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October 2002
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I get a vote of confidence from the board - they are "still sure that they made the right choice" in selecting me as the manager. The First Division Player of the Month is Wolves defender Joleon Lescott. Nottingham Forest's Gareth Williams is Young Player of the Month, and the Wolves' Dave Jones is Manager of the Month.
I do some more tactical changes to get the defenders to close down on opponents better. Bristol Rovers make a £70K offer for Owen Morrison, which I accept.
Steve Kabba and Dean Windass return to full training, which means the Blades' first team is now back at fulls strength.
9/10/02 - away at Leicester, 9th in the division. Stefan Oakes scored twice on a penalty and a free kick to send us home with a 0-2 loss.
16/10/02 - at home vs Brighton, 22nd in the division. Somehow we manage to concede three goals in the first 27 minutes and claw two goals back to lose 2-3. Kabba and Windass both scored. Memo to self: Scratch the tactic from this game as useless.
19/10/02 - away at Wimbledon, 21st in the division. Stuart McCall has to get some rest and is replaced by Montgomery. We get an 0-0 draw with Steve Kabba having several close chances.
23/10/02 - derby at home vs Sheffield Wednesday, 12th in the division. We are tied 1-1 until only 8 minutes remains, then our rivals win the games on goals on a free kick and on a penalty. Every team in the first division seem to have a freekick specialist these days...
26/10/02 - away at Ipswich, 1st in the division. We lose 0-3 as Marcus Bent score two goals on shots from the 25-30 yd range.
The First Division leaders, the bottom feeders, and us, at the end of the month:
Code:
1. Ipswich 10-2-2 / 27-11
2. Nottm Forest 10-2-2 / 27-12
3. Leicester 10-1-4 / 33-17
4. Wolves 9-2-4 / 25-15
5. Portsmouth 9-1-4 / 31-16
6. Rotherham 8-4-2 / 21-13
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22. Sheff Utd 2-3-10 / 11-29
23. Gillingham 1-4-10 / 8-24
24. Reading 1-2-11 / 15-39