1.6 Small Steps
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Welcome back, It’s been a few weeks but I am two seasons ahead of the blog so let’s catch up, today will be the first of two posts this week to catch the blogs up to the game and as you can see by the title we have made a bit of progress.
Pre-season
Pre-season was pretty standard, 6 games 4 wins a draw and a loss, 20 scored 10 conceded. Plenty of rotation and we go into the season ready.
September
A real welcome to the new season from AEK with them smashing us 6-1! At least we bounced back with a 3-1 win over PAS Giannina with goals from 3 new signings, Brkljaca (try pronouncing that) Boeckh and Phiri all scoring. We then held Olympiakos to a 0-0 draw before Aris put us to the sword late on after Boeckh equalised in the 88th minute. Not the best start to the season.
October
A 3-2 win vs Xanthi thanks to goals from Ioannidis, Kingsley and Boeckh before Panetolikos beat us easily, A 1-0 cup win to boost morale thanks to an own goal before we beat Panathinaikos 3-1 with Obregon at the double and Boeckh looking inspired.
November
Twice in two months we beat Apollon Smyrnis, this time 3-1 with another Obregon double either side of a Mitoglou header. OFI were then beat late with goals in 87 and 88 before we lost two on the bounce 2-1 vs Asteras Tripolis and PAOK. A stuttering start to the season to say the least.
December
We hadn’t been playing as bad as our results had been and December proved to be the month we matched performances and results. We started it with a 1-0 win away at Ionikos with a Ioannidis goal before beating Levadeiakos 3-0 with Halimi scoring before a Boeckh double wrapped up the game. AEK were no match for the inform Lamia as we beat them 2-1 with goals from Benitez and Halimi before wrapping up the month with a 3-0 win over PAS Giannina Briek, Boeckh and Halimi all grabbing a goal each.
January
We continued our good form by beating Olympiakos 3-2 with a late winner from Boeckh before Aris ended our winning run by beating us 1-0. Xanthi rubbed salt in the wound with a 3-0 drubbing. Luckily we bounced back with a 4-2 win over Panetolikos with goals from Halimi, Bakic, Obregon and Boeckh. Panathinakos held us to a 1-1 draw with Kingsley scoring. We beat Apollon Smyrnis for the third time this season (can we play them every week) with Brkljaca scoring.
Winter Window
No business of note this winter
February
Our form has been terrible this year. But 3 games without scoring is a new one. A 1-0 loss to OFI was followed with a 0-0 draw vs Asteras Tripolis before PAOK beat us 3-0. Thankfully we got 3 points vs Ionikos to end the month with a 2-0 win with Bakic and Phiri on the scoresheet.
March
Even though we lost 1-0 to Levadeiakos we have somehow fell into the Championship group ready for our annual whoopings from the top 5 teams, it starts with a 3-0 loss to PAOK before Olympiakos beat us 3-1 with Boeckh scoring.
April
A 3-1 win vs OFI with Benitez, Boeckh and Brkjaca all scoring was followed by a 2-2 draw vs Aris (Boeckh double) and then a 2-2 draw vs AEK with Obregon and Ioannidis scoring. PAOK then beat us 3-1 before Olympiakos beat us 2-1.
May
OFI beat us 3-0 before another 2-2 draw with Aris and we finished the season with a 1-1 draw vs AEK.
6th again, One day soon I’ll break into the top 5, next season is a big one as Greece have 5 spots for Europe.
We won’t be playing Apollon Smyrnis every week as they got relegated.
Summer transfers
Starting with the outs, two youngsters in Myrgiotis and Galamelos leave for small fees before Massolo gets snapped up by Udinese for 350,000.
Following the end of Obregon’s loan after his transfer to Porto last season I’ve spent big bring 14 goal loanee Thomas Boeckh back to the club for a massive €1.7m.
After last season we had a few leave at the end of their contracts and with no real money to spend to upgrade to help us take the next step I checked my scouted list for players that would be interested in loans. Then asked my Director of football to sign some and he brought in 5 players to improve the side. Before my chief scout came to me saying we needed to sign Maguette Coly so the DOF squeezed that one through too.
Knezevic is coming in to play as my Box to box midfielder in my new 442. Gavric will play as my left midfielder with Vasilj on the right. Lazetic will partner Boeckh up front. Coly will likely be centre back as soon as possible behind him will be Tzolakis in goal.
I’m hopeful these 7 new starters will strengthen the side enough to help us secure 5th to finally get us into europe.
It’s been a frustating few seasons after we seemed to overachieve the first season we have never gone beyond that since. Hopefully next year is our year.
Thanks for reading
Dan
