Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Newcastle In October And November 2012-2013

Hi all and welcome to the next instalment of my final season of my Newcastle story. After the first months of the last season I was currently in 7th place and I was looking to progress and start to climb up the table. I will play six games in October and I am hoping for some good results.

Newcastle v Dinamo Moscow

The first game of the month saw us in our second game of the Europa League group stage. It was a comfortable 4-0 win in the end which also saw the first goal in a black and white shirt from summer signing Danny Wilson.

I was thrilled with this win as I felt that it could have been a very close game but we were the better side in the end.

Newcastle v Liverpool

A decent point in the end but it was a little disappointing with the fact that I had been leading the game all the way through from the 7^th minute until Liverpool were awarded a soft penalty in the 80^th minute and Dirk Kuyt converted from 12 yards.

Newcastle v Aston Villa

I was back to winning ways after this game and again it was Darren Bent that I have to thank for getting me the three points that I needed although I was helped when Nigel Reo-Coker was sent off for a second yellow just before Bent scored.

The red card chanced the game and I was hoping that the result was the platform I needed.

Newcastle v Fenerbache

It was back to playing in Europe and I wasn’t sure what to make of this result as I felt that with the chances that I had created we could have won this game but I was pleased to get a result at Fenerbache’s stadium.

Newcastle v Chelsea

The second consecutive 0-0 draw against a very strong Chelsea side but I was again struggling to get any sort of run of wins and it was starting to doubt my title credentials.

My final game of the month was a league cup game against Wycombe.

Newcastle v Wycombe

I was very confident of a win in the 4^th round of the League Cup against league 2 side Wycombe and with a 3-0 win this was justified with two goals from Darren Bent and an unfortunate own goal by Mark Fagan.

This was a routine win and it also took me into the 5^th round of the league cup.

In November I will be a total of seven games this will be a very busy time in the season and hopefully it will be the time when I finally get some good league form going.

First up was a game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Newcastle v Spurs

An excellent performance against Tottenham where I won 3-0.

I was absolutely delighted with the performance of all my players the goals came from on loan left-back Van Aanholt, Darren Bent and a first goal of the season from Hatem Ben Arta (who had been out since the start of the season with a hamstring injury.)

Newcastle v Fenerbache

I felt that I could have lost this game quite easily as Fenerbache were definitely the better team at St James.

They took the lead through Humarci and were looking comfortable I managed to only get two shots on target in the whole game and fortunately for me we scored two goals.

Fenerbache did levels the game up by the end and the match finished 2-2.

Newcastle v Blackburn

One goal was enough to settle this game in the end and it was Darren Bent who got the goal with his 6^th in the last 5 games.

I was pleased with him and at the moment he was my best striker as Eduardo was in and out of the team with injuries and Jo hasn’t scored a competitive goal so far this season.

Newcastle v Bristol

A very one-sided match had the unsuprising result of a 4-1 home win with goals coming from Bent, Diaby and two from Tiago Motta.

Bristol City were very poor in this game and this justified their position in the league table. Next up was a trip to Old Trafford.

Newcastle v Manchester United

I was starting to get a good run of form and I was looking forward to this game and I was very confident that we could come home with all three points.

My prediction was correct and Jo scored his first goal of the season in the 63^rd minute which ended a goal-drought of three months without a goal for his new club. The title race was back on.

Newcastle v Everton

A disappointing result in the end as I felt that we were the better side over the course of 90 minutes however Everton are a notoriously hard team to beat and I could have had a little pride in the fact that I didn’t lose this game.

Newcastle v Birmingham

In the last game of the month I was set to play Birmingham and I was pleased with the 2-1 final result with both of the goals scored from Darren Bent as he was continuing his rich vein of form.

I couldn’t wait to continue this season as I was starting to pick up a lot of points.

Results

With 9 wins out of 13 games and 4 draws this was a very impressive two months and I was really starting to believe that the title was a realistic possibility this season.

League Table

After the last two months I had now climbed up into 3^rd position just three points behind Arsenal in 1^st with a game in hand.

I was also looking to see if I could keep this unbeaten league record going all season.

Thanks for reading

Warren