Notts County Story: April 2014 – The Roller Coaster

The next game was at Wembley, the Nottingham Derby again but this time in the FA Cup semi final. Manchester United had a league game to play on that day, they won 1-0 at West Ham so we were tied at 77 points now but we had three games in hand. Anyway, back to Wembley… Forest outplayed us in the first 20 minutes of the game, they were looking determined to get revenge. We slowly took control of the match in the last part of the half and Sam Hinshelwood gave us the lead just before the break by finishing a team move. We doubled the lead only seven minutes into the second half, Defour lobbed the ball past Forest‘s defense, Sobis picked it up and powered it home. We took the foot off the gas but still managed to score one, Agnaldo deserved a goal after playing very well throughout the game. Arsenal will be our opponents in the final, luckily scheduled on the 17th of May.

Back to the Premier League, we had a tricky away game at Wolves only three days later. They were in 7th place after a very good season and the last meeting between the two sides ended with a win for us, a narrow 1-0 in the FA Cup back in February. We got off to a slow start and Wolves nearly punished us 10 minutes into the game, they missed a great chance. Sam Hinshelwood was in great shape though driving the team forward, he picked up an assist from Demba Ba and placed it into the back of the net. We took control of the game after the goal but the better ball possession didn’t convert in dangerous attacking moves, the team looked a bit uninspired. We continued to play a bit below par in the second half but Demba Ba finished a quick counter attack and the game was as good as over although there were around 20 minutes left to play. This was one of the three games we had in hand over Manchester United, so now we were 3 points clear with two games in hand.

We had another away game coming up, a more difficult one: at Anfield Road with 9th placed Liverpool. They had a disappointing season and they had to win the game in order to preserve any chances of getting an Europa League place. We won the home game 1-0 in December and I was hoping for a good result. Manchester United were continuing their good run, they beat Newcastle 2-0 the day before our game, so the pressure was on us again. The first half was fairly even overall but Liverpool were better than us in the first 20 minutes, they missed a couple of chances. We were looking much better after the break, we kept Liverpool under pressure in the first few minutes and Rafael Sobis converted that into a goal with a fabulous volley from the edge of the area. Liverpool reacted in style, they were pushing us back and Romero had to make a couple of great saves to preserve our lead. I was hoping to survive until the end of the game but it wasn’t to be, a harsh penalty decision brought them back level. I admit that it was the just result though, Liverpool deserved to get at least on e point.

We had to travel quite a few miles for the next game, it was the first leg of the Europa League semi final with CSKA Moscow. They had a very strong team, they knocked out Juventus and Stuttgart in the previous rounds and their squad featured some great names like Igor Akinfeev (goalkeeper), Alan Dzagoev (midfielder) and Vagner Love, the Brazilian striker. The first 25 minutes of the game were entirely ours, we were all over them but their keeper was in top form, he made four fantastic saves to keep the score level. There was nothing he could have done a few minutes later though, Sobis received the ball inside the box and he powered in! The keeper didn’t touch it but I think that it would have broken his arm if he would have reached it. Guilherme wrapped up a fantastic first half with a fine dribble and a perfectly placed shot from the edge of the area, I was extremely pleased with the performance. The second half saw CSKA trying to push forward but they were leaving huge gaps behind the defense. That gave Biglia the chance to play a perfect long ball for Guilherme, the Brazilian picked it up and lobbed it past the goalkeeper from 20 yards out, fantastic! CSKA were coming forward but Romero proved that he’s at least as good as Akinfeev and pulled off a few magnificent saves. The last 20 minutes were a bit more difficult as we had to play with only 10 men, Sobis got injured and I had already made all the substitutions. We were a bit under pressure but had another great chance on a counter attack a few minutes before the final whistle, unfortunately Guilherme missed it. That was a superb win and a great performance but we couldn’t enjoy it too much, the injury to Rafael Sobis was quite serious and he was going to be out for a full month! That could be a big blow considering that he scored 32 goals until that point of the season. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

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