Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Serie C Cup time. We faced Taranto in the semi-final and managed to win 2-1 away from home. An easy 3-0 home result saw us win 5-1 on aggregate and we were through to the final! So, we faced Alessandria in the two-legged final. First up was the away leg. Fairly easy. An easy goal settled the nerves and we weren't really tested. Home leg was a week after... Yay! Might have been a penalty that won it for us, but 2-0 on aggregate is decent enough. Overall, our record this season looks like so. Very good set of results. There was no real challenge, but we weren't expected to win at all, so it was good to do so. Conceding only the one goal was quality too! Now to concentrate on the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Right. We have four games left of the league season and twelve points to play for. It's looking like it's me and Modena battling it out for top spot, although I guess Reggiana are still in contention. The league table looks like this: So we're five points behind the leaders. Reggiana are nine points behind. It's between us three for the Serie C/1 title. The fixture run-ins look like this: Modena Pro Vercelli Reggiana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 I fear we may have fallen at the first hurdle. Reggiana certainly did. It's between me and Modena now. Easy win for the league leaders. We don't half leave it late, eh? Reggiana crumble in the hands of Ravenna. Meaning the top of the league now looks like this. Seven points behind, and only nine to play for. Modena will really need to bottle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Three games left then. We did our part. When Ledesma missed the penalty, I thought that this wasn't going to be our day. Managed a good performance though and a vital three points. Could Pavia do us a favour? No. Need to win the play-offs then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 It's the end of the league campaign now, and the table finished looking like this Very happy with that. A positional improvement from last season and a better points tally too. The league was a lot tighter this season, though, as my 55 points from last season would have still seen me in the play-offs and not just outside. The second half fixtures were like this Decent enough I guess. The results against Bassano and Cittadella were annoying. I was 3-0 up against Bassano at half time! Cittadella scored in the last minute too. Both games were cracking from a neutral perspective though. Libertazzi is a goal machine, and he joins on a PCA next season which is great. Scardina would have scored a lot more than he did too if he wasn't injured for three months. So, we're in the play-offs now, and in the semi-final we play Portosummaga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 So, Portosummaga were the opposition in the play-off for promotion to Serie B. I've played them twice this season so far, and failed to win in both, getting a draw away and losing at home. It was going to be a tough fixture, and we played them away first... Bollocks. I knew it was going to be tough but we really were bad and didn't deserve anything from the game at all. The late away goal does us a massive favour though. Here goes... Me and my team are being convicted for rape. That was an absolute demolition. The two own-goals were deflections off the bar, which was fairly lucky, but we were excellent and probably could have won by more. Incredible result. That's us into the play-off final now. Where we will face... A.C. Reggiana 1919. Again, it's a two-legged fixture, and we play away from home first. Forza Pro Vercelli! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Time for Reggiana then... It's worth nothing that in the two times I've played Reggiana this season, they have won both times, winning 2-0 in their home tie and beating us 2-1 at the Silvio Piola. Here goes. Half time: Reggiana 0-1 Pro Vercelli. Happy enough with that. Good goal from second-highest goalscorer, Scardina. They equalise. Not really deserved, I feel. Hilarious goal to concede! Own goal, and it just hits off his own player. Brilliant! Full time: Reggiana 1-2 Pro Vercelli. One foot into Serie B. We need a professional performance at home to see them off and progress. Forza Pro Vercelli! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Second leg. The game kicked off. I led 2-1 from the first leg, with two vital away goals. Vechionne!! The right winger signed from Stuttgart puts us 3-1 up on aggregate in the first half. Great header into the bottom corner. Good cross from Depritis who comes in for the injured Lesesma. Cheap corner to give away and we pay for it. They take their chance and score from it. 3-2. Second half is under way. 3-2 to Pro Vercelli on aggregate. So far, it's Bianchi who make Serie B. LIBERTAZZI! His 22nd league goal of the season puts us in the lead again. Excellent cross from Vechionne. 4-2 on aggregate, and it promotes us to Serie B. Brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamboMikey Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Good thread, will read again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 Now since I'm in Serie B, where things will get tough, I'll do monthly updates. August 2013. We played a few pre-season fixtures but I wouldn't take any notice of the results. The team was shattered, so for all of them I put out the youths/reserves. The cup games were the important ones. The friendlies were for money. Cup games: An easy win against Lucchese, and an excellent win AET against Serie A Reggina. It's safe to say we were a bit lucky but it was an excellent result, and the never-say-die attitude is pleasant. We play Serie B side Sassulo in the next round of the Coppa. In the transfer market, we were quite busy, signing the majority of those we had on loan contracts to full-time contracts. De Paola, Bagnai, Libertazzi, Ferrero and Gavenazzi were all on loan last season, and Gianni makes a return after a decent loan spell when we were in the C1/A the first time. Paghera is a DM/CM with great potential and should benefit with the DM's we already have in place, Firmani and Carboni. Berger is a striker with excellent potential on loan from Lazio. I signed a few more players, but they're all youths and players who need a while to progress, so I edited them out of that. Here's the squad I'll be tackling Serie B with. I reckon that's decent enough. It's essentially the squad we had last season but with more depth, but they've played together for a few years now, which should be highly beneficial. There are obviously other players who I can draft in if injuries pursue. We started off the league campaign against two of the favourites for promotion: ...and it's safe to say that they're both excellent result. The win against Cesena is brilliant and we really deserved to win, and the game against Lecce... ...was difficult to swallow. After being 2-0 up I just set everything to DEFEND LIKE f**k but it never paid off. We were caught out by two set-pieces and only managed a point. Certainly a very good result nonetheless. After two games, the Serie B table looks like so: And I shall be continuing this at a later date. The first two results were really pleasing and give me confidence that we might not be stuck at the bottom, scraping points off the likes of those we got promoted with, but I wouldn't be quite so confident yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 September 2013. Brilliant. Our unbeaten run in the league continues, only one of three teams to have not lost yet, and we haven't conceded in three games. 6th is amazing. We haven't faced a team above us, yet, as the league starts to open up a little, but the teams sitting mid-table we've played and not managed to lose against. I would also call the teams we've played decent-sized names, but I'd say most teams in Serie B are - compared to what we're used to playing anyway. My first real test comes up against Pescara away next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 October 2013 Seems to have went the same way as September, almost. I didn't deserve to win against Pescara at all. I really don't know how the team pulled it off. Drawing against Grosseto was disappointing, but only because I was 3-1 up. I still can't really complain about that. We suffered our first Serie B defeat to the arms of Hellas Verona, who were on a five-game winning streak, so that's understandable - plus, it was a mid-week game away from home. Drawing against Modena was disappointing because we got promoted with them, but winning away to Piacenza more than made up for it. We seem to be conceding a lot of goals now, but I'm putting this solely down to my first-choice right back, Bagnai, being injured. We'll soon find out, when he comes back, if it's down to him or not. It annoys me that I can say I'm disappointed with performances, because I'm really not. Every time we go ahead I panic and think "we're going to lose this now". Perhaps my team's a lot better than I think, but a some of this squad has been with us since we were in C2/A... Anyway, it means the league table looks like this: Three points off top, ten points off the relegation spot. Easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 November 2013 Our form started to slip up this month, but it was going to happen at some point. The games against AlbionoLeffe and Benevento were hard losses to take because of how badly those teams were performing in the league (Benevento recording their only win of the league against us) but the two games were did win we deserved to do so. We were unlucky against Frosinone but there's a reason they're doing so well. 7th is still a very decent position to be in. Still ten points off relegation, so we need to keep up form in what's a very tight league, but I reckon we'll continue getting the vital wins we need - and I would be delighted with a top half finish. The board said I should try and avoid relegation, and the media said I was going to finish 22nd, so anything better than that is certainly progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin_Nevis Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Good thread Smurph. I find stuff like this pretty interesting. I may need to obtain FM to try something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Thanks for the comment, Jupe. I was getting worried with the lack of comments that no-one was interested and I'm just rambling on to myself! December 2013 It wasn't the greatest month for Pro Vercelli. Berger, who has been excellent on loan from Lazio, was injured, so our goals dried up a little. Can't blame it solely on that though. Bagnai came back and our defence performed a little better, but this month's fixtures were always going to be tough. Disappointing to go out the cup, but it means we can concentrate on the league I guess - just we're aiming for as high as possible. The league loss was disappointing too. Empoli result wasn't surprising at all. They've been scoring for fun. The result against ChievoVerona was one of the weirdest I've even been in. Some game though. I've uploaded the highlights to YouTube. There's a lot of bad marking for the corners but some decent goals too. That one win means the table looks like this: Ten off promotion, ten off relegation. Mid-table beckons going by the first half of the season. Very happy with that, and long may it continue. The only worry is that my best players will get taken from the bigger clubs in the league. Three days into January already, and I've had several bids. Hopefully the board don't intervene again, although I wouldn't blame them. The board asked if I would like to change my season expectations. I changed from "attempt to avoid relegation" to simply "avoid relegation". I reckon that's certainly do-able. My initial transfer budget and wage budget were €600K and €40K p/w, but that's now been upped to €2M and €60K p/w. Excellent to see the club making a profit like that, meaning we should hopefully be able to challenge in a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widge Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Put massive asking prices on your players heads, that will ward off bids and sometimes idiot chairmen. Also it's te same on SUSIE, your treads getting read, but nobody ever comments unless you're in the clique. Mind you I read that site, but when I signed up it never let me post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Yeah, I know. SUSIE's quite weird for that. I post quite a lot and thought I was liked but still no comments on my career January 2014 Fairly uninspiring. Not a lot happened. A few comings and goings in the transfer market, me signing a young striker and a RM/LM who'll do for back-up, and a few youths going out on loan, but nothing more than that. Not too bad. We were 2-0 up against Cesena which was annoying. Table isn't looking as good as it was before but it's still decent. It's an incredibly tight league, where anyone seems to be able to beat anyone, so in a few games the whole table could change. Except for the bottom. Poor Benevento. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 February 2014 I think we're in a relegation battle now... Yeah. We've been absolutely rotten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzle Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Really good read Smurph, couple of wins a good mid table season would be another good year to build on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperCaleyGoBallistic Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Enjoying this, Smurph. I might try something similiar once I get bored of my Inverness season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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