Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Final Season With Newcastle Kicks Off

Hi all, hope that you are fit and well. This will be my last season as Newcastle manager and I will be looking for a new challenge at the end of the season. You may want to leave a suggestion on who I could be. Back to the final season and I had a busy start to the season with all of the European games I had to play.

Newcastle v Neuchatel Xamax

I was expecting a win here and this is what I got a comfortable 2-0 first leg lead over the team from Switzerland. A goal each from my strike force of Bent and Eduardo set the ball rolling for the season. My players played well and the signings that I have made seem to have fitted in nicely. I was looking for a repeat performance in the 2^nd leg in Switzerland.

Newcastle v Neuchatel Xamax

Yet again another 2-0 win against the team from Switzerland this time the scorers were Kabore and Bent. The first of the goal came from a Kabore long shot I was surprised with this goal as Kabore’s long shot attribute isn’t the best to say the least.

Bent got his second goal of the season after connecting to a Marco Verratti cross. A comfortable 4-0 aggregate win and I was in the next round where I was set to play Lillestrom.

Next up was Man City and the first game of the Premier League season.

Newcastle v Manchester City

A 1-1 draw in the first game of the new season and this was probably the fairest result in this evenly matched game. I was trying to get revenge on City for denying me a top 4 finish last season but it never came. Goals from Luka Modric and Eduardo either side of half time completed the scoring. Next up was Lillestrom.

Newcastle v Lillestrom

A long journey to Norway was forgotten about when we took a slender 1-0 lead into the 2^nd leg at St. James Park thanks to Steven Taylor.

His winning goal came from a far post header from a Verratti cross which had initially looked like that it had evaded  everyone but Steven Taylor ghosted in at the far post to head Newcastle into a 1-0 lead and that’s the way it stayed. Next up was Bolton

Newcastle v Bolton

A first win of the Premiership season came at the hands of Bolton Wanderers. I seemed to have cruised the first half but couldn’t take my chances but managed to go in with a 1-0 lead at half time after a goal from Bent from the penalty spot.

Bolton equalised in the 64^th minute of the game thought Elmander. The winner came cruelly in the 83^rd minute when Diaby’s shot took a deflection off Cahill and he scored an own goal to give Newcastle the three points.

Next up was the 2^nd leg against Lillestrom.

Newcastle v Lillestrom

We had qualified into the Europa League with this 1-0 win with Bent grapping his 4^th goal this season.

The draw had been made for the group stages and I was set to face Zilina of Slovakia, Dinamo Moscow of Russia and Fenerbache of Turkey.

I was now in September and getting into the swing of things of the season. With only four games this month it was a bit of a quite one but I am looking forward and trying to win every single game.

Newcastle v Stoke

A disappointing 0-0 result in this game and I was annoyed with the fact that it was a team that I needed to win if I have expectations in the season.

We had many chances to win the game but we never seemed to be able to put the ball into the goal. I was going to have to have a better performance if I wanted to get three points in the next game.

Newcastle v Zilina

We recovered well from that disappointing game against Stoke City and got our first points in the Europa League in the first game against Zilina of Slovakia.

We took the lead very early on and never looked back as we dominated the first half scoring three goals but there could easily have been more.

I was now top of the group after one game and I am looking to finish in that position by the end of these six games.

Newcastle v Reading

With no league game on the weekend I had a League Cup third round encounter against Reading. I decided by field a weakened team and I was hoping that it wasn’t going to back fire.

We took the lead after just 36 seconds when Dan Gosling smashed home a shot from 30 yards out and into the top corner. Reading equaliser and the scores were level at half time.

The match seemed to be going to extra time but Aaron Spear grabbed a goal on his first full Newcastle debut. We were now in the fourth round. Next up was Sheffield United.

Newcastle v Sheffield United

A routine against a newly promoted Sheffield with a first goal for Abou Diaby in a Newcastle shirt and a first goal of the season for wonderkid Marco Verratti either side of half time.

An unbeaten first two months of the season puts us into a good position for the rest of the season.

Results

With 8 wins out of 10 I was really pleased with the performances of my Newcastle team and I didn’t have any worries about any of the signings that I had made.

The best signings this season so far has been Danny Wilson with an average rating on 7.21 and he has also featured in both young player of the months claiming 2^nd place in August and 1^st in September.

League Table

I am currently 7thwith two wins and two draws from my first four games but I also have a few games to catch up on against the teams ahead of me.

Thanks for reading

Warren