I am the manager of Crystal Palace in the Mystify soccer game.
One of the joys of following all forms of football is the fact that the coaches and managers tend to use the same cliches and metaphors week in and week out, no matter what the details of the sport. This page gives me a chance to exercise my creativity with some Manager's comments on the results of my team in the Mystify game.
| Week 1 | Chelsea | (Away) | Lost 0-3 | ||
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Its a poor start to the season, there's no mistake about that.
Chelsea play at the level we aspire to. They have a great
squad, and I expect they will bounce straight back up the Premiership
this season, but if we want to play in the Premiership we have
to be at least competitive in games like this.
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| Week 2 | Burnley | (Home) | Drew 1-1 | ||
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Its another poor result. We need to be performing much better than
what we are. Its almost as if we have stalled in our progress at
the start of this season. We need to right the ship quickly or
we'll spin down into the Second Division.
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| Week 3 | Bournemouth | (Away) | Won 2-1 | ||
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Its certainly an improvement on last week. Maybe we can put that
down to recovering from the shellshock of the Chelsea match.
Even so, we need to be mentally a lot tougher than that. Its
a long season, and there's not much to choose between a number
of the clubs, so we have to win the battles mentally as well
as on the pitch.
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| Week 4 | Aston Villa | (Home) | Won 1-0 | ||
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Its good to have managed two in a row, but really we're just
taking it one week at a time, and doing our best to play
consistent football. Unfortunately the injuries to our strikers
limits our flexibility for next week, but we need to rise to
meet that challenge.
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| Week 5 | Derby County | (Away) | Lost 2-1 | ||
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We played with a comparatively young team, and in the end it was
experience and consistency that won the day. I thought we took it
right up to them in the first half, but we didn't get the goals
on the board, and the lads started to get rattled in the second
hald, so we came away with nothing.
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| Week 6 | Manchester United | (Home) | Won 3-0 | ||
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It was a home game against a team that looks bound for relegation
this season, so it was really important that we managed a win today.
Normally we would have gone in with three up front, but injuries
limited who was available to us. Nevertheless, we were able to find
the route to goal, and I'm very pleased with the performance today.
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| Week 7 | West Ham United | (Away) | Drew 2-2 | ||
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I know its Christmas, and the lads' thoughts are with their families,
but the level of professionalism just wasn't there today. There
was just a lapse in concentration at the back, and its cost us
the chance to come away with all three points. At the end of the day
its little incidents like that that can make the difference between
a successful season and a very ordinary one.
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| Week 8 | Tranmere Rovers | (Home) | Won 1-0 | ||
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There is a real logjam at the head of the table right at the moment,
so its very important that we manage to take points off our rivals.
Overall I was pleased with the effort the lads put in, although
I would have liked to have seen a bit more out of our strikers.
We've got Wimbledon next week, so that will be the real test of our progress this season.
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| Week 9 | Wimbledon | (Away) | Won 1-0 | ||
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We didn't face Wimbledon at full strength today, so lets not get carried
away, but it is an important win for us. Winning the league is about
winning matches week in and week out, so its important to be able to
take advantage of the times when other teams aren't at their peak. Its
a dog eat dog league, and they'd do the same to us.
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| Week 10 | West Bromwich Albion | (Home) | Won 2-1 | ||
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It was another good effort by the lads. We're still lacking a bit of real
quality up front, so it was a huge relief to me when young Loria
scored in stoppage time. The league is shaping up to be a real scrap
at the moment, so we have to mak ethe most of our opportunities.
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| Week 11 | Leicester City | (Away) | Won 4-2 | ||
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Once again we had the opportunity to take it up to opposition
who had been weakened through injury, and I'm very pleased with
the way we went about it. The lads were absolutely on fire in
the first half hour or so, and for once we were able to convert
that into goals.
It was a little disappointing the way that we relaxed after that, and in particular giving them two goals in the last 15 minutes may turn out to be costly. We missed out on promotion by goal difference last season, so we know how much each goal can count at the end of the season.
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| Week 12 | Southampton | (Home) | Won 2-0 | ||
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Southampton came out and they played tough football against us. I'm
pleased with the way the lads responded to that. We were 1-0 up for
about an hour during the course of the game and they never let us
feel we had the game won until the final whistle blew.
We have a run of games at home at the moment, so its important that we make the most of it and take as many points as possible here.
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| Week 13 | Brentford | (Home) | Won 2-0 | ||
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Obviously its a good result, and I'm very pleased to see us leading
the league, but it doesn't pay to get too comfortable. Being on top
after 13 weeks is all very well and good, but being on top after 30
weeks is the only thing that counts.
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| Week 14 | Blackburn Rovers | (Away) | Won 6-2 | ||
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I have to admit I was a bit nervous halfway through the first half,
when they were 2 goals up, and their home fans were really getting behind
them. But Loria's goal before half time gave us a bit of a sniff,
and then we just kept piling on the prssure until they cracked.
I know I've said it before, but I really don't think you'll see a much better performance than the first 20 minutes of the second half. We applied pressure,a nd then we took adavantage of the weaknesses we found. Four goals in 15 minutes is probably more than we would have expected, but its what we deserved for that effort.
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| Week 15 | Charlton Athletic | (Home) | Won 3-0 | ||
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Its hard to be too critical when the lads have scored 15 goals in
the last 8 days or so. But its only half way through the season,
and we've been very lucky with injuries so far, touch wood.
The real test comes next week, against Chelsea. Even under their new management, they do have a formidable squad, so it'll just be a case of which team can piece it together best as a team on the day.
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| Week 16 | Chelsea | (Home) | Won 1-0 | ||
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It was a good tight game, and I think we proved something to the critics
today. Its one thing to beat teams who have been struck by injury, or
those whose squads aren't quite up to scratch, but today we showed we can
match it against some of teh best individual players in the country.
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| Week 17 | Burnley | (Away) | Drew 0-0 | ||
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You'd like to think taht we could have gone on winning indefinitely,
but Burnley play good tight football and we just couldn't work a way
through their defense today. All credit to Burnley. They are a better team
than their ranking in the league might suggest.
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| Week 18 | Bournemouth | (Home) | Won 6-2 | ||
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We've scored 6 goals today, with no multiple goal scorers. I think
thats one of our strengths as a team -- we can always find a way to
goal. If one of our strikers has an off day, or is well held by an
opponent, thats not necessarily going to stop us scoring.
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| Week 19 | Aston Villa | (Away) | Won 1-0 | ||
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In a way, Villa are out traditional rivals. We were up in the premiership with them, and now we're down in the first division together. I don't know about the fans, but to me, its always a good feeling when we can beat them. I'm very pleased with the result, although I am a little disappointed that young de Kruyf picked up a yellow card late in the game. He has to learn to watch his temper.
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| Week 20 | Derby County | (Home) | Drew 1-1 | ||
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Well, we've led for 83 minutes of the match, but in the end Derby were good enough to grab a share of the points. If you'd asked me before the match, I'd have told you I'd be happy with this result, so I guess I am happy, but holding the lead for the whole match and then losing it right at the end, it takes it out of you.
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| Week 21 | Manchester Unites | (Away) | Won 3-0 | ||
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There are some very talented lads playing at United, but they are a bit down on confidence with the way the season is going. Our young lads came to the fore in this game, which was very pleasing for me. Regardless of the result, I was pleased to see the game being played the way we have been trying to teach the lads to play.
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| Week 22 | West Ham United | (Home) | Won 1-0 | ||
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Football is a funny game isn't it? Sometimes you play great football ad come away with nothing, other times, you play with no convinction and end up winning. We were lucky to get away with it today, and if West Ham had won a few more games in the last few weeks, I think that little bit of extra confidence would have got them over the line.
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| Week 23 | Tranmere Rovers | (Away) | Lost 0-1 | ||
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I suppose that if you look at it philosophically, we couldn't expect the winning streak to last forever, but its always disappointing to come out on the wrong end of a loss. We just need to learn from the experience, and make sure that we improve for next week.
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| Week 24 | Wimbledon | (Home) | Won 5-1 | ||
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It was very pleasing that we were able to bounce straight back after last week's result. They were always going to struggle after their keeper was sent off, though. The penalty was definitely there, but I think they can feel a little hard done about the red card.
Still, the important thing from our perspective is that we were able to respond in a positive fashion, and grabbing three goals in those few minutes before half time while Wimbledon were still sorting themselves out was absolutely vital in the context of the game. The second half wasn't pretty, but it was pleasing to see that the lads were still trying to score, even with a three goal lead already on the board.
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| Week 25 | West Bromwich Albion | (Away) | Won 2-1 | ||
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West Brom are definitely a class outfit. There is no doubt about that in my mind. I would expect that they'll be challenging for a promotion spot next season, which to me just makes it all the more important that we earn promotion this season. If we don't get it this year, it will be even harder next year.
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| Week 26 | Leicester City | (Home) | Won 2-0 | ||
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Leicester is one of the teams that we have struggled to beat in the past, so its pleasing that we were able to get the result here.
There are a lot of young lads at the club, and we are trying to keep a lid on things. We have had a great season this season, but we have to keep striving and make sure we can claim some silverware, even if it is only from the second best league in the land. Even if we win the league this season, that will still only leave us as the 17th best club in the country, and we have to keep striving and building to improve on that.
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| Week 27 | Southampton | (Away) | Won 3-2 | ||
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The lads weren't too happy at being a goal behind at half time, but I felt that that was about what we deserved from the level we were playing at. I'm pleased to say that the performance improved significantly in the second half, and we played the kind of football I am looking for.
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| Week 28 | Brentford | (Away) | Won 1-0 | ||
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We've had two games on the road now, and I think we've stood up to that challenge pretty well. These performances have sealed our spot in the Premier League, and now its up to us to show that we deserve to be there.
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| Week 29 | Blackburn Rovers | (Home) | Won 4-0 | ||
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I'm very pleased with the performance today. We're top of the division, and they 're 14th, so you'd expect that we should play a bit better than them, but football is about living up to expectations, and not assuming that a win will come just because its expected. The lads worked hard today, and they worked hard for each other as a team, and thats the most pleasing aspect of what I saw today.
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| Week 30 | Charlton Athletic | (Away) | Drew 1-1 | ||
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Today's performance was a bit disappointing really. We've played pretty much our best possible team, and we've really struggled against a First Division team. We're aspiring to be a force in the Premier League, and Premier League teams don't produce results like this against First Division teams. Its really higlighted the gap between where we are now as a team and where we are aspiring to be.
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© 2001 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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