August 2004
The PFA place a transfer embargo on Sheffield Wednesday, they haven't been able to pay their players' wages.
3/8/04 - away at Bath City, a lower league team. This is the second time in two years we've played Bath in a friendly, last time we lost 0-2. Well, after 72 minutes we're down 0-2 once more. I don't know what it is, we just can't beat these guys. Lewis Killeen scored a consolation goal to make the final score 1-2.
Middlesbrough midfielder Kim Källström was sold to Real Madrid for £3.1M.
We get a reminder of which players on the team have contracts that expire in the next 12 months - it's Impey, Sykes, Perrin and Futcher. None of them is a regular starter. I offer Impey a three-year extension with the same base salary as he has now.
Paulinho returns to full training. Barnet, Morecambe and Dag & Red have been made 7-4 favorites to gain promotion from the Conference this season. Forest Green has been rated at 10-1, the bookmarkers believe we aren't far behind the top teams in the Conference in terms of quality.
Farnborough sign away our scout, Dave Dennis. We are awarded £2000 as compensation.
21/8/04 - away at Margate, in the first competitive game of the new season. We start the following lineup:
Code:
Parry
Jones - Stepanovs - Tiler - Byrne
Hadji - Paulinho - El Khalej - Allen
Hatch - Odejayi
We score 1-0 in the 70th minute when Odejayi intercepts a weak pass and counter-attacks. He's forced out to the right touchline, but manages to get a cross in, right on the head of Meechan, who's coming from behind and scores! We immediately pull back and put everybody on "hold up ball" to idle away the remaining time. We were hit by several injuries in the game, Hadji suffered a calf strain and will miss a month, Hatch had a torn calf muscle and should be out for two months, and finally did goalscorer Meechan get a heel injury which would only take a week to heal.
We sign Simon Clifford as our new scout to replace Dennis.
28/8/04 - at home vs Nuneaton Borough, 6th in the Conference. Kanchelskis and Killeen steps into the starting lineup and Kironde get a place on the bench. We get behind 0-1 in the 26th minute when Stepanovs is whistled for a penalty kick, but goals by Killeen and Odejayi in the second half give us a 2-1 victory. Allen got strained knee ligaments and needs two weeks of rest.
31/8/04 - away vs Scarborough, 1st in the Conference. Despite the short time of preparation we rest only Kanchelskis and Killeen. Holyoak and Kironde starts in their place, and Galloway replaces Allen. They take the lead through Brassart in the 14th minute, but Kironde equalizes on a cross from Galloway. Ormerod scores and we're down 1-2 until Paulino curls in a free kick from 25 yds to get a tie and one point for us.
Code:
Conference standings:
1. Morecambe 9 pts, +5 GD
2. Scarborough 7 pts, +5 GD
3. Barnet 7 pts, +4 GD
4. Forest Green 7 pts, +2 GD
5. Northwich Vics 6 pts, +2 GD
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20. Dag & Red 1 pts, -3 GD
21. Port Vale 0 pts, -4 GD
22. Halesowen Town 0 pts, -5 GD
Top rated players on the team:
Paulinho, 8.33 over 3 games
K.Odejayi, 8.00 over 3 games
C.Parry, 7.66 over 3 games