[FM17] The Hart Chronicles - Volume II: Adam Hart is 'Yes Man'!

[PaulHartman71]

93rd minute: It's all over. Gillingham are out of the cup. Spurs rolled them over today, there's no doubt about that. 

 

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

A bit of mid-season drama in the Premier League. West Ham are currently in 4th behind United, Chelsea and City, which has put Arsenal out to 5th. This has triggered the board to sack Tomas Rosicky after a fairly disappointing 4 year spell, which has only seen 1 FA Cup and 1 League Cup. They've got in Stephan Lichsteiner to replace him, with the 62 year old Swiss manager having spent the last decade in charge of Valencia. Valencia hired Carlos Bacca from AC Milan to replace him, which then saw a very interesting move, as AC Milan replaced Bacca with Granit Xhaka, a big move for him as throughout the last 5-10 years he's floated around mid-table sides like Hull, Fulham, Bournemouth and most recently Sunderland. Maybe this can be the start of something big for him. 

[saintrainhard]

3 hours ago, PaulHartman71 said:

A bit of mid-season drama in the Premier League. West Ham are currently in 4th behind United, Chelsea and City, which has put Arsenal out to 5th. This has triggered the board to sack Tomas Rosicky after a fairly disappointing 4 year spell, which has only seen 1 FA Cup and 1 League Cup. They've got in Stephan Lichsteiner to replace him, with the 62 year old Swiss manager having spent the last decade in charge of Valencia. Valencia hired Carlos Bacca from AC Milan to replace him, which then saw a very interesting move, as AC Milan replaced Bacca with Granit Xhaka, a big move for him as throughout the last 5-10 years he's floated around mid-table sides like Hull, Fulham, Bournemouth and most recently Sunderland. Maybe this can be the start of something big for him. 

And we wait something big for Adam Hart 

[PaulHartman71]

January

 

 

Dean Cooke left for Colchester for £700K, it was too much to turn down for a League 1 defender so off he went. 

 

 

Another fairly promising month in the league though, with 3 wins and 2 draws. It was especially pleasing to go to Swindon and absolutely batter them 4-0. 

 

 

We're now 14th and comfortably away from the relegation zone. I don't think we're definitely save just yet, but for now we won't worry about it too much I think.

[Black and Yellow]

I'll be very surprised if you end up in danger from that position. 5 more points to the magic 50.

[saintrainhard]

Race for playoff

[PaulHartman71]

February 

 

 

Not the best month, we went 6 league games without a win, although we did draw 3 of the games. 

 

 

We've lost a fair bit of momentum and with 8 games to go I'd say the Playoffs are pretty much gone now. With a decent run of form we could still end up with a reasonable finish though. 

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

We really pushed on this month and started to play some absolutely fine football. We grinded out results all over the show, with 4 wins in a row and then a draw at home to Fleetwood, which given their placing in the league, we really should have won too. Can't complain overall really though. 

 

 

We're up to 13th with 3 games to go. Unfortunately I think it's one of those cases where if there were 10 more games left and we kept this run going, we'd make the Playoffs for sure. But with just 3, it would take a hell of a lot of cock ups elsewhere, especially given Ipswich have an extra game on us.

[PaulHartman71]

April/May

 

 

A strong end to the season with a battering of Barrow and a decent win at home to Exeter, before drawing at Derby. 

 

 

We end up 3 points off of the Playoffs, again, I think if it had been a 50 game season we may well have done it. It certainly gives us a decent and solid foundation for next season though, with some good recruitment we should be in contention I'd think. 

[Keano16]

Finished really strongly. Bodes well for next season.

[mrdanbartlett]

The big thing here is you finished above Swindon

Would be great if you could do a quick round up of how your last few clubs are doing, Especially Blackpool and Port Talbot.  

I really hope you can get some good players in over the summer and have a play off push next season.  

[PaulHartman71]

Season 30: Gillingham

 

 

Not a bad season considering where they were when I took over. Plenty of room for improvement next season but I'm fairly happy with what I've seen especially in the last few months. 

 

Squad

 

Steve Hawthorne ended up top scorer, with the 24 year old getting 21 goals and 11 assists in 52 games. Dean O'Reilly impressed to with 16 goals and 9 assists in 27 games.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season     Club                 Division                               Position      Achievements/Other
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Ipswich Wanderers    Eastern Counties Premier League          8th         Eastern Counties League Cup winners
2017/18    Ipswich Wanderers    Eastern Counties Premier League         11th         Left in November
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18    Coventry Sphinx      Midland Football Premier League         13th         N/A
2018/19    Coventry Sphinx      Midland Football Premier League         10th         Left in December 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    Carlton Town         United Counties Premier League           8th         United Counties League Cup runners-up. Sacked. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20    Basildon United      Essex Senior League                      3rd         Gordan Brasted Memorial Trophy winners
2020/21    Basildon United      Essex Senior League                     17th         Left in November 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21    Lincoln United       Northern Counties East Premier League   11th         N/A
2021/22    Lincoln United       Northern Counties East Premier League   17th         Left in December
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22    Swindon Supermarine  Southern League 1st Division S/W        13th         N/A
2022/23    Swindon Supermarine  Southern League 1st Division S/W        18th         Left in January
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23    Trafford FC          Northern Premier League 1st Division N   7th         N/A
2023/24    Trafford FC          Northern Premier League 1st Division N  11th         Sacked in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    Hythe Town           Isthmian League 1st Division S          12th         Joined in January
2024/25    Hythe Town           Isthmian League 1st Division S           3rd         Left in March
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25    Canvey Island        Isthmian League Premier Division        23rd         Relegated 
2025/26    Canvey Island        Isthmian League 1st Division N          23rd         Sacked in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2025/26    Farsley Celtic       Northern Premier League 1st Division N  11th         Joined in January
2026/27    Farsley Celtic       Northern Premier League 1st Division N   5th         Left in March
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Stourbridge          Northern League Premier Division        21st         Relegated
2027/28    Stourbridge          Southern League 1st Division C           5th         Promoted via Playoffs 
2028/29    Stourbridge          Southern League Premier Division        15th         Left in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2028/29    Lancaster City       Northern League Premier Division        21st         Relegeted. Sacked. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2029/30    Southport            Northern League Premier Division        14th         N/A
2030/31    Southport            Northern League Premier Division         5th         Left in April 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2030/31    Port Vale            Northern League Premier Division         3rd         Lost in Playoff Final
2031/32    Port Vale            Northern League Premier Division         2nd         Lost in Playoff Final
2032/33    Port Vale            Northern League Premier Division         6th         Left in January 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2032/33    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     8th         N/A
2033/34    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     3rd         Qualified for Europa League via Playoff
2034/35    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     5th         Welsh Cup winners
2035/36    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     2nd         Welsh League Cup winners
2036/37    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     1st         Welsh Premier League winners
2037/38    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     1st         Welsh Premier League & League Cup winners
2038/39    Port Talbot Town     Welsh Premier League                     2nd         Left in December
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2038/39    Yeovil Town          League 2                                22nd         Sacked in March. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2039/40    Salford City         Conference                              14th         Joined in October. FA Trophy winners.
2040/41    Salford City         Conference                               4th         Promoted via Playoffs
2041/42    Salford City         League 2                                22nd         Left in November
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2041/42    Blackpool            Conference                               1st         Promoted as Champions
2042/43    Blackpool            League 2                                 1st         Promoted as Champions
2043/44    Blackpool            League 1                                18th         N/A
2044/45    Blackpool            League 1                                 4th         Left in April
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2044/45    Swindon Town         League 1                                 6th         Lost in Playoff Final
2045/46    Swindon Town         League 1                                17th         Sacked in September
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2045/46    Gillingham           League 1                                 9th         Joined in December
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Trophy Cabinet

 

League 2                       x1 - 2042/43 (Blackpool)
Conference                     x1 - 2041/42 (Blackpool)
FA Trophy                      x1 - 2039/40 (Salford City)
Eastern Counties League Cup    x1 - 2016/17 (Ipswich Wanderers) 
Gordan Brasted Memorial Trophy x1 - 2019/20 (Basildon United) 

Welsh Premier League           x2 - 2036/37, 2037/38 (Port Talbot Town)
Welsh Cup                      x1 - 2034/35 (Port Talbot Town)
Welsh League Cup               x2 - 2035/36, 2037/38 (Port Talbot Town)

 

Squad

[PaulHartman71]

Darren Fletcher led Man United to another Premier League title this season, a feat which has now put him firmly on the Worldwide Hall of Fame: 

 

 

Chelsea ended up 2nd, with City 3rd and Arsenal 4th. Douglas Costa's Real Madrid team won the Champions League, with a victory over Corluka's Bayern Munich side in the final. 

Luton Town won League 1 to secure promotion to the 2nd tier for the first time in 40 years. They were joined by Notts County who themselves make the 2nd tier for the first time in over 50 years. Yeovil and Burton Albion suffered the embarrassment of being relegated from the Football League, whilst Bury got relegated from the Conference. 

Edited June 4, 2017 by PaulHartman71

[PaulHartman71]

Former Club Overview

 

Swindon obviously came 11th this season in League 1. 

Blackpool unfortunately finished 22nd in the Championship, which means we'll get to see a fair bit of them next season. 

Salford have been in the Conference since their relegation a few years ago. They made the Playoff Final this season but lost 2-1 to Scunthorpe.

Yeovil were relegation from the Football League this year. 

Port Talbot have had a poor few years. It's 4 years since their last title win, the 3 seasons since then they finished 4th, but they did finish 2nd this year. My one legacy in Wales at least seems to have been ridding TNS from winning it every year and making it a competitive league, as the last 5 winners of have all been different: Barry Town, Haverfordwest, Bangor City, TNS and Port Talbot. 

Port Vale are back in the Football League and have been for a few years now. They finished 19th in League 2 this season. 

Southport are in the 7th tier, they lost in the Playoffs this year and missed out on a chance to join the regional Conference divisions. 

Lancaster City have fallen down to County Level and just this summer have actually been relegated from that too now, so next year they won't even be a playable team in my save anymore. 

Stourbridge have already suffered that fate and are an unplayable 10th tier side. 

Farsley finished 2nd in the 7th tier this season, they lost in their Playoffs for the regional Conference divisions. 

Canvey Island came 4th in the Conference South, they lost in the Playoffs to make the Conference proper. 

Hythe are in the 8th tier. 

Trafford are in the 9th tier and came just 4 points from being relegated from being a playable team. 

Swindon Supermarine are another who have been sunk to the 10th tier limbo. 

Lincoln United are in the 8th tier and missed out on the chance of the 7th tier by losing in the Playoffs this year. 

Basildon are still in the 9th tier. 

Carlton Town are in the 7th tier. 

Coventry Sphinx are in the 9th tier. 

Ipswich Wanderers, my first ever team, were this season sadly relegated from the 9th tier and will also no longer be a playable team in this save. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

Some interesting shenanigans happened at the World Cup. Argentina won it for the 2nd tournament in a row, with their regen manager taking the glory. The tournament was held in South Africa and 3 African teams actually made the Quarter Final which was pretty cool: 

 

Morocco knocked England out in the Second Round, which actually led to Rio Ferdinand stepping down from the role, seemingly out of embarrassment. I expected the FA to hire a foreign manager to replace him as they tend to do IRL, but they actually went for Jermain Defoe, who has spent the last 5 years performing reasonably well at mid-table Stoke. 

Spain, France and Italy all lost or sacked their managers too. Spain hired 66 year old Xavi, fresh off his La Liga win with Barcelona. France hired Laurent Koscielny who won the Turkish PL last season for Galatasaray and Italy took on Stephan El Shaarawy who in the last 5 years has progressed from Torino to Napoli to now the big Italy job itself. He took over from Antonio Candreva who actually left to fill the vacant post at Barcelona. 

Elsewhere, John Terry has left the Gibraltar manager job to join Port Talbot of all places. Cesc Fabregas has spent the last 2 years cleaning up with Celtic, he's impressed in Scotland so much so that he's now actually been given the Scotland NT job, a strange one considering not that long ago he was managing England. Celtic actually took on Andre Schurlle as his replacement, the German's career started off promisingly as he won the Europa League with Mainz back in 2034, but since then after initially impressing but winning nothing at mid-table Prem sides like Spurs and West Ham, he's ended up managing relegation battling sides or Playoff chasing Championship sides, most recently Huddersfield Town and MK Dons. Also in possibly the strangest move of them all - Samir Nasri has somehow been given the Hungary job after a few fairly unexciting spells at Hearts and Dundee in the SPL. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

Just to let you guys know that updates will be pretty thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks as I'm off for 2 weeks at Download, Nova Rock and then a few days chilling in Vienna. 

[mrdanbartlett]

WHAT!! THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!  Do you not realise some of us NEED this!?

 

I mean, errrrrr have a good break. 

[Benjoe]

5 hours ago, PaulHartman71 said:

Just to let you guys know that updates will be pretty thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks as I'm off for 2 weeks at Download, Nova Rock and then a few days chilling in Vienna. 

Nova Rock is a music festival, right? What is Download, though? 

And have a nice time, man! Looking forward to your return. 

[BoxToBox]

18 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

Nova Rock is a music festival, right? What is Download, though? 

And have a nice time, man! Looking forward to your return. 

Download is a metal music festival.

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

Should be a nice time 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Sounds like quite a couple of weeks you're going to have.

[DodgeeD]

Have a good time - a little crossover between the line-ups so that if you miss a band at Download, you can catch them at Nova.

What's with NXT at download? Do they have matches there?

[JayR2003]

2 minutes ago, DodgeeD said:

Have a good time - a little crossover between the line-ups so that if you miss a band at Download, you can catch them at Nova.

What's with NXT at download? Do they have matches there?

Yeah.  Roode debuted there last year IIRC.  They are doing another show there (and presumably featuring some of the UK talent).

Man, that is going to be a heck of a time.  Seen probably half of those bands on my side of the world...you are going to have a blast!

[PaulHartman71]

Yeah I think they do some signings and then some matches. I didn't go last year but sounded pretty good from what I heard from other people who went. 

[Benjoe]

On 5/6/2017 at 19:11, BoxToBox said:

Download is a metal music festival.

 

On 5/6/2017 at 23:28, PaulHartman71 said:

 

 

Should be a nice time 

Some really nice bands there, looks like a good time off!

[vossmaj]

I especially like the Download line-up. Big overlap between bands I saw recently and will see in the near future (like SOAD).

And as a silent admirer of this thread: Wonderful work, by the way!

[PaulHartman71]

Thanks guys, had a blast at Download. Actually got chatting to a few Norwegian guys at camp and one of them asked if we'd heard of "The Vanarama" as he'd taken Braintree from there to the Premier League on FM  

[Nobby_McDonald]

FMers everywhere.

[BoxToBox]

"The Vanarama" sounds like another music festival.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Bananarama tribute bands perform in the back of a van.

[PaulHartman71]

And we're back... 

 

 

A fair few players were released, but the only departure of real note was striker Steve Hawthorne who was sold to MK Dons. A good fee and it will go up which is good, obviously not great to have to sell to a league rival, but wasn't saying no for that money. 

 

 

A fair few players joining on frees. Ed Voyzey is the pick of the bunch, he's an experienced 32 year old striker who has been banging them in at this level for a decade, I'm hoping he can get 15/20 for us this year. We've also gained a new keeper in Stuart Grant, defenders in Sean Kelly, Thomas Wilson and Anthony Atkinson. We also gained midfielders in Shaun Buckley and Furkan Bahar, as well as another striker in Craig Paterson. 

[PaulHartman71]

August

 

 

An early exit in the League Cup, a bit of a shame, especially in a home tie against a fellow League 1 side, but it wasn't to be. 

 

 

Not the sort of start we wanted in the league, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses so far. We got very lucky against Leyton Orient to get a point too, as we snatched it very late on. 

 

 

At least we've now won a game, hopefully we can take that momentum and do something with it. MK Dons who were relegated from the Championship have had an even worse start, as they sit bottom. 

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

 

We got past West Ham's youth side in the EFL Trophy after a penalty shoot-out, which followed an exciting 3-3 draw. 

 

 

Another ropey month in the league though, as we lost our first 2 games of the month, before getting a draw and then 2 wins in a row against Barnet and Northampton. 

 

 

Lingering in 16th after 9 games, with MK Dons still bottom. 

[Tajerio]

How well do you think Gillingham ought to be doing?  Playoffs?

[PaulHartman71]

We should probably be having a go at reaching the Playoffs, yeah. Hopefully our form can improve soon and we don't miss out on being up there. 

[PaulHartman71]

October

 

 

A smashing win against Wycombe to go through in the EFL Trophy. 

 

 

Still not up to too much in the league, with just 1 win, 3 draws and 2 losses this month. The comeback against Shrewsbury was pretty good fun, but the loss to Blackpool was pretty embarrassing

 

. 

 

Looking more like going down than going up at this point

[PaulHartman71]

November

 

 

The FA Cup got off to a decent start as we won an away replay against my old side Port Vale to progress. 

 

 

We lost at Wimbledon in our final EFL Trophy game, but we have made it through to the next round anyway. 

 

 

Still not really hit the kind of form I'd like, but we did win twice, with a draw and 2 losses in the middle of the month to Swindon and MK Dons. 

 

 

With 20 games played we are in 16th place, the table is still fairly tight and if we put together a decent run of games we could soon climb table and maybe make a late bid for the Playoffs. We do need to do it soon though, as if we keep losing 2 a month we're going nowhere. 

[PaulHartman71]

December

 

 

A 1-0 win against Reading's kids got us through. 

 

 

Tividale wasn't the most difficult of 2nd round ties, but you can only beat who you're drawn with. The 3rd Round beckons. 

 

 

It finally seemed to click this month, with 4 wins 1 draw and just 1 loss. I'm hoping this good end to 2046 can be the catalyst to a Playoff challenge in the end of the season. 

 

 

We're up to 11th and just 4 points between us and the Playoff places. Hopefully for the rest of the season I'll only need to focus on the top half of the league table, instead of the bottom. 

 

 

[andychar]

Good to see this back!

How far off the playoffs are you? 

[PaulHartman71]

January

 

 

A 2-1 away win at Barnsley was enough to see us into the 4th Round. Here's hoping we get a big money game. 

 

 

We smashed Peterborough in the 3rd Round of the EFL Trophy, which saw us through to the Quarter Final. 

 

 

Arsenal U23s is a tough side to get in this tournament, but luckily a solo goal from Ed Voyzey got us into the Semi Final. We now have a decent chance of getting to the final which is pretty exciting as I've never got this far in the EFL Trophy before. 

 

 

Perhaps it was the cup distractions in midweek, but we were back to poor form in the league this month, with just 1 win, 1 draw and 3 losses in a row. 

 

 

8 points off of the Playoffs with 15 games to go which is pretty disappointing, I'l definitely be throwing everything at the EFL Trophy to try and win that so this season isn't a complete write off. 

[PaulHartman71]

February

 

 

We got an away Wednesday night trip to Championship sided Leicester in the FA Cup. They were far too strong for us, but we did at least get a consolation goal. 

 

 

Exeter were a tough side and took us all the way to penalties, but we managed to beat them 5-4 to make it to the Semi Final. We'll face Man Utd U23s which will be a big ask I'd imagine. 

 

 

2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the league - not bad form, with Ed Voyzey getting two hat-tricks, but it's not the kind of form that will get us into the Playoffs. The late winner at Bristol Rovers made me think we could go on a solid run, but then we blew a 3-0 half-time lead at Blackpool which has pretty much put an end to it I think. 

 

 

7 points to make up with 11 games to do it, it's very tight so even if we can take advantage there are 5 other teams ahead of us that could do the same. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

A nice run in the FA Cup and still have a chance of the playoffs.

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

A pretty mega March, with 4 wins and just 1 loss. It was goals goals goals as we got 15 in 5. 

 

 

This puts as in a decent position with 6 games to go, with 3 points between us and Coventry, we certainly have an outside shot at making the Playoffs now.

[Black and Yellow]

You also have an outside shot at automatics! 

[andychar]

6 points off 2nd...that's what I'm looking at!

[PaulHartman71]

Oh I got confused with the EFL Trophy. The game with Man United U23s is the final  

[mrdanbartlett]

Blimey big update!  The season just got exciting.

[PaulHartman71]

 

We're at Wembley, ain't we? 9,999 have turned up in force to see if we can beat Man United's kids and reserves to get our hands on the EFL Trophy. 

[PaulHartman71]

3rd minute: Furkan Bahar with it on the half-way line for The Gills. He hits it forward to O'Reilly, he's found Voyzey outside of the box...and Voyzey puts Powell through on goal... it's ROBBIE POWELL!!! His powerful left footed drive has found its way past the keeper early on. A great start for Gillingham as it's GILLINGHAM 1-0 MAN UNITED U23S 

[PaulHartman71]

15th minute: A corner kick for the United U23s. Jose Reis will fire it into a sea of blue and red... it's Nick Smith rising to meet it... but Stuart Grant in the Gillingham goal parries it wide!