Early Exit! View attachment 191338There ends our chances in the League Cup. Barring a brief period of domination around the 30' mark, Barnsley completely dominated the game and ripped us apart.
I hate conceding early and Barnsley did exactly that. I had to field a make-shift back four due to injuries and fitness concerns and paid heavily for it. Our defense did everything a good defense shouldn't - conceded from a corner, gave cheap freekicks in dangerous positions, gave away a penalty (which they missed), let their forward find space between the centerhalves.
The less said about the game, the better! This competition was never a priority but I would've liked to progress a bit. Oh well!
View attachment 191145 After fielding a makeshift back four for the cup tie, I was anxious to learn the state of the players. A lot of them are still struggling with fitness issues, and some of them are in really bad shape.
Three first team players are out injured as well, which makes things even more irritating. Thankfully, Roberts will have to miss just one more match before returning. Nolan and Summerfield are still a month or so away from regular football. View attachment 191144
View attachment 191133
Barnsley again! Second game in five days, but this time it's an away game and in the League. We lined up a bit more defensively as we know Barnsley will attack from the beginning, given that they are playing at home. Things got off to a feisty start as Russ Penn and George Smith got into a heated argument in the middle of the pitch. Referee was called into action as early as the 3rd minute to calm the duo. Hyde made sure the game continued on a dramatic note as he out muscled Lewin Nyatanga to hammer home the first goal. Barnsley appealed for a push but it wasn't given.
But just when things were going our way, Jean-Francois gave away a penalty to the home side. It was a very soft one and Wabara made the most of it by dramatically falling to the ground. Jackson made no mistake. 1-1.
The equalizer gave Barnsley a new found desire and for the next 60 minutes or so, we were stretched thin. We simply couldn't cope with their intensity but somehow kept the score at 1-1. Not sure how.
With less than 3 minutes remaining, I was praying for a draw. But Simeon Jackson made sure Barnsley got the goal they richly deserved by putting the ball past Flinders from a deep cross. 2-1 to Barnsley and we didn't have enough time to get back.
Overall, this was a disappointing performance. We started strongly but allowed Barnsley to dominate after they equalized. Back to back losses to Barnsley. View attachment 191132
View attachment 190808 Another familiar foe. We faced Gillingham in last season's JPT final, where they won 2-1. It's revenge time! Roberts is back from injury but will have to start as a sub as his fitness levels aren't good enough to start the game. I needed a bright start to the game and the lads didn't disappoint. They pushed Gillingham back at every possible opportunity and when Coulson took a quick corner, Berrett took full advantage of a napping defense by putting us ahead. 21 minutes gone and 1-0 up. Our intensity levels were high and Gillingham barely got a shot at goal in the first 30 minutes.
The first half was ours, as we dictated tempo perfectly. No room for complacency. I made sure everyone knew that!
Just before the hour mark, Gillingham defender Anthony Kay tripped Oliver and picked up his second booking. A goal advantage, and a man advantage. Perfect!!
View attachment 190798Well....not really. With 0 shots on target, Gillingham got a corner. A floating corner towards the near post was poorly dealt by us and Lavelle headed it home and beat Flinders at his near post. For heaven's sake! 1-1 at Bootham Crescent. 15 odd minutes left to find the winner. I made hasty substitutions and urged everyone to push forward and go for the goal. Gillingham weren't attacking and I thought it was our chance. But I was wrong. We had quite a few chances towards the end but our finishing was atrocious, to say the least.
The game ended 1-1. When it comes to profligacy, my forwards are setting the bar. Frustrating! 2 points dropped. View attachment 190807 We should've made our dominance count more. Especially considering we had an extra man while leading. View attachment 190799
View attachment 190667 Big game! Oxford gained promotion last season along with us and this could prove to be a tight one. Oxford are pre-match favourites thanks to their home advantage. The first 30 minutes could be best described as the calm before the storm. No significant events to talk about but it was clear that something dramatic was going to happen. Russ Penn made sure the home team realized our intensity by forceful tackling. He picked up a booking in the 35'. Two minutes later, Platt showed his class by controlling a cross on the edge of the area before playing Carson through on goal. What followed was a deft finish. It was wonderful stuff. 1-0. [video=youtube;PPax0st-km0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPax0st-km0[/video]
With the half time approaching, Russ Penn did what he does best. He got sent off after a second bookable offense. Not the first time, and definitely won't be the last.
I told the players to continue their good work, and asked the defense to tighten up after being a man down. I gave a cold stare towards Russ Penn, who hung his head down.
As instructed, the lads played a bit cautiously in the second half to keep our lead. Thankfully, Jake Hyde made sure we had some breathing room by doubling the lead. Fantastic strike by the 26 yr old. He used his strength to hold off a defender before smashing the ball home from just inside the box. 2-0 after 72'.
But we are not known for winning things comfortably. Sir, no sir! Our defense switched off during the added time and allowed Oxford to pull one back. 2-1 with 2 mins of added time remaining. We did manage to hold onto the lead in the final phase of the game. View attachment 190658
View attachment 190488 "The squad needs a bit of sweetening" View attachment 190487 After little success at Sunderland, Honeyman was available on a free transfer. He's pretty talented and needs some direction and personal attention. I decided to bring him to York so that he can learn from the likes of Summerfield and Berrett.
He'll not feature heavily in the first team but I'll try to give him as much game time as possible.
View attachment 190486 Unfair, huh? Russ Penn received a red card during the Oxford match which forced us to play the second half with 10 men. While we won the game, the result could've easily gone against us. I was pretty mad at him and fined him a week's wages. But the club captain felt he didn't deserve such a harsh punishment. He came to me complaining but I told him nicely to stop whining and carry on with the training. View attachment 190485
View attachment 190484 First Oxford, now Portsmouth? Reminds me of last season in League 2. Anyway, Portsmouth are a strong side and we need to be wary of their talented attack. With Russ Penn missing, I had to shuffle the midfield up a bit. Frankly speaking, all of Penn's back-ups for the ball winning role in the midfield are, well, not as good as him. Fingers-crossed! View attachment 190482Portsmouth started strongly, as expected. They very nearly took the lead in the 15th minute but Flinders made a great save to deny them. 10 mins later, Carson opened the scoring with his second goal in as many games. 1-0!
After taking the lead, our gameplay started to become more fluid. Portsmouth were growing frustrated and Hollands vented his frustration in the worst possible way - a two footed tackle on Jake Hyde. Red card!
A goal up, and a man up at half time. We have to avoid another Gillingham-type incident where we dropped two points from a similar position.
Portsmouth played a lot more freely in the second half and tried to put the pressure on us. With the game approaching the 80', Berrett doubled our lead with a sensational goal from the edge of the box. Side-footed finish that was wonderfully placed into the corner. Great skill! 2-0 after 79',
York are 2-0 up with 10 mins left? We all know what happens now, don't we. Yup! Portsmouth scored. A cross from right wing found Conor Chaplin in the box and he headed it nicely past Flinders. 2-1 in the 80'.
But Berrett made sure we got the 3 points today with a goal immediately after restart. Unlike his first, this was struck with a lot of venom into the roof of the net. 3 goals in 2 minutes - crazy stuff.
I wasn't gonna let this slip away. On came McCombe and we had 5 in the back now to avoid anything catastrophic. It worked and we got the 3 points we needed.
View attachment 1009980 Injuries View attachment 189680 One of my most reliable players, Scott Flinders is out with a muscle injury. He'll be out for a month and with some tough fixtures coming up, it'll be upto summer signing Barry Roach to make sure Flinders' absence isn't felt.
The injury list isn't too bad at the moment but all three sidelined are automatic first team players. That is frustrating. At least one of them will be back in action soon. View attachment 189678
View attachment 1009986 View attachment 189673 A very solid start to the League campaign. Our back to back victories against fellow promotees sees us occupy the fifth spot. I am not really aiming for a promotion this season but as long as we don't fall into a slump, I think we'll finish in a respectable position. View attachment 189667 "Things are about to get interesting." View attachment 189664 Tricky set of games to come. Hartlepool are in League 2 and we are sure to be favourites for that game. But it's an away game in a knock out tournament, so we need to be at our best.
Colchester and Walsall are both midtable teams in the League 1 and we could try to get a few points. Then comes the challenge! Bradford, Preston and Bristol are all expected to be involved in the promotion battle and we play two of those three away. We'd be lucky to get anything out of those three games. Fingers crossed!
View attachment 189506 I rotated a little bit to make sure every player on the pitch is fit enough to last over 70 mins. The first 10 minutes were the best we had all season in terms of link-up play. Godfrey hit the crossbar, and Oliver and Bellamy forced Trevor Carson into making excellent saves. But no goals yet.
The tempo died down after that but we were still the better side. Hartlepool launched an attack or two once in a while but it was our midfield trio of Penn, Godfrey and Berrett dictating terms. But with Hartlepool's defense holding tight, we couldn't score. The game stood at 0-0 after the 90 minute mark.
Penalties!
Fenwick of Hartlepool stepped up but Barry Roach denied him with a lovely save diving to his right! Berrett converted the next one to give us an advantage. The next three penalties from both sides were successfully converted. 3-4 in our favour with one spotkick left.
Jones stepped up but Barry Roach, subbing in for Flinders judged it correctly and made a one handed save to win it for us. View attachment 189499 Barry Roach has made sure that Flinders' absence wasn't felt as his two saves pushed us into the next round of the tournament. View attachment 189501
View attachment 189367 View attachment 189366After being our star performer last season, Berrett has continued to impress in the midfield and has now won the August player of month. Easily the first choice in my squad.
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This is the start of a set of challenging games. Home advantage in this one, but does it really matter much in a League where we are relegation favourites? A quiet start to the game, which only had one significant moment in the first 30 minutes. Berrett was at the heart of a move that resulted in Hyde firing narrowly wide. 10 minutes later, Colchester made us pay for the miss as Massey tapped in from close range following a low cross. Femi Ilesmani in the left back position should've done much better. His positioning and marking was really poor.
I had a 'personal chat' with Ilesmani during half time. I let the others know that I had confidence in them to get us a goal.
Sadly, my confidence in them to do so kept going down with every passing second half minute. Every time we were putting together a good passing move, a bad pass or a miscued finish screwed it up. Colchester kept counter attacking regularly and didn't let us attack heavily.
That theme continued for the rest of the game and it ended with Colchester winning by a goal. A bit disappointed because I felt that we could've gotten a point from this. View attachment 189363
View attachment 188813
This is going to be tough. I really wanted to get something out of the Colchester game because this game starts a set of really tough fixtures for us. Walsall have a formidable strike force and I just have to hope our defenders are up to the task. Thankfully, their form this season has been poor and may be we could get a point...or three. Unsurprisingly, Walsall began the game in an attacking manner. But Roberts and Lowe were rock-solid in defense. Nothing went through our centerhalves in the first half. Walsall had plenty of possession and put together more attacking moves but the score stayed 0-0 at half time.
10 minutes after half time, we took the lead against the run of play. With Walsall continually forging attacks, a goal for the home side seemed inevitable but when we won our first corner of the game, Roberts rose high to head home the opener.
Sadly, our lead didn't stay long as Walsall's hardwork paid off in the 62nd minute as Bradshaw found some space in our box to tap in the equalizer. Can't really blame the defense, it was just clever play by the lad.
After that, no real significant incidents happened. I was happy with a point and changed the mentality to counter. Apparently, Walsall seemed to have done the same as they were not willing to commit men forward in numbers. The game ended on a dull note.
This is a point I'll gladly take. Just about everyone was predicting a home win and to come away with a point is good. View attachment 188815
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