The heart of Parisian football can be found at Red Star. But when he can only sign Parisian players, how far can Martin Vert take them?

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The players are still dejected when the cup draw comes through, and it’s another side from the Championnat National 3 – two divisions below us – in the shape of Montceau Borgogne. Steve has a much broader grin in the board meeting, and Patrice and David ask for a blow-by-blow of what went wrong against Chateauroux. They’re still happy, they insist, it’s just something that needs to be explained. I tell them it was a one-off and it won’t affect squad morale. I’m determined that it won’t.

Before that we have a 450km trip south, into the Alps, for a game against Villefranche Beaujolais. They are in the playoff hunt, but have conceded too many and scored too few to get into the automatic promotion picture. The scouting report tells me they play in an attacking 5-3-2, but we’re really not going to change anything. Chateauroux aside, we’ve been perfect so far. Daillet comes in for the suspended Jason Tre, and Michael Nilor gets his first league start of the season because, frankly, Tokpa has been wasteful.

It’s not a vintage performance by any means. Beaujolais hit the post inside ten minutes, and waste a hatful of chances in the first half. They move the ball around really well, and we spend most of the opening 45 chasing shadows. But when Durand does get a little space, he draws defenders. That opens up a space on the edge of the box, from which Cadiou drills home to give us a half time lead. The second half is much the same, and I bring on some fresh legs just past the hour. Thibaut Vialla, who owns two of those fresh legs, breaks down the right with 15 minutes to go and crosses. Durand nods it back to an unmarked Cadiou to settle the game. We really do play better with him in the team.

Next up is another 400km on the coach, this time to Montceau Borgogne in the Coupe de France. We rest a couple – Damien Durand and Noah Cadiou have certainly earned a break – but not too many because of the Cup rules on understrength sides. They are two divisions below us, and I expect a comfortable win. Another couple of rounds and we get to play the big boys, and with our bank balance that’s got to be the goal.

It’s comfortable in the sense that Monceau never threaten anything even resembling a goal, but we’re wasteful in front of goal. It might be that Tokpa is actually better than Nilor. Neither can hit the target but at least Tokpa will occupy defenders and do the work, while Nilor offers nothing, despite his goal here. Bosca performs well as a stand-in for Durand, which is pleasing.

Ligue 2 teams enter the draw for the first round following our victory, but I don’t want to meet one of them. A minnow to deal with, and then a glamour tie away at Marseille or Lyon or even PSG, that’ll do me. But life is cruel, and we not only get a Ligue 2 side, we get our fiercest rivals, Paris FC. I’d almost forgotten about them.

Before that, though, we have the small matter of a visit from FC Annecy. They are just outside the playoff spot like Beaujolais, but they are much better than the Alpine side. The play a flat 442 that funnels the ball down the wings, and score a lot of goals. Another test, but then they always say that there are no easy games in the Championnat National.

It takes a while to come, but it eventually does. We are the better side by far, and Annecy barely get across the half way line. But we’re profligate again, not even creating highlight-worthy chances for most of the game. I switch to the more attacking formation and bring Nilor on to partner Tokpa, and it helps. We create a little more, Annecy retreat, and eventually in the last minute, Tokpa sends a head back across the goal that seems to hit the post in slow motion, and trickle over the line. It’s his first of the season, so hopefully that will breed some confidence.

There’s a bit of a zip around the place as we approach the Paris FC game. Patrice and David are in the boardroom more than I’ve ever seen them. The Red Star LAB is making use of the occasion to put on some workshops. And the papers are accusing us of “extreme physicality”, which is clearly just an attempt by Paris manager Thierry Laury to get in our heads. I bat those accusations away like a prime Brian Lara and then add some physical training sessions. If Thierry is concerned about our physicality, we’ll smash through them like a wrecking ball. That’ll teach him.

Paris are, I’ll admit privately, a very, very good side. They sit sixth in the division above, right in the promotion hunt, and hoping to reach Ligue 1 for the first time in their history. Their squad looks ready for the step up too, and they are strong all over. It’ll need to be an exceptional performance from us, and we’ll need some luck on top of that. The home crowd will help.

I said we would need excellence, and that’s what the lads delivered. Ndoye Squared have their best game of the season, and Mayoro opens the scoring in the first few minutes. They spend the next 90 closing down absolutely everything, denying Paris any real chance to threaten Ludovic Butelle’s goal. The one time they did break through, he was equal to it with a magnificent save. And then Chiekh N’doye got on the end of a Stephane Sparagna corner to power home deep into stoppage time, to seal the result. I don’t think luck came into it in the end, and the capacity crowd Stade Bauer erupts at the final whistle.

Thierry Laury heads straight to the press to complain about the way I conducted myself. He started the mind games, and who cares if I did a full Mourinho touchline slide in front of their fans when we scored the second. Thierry Laury can do one. Patrice and David have smiles you could spot from the Eiffel Tower and even Steve can’t completely hide his joy. The draw gives us Auxerre in the next round, a big side who have fallen from grace. The Stade Bauer will be rocking again.

Chateauroux win their game in hand to close out the month and keep the pressure on, but we remain top of the league has we head into the Christmas run in.

This is Paris: December 2021

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