FM2005: a frog at Loftus Road

[Desnudo]

Have you ever wondered why rehab never shortens the minimum length of injury? Like how TO managed to get back and play in the Superbowl.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Have you ever wondered why rehab never shortens the minimum length of injury? Like how TO managed to get back and play in the Superbowl.

I've always seen physiotherapy (short term rehab) as being used to prevent recurrence, more than to make a player come back sooner. So no, I've never wondered if it was even possible for an injury length to be shortened by good physio sessions...

However, I'd tell you to come back and read a bit later on for something on that...

FM

[FrogMan]

August 25, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	5	-	7.60
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	92%	6	-	7.50
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	5	-	7.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	94%	6	1	7.67
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	93%	5	-	7.40
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	96%	2 (2)	-	7.50
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-7-7-8	96%	1 (1)	-	7.50
MC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	2 (1)	-	7.33
MC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	6-7-10-7-7	96%	3 (2)	-	7.40
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	90%	3 (2)	1	7.40
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	9-8-6-6-7	93%	4 (2)	6	7.33
S1		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	97%	2 (2)	1	7.25
S3		Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-6-7-7-8	92%	4 (1)	-	7.20
S4		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	9-7-6-7-8	92%	5	-	7.40
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-8-6-7-6	95%	5 (1)	2	7.00
-		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	99%	2	-	7.00
-		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-7-5-7-7	91%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	50%	5	-	7.00

We go play Brighton and Hove Albion on their pitch. They are currently right behind us in 2nd place, with 3 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss in 5 games this season. With everything I feared coming into the first five games of the season, I would have never thought that this 6th game could have been in any way, shape, or form, us in 1st place, defending our top spot against a 2nd place team...

If you remember, Brighton is also the new home of somebody we know pretty well, and I give you: Kevin Joyce! He's coming back from an injury though and is showing up at 88% the morning of the game...

Lee Cook really pissed me off last game, getting dispossed regularly and making dumb passes. He's out, Tom Howell gets the start. It's another wet game...

Keigan Parker gets called offside early on, a close call that gets a goal called back. He'll redeem himself in the 38th minute as we're putting tons of pressure. He heads the ball in the goal for a 1-0 lead.

That's the halftime score and we're outshooting them 9 to 4, 7 to 1 on target so far.

Ben Watson flights a free kick just over the wall for a 2 goal lead in the 61st minute, but they take one back only 6 minutes later, heading a corner in. Both teams will exchange corner kick goals in the next 10 minutes, ours coming on a Danny Shittu header on a another Quashie corner kick, their second in two games. At that point, we were up 3-2. Lee Mansell, hitting a ferocious right footed striker from 25 yards out, will nail their coffin shut in the 84th minute, giving us the final 4-2 lead.

Final Score: 4-2

We outshoot them 20 to 9, 13 to 6 and we won possession with 53%. That was mighty impressive, especially given the fact we were on the road...

Paul Davies is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. Tom Howell also gets a 9, nice! Six other players get ratings of 8.

We secure our 1st place with the win. Crystal Palace is now 2nd, 3 points behind us...

Paul Davies and Tom Howell both suffered injuries during the match. They will both miss 5 days, Davies with a strained neck and Howell with a bruised shin. Not so bad, as our next match is only on September 5.

Following the match, the team Chairman ecstatic. Here's the message I got:

Rs board delighted at win over Brighton
Queens Park Rangers chairman Bill Power could not hide his delight following his team's 4-2 win over Brighton and Hove Albion.

Although still early in the season, The Ts fans must be delighted with their club's current league position at the head of the table.

Whilst most fans had expected another season of mid-table obscurity, the side are performing well above expectation at this early stage of the season.

WEEEEE!!!!

FM

[FrogMan]

August 29, 2009
Marc Bircham played well in Canada'S 6-1 win over Trinidad & Tobaggo, even scoring a goal.

Cue to daeadalus, get ready to say: "I told you so"...

Kaviedes expects to be in the first team
Q.P.R. experienced striker Iván Kaviedes has declared that he is far from happy at not being a part of manager Steve Gougeon's first elevn at Loftus Road.

According to London's Evening Standard, the 31 year old striker believes he merits a place in Gougeon's plans but realises that he might be forced to leave if the situation doesn't change.

heh I gotta say I've been mightily impressed with how well Kavi has been playing with the reserves in the last few games. It's in my plans to bring him back up sooner rather than later...

August 30
Some unexpected money falls our way as we receive $600k for the ale of Sam Kerr from Arsenal to Cambridge for $3M. Kerr is a product of Q.P.R.'s youth program and was free transferred to Arsenal on July 12, 2006, a couple years before I got to the team, with a clause that Q.P.R. was going to receive 30% of the next sale. That'S nice money

Birmingham offers 550k and Carl Motteram (24yo AM RLC) for Danny Shittu. Big Dan is now valued at close to $4M, while Motteram is valued at $3.2M, but I'd have nothing to do with him. He's got no visible skills that are truly amazing and he's be playing with the reserves. On top of all that, he has yet to play a league match this season, and has averaged form ratings of 6.85, 6.93, and 6.77 going backward in the last three seasons. A no brainer, really, not even close... That's a no

August 31, 2009
Tom Howell is selected on the English Championship Team of the Week for his first time on such a weekly award.


FM

[FrogMan]

September 1st, 2009
The Team Board are delighted with my managerial performance, I gotta say I am too

Danny Shittu comes in 3rd place for Player of the Month. He scored two goals on corner kicks and had form ratings of 8, 8, 7, 8, 8, and 8 over the course of our 6 league games of the month. That's pretty nice, an average of 7.83!

Booo!!!! Kevin Joyce is named Young Player of the Month, bah.

I'm very, very happy to report however that Craig Crane comes in 2nd for the same award, Young Player of the Month. He had form ratings of 7, 8, 7, 8, 8, and 8, for an average of 7.67. Very impressive of the kid! I'll take his 75% pass completion ratio over Joyce's 55% ratio, although it could also be a byproduct of our short passing style of play...

I win Manager of the Month! HECK YEAH! Although I gotta say I half expected it. I'd have been pretty pissed if I had not won it, after winning 5 and drawing one in 6 league games...

Andrew Johnson's goal in injury time over Charlton is voted Goal of the Month. I watched it again and it was indeed a beauty.


FM

[FrogMan]

September 2, 2009
Iván Kaviedes scores another goal with the reserves, but is injured during the game. A bad groin strain originally diagnosed to 2 weeks of rest turns to 3 weeks when he starts seeing a specialist and starts physiotherapy treatments. Talk about a setback, so close to being back with the senior squad...

September 3, 2009
It's not fun anymore! New kid sensation, Tom Howell injures himself in training. Look how the fans care about him:

Howell injury blow for Q.P.R.
Queens Park Rangers' promising winger Tom Howell has been ruled out for about a month after picking up strained ankle ligaments during a team training session.

Fans of the club are optimistic however that Howell will be back in action sooner than hoped to help boost their drive for success.

I ask my physios for a health report on Howell and they indeed recommend to have a specialist take a look at his ankle. For once, there's good news, 2 weeks of physiotherapy should put him back on his feet and ready to go back on the field. That's the first time it's ever happened to me, to reduce the lenght of an injury by sending a player to rehab...

September 4, 2009
HOLY SMOKES!!! This has got to stop! Mathew Sadler is the latest casualty as he strained his wrist in training this morning. He'll miss a weeks. Looking around on my reserve team, I see that Nathan Jameson also got injured this morning, this is just crazy now! He will miss 2 weeks with a calf strain.

Taking a look at my training schedule, I find way too many players assigned to the "resting" schedule... Look at this...


And these are not all reserves or youngsters, we're talking about potentially 5 starters in there in Kaviedes, Sadlers, Jameson, Howell, and Cross...

Even more so that we're getting into a rough stretch of our schedule, with the second of four consecutive away games coming up. Look at this...


FM

[FrogMan]

September 5, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-8-9	98%	6	-	7.83
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	100%	7	-	7.57
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
DC		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Very Good	7-7-8-7-8	91%	6	1	7.50
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	6	-	7.33
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	100%	3 (2)	-	7.60
ML		Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-6-7-7-8	100%	4 (1)	-	7.20
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.33
MC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-10-7-7-8	100%	4 (2)	1	7.50
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-7-9-7-7	98%	4 (2)	1	7.33
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	8-6-6-7-8	100%	5 (2)	7	7.43
S1		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-7-5-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S3		John Oster	AM RL	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	91%	4 (5)	1	7.00
S4		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-8-7-9-7	91%	3 (1)	-	7.25
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	8-6-7-6-7	100%	5 (2)	2	7.00
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	2 (3)	2	7.20
-	Inj	Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	77%	6	-	7.17
-	Inj	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	6-7-7-8-9	40%	2 (1)	-	8.00
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	37%	5	-	7.00

We go play Plymouth on their pitch. They're currently 22nd and having a hard time. They've not won a game, losing 2 and drawing 4 since the start of the season.

To add to all the injuries we've recently had, Danny Shittu is out on international duty with Nigeria (World Cup Qualifier)

I bring John Oster as backup winger give the start to Ricky Hanson at centreback.

This game will end scoreless, but not devoid of tension, as we fought and fought to keep them off the front of our net.

Final Score: 0-0

For the first time this season, as crazy as it may sound, we get outshot, 14 to 11, even though we outshoot them on target, 5 to 4. Possession is an even 50-50 split, even though they spent 23% of the game controlling the ball on our end of the field.

I forgot to write down who got MoM, but it wasn't one of our players. Four Rangers got ratings of 8 and Ricky Hanson played a fair game, getting a 7.

Crystal Palace take back 2 points on us and they're now only 1 point behind.

Danny Shittu scored for Nigeria as they won 3-0 over Congo in World Cup Qualifier.

September 8, 2009
I will start to look at who I can resign every once in a while. This time around, I see that Marc Bircham is ready to accept a cut in wage to sign an extention with us. He's currently earning $12,500 per week and is asking for $11,000 per week with a 260k signing fee. I offer him $11,000 per week but drop the signing fee to $150k, for a contract running until June 2012.

September 10, 2009
Marc Bircham agrees to a deal and signs an extention that will keep him at the club until Jun 2012.

FM

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I've always seen physiotherapy (short term rehab) as being used to prevent recurrence, more than to make a player come back sooner. So no, I've never wondered if it was even possible for an injury length to be shortened by good physio sessions...

However, I'd tell you to come back and read a bit later on for something on that...

FM

It's interesting that the approach is different in soccer. In American sports, the focus is always on getting someone back as quickly as possible.

And nice little hook there, turn the page and keep reading for more information.

[terpkristin]

INJURIES SUCK!

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

It's interesting that the approach is different in soccer. In American sports, the focus is always on getting someone back as quickly as possible.

I wasn't so much talking about socer vs American sports, more about what I had experienced in the game so far. The Howell injury that got reduced because of rehab really is the first time I've noticed this happening. Does it reflect the way Europeans think about rehab, maybe, I don't know...

Originally Posted by Desnudo

And nice little hook there, turn the page and keep reading for more information.

hehehe, hey these marketing classes I took in college have got to be useful for something

I simply had it all in my notes, but I hate going out of my chronological order, and I didn't want to give really big spoilers...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

INJURIES SUCK!

/tk

and that, ladies and gentlemen, is coming from somebody who knows what she's talking about

They really do suck tk, can't argue with that. Real life or in games, they do suck, big time...

FM

[FrogMan]

September 12, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-8-9-8	100%	7	-	7.86
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-7-8-8-8	100%	8	-	7.63
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	6-7-7-7-8	100%	3	-	7.33
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-8-8	100%	7	2	7.71
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	7	-	7.29
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	99%	4 (2)	-	7.50
ML		Lee Cook	AM L	Very Good	6-7-7-8-7	99%	5 (1)	-	7.17
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	6-7-8-7-7	99%	6 (1)	-	7.29
MC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	10-7-7-8-7	100%	5 (2)	1	7.43
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-9-7-7-7	99%	5 (2)	1	7.29
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Very Good	6-6-7-8-7	100%	6 (2)	7	7.38
S1		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-5-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S3	Loa	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	4 (2)	1	7.17
S4		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	8-7-9-7-7	100%	3 (2)	-	7.20
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	6-7-6-7-8	100%	5 (3)	2	7.13
-	Inj	John Oster	AM RL	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	83%	-	-	-
-		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	2 (3)	2	7.20
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	78%	6	-	7.17
-		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	100%	1	-	7.00
-		James McDermott	GK	Okay	-	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	6-7-7-8-9	33%	2 (1)	-	8.00
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	28%	5	-	7.00

We go play Sheffield United on their pitch. They're currently 4th, still unbeaten with 3 wins and 4 draws.

This is very a rough stretch of games, hopefully we can come out of it without losing too much steam...

Don't ask me who is James McDermott because I don't know. He's one of those greyed out player that you sometimes get on your reserve or U18 squad. He's a 21yo keeper with a couple 13's, and he's listed as a member of "Q.P.R" not even "Q.P.R. Reserves", and since he's a greyed out player, I can't move him to another squad... weird...

Scott Donnelly will act as backup winger for this one, as John Oster is the latest to catch terprkristinitis. He damaged his shoulder yesterday and will miss 4 more days. He could probably have played, but he was lacking match fitness before that match and he's only at 83% whereas Donnelly was match fit and fully rested...

Sheffield show a 3-4-3 formation as we start the game.

Keigan Parker scores just before the end of the first, from an acute angle on the left. He's been a machine for us this season, finding many ways to score goals. I've now come to expect him to score when he gets near the penalty box with a defender or the keeper to beat...

1-0 is the hafltime score and we're back to more dominating ways, at least on scoring chances. We're outshooting them 7 to 4, 4 to 2 on target.

Some bad passing and bad decisions from our defenders will let our opponent back in the game. Tied 1-1 after 63 minutes. Marc Bircham gets a straight red card in the 79th minute after a two footed challenge. What is frustrating is that the same kind of challenge got only a yellow to an opponent earlier in the game...

Final Score: 1-1

We held on. Given the cirumstances, I'm happy with the draw. We outhsot them 15 to 8, 8 to 4 on target, and their keeper is named Man of the Match.

Three of our players get ratings of 8, Matthew Bates, Lee Cook, and Ben Watson. Nigel Quashie was pulled at the half after registering only a 5.

The good news is that Crystal Palace lost, so we gained a point on them, now 2 clear atop the league table...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q.P.R.	8	5	3	0	15	5	+10	18
2nd	Crystal Palace	8	5	1	2	9	5	+4	16
3rd	Gillingham	8	4	3	1	12	9	+3	15
4th	Sheff Utd	8	3	5	0	13	6	+7	14
5th	Nottm Forest	8	4	2	2	13	9	+4	14
6th	Crewe	8	3	4	1	13	6	+7	13
7th	Stoke	8	3	4	1	8	7	+1	13
8th	Brighton	8	4	1	3	11	11	0	13
9th	Walsall	8	3	3	2	14	11	+3	12
10th	Southampton	8	3	3	2	13	11	+2	12
11th	Hull	8	3	3	2	10	9	+1	12
12th	Leeds	8	3	3	2	10	9	+1	12
13th	Derby	8	3	2	3	13	13	0	11
14th	Charlton	8	3	2	3	8	8	0	11
15th	Bristol C	8	3	1	4	10	12	-2	10
16th	Leicester	8	3	1	4	8	10	-2	10
17th	West Ham	8	1	5	2	5	5	0	8
18th	Burnley	8	2	2	4	8	9	-1	8
19th	Coventry	8	2	1	5	6	8	-2	7
20th	Millwall	8	2	1	5	7	14	-7	7
21st	Plymouth	8	0	6	2	9	15	-6	6
22nd	Cardiff	8	1	3	4	8	15	-7	6
23rd	Ipswich	8	0	5	3	7	11	-4	5
24th	Reading	8	0	2	6	2	14	-12	2

Following the game, we learn that Marc Bircham is automacically banned for one match after being sent off. What's worse is that we also learn that a disciplinary committee will be meeting on Saturday September 19th (the day of our first match after his banning) and may decide to extend the ban. I decide to appeal de ban.

September 13, 2009
The FA thinks we did not have valid grounds for our appeal against the 1 match ban for Marc Bircham. I've never seen this work, yet I try it everytime...

FM

[condors]

be carefull Frogman,wasn't in this version but i have gotten fined by constant apeals and the FA fined me(92k i think it was), course i was also fined by my team setting a record for getting carded, so i was appealing alot

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by condors

be carefull Frogman,wasn't in this version but i have gotten fined by constant apeals and the FA fined me(92k i think it was), course i was also fined by my team setting a record for getting carded, so i was appealing alot

Thanks for the hint, but it's not happening all that much to me, luckily. Last time I had a player suspended for more than one match, it was Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and it was back with Luton, in his first season with us, so I'd say almost 4 seasons ago, if not more...

FM

[FrogMan]

September 15, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DR		John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	92%	3 (7)	-	7.00
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	95%	4	-	7.50
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	98%	8	2	7.63
DC		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	100%	1	-	7.00
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	8-8-8-7-7	92%	5 (2)	-	7.43
ML		Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	92%	6 (1)	-	7.29
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Okay	7-8-7-7-5	94%	7 (1)	-	7.00
MC		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	2 (3)	2	7.20
FC		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-5-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	7.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	100%	5 (4)	2	7.11
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-8-9-8-7	100%	8	-	7.75
S2		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	6-7-8-7-7	93%	7 (2)	8	7.33
S3	Loa	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7-7-8-8-7	95%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	94%	9	-	7.56
S5		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	93%	6 (2)	1	7.25
-	Inj	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	6-7-7-8-9	33%	2 (1)	-	8.00
-	Sus	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-9-7-7-6	99%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	92%	6	-	7.17
-		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	8	-	7.25
-	Inj	John Oster	AM RL	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	80%	-	-	-
-	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	92%	6 (2)	1	7.50
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	28%	5	-	7.00

We go play Burnsley on their pitch for the second round of the League Cup. They are currently struggling in 20th place of League One, with 1 win, 3 draws, and 3 losses.

Our next game is on the 19th, I have to keep that in mind and make sure we'll have players in good condition for that one too. Marc Bircham is also suspended for this match, and possibly more.

John Davies gets the start at right full-back, giving a breather to Craig Crane. Ricky Hanson does the same for Darren Evans. In the last two seasons, Evans has needed to be rested in February, so I better make sure he doesn't get overworked in September...

There are many non regulars in the starting lineup. One of them is Steve Brooker at striker. Same with Chris Day in the nets.

oh, and mister McDermott has disappeared from our senior squad roster. Weird...
Burnsley show a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond formation.

The first half goes scoreless, and we're darn lucky it's the case. They got many good chances and are outshooting us 9 to 8, 3 to 2 on target, so far.

61st minute: Keigan Parker starts dribbling the ball past one, then two opponents, just outside the box, then just inside. It's one of those time when it clicks in my head "there's no way he won't score, he's mr automatic" And he does, with a savage right footed strike! Up 1-0.

They went to a 4-2-4 formation in the 75th minute. grrr. In the 80th minute, Lee Mansell has to go off after picking up an injury but we've already used our three subs. I pull Jeppe Lund Curth to his innermiddie spot and Parker to the AMC spot, no strikers per se.

The Keigan Parker show comes on in the 87th minute. From almost midfield, he dribbles the ball and when a defender flicks it off his foot, he runs past everybody to get to the ball before their keeper can. He scores his 10th competitive goal of the season!

Final Score: 2-0

We finally outshot them 19 to 12, 5 to 4 on target, and won possession with 53%. Danny Shittu is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8. He won 11 of 13 headers, 6 of 6 tackles, and had 10 interceptions. I find the number of interceptions to be impressive as this is usually the kind of number my full-backs get, but not often seen by a centre-back.

Chris Day, Lee Cook, Nigel Quashie and Keigan Parker all received ratings of 8.

We receive $36k for the win.


FM

[terpkristin]

Jeebus, FM!
Great show so far! I hope that the mid-season and late-season work out as well for you as the early season has!!!

/tk

[mrkilla22]

Your kicking ass FM! I told you Keigan is a scoring machine. I hope he doesn't come down with a case of Terpkristinitis though.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Jeebus, FM!
Great show so far! I hope that the mid-season and late-season work out as well for you as the early season has!!!

/tk

that's my biggest fear, that we'll start deflating soon, in fact anytime I start a game right now I expect to get blown out, as a return to some normality, but when I see us go ahead, I go "oh no, you're not taking us down today" We've kind of slowed down a bit, mostly noticeable during the game as most games ar nailbiters, but hopefully, once the injury rash is over, we'll be able to pick right back where we were before it...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by mrkilla22

Your kicking ass FM! I told you Keigan is a scoring machine. I hope he doesn't come down with a case of Terpkristinitis though.

Thanks for the good words

I think I've asked my physios about him right after he got injured and I think they said they had no worries about his health. Or it may be any one of the other injured players, heh. I'll make sure he's okay and doesn't need physiotherapy but if he does, I'll have him get it, since it's still early in the season and striker is a position where I have a fairly good depth. Funny enough, when I ask for a team report from my assistant, Keigan regularly comes up as the weakest striker in teh 1st/2nd XI (heck, Kavi comes as #5 on this depth chart)...

FM

[FrogMan]

September 17, 2009
Oh no! Not again!!! Keigan Parker twisted his knee in training this morning. He'll miss a week. Hopefully somebody else will step up and put the ball in the nets for him. Seemed like he was the only one able to do that so far this season...

September 18, 2009
The draw for the 2rd round of the League Cup happens. GRRRR, away again, this time against Everton, ouch. The match will be played on October 21, 2009.

September 19, 2009
We get the bad news, Marc Bircham has been banned for two more matches following his recent sending off that has already cost him one match.


FM

[FrogMan]

September 19, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	2	-	7.50
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	100%	9	-	7.56
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	6	-	7.17
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-8-7-8	98%	9	2	7.67
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	8	-	7.25
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	6 (2)	-	7.38
ML		Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	94%	7 (1)	-	7.38
MC	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	99%	6 (2)	1	7.50
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	8-7-7-5-8	94%	8 (1)	-	7.11
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	6 (3)	1	7.22
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	6-7-8-7-6	97%	6 (4)	2	7.00
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-8-9-8-7	100%	8	-	7.75
S2		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	95%	3 (3)	2	7.17
S3		John Oster	AM RL	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S4		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	96%	2	-	7.00
S5		Steve Brooker	S C	Superb	5-7-7-7-5	93%	1 (2)	-	6.33
-	Loa	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	97%	0 (2)	-	7.00
-	Sus	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-9-7-7-6	100%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	78%	7 (3)	10	7.40
-	Inj	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	6-7-7-8-9	35%	2 (1)	-	8.00
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	38%	5	-	7.00
-		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	96%	5	-	7.40

We play Ipswich at Loftus Road. They are currently 23rd and winless in 8 games, with 5 draws and 3 losses to their record.

John Oster is back in the lineup as backup winger.

I like Ricky Hanson as an all around backup, mostly taking the spot of backup defender, but he could be used in so many places.

Ipswich show a 3-5-2 formation with 5 middies on a straight line in the middle. They last played on the 12th, while we played on the 15th.

I reviewed my set piece takers just before the game and realized that for some reason, Ben Watson was my highest skilled free kick taker on the team and he wasn't even in the free kick takers, even less the #1 free kick taker. I put him as the #1 free kick taker and it paid off no later than the 17th minute, as he flights one over their wall, from 25yards out, for the 1-0 goal.

That's the hafltime score and we're manhandling them, outshooting them 7 to 1, but only 2 to none on target.

Craig Crane will launch a superb 25 yards long pass to Jeppe Lund Curth, pass that Curth will convert into the 2-0 goal with a beautiful strike off the post from 25 yards out.

Final Score: 2-0

We completely shut them down in the second half, outshooting them 12 to 2, 4 to none on target, for the game. Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8 and 8 runs past opponent. He has that second speed and a great ball control that make him a beauty to watch go around opponents sometimes... Nigel Quashie also got an 8.

Once the game is over, I realized I had left Chris Day in as the keeper, but he did well, pulling a 7. Darren Evans was horrible on the other hand. I pulled him at the half, when he was rated at 5. Ricky Hanson replaced him and did much better, getting a 7 for his half of work.

Crystal Palace also won, so we're still only 2 points ahead.


FM

[terpkristin]

Darren Evans was horrible on the other hand.

Oh, come on, you were so close, it should have read like this: "Darren Evans, on the other hand, had a terrible day."



/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Oh, come on, you were so close, it should have read like this: "Darren Evans, on the other hand, had a terrible day."



/tk

yeah, I've found I tend to have some HT-ism crawl up in my writing sometimes... I guess two years will do that to you

FM

[mrkilla22]

I played some FM last night and in my career Keigan Parker is valued at 7M. I think I am in 2007 or 2008 though. He plays for a Premiership team and he is still a monster goal scorer.

[FrogMan]

September 20, 2009
Matt Cross resumes full training following physiotherapy. The specialist that treated him is optimistic that he has recovered fully from his injury.

September 21, 2009
It's now Tom Howell's turn to resume full training following physiotherapy. For him too, the specialist that treated him is optimistic that he has recovered fully from his injury.

While the good news are flowing and players are coming back to the team, I learn that Lee Mansell strained his wrist and will miss one week. That's going to put us a bit thin at inner mid, with Marc Bircham still having to serve one match of suspension.

September 23, 2009
Oldham puts in a bid for Ian Howard, a 19yo AM R buried in our winger depth chart. He isn't bad, but at 19, I'm not so sure he has a future with us. He's currently valued at 400k and Oldham offer 90k up front, plus 50% of the next sale. I counter with 90k up front, 110k after 10 league appearances and 50% of the next sale...

September 24, 2009
Iván Kaviedes requests to be transfer listed. He's just coming back from injury and poor Kavi's been somewhat diminished by that latest injury, with is pace and stamina now standing at 2 each . I grant him his request and I transfer list him...

Notts Co puts in a bid for Ian Howard. They are offering $90k up front, plus 25% of the next sale and a clause that reads like this "$0 fee upon promotion"... WTF is that??? I counter with my standard offer, 90k + 50% + 110k...

Meanwhile, Oldham withdraw their bid for Howard.

As we prepare for our match against them, Coventry manager Ray Wilkins gets on a lovey dovey mood and start praising me in the media. I answer with the not so good prais, you know the "although others think you're crap, I think you're nice" one, after seeing his team is in 21st position... He's delighted that I took some time to defend him.

Some of my players have good reactions to what's reported in the media. Danny Shittu and Andrew Johnson are both pleased that I get the praise I deserve while Jeppe Lund Curth believes that the team cannot fail to perform under my guidance. I like that last one a lot

FM

[FrogMan]

September 26, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	6-6-7-8-7	100%	3	-	7.33
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	100%	10	-	7.50
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	99%	7	-	7.14
DC	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-7-8-7	100%	10	2	7.60
DC		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	100%	5	-	7.40
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	99%	7 (2)	-	7.44
ML	Yel	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-7-8-8-7	99%	8 (1)	-	7.33
MC	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	99%	7 (2)	2	7.44
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	7-7-5-8-8	99%	9 (1)	-	7.20
FC	PR	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	7 (3)	2	7.20
FC	PR	Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-8-7-6-7	99%	7 (4)	2	7.00
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-8-9-8-7	100%	8	-	7.75
S2	Loa	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S3		John Oster	AM RL	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S4		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Steve Brooker	S C	Superb	5-7-7-7-5	100%	1 (2)	-	6.33
-		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-5	100%	9	-	7.00
-	Inj	Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	74%	7 (3)	10	7.40
-	Sus	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-9-7-7-6	100%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	78%	3 (4)	2	7.14

We play Coventry at Loftus Road. They're currently in 21st place, with 2 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses.

I don't know what the oddsmakers see in them, but they are 6-4 favorites, in our house...

With Marc Bircham still suspended and Lee Mansell out of commission with a wrist injury, Scott Donnelly is the official inner mid backup on the bench, while John Oster will be used on the wings if we need a backup there.

Our next match after this one is only on October 10, so I won't be as concerned about keeping my guys fresh for the next game.

I send Matt Cross, Steve Brooker and Tom Howell to the reserve squad in order for them to get some playing time. The reserves are scheduled to play on the 30th, the 3rd, and the 7th...

This turns out to be a dang boring game. Scoreless at the half with about 2 highlights to show, scoreless in the end, even though we put more pressure in the second half. We just couldn't score...

Final Score: 0-0

Their keeper is named Man of the Match, and for good cause, he's the only player on either team to have done anything nice. Look at these possession screeens, first half first, then second half. (We're in white and our defensive zone is to the left)...



that's 67% in the second half... We outshot them 11 to none, 7 to none on target. No Ranger has a rating above 7, an off game for evryone. Lee Cook suffered a minor injury in the game.

The good news is that Crystal Palace lost, we tehn gain a point and are back to a 3 points lead atop the league table. Tied in second place are now Crystal Palace, Stoke, and Brighton.

Notts Co withdraw their bid for Howard.


FM

[terpkristin]

Oooh, FM, I like the graphical representation of posession. Quite nice.


/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Oooh, FM, I like the graphical representation of posession. Quite nice.


/tk

thanks. They're screens I like to refer to a lot, especially when I'm saying that we are dominating a team or not. That 37% in their defensive end is a huge number... A shame we could not convert anything though...

FM

[FrogMan]

September 29, 2009
I get the news that Andrew Johnson, who's only 19, has been called up to the England U21 squad to face Sweden on October 2. I find this pretty impressive and when I take a look at his profile page, I see that he just keeps on improving. Look at his player profile now:


He's now valued at $5.8M compared to the $5.2M he was valued at only a couple months ago and he's gain 2 points of dribbling and one point in many other skills, namely finishinh, heading, long shots, passing, off the ball, decisions, agility, and balance... Easily one of my best acquisition in this career...

September 30, 2009
Steve Brooker scores two goals with the reserves. Tom Howell and Matt Cross als played, both getting ratings of 7.

Lincoln offer 90k + 25% of next sale for Ian Howard. I counter with my usual "90k + 110k after 10 app. + 50% of next sale" offer...

October 1st, 2009
The Team Board is still delighted with my managerial performance but we're shut out of the monthly awards. I'm very disappointed about that, you get used to seeing your team be mentionned in these kind of things

October 2, 2009
19yo Andrew Johnson was one of the better performers in the 3-0 England U21 win of Sweden U21, coming off the bench and bagging a late goal. Way to go AJ!

It's now Cambridge's turn to put in a bid for Ian Howard. They too are offering 90k + 25%. I counter with my usual offer.

Meanwhile, Lincoln withdraw their bid for Howard.

October 3, 2009
Matt Cross and Nathan Jameson both scored two goals for the reserves. Cross received a rating of 9, while Jameson received a rating of 10 and was named Man of the Match.

Jeppe Lund Curth scored a goal in Denmark's 3-0 win of Lithuania.

October 4, 2009
AAAARRRGGGG!!! Andrew Johnson fractures some ribs and will miss a month. That's very frustrating for him, as he was getting ready to possibly play his second U21 match on the 10th...

Cambridge withdraw their offer for Howard...

FM

[mrkilla22]

Andrew Johnson is developing nicely and has some sweet skills for being only 19 years old. Nice pickup FM!

[FrogMan]

thanks mrkilla, yeah he's a nice young striker. Hopefully he won't turn into an injury prone kid and he'll be able to gain experience from being in the England U21 squad for at least 3 years, being already a part of it at 19...

FM

[FrogMan]

October 7, 2009
It's now Marc Bircham's turn to be nicked in training. He suffered a damaged necka dn will miss 2 weeks. Fortunately, Lee Mansell has played well coming off the bench and he's back from his injury.

October 10, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-8-9-8-7	100%	8	-	7.75
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Very Good	8-8-7-7-7	100%	11	-	7.45
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	100%	8	-	7.13
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-5	100%	9	-	7.00
DC		Matthew Bates	D LC	Very Good	7-8-8-7-7	100%	6	-	7.33
MR		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	99%	5	-	7.00
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	8 (2)	-	7.40
MC	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	8 (2)	2	7.40
MC	Yel	Nigel Quashie	M C	Very Good	7-5-8-8-7	100%	10 (1)	-	7.18
FC	PR	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	8 (3)	2	7.18
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	7 (3)	10	7.40
S1	PR	Chris Day	GK	Good	6-7-8-7-7	100%	4	-	7.25
S2		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	3 (4)	2	7.14
S3	Yel	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	100%	9 (1)	-	7.30
S4		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	5-7-8-7-7	90%	1 (3)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	41%	8 (4)	2	7.00
-	Inj	Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	9-7-7-6-7	73%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-9-7-7-6	93%	2 (1)	-	8.00
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	8-7-8-7-7	100%	11	2	7.55

We go play Hull on their pitch. They are currently 13th with 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses in 10 games.

Paul Davies in back in at keeper, as is Matt Cross at right winger. It's good to see him out there.

Marcus Kelly is switched from right wing to left wing and Lee Cook is relegated to the bench.

I see that Jim Paterson is still with Hull, but he's now on their bench. In fact, he's got only 3 appearances so far this season, all coming off the bench. That's sad for him... For us, former Hull player Tom Howell doesn't even dress for this match as he just played three days ago with the Reserves. I called him back to the senior squad, but I've got a whole crew of players at 100% while he's only at 93%. He'll have his chance eventually...

Hull show a 4-3-3 formation.

The first half is a bit crazy, with tons of highlights. We scored two fairly early goals, first one by Nigel Quashie (5') after passes from Jeppe Lund Curth and Matt Cross, then Cross' vision created Keigan Parker's first goal of the game (17'). Hull hit right back, not even one minute later, and they scored again in the 31st minute to bring both teams back to square one at halftime. They were outshooting us at that point, 10 to 7, 5 to 4 on target.

We get a break in the 51st minute when Lee Cook is pushed in the box while trying to head a corner kick from Ben Watson. Keigan Parker takes the penalty and buries it for his second of the game. They will lead us to our insurance goal on the ensuing kickoff as they backtrack and pass it to the keeper who bobbles it to Jeppe Lund Curth's feet. Alone, he won't miss his chance.

Final Score: 4-2

Both teams tied in shots at 15 each, although we outshot them on target, 9 to 7. We took control in the second half, where I, incidentally, put Chris Day in for Paul Davies after seeing that Davies was the only player rated at 6.

Keigan Parker is named Man of the Match with a perfect rating of 10. He scored 2 goals in the win, but he also put 5 of his 7 shots on target. When you have 5 shots on target in a game, some of them are bound to go in

I forgot to save the league table, but what I remember seeing is that we're now three points clear of second place, who is now held by Brighton.

FM

[FrogMan]

October 11, 2009
Neil Murray's three month loan with Gravesend ends and boy is he glad to be back with us. He indicated that he found his loan to Gravesend a complete waste of time. He believes that playing with a team of that level taught him very little and believes he would have learnt much more during the time if he had remained at Q.P.R. during the period. Got some news for you kid. You're a 20yo goalkeeper, and while your skills are not bad, they're not world class either. You went to Gravesend, and with a team of "that level", you averaged a form rating of 6.78, woah, I'm not impressed...

He is currently valued at 190k and would become keeper #5 on our roster, maybe the closest to play on the senior squad if anything really bad happened to BOTH Paul Davies and Chris Day, but he's not one of the kids I feel needs to play the most to develop, as we got Craig Birch and Jim Marshall as possible future keeper... I decide to offer him around, asking for 100k for him.

October 12, 2009
Chris Day and Keigan Parker are named on the English Championship Team of the Week. Very fitting. They both had a great game last Saturday.

October 13, 2009
Swansea offer 90k + 20% of the next sale for Neil Murray. I accept this offer.

Colchester also put in a bid for Murray. They are offering what I'm asking, 100k straight up. I accept this offer also.

October 17, 2009
Neil Murray agrees to a deal with Swansea. I approve the move of Murray to Swansea for 80k and a future fee of 20% of the next sale of Murray.

Upon his arrival at Swansea, Murray kept on being the big head he was when he got back to Q.P.R. after his loan at Gravesend. He now demands to be the centre of attention, saying he expects manager John Cornforth to rebuild the team around him. Even more so, the 20-year-old signing from Q.P.R. stated that now the manager possessed a player of his quality, it would make sense to make him the focal point of the team.

Say that again?!? After readin that statement, I felt like I had missed something and I went to check his player profile again. Look at this. Nothing earth shattering in there. Yeah a bunch of 11's but stilll... oh well...


I get the bad news that Lee Cook strained a wrist in training and will miss a week. I had already put in Tom Howell as my starting left winger for our upcoming match against Leicester later in the day, and Marcus Kelly was set to be the sub on the bench. Cook was already sitting this one out anyway...


FM

[FrogMan]

October 17, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-8-7-7-9	100%	4 (1)	-	7.60
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	99%	12	-	7.50
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	9	-	7.22
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	11	2	7.55
DC		Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	100%	7	-	7.43
MR		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-9-8	99%	6	-	7.17
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-9-7-7-6	100%	2 (1)	-	8.00
MC	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	99%	9 (2)	2	7.45
MC	Yel	Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	5-8-8-7-8	99%	11 (1)	1	7.25
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	9 (3)	3	7.25
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	8-7-7-8-10	98%	8 (3)	12	7.64
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	8-9-8-7-6	100%	9	-	7.56
S2		Lee Mansell	AM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	97%	3 (5)	2	7.13
S3		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-7-5	100%	9 (2)	-	7.18
S4		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-5	93%	1 (3)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	9-7-7-6-7	65%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	85%	9 (2)	-	7.36
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	32%	8 (4)	2	7.00
-		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-5-8	99%	10	-	7.10

We play Leicester at Loftus Road. They are currently 15th and were even 20th before they won their last league game. Thing is, they've not finished out of the playoffs (positions 3 to 6 make the playoffs) for the last 6 seasons, so they will play tough... The oddsmakers represent that, picking them as 6-4 favorites.

Chris Day is back in as the starting keeper. Their starting left full back, Paul Konchesky, is suspended for this game.

Matt Cross collides with their backup left full back and injures him in the 7th minute, oops.

The half, and subsequently the game, ends scoreless. I hate 0-0 draws.

Final Score: 0-0

We never got it going and the game was a bore. We outshot them 8 to 4, 2 to 1 on target. Every player on our squad had a rating of 7

Brighton won and they are now only 1 point behind us. It was their 5th straight win.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q.P.R.	12	7	5	0	21	7	+14	26
2nd	Brighton	12	8	1	3	22	15	+7	25
3rd	Nottm Forest	12	6	4	2	24	16	+8	22
4th	Crystal Palace	12	7	1	4	13	10	+3	22
5th	Sheff Utd	12	5	6	1	17	9	+8	21
6th	Stoke	12	5	5	2	16	12	+4	20
7th	Crewe	12	4	6	2	17	12	+5	18
8th	Gillingham	12	4	6	2	18	17	+1	18
9th	Leeds	12	5	3	4	17	16	+1	18
10th	Burnley	12	5	2	5	17	13	+4	17
11th	Charlton	12	4	5	3	14	13	+1	17
12th	West Ham	12	3	7	2	8	5	+3	16
13th	Walsall	12	4	4	4	17	15	+2	16
14th	Southampton	12	4	4	4	16	16	0	16
15th	Hull	12	4	4	4	15	16	-1	16
16th	Leicester	12	4	3	5	11	13	-2	15
17th	Derby	12	4	3	5	16	19	-3	15
18th	Millwall	12	4	1	7	14	19	-5	13
19th	Cardiff	12	2	6	4	17	21	-4	12
20th	Bristol C	11	3	2	6	12	17	-5	11
21st	Coventry	12	3	2	7	11	16	-5	11
22nd	Ipswich	12	1	5	6	11	18	-7	8
23rd	Plymouth	12	0	7	5	15	25	-10	7
24th	Reading	11	0	2	9	6	25	-19	2

Nigel Quashie has picked up an automatic one match ban after receiving his 5th yellow card of the season.

While the senior squad was playing, the U18 squad had a match of their own and Chris Chapman was named Man of the Match for the third time already this season. Chapman is that kid we bought from Luton for a mere $12,000. He as injured when he got to the team, then needed surgery to get rid of that first injury, only to get injured again later on. Basically, he didn't play at all for us last season. However, this season is a whole new thing. He's been ripping it up and is getting closer to the senior squad thn I would have tought possible last season. While he's a M LC, he's decribed as a promising midfielder, not necessarily winger. You can see his player profile by clicking the thumbnail below.


FM

[FrogMan]

October 18, 2009
The Neil Murray soap opera continues, as it's now the turn of Swansea fans to have their say. They are reportedly worried that the new could have an adverse effects on the club. hehe... Several fans has said that manager John Cornforth must ensure Murray's arrival does not upset other players or disrupt the harmony of the Swansea dressing room... That's funny

October 21, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Superb	8-9-8-7-6	100%	9	-	7.56
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	95%	13	-	7.46
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Very Good	8-7-7-8-7	97%	8	-	7.38
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	99%	12	2	7.50
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-7-7-5-8	100%	10	-	7.10
MR		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Good	7-7-9-8-7	95%	7	-	7.14
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	9-7-7-6-7	95%	3 (1)	-	7.75
MC	Yel	Ben Watson	M C	Very Good	8-7-7-8-7	96%	10 (2)	2	7.42
MC		Nathan Jameson	M RLC	Superb	7-9-10-8-8	99%	-	-	-
FC		Steve Brooker	S C	Good	8-7-7-5-7	97%	1 (4)	-	6.60
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Very Good	7-7-8-10-7	96%	9 (3)	12	7.58
S1		Chris Day	GK	Very Good	8-7-7-9-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.50
S2		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	92%	-	-	-
S3		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-7-5	100%	9 (2)	-	7.18
S4		Ricky Hanson	D/DM/F RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	94%	10 (3)	3	7.23
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Good	8-7-7-8-7	95%	10	-	7.20
-	Inj	Lee Mansell	AM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	85%	3 (6)	2	7.11
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	28%	8 (4)	2	7.00
-	Inj	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	79%	9 (2)	-	7.36
-		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	9-7-7-6-7	77%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-	Sus	Nigel Quashie	M C	Very Good	8-8-7-8-7	95%	12 (1)	1	7.23

This is the 3rd round of the League Cup and we play Everton on their pitch. They are currently 9th in the Premiership, with 4 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses over 10 games.

Just before going to set my lineup, I get the news that Lee Mansell twisted his knee in the morning training session. Dang, that's a curveball. I had Chris Chapman set to be my backup inner mid, and I'm not sure I wanna throw the kid to the lions as a starter. This is one of those times when I like having some depth, seeing Nathan Jameson on my reserves squad, at 99% condition. He gets the start next to Ben Watson. Remember that Nigel Quashie is suspended from this one after collecting 5 yellow cards.

Everton show a 4-1-3-2 formation, with a DMC and 3 MC.

Both teams played only 4 days ago...

The first half ends scoreless and it is quite a fight. They are outshooting us 6 to 4, 3 to none on target. We did control the ball at times, putting some pressure, but they are denying any attempt at getting anywhere close to their goal...

Jeppe Lund Curth, coming in for Steve Brooker, is the source of our go ahead goal in the 84th minute. He passed the ball to Keigan Parker who quickly passed it to Tom Howell who gave it back, finding Parker alone with the keeper. It's one of those moment, he just can't miss, and he doesn't... Up 1-0 with 6 minutes to go...

A fluke play will lead to their equalizer after 2:27 of injury time. Craig Crane's free kick, just inward of the center line, is blocked in air by one of their strikers. The ball bounces all the way to the middle of our defensive zone, to their other striker, all alone with Paul Davies. The ball gets lofted over Davies' head for the 1-1 goal and here comes the extra time... After regulation, they are outshooting us 16 to 12, 8 to 4 on target. We played a better second half than the first.

Everton went to the dreaded 4-2-4 formation in the 106th minute and 2 minutes later, as my defenders looked burned down, they get a striker open in the middle. With a precise strike he makes it 1-2. My spirits sink, until I see my guys kick it off, IT'S NOT SUDDEN DEATH!!!

We're not making it easy on ourselves. In the 118th minute, Tom Howell gets a second yellow after bitching to the ref. I'll have to work hard to refrain myself from disciplining him. I hate players getting sent off because they bitched about a ref's decision, but that Rob Styles his indeed a tool and he's sprayed half a ton of yellows on both teams today...

In the 121st minute, i.e. one minute into injury time, Keigan Parker misses the kind of kick that he never misses. Alone with the keeper, on the penalty spot, he puts it wide. One has to believe that his condition at 55% may have something to do with that...

Final Score: 1-2

We gave 'em a heck of a hard time. On the game, they outshot us 20 to 18, 10 to 5 on target. Broken down by half and extra time, here are how the shots split out:
1st, us 4(0), them 6(3)
2nd, us 8(4), them 10(5)
e/t, us 6(1), them 4(2)

Our back four kept us in the game, as they all got ratings of 8, frequently clearing balls from in front of the net, after a first save from Davies. Matt Cross also got rated at 8.
Despite the loss, it was an amazing game. For one small moment, thinking about how the team is sitting in first place after 12 games, I caught myself dreaming that we could promote to that luscious Premiership, and not only promote, but even survive in it! We'll see, but this game, a competitive one as opposed to a friendly, gave me a lot to look for in the rest of the season...

Tom Howell is banned for one match following his sending off. I don't discipline him, as he played the whole game and played pretty well.

Ben Watson will also miss the next match since he picked up a 5th yellow card today. Hopefully, Marc Bircham will be back in shape for that game, since the 120 minutes of play has taken a toll on Nathan Jameson and I'm not sure he'll be in very good shape in 3 days...

FM

[FrogMan]

Some miscellaneous ramblings...
I don't have anything new related to my career to post, but I've been playing with this excel spreadsheet to compare the evolution of players, and woah, I'm beginning to like what it can do...

What I did is use FM Scout and pull an export of my players' skills about once a month (gametime) and saving it as both a CSV file and an HTML file. I found that importing the HTML file into excel is extremely easy, you simply have to slide the file from windows explorer and drop it on excel (which you had previously started) and voilà! I'm now trying to find an easy to store the data, so it could be compared from date to date.

Right now, I'm comparing my players from July 12, 2009, to October 4, but it wouldn't be too easy for everybody to use, so I won't release it for general use, but I may do that at some point.

Anyway, I'm impressed at how some players have improved.... Remember that kid, Scott Blake, one of the two promotee from my youth program... look at this:

Player name
Blake, Scott
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	2	3	1	Aggression	10	10		Acceleration	12	12
Crossing	5	8	3	Anticipation	9	10	1	Agility	10	11	1
Dribbling	7	9	2	Bravery	7	7		Balance	12	13	1
Finishing	7	9	2	Composure	8	9	1	Jumping	11	11
First Touch	7	8	1	Concentration	7	8	1	Natural Fitness	14	14
Free Kicks	8	9	1	Creativity	7	8	1	Pace	12	12
Heading	7	9	2	Decisions	10	11	1	Stamina	14	14
Long Shots	7	9	2	Determination	7	7		Strength	9	10	1
Long Throws	8	8		Flair	3	3
Marking	8	10	2	Influence	9	9
Passing	9	11	2	Off The Ball	5	7	2
Penalties	2	3	1	Positioning	6	8	2
Tackling	8	11	3	Teamwork	9	9
Technique	5	7	2	Work Rate	10	10
total change	x	x	24	total change	x	x	9	total change	x	x	3

d1 is skills on date1 = July 12, 2009
d2 is skills on date2 = October 4, 2009
dif is the difference between the two dates

While none of these improvements makes him a world class middie, it's still very nice to see him crack the 10 at some points, gaining 3 skill levels in some places...

Same with John Davies, look at him...

Player name
Davies, John
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	4	4		Aggression	5	5		Acceleration	10	10
Crossing	10	12	2	Anticipation	9	11	2	Agility	10	10
Dribbling	7	9	2	Bravery	12	12		Balance	9	9
Finishing	5	6	1	Composure	11	13	2	Jumping	5	5
First Touch	9	11	2	Concentration	10	12	2	Natural Fitness	10	10
Free Kicks	3	3		Creativity	9	10	1	Pace	11	11
Heading	16	18	2	Decisions	10	13	3	Stamina	17	17
Long Shots	3	4	1	Determination	15	15		Strength	6	6
Long Throws	11	11		Flair	6	6
Marking	10	12	2	Influence	8	9	1
Passing	11	13	2	Off The Ball	9	11	2
Penalties	5	5		Positioning	9	12	3
Tackling	12	14	2	Teamwork	10	10
Technique	9	11	2	Work Rate	11	11
total change	x	x	18	total change	x	x	16	total change	x	x

He's getting to look like a very nice right full back prospect, almost comparable to my current starter Craig Crane who stagnated a bit in the same period of time...

Player name
Crane, Craig
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	2	2		Aggression	16	16		Acceleration	15	15
Crossing	10	10		Anticipation	17	17		Agility	16	16
Dribbling	7	7		Bravery	4	4		Balance	16	16
Finishing	9	9		Composure	10	10		Jumping	1	1
First Touch	10	10		Concentration	11	11		Natural Fitness	18	18
Free Kicks	2	2		Creativity	8	8		Pace	17	17
Heading	10	10		Decisions	7	7		Stamina	12	12
Long Shots	10	10		Determination	10	10		Strength	12	12
Long Throws	5	5		Flair	1	1
Marking	13	13		Influence	4	4
Passing	10	10		Off The Ball	9	9
Penalties	5	5		Positioning	14	14
Tackling	12	12		Teamwork	4	4
Technique	7	6	-1	Work Rate	15	15
total change	x	x	-1	total change	x	x		total change	x	x

While these two are youngsters, other youngsters also improved a lot. I'm also interested in who among the regulars improved the most. I'd say that Tom Howell, Andrew Johnson (as would be expected), and Marcus Kelly are the three that improved the most... Look at their sheet:

Player name
Howell, Tom
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	10	11	1	Aggression	14	14		Acceleration	12	12
Crossing	20	20		Anticipation	10	10		Agility	19	20	1
Dribbling	10	11	1	Bravery	14	14		Balance	19	20	1
Finishing	12	13	1	Composure	12	12		Jumping	9	9
First Touch	7	7		Concentration	18	18		Natural Fitness	15	15
Free Kicks	10	11	1	Creativity	15	15		Pace	8	8
Heading	14	15	1	Decisions	7	8	1	Stamina	18	18
Long Shots	7	8	1	Determination	13	13		Strength	16	16
Long Throws	4	4		Flair	8	8
Marking	18	18		Influence	10	11	1
Passing	14	15	1	Off The Ball	13	14	1
Penalties	1	2	1	Positioning	9	10	1
Tackling	16	16		Teamwork	12	12
Technique	11	12	1	Work Rate	6	6
total change	x	x	9	total change	x	x	4	total change	x	x	2

Player name
Johnson, Andrew
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	3	4	1	Aggression	11	11		Acceleration	16	15	-1
Crossing	11	12	1	Anticipation	13	13		Agility	18	19	1
Dribbling	13	15	2	Bravery	3	3		Balance	18	19	1
Finishing	13	13		Composure	13	13		Jumping	20	19	-1
First Touch	13	13		Concentration	13	13		Natural Fitness	11	11
Free Kicks	3	4	1	Creativity	9	10	1	Pace	11	11
Heading	13	14	1	Decisions	11	12	1	Stamina	17	16	-1
Long Shots	13	13		Determination	10	10		Strength	9	8	-1
Long Throws	2	2		Flair	3	3
Marking	10	11	1	Influence	3	4	1
Passing	13	14	1	Off The Ball	13	14	1
Penalties	2	3	1	Positioning	17	18	1
Tackling	11	11		Teamwork	3	3
Technique	10	11	1	Work Rate	16	16
total change	x	x	10	total change	x	x	5	total change	x	x	-2

Player name
Kelly, Marcus
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	7	8	1	Aggression	4	4		Acceleration	14	14
Crossing	11	12	1	Anticipation	11	11		Agility	17	18	1
Dribbling	19	20	1	Bravery	11	11		Balance	18	19	1
Finishing	12	13	1	Composure	17	17		Jumping	5	5
First Touch	13	14	1	Concentration	15	15		Natural Fitness	14	14
Free Kicks	7	8	1	Creativity	13	13		Pace	12	12
Heading	8	9	1	Decisions	13	14	1	Stamina	16	16
Long Shots	13	14	1	Determination	15	15		Strength	4	4
Long Throws	5	5		Flair	16	16
Marking	6	6		Influence	3	4	1
Passing	13	14	1	Off The Ball	12	13	1
Penalties	7	8	1	Positioning	6	7	1
Tackling	6	6		Teamwork	14	14
Technique	15	16	1	Work Rate	14	14
total change	x	x	11	total change	x	x	4	total change	x	x	2

That's about it for now, I'll try to work something to make a file available over the weekend, but I can't promise anything, as I'll also try to log some playing time over the long weekend

Let me know what you think of the tables, the results, or if you'd be interested in such a beast of a spreadsheet (well not so much a beast in size or complexity of use, but in wealth of information )

FM

[FrogMan]

forgot to mention that I'Ve done the same thing with a keeper page, but only Paul Davies as improved in anything among my keeper...

Player name
Davies, Paul
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Aerial Ability	12	12		Aggression	9	9		Acceleration	13	13
Command Of Area	12	13	1	Anticipation	11	11		Agility	15	16	1
Communication	12	12		Bravery	3	3		Balance	17	17
Eccentricity	2	2		Composure	20	20		Jumping	19	19
Handling	11	11		Concentration	12	13	1	Natural Fitness	12	12
Kicking	17	18	1	Creativity	1	1		Pace	10	10
One On Ones	12	13	1	Decisions	12	12		Stamina	16	16
Reflexes	12	12		Determination	8	8		Strength	18	18
Rushing Out	3	3		Flair	3	3
Tendency To Punch	3	3		Influence	3	3
Throwing	12	12		Off The Ball	1	1
				Positioning	12	12
				Teamwork	3	3
				Work Rate	12	12
total change	x	x	3	total change	x	x	1	total change	x	x	1

FM

[FrogMan]

oh, and supporting my decision of relegating him to the reserves, or maybe caused by my decision to relegate him to the reserves, here's Iván Kaviedes' sheet...

Player name
Kaviedes, Iván
Technical	d1	d2	dif	Mental	d1	d2	dif	Physical	d1	d2	dif
Corners	9	10	1	Aggression	9	9		Acceleration	5	2	-3
Crossing	13	13		Anticipation	11	11		Agility	6	6
Dribbling	16	15	-1	Bravery	17	17		Balance	13	13
Finishing	16	15	-1	Composure	14	14		Jumping	11	11
First Touch	14	13	-1	Concentration	10	10		Natural Fitness	9	9
Free Kicks	13	14	1	Creativity	17	16	-1	Pace	4	2	-2
Heading	16	16		Decisions	15	15		Stamina	4	2	-2
Long Shots	13	11	-2	Determination	15	15		Strength	15	15
Long Throws	9	9		Flair	16	16
Marking	7	6	-1	Influence	5	5
Passing	14	13	-1	Off The Ball	17	17
Penalties	16	17	1	Positioning	9	8	-1
Tackling	8	8		Teamwork	8	8
Technique	16	15	-1	Work Rate	6	6
total change	x	x	-5	total change	x	x	-2	total change	x	x	-7

poor Kavi...

FM

[terpkristin]

Interesting numbers there FM.

Poor Kavi indeed though..

/tk

[FrogMan]

thanks tk, I knew you'd appreciate my geekness

Kavi, I'm left wondering how much of his skill decay is due to his age, how much to his recent injury, or to the fact that I had him playing with the reserves. I'm also wondering if he could regain some of it... It's pretty much like real life, keeps you guessing

FM

[mrkilla22]

Those tables are pretty neat. I would be interested in seeing those spreadsheets.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

[b][size=4]Upon his arrival at Swansea, Murray kept on being the big head he was when he got back to Q.P.R. after his loan at Gravesend. He now demands to be the centre of attention, saying he expects manager John Cornforth to rebuild the team around him. Even more so, the 20-year-old signing from Q.P.R. stated that now the manager possessed a player of his quality, it would make sense to make him the focal point of the team.

Say that again?!? After readin that statement, I felt like I had missed something and I went to check his player profile again. Look at this. Nothing earth shattering in there. Yeah a bunch of 11's but stilll... oh well...


FM

Looks like he can bench a lot at least.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Looks like he can bench a lot at least.

indeed, he can bench a lot, or run for a long time before getting tired, albeit not at a very high speed, and all of that, while staying very concentrated with the task at hand

FM

[thetrain]

with this pace you'll be winning Premier League in no time! impressing...

[robbgmaier]

ok, I'm caught up.......what a day

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by thetrain

with this pace you'll be winning Premier League in no time! impressing...

Thanks. Winning the Premiership would be simply impossible, but I see what you mean Sometimes, I catch myself thinking about simply promoting to the Premiership and it's just surreal... Hopefully we'll keep playing as well for ther est of the season...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by robbgmaier

ok, I'm caught up.......what a day

You read the whole 6 pages today? Talk about sitting down with a good novel

Welcome aboard!

FM

[FrogMan]

October 24, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Paul Davies	GK	Good	9-8-7-6-7	100%	10	-	7.50
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Very Good	7-7-8-7-8	91%	14	-	7.50
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Good	7-7-8-7-8	92%	9	-	7.44
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Good	7-7-7-7-8	94%	13	2	7.54
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Very Good	7-7-5-8-8	94%	11	-	7.18
MR		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Good	7-9-8-7-8	92%	8	-	7.25
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	7-8-7-5-7	94%	9 (3)	-	7.17
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Very Good	8-8-7-8-7	99%	12 (1)	1	7.23
MC		Chris Chapman	M LC	Good	7-7-7-8-7	91%	0 (1)	-	7.00
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Okay	7-7-8-7-7	94%	10 (4)	3	7.21
FC		Steve Brooker	S C	Okay	7-7-5-7-7	93%	2 (4)	-	6.67
S1		Chris Day	GK	Very Good	8-7-7-9-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.50
S2		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	9-7-7-6-7	90%	3 (3)	-	7.00
S3		Nathan Jameson	M RLC	Good	9-10-8-8-7	82%	1	-	7.00
S4		Mathew Sadler	D L	Good	8-7-7-8-7	99%	10	-	7.20
S5		Keigan Parker	S C	Very Good	7-8-10-7-7	89%	10 (3)	13	7.54
-	Inj	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	75%	9 (2)	-	7.36
-	Inj	Lee Mansell	AM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	81%	3 (6)	2	7.11
-	Sus	Ben Watson	M C	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	92%	11 (2)	2	7.38
-		James McDermott	GK	Okay	-	100%	-	-	-
-	Sus	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	92%	4 (1)	-	7.60
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	28%	8 (4)	2	7.00

We go play Gillingham on their pitch. They are currently in 8th place

We are missing a few players for that one. Ben Watson and Tom Howell are both suspended while Andrew Johnson, Lee Cook, and Lee Mansell are injured. On top of that, the recent Cup match has really taken a toll on some players. Nathan Jameson is only at 82% and Keigan Parker is at 89%. These figures are really low, even after only a three day rest...

The first half ends scoreless and we're not doing much good, being outshot 4 to 2, 1 to none on target.

We turned it up a notch and after 60 minutes, our shot count is up to 8, 3 on target, while they've not approached our net. This one ends scoreless.

Final Score: 0-0

Their keeper started stopping everything the minute we started putting the ball on the net. On the game, we outshot them 10 to 6, 4 to 1 on target. We received 5 yellow cards in that game...

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9 and 12 runs past opponents.

Brighton lost, we gain 1 point and we're now 2 points clear.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q.P.R.	13	7	6	0	21	7	+14	27
2nd	Nottm Forest	13	7	4	2	27	16	+11	25
3rd	Brighton	13	8	1	4	22	17	+5	25
4th	Sheff Utd	13	5	7	1	18	10	+8	22
5th	Crystal Palace	12	7	1	4	13	10	+3	22
6th	Crewe	13	5	6	2	20	14	+6	21
7th	Stoke	13	5	6	2	18	14	+4	21
8th	Leeds	13	6	3	4	19	16	+3	21

Matt Cross picked up a minor injury in this game and back at the club, the physio reveals it's a thigh strain and he'll miss 5 days. Our next match is in 3 days, dang it!

October 25, 2009
Ricky Hanson's loan period ends in 5 days. I decide to offer 150k to Nottingham Forest for him. He's valued at 220k right now.

October 27, 2009
Marcus Kelly is named on the English Championship Team of the Week. He's turned out to be a pretty solid left winger for us. Looking at his past statistics, I can see why he caught my eye when I put in that bid for him...

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2009-10	Q.P.R.	Championship	$260K	10 (3)	0	0	3	7.31
2008-09	Rushden	League One		45	5	6	4	7.36
2007-08	Rushden	League One		36 (3)	0	2	3	7.18
2006-07	Rushden	League One		45 (1)	0	5	5	7.26
2005-06	Rushden	League One		20 (3)	2	3	1	7.26

and here are his stats for the current season...

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	3 (3)	0	0	0	0	0	2.37	70 %	-	3	4	6.83
League	8 (2)	0	0	3	1	0	3.25	78 %	37 %	6	17	7.30
Cup	2 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	4.95	75 %	-	1	2	7.33
Continental	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
International	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
Overall	10 (3)	0	0	3	1	0	3.66	77 %	30 %	7	19	7.31

FM

PS: I hope you're ready for some reading, as this is about 2 and a half of the 64 (!) pages of note (5"x8" kind of notepad) I have written down over my Easter weekend. Once I'm done reporting, I don't know when that'll be, we'll be up to mid-January 2010

[FrogMan]

October 27, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Very Good	8-7-7-9-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.50
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	8-6-7-6-8	92%	12 (9)	-	7.05
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Good	8-7-7-8-7	100%	10	-	7.20
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	94%	14	2	7.57
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Superb	7-5-8-8-7	92%	12	-	7.17
MR		Nathan Jameson	M RLC	Very Good	10-8-8-7-7	95%	1 (1)	-	7.00
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	98%	4 (1)	-	7.60
MC		Ben Watson	M C	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	98%	11 (2)	2	7.38
MC		Nigel Quashie	M C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	91%	13 (1)	1	7.21
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	92%	11 (4)	3	7.20
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Very Good	8-10-7-7-7	94%	10 (4)	13	7.50
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Very Good	8-7-6-7-7	100%	11	-	7.45
S2		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	91%	3 (4)	-	7.00
S3		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-7-5-7-9	90%	10 (3)	-	7.31
S4		Matthew Bates	D LC	Good	7-8-7-8-7	92%	10	-	7.40
S5		Steve Brooker	S C	Good	7-5-7-7-7	91%	3 (4)	-	6.71
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Good	9-8-7-8-7	64%	9	-	7.22
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	90%	15	-	7.53
-	Yel	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	91%	9 (2)	-	7.36
-		Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	92%	1 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	28%	8 (4)	2	7.00
-	Inj	Lee Mansell	AM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	77%	3 (6)	2	7.11

We play Crewe at Loftus Road. They're currently in 6th place and should present a good challenge.

Chris Day is in at keeper. Nathan Jameson and Tom Howell are the two wingers. Marcus Kelly is a bit low on condition, especially for a winger, so he'll be backing them up.

John Davies starts in place of Craig Crane. John has been a bit worried about his future at the club lately. One of his major concerns is that he'd like reassurance regarding his role at the club. I can't do much more than give him playing time here or there, but the 17yo still has a bit to learn before becoming a regular for the first squad. I do have him rated as a "hot prospect" though.

This game is much of the same (see previous match) and we can't convert despite dominating in shots throughout the game. We outshot them 9(3) to 4(2), but the game ends scoreless...

Final Score: 0-0

Jeppe Lund Curth is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8. He completed 25 of his 31 passes, 7 of them key passes.

Keigan Parker had a very average game, rated 6, while Chris Day had an 8.

Nottingham Forest also drew 0-0, so nothing changes in the league table as far as we're concerned.

Speaking of Nottm Forest, they reject our first offer for Ricky Hanson, but are willing to negotiate. They was 100k now plus 90k over 6 months. I offer 100k now plus 60 over 6 months.

Looking at our fixtures list, I see that we'Ve have three consecutive 0-0 draws in league games...

October 30, 2009
Ricky Hanson's loan finishes and he returns to Nottingham Forest, who rejected our counteroffer. They now want 180k + 70k over 6 months and 45% of the next sale. Woah, that's a steep increase... I offer 120k + 60k over 6 months + 10% of the next sale.


FM

[FrogMan]

October 31, 2009

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Very Good	7-7-9-7-8	100%	6 (1)	-	7.57
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	98%	15	-	7.53
DL		Matthew Bates	D LC	Good	7-8-7-8-7	99%	10	-	7.40
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	97%	15	2	7.53
DC		Darren Evans	D C	Very Good	5-8-8-7-7	95%	13	-	7.15
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	7-5-7-9-7	97%	10 (4)	-	7.29
ML	Yel	Lee Cook	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	96%	9 (2)	-	7.36
MC		Ben Watson	M C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	94%	12 (2)	2	7.36
MC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	96%	3 (4)	-	7.00
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Okay	10-7-7-7-6	96%	11 (4)	13	7.40
FC		Steve Brooker	S C	Good	5-7-7-7-7	97%	3 (5)	-	6.75
S1		Paul Davies	GK	Very Good	8-7-6-7-7	100%	11	-	7.45
S2		Nigel Quashie	M C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	94%	14 (1)	1	7.20
S3		Nathan Jameson	M RLC	Okay	8-8-7-7-7	95%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Good	9-8-7-8-7	86%	9	-	7.22
S5		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Okay	8-7-7-7-8	93%	12 (4)	3	7.25
-		Lee Mansell	AM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	82%	3 (6)	2	7.11
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Good	7-7-8-7-7	95%	11	-	7.18
-		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Good	7-6-7-7-7	95%	5 (1)	-	7.50
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	28%	8 (4)	2	7.00
-	Unh	John Davies	D R	Good	6-7-6-8-7	93%	2	-	7.00

We go play Millwall on their pitch. They're currently 20th, but that darn 4-2-4 formation they play will most certainly give us fits...

Lee Cook and Marcus Kelly are the wingers for this one.

Steve Brooker scored his first goal of the season after only 26 seconds in the game. We had hit the crossbar seconds earlier, a flying start!

A flying start that fizzles quickly as Darren Evans does what he's been doing more and more, and that's letting an opponent go by him without even flinching. They score and the half ends 1-1. We're outshooting them 10 to 7, but they're beating us on target 5 to 4. A very offensive match so far.

GRRR, damn I hate that 4 strikers formation. They are overcrowding our penalty box early on in the second half and score to make 1-2 in the 48th minute. 20 minutes later, Jeppe Lund Curth evens the score as he he left alone with the keeper following a nice combination from Marcus Kelly to Nathan Jameson.

Lee Cook has to leave the pitch, injured in the 90th minute. We'll have to finish this one a man short as we don't have any subs left. And 10 men is plenty when everything goes your way. A lovely Brooker pass to Jeppe Lund Curth, who beats a defender to find himself alone with the keeper. The keeper got to him and for a moment looked like he has gained possession of the ball, but Jeppe fought from him to score his 2nd of the game, 5th of the season.

Final Score: 3-2

This was some very inspired football to finish that game. We outshot them 21 to 11, 13 to 6 on target. Jeppe Lund Curth is named Man of the Match with a perfect 10. He put 5 of his 6 shots on target, scoring two goals. 6 other players had ratings of 8, while both keepers had ratings of 6. Paul Davies came in at the half for Chris Day, but didn't do much better.

Teams below us won too, so nothing changes in the league table.

Marcus Kelly suffered a minor injury in the game but he's cleared by our physios. Lee Cook isn't as lucky, as he suffered a strained knee ligament and is first diagnosed as missing one month of action. My physios recommend to let him be examined by a specialist, which I do. Going to physiotherapy will do him some good and he should now be back in three weeks.

The team board is delighted over the win. Our next match is only in two weeks, on November 14.


FM