Bonjour and happy Vendredi! Welcome back to Bayonne, where I’ve managed to assemble a squad of 17 players in time for the start of the Ligue 2 season, which isn’t bad considering the limited pool of players I have to sign from. Wish us luck, I think we’re going to need it…

This is the lineup I’ve gone with to start the season. I expect it’ll change a bit throughout the campaign until I find my best team, but I’m sticking with the trusty old 2-3-1-2-2 from the off, so expect plenty of goals at both ends…

Normally I like to cover 15 games each week (a fixture screen’s worth), but in my Wolves blog, I even bored myself at times when enduring three seasons of second tier football, so I’ll try and cover half a season each week this time, at least while we’re in the 2nd division anyway.

Louhans are up first, and what better way to start the season than with a six-goal thriller? This is going to be anything but boring…

I have no idea if a Desmond away at Martigues is a good result or not, and I guess I won’t really know until halfway through the season..

I do know that this is a good result though. That’s a second hat trick in three games for Double D, what a signing he’s proving already!

Looks like I might have jinxed him by saying that, but his strike partner, and ACG provide half the goals in a second Desmond at Niort…

We’re back to winning ways at home to Nimes, as Luke announces himself to the Stade Jean-Dauger faithful in style by scoring the winner..

After six games, we get our first taste of defeat at Le Mans. Something tells me this is going to take more than 24 hours to recover from…

Our next opponents may be Nice by name, but they’re certainly not that by nature, and we slump to a second defeat on the bounce…

All is well again when we beat the Beauvais Buttheads, as Double D reappears with a brace after going missing for the last four matches…

Three of our front four really are firing on all cylinders at the minute, and they’re all on the score sheet again as we brush aside Gueugnon.

A trip to Caen turns out to be more a case of Caen’t, as we draw a blank for the second time in four games, and fall victim to a late winner..

I was quick to mock Gurria for having 7 for shooting, but that’s now 8 goals in 11 games, and his latest is a late winner at Sochaux…

Our keeper gets sent off at Lorient, but it’s the ref who’s the villain, as he denies us a point by disallowing an 80th minute equaliser. Pfff…

Francko goes a long way towards atoning for his red card by saving a pen against Valence before Luke comes off the bench to win it…

A week later, we make it back to back wins with an emphatic win over Mulhouse. Hopefully Dave will accept my apologies!

I’ve tried to be sensible with signings (plus no one really wants to join), but I finally spot a worthy investment in Oscar Alkorta, younger brother of Rafa. I was hoping that as our sister club, Bilbao might help me out a bit with the price, but £700k doesn’t seem terrible value…

Oscar’s debut away at table toppers Nancy only lasts an hour, and a late show isn’t quite enough to nullify a Tony Cascarino hat trick…

A week later, Lethal Luke levels with Laval after a lacklustre start, but we’re only back in it for nine minutes, and it’s another defeat…

But the losing run is broken in some style away at Toulon, as Jandro, who’s filling in for the injured ACG, gets two of our four goals…

We look to have kindly gifted two points to Amiens after they equalise with six minutes to go, but Luke fires in an even later winner. Yes!

ACG scores one penalty and misses another at Troyes. It’s a comfortable win in the end, but we’re lucky they have two goals disallowed…

After four straight wins, we just can’t find a way past an inspired Jerome Alonzo in the St. Etienne goal, and have to settle for just a point.

Luke The Nuke hits a bullseye to make it six goals in as many games before Double D seals a business-like away win at Red Star 93…

And just like that, we’re halfway through the season, and sit pretty in second. I literally had no idea what to expect at the beginning, and despite losing six games, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well my bunch of mostly-free Basque misfits have performed so far.

It’s very tight at the top though, and our cushion over fifth place is just two points at the minute, so while promotion at the first attempt is a possibility, it’s far from a certainty.

We finish this week’s action with a bonus cup game. I don’t have the luxury of being able to field an entirely different 11, but the few changes I do make are enough to see us make light work of all-grey St. Brieuc and go through to face a much tougher test in Auxerre. Oh joy..

Here’s a quick look at how the squad is coming along. As I said before, I’m keeping it small for now in the hope that better players will want to join us as time goes by, but I’ve been more than happy with how things have gone so far…

So that’s probably a convenient place to leave it for this week. Thanks for joining me as always, and I hope you’ll return next time for the second half of the season as we continue our promotion push. There’s also that cup game with Auxerre, which is sure to be fun (probably for them). See you soon. Au Revoir!