dafuge's FM17 challenge

[Upside Down]

You have had a lucrative takeover, XaW had a tycoon takeover who has given him a massive injection of cash. Use the money wisely and set the club up for the future.

[Upside Down]

For the first time ever in FM I have given my Director of Football the opportunity to sign players. I was hoping he would find me a striker as I cannot find anyone I am happy to sign. However he has signed on loan a defensive midfielder when I had too many anyway, then he signed me a very good CB, better than what I had so I accepted him and he is starting. Now he just tried to sign me another CB, looked good but I cancelled it because I don't really need one and he had very low determination. Now he has made an offer for another CB.

I WANT A STRIKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Soviet]

Did you set up transfer targets?

[Upside Down]

2 minutes ago, Soviet said:

Did you set up transfer targets?

No, I can tell him who to look for? Now I feel stupid.

[Upside Down]

I had scored 12 goals in my first 7 games, with my striker scoring 7 goals, then he was injured. Ten games later I have only scored 4 more goals even though my striker has returned, he has only scored once more in 6 games. Fortunately I have the second best defence, despite losing 3-0 twice and 4-1 I have only conceded 14 goals so I am in 9th.  Six 0-0 games, my team is just boring, defensive and unable to score.

EDIT: After making this post I looked at who we had next, and it was Dartford, the best defence in the competition. So, of course, I smash them with perhaps the best performance of the season and win 3-0. My back up striker scored a hat trick and I have the best defence in the league. 

[streety]

And so it begins..

[Warhawk]

Well, my offense is slumping badly, but I'm still in the mix thanks to my defense.  I've scored 3 goals in the last 5 games, and those were off a free kick, a penalty, and a corner.  But I'm still 2-2-1 in those games because I've only allowed 3 goals in my last 13 league games.

[darren1983]

@XaW congrats on another promotion, just to ask, with your extra money have you been using it to fund coaching courses for yourself and/or upgraded the facilities?

@Hypanimz Congrats on the promotion.

@streety Welcome.

@Warhawk excellent defence there, hopefully it'll help see you over the line. 

[XaW]

1 hour ago, darren1983 said:

@XaW congrats on another promotion, just to ask, with your extra money have you been using it to fund coaching courses for yourself and/or upgraded the facilities?

Yeah, I have taking courses all the time and at the moment I'm finishing the final one. I've also continually asked for improvement to the finances and we are getting them better.

[Warhawk]

Enfield Town FC

Vanarama National League 2019-20

Year-End Update

Calendar

        

Competitions

Vanarama National League

As stated in my previous season wrap-up, my goals for the roster coming into this season were to upgrade with either rotational players or starters at central defense, central midfield, and winger, and find a better backup striker.  I ultimately made 7 notable signings or transfers in the offseason, 6 in the aforementioned positions (the eighth was a backup goalkeeper).  I shed fewer previously important players though, in most cases transitioning those players to backups.  With respect to central defense, I acquired Jaden Brown for $20k from Dulwich Hamlet, and Luke Tingey for $8k from Hendon, both starters.  I signed as a central midfielder Aaron Mitchell on a free transfer (previously with Dulwich Hamlet) to be a starter.  For the left and right wing, respectively, I acquired James Hooper from Solihull Moors for $6.5k and Callum Brittain from Hemel Hemstead for $22k.  Finally, I signed Tom Youngs as a backup striker on a free transfer (formerly with Tonbridge).

Preseason was a bit up and down.  We actually performed reasonably well, but didn't get much in the way of results.  The early portion of our season didn't go much better.  In the second game, Hooper was injured for over a month, and Liam Adams, who had become my backup at right winger, suffered the same exact injury in an U23 match.  Scott Shulton, backup midfielder, was also hurt around this time.  We managed a win in that game, but followed it up with a horrid 1-0 loss at home to preseason relegation favorites Welling, who shot the ball 17 times as compared with our 5, and our defensive midfielder and captain Jack Edwards was sent off in the 38th minute.  We won our fifth game away at Barrow, but in that game, Mitchell and Jack Willbye, my starting central midfielders, were both injured.  That means that, for a few weeks at least, between my two winger positions and two central midfielder positions, we were missing 3 starters and 2 primary backups.   We would ultimately go on to start out 4-1-6, including a 4-0 home loss to AFC Fylde that was even worse than our loss to Welling, and a 2-1 loss at Tranmere where Joe Ward sent a late equalizer off the post (it wasn't all bad for him though, as he scored twice against each of AFC Telford and Chester).  We were in 16th place after 11 games, and had a bit of a mountain to climb.

Things started looking up with a 1-1 draw at home to then-league leaders Hartlepool.  From that point, we would not lose for another 10 games.  Highlights of that streak included an exciting home game against local rivals Boreham Wood, in which Brittain sent a header into the post and headed his own rebound for a score, Youngs came off the bench as a halftime sub and scored in the first 19 seconds, and a pair of potential equalizers for Boreham Wood in stoppage time his the post.  Following this streak, we had climbed to 10th, 3 points out of the playoffs with a game in hand.

We would have a bit of a bumpy stretch from mid-December to mid-January, including a game against Bromley where we came back from a 2-0 first half deficit only to lose the game 3-2 (and the following game at Torquay where we did the same, but managed to keep the score 2-2).  Following a loss away at league leaders AFC Fylde, we would go on another 10 game undefeated streak, including a 6 game winning streak, which also kicked off a spell of defensive dominance where we allowed just 4 goals in 15 matches, accumulating a record in that span of 11-3-1 (we had some offensive struggles toward the end that resulted in a stretch of five games that included two 1-0 wins, one 1-0 loss, and two scoreless draws).  In the first game of the streak at Sutton Utd., central defender Jaden Brown, who had not previously scored this season, managed a hat trick (two on penalties) to lead us to a 3-0 win.  Following a 3-0 win at home against Tranmere, we moved into the 4th spot, tied with 3rd place Wrexham and 5th place Hartlepool.  We were only 3 points out of second place, but in my match notes I observed that AFC Fylde was running away with the league, and probably couldn't be caught.

Once we beat our rivals Boreham Wood again on a Willbye free kick goal, we had moved to within just 6 points of AFC Fylde.  We would only managed 2 points out of our next 3 games, however, and fall to 4th, including a road loss to the then-22nd place team Southport.  We got back to winning at home against the worst team in the league, Tonbridge, but even that was a bit of a struggle, having to rely on a penalty shot and a header from a corner to generate our scoring.  Worse, Edwards got an automatic 3-match suspension here, just as we hit the final stretch.

With 5 games left, we were in third, 2 points back of Wrexham and 5 back of AFC Fylde.  First we had Eastleigh on the road, a team we've drawn in both cup competitions the last couple years.  We went down 1-0 before Ward broke out of his personal slump in pretty dramatic fashion, with two goals, while Willbye and Parmar chipped into to lead us to a 4-1 victory, the first time I'd scored 4 in a game all season.  Hooper was injured for the game, however, and would miss the next 3.  Filling in for him, Emil Tansinda scored the only goal in our next game, home against promotion rivals Wrexham, putting us 2 points back of AFC Fylde as their game was postponed, giving them a game in hand.  We thought we might have given up our shot against playoff contenders (and in fact, eventual playoff winners) Gateshead, when a scoreless first half was followed by two goals in quick succession for our opponents, and then a straight red card for Dan Pearse, who was himself filling in for the suspended Edwards.  But, despite being a man down, Ward scored in the 87th minute, and Brittain nails a penalty shot in stoppage time to salvage the draw.  It would be a very important point.

In our second to last game at home against AFC Wimbledon, Edwards returns, and Ward gets a goal in the 11th minute.  Parmar adds a goal on a header just before the half, and we add an own goal by their keeper and a penalty goal by Brittain in the second half to go on to win 4-2.  AFC Fylde loses, moving us into first, but they still have their game in hand to play.  They would ultimately lose that game 3-2, at FA Trophy finalists (and eventual FA Trophy champions) Chester, leaving us with the following scenarios to take the league in the last game: A win; A tie with a Wrexham loss or tie and an AFC Fylde loss or tie, or a loss and a Wrexham loss and an AFC Fylde loss or tie (as my goal differential was not as strong as them).  So we go to bottom-feeders Bromley and promptly lay an egg, losing 1-0, but Gateshead jumps all over Wrexham and pounds them 4-0, while AFC Fylde finishes their epic collapse, losing their last 4 and 10 of their last 15, with a 1-0 loss to Hartlepool.  And so we back into our achievement, as 2019-2010 Vanarama National League Champions.

Final Table

FA Cup

In our Fourth Qualifying Round game at home against Forest Green, I made a few small tactical changes that I ultimately continued to use throughout the rest of the season, and we jumped out to a 2-0 lead before coasting in the second half.  We would then draw Eastleigh at home in the first round, advancing with a 2-1 win on a pair of goals by Youngs, including one in the 84th minute, though Hooper would pull a hamstring in the match and be out for a month.  We drew Cheltenham in the Second Round, who were near the bottom of League 2, and despite actually playing relatively poorly for the most part, managed to get a goal right off the bat from Hooper and a goal from Ward in the messy aftermath of a corner.  The FA Cup seems to be a bit dangerous for our players though, as this time Melbourne would be out for 5-6 weeks.  On the plus side, the game was televised, and we broke our own attendance record by over 300.

While an away draw would have been nice, we were very happy to draw Manchester City in the Third Round at home.  The game was again televised, and we experienced the first sellout in our rented stadium.  They, incredibly, had two players sent off against us, but the gulf in talent was too much for us to make anything of it, and we lost 4-1, but went away with our pockets a fair bit heavier for our trouble.  Away at Oxford City in the Second Round, Ward got himself a hat trick the game after Jaden Brown had his.  In the third round, we put in a lazy performance against National League South team Stockport, but managed to escape with a 1-0 win.

FA Trophy

This was a bit more conventional an FA trophy than last season's, as this season 6 of the 8 teams in the Fourth Round were from the National League, as well as all four semifinalists.  For our part, in the first round we had a relatively lackluster 2-0 win away at Hemel Hempstead, where Mitchell notched a goal and an assist.  We were unfortunately not able to escape in a Fourth Round that saw all four home teams lose, dropping the game 3-2 to Tranmere, in which we had led 2-1 at one point in the second half, and Willbye hit the crossbar on a potential equalizer late.

 

Squad & Awards

The signings this season were generally successful, moreso at the back end than the front end.  Brown and Tingey were excellent; in fact, Brown was so excellent that a couple teams came sniffing around in January.  One was, I think, a Scottish team (I forget which one) who I got to agree to a fee around $200,000, but then Bolton swooped in and were willing to give me $375,000.  As good as Brown had been for us, he wasn't worth the money (or the headache if I didn't let him leave).  As AFC Fylde shortly thereafter signed the non-contract backup I had planned to use as a replacement for Brown as a starter, I went out and signed Niall Mason, who (in admittedly only 13 appearances) had the second highest average rating on the team.  At midfield, Aaron Mitchell took some time to settle down (and to get over his injury), but once he did he played quite well for us, though I'd like to see some more production from him in terms of goals and assists.  Our wingers were shaky all season, but they did have their moments.

As for a few interesting statistical notes, while we did not improve much on offense from last season (again around the middle of the league), we conceded the fewest goals in the league.  Our keeper, Jon McCracken, tied for the league lead in shutouts at 19 (and had the lowest goals conceded per 90 minutes at 0.98).  Jack Willbye had the 4th best average rating in the league (Melbourne, who might be the most improved player this season, and Palmer both made the top 20 as well).  Willbye had 7 Player of the Match awards, which was tied for 3rd, and Ward had 6.

Fans' and Manager's Player of the Season: Jack Willbye

Fans' Signing of the Season: James Hooper

Manager's Signing of the Season: Aaron Mitchell

Fans' and Manager's Young Player of the Season: Jack Willbye

Vanarama National League Manager of the Year

Vanarama National League Manager of the Month (February)

Jack Willbye shortlisted for Player of the Year

State of the Club

From a financial perspective, the club lost approximately $80,000 last season.  The major non-roster expense is an upgrade to our youth facilities, and the major sources of income this season were well-attended home games against Cheltenham and Man City in the FA Cup as well as the $375k sale of one player.  Our payroll budget, which was at approximately $16,000 per week, has been increased to approximately $25,000 per week, and we have been given a transfer budget of over $140,000.  However, our Financial Fair Play limit is just under $17,000 per week, which gives me only a few thousand to work with for signing new players.  We were able to re-sign a number of players for a substantial reduction in wages.  Our average attendance was 602, or 6% of capacity.  Following our promotion, we have turned Professional.

Goals for the upcoming season are as follows:

• Avoid Relegation
• Reach the FA Cup 2nd Round
• Find a few cheap players who could upgrade the team in general.
• Try not to sign another guy named Joe or Jack, seeing as I already have five.

[XaW]

Congrats to @Warhawk, @Hypanimz and all others who have gotten promotions and/or good seasons! 

[oohlala111]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated you for a while- it's taken me forever to get through my season! I'm just about to play my last game in December 2017, then I'll give you a full mid-season update! (Including ALL my results, the league table and transfer activity as well as any more I can think of ) Look at the spoiler if you want a hint to how well I'm doing, otherwise the next update should be out within the next hour or two!!  

Spoiler

First Round Failure and Lovely League Form!

 

[darren1983]

10 hours ago, XaW said:

Yeah, I have taking courses all the time and at the moment I'm finishing the final one. I've also continually asked for improvement to the finances and we are getting them better.

Nice, building the whole club up. I've got my first course done but since then we've not had the money for any more  

[MikaelS]

It's about time I start this again.

 

Here we go with Chippenham (as always)

[darren1983]

Kingstonian - Season 2018/19 - Vanarama National South

 

League Table - Dartford ran away with it by winning 10 of their first 11 (their only dropped points was away to us) while we were 2nd for the 1st half of the season an injury crisis at the turn of the year sure some dodgy form and we eventually settled into 4th were we stayed for the rest of the season. In the playoffs we had Ebbsfleet  who we had won one of 6 games against since I've been here. A good 2-1 home win was followed up with a rollercoaster of a 3-3 draw (AET) in the 2nd leg saw us into the final against Maidenhead (won 2 lost 2 against) the final looks more comfortable than it was but in the end we were up.

FA Cup - got FM'd in this, 25+ shots against Basingstoke but we couldn't break through

FA Trophy - rotated first couple rounds, beat National League Mansfield before losing to mid table NLN side. Frustrating.

Transfers -  I tried just to strengthen the whole squad, seemed to work

Squad - still not perfect, we tried 3 GKs this season with none really filling me with confidence, need to strengthen in full back as well

Finances - awful, hoping promotion helps but we need someone to come in and clear this, losing about 10K a month despite being well under wage budget

Key Players

Jason Williams - what can I say? Look at the stats - 44 goals in 49 games (40 in 45 league games) with 11 assists. Insane season. Signed him last year but he only scored 2 in 25 as he struggled for fitness.

Jaanai Gordon - 13 goals and 12 assists. was the perfect partner for Williams

Jack Edwards - captain fantastic at times. Drove us on from midfield 

Ross Marshall - CB who was really missed whenever he was out

Dan Bennett - assist king. 14 this year to go with his 12 last year.

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		13th		N/A
2018/19		VNS		4th		Promotion via playoffs

Next Season

Stay up

[SamRuff04]

Guys please does anyone have a save for Wingate and finchley i must of spent 3 hours yesterday reloading and i havent got them any chance anyone has got a save for them ?

[oohlala111]

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                   Dulwich Hamlet

 

As promised, here is my mid-season update. I'm delighted with how the season has progressed so far, even though our form has dipped recently. We reached the main stages of both cup competitions but ultimately got tough draws in both. You will see for yourselves our progress in the league and long may it continue! Before I show you how I've done, let me congratulate everybody who has been promoted up from the VNN/VNS and/or won the FA Trophy- very well done. Hopefully, with my first attempt at this challenge, I can accomplish some of the amazing things you guys have done in your 5,6 or more seasons. I'm really slow when it comes to FM so eventually I might be able to catch up  

So, here we go! I enclose: The league table, player of the season (so far), match of the season (so far), my results since the start of my tenure (including friendlies), transfer activity and the league player/team stats overview. (By the way, I have downloaded a skin so it might look a little different!!)

Thank you for reading and I will try to improve on my speed next time!  

 

                                                                                                                              
                                                                            

 

    

     

[G_D_K]

On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 05:17, DizzyIzzyB13 said:

You'd think I'd get a better reaction than this to my first Manager of the Month award considering I won 3 of 4 league games and reached the FA Trophy semi finals...

It particularly hurts being called "the over-rated one" by what I believe are my own goddamn fans...

Hey...it's twitter!  There are always haters out there!  I like to think of it as an opposition manager who thought HE should have been MoM that posts those tweets

[G_D_K]

21 hours ago, Soviet said:

Anyone saw a really low rep team getting promoted, maybe in past editions? I wonder if It's even possible and if I should just give up on the reloading...

The best I've had are the 1400 rep teams.....I've found 49/72 (check out my post on page one for available saves) available teams, but not one of the <1400 rep yet.  That's 2 weeks worth of holidaying too.  Seen a few posts here and there from people who have gotten lucky....just not me.  Yet.  Will continue in the hunt for some of the sub 1100 teams tho

[mack4ever]

So, time to get going on this.

I couldn't decide which team to start with so I put the six promoted teams into a hat and picked one at random and here we are.

I present to you, the utterly appalling new manager of Leamington.

[Dons]

New year, new challenge - This time around as Bastingstoke

[Balahara]

Gonna try this again with Barwell. Thankful they changed it to black text, it is much easier on the eyes than neon yellow!

[Soviet]

Here I am, time to start. Also, I cheated! After close to 500 reloads I decided it's about having fun and Merthyr is a very interesting idea, so I boosted their reputation using the editor, so they could get promoted (and I lowered it immediately after that of course). I will abide by all the rules and already forgot about the editor but I won't post updates due to my transgressions. I hope we can still be friends though.

[Swindon69]

Having failed massively at Hornchuch in season 2023-24 I've just been appointed to Salisbury FC. Yet another team not on the original list - so it looks like more sides will come through.

This season going for a simple 4-4-2 focusing on strength work rate and pace.

The squad contains 10 players

According to the bookies we're Evens favourites to go down.

 

 

[TheMadMonk]

I've just started this on non-beta.

I was willing to take any of my 'County' clubs - Buxton, Matlock, Mickleover or Ilkeston - and Ilkeston were first ones to appear.

 

[Swindon69]

20 minutes ago, TheMadMonk said:

I've just started this on non-beta.

I was willing to take any of my 'County' clubs - Buxton, Matlock, Mickleover or Ilkeston - and Ilkeston were first ones to appear.

 

Good luck and wishing you much success.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Finally got around to purchasing FM17 and this was my first challenge to try out on the new game. I'm off to Weymouth this year.

[QSF25]

Does anyone have a Dunstable save? 

[Swindon69]

I hope they do something about dealing with a question from the press every time I take someone on trial

 

[QSF25]

4 hours ago, Soviet said:

Here I am, time to start. Also, I cheated! After close to 500 reloads I decided it's about having fun and Merthyr is a very interesting idea, so I boosted their reputation using the editor, so they could get promoted (and I lowered it immediately after that of course). I will abide by all the rules and already forgot about the editor but I won't post updates due to my transgressions. I hope we can still be friends though.

mmm What does the rules say about this? @dafuge

[Soviet]

15 minutes ago, Swindon69 said:

I hope they do something about dealing with a question from the press every time I take someone on trial

 

That's the entire point of a trial, we don't know yet.

[dafuge]

Just now, QSF25 said:

mmm What does the rules say about this? @dafuge

It isn't allowed, which is why he said he won't be posting about his game at the end of his post.

[Swindon69]

A few seasons in so far I've seen Hornchurch and Salisbury FC come up

[Soviet]

Also, on my last two saves I got very bored with reloading and made this, with number of times I saw each team. Could be interesting to know how high are the chances.

[QSF25]

1 hour ago, Soviet said:

Also, on my last two saves I got very bored with reloading and made this, with number of times I saw each team. Could be interesting to know how high are the chances.

whats colum B and C for?

[Soviet]

Just now, QSF25 said:

whats colum B and C for?

Number of times I saw a team being promoted during reloads. Number of reloads is at the very bottom. It's two columns, because I started a brand new game after a while to "refresh" results.

[XaW]

Season Summary - XaW - Folkestone Invicta - 2024/25

Table | Past Positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Going into this season I was unsure what to expect, since it was a tier above last season, but at the same time @Hypanimz was sure that the change wasn't big going from League Two to League One. It turned out he was correct! We simply ran away with the whole damn thing without much problem at all. Before we started, however, I managed to get rid of some poor players that have been with us beyond their level, and we got in some quality players to give us an edge. The season stared quite good and we took the new level like champions. Our goalscoring ability was amazing as we really hit the back of the net a lot, giving us a couple of 4-0s and 5-1s and such. We still had some issues with defending and had some horrible losses along the way. As the season went on we got a bigger and bigger lead to all other teams, and we clinched the promotion with 8 games left, and a game later the title was ours. An amazing season, and I'm really excited about playing in the Championship next season, and hopefully we can survive and try to rebuild for the final leagues. Our stadium will be finished after the next season, so we are leasing the stadium of Ebbsfleet in the mean time.

In the FA Cup we beat Wigan and FC United before losing to Port Vale in the 3rd round. In the EFL Cup we lost against Ipswich in the first match. In the Johnstone's Paint Trophy we got drawn into a group with Norwich U23, Ebbsfleet United and Colchester United. We managed to top the group and progress to the knockout stages. Here we knocked out Cambridge United, Leyton Orient, Southampton U23 and Portsmouth to get to the final. Here we were up against League Two team Mansfield Town. We dominated the match, but struggled to create many good chances, but we still managed to win it 3-2 after a late goal. Our first cup win, and hopefully not the last.

The best players this season were right back and Player of the Year in League One and box-to-box midfielder Robbie McKenzie, our Captain and right back Chiori Johnson and top scorer Tommy Dougill.

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer       |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|   Vanarama South    |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (17)     |   Mid-table
2018/19	|   Vanarama South    |       4th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (24)     |   Promoted through playoffs
2019/20	|  Vanarama National  |       17th	   |      N/A 	  |     Harry Smith (22)    |   Survived relegation
2020/21	|  Vanarama National  |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Euan Sahadow (20)   |   Mid-table
2021/22	|  Vanarama National  |       10th	   |      N/A 	  | Daniel Butterworth (20) |   Tycoon takeover! Mid-table
2022/23	|  Vanarama National  |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Leon Okubuyejo (23)   |   Promoted as champions
2023/24	|    League Two       |       5th	   |      N/A 	  |  Jonathan Benteke (29)  |   Promoted through playoff
2024/25	|    League One       |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Tommy Dougill (33)    |   Promoted as champions, Won JPT

[Soviet]

Wow, great results!

[Wells]

Started with Stourbridge, lets see how far it takes, i'm not a patient one

[oohlala111]

18 minutes ago, XaW said:

Season Summary - XaW - Folkestone Invicta - 2024/25

Table | Past Positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Going into this season I was unsure what to expect, since it was a tier above last season, but at the same time @Hypanimz was sure that the change wasn't big going from League Two to League One. It turned out he was correct! We simply ran away with the whole damn thing without much problem at all. Before we started, however, I managed to get rid of some poor players that have been with us beyond their level, and we got in some quality players to give us an edge. The season stared quite good and we took the new level like champions. Our goalscoring ability was amazing as we really hit the back of the net a lot, giving us a couple of 4-0s and 5-1s and such. We still had some issues with defending and had some horrible losses along the way. As the season went on we got a bigger and bigger lead to all other teams, and we clinched the promotion with 8 games left, and a game later the title was ours. An amazing season, and I'm really excited about playing in the Championship next season, and hopefully we can survive and try to rebuild for the final leagues. Our stadium will be finished after the next season, so we are leasing the stadium of Ebbsfleet in the mean time.

In the FA Cup we beat Wigan and FC United before losing to Port Vale in the 3rd round. In the EFL Cup we lost against Ipswich in the first match. In the Johnstone's Paint Trophy we got drawn into a group with Norwich U23, Ebbsfleet United and Colchester United. We managed to top the group and progress to the knockout stages. Here we knocked out Cambridge United, Leyton Orient, Southampton U23 and Portsmouth to get to the final. Here we were up against League Two team Mansfield Town. We dominated the match, but struggled to create many good chances, but we still managed to win it 3-2 after a late goal. Our first cup win, and hopefully not the last.

The best players this season were right back and Player of the Year in League One and box-to-box midfielder Robbie McKenzie, our Captain and right back Chiori Johnson and top scorer Tommy Dougill.

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer       |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|   Vanarama South    |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (17)     |   Mid-table
2018/19	|   Vanarama South    |       4th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (24)     |   Promoted through playoffs
2019/20	|  Vanarama National  |       17th	   |      N/A 	  |     Harry Smith (22)    |   Survived relegation
2020/21	|  Vanarama National  |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Euan Sahadow (20)   |   Mid-table
2021/22	|  Vanarama National  |       10th	   |      N/A 	  | Daniel Butterworth (20) |   Tycoon takeover! Mid-table
2022/23	|  Vanarama National  |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Leon Okubuyejo (23)   |   Promoted as champions
2023/24	|    League Two       |       5th	   |      N/A 	  |  Jonathan Benteke (29)  |   Promoted through playoff
2024/25	|    League One       |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Tommy Dougill (33)    |   Promoted as champions, Won JPT

Absolutely incredible! Championship already! Best of luck to you  

[darren1983]

@XaW well done on another promotion - gonna have this wrapped up in 3 (maybe 4) more seasons at this rate. 

[Swindon69]

It may sound odd but I've really enjoyed my save so far failed with Hayes moved to Hornchurch and really mucked that up - fortunately at the end of that season Salisbury FC were promoted so I'm now with them. I really like that additional teams come up over the seasons and not just those that were in the three feeder divisions at the start. I wonder if Hereford will appear?

[Scab]

Season 2022/23 Review - Burgess Hill Town in Sky Bet League Two

League Table | Cups | Squad | Transfers | Season Review

Well that went wildly over expectation!   Our counter-attacking seems just as effective up here, in fact a lot of the chances we create look better. I suspect this has a lot to do with teams playing extremely high and adventurous against us, effectively providing plenty of space to counter into behind them, while the more cautious sides give us trouble. Regardless, I was sure the step into professional football would be the hardest yet, but this sure went smoothly compared to the VNL!

We did come close to losing 1st as Burton was sitting on equal points but worse GD going into the final round. A goalless draw was as much as I could hope for after a 37th minute red card, but thankfully Burton stumbled as well in their tie away to Rochdale, who also had a player sent off and gave away a penalty! There's some fight in us newly promoted.  It was all for glory seeing how we were promoted either way, but it sure feels better at the top!

Finances | Commercial Summary | Solidarity Payment

The numerous cup games helped, but not enough to prevent the need for a couple of mid-season cash injections. We're also looking at another stadium expansion prompting the board to take out a third bank loan. Considering the rising gate receipts and that insane solidarity payment though, I'm feeling pretty comfortable!

Notable Players

Ed Harris - Fans' Player of the Season
Koray Çetinkaya - Top Goalscorer (25)
Liam Smith - Signing of the Season (I used to have this guy on loan!)
David Mulhall - Crucial Max Ryan replacement during long-term injury
Mark Smith - New Sky Bet League Two Most Clean Sheets record holder (22)
Mathias Coureur - Free Transfer bargain

Aim for next season: Stay up. Hoping for more would surely be hubris at this point.

Season    League               Finish   Achievements
2022/23   Sky Bet League Two   1st      League winners!
2021/22   Vanarama National    1st      League winners
2020/21   Vanarama National    8th      FA Trophy runner-ups
2019/20   Vanarama South       1st      League winners
2018/19   Vanarama South       4th      Playoff semi-finalists
2017/18   Vanarama South       6th      -

 

[Upside Down]

Xaw you are smashing it, triple promotion, well done. 

Scab also a brilliant effort, three league wins in four years is fabulous.

[Dagenham_Dave]

@XaW, is it not called the 'Checkatrade Trophy' or something this year?

[Mr_Demus]

Although I enjoyed Basingstoke, I will restart this. I actually found starting out pro wasn't good for me, as it hindered non contracts, which I utilize a lot

[Balahara]

Yeah I am going through players at a stupid rate. Being able to dump players for no compensation once I find a better option is turning me into a monster.

[Mr_Demus]

33 minutes ago, Balahara said:

Yeah I am going through players at a stupid rate. Being able to dump players for no compensation once I find a better option is turning me into a monster.

Basically it's needed. You need to assemble a squad by the first league game, but within a month or two vastly better players will be available due to lowering their standards.

[XaW]

6 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

@XaW, is it not called the 'Checkatrade Trophy' or something this year?

Could be, I have used a name fix to get the names correct, but it might be wrong for all I know.

[fairsy]

On 11/4/2016 at 16:13, G_D_K said:

Pretty sure that China got my 2022 WC as well.  Seen a few posts with many other countries winning the rights to host as well.

Mine went to Canada....