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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 8:51:54 GMT
Back to the league and a visit to my former club, Preston was on the cards. They were struggling at the lower end of the table, but I expected a tough battle and maintained our new away tactics. They worked nicely again and goals by De Guzman (31) and Glen Whelan (54) ensured we strolled to a 2-0 victory. Next up was another struggling team, Plymouth, they visited the City Of Manchester Stadium and came with one intention, to stop us scoring goals. Their plan worked for 15 minutes, then Charisteas stroked in a Papadopoulos cross to foil their intentions. On 72 Monteiro slotted in a spot kick to give us an easy 2-0 win for the cameras. ![](http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2503/premleague201020118ef.jpg)
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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 9:52:10 GMT
With the Christmas period rapidly approaching we were visited by Championship side Crystal Palace in the Quarter Final of the League Cup. Joe Royle warned us that they had a good left winger, what he didn't warn us about was that they were a bunch of defensive bostords. Anyhow they packed the penalty area and we struggled to make a break through. We were to be honest playing with a weakened team, I gave 5 whingers a chance to shine. They in general didn't shine. The tie was settled by a 49th minute goal by Charisteas after a half time rocket.
Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Championship side Millwall are the other Semi-Finalists. Our next game will be against Norwich away on Boxing Day.
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Post by Moo on Apr 10, 2006 10:35:45 GMT
A little wobble there, but it still looks like you're on course for some silverware somewhere. I like that.
KUTGW! :thumb:
Hurrah for Pedro too, finally getting his planks out of the bottom three.
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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 11:21:47 GMT
We were drawn against Millwall for the League Cup Semi Finals, so should make the final without too much hassle.
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Fuzzy
Spider Monkey
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star.png)
stop chewing!
Posts: 918
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Post by Fuzzy on Apr 10, 2006 12:12:52 GMT
CiteH? Champs League?
Better move this to TMD.
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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 12:18:43 GMT
Couldn't possibly do that Fuzzy, it started out as a GR story with Icelandic Fjolnir, with nicknames and what-not and you know how badly GR things and my comments in particular were viewed by De 'stupid' Management of TD.
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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 16:30:16 GMT
I like the way only 5 points seperates 10th place from 19th.
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Post by Sonic on Apr 10, 2006 22:56:49 GMT
Still top, and have made another final. Nothings changed I see :checkit:
KUTGWAMCFW winning and making cup finals
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Post by coffers on Apr 10, 2006 23:04:59 GMT
No final yet Sonic, we still have to beat Millwall in the Semi's.
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Post by Sonic on Apr 11, 2006 1:05:28 GMT
Oh, so you've already lost it?
I forgot to mention that Scotland appears in my games qualification slots for the competition mentioned.
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Post by coffers on Apr 11, 2006 7:34:11 GMT
No it's still to play. The League Cup is at the Semi Final stage. The Champions League has just finished the Group Stages. We are drawn to play Millwall in the Semi Final of the League Cup and Tettenham will play Middlesbrough in the other Semi Final.
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Post by Moo on Apr 11, 2006 8:17:17 GMT
Try to keep up, Sonic.
Aye this top of the table malarkey seems to be the new way to go. I may have to try this, see what happens.
KUTGW! :thumb:
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Post by coffers on Apr 11, 2006 8:42:03 GMT
Boxing Day arrived and the Turkey stuffed troops made their way to Norwich in Norfolk, the home of Bernard Matthews and his processed Turkey farm or something. Anyhow Norwich stifled us in an attempt to stuff us good and proper but it didn't work as a goal by Whelan 13 minutes from time gave us a hard worked victory. Two days later after the long trek home we hosted Tottenham and it was another hard fought game. Vassell opened the scoring on 9 but Tottenham struck back immediately on 11 with a goal from Adebayor. The whining Papadopoulos scored the winner after 40 minutes play, to give us a 2-1 win. I was awarded the Manager of The Month award for December. Freddy Guarin was 3rd in the European Midfielder of the year awards, Stuart Downing of Middlesbrough was 1st and Christiano Ronaldo (Barcalona) was 2nd. Next up was a trip to the Pseudo Brummies on New Years Day 2011. Aston Vanilla reaped a whirlwind of frustration as Vassell tore them apart with four breakaway first half goals, they came on: 15, 17, 19 and 45 minutes. The second half was a total bore so we ended the game 4-0 winners. Two days later our home game against Byron Robinson's relegation threatened Fulham. With 2 goals from Charisteas on 6 and 9 we looked as if we were going to run away with the game, it was then that Fulham stepped up the pace. Goals from Collins John on 33 and 64 got them back into it and we were struggling. I was juggling all sorts of tictac settings and getting nowhere, but it was end to end stuff. Finally on 82 a 25 yard strike by Freddy Guarin settled the game 3-2 in our favour, but the cottagers didn't give up and we still had a few frights in the last 10 minutes. We will turn our attentions to Cup games next as first we are at home to Birmingham in the FA Cup 3rd Round and then we play Millwall at home in the League Cup Semi Final 1st Leg. Then comes our next league game away to Liverpool. Our challengers dropped points here and there over the Christmas/New year period, so we have a nice cushion at the top of the table: ![](http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8623/premleague201020112fi.jpg) PS. Our game in hand is a home game against Manchester United, it keeps getting put back because of Cup commitments.
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Post by Moo on Apr 11, 2006 9:15:37 GMT
...Freddy Guarin was 3rd in the European Midfielder of the year awards... :checkit: Gooners seem to be keeping you on your toes there, not too far behind, especially if you lose the game in hand to Team USA. Wowsers! How clsoe is it down at the bottom end? I love that sort of battle down at the bottom, it makes it very interesting indeed. Especially when you're in the thick of it. :thumb:
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Post by Boony on Apr 11, 2006 15:52:46 GMT
Bloody hell, Coffs, you've changed clubs twice since I last saw this. Not a poor season in sight, either. Barely even a poor match. Nice work, even if it is with Citeh these days.
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Post by coffers on Apr 11, 2006 22:34:58 GMT
The Cup action came thick and fast, first it was Birmingham, at home in the FA Cup 3rd Round. They are struggling in the nether regions of the Premier League and on todays performance I could see why. Two stunning first half goals by Glen Whelan on 14 and 44 sent us on our way to a very easy 30 victory. The third came 3 minutes from time when Charisteas robbed the Brummie keeper of the ball 25 yards out and slotted into a gaping net. Then Millwall visited in the League Cup Semi Final 1st leg, I played a weakened side, trying to give the whiners a chance to stop whinging. They didn't but we did win comfortably, Vassell on 28 and Monteiro on 54 gave us a 2-0 advantage to take into the 2nd leg. The next game was the first of two massive league games, an away trip to Anfield. As expected the scum gave us a hard time, but they didn't expect us to race into an early 2 goal lead, Guarin heading in from close range on 3 and then Vassell breaking for a 2nd on 18. The traveling City fans were rocking until bloody Cisse struck back on 38, it meant we had a slender 2-1 lead at the break. Liverpoo' then proceeded to take us apart, but could only manage one more goal a 40 yard lob by Van Persie, after our RB mis-controlled a short free kick from our keeper, leaving the keeper stranded. I was bloody mortified. Still at least we hung on for a draw even if we did have Bonera sent off with 5 minutes remaining for a 2 footed lunge. He thought I was being harsh when I bollocked him after the game. Twunt! The draw meant Arsenal made up ground on us as they continued their winning ways. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/moop.gif) Our next task was to get the game in hand out of the way, Manchester United would not be an easy team to beat or so I thought, but Van Nistleroy assaulted Agger with his elbow, aka did a Shearer, after only 4 minutes and took the walk of shame. We didn't make the advantage count until Guarin found Vassell free in the area on 24, the free scoring striker made it look easy as he slotted under the advancing Van Der Sar. Despite the advantage we continued to make hard work of the game and eventually the numbers were leveled on 41 as right back Onuoha saw red for a second bookable offence. I expected a tougher second half but it didn't materialise, United lost their discipline and yellow cards were waved everywhere. Goals from Papadopoulos (51), Guarin (70 and Lee Croft (76) completed the rout of a crumbling Urinal. Onuoha was taken aback by my post match rant at him for getting sent off. Mourinho told us any title aspirations were laughable at this stage of the season, I retorted that he still had a lot to learn, especially as he had won sweet FA since I came on the scene, his parting shot was that he didn't have time to worry about other teams. After two tough games our next match was against a easier outfit, a home game against Charlton, usually this means we tend to struggle but not this time we seemed to be on a high. Plenty of whingers got another chance and this time we saw a decent outing. Goals by Belluschi (6), Guarin (18pen) and Charisteas (21) gave us a flying start and a 3-0 half time lead. Charlton lost a man to a red card 4 minutes before the break to upset their cause even more. Another three in the second period from; Hubschman (67 & 90) and Croft (84pen) ensured that Charlton had an embarrassing trip back to the capital. It was made worse for them as they lost another man to a red card in injury time. After recent struggles the 6-0 win was most welcome, it was even more so when I hear that Arsenal had lost 3-0 at Chelsea. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/grin.gif) I've been desperately attempting to buy some stars of the future from Preston, they were there when I was in charge, I've so far secured one for the summer, missed out on two and still awaiting the decision of a 4th, at the moment no one else is in for him, Chelsea beat me too him on the first attempt but didn't have enough in the transfer kitty, I'm hoping he sees sense this time around. ![](http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5746/premleague201020110cb.jpg) Next up away to Millwall in the League Cup SF 2nd leg and then away to Burnley in the 4th round of the FA Cup. That will take care of January 2011. The first game of February will be Newcastle away in Pedro's Donkey sanctuary. Oh and Freddy Guarin came third in the World Footballer of the Year awards.
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Post by coffers on Apr 12, 2006 0:13:13 GMT
The cup games came and went, we drew 1-1 away to Millwall which means we progress to the final of the League Cup where we will play Tottenham. Millwall opened on 40, Guarin equalized on 65. The game was awful and the whingers failed toperform again. The away tie at Burnley in the FA Cup 4th Round was a comfortable game, we won 2-0 with goals from Croft on 5 and Castrillon on 15. to progress to the 5th round where we meet Fulham away. Fulham beat Arsenal at the Gooners place. That's January over, I won the Manager of the Month for January, Croft won the player of the month and Agger was 2nd. Guarin won the goal of the month with his long range curling effort against Fulham, Croft was 2nd with his curling shot against man Utd and Vassell was 3rd with one of his efforts against Aston Vanilla. where he skinned the defence and slotted in a curler. It seems Curling is the in thing for January. Winter Olympics anyone. Oh and the Preston starlet turned us down despite us offering what he asked. He described it as uninspiring, but I think there is a bug in this as I keep getting an Array Out Of Bounds error whenever I offer a contract to a new young player. Bostords. Still it's his loss. PS: Can you feel the heat Newcastle? ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
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Post by DC on Apr 12, 2006 0:45:00 GMT
Is this the National Association of Blind Footballers League? Have Man City got some 'ringers' in? What is going on here...
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Post by Sonic on Apr 12, 2006 2:09:02 GMT
Nice updates. What's with Downing getting a first place with Middlesbrough? Shirely there was a mistake there?
Vassel seems to be your talisman, and Guarin is making a huge difference by the look of things.
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Post by coffers on Apr 12, 2006 23:14:06 GMT
Todays batch of games started with an trip to St James Park in the league, the one where Newcastle play. Pedro is taunted with jibes about his innate ability to get clubs relegated he doesn't bite, neither do Newcastle. They appear toothless as Guarin notches a hat-trick to kill off the Geordie's who field a team that us no longer recognisable. Guarin got two from the spot on 11 and 73, he completed his on man goal show in injury time, heading in a Oskitz free kick from 6 yards. A 3-0 win as most welcome. Arsenal lost 2-1 at home to Everton, but Chelsea hammered Birmingham 7-1 at St Andrews.
Next we entertained Blackburn, though entertained might have been a bad choice of words. Blackburn were far from entertained, more like overturned as goals from Vertonghen on 34 and then Guarin on 57 ensured that we won easily by a 2-0 margin. After a bad run, Arsenal finally won a game, 3-1 at Middlesbrough, Chelsea drew 1-1 away at Norwich.
We had opened an 11 point gap by this point, which was nice, especially as we hoped to at least maintain that gap away at West Brom, unfortunately the defensive bostords kept us at bay to record an extremely boring 0-0 bore draw for the cameras. All the challengers won so our lead was cut to 9 points.
We now had 3 cup games on the trot to look forward to, the first was away to Fulham in the FA Cup 5th round. We got off to a bad start conceding a poor goal after 18 minutes, a long back pass mis-controlled by our keeper let Idrizaj in for the opener. We struggled to make any headway for much of the rest of the first half, then, Vassell equalised in a goalmouth scramble on 35 and Vertonghen grabbed a 2-1 lead on 40, heading in a Belluschi free kick t the near post, from 6 yards. Vassell doubled his tally on 49, chipping the keeper from 9 yards after being put through by Vertonghen. The 3-1 win gave us an away tie at Newcastle in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup.
This cup game would be followed by an away trip to Celtic in the LAC st Knockout Round First Leg. This would be followed by my third League Cup Final on the tot against Spurs. The nxt game would be an away trip to Old Trafford in the League and then the LAC second leg against Celtic.
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Post by coffers on Apr 13, 2006 8:01:34 GMT
The LAC 1st Knockout Round First Leg at Celtic was a cracking match, almost as good as the real life game that I was watching whilst playing this (Boro 4-2 Charlton). I wasn't quite sure how good Celtic were so I lined up a defensive tactic and it seemed to pay divisends form the off. Within 3 minutes of the start Ekin making a rare appearence tapped in a Croft cross, but Celtic came back and equalised 7 minutes later Bjarnasson blasting a curling 25 yard shot past our static keeper. Ekin restored our lead on 23 clipping in a De Guzman cutback, this time it lasted a bit longer. To be exact it lasted 20 minutes, Craig Beattie lost his marker and slotted in a through ball from 14 yards. All square at the break. The second half was just as tight but with less goals. As teh game looked set to end 2-2 Duran DJuric blasted another curling shot, this time from 30 yards into our net. It looked as if the game was over and that we would have to settle for a close loss in the hope of a win and away goal advantage in teh return leg, but the game wasn't over, with 30 seconds of normal time left Robert Taylor blasted a long ball down the left, Belluschi was onto it and immediately hit the ball towards teh edge of the area where Charisteas latched on and blasted in from 18 yards, to end the game 3-3. Celtic's misery at losing the advantage was compounded when one of their central defenders Radoi was sent off in injury time.
Next the League Cup Final against Spurs.
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Post by Sonic on Apr 13, 2006 8:08:54 GMT
That's a hell of a fixture listing. I find also that if I'm leading the comp by about 11, which I was when I got hit my all those draws, I have a patchy run, and see the rest of the comp come back into the running.
In my game, Rangers are consistantly getting past the group stages of the LAC, and even further sometimes. Celtic, though making the LAC group stages, haven't made it past there as far as I've seen so far.
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Post by Moo on Apr 13, 2006 8:13:10 GMT
A load of crap updates there Coffers. Where's the romance? Where's the hero rampaging through the bad guys secret lair killing all and sundry with nought but two toothpicks and a broomhandle?
Not really. Good stuff as always, sir! It seems that you're getting the results from elsewhere just when you really need them. Sure the draw to cut your lead to nine points was disappointing, but I'm sure you have enough there to keep the league title.
What's you views on the cups then? Have you a chance of the LAC?
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Post by coffers on Apr 13, 2006 8:41:57 GMT
It's the one I want to win, if we can get past Celtic then I think we have a chance, but i'd rather not meet Liverpool or Chelsea on the way to any final, they generally give us a fair bit of trouble. No I want the forinners to do for the rest of the English clubs. I reckon we can beat forriners easier than we can beat our top teams.
As teh build up to the League cup final continues the Saturday leage games all go our way, Arsenal lose 1-0 at Preston, Man Utd drew away to Plymouth 1-1 and Liverpool drew 0-0 at home against Charlton. Chelsea don't play until Sunday when they are away to Middlesbrough.
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Post by coffers on Apr 14, 2006 0:01:17 GMT
So where were we? Oh yes on a coach to and for the League Cup final; Spurs had home dressing room and lined up with a 4-4-2 formation, we went for our home 4-1-3-2 line up but constantly chopped and changed throughout. It was a dire first period that ended 0-0. The team were told we only need a goal to win it, but we still continued to struggle after the break. A couple of changes on 71 and things started to happen, we scored a goal for one, on 76 minutes, a De Guzman cross was picked up by Croft with his back to goal, he and spun shot in one movement and the ball appeared magically in the corner of the net. Spurs woke from their slumbers and went all out to save the game, they did it one and half minutes into injury time, So to extra time; Bugger! :moop: 4 minutes in and De Guzman tried to float a cross to Charisteas, it didn't make it, but it did float over everyone else's head and ended up in the net. That was it, both sides were too knackered to do anything more and City had another trophy in the bag. 2-1 it ended. Arsenal lost 1-0 at Preston, Liverpool and Man Utd all drew but Chelsea won. We went to Old Trafford on a high and raced into a 2-0 lead with goals from Guarin (17min Pen) and De Guzman on 25. Things were looking good, then on 30 Santos gave the ball away cheaply on the edge of the penalty area, it found it's way to Van Donkey and the Urinals were back in the game. Three minutes later and Santos again gave the ball away again, around the edge of the area, Van Donkey again profited and slotted in. That was it Santos was hauled off before he did any more damage. On 27 Vassell latched onto a through ball from Belluschi, rounded the keeper and once again gave us a lead, which we managed to keep up to the break. United came out like screaming dervishes in the second half and on 52 Bonera upended Van Donkey in the area, Van Donkey got his hat-trick from the spot. :moop: We had it all to do again and on 66 Whelan obliged with a 25 yard curler, "get in my son". The lead lasted 3 minutes, Nistleroy headed into the area and Rinaldi lobbed the keeper from 12 yards. Enough was enough, United were attacking with freedom now, so I attempted to save the point and did it by the skin of our teeth. Arsenal & Liverpool won, Chelsea didn't play. The 2nd Leg of The LAC 1st Knockout stage was upon us and Celtic came knocking on the door. The TV expected a close win for City, I expected a tough game and Celtic expected to win. On 17 RB Taylor cushioned a ball back to Guarin and our favourite DMC blasted a 25 yard shot into the net to give us the lead on the night and the advantage overall. Four minutes later Croft fed the ball into Vassell in the area and the striker turned and whipped the ball in from 12 yards. A 37th minute Guarin penalty gave us a 3-0 half time lead. Celtic were better in the second half but we still added another goal, it came on the hour and was another curling 25 yarder, this time from Belluschi. A 4-0 win gave is a 7-3 aggregate win and we'd progressed farther than we'd got last time. Liverpool and Arsenal also progressed, Man Utd lost out to Porto on away goals. Our next LAC opponents would be Juventus and I'm betting it will be harder to get a result out of this than it was in the Group stages. The one thing I didn't want after a tough midweek European game was to play Arsenal, but that's what I got. Still we had home advantage, didn't we? Well it wasn't that much of an advantage, we were lethargic and a 36th minute strike by N'Zogbia settled the game in Arsenal's favour. We did nothing to suggest we would have got back in the game if we had played all year. There was anger boiling over in the dressing room after the game. We needed to get back on track and an away game at Birmingham looked the place to start it. The 1st half was dire and once again we were sluggish. More dressing room anger and things improved in the 2nd half. On 48 De Guzman floated a ball over from the left the wind caught it and he fluked another cross into the net. The game stayed tight for most of the second period, though the the Brummies looked pretty incapable of getting back into the game. Finally on 86 got on Vassell got on the end of a Vertonghen cross and doubled our lead. Deep into injury time, Charisteas had a shot parried and Vassell popped up to notch his second and our third. A nice 3-0 win to send us into an FA Cup Quarter Final on a high. FA Cup Quarter Final day and we got off to a dreadful start. Newcastle had a 1-0 lead by the 2nd minute, our defence was still asleep. Thankfully De Guzman equalised on 5 after he got on the end of a long ball from Steve Taylor and shot across the keeper. Newcastle took the lead back again on 17 helped by another defensive shambles. Guarin equalised from the spot on 19. The game settled down then especially as I made a few changes to stop Newcastle getting ridiculous breakaway goals. On 30 a neat ball by Belluschi found De Guzman, the Canadian beat two men then the keeper before slotting home to us a 3-2 lead at the break. Croft added a 4th with a diving header on 59. On 77 they were reduced to 10 men as Scott committed a last man foul 25 yards out. Monteiro blasted in the resultant free kick in from 25 yards. Once again we had beaten the Geordies, but this time we marched into the Semi Finals of the Cup. The U18's lost the U18's Cup Final 3-1 against Forest. We were drawn against Championship side; Sunderland in the FA Cup Semi Finals, the other game pits Chelsea against Bolton. Our next 3 games are: Juventus away, Chelsea at home followed by Juventus at home. ![](http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/3851/premleague201020110ey.jpg)
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