The wheels have come off my season. Not in a big way - I’m still in touch with the promotion spots. But it’s been a disappointment after getting off to such a good start.

Hammarby beat me 4-2 at my ground in the second round of the Cup. I went 1-0 up in the game and it would have been enough to take me through on away goals. But Hammerby just steamrollered me in the second half.

I’m 11th in the table and 10 points behind the current 3rd-placed team, Wigan Athletic. I’m only 11 games into a 38-game season, so it’s still feasible that I could haul Coventry City into the top 3 by the end.

I’m scoring enough goals to win and draw key games. But I’m conceding more goals than I’m scoring. I’m conceding ridiculous goals - goals like nothing I’ve ever seen before in any PES game.

A CPU free-kick within 30 yards of my goal is usually as good as a penalty.

Corners continue to be a problem - especially ‘blind’ corners from the opposite side of the pitch where the camera - even on Wide - cuts off my view of the six-yard box. Defending these is a matter of using the radar and some guesswork.

Ad hoc games of pinball take place around my box. My players are mysteriously incapable of passing to any of their team-mates, until a CPU player gets hold of it and rifles in a shot.

Occasionally, any old random CPU player will turn into the superhuman love-child of Maradona, Pele, Michel Platini, and Zinedine Zidane combined, and twisty-turn a slaloming path through my entire team until in on my goalkeeper. And then gently chip the ball into the net.

It’s crazy stuff, some of it.

I can’t complain about my goalkeepers. Friedel and Ivarov have been playing alternate games. They’ve both played really well, considering. One of the big complaints some people have about PES2008 is that the goalkeepers are poor. But I’ve yet to see either of mine palm the ball into the net.

Friedel in particular (still only 18) is shaping up to be a great shot-stopper, just like his real-life counterpart. But for some of his meaty slaps at the ball, my goals-against tally would be a lot higher. Thanks, Brad.

There are other plus-points too. Schwarz is the #1 goalscorer in the Division so far. He has 5 goals. Which doesn’t say much for the Division, but I’ll take it. Shimizu and Traore are joint-4th on the Assists table.

It’s a peculiar season. Neither one thing nor the other at this stage. In the previous two seasons, at least I knew where I was by now. I was bottom of the league.

This season is still in the balance. I’m mid-table. A good run is needed now, I think, for me to have any chance of going up to Division 1.

Played two, won two.

Yes, that really is my Coventry City, blurrily riding high in the #1 spot.

I won both games 1-0, playing well and scoring with Schwarz (he’s 19 now - they grow up so fast these days…) in the first game, and, crucially, Frutos in the second game. It’s reassuring to play with a solid striker at last.

Frutos’ goal was nothing special - a snapshot finish during a melee on the edge of the area. I scored it early in the first half of the second game, and spent the rest of the match defending for my life. My new CB, Rami, played in this match (Suzuki was unfit). Rami was immense. He seemed to head everything away from my goal. A commanding presence in the centre of defence is what I’ve been lacking.

I also played a first round game in the Division 2 Cup. I played Hammarby away. (I always seem to play Hammarby in the first round.)

They went 2-0 up before half-time. Both of their goals were among the worst of the worse goals I have conceded in PES2008. Here we go again, I thought.

I decided that I needed an away goal at the very least to take into the home leg and give me a chance. Shortly before full time, Macco came on as a substitute and I switched my formation to Strategy Plan B - the ultra-attacking 1-2-4-3 formation.

I got my reward in the 90th minute. It was a rare kind of goal for me. A sliding tackle on the right wing broke my way for once, and I passed inside to Macco, then jinked past a couple of defenders. After going on a rare dribble and getting in on goal I usually panic and blast it high and/or wide. But I kept my focus and executed a nice dinked finish past the Hammarby keeper.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuHRtfiHVH8&rel=1]

The game ended 2-1 to the hosts. I think I’ll turn them over back at my place.

The cup is a nice bonus - a way to earn extra spending points and experience for certain players, and it would be nice to win the D2 Cup before I hopefully leave the Division forever. But the league is the priority.

The league table right now means nothing. I won’t be taking my eye off the ball. Promotion is the ball. And I’m not taking my eye off it.