Hallo! and happy Freitag to you. It’s time to welcome in the weekend with another trip to Leipzig. Last week, after a tough start a change in formation brought a change in fortunes, and a run of 7 straight wins launched us up the table to 4th place, and we resume with a visit from Frankfurt…
We have faced them once this season already in the cup, where we recorded a 2-1 extra time win. Glaubitz is suspended, so Mota makes his debut at left back, and Leónidas replaces the injured Petkovic. After a goalless first half, and a combined 17 shots at goal in the second, it’s ends a stalemate, but it’s not a bad point for us.
Younga-Mouhani has been a revelation since joining on loan from Düsseldorf, and I notice that his value is rising rapidly, so I make his deal a permanent one for £300k, which I think is a great deal, especially after he didn’t ask for a big-club release clause!
An away trip to Fortuna Köln is next, and they’re managed by Bernd Schuster, who’ll manage Real Madrid one day. I can’t believe how many of the great 2001/02 Leverkusen side are scattered around in this division, as I recognise another one of them in Thomas Brdaric. Anyway, Glaubitz returns for Mota in our only change.
It’s level at half time after Younga-Mouhani cancels out Schmitt’s early opener, but we’ve posed the greater attacking threat between the two teams. The Congolese powerhouse vindicates my decision to splash £300k on him as he gets his second goal of the game on 72 minutes to win us the match, getting himself man of the match in the process.
We’re at home for the last game of the first half of the season, and welcome 17th-placed Wattenscheid. Petkovic returns, so Leónidas makes way. We lead at half time after an 8th minute goal from you know who, but the visitors have been much the better side.
Wattenscheid’s cause is not helped when their keeper is sent off 2 minutes into the second half, and Petkovic despatches the resulting penalty. It ends 2-0 but they definitely deserved something from the game. The win puts us 2nd at the halfway point… Wunderbar!
So back to the start we go. We had a tough start to the season, so hopefully we can avenge some of those results, starting with a trip to Nürnburg, who beat us 4-2 last time. We lead at half time via an early Rost goal, but the hosts have threatened.
Nürnburg turn the pressure up a notch in the second half, and get their reward just past the hour with 2 goals to take the lead. We have had plenty of chances to win this match, but we’ve come through a few close matches lately, so a defeat has been coming.
So Nürnburg do the double over us, and now Mainz, who beat us 2-0 last time, will be trying to do the same. They start strongly but we resist, and lead on 11 minutes through Younga-Mouhani. Rost is injured on 35, so Gomes is on. Sritong-In gets his first goal in 7 games to double our lead, and Younga-Mouhani makes it 3 just before half time.
An uneventful second half follows. Gomes is injured on 83 and replaced by Müller, before Younga-Mouhani scores his 10th goal in 14 games to complete his hat trick late on, and with it gets his 3rd man of the match award. Only a good result according to the board.
Rost is out for a month with broken ribs, and Gomes’ injury isn’t as serious and he’s only out for a week with a facial injury.
13th-placed Greuther Fürth are our last opponents before the winter break, so it will be nice to go into it with a win. Gomes has recovered and replaces Rost. It’s 0-0 at the break, and first halves don’t get much more even than this, with all the stats almost level.
When you can’t score from two goalmouth scrambles, you know there’s a problem and the longer it stays 0-0, the more I can see them scoring, which they do on 74 minutes. Our keeper was man of the match, but that’s our 3rd away defeat in 4 games, not good.
I spend most of the winter break rejecting bids and loan approaches. The only ones I’d be powerless to stop leaving if bigger clubs came in are Sritong-In, Müller and Kläsener, but I only receive bids for the latter, and thankfully only from teams in our division.
I’m not blessed with lots of transfer options, and the only interested foreign-based players are non-EU nationalities, so I’m pleased to see this guy pop up. His stats look good and he’ll expand our attacking options, and he’s a snip at just £91k from Sevilla.
There’s also one outgoing, as I let loanee Mager return to Mainz after just a single appearance.
We’re back to business with a visit from Uerdingen, who are 14th in the table. We beat them 1-0 last time, but they’ve strengthened a bit since then, and their signings include Uwe Rosler, who makes his debut today. Rost returns for Gomes, and new boy Loren is on the bench.
Keepers seem to get sent off for a pastime on this game, and after theirs sees red, Petkovic scores the penalty to give us a 3-0 lead, with goals from all 3 players behind our striker. Rosler gets a debut goal to make it 3-1 at half time. The second half is pretty quiet, with Uerdingen scoring out of nowhere to make it closer, and Loren makes his debut late on.
Our last game this week is away to Freiburg, who are 2nd, and beat us 1-0 the last time we played. We’re unchanged from the last match. It’s a predictably lively first half, and we take the lead somewhat against the run of play after 21 minutes through Sritong-In, and lead at the end of a half that has seen a total of 13 shots at goal.
Freiburg are determined to get an equaliser and bombard us in the second half, but we defend well and after some nervy moments, secure a great away win and a clean sheet to boot. Holzer gets yet another man of the match award, and the board say good result.
The win takes us up to the dizzying heights of 2nd, and just a point behind Jena who are top of the pile. We lead the way on goals scored, and our conceded column looks ok in comparison with the rest of the league. As you can see, there are no play-off places in this league, it’s just 3 up and 3 down, so we’re in the right place at the moment!
So that’s it for another week, see you next time as we’ll look to consolidate our place in the promotion spots. Abschied!