[FM11] C'mon!

FM 11.3 – England, Spain, Italy. All leagues loaded.

Decided to start unemployed.

2010/2011 – Bromley – English Blue Square Bet South

“It was announced yesterday that unknown Northern Irish manager, Mark O'Sullivan, 25, was given a 2 year contract with Bromley FC”.

Media Predictions: 8th

Board Expectations: Top half finish

I set a target of top half, maybe to sneak into the play-offs.

The players/ staff were getting paid too much for being carp, I let go of the whole playing staff except for one D©. In came a whole new squad along with new staff.

Pre-season went well, highlight was beating Brentford 3-0 at home. 16 matches unbeaten helped us jump all the way to first near the start of the season, we remained there rest of the season. A loss of form coming up towards Xmas almost cost the team, as the other clubs below us in the table came very close to over taking us. Thankfully one of my signings, young Irish striker, Terry Dixon (brought in from W. Ham) who wasn't scoring before this loss of form, starting scoring lots of goals, and was my 2nd highest goalscorer of the season with 18 goals. He also had a good partnership with another young Irish striker Tommy Amos(signed from Wigan), who was 3rd best goalscorer with 17 goals.

Player of the season: was undoubtedly my Reunionise left winger, Eric Farro, who was also my (and Blue Square South) top goalscorer, 19 goals in 34 (4) appearances, 17 assists and 9 MOTM awards. Also was named Blue Square South player of the season and thanked his manager (me!) saying that he couldn't of got the award without me.

Top Goalscorer: Eric Farro - 19 goals

Awarded BSS Manager of the Year.

League: 1st (32-5-5)

FA Cup: 2nd round

FA Trophy: 2nd round

--------------------------------------

2011/2012 – Bromley – English Blue Square Bet Premier

Pre-season went well, was surprised we managed to get beat only 1-0 by the Arsenal Reserves. We won 3 games, drew 2 and lost 1. The 2 games I had got a draw was against BSN teams so I was a bit concerned my team couldn't manage to get a result against them.

Media Prediction: 22nd

Board Expectation: Enjoy the experience

I set a target of at least avoiding relegation.

6 players were signed, most of these were either back up or youth players. 5 players left the club all of them I considered to be surplus to requirements, one of the players leaving was the D© who was the only one who didn't get released, from the original team I had at the start of the 10/11 season.

We struggled in the first half of the season but were doing better than pre-season predictions and were sitting in 13th place in the league table. Like last season we managed to pick up form near Xmas time and the young Irish striker started scoring quite a few goals again (odd the way he seems to perform a lot better coming up near to Xmas and after Xmas). We managed to get ourselves up to the play off positions coming towards the end of January and managed to stay here for the rest of the season.

We had a good run in the FA Cup and managed to get through to the 3rd round, although we faced quite easy opposition (our league and below) in the 1st and 2nd round. Once I saw we had a Bristol City, a decent Championship side as our opponents I knew we had little chance of staying in. 3-1, and that score actually flatters my team. We were dominated from the start until finish.

It seemed to be our year in the FA Trophy, we were getting easy opposition in every round and didn't have to face any teams from the play off positions in BSP. We went all the way to the final, only for our team to get beat 1-0 by Gateshead. Many believe it was because of the number of players who were out injured, if everyone would've been fit I'm sure it would've been a different result.

The play-offs handed us a Semi final against York City, a team who we had already beaten twice that year, once in the FA Cup 2nd round and once at home in the BSP. We managed to get a win in the first leg, scoring 2 very late goals, both coming after the 85th minute. 2-1. The second leg came after the loss in the FA Trophy final, and probably wasn't the best time to have it. We came and scored in the 5th minute, 3-1 in aggregate, young Irish striker getting the goal. We then conceeded 2 goals before half time. 3-3 (HT). The young Irish striker clearly wanted to be always remembered by the Bromley fans and scored another goal to make it 4-3. Bad defending lead to us conceeding another goal in the 57th minute. 4-4. After clearing the ball away from our penalty area somehow my young English defender fouled their striker, penalty, I couldn't watch, but by the sounds of the crowd I knew it was another goal. 5-4. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, we manage to conceed another goal 3 minutes later to really rub the salt into the wounds. 6-4 (FT). York went on to be eventual winners, beating favourites Grimsby who finished 2nd in the league, 3-3 (p) in the Final.

Financially things were looking a lot better for the club. We were making a profit most of the months in the 11/12 season thanks to the higher attendance at home fixtures (which could've been caused by the 2 or 3 fan days the board made). I also persuaded the board to relay the pitch (Yay!) so now we will have a pitch that has grass on it for the new season.

The board didn't build new training facilities or youth facilities which I was a bit annoyed about, hopefully we'll get new facilities in the coming seasons.

Player of the Season: Was the again Reunionise left winger, Eric Farro. One of my most consistent players throughout the season. Scored 13 goals in 45 appearances, and had 18 assists. Average rating of 7.27

Top goalscorer: was my young Irish striker, Terry Dixon, with 28 goals in 46 (3) appearances, also had 5 assists and had an average rating of 7.23. He's now 22yo.

League: 3rd (27-13-6)

Playoff: Semi final

FA Cup: 3rd round

FA Trophy: Final

Any feedback?

Good start

What's the plan? take Bromley to the top or are you planning to have a journey man career?

Good start

What's the plan? take Bromley to the top or are you planning to have a journey man career?

Thanks. Wasn't sure if I had done this properly, never done one of these before.

It would be nice if I got Bromley all the way to the EPL and become champions and maybe even champions of europe. But if a bigger team approaches me, I'd have to consider it.

Nearly halfway through the 12/13 season, will hopefully have it up in the next 2 or 3 days.

So you have no set goals then.

So you have no set goals then.

I'm keeping my options open. I'm not going to rule out leaving Bromley if I get an offer from a bigger club.

2012/2013 – Bromley – English Blue Square Bet Premier

Pre-season went well. We had 5 friendlies, won 4 lost 1. Highlight was beating League 1 team Southend 2-0 at home. We lost against League 1 team Brentford at home 4-1.

Media Prediction: 13th

Board expectations: Respectable league position

Players IN: 10 (£0)

Players OUT: 9 (£5k), 1 of the players I released in Jan was Jonathan Fortune (DC), a player who joined at the start of the season who looked good on paper, but on the pitch was a bit of a disaster.

For a change we had a great start to the season, first 15 games into the season we had recorded 11 wins 1 draw and 3 losses, leaving us sitting near the top of the table.

We managed to keep up this form for the majority of the season and as a result we were sitting top in 1st place, with our only main challengers Crewe Alexandra, who had been relegated from L2 to BSP in the 11/12 season. We never really got that far ahead of Crewe, I think at one stage we might have been ahead by 5 points.

Halfway through the season, in Jan, I was approach by Oldham after they sacked their manager. They were mid table, around 15th place in League 2 and after thinking long about it, I decided to stay with Bromley because I thought that this season they were going to get promoted.

Unfortunately it seems that when the going is good for Bromley, they always end up hitting a bad spell at the worst timing. In March, we faced our title rivals Crewe in the BSP, a game which we lost 1-0 away. In truth that match changed the whole season for Bromley. We dropped vital points in the games following that match. Crewe managed to overtake us, 5 points ahead with 5 games to go.

We kept the pressure on Crewe and managed to be level on points going into the last game of the season. We had a tricky team to play, Grimsby, one of the strongest in the league who were currently 6th in the league. Crewe had Histon, a team which was mid table in the league, and who they beat earlier in the season 4-0.

I needed a miracle. We scored in the 24th minute, Christian Mejía, a Columbian/ Spanish striker, bought at the start of the season, scoring the goal. I knew that we had to stay focus, and kept my orginal tactics, control the game. In the second half we scored again. This time Bobby Devyne scoring, who I signed in the start of 11/12 season. 2-0. I decided to go defensive. I checked the score of the Crewe match 2-1. If I was to win the league I needed Histon to at score a goal or Bromley to have a greater GD after the match. If both games stayed the way it was the GD would be +1 to Crewe. 88th minute, Shaun Miller scored to break Bromley fans hearts.

Bromley 2 – 0 Grimsby

Crewe 3 – 1 Histon

Crewe were the champions. Going up with +2 greater goal difference than Bromley. I couldn't believe it. We came so close to end up losing the championship on goal difference.

After being defeated in the final last year in the FA Trophy, we set out this year to win the competition. However we didn't do as well as we did in the previous season. We got all the way to the Semi finals where we faced Crewe which took place 7 days after we got beat by them in the league. 3-3 draw in the 1st leg at home, 4-0 defeat in the 2nd leg away at Crewe.

We didn't have a great run in the FA Cup this year. We didn't even manage to get over the first hurdle. Out in the 4th qualifying round. Beaten 3-2 by Boreham Wood, a match which we were winning 2-1 at HT.

The Playoffs came again. This year we had to play Grimsby in the playoff semi final. The team we played in our final BSP match of the season. I was hoping that after the carp end to the season my team had, maybe this year would be our year in the Playoffs, that maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel for Bromley. I had a good feeling about it.

First leg of the semi's couldn't of been any better. 3-0 victory to Bromley away from home. The second leg came and I thought it was going to happen again. We conceeded a goal in the 1st minute. Charles Ademeno scoring the goal for Grimsby. 1-0 (1-3). Grimsby went on to score again this time in the 64th minute, Alan Connell scoring the goal. 2-0 (2-3). Squeaking bum time. This didn't seem to be our day. Fortunately, Danny Stenning scored for us in the 83rd minute. 2-1 (2-4) We held on for the rest of the match. Bromley were in the Play Off finals.

We played Aldershot in the Playoff finals, a team who were relegated from the L2 to BSP in the 10/11 season. They finished 3rd in the league. 12 points behind my team who finished joint level with Crewe.

We had a good start, we were keeping hold of possession and eventually we scored, Bobby Devyne popping up again from the LW to put us 1-0 ahead in the 20th minute. Manny Panther pulled it back for Aldershot in the 36th minute. 1-1. Dan Preston then scored a vital goal from a corner in the 56th minute putting us 2-1 ahead. All we had to do now was hold on and make sure Aldershot don't score and we have been promoted!

..Shame we couldn't. Jack Randall popped up in the 89th minute, just when I was getting ready to celebrate to put it 2-2. The game went to extra time. We scored in the 99th minute, my young striker Mark Walsh, brought in from the youth team, scoring. The assistant ruled this goal off-side, and as you can imagine, I wasn't the happiest with that decision. The match then went to penalties.

1st penalty: Aldershot – Missed , Bromley – Missed

2nd penalty: Aldershot – Scored, Bromley – Scored

3rd penalty: Aldershot – Scored, Bromley – Missed

4th penalty: Aldershot – Missed, Bromley – Missed

5th penalty: Aldershot – Scored

3-1, in the penalty shoot-out. I was out of the Play Offs again. I don't think the Play Offs like me.

Oh and after criticising the referee in the post match conference, the FA remained silent. No compensation, no apology card with a bottle of wine, nothing. Words cannot describe how gutted I feel right now. I feel like I've been robbed, mugged out of a promotion to League 2.

Player of the Season: Terry Dixon - 31 goals, 9 assists, 9 MotM, 7.40 average rating.

Top Goalscorer: Terry Dixon - 31 goals

League: 2nd (32-3-11)

Playoffs: Final

FA Trophy: Semi Final

FA Cup: 4th Qualifying Round

Lmao, that's some of the harshest stories for a season I've ever read on here. Beaten to the championship by goal difference of 2 (!), then the decisive match is tied on minute 89th, then you get a goal ruled offside on extra-time, then you lose on penalties. I'm sorry, you must be gutted, but that's pretty damn funny.

I actually couldn't believe it when it happened. As soon as I saw the "goal" I was going mad, thinking I had won promotion to League 2.

Edit:

Images have been added to my most recent season. Updates made to layout of 1st and 2nd season, player names have also been included.

Gutting, hurts to miss out on promotion due to penalties

2013/2014 – Bromley – English Blue Square Bet Premier (Preview)

Pre-season friendlies went well winning 5 out of 5. Though only 2 real tough opponents. 1. Barnet (2-1) 2. Stoke Reserves (5-4)

Board Expectations:

• Respectable league position
  
• 1st round FA Cup
  
• 4th round FA Trophy
  

Media Prediction: 5th

Title Odds: 16-1

Youth Intake: Nobody outstanding, best player seems to be Tom Taylor, 15. (DC).

Transfer Budget: £40k

Wage Budget: £5.25k (currently £3157 p/w)

Players IN: 6 (£0k)

Charlie McCormack (Yth)

Jamie Carpenter (Yth)

Shane Buchanan (loan: season)

Craig Reed (Yth)

Neil Smith (Yth)

George Moncur

Ricardo

John Evans

Olivier Ceccaldi (January)

Players OUT: 12 (£825k)

Frankie Sutherland

Jonathan Robinson

Thomas Butcher

Julius Gombala

Bobby Devyne (wasn't prepared to pay him more than he already was getting on his last contract)

Johan Lionel (didn't want to leave, other clubs offered him contracts in Jan, he prefered their offer to mine)

Anton Rodgers

Nathan Ellington (£10k) (good on paper, terrible on the pitch)

Aaron Barry (£10k)

Ibrahim Sissoko (surplus to requirements)

Joseph Rafferty (loan: 6 month)

Sani Emmanuel (£775k - new club record) (with one year left on his contract, and him now having an agent who was looking for £900+ p/w, agent fee of £7k and a sign on fee of £1k for Sani, I didn't want to pay that kind of money and I couldn't afford that kind of wage level, so I decided to cash in on him before he left for free at the end of the season)

Staff: With 2 of my former first team players retiring, Thierry Gorée and Eric Farro, both decided they wanted to continue in football after their playing career. I terminated my former Assistant Managers contract and offered the role of assistant manager to Gorée, I offer the role of coach to Farro (who is now considered an Icon by Bromley fans). A new scout was also added. Now have a total of 4 scouts.

Targets

• Win the league: Having been in the playoffs twice in the past 2 years, and only just narrowly missing out on the title last season, the main aim is to win the league to guarantee promotion. The teams that got relegated from L2 to BSP in the 11/12 season don't see to be as good as Crewe was last season, so my main threat this season will probably be Grimsby. Hoping to avoid the playoffs, for obvious reasons. (see 12/13 season for prime reason)
  
• Replace Eric Farro: The team lacks real quality in the LW position, which is where Farro played in the past 3 seasons. He was the best player for the first 2 consecutive seasons of my reign in charge.
  

Gutting, hurts to miss out on promotion due to penalties

Not just penalties, having a goal disallowed when it should have been a goal.

Lmao, that's some of the harshest stories for a season I've ever read on here. Beaten to the championship by goal difference of 2 (!), then the decisive match is tied on minute 89th, then you get a goal ruled offside on extra-time, then you lose on penalties. I'm sorry, you must be gutted, but that's pretty damn funny.

I've missed out by one goal before, one goal scored not one goal difference. I was pipped thanks to the champions getting a last minute injury time equaliser in the final league match, which they played away.

Ouch man, that's gotta sting and take the wind out of your sails.

Is that Terry Dixon the former Tottenham youth player?

I'm also surprised by The Duke, he should tear up the BSP.

As they say, Onward and upward!

Nobby_McDonald if you were in the Premiership or any other top league, it would be okay because you would get the same amount of TV money the next year but for a small club like Bromley in BSP, getting into the L2 would've got us a good bit of money.

Jolanthustrel, yeah that's Terry Dixon, former Tottenham and West Ham youth player. The Duke? Who are you referring to? :s

I was having a lot of fun with this save and when the forums went down I decided to stop playing it because I wanted to continue this update thread. Just before the forums went down I was due to post an update of how my most recent season went, I'm going to post that now.

Feels good to be back in the forums

2013/2014 – Bromley – English Blue Square Bet Premier (Review)

English Blue Square Bet Premier

The first half of the season went well. We won most of our games, dropping few points in the process, leaving us at the top of the table going in to December. Our main challengers so far have been Grimsby, Mansfield and Fleetwood.

Deja vu. We started to hit a bad spell mid season much like the previous season, except this season was worse. We were sitting 1 point in the lead at the top of the table, then we lost early in the new year, 7th January to Braintree 2-0 this was the results after that game.

18th Bath 2 – 0 Bromley (Lost)

22nd Bromley 1 – 1 Hereford (Draw)

25th Stevenage 3 – 1 Bromley (Lost)

1st Feb Bromley 0 – 3 Grimsby (Lost)

8th Bromley 1 – 1 AFC Wimbledon (Draw)

15th Cambridge 3 – 1 Bromley (Lost)

18th Kettering 0 – 2 Bromley (WON!)

Before that win we dropped to 5th position in the table, I'm glad that because we had such a good start to the season we didn't drop too many places. After the win we moved up to 4th place above Fleetwood.

After the victory over Kettering we had 12 games left. Before the second last game we were level on points at the top again, mainly because the teams at the top failed to keep their good form up and we managed to get back to our winning ways. We won our second last game away to Burton 2-0 while Mansfield only managed to draw 1-1 with AFC Telford. As a result Bromley returned to the top of the table, with a 2 point lead over Mansfield their nearest rivals for the title with one game left.

Mansfield had a tricky game with Braintree, a team pushing for a playoff position. Bromley were playing Tamworth, a team which was in the mid table positions. In order for Bromley to win the league all the had to do is at least draw, or hope that Mansfield don't win.

17min into the Bromley game, we were 1-0 down, this affected our confidence badly, luckily we managed to keep it together until half-time where I looked to rally the team so we could win the league and get promoted to League 2. My talk obviously didn't do wonders for the team, 4 min after the restart, on the 49th min Tamworth struck again. 2-0. At this stage Mansfield were winning their game 1-0.

I needed to do something to help improve the performances, I didn't want to suffer heartbreak at the last game again like last season. I took off a few of my underperforming players in hope that maybe a few fresh subs would help boost the morale of the time and inspire them to victory, or at least a draw. 67th min – another Tamworth goal. 3-0. I believed my team still had a chance, only a slim chance of getting something from this game and so went for Overload.

Just when it looked like it was all over, word spread around the stadium that Braintree had equalised, they scored in the 81st minute. For Bromley to win the title, Braintree had to keep Mansfield from scoring in the last 9 minutes of the game.

In the 88th minute, we managed to score, Olivier Ceccaldi, the French striker I signed in January scoring the goal. The full time whistle went. We all gathered round waiting to hear the result of the Mansfield match.

Braintree 1 – 1 Mansfield

We'd won the title! Finally after losing out in the last two seasons in the Playoffs, we had been promoted! League 2 here we come!

BSP League Table

FA Cup

Achieved the target set by the board, we won in the 4th qualifying round, but were put out in the 1st round by Burton in penalties, after the replay was played in was 4-4, the team went out on penalties 4-3. Our team doesn't seem to have great luck in penalties..

FA Trophy

We beat Hampton & Richmond in the first round, 2-0 away at Hampton. Second round came and we had a match away at BSS side Bath, 2-1, put out of the FA Trophy in the 2nd round. Not the best performance we've had in the FA Trophy.

Key Players

Abdeltareck Sakali: I was scared that I wouldn't perform as well as previous years without Farro, but Sakali came in and had a brilliant season, as a result was the teams Player of the Season and was named Blue Square Bet Premier Player of the Season.

Craig Reed: Came in at the start of the season when I offered him a youth contract, after a few really impressive performances at the start of the season I knew I had found a great player and offer a FT contract. Unfortunately missed quite a lot of the season when he was injured coming up to December and was out for 2 months. Helped get the team back on form after we had lost form mid way through the season. If he didn't get injured for as long as he did, there is a good chance he could've got Player of the Season.

Ricardo: Brought in at the start of the season. Released by Porto before I signed him up, if I'm honest I'm quite surprised that Porto released him. He was one of the best performers in the team. Hoping that I'll be able to hold on to him for a few more seasons and that he want demand a move when the bigger clubs come making offers for him.

Steven Smith: My best defender. Signed from Arsenal at the start of the 12/13 season. Scottish side, Hamilton, were looking to sign him up in January after his great performances at the start of the season.

Danny Stenning: Signed at the start of the 12/13 season from Chelsea. He was the most consistent CM in the team. His 5 goals and 14 assists in 30 (7) league appearances helped us win the league.

Cristian Mejía: The teams top goalscorer. He also set up 8 goals in the league and was named Man of the Match for 1 league game.

Player of the Season: Abdeltareck Sakali, French left or right winger who joined the club in my first season in charge. In 28 (9) appearances, Sakali scored 13 goals, set up 7 goals and was Man of the Match 5 times. He had an average rating of 7.26 for the season.

Top Goalscorer: Cristian Mejía, Columbian / Spanish striker who joined the club at the start of last season. 19 goals in 31 (8) appearances.

Targets

Win the league: Having been in the playoffs twice in the past 2 years, and only just narrowly missing out on the title last season, the main aim is to win the league to guarantee promotion. The teams that got relegated from L2 to BSP in the 11/12 season don't see to be as good as Crewe was last season, so my main threat this season will probably be Grimsby. Hoping to avoid the playoffs, for obvious reasons. (see 12/13 season for prime reason)

Achieved. We won the league coming in 1st place with 90 points, 1 point ahead of Mansfield who finished 2nd with 89 points and 3 points ahead of 3rd placed Stevenage who were promoted through the playoffs.

Replace Eric Farro: The team lacks real quality in the LW position, which is where Farro played in the past 3 seasons. He was the best player for the first 2 consecutive seasons of my reign in charge.

Achieved. Sakali came in along with Reed, both were quite consistent. I'm sure Farro will be proud of Sakali, as he was named Player of the Season.

Facilities

During the season, I asked the board to improve the youth facilities and they agreed to improve them. The work is scheduled to be completed 8/9/14.

League: 1st (28-6-12)

FA Trophy: 2nd round

FA Cup: 1st round

Congratulations, karma was on your side after that crazy narrow avoidance of promotion. That Ricardo guy looks absolutely fantastic for the BSP, he should be able to keep up with the pace of the game in League 2.

noikeee yeah I was really happy to finally secure promotion to League 2. I believe my scout found Ricardo, didn't think I would of been able to attract him to come to Bromley because he was with Porto before being released but with no other big clubs chasing him (to my surprise) he decided to sign with us.

Preview of the 14/15 season should be going up soon.

2014/2015 – Bromley – English Npower League 2 (Preview)

We had 4 pre-season friendlies, we won 2, drew 1 and lost 1. We won one of our matches 9-0 against Welsh club, Prestatyn Town. The game we lost was against Blackpool.

English Npower League 2

Board Expectations: Avoid Relegation

Media Predictions: 23rd

Title Odds: 12-1

FA Cup

Board Expectations: 1st round

League Cup

Board Expectations: 1st round

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Board Expectations: Learn from the experience

Finances

Transfer Budget: £588,831

Wage Budget: £9k (currently spending £5,413)

Balance: £1,136,605

Transfers

Players IN: Ross Walsh, Jon McLaughlin, Isaac Diallo (£20k), Alpaslan Ozturk, Ben Booth (6 month loan)

Players OUT: Didier Caro, Mark Walsh, Tom King, Jamie Carpenter, Dan Hart, David Hutton, Joseph Rafferty (loan: 6 months), Charlie McCormack (loan: 6 months)

Staff IN: 2 coaches, 2 scouts

Staff OUT: None

Targets

Avoid Relegation. This is my only aim for the upcoming season, I believe that my current squad of players is strong enough to survive in this league.

Status

The board decided to turn the club Professional after we were promoted. This is a big step for Bromley and as a result more players will be interested in joining the club.

Nobby_McDonald if you were in the Premiership or any other top league, it would be okay because you would get the same amount of TV money the next year but for a small club like Bromley in BSP, getting into the L2 would've got us a good bit of money.

Losing out on the Premier League title by one goal is not okay.

Losing out on the Premier League title by one goal is not okay.

2014/2015 – Bromley – English Npower League 2 (Review)

English Npower League 2

We didn't start off too well and this is what I thought our season was going to be like the whole season but a couple games into the season we started playing really well and we managed to maintain this quality throughout the whole season and we were promoted with 4 games remaining, then we had to fight off Bury for the top spot.

Our second last game of the season was against Bury which we won 4-2, Olivier Ceccaldi scoring all 4 goals. This put us 2 points ahead going into the last game of the season which we lost, but fortunately for us Bury couldn't manage to win in their last match, they only managed a draw meaning that we won the Npower League 2. We were the champions!

Back-to-back promotion something I'm really proud of and I'm delighted that we played so well throughout the season. Next season is when it will get really challenging I think and I'll most likely have to strengthen in order to stay in League 1.

FA Cup

This was my best run in the FA Cup so far and one of the matches was probably one of my best victory in my managerial career. After getting past the 2nd round we were drawn against Leeds United (H), a team sitting in the bottom half of the Premiership. My team were on good form heading into this match and I knew that we could maybe sneak away with a win and we did just that. We won 1-0. We had 4 shots, 1 on target. Leeds had 27 shots, 9 on target.

I felt that I had to share the match winning goal with everyone because I was so delighted getting the victory.

[video=youtube;k5U5AOiUI0k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5U5AOiUI0k&feature=channel_video_title

Sadly we didn't make it past the 4th round where we were completely outclassed by mid-table Premiership team, Newcastle United and were beat at their stadium 5-0. It was nice however getting to play in such a big stadium and we got quite a lot of money from the Gate Receipts.

League Cup

Well I'm sure next year I'll do better in the League Cup because I can't do any worse. Put out by Stevenage in the Prelim round.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

We drew Crystal Palace who were one of the favourites for promotion from League 1 in the 1st round and got beat 4-2.

Key Players

Steven Smith: Consistent throughout the whole season, solid and was one of the main reasons why we conceeded the least goals out of all the League 2 teams.

Ricardo: Most of my teams goals came from him or help from him. 15 goals and 16 assists in 37(2) league appearances. He finished with the highest number of assists in League 2.

Cristian Mejía: My team's best striker. Finished with 13 goals in 22 (11) league games.

Ben Booth: Was very consistent wherever he played, LW / CM , he seemed to always play well for the club. In 34(2) league appearances he had 4 goals, 5 assists and 2 MotM awards and had an average rating of 6.99

Targets

Avoid Relegation. This is my only aim for the upcoming season, I believe that my current squad of players is strong enough to survive in this league.

Achieved. We did a lot better than I was aiming for, instead of just surviving in the league we won it, I thought the quality of teams in League 2 was a lot better than they actually were.

Transfers (since preview)

Players IN: Ben Booth (extended loan until end of season), Robbie Cooper (loan: end of season)

Players OUT: A few young players went out on loan

Staff IN: José Luiz Vegar (scout)

Staff OUT: None

Fans' Player of the Year: A Sakali (History)- his contract is expiring at the end of the 14/15 season and I don't think he'll be able to keep performing well at League 1. He also was demanding a high wage, which I refuse to give to him. It will be sad seeing him leave, he's been here from the very first season when Bromley were in the BSS. I've only got a few other players from that BSS side still remaining at the club today.

Top Goalscorer: Olivier Ceccaldi

Job Offer

Throughout the season I was rumoured to be targets for clubs to replace their under pressure manager, one of these was Plymouth who were at the time (Nov/Dec) in 23rd place when the press declared me as hot favourite for the job when their manager was sacked, I choose to say nothing about the job and a couple of days later I was offered the job. I considered it but I thought it would be best to decline and I'm glad I did decline it because of the season I just had with Bromley.

Records

During the season Nicolas Noel beat the former holder for the most league appearances for Bromley which was at 157, Noel has went on to pass 175 league appearances and isn't far away from 200.

To top off a brilliant season, I was awarded with the award of Npower League 2 Manager of the Season. This is a great way to end probably my best season in my managerial career so far.

League: 1st (25-13-8)

FA Cup: 4th round

League Cup: prelim round

JPT: 1st round

Great result against Leeds in the FA Cup. Giant-killers!

Especially great as it was against Leeds.

Great result against Leeds in the FA Cup. Giant-killers!

Great result for the club. I'm sure as a result our reputation slightly increased.

Especially great as it was against Leeds.

Take it you don't like Leeds?

Hoping that we will have another good run in the FA Cup this season, it always helps the finances.

2015/2016 – Bromley – English Npower League 1 (Preview)

We had 5 pre-season friendlies, we won 2, drew 1 and lost 2. Highlight of pre-season would probably be drawing 3-3 with Man Utd Reserves, we also had a embarassing 1-0 loss against Kingstonian who were promoted to BSS for the 15/16 season.

English Npower League 1

Board Expectations: Stay clear of relegation from League 1

Media Predictions: 23rd

Title Odds: 33-1

FA Cup

Board Expectations: 2nd round

League Cup

Board Expectations: Learn from the experience

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Board Expectations: 2nd round

Finances

Transfer Budget: £1,296,836

Wage Budget: £29k (currently spending £16,647)

Balance: £1,477,613

Transfers

Players IN: Brett Dodd, Seweryn Gancarczyk, Mauro Giger, Anthony McNamee, Dani Fernández, Ben Booth (£55k season loan)

Players OUT: David Cowan, Jack Minton, Neil Smith, Nathan Rooney, Abdeltareck Sakali, George Moncur (£75k compensation), Dan Preston

Staff IN: 3 coaches, 5 scouts, 1 GK coach

Staff OUT: 2 scouts, 1 coach

Targets

Avoid Relegation. I think that realistically we won't have a repeat of last year and that we will find it hard to compete in this league so I'm hoping to stay in the league and strengthen my team to perform better next season.

Squad

A few players I have promoted to the first team after being out on loan in previous seasons, Joseph Rafferty and Charlie McCormack will be used this season, mainly as a back up but if they perform well and are on good form they could become regulars in the team. I feel that they are both ready to compete for a place in the team.

I have also decided to promote Steven Smith from the role of Vice Captain to Captain of the team and Terry Dixon has been demoted to Vice Captain. Steven plays nearly all my matches, whenever he is fit, he's usually in the team so it makes sense to have him as captain instead of Terry who has to compete with 3 other good strikers to get in the squad.

Oh man, I loved McNamee on CM03/04. Good luck with this season!

Nice job so far marky! You intending to take Bromley to the top?

Oh man, I loved McNamee on CM03/04. Good luck with this season!

Yeah he seems to be a good player and could be a first team regular depending on where I play Ben Booth. Thanks Shakey start to the season so far, a bit like the start of last season.

Nice job so far marky! You intending to take Bromley to the top?

Thanks Would like to take Bromley to the top and win the EPL and maybe even win a European Cup, but if a big club comes calling for me to be their manager I'd have to consider it.

What kind of crowds you getting? The reason I ask is at Dartford I'm towards the top of LG1 and selling out every week (6,000) but there's no hope of the board expanding the ground...it's holding me back now.

What kind of crowds you getting? The reason I ask is at Dartford I'm towards the top of LG1 and selling out every week (6,000) but there's no hope of the board expanding the ground...it's holding me back now.

I just checked the average attendance for each season.

2010/2011: 489

2011/2012: 1489

2012/2013: 1457

2013/2014: 1466

2014/2015: 4088

2015/2016: 4537

I'm thinking that this seasons average will (hopefully) increase, and maybe if we have an average attendance very close to the stadium's capacity of 5,000 then the board might expand the stadium.

Just received I think my biggest defeat in my managerial career in this save so far, it was against one of the teams who are contenders for winning L1 this season, Swansea City.

16/9/15

Swansea 7- 3 Bromley

[video=youtube_share;WuXntFo95ZI]http://youtu.be/WuXntFo95ZI

Safe to say the fans weren't happy.

Ouch .

Nasty defeat to Swansea there, but good going to get Bromley into L1

You're better than me at FM anyway!

With the Milk Cup last week, I wasn't playing FM2011 as much. Still haven't completed the season yet, but I'm going to post up a mid-season update to let people know how I'm doing in my first season in L1 with Bromley.

2015/2016 – Bromley – English Npower League 1 (Mid-Season Update)

English Npower League 1

Currently sitting in 16th place in the table. We're not too far from the relegation zones, we have 35 points, 5 points ahead of Shrewsbury who are sitting in 21st place with 30 points. We had a horrible spell in Oct/ Nov where we managed to go 6 games without a win, losing 5 and drawing 1 and then thankfully we managed to win, surprisingly 4-1. I'd be happy to finish in 16th at the end of the season, I don't think we're strong enough to sneak into the playoff positions but if we can sign the right players in the summer, hopefully we'll finish at least in the playoff positions next season.

League Table

Past Positions

FA Cup

Disappointed that we didn't even meet the board expectation, out in the 1st round against L1 team, Rotherham United. Beaten 3-1. I guess there's always next year?

League Cup

Got a tough 1st round draw against Watford, one of the teams who are fighting it out for promotion from L1 this season. Got beat 3-1, even worse the MotM was a player I tried to sign in pre-season for us Craig Mackail-Smith, who scored 2 goals and I think he set up the other goal as well.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Beat L2 team Southend 3-1 in the 1st round, out in the 2nd round by penalties (sounds familiar) after the score was 2-2 against L2 side, Crawley Town.

Finances

Transfer Budget: £1,245,842

Wage Budget: £29k (currently spending £16,686)

Balance: £1,180,577

Transfers (since pre-season)

Players IN: £65k

Mohamed Lamine Gasmi

Conor Thomas - Loan: End of Season

Morgan Fantini - £35k Loan: 3 Months

Nicolas Baradat - Loan: 3 Months

Nikola Sevic - £10k (Hoping Nikola will challenge for a place in the 1st team this season. He could become one of my key players in the next few seasons)

Martin Kisel - £18k

Carlos - £1k Loan: End of Season

Players OUT: £18k

Dean Robinson - Loan: End of Season

Phil Imray - £18k (No longer needed after I brought in the young GK, M Kisel)

Alpaslan Ozturk - £0 (performed poorly every time I played him this season )

Mohamed Lamine Gasmi - Loan: End of Season

It was nice to see that Phil Imray was sad to leave me and he thanked me for all that I had done for him and his career. Hopefully in the future I might be reunited with Phil (maybe he could come back as a GK coach) as he had been a loyal servant to the club for many years.

Jobs

I was rumoured by the media to be top manager target for a number of clubs when they sacked their manager.

1. Brentford

2. MK Dons

3. Crystal Palace

Out of all the clubs that were rumoured to want me to become their manager only Brentford approached me with the chance to become their manager. I did think about leaving Bromley if I was honest, Brentford are quite a big club and have a much bigger stadium which holds around about 12k (iirc) in comparison to the Bromley's 5k stadium. Brentford also have decent facilites, roughly the same level as Bromley's if not better. In the end I declined the offer.

Other

In December, I reached 300 games in football management. Unfortunately I lost my 300th game.

I wonder where will I be when I'm reaching my 500th game, or if I am still with Bromley, what league will we be in?

Well done on taking Bromley to Leage One. You seem to have some very healthy finances which always help.

It's all about getting enough points this season I guess, try to get used to playing at a higher level and then give the rest a beating next season.

2015/2016 – Bromley – English Npower League 1 (Review)

English Npower League 1

Shortly after my Mid-Season update, my team couldn't get a win out of anywhere and had a winless streak of 7 matches before I won 2-1 against Bury, I decided to change my tactics for the Bury match and changed my usual 4-4-2 formation to a 3-4-3 formation. I was hoping it would work and it did. The reason I went with the 3-4-3 formation is mainly because a lot of my defence were performing badly in nearly every game, with the weakest area in defence being RB and LB.

Having stopped my winless streak with the new 3-4-3 formation, I decided to continue to use it for the rest of the season and as a result we finished 16th and very close to finishing 13th, as the team in 13th place, AFC Bournemouth finished with 59 points, while we finished with 57 points.

League

Transfers (since Mid-Season)

Players IN: None

Players OUT: None

Staff IN: None

Staff OUT: None

Targets

Avoid Relegation. I think that realistically we won't have a repeat of last year and that we will find it hard to compete in this league so I'm hoping to stay in the league and strengthen my team to perform better next season.

Achieved. I'm pleased that we've managed to stay up, but I've realised this season that my defence definately needs to be strengthened and that hopefully next season my defence will perform a lot better. My former parent club Shrewsbury Town got relegated this season from L1 and it feels kind of weird knowing that I'll be a division higher than my former parent club next season.

Hoping that I can maybe sign one or 2 top quality players to really boost our chances of a promotion next season.

Key Players

Steven Smith - Best defender for the team, without a doubt. Without Smith, I believe that we would've been relegated this season. 44 appearances, 6 goals, 2 assists and 2 Man of the Match awards with an average rating of 6.98 from the Bromley captain.

Ricardo - Still amazed that I still have him at the club, I believe that he could easily play in the Championship and hope that I can keep a hold of him for a couple more seasons to help with our push for promotion to the Championship. Played a part in quite a lot of our goals. 30 (1) appearances, 12 goals, 18 assists and 4 Man of the Match awards with an average rating of 7.27 , he was our best player this season.

Fans' Player of the Year: Ricardo

League: 16th (16-9-21)

FA Cup: 1st round

League Cup: 1st round

JPT: 2nd round

I have no finances for the review of 15/16 because I didn't make a note of it :o

Well done on staying up, looks like the change in tactics was the right thing to do

Excellently done.

2016/2017 – Bromley – English Npower League 1 (Preview)

Out of 4 pre-season friendlies, we lost 3, one of these being a 1-0 lose against Barnet who are playing in L2. The last friendly we won 4-1 against Harrogate Town who are playing in the BSN.

English Npower League 1

Board Expectations: Stay clear of relegation from League 1

Media Predictions: 21^st

Title Odds: 40-1

FA Cup

Board Expectations: 3^rd round

League Cup

Board Expectations: Learn from the experience

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Board Expectations: 2^nd round

Finances:

Transfer Budget: £1,505,880

Wage Budget: £27.5k (currently spending £24,190)

Balance: £1,509,905

Transfers

Players IN: £130k

Espen Primstad

David Meyler

Martin Molgaard

Daniel - Judging by the first couple of games, going to be a great signing

Federico Laurito - Excited by him, scouts said he would be a good signing for championship team. Scored hattrick on league debut.

Anton Probert – End of Season loan

Cian Hughton – £90k

Gaetano Palazzo – End of Season loan

Béla Varga - £40k

Zsolt Pál - mainly to help Varga settle but also has the potiental to be good at this level

Richard Verhaeghe – End of Season loan

Players OUT: £730k

Christian Mejía

John Evans

Danny Stenning (was asking for wages around about £2.2k p/w, which I wasn't willing to pay)

Dani Fernández - £5k

Nikola Sevic – End of Season loan (thought it would be best him going out on loan to guarentee first team football)

Isaac Diallo - £725k

Dean Robinson – 5 month loan

I always think its nice when players who leave me, thank me for what I've done for them and their career - Danny Stenning

Staff IN: 3 scouts, 4 coaches

Staff OUT: 4 scouts, 4 coach

Targets

Top-half finish. I've strengthened my team this season and hoping that we can finish top-half, I know its going to be tough but most of my team has been strengthen, Hughton has been brought to play RB but can cover a LB, which is probably the areas we were weakest last season. Daniel has also came in to play CB but can play LB.

Find replacement for Diallo. It was hard to believe that my chairman gave me no say when we received a bid for Diallo, our finances were around about £750k when we received the £725k bid, but I'm hoping that eventually this money will be used to upgrade the training facilities, youth facilities and/or expand/build a new stadium. I've got enough money to spend on a new LB but I don't want to spend a lot of the £1.5M transfer budget as it would make our overall balance nearly £0.

2016/2017 – Bromley – English Npower League 1 (Review)

This season I knew was going to be my last with Bromley. I decided in Nov that I will be resigning and I went on holiday until the end of May because I didn't want to leave mid-season.

I've had a great time at Bromley but I feel that I've taken them as far as I can, we don't have a great amount of money coming in from our team kit sponsorship deal and I saw that at the end of the 2015/2016 season, Bromley had the lowest sponsorship deal and it was far lower than the average sponsorship money other teams in L1 were getting.

I think that I've done a great job getting them this far and I've had a great time managing them but they don't have great financial support from sponsors and rely heavily upon the league prize money + TV money, meaning we can't really compete with teams in the transfer market even in L1 because we can't offer the same amount of wages they would be getting at other clubs in L1.

I don't really know where my next job will be, I'm very interested in going to Spain or Italy, it will be challenging as I have little knowledge of Italian or Spanish and I have no knowledge of the country, so the first couple of months will most likely be very frustrating.

English Npower League 1

Overall I was pleased that we finished the season in 14th place, our best finish in the league. The foundations are there for an improved finish for next season and I've assembled a good squad for the next manager to build upon.

League

Past Positions

Targets

Top-half finish. I've strengthened my team this season and hoping that we can finish top-half, I know its going to be tough but most of my team has been strengthen, Hughton has been brought to play RB but can cover a LB, which is probably the areas we were weakest last season. Daniel has also came in to play CB but can play LB.

Failed. I was being ambitious in targeting a top half finish but we did manage to improve from our finish of 16th place last season to 14th place this season.

Find replacement for Diallo. It was hard to believe that my chairman gave me no say when we received a bid for Diallo, our finances were around about £750k when we received the £725k bid, but I'm hoping that eventually this money will be used to upgrade the training facilities, youth facilities and/or expand/build a new stadium. I've got enough money to spend on a new LB but I don't want to spend a lot of the £1.5M transfer budget as it would make our overall balance nearly £0.

Failed. I didn't find another natural LB however I used a number of my players who aren't naturally a LB as my LB, most of these players played well when put in LB.

Key Players

Daniel - Most consistent player throughout the season and it was a great first season at the club for him. Crazy to think I got this kid for free. 44(1) appearances, 3 goals, 3 assists, 3 MotM awards and an average rating of 6.86

Olivier Ceccaldi - Scored a lot of goals - 14 goals in 19(11) appearances, 2 assists and 4 MotM awards. Average rating of 7.11.

Fans' Player of the Year: Daniel

League: 14th (17-9-20)

FA Cup: 2nd round

League Cup: 1st round

JPT: 1/4 final (South)

Bromley Overall Best XI

Where Are They Now?

13/5/2017 - Resigned as manager of Bromley FC

A number of my loyal staff left the club when I resigned

Brilliant mate really enjoy it,looking forward to find out where ur going

You were doing very well at Bromley Mark.

Decided that I would take a full season out on holiday before getting another job. I kept an eye on any managerial vacancies, just incase an offer came up which I couldn't refuse, though most of the clubs who I were interested in managing, were not interested in me becoming their manager. Looking to find a job next season, hopefully to start it at the start of the 2019/2020 season as I don't really like starting mid-season.

Previous Club Watch

Bromley - Had a brilliant season, finished 4th mainly with the team I left. The manager John Sheridan has brought in a few players but they look terrible compared to the ones I already had at the club.