August was a month where I found myself not expecting much from the side, yet I was pleasantly surprised with how we performed. Starting with -10 points was a massive drawback but its great that I was already plucking points off sides that I knew would be in that relegation battle (Carlisle, etc.) Without further ado, let's look at the fixtures and how we did:
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As you can see, we only suffered one loss in the month. Okay, maybe two if you count being knocked out on penalties by Leeds (whom we played off the park). That's a brief look at the fixtures, let's start with Crawley win and see what happened:
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I didn't expect much going into this game. Certainly not a win. I looked at Crawley's side and thought I would be happy with a draw and, up until the 62nd minute, we found ourselves looking at a 1-1 scoreline which I would have been quite happy with... Until we received a free-kick from 28-yards out. Our star player, John Fleck, scored a wonderful goal from the free-kick (he later went on to win goal of the month with that effort) and our side grew in confidence. Nathan Delfouneso doubled his tally for the day, heading in a delightful cross from John Fleck. That goal sealed the three points; three massive points. We were now on -7 points and looking forward to our Capital One Cup opener against MK Dons:
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This was one of those games where you truly see how much Football Manager takes you on a roller-coaster of emotions. This game was jam-packed with drama and our equaliser had me celebrating as though my beloved Arsenal or Deportivo de La Coruna had scored in real life. As you can see by the scoreline, we won on penalties. But even that wasn't the most dramatic moment. Loanee Rory Donnelly scored his first goal of the season, three minutes in, but we would go on to be dominated by MK Dons for the majority of the game. Izale McLeod prospered from a defensive blunder as he equalised on the 64th minute. In extra time, after 99 minutes, I had already admitted defeat in my head. Dominic Samuel scored from a corner and I was devastated. The clock ran down, nothing happened. The 4th official signaled 2 minutes of added time; the 2 minutes ran out, nothing happened. The clock struck 123 minutes. We had a corner. I corner I was certain would be cleared out, leading to the referee calling an end to this pulsating game. Danny Redmond whipped the corner in and, much to my amazement, Danny Seabourne towered over an MK Dons player and headed the ball in. I went bonkers, as you could imagine. The penalty shoot-out was intense as neither side intended on missing. Eventually, Dominic Samuel had his penalty saved by Maik Taylor and Danny Redmond scored the winning penalty in sudden death the take us through to the 2nd round. An amazing tie which ensured that I would become emotionally invested in this save. Moving on...
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Our incredible start to the season continued as we beat Bristol City, a side whom I believed would be around the play-off positions at the end of the season. This game lacked chances, we defended excellently and reduced Bristol City to long range shots which hardly troubled Maik Taylor. Jordan Clarke, in the 56th minute, volleyed home from a John Fleck corner and we found ourselves well on our way to running out of the bottom of the table. -4 points from two games meant two back-to-back wins, something I did not expect when going into the Crawley game. Our side plays some delightful, yet efficient football.
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Now this, this was a phenomenal win. We outplayed a side, away from home, who would be around the relegation zone/bottom end of the table. These results are crucial early on because it means you can begin to climb over the sides around you. Where do I even start? This is where you guys will begin to see something that has excited me heavily in this save: the Rory Donnelly-Nathan Delfouneso partnership. I rarely ever play FM with two centre-forwards as I find it to be a rigid way of approaching the game (yeah, I know) but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the two aforementioned strikers linked up. They weren't just scoring, but they were assisting each other too. To compare it to modern day football, it was almost like the Sturridge-Suarez partnership. Goals, assists. They both have it and play excellently in unison. Delfouneso's two goals were assisted by Donnelly, and Donnelly's only goal was assisted by Delfouneso. An impressive result that put us on -1 points.
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This result was annoying, to say the least. Twice we took the lead, twice we were pegged back. But a point is a point. John Fleck was sublime, once again. He scored twice and ensured that we overturned our 10 point deficit. We were now on 0 points - something I did not expect to achieve in the 1st four games.
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Another dramatic cup game, another penalty shoot-out. But this time it was frustrating on our end. We scored first, were pinned back in the 65th minute, and then fell into the trap of extra-time again. I thought this was going to be a cup scalp after Callum Wilson scored in extra-time. This was it... Or was it? With two minutes to go, Leeds broke through our defence and Samed Yesil had the audacity to nonchalantly lift the ball over Maik Taylor. I was shattered. Penalties came and we were dreadful. Two missed penalties meant that Leeds only had to score four to win it. And they did. What added insult to injury was Franck Moussa's injury. He is one of our best penalty kick takers.
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This game was so f*cking painful. 2-0 up, 3-1 up, 4-3 down. We were abysmal defensively and Danny Seabourne's ridiculous own-goal typified that. A win would have dragged us out of the bottom of the table, but I can't complain. There's work to be done defensively - we drop a lot of leads but that's sometimes due to my reluctance to switch to a counter-attacking game. I hope I've learnt my lesson. Anyways, August ends with us cutting the -10 points - I'm extremely happy with that.
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Here's the table for proof.
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This is the man-of-the-month: John Fleck. He enables us to execute this possession-based game quite comfortably. He racked up 3 goals and 2 assists in the league alone as well as earning the goal of the month with his free-kick against Crawley. Without Fleck, we wouldn't find ourselves celebrating a good month.
So that concludes the month of August. A fixture-heavy month, not the last we'll see of one of those. Expect a September update later today. Don't forget to feedback! Thanks!
Fleck and the Donnelly and Delfouneso partnership are certainly going to help you fly up the table, looking forward to the next up date...