Oct/Nov Review

A huge backlog of writing coupled with a real lack of motivation just like in the previous post has meant there was little to no interest in reviewing what currently is the last six weeks and as such means this post will included the second half of October and the month of November as a whole.

Alike the last post, sport is the main focus but sadly the negatives far outweigh the limited positives for my four respective teams. Skelmersdale United ended October fairly well with wins at home to Witton and Stamford coupled with a draw and loss away to Blyth and Ashton.

November was a bad month overall with just one win which came on the fourth at home to Nantwich, defeats in cups to Workington and Nantwich saw a turn with a Senior Cup win over Widnes. The month also saw draws against Curzon, Matlock and two against Grantham meant they stayed top of the NPL with the only negative being a 4-1 loss at home to Ilkeston.

Since the last update, Liverpool have had a mixed run of form which included a new record for me by attending Anfield twice in the space of a week. A win away to QPR was followed by a bad defeat at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League. My attendances saw me take in a draw against Hull followed by a last-gasp Capital One Cup victory over Swansea.

November featured a miserable run with defeats to Newcastle, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Crystal Palace which were halted by a draw in Europe against Ludogorets and the sole win of the month over Stoke.

Despite the Super League and Academy season ending in early October, there was one last game for me to attend in 2014 which came just last week as Wigan U19s hosted the touring Australian Schoolboys and despite suffering a defeat, it was the final piece of what has become and may forever be my best year of attending games with a total of 49 games attended overall and 46 involving a Wigan side.

This year's goal of attending five away games seems primitive given that I attended 17 across all competitions and sounds even more amazing when my previous best overall was last year's haul of 25 games. Despite my finances not being as good as they used to be, I have renewed my season ticket for 2015 which will be my fifth as a fully paid member of the Warriors faithful.

October's biggest plus in terms of my teams was the form of the Washington Redskins who secured a narrow win over Tennessee before stunning rivals Dallas in Overtime. November was a woeful month though with a four game losing streak featuring defeats to Minnesota, Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Indianapolis.

On a personal level, the only notable career progress saw another rejection when I applied for a media position in Leyland but to give some positive to a negative year of career searching, my freelance writing has seen me published on two popular websites. Vibe Tickets saw me feature with two articles but the second outlet -Serious About Rugby League has seen me published four times and the success of the posts led to me becoming part of the site itself as a features contributor.

The negatives from career searching have dampened my motivation for gaming with the traditional hours of playing in a day dropping to just an hour at best on some days but despite that I have increased my game collection as a whole after scoring some tough completions and also have formed a co-op partnership with fellow gamer Tonyboykid which hopefully will improve my charge towards further gaming goals and means I will not just be a solo gamer permanently.

Significant milestones have seen me close up on 6000 achievements overall and just 100 away from 1000 on the Xbox One itself with 850 unlocked in the first year of the consoles existence while the backlog on the Xbox 360 is steadily being caught up with and hopefully will be a bit healthier by the end of the year.

In a change to recent posts, there are some upcoming events with others 'in the book' for 2015 already planned. This month will see me go to Liverpool v Basel for my first Champions League attendance since the run to the final back in 2007 and will complete a set of League, Cup and European attendances in the same year..

Of course, trips to watch Skem continue after spanning nearly a whole season in the last 12 months and this month the visits of Whitby and Marine will round of the year. As I have retained my Wigan season ticket, trips to St Helens in pre-season and the World Club Series home game against Brisbane are already booked as is next years Magic Weekend in Newcastle though travel for the league games is still to be confirmed.

People say that a new year inspires them and creates a new them but for me, a new year hopefully ill be the start of a new beginning and a turnaround from a mixed second half to 2014.