Part 97: Chapter the Eighth: In like a lion.
Chapter the Eighth: In like a lion.March 1, 2020-April 1, 2020
From the start of March through April Fool's Day the schedule gets progressively easier. It starts off with a near impossible ask, a trip to the Etihad to play second place Manchester City. City has lost just three games all year, and won every single home fixture. After that we host Liverpool, in the midst of another disappointing season but still showing some fight in 8th place. Then we get to ease up a bit, playing relegation bound Wigan and 15th placed Blackburn to finish out the month of March.
Shirra is tied for third on the Assists leaderboard. He's like our Raheem Sterling. He's also now described as a wonderkid, an appellation reserved for only the best young players.
Meanwhile, Bastable is presently the leading scorer in the entire Premier League. He's scored in each of the last five games, and in six of the last seven. I expected him to be good, it's why I was so eager to bring him to Europe from the football (and literal) desert of Qatar, but this is beyond all expectation. He and Shirra are 6th and 8th in average rating, making it very likely that they'll be on the Team of the Year and will get shortlisted for the Player of the Year award.
With Arsenal taking the Capital One Cup, finishing 6th in the league will grant Europa League qualification. Now we just need one of the top of the table clubs to win the FA Cup as well and we can qualify by finishing 7th.
Our young keeper on loan at Arsenal was the man between the sticks in their Capital One Cup final against Stoke. He acquitted himself admirably.
At Manchester City, March 2, 2020
Premier League
Why do I feel like we're walking into the lion's den? Bastable and Mujkic haven't left for Uzbekistan yet, so at least we have that going for us.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Petts, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Hurst, Johansen, Simpson, Bailey, Matko, Harrison.
We concede in the 11th minute, and what was already an uphill slog steepens to nearly verticle. We have a few chances following first blood, but can't make anything happen and City reasserts control over the match at the 25 minute mark. They add a second goal before the half and we're now trying to advance up a sheer cliff-face. It's not even that we're clearly outmatched, we had the same number and quality of chances as City did. But they're making full use of their opportunities while we are not.
With no other choice I send us out to attack, we might get blown out in the second half but our goal differential is going to be horrible regardless of the score in this game. The team rewards me by blowing another easy chance. When the final whistle blows the score remains the same, and we go down to defeat for the same reason we did against Tottenham. We failed ourselves, and now we're six points back of Europa League qualification with nine games to play.
Man City 2-0 Wrexham
Despite having just played two days earlier that dastardly down-under drip who manages the Australian team started both Bastable and Mujkic. And even so he couldn't manager to beat lowly Uzbekistan. I loathe him.
It's that time of year, when a young man has his thoughts turned to entering a youth academy and I scour them for superprospects.
vs. Liverpool, March 8, 2020
Premier League
Liverpool have improved as the season has gone on, but they've done about as well as we have across the whole season. We could give ourselves more room for error by winning this match, and we might need it. While our schedule does get somewhat easier after this match we still have to visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and play Arsenal on the last day of the season.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Standard
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Petts, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Hurst, Johansen, Simpson, Bailey, Matko, Harrison.
We boss Liverpool for the opening half hour, but the scoreboard remains blank. Liverpool play better from there on out, and we can't take advantage of our early display. At the hour mark, it's still scoreless, with just 9 shots between both teams. I set a more aggressive approach, and it nearly pays off but Shirra can't get his shot on target. When the game ends it's a bore draw. Not the worst result in the world, but not something that we should be very happy about. At least our defense played well.
Man of the Match: Stewart Lewis
Wrexham 0-0 Liverpool
Our own youth academy disgorges it's crop of 15 and 16 year olds, and this year the big prospect is Tim Jefferies.
Jeffries should be able to keep up with our foreign signings when it comes to his potential, but he's up against a lot of competition as a striker.
Mujkic is once again chaffing to go to a larger club, I expect I'll still be having this competition with him even when we're in the Champion's League. I may have mentioned this already, but I once had a player want to chat about moving to a bigger club the season after we had won the Champion's League.
That's rich, coming from a guy who is going to be coaching in the Championship next season.
vs. Wigan Athletic, March 14, 2020
Premier League
Wigan is not mathematically locked into a relegation spot yet, but with just 18 points and a full 10 points between them and safety they're essentially finished. We need to win this game.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Attack
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Petts, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Hurst, Johansen, Simpson, Bailey, Matko, Harrison.
The start goes exactly as planned, we backfoot Wigan immediately and score before three minutes have passed. We control throughout, allowing Wigan a mere four shots all match, and our persistence is rewarded with Bastable's second goal late in the second half. That seals the win, and we accomplish exactly what we set out do to. It's an excellent pick-me-up after a tough run of games.
Man of the Match: Rocky Bastable
Wrexham 2-0 Wigan
Bastable is a regular feature these days in the team of the week, and he's run his lead in goals scored up to three over his closest competitor for the Golden Boot.
I'm in contention for the Liverpool job. You better hope they don't offer it to me, I have to take that interview if they give it to me.
I think I've shown a lot of loyalty to this club already, thank you very much. I've turned down probably 20 job interviews at this point.
But Liverpool instead decides to go with a retread. I'll admit I was hoping to get a job interview so I could force the Wrexham board to pay me as well as the top echelon of managers in the world.
I'm withdrawing our first team players from the friendlies, I can't risk them getting injured with a spot in Europe on the line.
At Blackburn Rovers, March 21, 2020
Premier League
Blackburn's had a rough season, but they beat us when we played at the Racecourse grounds in November. I'm going to play them straight up, it really helps us that our last set of matches have come at a weekly pace, allowing me to play the same squad without needing to become concerned about the player's fitness.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Standard
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Petts, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Hurst, Johansen, Simpson, Bailey, Matko, Harrison.
The Rovers jump all over us from the start, and I gesticulate wildly to the players to move them into position to riposte when Blackburn overextends. It works immediately, the Rover's defense finds itself backpedaling frantically as Petts, Shirra, and Bastable racing up the center of the pitch and Shirra finishing off the move with a well placed shot. The second half gives us both possession and opportunities in the opening minutes, but Shirra can't bag his brace nor can Bastable beat the keeper on his breakaway attempt. It's no matter, later in the game we score when a Petts free kick crosses the penalty area to find Bastable all alone. The Bastard has plenty of time to settle the ball and pick out his shot. The Blackburn keeper can't save this one. It's a convincing win, and moves us momentarily into seventh place. It also runs Kovacevic's streak of not allowing a goal to 317 minutes, or more than three and a half games. That's impressive, especially given that our back line is by a good margin our worst aspect as a team.
Blackburn 0-2 Wrexham
Our third Musketeer from the midseason reinforcements is finally healthy again. That's very good, as Chris Todd has been in a very poor run of form and Boumsong's health gives me a legitimate third option at centerback.
It'd be nice to win one of these televised games. I feel like we're a jobber brought in for the crowds to jeer before the popular club steps into the ring and beats us about the head and neck with a metal chair.
One Mr. Petts, Dick to his friends, joins the Bastard Team of the Week, along with half the Swansea team. Swansea beat Crystal Palace resoundingly, this past week, but more importantly they only managed a draw against Cardiff. That gives both of them four points in the Cwp, two behind our total. With no more games against Cardiff or us, Swansea will not be taking home the title this year. Cardiff has one more game against us, coming up on April 25th. If we win or draw, we win the Cwp. If we lose, it goes to Cardiff. Welsh supremacy will be on the line.
If you're wondering where the youth signings are, there haven't been any. I haven't found anyone that we can afford given our current wage budget crunch and depleted transfer budget that I view as worth bringing in. Youth signings at this point essentially have to have the potential to be contributors on one of the 10 best clubs in the world, as that's where we'll be in the 5 years when they're ready to play.
Hey, maybe one of these days the sale of Southampton will actually happen. If this charade drags out like the last two have it'll screw up yet another transfer window for the club.
Seven points is as many as we could have expected from those four matches. It puts us tied on points but behind on goal differential with 7th placed Reading. With six more games to play we've got a mix of hard, moderate, and easy matches remaining. Chelsea and Arsenal will be very tough matches where we can't expect points, but we should be able to beat one of Cardiff or Reading. We play Stoke between those two matches. Stoke has fallen to pieces after their blazing hot start, suffering an 11 game winless streak. They've righted the ship some by beating weak sisters Wigan and Norridge, but we should be able to take them. There's also a match against Norwich that by all rights we should win. We can absolutely take home 7th place this season, and we have a realistic hope of finishing 6th. Both would be immense accomplishments for this club, and going to play in Europe would be a huge reward to the players who've worked so hard to get us here.
