The Alan Thompson Chronicles

2013-11-04 18:42#141745 AaronHJFT96 : Your updates are really well worded! They're great, I'll definitely follow like I did your last Alan Thompson story, and this time I can follow from the start:P

Thanks! I try to be as articulate as possible whenever I write my stories, so I'm happy that someone appreciates it.

C'mon, C'MON... I want more.

You should publish this stuff man. Good read.

Not a bad start to your coaching career.

Part 5: The Last Furlong

Alan dumped his body in the worn out office chair in the managements office. Alan was behind on his game reports. He had been strongly advised to convert his notepad to game reports to keep track of his thoughts of each game he played. The first one was fun, but as the run-in seemed to intensify it got harder and harder to find the time. Alan had the task to oversee the last 4 games of the season. It could become 6 games if Olsa Brakel at the end of the season found themselves in 16th place also known as the play off spot. Alan's first game in charge was the 4-2 victory away against FCV Dender. The following training session had seen even more tactical training as Alan wanted the team to be fully on board with his ideas. He had lifted his early crosses and long shots ban, but asked the team to keep it to an absolute minimum.

Alan got his notepad out of the bag. He could quite easily fill up 15 pages of scribbles during a game. Taking note of mismatches with players against their opposite number during a game or where there could be holes to exploit during a game. As he flicked past the FCV Dender pages he noted that some of the diagrams he had drawn hadn't paid off as well as he had hoped. He got to the pages containing the Turnai away game. The first page was filleted with the Brakel line up and a quick note on their direct opponent. Alan had also counted out where he predicted each team might have their strengths and weaknesses. He had later on crossed out some of his predictions as they weren't as powerful as he had hoped. One of the predictions which held true was that Christof Maes, who were starting in the absence of Jelle Delie, would be quicker than the opposition's two centre backs. Midway through the first half a deep ball was passed through the Turnai back line, Maes was the first one on the ball and slotted the ball into the net. As Alan flicked through the pages and made a few notes on the different assignments, he had asked Kylian Butseraen to get further back and assist the two centre backs. Kylian had done this almost to perfection and Alan remarked this in the report. The game had ended with Maes' goal being the only one in the game and a good 1-0 away victory for Olsa Brakel.

The next game was Alan's first home game, it was against Londerzeel. The line up and predictions on the first page of the game was almost entirely crossed over. Alan had become quite frustrated during the game when none of his predictions had come true. The players didn't seem to follow his instruction when he tried to change things and everything had become a bit bland. The game had ended with no goals, Alan reckoned that the game would've been good in American Football terms as a lot of the shots had gone high above goal. Alan had remarked that despite the good defensive effort and the players in the back's ability to keep possession he would mark the game as a bad one that needed a lot of improving.

Alan logged on to the Belgian FA's website where he could see the current standings in the league. It turned out that Olsa Brakel had the same amount of points as the team that currently occupied the relegation playoff spot. However Olsa Brakel had a much better goal difference. Olsa Brakel's last game of the regular season would be against Rupel Boom, the top team of the league, the team that had already been promoted, the team that had scored 14 points more than their closest rivals, and the team with a goal difference of +37. Alan hoped that Rupel Boom would just sit back and relax so Olsa Brakel could get the easy win and continue their life in the Belgian third division, but he knew this wasn't going to happen.

Wow, another amazing articulate update. It is good to see that some of the things are going right, but bad that some are going wrong. In terms of finances and facilities, how are Osla Brakel going, and where do you see your (Alan's) future?