From East Manchester to Crystal Palace

[hedger_14]

No. The Division below that. I decided to stop since I was in 18th after like 10 games. And I decided that I should move to Crystal Palace since the job came available. I had said before that I was stopping but now, I might just do monthly updates.

 

[blake]

I decided to stop since I was in 18th after like 10 games.

You are an absolute disgrace. Are you like this in every game you play? If you decide to play Scrabble but somebody gets off to a good start do you throw the board away and have a tantrum?

 

[hedger_14]

Okay. I would have normally continued but I really wanted to play with Crystal Palace and since the job became available, I took it up. I was going alright in the FA Cup. Was into the second round. And no, I don't do that. I probably should have left out that bit and just said I was in 18th. I really actually enjoy being challenged.

 

[hedger_14]

End Of October Update​

We moved into the top 6 after 2 wins from my first 3 matches in charge at Selhurst Park. Mark Kear and Derek Swanson have joined on loan from parent club, Arsenal while Alan Wilkinson will move to Crystal Palace in January after signing from Wigan for a fee of ?2.4M. Gary O'Connor will also be joining the Eagles in January after signing from Birmingham for ?1.5M. Krystian Pearce also looks like signing after Birmingham accepted a ?1.5M offer from Crystal Palace and are just waiting to see if Pearce accepts the contract offer from Palace. Andy Livesy could also be making his way out, probably to Plymouth for ?775K and Livesy is in talks with Plymouth.


Matches:


Sat 19th October - Barnsley (H) - A great start to my managerial career at Palace after destroying Barnsley 4-1. Barnsley took the lead early when Grimes put the ball into the back of the net. It all turned around though when Livermore was sent off in the 42nd minute and Walker equalised after heading in a Moses corner before half time. A penalty came early in the second half to Palace and Clifford was lucky to only get a yellow card. Billy Sharp converted from the spot to give Palace the lead. Afobe who was brought on early for the injured Scannell cut the opposition apart towards the end of the second half with 2 goals as well as win the penalty. A stunning performance.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Jordan Walker (45), Billy Sharp (pen 48), Benik Afobe (71, 90+4)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Benik Afobe - The standout player scoring 2 goals in the second half.

Match


Thu 24th October - Cardiff (A) - We couldn't make it back to back wins though as we lost out to Cardiff in an even match, both teams having 4 shots on target, our team having 10 total shots to Cardiff's 8 and possession was just in favour with us. Our chances went to waste this game as Afobe was promoted to the starting XI but failed to impress before being subbed for King at half time. We should have really been looking to win this important match but better luck next time.

Crystal Palace Scorers: None
Crystal Palace MOTM: Sean Morrison - He won 22 out of 24 headers throughout the game, 7 of them key headers to go with his 5/5 tackles.

Match


Tue 29th October - Norwich (A) - We managed to win this game after a superb performance from the loaned keeper from Arsenal, Anthony Ross. Norwich had 21 shots at goal throughout the game, 6 shots on target and 8 shots blocked. He ordered the defence around well during the first half in particular and made a really important save when the Norwich striker was one on one with the keeper. Although we were one step behind for most of the match, we managed to come away with the win, Sharp putting the ball onto Afobe who was brought on at half time after being dropped to the bench after the last match who easily put it past the keeper in the 73rd minute which proved to be the vital goal, coming away with a 1-0 lead.


Crystal Palace Scorers: Benik Afobe (73)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Anthony Ross - He was in exceptional form making some great saves to deny Norwich and ended up being the difference between the 2 sides.

Match



Table:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Wigan          |       | 15    | 10    | 2     | 3     | 23    | 11    | +12   | 32    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Birmingham     |       | 14    | 10    | 1     | 3     | 32    | 14    | +18   | 31    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Bristol City   |       | 14    | 9     | 2     | 3     | 25    | 13    | +12   | 29    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| [B]4th[/B]   |       | [B]Crystal Palace[/B] |       | [B]16[/B]    | [B]8[/B]     | [B]3[/B]     | [B]5[/B]     | [B]29 [/B]   | [B]22 [/B]   | [B]+7[/B]    | [B]27[/B]    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Cardiff        |       | 15    | 9     | 0     | 6     | 18    | 17    | +1    | 27    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Q.P.R.         |       | 17    | 8     | 3     | 6     | 20    | 23    | -3    | 27    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Ipswich        |       | 16    | 7     | 5     | 4     | 25    | 18    | +7    | 26    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Burnley        |       | 15    | 8     | 1     | 6     | 25    | 20    | +5    | 25    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

 

[treva]

How did you copy the table straight from the game?

Good to see Bristol City up there fighting for promotion.

 

[hedger_14]

Go to the options menu thing (The FM thing that pops up when you press it) and a whole lot of things will pop down. Print Screen will be one of the options. Click on that and it will come up with the options, Printer, Text File and Web Page. Choose Text File and the location and open it up in a text based application and copy and paste and code it. It will be perfectly alligned if you code it.

 

[ARay]

Are you going to be only doing a short summary of every match like this? To be honest, it looks rather dull in this format.

 

[hedger_14]

Well I don't really like taking forever in my stories. It's more of a career update that I do monthly rather than a complete story.

 

[hedger_14]

End Of November Update​

Although we lost to QPR late in the month and Preston early on, we had a pretty good month with comfortable wins over Wigan (3-0) and Scunthorpe (5-1) as well as edging out Burnley at home. Andy Livesy has confirmed his 775K transfer to Plymouth. Ashley Hale was loaned out to Tonbridge until the end of the season. Krystian Pearce has signed a deal with The Eagles to start from the 1st January and Joe Ledley, Cardiff legend who will has played 399 matches for Cardiff with 60 career league goals will move to Crystal Palace for 5.5M to be paid over 4 years. He has a total of 40 caps and 4 goals for Wales.


Matches:


Sat 2nd November - Wigan (H) - A great result as we dominated beating one of the title contenders 3-0. The first half was well contested but a mistake from Kirkland late in the half gave Kear his first goal for Palace on debut. Sharp was taken off at half time with Joshua King coming on. The trend continued to happen as the substitute scored with King hitting the volley after a Swanson shot was deflected out to him and we had taken a 2-0 lead. Into stoppage time with the game settled, Wigan had given up, Afobe had a long range shot, the keeper not giving too much effort to get to it and it went into the top corner and we had taken a really important win and a big one as well.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Mark Kear (43), Joshua King (66), Benik Afobe (90+1)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Mark Randall - He completed 44 passes, 4 key passes and set up 1 goal.

Match


Thu 7th November - Preston (A) - On a high after back to back wins, we were not expecting to concede an early penalty and Morrison having to go off injured. Adel converted from the spot and we were already down 1-0. We concedede again half an hour later when Labadie got on the scoresheet himself. Billy Sharp was brought on at half time and brought us one back in the 62nd minute after a good ball from Afobe. We couldn't score that vital goal to equalise for us and we ended up losing 1-0.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Billy Sharp (62)
Crystal Palace MOTM: None


Match


Sun 10th November - Swansea (H) - After a surprise loss against Preston, we were looking to bounce back against Swansea and we nearly did but were destroyed by a late equaliser by Swansea. After a boring first half, we were looking to use our good second half record to our advantage and McCarthy put us in the lead, 58 minutes in after a good Moses corner was headed in off the crossbar. Victory had been snatched from us in the 90th minute when the lot of deflections ended up falling to Allen in the box with noone around him and he made no mistake putting it past the keeper. We would need to get a win against Scunthorpe.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Patrick McCarthy (58)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Patrick McCarthy - He won 17/18 headers throughout the game including the one he scored from. The best player in the match with earnt him MOTM.

Match


Sat 23rd November - Scunthorpe (A) - It would have been a game that we should have won against one of the bottom 5 teams and we got off to a great start when Swanson scored a nice goal after timing his run to perfection and giving us a 1-0 lead 4 minutes in. Afobe doubled the lead 13 minutes into the match after recieving a great ball from Moses and the shot was well placed and Scunthorpe were in real trouble. Moses claimed a goal for himself halfway through the first half after a nice volley and we were up 3-0 with still 70 odd minutes left. Youga pulled one back for the home side a few minutes before half time but Crystal Palace weren't going to get complacement and about a minute later, Afobe got on the scoresheet for the second time and we went into the break 4-1 up. King who had already set up 2 goals finally got on the scoresheet himself in the 53rd minute after running past the final defender and putting ti past the keeper to put Palace 5-1 ahead. We couldn't build on that lead for the rest of the game and finished 5-1 winner's. The only set back in the game was Randall being sent off 9 minutes from time after receiving a second yellow.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Derek Swanson (4), Benik Afobe (13, 44), Victor Moses (24), Joshua King (53)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Joshua King - He scored a goal and set up 2 goals to achieve a match rating of 9.2/10.

Match


Wed 27th November - Burnley (H) - With Burnley on a poor run away from home and after we won 5-1 away from home against Scunthorpe, we had every reason we could come away with the 3 points. The first half an hour was evenly contested but no goals were scored. Chris McCan lost his calm for a split second though putting in a 2 footed challenge on Danns while the ball was in the air and the referee called him over and showed him red and ended his night on a bad note. We started to gain momentum in the match and we were looking ever so likely to score. In the 53rd minute, Joshua King put in a good cross which was met solidly by Moses' head and Palace had taken the lead. Burnley had their chances to equalise but were unable to and we held on to a 1-0 lead. We had QPR next and a win in that game would have been an excellent end to the month.

Crystal Palace Scorers: Victor Moses (53)
Crystal Palace MOTM: Joshua King - He set up a goal, was well involved all game, making 11 runs before being taken off after 71 minutes.

Match


Sat 30th November - Q.P.R. (H) - It was a game we should have won and would have been disappointed to lose 1-0 at home. A poor bit od defending 9 minutes in was a costly mistake as Kieran Lee put in the header off the cross to put Q.P.R in front. It went from bad to worse for us as Scannell got injured just before half time and was brought off at half time. Substitute, Benik Afobe then got injured in the second half to make things worse and we were unable to get good chances going and were unable to find the equaliser and we lost 1-0.

Crystal Palace Scorers: None
Crystal Palace MOTM: Anthony Ross - He made a few important saves and QPR could have put in 1 or 2 more goals if it wasn't for him.

Match



Table:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Wigan          |       | 21    | 12    | 4     | 5     | 33    | 22    | +11   | 40    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Bristol City   |       | 19    | 12    | 3     | 4     | 32    | 17    | +15   | 39    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Q.P.R.         |       | 22    | 12    | 3     | 7     | 27    | 26    | +1    | 39    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Birmingham     |       | 21    | 12    | 1     | 8     | 40    | 26    | +14   | 37    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[B]| 5th   |       | Crystal Palace |       | 22    | 11    | 4     | 7     | 40    | 27    | +13   | 37    |[/B] 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Ipswich        |       | 22    | 10    | 7     | 5     | 40    | 28    | +12   | 37    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Burnley        |       | 21    | 12    | 1     | 8     | 35    | 24    | +11   | 37    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Cardiff        |       | 21    | 12    | 1     | 8     | 30    | 23    | +7    | 37    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Sunderland     |       | 22    | 10    | 6     | 6     | 47    | 38    | +9    | 36    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

 

[ARay]

Looks like its hotting up. Not much difference separating the teams?