New season finally at the half-way stage, as the new year comes around again. Delayed slightly due to my summer loan spell back in Southend
.
One key player out, one of my two young AMCs leaves to follow his dreams of glory, and I enjoy the £1 million I receive in return. This is quickly spent on the securing of a couple of young prospects, including a welsh under-21 and a striker from Southend who has the abilities to be the best playmaker in the lower leagues.
Start of the season sees our defence back to sleep after a holiday of heavy drinking, and our attack as hopeless as the previous season, much to my chargrin. After 6 games we had just the 1 point to our name, and were fixed securely to the bottom of the league. Cue me putting the team into an even more defensive formation. My new signings manage to spend a fair amount of time in the injury room, and our team is stretched heavily, seeing my rely on unexpected sources for performances.
With the change in formation comes the solidity in defence needed, and we start a run of conceding 4 in 9 games, as our newly returned keeper and mainstay defenders slowly start to find their feet.
Unimpressove exits from all the cups to higher league opponents precede this spell, yet we handle ourselves admirably forcing extra time in all 3.
With our wage budget well over that we've been allocated, I decide to halt my spending with 400k in the kitty to allow for financial stability. This sees us inactive in the transfer markets, but with some more of the youth finally getting adapted, I now have acceptable replacements in every position due to my signing of versatile players.
So, what of the league form. With our strikeforce stil badly misfiring, netting only 8 goals in 23 games, something has to change, and with our defence finally solid, and our goals average back to conceding 1 a game, despite a couple of early season thrashings, I decide it's time for Matlock Town to come out of its shell, as we enter the Christmas Holidays.
With my ex-Southend striker back, I base my new formation around him, and my now aging ex-Charlton youth, who has become accustomed to sitting in front of my back 6.
The effects of this tactic change....
...Startling to say the least. A series of 3 home games sees us beat mid-table Stafford 4-0 (ex-Southend getting a 10, completing 64 of 68 passes successfully), dispatching playoff favourites Darlington 7-0 :eek: (4 10 ratings and first hat-trick for one of my new strikers) and top 4 Wycombe 2-0 (lost my Southender against Darlo but back-up proving equally effective), and follow up this series with a 2-1 away win to fellow relegation battlers Yeovil, and a 4-1 away win against run-away leaders (well they were looking like it before-hand) Bury, despite my young striker going off at half-time with a niggle (he still racked up his 2nd hat-trick and got MoM
)
Either something has been put in the water or my new tactic is finally getting the best out of my young team. With a few now mature players at the back, we are finally moving upwards, and leaves me to look forward to the second half of the season, starting with the visit of rock-bottom Southend a few days before my Birthday. We sit 18th, 12 points off the play-offs, can we dream of such heights, or will the recnt form fritter away as so often is the case.
.
Linear Mode
