[FM13] Home(r) Nations to the Max

Fantastic stuff, again brilliantly written!

Good luck with Tamworth -- a club even the most addicted of us FMers may not have heard of.

Thank you - and I know I certainly hadn't heard of them. Like Max, I have a good feeling about them, though...

Pre-season 2013/14

The players had all gone on holiday. No such luck for the manager. While they were lounging in beach chairs somewhere in the south – or getting hammered somewhere in the city - I spent most of the long summer nights in my office, trying to familiarize myself with all aspects of the club and to optimize our preparations for the new season.

One important aspect was the finances. The coffers weren’t exactly overflowing, so my wage budget was limited. At the same time, if I wanted a squad that was strong enough to fulfill our ambitions, it would take money. So, alternative sources of income would be very welcome. I told chairman Bob that I thought finding a parent club might be a way of improving our financial situation a bit, and he completely agreed. In the middle of July, this happy message from a Championship side arrived in my inbox:

Being newly relegated, it seems fair to assume that we would be among the stronger sides in the division. The sports journalists had us pegged for 5th place. The bookies were even more optimistic on our behalf:

Apparently chairman Bob didn’t want to put too much pressure on me, as he informed me that the board simply expected us to finish in "a respectable position". I happily agreed to this, although to be honest, my personal ambitions are bigger than that. Due to the financial constraints, our squad doesn’t have the depth I could have wished for (I'd like to think we are going for quality rather than quantity), but with a bit of luck and not too many injuries, I think top-5 and at least a play-off spot is definitely within the realm of the possible.

Even without a single penny to spend, there was some action on the transfer market:

I was pleased to be able to snatch up Pelé for free. He had been a solid rock in our defense at H&Y, even when the rest of the team played like a sack of potatoes. They didn’t want to keep him due to his advancing years, but I still think his experience can be an asset for us this season, so he got a one-year deal.

Of the players that left, a couple just didn’t cut it – so they were cut. The rest were first team regulars who refused to renew their contracts as they believed themselves to be too good for the sixth tier, most notably Peter Till (and to be fair, he probably is). So we needed some new faces. Andy Parkinson is a direct replacement for Till, while Aaron McGregor is a man for the future. All in all, I think I did fairly well with my limited (i.e. non-existing) means.

So this is our first team squad for the coming season:

This screenshot was taken just before the first league game, and as you can see three of our defenders got themselves injured in training or in the friendlies. This is the only thing that makes me a bit worried about our first few games – other than that, these lads should be more than competitive at this level.

These are my top profiles:

Tony Breeden is a very solid goalkeeper for this level, and at only 25, he still hasn’t hit his prime. Hopefully a key player for the club for years to come. More or less the same can be said for Richard Tait, the player of the year last season and a defender with a mental strength that belies his age. Finally, Romone Rose has the speed and clinical finishing we need up front – and he’s free too! Preston were happy to let him hone his skills with us for no charge.

With the roster in place and the lads – old and new – reported back for duty, we went into the friendlies with a really good feeling:

Obviously the results are nothing to brag about, but we actually played quite well against three much bigger sides – Barnsley (L1), Leeds, and our new parent club Blackpool (both CH) were all chosen deliberately to get some people into the stadium and make some extra money. As the attendance figures show, it worked. I wasn’t too happy with a narrow loss and a narrow win against our local rivals and our feeder club, though, and I would have like us to score a few more goals. Still, team morale wasn’t affected negatively, so we are heading into the new season with loads of confidence. Hopefully this will be a successful year for the club – and it may very well be make or break for me and my career...

Is that goalkeeper really 46 years old?

Yup, Dale made his senior debut for Aston Villa back in 1984(!) - three years before Max Power was born(!!) - and is in his 30th(!!!) season as a professional.

He's also my GK coach, which is why I'm hanging on to him, but he hasn't mentioned anything about retiring yet. So I plan on playing him in our first cup game of the season, just to set the record...

Breeden looks an excellent keeper for that level

So far he is (next update will probably be up tomorrow).

The only thing he's really lacking is reach. Another 10 cm would have done him a world of good, but hey, maybe he's the next Fabien Barthez...

Season 2013/14 - update 1

A month into new season and I think it’s fair to say that we couldn’t have had a better start to our campaign:

The board is happy, the players are very happy and I am completely over the moon. All those hours spent over the summer trying to come up with a game plan paid off!

I was especially thrilled about our demolition of Stalybridge, which also resulted in a couple of club records:

Our perfect start did not go unnoticed:

My first award as a manager! It may only be a monthly award in a 6th tier league, but I’ll take it – and I even got a call from my old man who (reluctantly) congratulated me. I don’t know if Mom forced him to call or if he is genuinely taking an interest in my career and in the game now - he always claimed that football was meant to be played with your hands and that “soccer” was for suckers and sissies. But again, I’ll take it!

Now let’s hope we can continue this run for a while longer...

What a start. You'll be getting a free pass to the Snow Dome at this rate.

Season 2013/14 - update 2

We went undefeated for 11 league games and 12 games in total - 12/13 if you count the last game of last season - before our run finally came to an end. Not too shabby, I would say.

As promised, I let veteran keeper Dave Belford play in our two FA Cup games against Eastwood from the Northern League, along with some other fringe players who needed to regain match fitness. This was obviously a bad choice. We underestimated our opponent, were forced into a replay away – and lost a tie that we should have won even with half a reserve team. Needless to say, I was not at all happy about the performance and told the players in no uncertain terms. Chairman Bob wasn’t happy about our early exit either – we had hoped to go far enough to get a big opponent and a boost to our finances. Just wasn’t meant to be this season, I guess. We still get another shot at a cup run in the FA Trophy.

The league form, if not as impeccable as it was at the beginning of the season, is still looking fairly good. I was a bit annoyed about our first defeat, a narrow loss to Halifax, which seemed more than anything to be a reaction to our cup exit just three days before.

We still top the table, though Chester are hot on our tail:

Their manager has made some less than flattering remarks about our promotion chances and about my person the press. I have chosen not to dignify them with a comment so far.

Tom Marshall got the PotM award for October and for me has been the surprise of the season so far. He is turning out to be a bigger part of our success than I expected.

We are in the middle of a tough schedule right now and 4 points away against our two strongest opponents, Chester (2nd) and Bradford (3rd) is a result I would take any day. Next up: Harrogate (6th) and Guiseley (4th)...

Season 2013/14 - update 3

November and December saw our form become even more erratic, probably due to our cup run:

Still we started well, continuing the trend from the last period and getting 7 points in 4 games (three of them away) against our nearest challengers. The only loss came against Harrogate - and the 2-3 goal was scored in the 90th minute. So naturally I was especially happy to get my revenge against them in the FA Trophy. Our third striker Adam Cunnington scored 5 goals first two games in that tournament and has since shown himself to be a good stand-in partner for Marc McCusker after Romone Rose unfortunately fractured his wrist in the game against Colwyn Bay.

After two expected victories we then faced much tougher opposition against Forest Green in our third FAT tie – they are currently in contention for the playoff spots in the Conference. We manged to keep them from scoring at the Lamb Ground, but they were just too strong in the replay. When the clock was running out and we had to throw everything forward, I couldn’t resist the temptation to put our grand old man Dale Belford in to give him yet another record:

I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed after being eliminated, but we did get one round farther than expected and can now focus on the league and the upcoming Christmas schedule.

Things are still looking all right in the table, although we have lost a bit of our buffer. Vauxhall have been coming very strongly in the last few rounds, and with a game in hand look like they might turn out to be our worst rivals in the second half of the season. We’ll face them at the beginning of January and be much wiser after that...

Have you thought of signing your namesake? Think he was at Scunthorpe in FM13..

Have you thought of signing your namesake? Think he was at Scunthorpe in FM13..

I did look him up, but he's actually at Tranmere and a regular for them in the Championship this season, so a bit out of my league...

Season 2013/14 - update 4a

Not much holiday cheer for us this season:

Horrible. Just horrible. The only positive to take from these three games is the fact that Adam Cunnington is really hitting his stride. The scoring is OK, really, but conceding eight goals in three matches is of course completely unacceptable.

I decided the time was ripe for a team meeting, so I gathered the whole squad in the conference room after a training session and spoke to them for a long time in mostly capital letters. They seem to have got the message and the general mood was actually quite good afterwards. Everyone seems to understand that we need to buck up our ideas and we need to do so right now if we are really serious about our promotion bid.

After the meeting, Dale Bedford stayed behind and asked if I had an extra couple of minutes. I did, of course, and he gave me this message:

I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised. He is in his 30th season(!) as a pro and hasn’t really played much since well before I came to the club. Dale of course assured me that he had every intention of staying on as a coach, but he felt that his talents were better used off the pitch these days. The man is a living legend around here, so I had to try and persuade him to change his mind. I doubt he will, although he did promise me to go home and think it over.

P.S.: Turns out Dale is still playing IRL - at 48(!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Belford

The man is like a non-league Peter Shilton...

Great stuff! Well, other than the hoiliday fixtures. If all goes to plan and you get out of managing in the sixth tier at some point, I think Dale deserves to be your side-man. GK coach at the least.

I'm definitely keeping him at the club for now - and he has 14 GK coaching, so he should be perfectly capable of coaching at a higher level.

If/when I move on, I will try to take him with me - not sure if he would want to leave Tamworth, though!

Season 2013/14 - update 4b

The lads listened to me. I reminded them of the need to get back to the game plan – and they acted it out almost perfectly. A hattrick from McCusker gave us a solid win over Stalybridge, a last minute solo run from Cunnington secured a point against Kettering – and then this against Vauxhall:

I’m really hoping we turned a corner with that one!

It seems we are back on track - and that Adam Cunnington has just been a monster this last month.

10 goals in seven games! If it weren’t for him - and the streak we had at the start of the season - we would probably be out of the running by now. Amazingly, though, despite our somewhat erratic mid-season form, we are still very much in the running:

Six points behind Harrogate, but with a game in hand. Everything is wide open as we head into the final third...

Season 2013/14 - Interlude

Before we get to the next seasonal update, just a few player news.

As expected, Dale Belford did finally decide to call it a day:

I will of course have to play him in the last game of the season just for the record – even if it turns out to be a playoff final!

Cunnington & McCusker really are the dynamic duo for us up front right now and were deservedly recognized:

Adam Cunnington followed this up in February by setting a club record:

I just don’t know what to make of him, though. One moment he is destroying defenders left and right – and the next he looks like he almost can’t be bothered to tie his boot laces! “Balanced” personality indeed. Just an example of a five match performance sheet:

With Belford hanging up his boots at the end of the season, let’s have a look at this year’s youth intake:

Not exactly the golden generation. Lonsdale and Springthorpe get a chance to prove themselves, the rest get told to go back to school and do something useful with their lives instead.

In other news, Chairman Bob didn’t seem to be happy about our link with Blackpool. His secretary Gladys tells me he had a bad experience there as a young man, involving a sailor, a priest, and a shipment of whiskey. Whatever the reason, he decided to cancel our agreement and the next day announced a new link with:

Of all the lousy – well, at least we do get a bit of money out of the deal. And at least it’s not MK Dons...

Season 2013/14 - update 5

For some reason the team just keeps playing like night and day:

The stalemate against Braintree was one of the most boring matches I think I’ve ever watched in my life. If there was a single shot on target, I must have dozed off and missed it.

Losing to relegation candidates Chorley was just infuriating. We went behind early, had all the possession and all the chances for the rest of the game – but just couldn’t get it in. And just to complete our misery, Romone Rose missed a penalty.

Back on track against Marine, another candidate for relegation. Cunnington and Shuker were on fire, we were in complete control throughout and only allowed them a consolation goal in the second half.

For some reason we had a three-week period without any games (it later became a whole month as we had the match against Barrow postponed due to a waterlogged pitch). So I called up Ol’ Gil the go-to-guy and he quickly got us a friendly against Aston Villa from the city - the Premier League was also on a break. I really don’t know why, as there weren’t any internationals played during those three weeks. Never mind the result, we got some extra income. I also used the opportunity to send a couple of exhausted players off on holiday, as they seemed to need it.

The break hadn’t done us much good as we lost a completely even game to Halifax. Almost as infuriating as the Chorley game.

Clearly our two strikers were on fire against Barrow and Chester - and clearly our defence was not. Seven goals scored in two games - great. Seven conceded - not so great.

We finished off the period with a much-needed win against Bradford PA, and going into the home stretch the table looks like this:

The season has felt like such a rollercoaster ride so far and frankly I’m amazed that we’re just two points from the top! If it hadn’t been for our amazing run at the start and a number of vital goals by Cunnington and McCusker, I dare not think where we would be right now. Also we seem to be really struggling against bottom sides but doing fairly well against the other top teams - which I guess is kind of encouraging, should we end up in the playoffs...

Getting tight at the top.

Getting tight at the top.

Yeah, we're beginning to see a bit of a gap between the top-5 and the rest, but that direct promotion spot is still very much up for grabs!

Season 2013/14 - update 6

And here is how we ended the regular season:

Not much to say, really. We went from OK to bad and back to OK. We did have a lot of injuries to contend with, as the players are beginning to feel the effects of a long season on a small squad. Losing to Vauxhall gave them the title, but at the same time we were guaranteed a playoff spot due to other results. So I guess I would be able to give Dale Bedford his final bow after all, with the last two matches having no real meaning - we were facing two mid-table sides with even less to play for than us. Then the next day this happened on the training ground:

My heart skipped a beat when Tony Breeden doubled over during a sprint and had to be helped from the pitch. So the decision was made for me. Dale was definitely going to play in the last two league games and at least the playoff finals as well. Would his immense experience make up for his advancing years? A term that has never been more apt.

As the results show, we went undefeated with Dale on goal, so no worries there. In the last game against Brackley, with the clock running out and nothing to lose, I was even able to give him a standing ovation and let him be relieved by our new Under 18s keeper Frankie Lonsdale (technically young enough to be his grandson), setting what must surely be a record for the biggest age gap in a match:

A fitting tribute to a man whose career is literally longer than my whole life.

In another month of ups and downs, Sam Oji was the one stable:

The Player of the Season nominees were also announced. McCusker and Shuker were the two Tamworth representatives on the list.

No room for Cunnington - fair enough, I guess, with the Jekyll-and-Hyde year he’s had. Also no room for our centreback Tom Marshall who is third in the league on rating, which is just outright robbery. There were two midfielders and eight(!) strikers to vote for.

My prediction from earlier in the season about Vauxhall being the strongest challenger turned out to come true. I guess if I fail as a manager, I can always go into punditry.

So we’re going up against Harrogate in the semis. Not exactly the ideal opponent. We beat them in the FA Trophy, but they beat us twice in the league. Three very even games and three one-goal wins. Could go either way, I suppose, but somehow I just don’t have a good feeling about it. Would have preferred Barrow, but there you go...

”Step into my office, please...”

The day before our final league game against Brackley, Chairman Bob called me into his office for a meeting, I kind of had a hunch what this was about.

“Ah, Max – come on in!”

“You wanted to see me, Bob?”

“Yes, yes I did. Have a seat! So here we are, in the playoffs. Well done, you and the lads both!”

I sat down in front of the massive mahogany desk. “Thank you. It was what we aimed for, although to be honest I don’t think this season has been good for my blood pressure. And it won’t get any better in the playoffs.”

“Haha - no, me neither. Quite the rollercoaster, right? Anyway, it can come as no surprise to you that I’m very happy with our overall performance this year. So is the rest of the board!”

“Well, we were hoping for top 5 and that’s what we got. Now we just want to push on and take that last step”.

“Indeed. Indeed. Now, let me cut to the chase. Your contract is running out soon.”

“Yes...”

“But we think you’re the man to take us onwards and upwards -“

“Yes...”

“- no matter how we do in the playoffs. We really believe you can take this club to the next level.”

“Well, thank you for believing in me, Bob. I really think there is a lot of potential here and I would love to continue what we’ve started. But I’ll be frank with you.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less from you.” Bob’s smile didn’t falter for a second, but he did lean forward and he did look slightly apprehensive.

“You see, Bob, I have to think of my own career and what is best for me. I really want to commit to Tamworth and take this club as far as it can go, but at the same time...“

“Go on.”

“Well, Bob, I would love to manage Tamworth in the Conference, and I really appreciate your confidence in me - but to be perfectly honest I don’t know if I can take another season in this league. And if we do miss out on that promotion, we will definitely need to improve the squad for next season.”

Bob leaned back again and gave me a long look.

"I hear you, Max. I really do. And I agree completely - I just can’t make any promises at this point in time. I know our finances are redder than Rudolf the Reindeer’s nose right now, but I am currently negotiating with potential investors and sponsors. I just won’t know for sure for at least a week or two, probably until after the playoffs.”

“In that case I think it’s only fair that we postpone our contract negotiations until we both know where we stand, don’t you? On and off the pitch.”

“I do, Max. So I’ll tell Gladys to make another appointment in a week’s time?”

“Great idea. I’ll make a note of it right now.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

“See you at the game tomorrow, then, Max.”

“See you, Bob.”

Had that meeting gone well or not? I wasn’t sure, but I left Bob’s office feeling both nervous and weirdly confident at the same time...

Season 2013/14 – playoff semifinals

We were going into the playoffs with two key players injured: Keeper Tony Breeden and topscorer Mark McCusker. This didn’t exactly help ease my fears ahead of this incredibly important tie. At least there was a chance that they would both be ready for the final - but first we had to get past Harrogate who had made life difficult for us on more than one occasion this season.

Being an American and growing up with sports where a draw isn’t an option and where everything has to be decided in one game at the end of the season, I was no stranger to all-or-nothing matches like these. As a spectator. Let me tell you, it’s one thing sitting in the bleachers yelling at your favourite team. Or sitting at home yelling at the tv. It’s quite another to be standing on the sideline yelling at your own boys and being about to vomit from excitement.

As the lower seed in the draw, we started off at home and got off to about the worst start imaginable when Portuguese midfielder Andre da Costa scored a great header in the 4th minute. He completely owned the game in the first 15 minutesuntil he was injured. We then started fighting our way back into the game, but it wasn’t until late in the second half that ever-present Adam Cunnington finally brought us back in with a powerful shot from just outside the area.

1-1 was probably a fair result all things considered, but it didn’t exactly make for an easy return game at Wetherby Road.

Cunnington started where he had left off five days earlier, hitting it in low from Chris Shuker’s pass. We were in final territory - for about ten minutes until veteran striker Andy Bishop brought the scores level again. After a spell of Harrogate dominance we gradually fought our way back into the game in the second half. We had all the possession, we had all the chances - we just couldn’t get it in. Most of the lads were looking exhausted by this point and in my head I was beginning to wonder what I could possibly say to make them pick themselves up for the extra time...

When once again our attack showed why it has been keeping us in contention all season. Shuker played a seemingly hopeless ball into the area, when Romone Rose turned up out of the blue and somehow managed to get it past the keeper. The fourth official must have had some trouble keeping me inside the technical field afterwards, as I was yelling my lungs out to get the whole team to just park the bus and run out the clock. Harrogate got scarily close a couple of times, but in Breeden’s absence Dale Bedford turned all his 30+ years of experience into some crazy vital saves. I wish I’m still that limber when I’m 46!

I couldn’t quite believe what I had just witnessed. We were through to the final. One week from now we would either be back in the Conference Premier or destined to spend another gruelling season in the Blue Square North...

Season 2013/14 – playoff final

Chester had cruised past Barrow fairly comfortably and now awaited us in the final - and as the highest seed from the regular season, they got the home advantage. Yet for some reason the bookies had us as slight favourites. Well, both league games ended in draws, so in theory anything could happen. And Breeden and McCusker were back from their injuries too, so we were able to field the strongest possible team.

Still, I wasn’t feeling too confident on the 100 mile drive up to Cheshire, though. The Deva Stadium, famous for straddling the border, would be the venue for the biggest game of my short career. We would literally be doing the team talk in England and playing the actual match in Wales.

As we arrived, I could see the throng of blue-clad fans on their way in to support their home team. And the moment we got out of the bus, it started raining. I was beginning to see why every single Welshman I met seemed so gloomy all the time.

I wanted the lads to understand the importance of the game without putting too much pressure on them, so I kept the pre-match talk short and to the point, stressed a few tactical things and just told them to go out there and give the fans one last performance to end the season on a high note. The general mood was good – the players didn’t seem to feel the burden of expectation nearly as heavily as me.

As the match kicked off, I went into a sort of trance and only remember the game in glimpses...

FIRST HALF

9 min After a one-two combination with Zac Aley, Marc Williams plays a perfect pass to Scott Brown who is free in front of goal. Brown smashes it in low with his left foot. Breeden throws himself after it, but it goes under him - 1-0 CHESTER! The Conference seems very far away right now!

15 min Shuker sees Connington on the left, Connington nods it on to Kelly, Kelly lobs it forward to Rose – but Paul Linwood comes in with a sliding tackle and is happy to concede the corner. Hendrie sends it floating in, but again Linwood gets to it first and heads it clear. Tait on the throw-in to Cunnington, Cunnington sees Barrow on the left, Barrow crosses it into the area – up out of the mass of blue defenders rises Marc McCusker and puts his head to the ball - 1-1! We’re back in with a shout!

After the equaliser, we begin put massive pressure on Chester, but the ball just doesn’t seem to want to go in. Especially Cunnington seems to be hit by the famous curse of the woodwork - or so my assman George tells me. I have no recollection of this myself.

37 min A missed opportunity by Chester leads to a counter attack. McCusker takes the ball forward, outruns two Chester defenders, sees Adam Cunnington who stayed forward. A wonderful pass to Cunnington who completely fools the keeper with a first time volley - 1-2 TAMWORTH! Another amazing play by the magic duo!

The whistle goes for the first half and we head off the pitch for a well-deserved break. McCusker has run Chester ragged so far - nothing much to tell the lads but to just keep up the good work!

SECOND HALF

48 min McCusker at it again, tries to make some space for himself. Costigan comes in with a sliding challenge, but the loose ball is picked up by Cunnington. Adam Cunnington alone with the keeper, hits it low – 1-3 TAMWORTH! Second goal by Cunnington and we pick up where we left off before half-time!

55 min Cunnington stops Linwood going past him, Linwood drops like a rock. The referee thinks it was a shove – yellow card for Adam Cunnington. Massive booing from the Chester fans.

56 min Cunnington seems a little too high-strung after the booking. This time it’s Brown who goes down - but the referee says he took a dive. Yellow card for Scott Brown. Massive complaints from the Chester players, again massive booing from the home crowd – but this time it’s at the ref.

58 min Longshot from Williams, Breeden does well to parry but can’t hold on to it, the rebound falls to Scott Brown - 2-3! Second goal for Brown who’s really looking fired-up after the booking!

61 min Williams one-on-one with Oji, goes past him but Oji brings him down. A professional freekick but a yellow card for Sam Oji. He needs to be a bit careful now.

The curse of the woodwork kicks in again. We just can’t get that goal to close the match. As we enter the last fifteen minutes, Tamworth gradually start piling on the pressure. I am just about to wet myself or something even worse when Breeden pulls an amazing reflex save out of his sleeve to rob Brown of the hattrick of his career just before we hit 90 minutes.

90+2 min Now we’re just burying ourselves in the area and trying to kick the ball out of the stadium and back to England every chance we get. Four minutes added and with less than two of those left, I suffer a sudden attack of insanity and substitute McCusker for none other than Dale Bedford. Well, he’s good in the air and Chester are throwing everything at us now.

Suddenly the stadium goes very quiet, except for a small and very loud section in the corner, clad in red. Still, I almost don’t hear the final whistle. I sort of sense the whole bench getting up and storming onto the pitch. I get the wind knocked out of me when assman George throws himself at me and shouts in my ear: “We made it, boss!”

I vaguely remember going over and shaking the hand of Geoff Ferris, Chester’s very disappointed manager. I kind of sort of remember walking around the pitch in a daze and hugging the players one by one. I vividly remember the singing and drinking in the bus on the way home. We had indeed made it, George - and everyone else...

2013/14 – season wrap-up

We had done it. We were back in the Conference. And what a rollercoaster season! We started out so strongly, but our form gradually became as unpredictable as a José Mourinho press conference. In the end, though, we managed to get the points we needed to meet our goal: A top-5 finish and a playoff spot. Three more games, 4½ more hours of ulser-inducing stress. But ultimately we triumphed and got the reward. Next year we’ll be facing slightly stronger opposition, playing in slighter bigger stadiums and need some slightly better players to strengthen the team -

- but all that could wait until after the summer break. For now, the lads needed to be allowed to celebrate and I needed to allow myself to look back on a season that had aged me about a decade and made the three hairs I had left on my head the same colour as that unpredictable Portuguese.

There it was: We had put last year’s disappointment behind us and in my first full season at the club made an immediate return to the fifth tier. And our attack was obviously our biggest strength, helping us with a new league record – too bad we couldn’t score just two more, though.

The best player in the league and the fan favourite: Marc McCusker. Deservedly so. Had we been just a tad more consistent throughout, he could easily have scored the three extra goals needed to make himself topscorer – and bring the team to triple digits. Still, an altogether brilliant season by Marc.

Our team of the year – all players in the starting XI have 7+ averages, except Tony Breeden who just missed it by a fraction. His promising form from early in the season, like that of the rest of the team, was later compromised somewhat.

Personally, I was shortlisted for manager of the season and eventually came in third. Fair enough, I guess, that MacAuley won the award - however much I despise the man personally. Vauxhall came very strongly in the second half of the season and overtook us to win the league, so we’ll meet again next year. I am a bit disappointed, though, that Gilchrist was voted ahead of me. Barrow were perhaps the biggest surprise in the top-5, but the play some of the most boring football I’ve seen in a long time and ultimately were eliminated from the playoffs just as unceremoniously as they had entered them.

The board were understandably happy with our results, even though getting there was a bumpier road than any of us had hoped for. The day after the final, Chairman Bob and I met again and this time I happily signed the contract to stay on at a club I was growing quite fond of. I probably could have persuaded him to a 2 season deal, but hey - a year is a long time in football, as they say...

I'll edit this when I catch up mate, looks like you've made some amazing progress.

Thank you, I am very happy with the way we ended this season. It really was a year of ups and downs, but ultimately we hit out our stride again at just the right time!

(P.S.: My summer holiday is now over and I started work again, which means I will have less time to play and updates might become a little less frequent. I am already well into the next season, though, and will definitely keep the save going... )

2014 – summer holiday

Unlike last year where I had so much to do just trying to get to know my new employer, I decided that this year I would allow myself a bit of R&R. Of course there was still a lot of work to do to get the squad ready for life in fifth tier, but everyone needs to kick back and take their mind off their jobs once in a while, don’t they?

So I went home to the States to see my parents and my siblings. They were all very supportive of my new career and proud of my achievements so far, even though the old man and Billy still don’t think very highly of football. Billy is three years older than me and our father’s spitting image in every respect – inside and out. Very fitting that they share a name too. They were both quarterbacks in high school and both married the head cheerleader. It seems Billy got all of Dad’s square-jawed ruggedness, our sister Julie got all of Mom’s blonde all-American beauty - and there was none left for me. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

I did manage to persuade them all to watch some of the World Cup with me. Being in the same hemisphere as Brazil, we didn’t even have to stay up all night. They were polite enough to oblige me, but I don’t think any of them will ever really get hooked like I have been.

As some of you may recall, Ukraine won their qualifying group ahead of England and gave the Three Lions a 5-0 thrashing along the way. The promise they showed was carried over into the final tournament, where they got all the way to the final - admittedly helped quite a bit by the luck of the draw:

In the end Argentina stopped the Ukrainian fairy tale from having the perfect ending, when Messi finally got the international trophy he seemed to want so desperately. Roy Hodgson retired after England’s creditable performance and was replaced by – Brendan Rodgers. That’s right. Bright future ahead for the national team, surely.

It was really good to be back in Springfield among familiar faces, but after a week or so, I actually found myself growing restless and beginning to think about football again. I was eager to get back to England and back to work. I began to realize just how fond I was growing of the country and especially of Tamworth – the town, the club, the players, the people, the fans. This team could go places. I had no idea how far along the journey I would stay on board, but right now I was very much enjoying the ride...

2014/15 - pre-season

Back from a well-deserved trip stateside, I felt re-vitalized and ready to start preparations for the new season. On my first day back at the office, Chairman Bob greeted me with these good news that he had been able to secure while I was away - I don’t think the man has had a single day of vacation for the 20+ years he’s been at the club:

So we almost doubled our income from sponsors. Not bad – and much needed.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the currency, I believe 1 £ = 9 point something Danish Kroner on FM13, so just divide the numbers by 10 and you’ll have a rough idea)

The pundits have us pegged for 22nd place and relegation – which makes more sense for a newly promoted team than the bookmakers expecting us to finish just outside the playoff spots:

I would like to say I shared the bookies’ faith in my team, but I thought it better to play it safe and just go for avoiding relegation. Luckily Chairman Bob shared my cautious approach:

Despite my somewhat limited aspirations, the board still almost doubled the wage budget, giving me some room to maneuver the (free) transfer market. Only fair, I think - we are after all playing at a higher level this season.

So once again I set out to explore the uncharted territory of lower league free agents:

Our three loanees from last season all contracts that expired this summer, giving me the chance to make them all permanent additions to our squad. Shuker may be over the top at 32, but I still think he has at least one more good season in him, so he got a one-year deal. Rose and Miller both showed a lot of promise and will surely develop further under my guidance - or so I hope.

As for the new faces, I was excited to be able to get all three of them for free. Jakub Sokolik is a promising centre-back who comes to us as a reject from the Liverpool academy via Hyde, where he wasn’t able to break into the first team last season. He has already made a name for himself in the Czech U21 national team, though, and I am sure he has a bright future ahead of him. He certainly works his shorts off on the training ground.

Axel Bossekota is a Congolese-Belgian winger who adds a bit of African flavor to our team. He’s fast and he can both run with the ball and cross it, so hopefully he will score goals himself as well as set up our strikers. A product of the Anderlecht talent school, his career so far has included stints in both French, Cypriot, and most recently Irish (Limerick) football.

Finally, I wanted someone who could play DM as I plan to make our formation a bit more defensive this season, and Mason Bush looks like he could very well become a key player for us sooner rather than later. Another Premier League academy reject (this one from Tottenham), he can tackle, he can shoot and he is unselfish - an important quality for a midfielder who needs to work both ways.

On a less positive note, we also had to let some players go. Never easy, but part of the game. Hendrie, Pelé, and Parkinson were just getting too old. They had all had provided us with some much needed experience last season, but it was time to rejuvenate the squad. Courtney just hadn’t done enough to convince me to keep him around.

All, in all, this is the squad that we kick off the new season with (including a couple of our own U18s that were moved up). I am confident that these lads will at least be able to meet our own expectations if not those of the betting companies.

Our friendlies went more or less as expected, slightly better than last year. Two losses against much bigger clubs - although the Luton one was a bit too heavy for my taste; the lads just stopped caring for the last fifteen minutes and conceded a couple of unnecessary goals. Two comfortable wins and two clean sheets against our local feeder clubs to get our attack firing.

Up next: An anniversary for Mr. Power - and can we duplicate last season’s unreal opening form...?

Mate, this is so well written. Do you happen to do anything for a career involving writing? Could fool me if not.

Axel looks like the type of player who will give fullbacks fits in the fifth tier. (Say that five times fast). Bush looks a fantastic presence in midfield, promising mentals and physicals for his age and level. Jakub looks decent as well, if not a bit more average than the other two. All in all, looks like a very healthy offseason and natural growth for the club. Although, I had to keep trying to figure out what the currency meant in my head.

Good luck with the opening fixtures!

Mate, this is so well written. Do you happen to do anything for a career involving writing? Could fool me if not.

Axel looks like the type of player who will give fullbacks fits in the fifth tier. (Say that five times fast). Bush looks a fantastic presence in midfield, promising mentals and physicals for his age and level. Jakub looks decent as well, if not a bit more average than the other two. All in all, looks like a very healthy offseason and natural growth for the club. Although, I had to keep trying to figure out what the currency meant in my head.

Good luck with the opening fixtures!

Thank you very much! And thank you for replying. I can see that there are plenty of people viewing the thread and I will keep updating it just because I'm enjoying the actual writing - but it's always nice to get a bit of feedback now and then.

(OOC: I am kind of used to putting words together for a living - not fiction writing, though. If you come across the occasional spelling or grammatical error (I hate those myself!), please bear with me as a non-native English speaker. I especially find commas to be completely illogical and impossible to master in English. )

Maybe I will convert to pounds for your benefit - might screw up my already hopeless budgeting completely, though.

2014/15 season - update 1

Four games into the new season, I realized that I had a little bit of a milestone coming up:

Maybe not much to brag about, but I was still surprised that I had already reached triple digits. 100 games. That’s 150 hours spent on the sideline. Sure doesn’t feel that way. These past two years since I arrived on this side of the pond have just flown by.

The players did indeed present me with a good result to mark the occasion. The rest of our results this period were less than exciting to say the least:

8 points in the first 8 matches. 8 goals scored and 8 conceded. Our defensive tactic has worked well so far in that we’ve managed to keep things fairly tidy in the back - and Jakub Sokolik has lived up to my high expectations. Our attack, on the other hand, need to get cracking and start bagging some more goals if we want to move away from the nether regions of the table!

We also added another very promising youngster to the squad, a young Irishman by the name of Daniel Cleary:

He was recommended to me by Jakub who knows him from Liverpool where they went up through the youth ranks together. Unlike Jakub, Danny Boy here even has two Premier League appearances for the Reds to his name! From what he has shown me on the training ground so far, he has to be the most talented player I have yet had the privilege to coach. Technically there is room for improvement, but his physical skills are very impressive for an 18 year old. The perfect long-term replacement for our captain Richard Tait on that right-back position - if we get to keep him that long! I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger clubs come calling as soon as he starts performing for us. I have asked Captain Dick to take him under his wings and show him the ropes, which he was happy to do...

Good luck with this. Always interesting to follow a rise to the top

Good luck with this. Always interesting to follow a rise to the top

Thank you

2014/15 season - update 2

Our attackers turned out to be slower starters than our defenders, but we did manage to get them going and started scoring some goals this period - 14 in 8 games, as opposed to 8 for 8 in the first games. At the same time we’re still keeping it relatively tight at the other end, so things are looking much brighter in the table now:

Whether they will continue to do so in the next period is anybody’s guess, as Captain Dick is out for the foreseeable future:

I guess Danny Boy will just have to step up and show what he is made of sooner than expected.

In other news, I was glad to see my old forward Kudus Oyenuga get some recognition:

He was probably the most talented player at Hayes & Yeading and is now plying his trade at Woking. 9 goals in 8 Conference matches so far. I wish him all the best - I just hope he’ll have an off-day when we meet on the pitch!

We added another striker to supplement our dynamic duo of McCusker & Cunnington up front:

French-Ivorian Armand Gnanduillet is tall, strong, good in the air and as such an obvious target man. He does tend to - shall we say save his strength, both in training and on the pitch. I’ll have to have a word with him about his attitude in that respect. As for the hair - well, there’s just no excuse for that, really...

Good read so far, shame you got sacked in your first season and then relegated in the second, but I think sometimes that relegation can be a blessing as it allows you to improve the squad to a decent level for when you go back up, giving yourself a bit more of a chance the second time around. Bit like a yo-yo club Hopefully now that you've made it back into the Premier, you can push on and stay away from that relegation zone, something which appears possible with your start to the season, scoring more than your conceding and you must be extremely happy with the recent set of results!

Thank you.

Yes, clearly Hayes & Yeading just wasn't the right club for me. I never really got the players to gel and ending up at Tamworth was probably the best thing that could have happened to me.

2014/15 season - update 3

All good things must come to an end, including good form. We started off the period with a couple of nice wins. Our new signings are all fitting into the team well and Jakub Sokolik has turned out to be quite the revelation, also scoring an impressive number of goals for a central defender.

Suddenly we completely stopped scoring goals. I was especially annoyed by the FA Cup exit against league rivals Mansfield, as I felt we had a real chance of winning and maybe getting a big-name opponent in the next round. No such luck, so cup business as usual.

Our bad form looked set to continue as we went down just before half-time against Telford, probably the weakest team in the league. So I gave the players a good talking to and made sure they understood what was expected to them - and it worked. It was like seeing a different team emerge from the dressing room for the second half. They completely controlled the game and we got four goals by four different players, which is always encouraging to see.

Including a penalty taken by our keeper Tony Breeden. A bit of an experiment, granted. In training, he had been chiding our outfield players for being too poor at penalties and boasting how he could do a better job of it himself. So I gave him the chance to prove it - and he delivered. Being ahead 3-1 and looking very comfortable, I then decided to give him the chance in a match as well. I’m glad I did.

Halfway through the season, things are still looking all right and we now face Vauxhall, our rivals from last season, in the FA Trophy. An opportunity to revenge our loss in the league and get back at Carl MacAuley for all his snide remarks - man, I hate that guy!

Bad news about our veteran midfielder Chris Shuker who will be out for the rest of the calendar year at least:

Chris‘ performances this season have been average at best. I used him primarily as a winger last season, but he doesn’t have the same speed anymore so I moved him to the centre. At 32, I fear he may not be able to fight his way back into the team again. There are just too many younger, faster and fitter guys eager to steal his place. But we’ll see. For now he just needs to focus on recovering. There is a life after football too and he has been talking about his plans to become a scout.

One of those younger guys may very well be our latest addition, Patrik Twardzik, although I plan on playing him as a striker to begin with. His finishing is good, he is technically strong and he has a tactical maturity that belies his 21 years. If he can improve his passing, he will become a very strong player for us.

Patrick is another friend of Jakub Sokolik’s, this time from the Czech U21 team. I almost feel like he should start charging agent fees for finding new clubs for these guys...

Despite the poor form of late, those victories earlier in the month have definitely gone a long way to putting a gap between relegation and your current position

Great read so far, excellent work!

Despite the poor form of late, those victories earlier in the month have definitely gone a long way to putting a gap between relegation and your current position

Yeah, like last season we have been a bit too inconsistent. At tier 6, it was enough for a playoff spot. Here at tier 5, I suspect it will be enough for a mid-table finish. With the points we manage to rake in here and there, I am fairly confident that relegation won't be an issue.

Great read so far, excellent work!

Thank you!

2014/15 season - update 4

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, apparently late November in the North West of England wasn’t cold enough as we suffered another infuriating defeat at the hands of Vauxhall and Carl MacAuley (man, I hate that guy!).

I finally realized our problem, though - when I realized just when results had begun do go awry. When we signed Patrik Twardzik, I immediately started playing him up front - and we only scored 7 goals in the next 8 games. And not one of those goals were scored by Patrik. I then moved him down to the midfield as an advanced playmaker against Mansfield with the following results:

Suddenly we score 12 goals in 5 games, including 7(!) by Marc McCusker and 2 by Patrik himself. I guess he can’t score as an attacker but only as a midfielder.

As the results started to pick up again, we began to consolidate our mid-table position:

If we can keep this up, we certainly won’t have to worry about relegation - but it’s hard not to look upwards instead. Only three points separate us from the top-5. Were the bookies right to have such faith in us after all...?

It's amazing what a small change like that can do! You could easily be in with a shout for a play-off position, you just need to keep up the consistency from the last 5 games and hope results go your way

It is. Patrik has been really good for us this last period, with a number of assists in addition to the two goals. Just goes to show how big a difference one player in form can do at this level.

2014/15 season - update 5

Just a short update this time:

Going back to McCusker up front and letting Twardzik work his magic in the midfield instead did wonders for us! The goalscoring slowed down again, but then we got back on track defensively so no worries there, as we celebrated a number of not exactly unlucky wins, managed one hard-fought draw against Altrincham - and suffered one total meltdown against Hereford. On the plus side, Tony Breeden scored another two spot kicks for us and is now the league’s leading penalty taker(!).

Going into the final part of the season, we are actually tied for fourth place and have a real chance of a playoff spot, which would be much more than we could have hoped for seven months ago! We still have to face almost all of the other top teams, though, so it certainly won’t be easy...

Doing nicely with Tamworth.

2014/15 season - update 6

Our youth intake this year was complete and utter crap. No offense to the lads who tried out for us, but i won’t be keeping a single one of them around:

I got to celebrate another anniversary of sorts in March:

Not the best way to celebrate. Can’t complain about the rest of the month, though. Tony Breeden’s very-very-last-minute equaliser away against second placed Grimsby surely was a moment to remember - and I finally got my sweet revenge against Vauxhall and Carl MacAuley - man, I hate that guy!

With four games to go, Telford are already relegated and Dag & Red have already won the league - but we are in a playoff spot, just one point ahead of Gateshead - who amazingly have a 0(!) goal difference in sixth place. Must have a lot of narrow wins and a few big losses, I guess. I did not expect that we would be in this position this late in the season. And we face none other than Gateshead in the next round. What a world of good a win in that game would do us...

Come on The Lambs.