalkeeper from NEC in 3 days time, New years day.

With Juan Angel out it was an all-pace strike force today, with Vassell and Carlton Cole up front for us....and things payed off almost right away when after 5 minutes Cole broke free (!) and crossed to Vassell who put it home and we had bolted out of the blocks. We continued to get at them, but we were unable to convert our chances.

They turned the tables and started coming at us, but the goalkeeper Olejnik was doing far better than Postma and was keeping us ahead very well. I was quite happy with our lead as it was, until Cole once again broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper to put in his 20th league goal of the season. Carlton was already 5 goals ahead at the top of the scorers list and his season's form was continuing...I very much doubt we'll be able to keep him and nab him permanently, unfortunately.

Things started drifting along........but they woke everyone up shortly past the hour when Ferguson headed home a corner to reduce the lead back to only 1 goal. I responded by replacing the tiring Vassell with another midfielder to deny them some space....

Our goalkeeper was right on his game....later on they came at us fairly intensely but we managed to hold on to record another well earned away win. We had now built up a decent-sized 10 point gap over 5th placed Liverpool and the Champions League was looking good so far. To overtake Man Utd and stay there for the last few rounds has just been a big bonus and a tremendous morale booster, particularly after the flogging they dished out to us.

Blackburn 1
Ferguson 69
Aston Villa 2
[i]Vassell 4
Cole 39[/b]

As my worry about being able to keep Carlton Cole started to increase as did my interest in possible replacements. One player I had been eyeing off was Diego Tristan from Deportive, and being Transfer listed and on the market meant that if I didn't move for him right away then we might not be able to nab him. His asking price was only 1.3M which we could afford, so right on 6am on the transfer day, January 1, we launched a bid.

No sooner had I launched a bid than Carlton Cole had gone to the press and expressed his delight with his form and accounced that he is loving the friendly atmosphere at the club immensely! He then said that, along with Chelsea, Villa is now his favourite club!

...imagine my surprise when an FA official showed up at training with a medal for me....the paper went like this....

And finally...

retired_tracie

This is fantastic dude, KUTGW

retired_jeja111

Thanks lawsy, haze and Tryone

26th December, 2004

EPL, Game 20
Aston Villa vs. Birmingham

Into the 2nd half of the season for the 3rd Derby of the season - we had already won. Carlton Cole, whose estimated market value had soared to 7.25M (and was pricing himself out of our market), was suspended for the match. Postma was in goals again and so we were vulnerable.

Form tends to go out the window in derby's, luckily for Brum, because we were flying. But they went ahead after 18 minutes when Mikael Forssell, a possible target for us if we cannot land Cole on a permenant basis, put them ahead with a long range shot which Postma really should have gotten. But this was Posta and we were stuck with him for 5 more days...

...we were really lacking attacking flair in this match and we came up to half time with nothing really of note happening....

Into the 2nd half and the game was becoming a good old scrap in the wet weather and we began to take it right up to them. We got our reply just before the hour mark when Torrado's shot hit the crossbar, but their captain Kenny Cunningham knocked the ball back into his own net for an own goal.

The game was a scrap through and through though, both sides gave and took nothing and the game ended in a somewhat boring stalemate.

Aston Villa 1
Cunningham o/g 58
Birmingham 1
Forssell 19

Amazingly Man Utd have been kept to another home draw, 0-0 again, by West Brom this time, so we remain in 3rd place. We had only 2 days break before a trip to Ewood Park to face Blackburn...

EPL, Game 21
Blackburn vs. Aston Villa

Damn that Postma in goals, two shoddy performances and I wasn't very confident of keeping a clean sheet at all. And as last game showed, we cannot rely on our attack to win us the game on their own every time....not to mention Solano who was out for this game with a small injury to his shin (although Cole was back in).

I decided to take a risk and put Robert Olejnik, the young Austrian, in goals for Postma. I wanted to see what he had in him before we get our new goalkeeper from NEC in 3 days time, New years day.

With Juan Angel out it was an all-pace strike force today, with Vassell and Carlton Cole up front for us....and things payed off almost right away when after 5 minutes Cole broke free (!) and crossed to Vassell who put it home and we had bolted out of the blocks. We continued to get at them, but we were unable to convert our chances.

They turned the tables and started coming at us, but the goalkeeper Olejnik was doing far better than Postma and was keeping us ahead very well. I was quite happy with our lead as it was, until Cole once again broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper to put in his 20th league goal of the season. Carlton was already 5 goals ahead at the top of the scorers list and his season's form was continuing...I very much doubt we'll be able to keep him and nab him permanently, unfortunately.

Things started drifting along........but they woke everyone up shortly past the hour when Ferguson headed home a corner to reduce the lead back to only 1 goal. I responded by replacing the tiring Vassell with another midfielder to deny them some space....

Our goalkeeper was right on his game....later on they came at us fairly intensely but we managed to hold on to record another well earned away win. We had now built up a decent-sized 10 point gap over 5th placed Liverpool and the Champions League was looking good so far. To overtake Man Utd and stay there for the last few rounds has just been a big bonus and a tremendous morale booster, particularly after the flogging they dished out to us.

Blackburn 1
Ferguson 69
Aston Villa 2
[i]Vassell 4
Cole 39[/b]

As my worry about being able to keep Carlton Cole started to increase as did my interest in possible replacements. One player I had been eyeing off was Diego Tristan from Deportive, and being Transfer listed and on the market meant that if I didn't move for him right away then we might not be able to nab him. His asking price was only 1.3M which we could afford, so right on 6am on the transfer day, January 1, we launched a bid.

No sooner had I launched a bid than Carlton Cole had gone to the press and expressed his delight with his form and accounced that he is loving the friendly atmosphere at the club immensely! He then said that, along with Chelsea, Villa is now his favourite club!

...imagine my surprise when an FA official showed up at training with a medal for me....the paper went like this....

And finally...

EPL, Game 22
Aston Villa vs. Middlesbrough

Our side was getting a little tired and needed a rest...but looking at the fixture list we're still involved with League Cup, FA Cup and the PL and there wasn't a rest coming up in the next month.

This saturday afternoon game was played in very cold but fine conditions and with Middlesbrough doing well in 5th position we knew it wouldn't be easy. We went at them though, intent on going ahead but our shooting was very poor. Their defence was good, despite the number of goals conceded in the league, and the match drew out to a somewhat boring stalemate which ended 0-0.

Aston Villa 0

Middeslbrough 0

EPL, Game 23
Newcastle vs. Aston Villa

Off to face the other PL north-eastern side at their home ground in what would probably be a very difficult match. Newcastle are a difficult side to go to no matter where they were on the table...let alone an in a Europe-paying position, 6th. Especially with half of our backline out to injury or suspension....

My fears were realised early on when Laurent Robert struck one of his trademark free kicks wonderfully and put it right into the back the right inside 10 minutes. They continued driving at us but our makeshit defence was holding up - the problem was though that we couldnt create anything up front. This was made worse when Berger, subbing for Barry on the left, went off injured and I was forced to place Vassell on the left and throw Luke Moore up forward.

This worked wonders though as Vassell broke free soon after hte half hour mark and fed a ball through to the ever-reliable Cole who beat off Bernard and put it passed Given. This was quite important for us considering our lead over them was 10 if the game was drawn and 6 if they won - especially because they are another serious contender for the last Champions League place.

Going into the 2nd half and neither side was able to break the deadlock. Gentenaar was doing a good job for us but we were unable to break them again. After 65 minutes we had our first red card of the season and it was a straight red, to Juan Angel for a late tackle on their defender Kouffour.........thats a 1 game suspension at least....and we will miss him.

We managed to get through the last 20 minutes of the match with 11 men, away and in front of a hostile St James Park crowd and earn the draw, which I am quite proud of. Gentenaar, the new goalkeeper, showed great ability in defence as did the tiring make shift defence composed of defensive midfielders.

Newcastle 1
Robert 9
Aston Villa 1
Cole 35

FA Cup, Round 3
Nottm Forest vs. Aston Villa

Forest were 15th in the Championship, but I was conserving players and this was a good opportunity for them to strike us and take advantage. Though I was quite happy that the 1 match ban slapped on Juan Angel was an FA Cup match!

We went ahead early, just on 5 minutes, when Hitzlsperger fed Vassell who was in the open and put it straight into the net. After half an hour we went two ahead with Luke Moore yet agian taking full advantage of his limited first team opportunities to put through a goal. After an hour we went ahead when Vassell knocked in a cross from young Foley-Sheridan, a reverses player, and the win looked sealed.

Later on they got one back but this was after we had fell asleep and gotten on the plane back home (mentally).

Nottm Forest 1
Johnson 90
Aston Villa 3
Vassell 6, 64
Moore 33


I can feel my writing style turning very descriptive here...I'm going to take stock and change it a little next time hopefully

retired_mika318

Excellent again Taxman.

Good idea to take stock but I can't see much wrong with what you're doing (just be a bit more careful with the code tags )

It'll be interesting to see what you bring to the next update. Just don't lose your enthusiasm.

This has been a very good read so far :thup:

retired_tonytranbg79

whs

I certainly found my writing style changing and developing as I went along. Nothing wrong with it atm. You may want to try a little back story to the story like a character has a shady past etc. Thats just me and what I like, but this is still v.good keep it up.

retired_lydiadiebolt

Very good story, Taxman.

KUTGW! :thup:

As for your style, keep developing it in the way you think suits you best. I've seen quite a few stories on here that features a character with a shady past, and I've tended to find them becoming rather the same. It's refreshing to see a story that concentrates on the football.

Then again, the stories with their own background attract their own following and each to their own, I expect.

retired_jeja111

Thanks for the words...character with a shady past? What is this a pulp fiction novel? My goal is to give an analytical story not a descriptive one. But making characters and things like it's an episode of Lost doesn't seem appealling to me. Anyway I slowed down a little and here's the next "episode".

10th January, 2005

News came through that Juan Angel has been given an extra two match suspension. The good news though is that one of the matches is the League Cup Semi Final which is up next so he will only be missing for one Premier League match.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw....away to Brentford (League One side). We should progress without too many problems there.

Word had come through to me at training that Charlton were interested in signing Lee Hendrie. They could get him on a free in the summer so I had some tough decisions to make as to whether to keep him or get his wages off the bill so help clear some room for my (expected) excursion to Europe next season (barring a major mishap we should make the UEFA Cup at least).

League Cup, Semi Final, 1st Leg
Middlesbrough vs. Aston Villa

We were going in here with a defensive mindset, obviously hoping to keep a clean sheet for the 2nd leg.

Far too often going in with a defensive mindset is a mistake and it proved so again this time when Nemeth latched onto a free kick to put their first one in after 20 minutes. We were going in with the same depleted squad as the FA Cup match but Boro were a lot better than Forest...

...things got uglier, or so I thought, when we conceded a penalty shortly after the half hour mark, but Gentenaar did brilliantly to save Hasselbank's shot and keep the defecit at only one. We were sitll on the back foot though and they kept coming at us, and just before half time we succumbed to them, conceding another one this time from a corner.

Into the 2nd half and we would try and get something back, but it went the opposite way when Barry hit an "ambitious" back pass straight into their path to give them their 3rd goal and possibly, write off the whole thing for us. I felt we needed to get an away goal bakc on them....but our attacking was off and we couldn't.

So we've lost our first game in a while...but I'm happy it wasn't a league match. Hopefully this doesn't affect our confidence too much.

Middlesbrough 3
Nemeth 20
Delaney 45
Job 54
Aston Villa 0

EPL, Game 24
Aston Villa vs. West Brom

At home against a side in the relegation zone and on a decent unbeaten streak, we really should have beaten West Brom, although without Angel up front we really lacked a holding forward....and maybe the pressure got to us or something, I am not quite sure, but we were actually the ones on the backfoot through the first half hour as we struggled to build attacks.through our wings, not to mention their defence which was on the ball and doing very well at keeping us out. We had 7 corners up until half time but had done nothing with any of them - out set pieces werent our strong point.

We were served up some luck through right after half time, when their defender Paul Telfer came in late to Barry and was given a (somewhat harsh) straight red card. Maybe we got confidence from it...soon after Thomas Hitzlsperger drilled in a volley from the edge of the box and we had the lead we wanted.

Our task, we thought, got a lot more difficult though when Nobby Solano was sent off for a 2nd bookable offence after an hour to send both sides back to only 10 men - this wouldn't be just a matter of seeing the game out anymore. I went back to a 4-4-1 formation with Hendrie coming onto the right...but my fears were somewhat unfounded when 10 minutes later, Hendrie crossed to Hitzlsperger who fired home a 2nd volley from outside the box to give us a healthy and probably match-winning buffer....and so it proved, as we held them off comfortably to regain our 9 point buffer over the 5th placed team which today was Southampton.

Aston Villa 2
Hitzlsperger 53, 76

West Brom 0

I was quite happy with that win as our squad tires and tires even more...our decent buffer over 5th place should mean hopefully that we will be able to hold off all comers and secure a Champions League spot (although we were still 3rd, 2 points above Man Utd, I fully expected them to overtake us by seasons end).

Our team was starting to tire a little and the fact that we were still active in all competitions (League Cup, FA Cup & EPL) meant that we weren't getting much of a break at all.

As I mentioned a while back we were hopeful of snaring Diego Tristan for cheap price of 1.4M after he was told he was no longer wanted at Deportivo, but he decided to stay in Spain and sign for Mallorca. It was a shame and a disappointement to me because I saw him as potentially just as good for as Carlton Cole had been and for a fraction of the 13.5M that Chelsea now wanted for Cole when I made an equiry about a week ago...

Just as I was standing up, about to go off to training I received a fax through the machine from French club, Marseille, launching an offer of 3.4M for Olof Mellberg. Are they kidding? It didn't take long for me to send one back, politely rejecting their advances for my star defender.

[quote]Villa in shock move for Larsson
Aston Villa boss Emerson Smith has been linked with a shock move for Barcalona's Henrik Larsson, just 10 days before the closing of the current transfer window.

Larsson had been linked with Villa through a swap deal with Olof Mellberg earlier in the season but the deal, obviously, never came to fruition. Larsson is said to be seen by boss Emerson Smith as the ideal player to help them with the securing of a Champions League spot for next season, and should they secure one, his vast European experience as the ideal help to guide the team through it's campaign next term.

Barcalona's asking price is said to be 2.1M

FA Cup, Round 4
Brentford vs. Aston Villa

Facing a team 2 divisions below yours always was a little bit of a concern as there is always the possibility of an embarrasing upset.

Our fears were fading only 10 minutes in though when Luke Moore took advantage of limited opportunities once more to fire home a shot after only 10 minutes to put us ahead.

I thought we looked good and we could hold them off for the match though I was wrong, just after half time they equalised and sent me into action to avoid the dreaded rematch....and once again, salvation came in the form of Carlton Cole when the subbed on player scored a simple goal from a 1 on 1 to give us our lead back.

Just to confirm the win a few minutes later, as if to showboat, Cole put in his 2nd with ease....jeez he has really come of age this season.

Later on we got another with Barry popping one in after the tie was dead and buried...

Brentford 1
Burton 52

Aston Villa 4
Moore 11
Cole 68, 74
Barry 88

retired_tonytranbg79

The best piece of advice I can offer is to write for yourself, don't try and write for other people. Write the way you feel is the best and what you feel most comfortable with.