Peljam Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Just finished the preseason. It's taken me ages because I've been bombarded with offers and enquirys for most of my players. And most of them want to go 5 players want to go, and are angry that I'm not letting them. Another 3 are coming under some serious attention. Two of them, a goal keeper and a winger, have yet to actually play a game for me. They spent the last season on loan to Rochdale. Boo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Originally posted by joshpmilton:Out of interest, if I left my post at Maidstone would I have to create a new manager or could I just apply for a job at one of the newly promoted clubs with my current one? Yes that's fine, provided the club meets the original criteria. Have a look at their league history to make sure they have been promoted and relegated before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
catfishjack Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 CatfishJack - Chelmsford City - 14/15 League One - Season Review Back to the usual City way - average start, some yoyo-ing, then pull it together for a good run-in. Progress into the promotion places with 2 games left, only draw at home to eventual champions Bournemouth due to a dodgy late penalty for them, but win at Coventry on the final day to go up. Final table. 2nd is much better than our predicted 19th! Some minor transfer activity - some good players out as contracts come up to expire and they don't look like resigning, so get sold before they go for free. Some okay players in, too. Nothing to mention in the cups. Highlight - winning 9-0 at Yeovil - new record for L1. Lowlight - City legend Lewis Smith is off in the summer, after refusing to sign a new contract. He's scored a hatful. He wasn't top-scorer this year, losing out to Scott Wagstaff - he's been here since the BS South days! Waggy's history Finances are falling - 3000 capacity doesn't allow any freedom, income is tiny after all the season tickets sold. We're relying on player sales and away cup ties. Next year will be a struggle. Final Position - 2nd in League 1 (Promoted) Manager awards - 2nd in Manager of the Year Player awards - 3 players in L1 Select We need a bigger ground, and soon! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyt1990 Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Originally posted by 442to445:*bangs head on desk* Save game corrupt! How far in were you? And have you lost it all or jsut a few months Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron-bullet Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Tiverton Town 08/09 I have decided to take part. I did manage to get Billericay to the Prem in the last version before being sacked. Profile It was a season which started with no expectations and finished with hearts broken. We were expected to survive in the league and this looked tough considering i only had a couple of youth players. I took full advantage of Plymouth being my parent club and brought Reid, Samba, Earls, Laird and McCoud. I also brought in a few free signings, who were mainly journeyman, coming towards the end of their careers. I also signed a 16 year old Scottish midfielder, who looked far too good for this league and would become my skipper. We started off with a couple of good wins but soon we started to lose a few games as having a small squad started to catch up with us. I decided to play 1 up front and this started to improve our form with Baillie (the young Scot) playing really well. Reuben Reid had been out for the first couple of months and his return also helped our form. We were still inconsistant and were knocked out all cups fairly early. It looked liked we would be settling for midtable but a new year brought a change at the club. We went 4-4-2, with Shaun Harrard or 16 year old Irishman Tom Hone, from the youth team, partnering a now prolific Reid. We were starting to batter teams and went on a brilliant run, which would see us go into the final game of the season in 6th place, one point behind the play offs and facing Chelmsford, who happened to be just above us. Despite dominating, we went in at half time 1-0 down. I was confident, as we were the home team and had won our last 8 games at home in a row. Reid popped up with the equaliser on 55 minutes before Ian Simpemba headed home from a Mo Harkin corner with 10 minutes to go. We were now the top scorers from corners in the league and managed to hold on to finish 4th. We would meet Crawley in the play offs. I personally have never won a semi final play off in this version (there have been many), so was not looking forward to this. We were 2-0 down in the home leg at half time, so my feeling were proved correct. Reid pulled 1 back before missing a couple of one on ones. Crawley scored a late goal to help them to a 3-1 win. The second leg looked impossible and was made even worse with Reid being ruled out with cut to the arm . I decided to push Samba up front with 16 year old Hone but we lost 3-1 and crashed out. Crawley beat Dorchester in the final to go up. Next year depends on who i can get back from Plymouth. It will be tough to go up. A cup run would be nice! League Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron-bullet Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 League Graph Squad Star Man Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1873Chris Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Into season 2 and my Wombles are playing well sitting second in the coference But My finances are starting to take a turn for the worse with my wages almost 9 grand under budget we're still almost 300k in debt it could be a fun season but at least its going well on the park Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watson156 Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Sorry havn't read through all of the pages but i currently have a game with Halesowen going and they are in league one but i was wandering if anybody has got a saved game with Rugby Town? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejthegreat Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Decided to take some time off AFC Wimbledon and go back to the start with a lower reputation club and try the non-10 player loan in 1st season way of playing After 3 hrs of reloading, only 3 below 1000 were Chippenham, Hendon and AFC Hornchurch. I chose AFC Hornchurch cause of the name and less people playing them. First major difference is no parent club and board room thinks we have no need for one Decided to troll through the unnattached players and offer trials to everyone. All up 71 players were given trials Including my old favourite Pierre Joseph-Dubois(PJD) who agreed to a trial....dunno why. From it I found a 19yo keeper of League One standard, a central defender of League One standard, a right winger of League One standard and I know PJD can play in League One too Amazing what 45mins of checking through 250 players will do Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xx2olegendxx Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Originally posted by ejthegreat:Decided to take some time off AFC Wimbledon and go back to the start with a lower reputation club and try the non-10 player loan in 1st season way of playing After 3 hrs of reloading, only 3 below 1000 were Chippenham, Hendon and AFC Hornchurch. I chose AFC Hornchurch cause of the name and less people playing them. First major difference is no parent club and board room thinks we have no need for one Decided to troll through the unnattached players and offer trials to everyone. All up 71 players were given trials Including my old favourite Pierre Joseph-Dubois(PJD) who agreed to a trial....dunno why. From it I found a 19yo keeper of League One standard, a central defender of League One standard, a right winger of League One standard and I know PJD can play in League One too Amazing what 45mins of checking through 250 players will do I decided to take a break as well, was losing intrest a little. Strange because I was on the verge of challenging at the top end. I have the screenshots saved from my first 2 years in the Prem and I will get round to the reports soon. I won the FA cup in my first season in the top flight, giving me a back door route into Europe and finished in safe mis table positions both seasons. Never started my 3rd year but I have a transfer kitty of 54M waiting for me and we are now plaing infront of 24,000 every home game. Just doesnt have the same appeal as those lower leagues though, I started the San Marino challenge but I will be back soon enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1873Chris Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Really enjoying this season always seem to enjoy from conference to about the championship each season I'm still playing well and only 5 points behind accrington sitting 2nd in the conference Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayzoster Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 I am also going to be taking a break as i feel i will lose all interest if i keep on going. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Originally posted by joshpmilton:I've decided to take a break from this briefly as I'm failing to see how I can take Maidstone United any further with their ground restrictions. We're losing money fast and wages are spiralling. Might have to sell up at the end of the season and attempt a re-build and hope we can do it on the cheap with youth again. Subsequently, rather than screw it up, I'm stepping away to my other save game to try and draw up some inspiration. To give you a bit of encouragement, it is possible. I took Prescot Cables all they way to the Premier League and UEFA Cup with my original stadium of 4400. I hadn't spent a penny on players until I reached the Premier League but once you get there things get a lot easier with all the money that's thrown at you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butts Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Just about to restart after messing up my old save by signing some foreign players without trialling:@. Going to look to make this one really realistic though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butts Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Decided to make it even more realistic by taking over local side banbury united. Profile Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butts Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Sorry made a mistake on that last game within two weeks of staring well you know what they say, third time lucky. Profile Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
betterspud Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Just thought I'd share with you the cost of not having a keeper on the bench... I never put a keeper on the bench in several years of playing FM. I've had my GK injured and manaaged to limp through the match, but losing him so early was not good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
betterspud Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Try that again... Just thought I'd share with you the cost of not having a keeper on the bench... Result Player Ratings I never put a keeper on the bench in several years of playing FM. I've had my GK injured and managed to limp through the match, but losing him so early was not good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trainor83 Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Great challenge Dafuge. just started the challenge with gateshead and doing ok. 3rd with games in hand. in all cups except FA CUP got beat by exeter. the key is getting a parent club. newcastle have loaned me 5 players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazup Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Originally posted by trainor83:Great challenge Dafuge. just started the challenge with gateshead and doing ok. 3rd with games in hand. in all cups except FA CUP got beat by exeter. the key is getting a parent club. newcastle have loaned me 5 players. I've got to the prem with out a parent or feeder club. board just wouldn't let me have one. it did my nut. now i'm in the prem I can't have a parent club anyway which is fair enough but I still need feeder clubs like a polish club so i can send non eus still the board say no Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazup Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Originally posted by betterspud:Try that again... Just thought I'd share with you the cost of not having a keeper on the bench... Result Player Ratings I never put a keeper on the bench in several years of playing FM. I've had my GK injured and managed to limp through the match, but losing him so early was not good. I always put a keeper on the bench what ever even if I only have the choice of 3 subs (back in the old fm versions) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katarian Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Okay I've been attempting the challenge with King's Lynn, and haven't really been following this thread as there are far too many replies . I'm now in 2020/21 and in the EPL for the first season. Is it normal that all of my current players are rated at 2/3 stars and just about every player I scout is only rated at 3/4 stars as well? I have a decent Assistant (Judging current potential anyway), and some great scouts. Some of the top EPL teams seem to have some rubbish stat players, and my team of supposed donkeys are doing quite well . I'll post some screenshots when I finish my current season of what happens on FM when one club does a very generous favour for a 'poorer' relation . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigbyscafe Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Hi , just got the game and and i'm interested in joining this challange. For the record i never played any FM game before so i got some questions. 1.) i holidayed to the 19'th choose Chipenham , but now i have only like 6 players wich have a contract and the rest of the players is greyed out. Question is , how do i get rid of them or do i just give them contracts? 2.) am i allowed to use the button player search then use Well known players in youre region and transfer listed or do i need to wait till i have a scout whos then getting me some new players ? Thx thats all i think i need to know for now . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
norby1980 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Took an hour and a half holidaying last night, so gonna try and get either Hemel Hempstead or St Albans through reloading. My first attempt at any of these challenges will post shots when i can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
norby1980 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 oops, not st albans i mean borehamwood. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
betterspud Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Originally posted by rigbyscafe:Hi , just got the game and and i'm interested in joining this challange. Welcome aboard! Trust me. You chose the right challenge. It's awesome! For the record i never played any FM game before so i got some questions. 1.) i holidayed to the 19'th choose Chipenham , but now i have only like 6 players wich have a contract and the rest of the players is greyed out. Question is , how do i get rid of them or do i just give them contracts? As you fill up your squad, they just disappear. You don't need to do anything. 2.) am i allowed to use the button player search then use Well known players in youre region and transfer listed or do i need to wait till i have a scout whos then getting me some new players ? You can legally sign any player, as long as you are ABLE to scout them. So you are ok using player search, but you need to check whether you can request a scout report on the player. If you cannot get a report, you cannot sign him. Simple as that. Good luck with it. It gets tough at times, but stick with it and you'll get there! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liverpudlian1984 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 You can legally sign any player, as long as you are ABLE to scout them. So you are ok using player search, but you need to check whether you can request a scout report on the player. If you cannot get a report, you cannot sign him. Simple as that. Good luck with it. It gets tough at times, but stick with it and you'll get there! YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_shocker7 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Adam Daly Gloucester City BSQ Prem Season 09/10 Hey Guys, just made me a good signing - Kazi Polsih u21 captain and a bit good for non league - do you agree? will hopefully help out as mired in mid table Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhinosrule Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 David Earnshaw - Tiverton Town - 08/09 BSP South - Season Review A good start saw me having 3 friendlies winning 2 and losing 1. So onto the league and first game i lost away at Bath 3-0 and i thought here comes a hard season, but in the next 10 games i managed to win 6 lost 1 and drew 3. Some good wins in there, a 7-1 win against Bogna and a 3-1 against AFC Wimbeldon. The FA Trophy 2nd qual saw me draw with Wakefield twice and win on pens.I was then beat by Bishop Stortford in the Setanta Shield. I was finally knocked out of the FA Trophy in the second round by York. I then went on a 16 game unbeaten run and won the title with a game to go, luckily the last game was against the team in second place and they beat me 3-1 to end my run. Title League Table Finances Transfers Top striker 1 Top striker 2 Manager awards Hopefully next 09/10 will be a good season, i will have to wait and see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhinosrule Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 oh and Manager of the season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistedratt Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 TheRatt Carshalton 09/10 Review After an absolutely horrible start to the season that saw us drop our first five matches we managed to rally all the way up to eighth place before we struggled down the stretch to finish 15th. Once again we managed to allow over 80 goals as our defense continues to be the biggest concern the club has. Besides the fact that we dropped about 20k into the hole. Also towards the end of the season my job was "under consideration" until after the season ended and was awarded with a new 2 year contract. Here are some screens: final table defence ? my new deal transfers best XI Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaNovi Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Originally posted by dafuge:Season 2012/22 Review - Prescot Cables in the Premier League Congratz Dafuge.. Great reading.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmama Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Including my old favourite Pierre Joseph-Dubois(PJD) who agreed to a trial....dunno why. I've got PJD at Margate aswell - he's not as good as my loanees from Southampton. But 5 goals in 13 apps is ok. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmama Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED Why would that be ok? Is there any precedential cases regarding this? I would like Dafuge's opionion on this - my opninion on this matter is If you can't scout him he's not eligible.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshpmilton Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 After taking some tactical inspiration from my European save, I'm back and taking on the world with Maidstone United again. Let's see if I can install the same football in Maidstone as I did at Atletico Madrid.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_shocker7 Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Page 1 states "To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillianchung Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Halesowen is heading to the Premiership with 95 points in the championship (Newcastle had 92 to be second), with Gilles Sunu on loan to me scoring 49! goals for me with 7.74 avg rating...(I knew him when I took Vauxhall to the premiership in 07)....and Harry Forrester...coming to Halesowen EVERY YEAR since Blue Square North.....with 7.77 and 22 goals...(and Halesowen isn't even in his favourite club list!). Thanks to purchasing almost exclusively from scouting and trialing free players...and offering them LONG TERM DEALS...my finances are solid going into the Premiership...but only with a 6000 stadium. Bought a trial player named Jose Ramon that was amazing as my GK. We lost in the 5th round FA Cup to the Red Devils. Now almost all my players are 2-3 stars from my ass man, a significant drop...but I'm HOPING we survive relegation next year...most of my players who have been with me since the beginning are coming to an end to their long contracts as well. I never thought I could do this well in the championship, but these players have become my life and blood, and most importantly, I'm enjoying this much more than playing with Vauxhall when I first purchased the game without the patch, and bringing them to Premiership, ONLY to be disinterested in them. I'm looking forward to bringing 1-2 highly rated players over to Halesowen, and I'd love to update you guys, as it is an EXCITING TIME in Halesowen...we promoted every year since coming in from Blue Square North and being Aston Villa's feeder club. Now, we'll be facing Villa.....and playing against many of the players I helped them develop...and them helping me reach where I am. Dafuge, thanks for this awesome challenge. My law school mock exams are coming up next month, so hopefully I can complete the challenge soon and then show you my accomplishments...this is the first time I've ever been consistently promoted, and have won the Johnstone and FA Trophy cups along the way. Thanks. I hope everyone isn't upset I don't have many screenshots, but I'm too immersed now and writing this as I look at potential players for my newly promoted Premiership team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmama Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by The_shocker7:Page 1 states "To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them." I knew this just as soon as I pressed "post" I even checked my old FM07 Dafuge game and look behold: I did it myself. Sorry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejthegreat Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by gillianchung:Halesowen is heading to the Premiership with 95 points in the championship (Newcastle had 92 to be second), with Gilles Sunu on loan to me scoring 49! goals for me with 7.74 avg rating...(I knew him when I took Vauxhall to the premiership in 07) SUNU!!!! He's like the loan legend of FM 08 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazup Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED yes you can Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_b Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by wazup:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED yes you can </div></BLOCKQUOTE> do you have to take a foreign player on trial even if you have the option of scouting him? or is it just the case that if you can't scout a foreign player then you must bring him in for a trial? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigbyscafe Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by Liverpudlian1984:You can legally sign any player, as long as you are ABLE to scout them. So you are ok using player search, but you need to check whether you can request a scout report on the player. If you cannot get a report, you cannot sign him. Simple as that. Good luck with it. It gets tough at times, but stick with it and you'll get there! YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED So basically i can go through each reserve team or first team in England and invite players from their squad to join a Trial ? I like to stick to rules and i like the LLM rules but with only 5 players in my squad at the beginning of the season i have to do something. BTW i have gone rid of my parent club since its not allowed to have one or feeder club in the same nation, will get a feeder one from overseas later in the game hopefully. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by Blackmama:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">YOU CAN TAKE PLAYERS ON TRIAL WHO CANNOT BE SCOUTED Why would that be ok? Is there any precedential cases regarding this? I would like Dafuge's opionion on this - my opninion on this matter is If you can't scout him he's not eligible.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE> The coach reports you can get on players are just as detailed (if not more detailed) as the scout reports you can get. I would just be cautious with the method you use to find the players you are offering trials to. Players who appear on your players search screen are fine since that list is generated by your scouting knowledge. The player search text box is out of bounds, as is searching through the squads of foreign teams. In the first season it gives you the option of signing a handful of unattached British players (rather than just English), which I think is perfectly realistic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by rigbyscafe:So basically i can go through each reserve team or first team in England and invite players from their squad to join a Trial ? I can't see a problem with that since all of those players should be scoutable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigbyscafe Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by dafuge:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rigbyscafe: So basically i can go through each reserve team or first team in England and invite players from their squad to join a Trial ? I can't see a problem with that since all of those players should be scoutable. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Thx for clearing this up , so far i have only like looked whos not needed in certain reserve teams in coca cola league 1 and 2 and their youth teams . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazpeer Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 I cannot play with Wimbledon, it's just not fun.. So ... I'm going to start over .. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liverpudlian1984 Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Blackmama everything is stated in the rules so what is the problem? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liverpudlian1984 Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Dafuge i signed 5 estonians from their u-21 team in the second season after taking them on trial. Have i broke the rules? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Originally posted by Liverpudlian1984:Dafuge i signed 5 estonians from their u-21 team in the second season after taking them on trial. Have i broke the rules? Technically not, since the rules on finding your players are only laid out as guidelines. Personally I would only consider going after players who appear on my player search screen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshpmilton Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Maidstone United - Championship 2017/18 - End of Season Review So I returned to this after a couple of days break on another save game to try and come up with a way of improving my team tactically without taking the team down and getting the sack. Fortunately, my fears were alleviated as the board offered my a new two year contract so instantly I felt slightly more secure. Championship We started off as inconsistent as ever as our league chart shows with all sorts of highs and lows for the first 12 weeks of the season. It was at this point my new 5-3-2 with wing backs as I realised my full backs could all play as wing backs. This proved an instant success and we started to climb the division reaching as high as fourth. However the bubble did eventually burst and we slowly slumped back to ninth as the team dipped in confidence. We stopped the rot however, and once again hit form and sneaked our way into the play-offs thanks to Sheffield United's inability to beat West Bromich Albion, in a result that would not only deny the Blades their play-off berth, but the 1-1 draw also sent WBA down. So we faced Nottingham Forest in the play-off semi-final, a tie I didn't really fancy our chances in. We held on in a nervy 1-1 draw ensured a tight match at the City Ground, which frankly I expected to get played off the park. In fact, that's how the second leg started, but once our players settled we stepped up our game hitting them on the break efficiently to take a rather flattering 4-1 victory, going through 5-2. Our victory spoilt the potential Play-off Final showdown that would have been an East Midlands derby, as Derby County would have faced Nottingham Forest. As it was, a total 89995 people went to Wembley to see us take on the Rams. The game started off brightly, with the lead swinging from Derby to Maidstone in the space of 39 first half minutes, and the sides went in level at half time, sharing four goals. Pleased with the scores I instructed the boys to go out and do it the for supporters and Steve Reid did exactly that taking the lead in the 48th minute. From there more goals were on the cards and Derby controversially had one disallowed. We held on as I switched to even more defensive and counter attacking set up and we came out on top 3-2. Delighted my tactic switch around paid resulting in us shooting up the league and we've managed to hit the big time. Hopefully this with see in a new era for Maidstone and hoping the extra funds means our low capacity is something we can get over and move past. We performed better than I had hoped and just hoping we don't get embarrassed next season. FA Cup Terrible. As last season we were expected to reach the third round, which once again we qualified for automatically by just being in the Championship. The draw was incredibly kind on us, sending us to League Two Notts County. With us in decent run of form, decided I wouldn't want to jeopardise my first team players too much and played the subs and fringe players. All seemed to get off to a decent start, but we threw away our lead and conceded a 90th minute goal to lose 2-1. Glad I didn't have to face a replay, but means I missed out on playing one of the big four like I'd hoped. League Cup We started off our cup adventures for the season with a narrow 1-0 win at home to League One Leyton Orient. We didn't really deserve to win the game and scraped through, which set us up for an away tie with Sheffield United. This was one of the more agonising defeats, as we scored a 90th minute equaliser only to have them go back down the other end and manage to win it 2-1 in the 94th minute. Didn't make the third round as I'd hoped, but ultimately we had the last laugh over the Blades so I don't mind too much. Facilities Still nothing about a new stadium, and to be honest I'm not expecting too much on this front. When we get some cash for being the in the Premier League I'm hoping this will no longer be the case, but not holding my breath. Our youth facilities are now up to excellent but no youth academy, but once again with a bit of cash I think an academy could be forthcoming as this is the reason they said they wouldn't expand this time around. Good news is that since the play-off win the board have approved plans to upgrade the training facilities, so that'll be Excellent too whilst we are in the Premier League. Transfers We broke our own transfer record, although I didn't realise as I was trying to sign Hope Akpan on free and his compensation ended up being expensive. He was also not very good for us when he signed so I'm looking to offload him already. Otherwise the capture of Francesco Bianchi from QPR for £250k turned out to be a great signing as he scored 23 goals in 39 appearances, including a brace in the play-off final. Departures didn't include any big players, as we kept hold of Orlando Roberts but still made £1.3 million as we cleared out the weaker players. The signing of Mali coach Mamady Sidibe proved crucial, brought with him his awareness of the French game & gave us 100% knowledge of France enabling us to get certain players we'd otherwise been unable to sign. Additional Info First team squad. Fixtures: 2017/18. Transfer History. Club Information. Club Records. Confidence: Summary/Competitions. Finances. Manager Profile. Manager Information. Aims Well we failed in our cup aims, but excelled my league aims so overall I'm pretty pleased with the season. I'd only really hoped we'd break the top half, so to make it through the play-offs again is fantastic. Aims for the upcoming season are simple; 1. Don't finish bottom and 2. Have job come the end of the season when my contract once again runs out. So once again, it's time cheer on the Stones! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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