phnompenhandy Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 December 2022 Assessing my squad, I feel that I have 22 players plus 2 back-up keepers who have long-term futures here, with four kids who won’t get new contracts, and then there’s 19-year-old defender Robbie Breen, who’s given us five years’ loyal service and played 72 first-team matches but only one this season, who’s stagnated over the last two years. He was complaining that he wasn’t seeing enough first team action and I informed him that younger kids have proven hungrier and better than him. We’ve found him clubs who’ll give him what he wants but he won’t budge. He’s a nice boy, we get on well, but I hope the penny drops t some point. The next Saturday we had the reasonably short trip to the small Suffolk coastal town of Leiston. They were rock-bottom in every way possible; only complacency could be an obstacle so I kept the boy’s feeling hungry by giving them the training sessions they’d asked for but making them more competitive. Despite the excellent preparations, the game was poor and we only came away with a 1-1 draw after the defence switched off late on, ending our seven-game winning run in the league. The winter World Cup in Qatar is proving to be highly Euro-centric with only Brazil from outside the continent making it to the quarter-finals, after facing Argentina in the second round. I’ve made an enemy of Steve Bruce after the Scunthorpe manager offered a ridiculous 1.1K for Allison. I dropped the poorest performers for the visit of Derbyshire small-town club Alfreton Town who are on a good run, just two points behind us in a play-off spot and ambitious to rediscover their more successful times of a decade ago. Something’s gone awry because we put in an awful performance to lose 1-3 and drop to the edge of the play-off positions. The next two fixtures are against struggling sides that we must take six points from. Could I get our mojo back? Serious work on the training ground would be required. So we travelled up to Nuneaton where we dropped in on my mum before rolling up the road to join the squad taking on Nuneaton Borough who’d had some good years in the fifth tier before being screwed by crooked chairmen. Now they were in sharp decline. Our mojo was semi-back. We played better than in recent games with Hart and Allison delivering the goods in a welcome 2-0 win. With the other top teams also struggling for consistency, we’re in fourth, three points off the lead. The next day we were all glued to the telly watching France beat Brazil 1-0 in the World Cup final. At the half-way point of the season With the vastly improved Kenny Hoyte reprising his new box-to-box role the same eleven went again at Kidsgrove Athletic in the Potteries as we closed the year after a Christmas break and turned into the second half of the season. The mojo was back, and some. With three goals after the 90 minute mark, four goals from Allison and one from Hart saw us absolutely blitz them 5-0. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 January 2023 I got a new contract for the new year. It includes a 50% pay rise if we get promoted. Come on! The problem is that even though I’m using 25% of the wage budget for players, the board won’t allow me to renew any contract of terms the players can accept and most of them run out in six months. Unless the board sees sense very soon, I fear the whole squad could be ripped apart overnight. I therefore, hit on an idea to fool my wife. I persuaded her to hire a Director of football on a six-month contract, purely to get him to renew contracts. However, I didn’t want him giving new contracts to players I wanted to get rid of so I had to hastily release a few before he arrived. It’s left us with a squad of only 24 players including the three goalkeepers. With light training schedules we’ve not had a problem with injuries, so providing that continues and no players leave us against my wishes, I think this squad will see us through until the March intake. The plan failed because the Director of Football is as hamstrung as I am – the chairman will not allow any contracts to be renewed on terms better or equal to what the players have. After all the prize money I’ve brought in and savings I’ve made, and a healthy balance of over 600K, it simply makes no sense. She did, however, agree to increasing both youth coaching and recruitment. Maybe she intends me to have a squad of fresh academy graduates only. Leamington came to the memorial Ground and we saw them off 3-1. Grantham, now in the play-offs were next to visit but rain stopped play and we found ourselves with three weeks between matches, and with the four clubs around us all winning, we lost a bit of ground. We travelled up to Cambridge to take on City in my 200th game as Little Oakley’s manager (it should have been our home game against Grantham but the rain very literally pi**ed on my parade). We ground out a 1-0 win but unfortunately Hoyte got sent off. Other than him, the same players turned out for the Grantham re-match three days later. 4-1 saw us back to third and a point off the top. We were due to play Hitchin four days after and I planned to rest a number of players including Hart and Allison, meaning the very exciting if fresh combination of Rich and Kellett started, but that big cloud over Little Oakley put paid to a second winter fixture. As January passed into February the last evening saw four bids for Allison from Peterborough, rising to 28K along with various other bids to steal key youths for free but we saw them all off. Talking of youths, the enhancements I asked for are finally putting our monthly accounts in the red but we do have exceptional junior coaching and extensive youth recruitment, which makes me salivate for March to come along. Only four weeks to go! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 February 2023 So with only the three matches played in a wild and windy January due to two postponements, February would require a little game management. Fortunately, I had confidence in the back-ups of my now very tight squad. In a week, we’d be starting away to the team in 21st place, then at home to teams currently situated in 17th and 14th spots. We’d keep to the script of playing the second-stringers against Hitchin whilst the strongest side went up to the Potteries to take on Leek. Whilst for a moment not one players had issues with me and morale was high all-round, I had noted a pattern from the training ground that caused results to suffer. Whether the opposition be riding high or struggling, we dropped points whenever we spent time on the kinds of training routines the players enjoyed, such as work on general technical or tactical aspects. We were far more likely to take three points if we exclusively focused on preparing for the next game, so despite the modest upcoming opposition, we stuck to the tried and tested routines. We started rustily with a poor performance against Leek Town; it took late goals from Hart and Allison to salvage a 2-2 draw, after Fitzjohn had come on as a substitute and got sent off after collecting two yellow cards within a minute. The second-choice lot prepared for the home again against Hitchin but that damn raincloud put paid to the fixture a second time. However, given the disappointing performance of the first-choice eleven, I decided that the squad prepared for Hitchin would take to the field against the next opponents, Lowestoft. The zip has gone, we only had two shots on target but it was enough for three points with a 1-0 win. The next Saturday we travelled up to St. Ives. They’d been top at the start of the months but had lost the last two; nevertheless, we’d restore our first XI and give them full respect. A decent performance capped with two goals by Allison saw us good for a 2-0 victory. That game was rapidly followed by another stab at getting the Hitchin Town match on. I realized I’d miscalculated in releasing players with no future as I only had one right-back and three central defenders left, so two players couldn’t be rested; however, we’d only have to put them out for two extra games as the Blissett’s boys would be joining the club in a few days. We finally managed to play the game, in the drenching rain, but Allison’s exciting understudy, Harrison Rich disappointed as did the team as a whole until Allison came on to score an equalizer in a turgid 1-1 draw. We no longer had a game in hand and were second on goal difference, but three points behind leaders Basford. Another quick turn-around and three days later we closed out our February with a match at home to Hednesford Town. The 0-0 draw was nothing more than a midfield mud-slog. It’s no coincidence that we don’t perform well in the incessant Essex rain. Here’s praying for clear skies in March. The teams behind us lost, but Basford have pulled five points clear of us in second. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 March 2023 On the eve of the new academy intake day, our Under 18s coach announced he was decamping for a manager’s job. As it happened, Luther was aware of this and had readied a mate to step in, who appears to be just as capable. I hadn’t seen much of Luther Blissett for a couple of months as he was spending all his time going around the local schools preparing his kids for the step up. I told him, ‘Luther, we’re good for goalies and strikers; we’re short in other positions, especially in defence, left wing and defensive midfield – go to it’. That was the day we drove up to Halesowen for our next league encounter. It merely drizzles in the Midlands so we could get a few shots off and were a bit unlucky to return home with just the point in a 1-1 tie. The teams behind us also drew but Basford pulled seven points ahead. These interminable draws were frankly boring the lot of us, so it was a very welcome distraction to welcome the new kids from their schools when Luther finally brought them along on March 8th. He singled out a central defender as his ‘diamond’, which I was delighted about, and reckoned a couple of midfielders would serve me well. They and the rest I would take a closer look at in the trial game the following morning. It took me all of ten minutes to see that the defender, Ronnie Willson was going to be a beast. He’d go straight into the first team squad; eight others got contracts even if they merely filled a void in the squad, and we’d see how they developed. Thankfully, there’s only one viable striker, but I had to make a decision whether to keep this year’s or last year’s keeper as my third choice, although most of the unambitious kids didn’t make the cut. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 Back in the big boys’ world the rain stopped and the presence of these exciting kids had the requisite effect as the first team played proper football to comfortably see off Banbury 4-1. Somehow the chairwoman also got onboard, opened her purse and allowed contract renewals to be renegotiated. With that sorted I had her fire the temp Director of Football and we were cooking. On the Friday evening our Under 18s with the new kids thoroughly schooled our Under 23s to put the spooks up our older lads. The next day, changing no one except for slipping Willson onto the bench, we went up to Rugby and taught them what to do with the round ball. For some reason everyone kept passing sideways and backwards, and lumping the ball over the crossbar until Allison finally put it to bed in the 93rd minute for a rather undeserved 1-0 victory. Willson got half an hour for his debut; he’ll get the full 90 in front of our fans next. After that we’ll meet Basford who quite wonderfully lost at home to narrow the gap to two points. The last game in March was home to Stafford Rangers who were pushing at the door for the last play-off spot. We rocked, we smashed them 5-0 in a masterful performance, which set us up very nicely for the following weekend’s trip to Basford which, even with eight games to go, felt very much like it would be a title decider. Basford lost, which meant we’d go into that game on top, a point ahead. Having hit first place for the first time, could we stay there? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 Found an old article from 2018 on our stadium upgrade Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmileFaceGamer Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I saw what you said earlier... Tattershall Road is a two minute walk away from us and you can see it from our bathroom window. I can confirm it I sent a rickety wooden whatever you called it. And good job with the football managing as well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 April 2023 April Fools’ Day; we didn’t fool each other. In a tightly contested match between the top two, it ended Basford 0-0 Little Oakley, which meant we stayed top by that one point. With the weather having cleared up and the one game a week, I have all my squad players champing at the bit, putting in terrific performances in Under 23 and Under 18 friendlies. I’m looking forward to letting them loose in cup matches and midweek fixtures next season. This squad is just so exciting now. There’ll only be one player released at the end of the season, making a squad of 30 for the next campaign. Next we dispatched the flowerpot men of Spalding 4-1 and went up to Sudbury. With Ronnie Willson having settled in so well after being introduced from the bench, I brought up 15-year-old right-winger Steve Morrison to enjoy the match as a substitute. He didn’t come on and he’ll need to bulk up from his Strength of 1, but it was sending a message and I’ll put more academy kids on the bench in the last five games. We won this one 1-0. Basford haven’t won in six now and were five points clear. With Kelvin Hall having nailed the right wing spot and Blackwell losing out, I’ve been short of a captain. The number two Lee Hart has been warming the bench as Foy-Hayes has had an extended outing, so I surreptitiously slipped it to George Allison. If you remember I’d made him captain in a pre-season when he was 17 and responded to him whining about the pressure by taking it back. He then sulked for six months before getting over himself. I’ve just sent him on his second leadership course with a view to offering him the captaincy again next season now he’s a mature 20 years old. This despite the virtual certainty that there’ll be an even more intensive battle to keep him than there has been this season. The way I see it, I may lose that battle in the end but as the boy’s now a club icon, even at such a tender age, I’ve got to show the fans I’m doing all I can. Coalville visited next. They’re deep in the pit at the bottom of the league and don’t have a canary’s of surviving. However, emanating from me, complacency pervaded our whole approach and we deservedly threw away our long unbeaten run in an embarrassing 0-1 defeat albeit in another rainstorm, with the last kick of the game. With Basford closing the gap to two points, we’d have to ensure there was no repeat. Up at St. Neots we needed three points, we needed full concentration and commitment, we needed a left wing so I reverted to a tactic I hadn’t used since the early days of the season – I put Blackwell on the right and Hall on the left as an inverted winger. What I did with the midfield was immaterial as full concentration and commitment is precisely what the defence didn’t give me. We scored in the first and 91st minute, but in the intervening 90 the defence committed collective hara kiri – utterly embarrassing, and we lost 2-4. As we were scoring our dismal consolation goal, Basford, who were ahead and had destiny in their hands relinquished an equalizer and we found ourselves undeservedly still a point ahead, although we still had to play third-placed Alfreton who were still in with a shout thanks to us top two cocking up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 May 2023 If we wanted the title and automatic promotion we’d need to probably win our three matches in May and after two disastrous losses on the bounce, we had to get back on board in the next game at home to relegation-almost-certs Leiston. I considered sending the same eleven out to redeem themselves immediately, but the backups proved themselves in an Under 23 match the next day so I decided form would determine who played. That even meant dropping Allison and Hart, giving Morrison his debut and replacing Simon Armitage on the bench with his little brother Simon. Manchester United wrapped up the domestic treble with Max Mustermann in charge. The Premier League proved to be a closed shop as the three promoted got relegated and the clubs relegated to the Championship the previous season all got promoted. In League Two Harrogate got promoted in third and Billericay finished eighth, giving us little guys hope. This may turn out to be presumptious, but I quietly asked our data analyst to do some research on the Vanarama South should we find ourselves there next season. Turns out our home gates would be somewhat humiliating with the likes of Torquay regularly drawing twenty times as many. To be fair, there are no villages at that level (and no, Dulwich Hamlet doesn’t count). Whereas our intangible junior facilities are state-of-the-art, the tangible senior and youth training facilities would be amongst the worst – as I keep telling the chairwoman to no avail. In terms of our playing squad, he reckons we’d be good enough to stay up but way short of a promotion push. To be fair, that’s exactly what I’ve been told for the last two seasons, but if we did bag three promotions in three seasons, we’d need a season or more to consolidate so I’d definitely take that and I’m sure the board would too. My changes for the Leiston game completely backfired as we handed them a lifeline in a 2-3 defeat despite Morrison scoring his debut goal, the first for us by a 15-year-old in five years. With Basford losing too, the top three were all choking. With two to go and Alfreton – who had just won – up next, the tension was palpable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 Technically, we could win the title on the day if we beat Alfreton and Basford lost, but no one expressed that thought as we prepared for the game at Alfreton with the constant mantra buzzing around, “Don’t screw up”. It’s not we were putting ourselves under pressure of anything, but everyone was nervous and edgy during the tried-and-trusted training routines. Morrison kept his place, Hall reprised his role as left inverted winger and Hoyte revered back from a box—to-box midfielder to a ball-winning enforcer. Willson and Morrison fresh from the academy were the only members in the match-day squad who hadn’t played over half the season. I guess this is where we needed old heads; our three twenty-year-olds, Harding, Crawford and Allison would have to lead the way. Molyneux, who was out of form and had scored an own goal against them left time out was particularly nervous; I’d like to have taken him out of the firing line but we had no back-up right back ready to step up. Like us, their strike-force was quick but their defence was slow – that was what my team-talks were focused on. Outside it was pouring with rain – we hate the rain. The game started farcically – clearly there were 22 bags of nerves out on the pitch until one cool head broke the deadlock. Unfortunately, it belonged to Alfreton. We rallied late on after I took Allison off but we lost 1-2 and the table going into the final game looks like this: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 It was out of our hands. Alfreton were away to Grantham who would secure a play-off spot if they won whereas our opponents Nuneaton had nothing to play for. However, it was evident that having lost the last four, we were so immature and flaky that we were sure to beat ourselves – certainly we’d implode in the play-offs, so I could only pray for a totally undeserved miracle. We prepared the ground with a very positive team meeting where we told each other we’d done brilliantly to get this far and that we were all proud of each other. That clamed nerves as we took the field of our Memorial Ground in front of a bumper crowd cheering us on. Finally, George Allison woke up and bagged a hat-trick, 3-1. Basford also finally won a game. And Alfreton? They lost. We’d only bloody done it!!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 June 2023 THAT’s why the chairwoman wouldn’t cough up to improve our facilities – our ground doesn’t meet Vanarama standards and we have to ground share with Needham Market in Ipswich. Here is our temporary ground, Bloomfields (although it’s getting a new synthetic pitch). The chairwoman’s declared that we are getting our own new stadium! It will be ready in 24 months, be known as ‘Little Oakley Stadium’, and will have a capacity of 3347. I’m not sure that will be adequate; our big brother Colchester United has just been relegated to the Vanarama, one division above us. If we switch places we could get a lot of their support in the future. I trust she won’t cancel the construction like she did the training facilities four years ago (I still haven’t forgiven her). Our director and chairman before my wife took over, Michael Good has decided he’s not cut out for a club playing at this level with such an ambitious project and is standing down. It could be connected to the requirement to start paying 10K per month for a bank loan my wife appears to be unaware of. Not only he, but two of the coaches who are local lads didn’t want to commute daily to Ipswich so they left us and I took the opportunity to cull other backroom staff whose contacts were running out and whom I felt weren’t the best quality for making the step up, including my trusty assistant Andy Barlow. I spent the month looking to hire a whole batch of senior, Under 23s and Under 18s coaches and I was surprised at who was happy to join now we were in Tier 6. One of our coaches is ex-England goalkeeper Rob Green (whom I’m utilizing as a fitness coach). Our new assistant manager is Stephen Purches, who spent nearly all his career at Bournemouth when they were in League One and more recently as a coach. It took two weeks to complete my backroom reshuffle, which was the same day that those interminable play-offs finished. Thank you Grantham for sparing me that, and I’m sorry that you, Basford and Alfreton all failed to gain promotion. For us, the sky’s the limit. Clearly finances will be very tight for the next two years or more but the way I see it, we have an astonishing academy system which means we don’t need to spend on players and I now have a sound backroom in place even if the facilities are rather primitive, the staff are first rate. So we’re in good shape to stay in the Vanarama South [edit: North??] for a couple of years and build for the future. I just hope my young charges are patient enough to stay with the project. Thankfully my wife has had an attack of realism now good is leaving the board. She merely asks that we avoid relegation. Let’s look at the competition in the Vanarama North this Season. Three clubs are fully professional – Macclesfield, York City and Kettering. Hereford is fabulously wealthy with a huge transfer budget; FC United, Chorley and Boston United are not far behind. If wage budgets are indicative of likely success, the clubs roughly equal to ours are fellow newly-promotees Tadcaster and Royston, along with Spennymoor, Southport and Altrincham. Those clubs along with St. Albans and Kings Lynn are deemed to be our peers by the media and we’re predicted to finish around about 17th. 19th is good enough to survive, so we’d be satisfied with that although privately I think we can get nearer to midtable with a fair wind and less naivety now we’re a year older. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 July 2023 As we go into pre-season, my new staff which includes a new data analyst have brought their knowledge of the league to the table in order to scrutinise the strengths of our opponents. What immediately stands out is that many of the stronger teams have insanely quick strikers and other forward players whilst our defence moves like a tortoise. Well, we have one nippy defender in Heinrich Joseph although even he will be skinned by most of these opponents. His pace is all he has really; otherwise, the other three central defenders are more skillful, but he thinks he’s indispensable and is demanding a wage to reflect that. There’s a lot of that going about – hordes of players are returning from their holidays, knocking on my door and demanding pay rises. We do have plenty in the budget but I’m demanding they show something first. The greediest is our new captain. Having removed the armband from George Allison a couple of years ago, I find returning it to him is not an option. Our erstwhile captain, Christian Blackwell, is understandably aggrieved that I’ve taken it from him but he is being professional about it. The problem is that whilst he’s been perfectly solid and reliable, and occasionally great, his progress has stalled whilst his right-wing understudy Kelvin Hall has come on leaps and bounds and has established himself in that position, and I do want my captain to be a regular starter. So, with Hall now our vice-captain, the armband’s gone to the second striker Lee Hart. His immediate reaction was to demand a 100% increase in his wages, which would put him income unacceptably higher than our star Allison. Talking of the new backroom staff, Rob Green might be a big name, but from the first training session, I could see he’s a rubbish coach and I might approach him with a view to mutually terminating his contract once I’ve sought out a replacement. In previous seasons I’ve opted to play pre-season friendlies against modest opposition just to get our fitness levels back and our boys used to playing with each other again. This time, however, I’ve also booked some tougher opponents such as Colchester United and Ipswich Town as I feel we need to measure ourselves against this level of opposition before the campaign begins. My basic 4-4-2 shape won’t change, but I need to closely assess some proposed tactical tweaks as I sense that survival this year will come down to fine margins. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmileFaceGamer Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 On 04/01/2019 at 01:28, phnompenhandy said: In previous seasons I’ve opted to play pre-season friendlies against modest opposition just to get our fitness levels back and our boys used to playing with each other again. This time, however, I’ve also booked some tougher opponents such as Colchester United and Ipswich Town as I feel we need to measure ourselves against this level of opposition before the campaign begins. My basic 4-4-2 shape won’t change, but I need to closely assess some proposed tactical tweaks as I sense that survival this year will come down to fine margins. Good move. From experiance I can assure you that you will need to tweak your system to survive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Before we reconvened for training at our place, the chairwoman announced she was taking the whole squad on a warm-weather break to her homeland of Cambodia. Spirits were good, as you can see. I couldn't switch off mentally, however. It occurred to me that I'm about to start pre-season with a club that's risen from Level 10 to the Vanarama North, and we're about to build a new stadium that will take 2 years, so I'm about to ground-share too. I'm nervous about it for the following reason - I always tell my groundsman to prepare the smallest pitch legally allowed because my squad is young and not well physically formed and have the worst passing ability in the league. However, when the stadium is not my own I don't get that option, so the pitch size may well work against me and adversely affect results. Plus the ground is some distance from my village so I expect 'home' attendances to be down. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 While my mind never switched off from planning the forthcoming season during the break, my body was otherwise engaged. Whilst in the above photo you can see the lads and the staff frolicking about in the waves on a Cambodian beach, I wasn't actually with them as I had business engagements elsewhere in Cambodia. As a result, I didn't actually meet up with the players and staff until we reconnected on the training ground just ahead of our first pre-season friendly. It was a bit of a weird experience - some of these 16 and 17-year-old lads have actually grown and their faces subtly changed over the seven or so weeks since I last saw them. Initially, they felt like strangers to me, so I had to psyche myself up to fully re-engaging with everyone before I could work on motivation as well as fitness and tactics. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 That first training session was a short get-back-together session on a Sunday; on the Monday we drove up the road to Ipswich to get acquainted with Bloomfields for the first time. Turns out the ‘pitch’ had just been re-laid – it’s a soft, spongy synthetic thing, super-weird. A salesman greeted us full of the gab – no postponed matches, yadda yadda, whilst Ellis D’Ath, our sports scientist who came along to give his assessment sucked in his cheeks and murmured that his team will need to prepare for lots of knee injuries and burns from sliding tackles and falls. Stephen Purches my assistant and Mark Froggatt our technical coach stressed the unpredictable bounces and need for a different technique to control the ball. I was deeply worried and felt we’d need to shift all our training sessions to the ground – which was available to us but it would mean extra commuting for our part-time personnel (22 miles along the A137 and about 40 minutes each way in good weather). As we were still discussing how best to cope with this unsatisfactory situation, the visitors’ coach pulled up and the lads from Felixstowe & Walton United disembarked. They shared our concerns and pitied us whilst dandying about in the warm-up trying to figure out how to avoid skin burns. As it was, after a tentative first half, we took to the plastic like a duck to water second half and overwhelmed Felixstowe 5-1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 We’ve quite taken to Bloomfields. We’re managing the surface well enough and the 3,000 capacity was filled for matches against big boys Ipswich and Colchester, making my chairwoman very happy indeed. The lads don’t mind the driving to training which has gone well apart from a lack of enthusiasm from George Allison who’s mardy with me again because St. Mirren have been knocking with a derisory offer, and Chris Crawford who’s downed tools altogether over a denial of a move to Yeovil or Forest Green. His attitude was so foul I relegated him to play with the Under 18s. The 16-year-old fresh left back, Can Crittenden, has shown such resolve on the training ground that I’ve moved him to the Under 23 squad as our back-up player behind Mike Joyce until Crawford sorts himself out. Whilst the bookies have as down as finishing midtable, they’ve got George Allison as top scorer in the Vanarama North. Stay, George! We’ve quite taken to Bloomfields. We’re managing the surface well enough and the 3,000 capacity was filled for matches against big boys Ipswich and Colchester, making my chairwoman very happy indeed. The lads don’t mind the driving to training which has gone well apart from a lack of enthusiasm from George Allison who’s mardy with me again because St. Mirren have been knocking with a derisory offer, and Chris Crawford who’s downed tools altogether over a denial of a move to Yeovil or Forest Green. His attitude was so foul I relegated him to play with the Under 18s. The 16-year-old fresh left back, Can Crittenden, has shown such resolve on the training ground that I’ve moved him to the Under 23 squad as our back-up player behind Mike Joyce until Crawford sorts himself out. Whilst the bookies have as down as finishing midtable, they’ve got George Allison as top scorer in the Vanarama North. Stay, George! As we saw out July we were all fit and raring to go (well, except Crawford and, to be fair, Allison whom we’ve been carrying through pre-season). Let the battle commence! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 August 2023 The season commences with five games in August starting at Edgar Street where Hereford welcome us. They’ve gone into decline over the last decade since they were in League Two (never mind their heady days in the Championship) and the taxman confiscated their ‘United’, but they appear to be back on track with a huge budget and ambition to match. In the pre-season they signed seven players including known names and I expect us to be really up against one of the league favourites. Still, nothing ventured … our only hope rests on Allison pulling his finger out. Will he? At least Crawford came to me to state that he’s dropped his ‘concerns’ – my tough love did the trick with him and he’ll be restored for the mid-week match; only Allison is maintaining an attitude. Hereford have a ridiculously talented new striker, long of Nottingham Forest and lately of MK Dons. He runs around the pitch baiting my boys that he earns over seven grand a month, which really doesn’t help when Allison is on about one-fifteenth of that. The Hereford support dwarfed ours (even the stewards outnumbered our fans) and the noise they generated somewhat intimidated our boys – it’s all very new. They got their first shot off in the first minute; Hart got booked in the second. Just as it was looking very scary indeed Hart caught a volley on the edge of the box and it was in off the post. That he was offside was missed by the officials and we were go! That merely woke Hereford up and by the break they were 2-1 up with the gobshite putting them ahead. However, they also had five yellow cards so at half time I told the lads to get amongst them. It worked – with the back line all on cards they stood off Hart and allowed him to equalize, then when they decided to get closer a red was shown. With the numerical advantage, we went to exploit the space and take the game to them. In the 90th minute, Fitzjohn found himself in space and scored! 3-2 absolutely amazing start and I have to credit the manager for getting his in-game tactics spot on. Yellow, what a beautiful colour Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 It’s too early in the season for any of my boys to manage two games in a week so I had to send out a completely fresh starting XI at Bloomfields who, to be fair had all impressed in the friendlies and earned their chance. The game was against rising Tadcaster Albion from Harrogate who were supposed to be the league’s whipping boys but were sitting top thanks to a 4-1 win over fellow patsies Royston. Some exciting kid had scored a hat-trick so we couldn’t take them lightly. With two 16-year-olds starting and five on the bench, some might erroneously draw such a conclusion though. Despite also playing three days previously, the Brewers boys were fit, fast and raring from the off. Apart from a nervous defender who gifted the ball to Foy-Hayes in the second minute who couldn’t miss. Tumbleweed blew across Bloomfields as we celebrated – North East Essex is not in the mood to cross the Stour on a Wednesday night, it seems. As they sat deep, isolating their two strikers we controlled the vast space in midfield. It was not a surprise, therefore, when Bannister found room for a fierce shot to make it two. With their dreadful tactics they never created a chance for their wonderkid that first half and we were comfortable. I knew they’d try something different after the break so I had to keep our lads focused. They did, and within a minute of the restart Allison’s understudy Harrison Rich had put us three up. I made a triple substitution and with five 16-year-olds on it handed the initiative to a team that had never been in the game. We gave them one soft goal but the experience was good for the young lads and we were more than happy with a 3-1 result. I just hope our village people take the tourist route to Suffolk to cheer us on because we’re playing some lovely football. I’ve got twenty-one young footballers really on their game (George Allison, don’t think you’re indispensable. And no, I won’t let you go – how’s that for passive-aggressive?) With a four-day turnover our ostensible first-team reassembled to take on St. Albans City, who’d also won their opening two fixtures. Actually I kept Bozan in goal and started young Crittenden to see if he could contribute something without unbalancing us in a wing-back role. Allison would start but if he phones in another non-committal performance he’ll be dropped. As you know by now, we are not fans of bad weather, yet the floodgates were opened over St. Albans. The match would never have gone ahead at the Memorial Ground and it will be intriguing to play under such conditions on our ‘home’ plastic. At City’s Clarence Park it was just a good old-fashioned mud-bath, impure and simple. Mind you, the skies did clear over the course of the first half but the grass remained drenched. We hadn’t even found our feet when Allison’s first contribution was to launch a cross half the length of the field right onto Hart’s toe for a perfect volley. A minute later the conditions caused a calamity when a high ball from a Hall free kick caused a City defender and goalkeeper, with rain in their faces, to collide into each other as the ball trickled into the corner. We quickly realized that their defence couldn’t cope with long, high balls in the conditions, so we relentlessly bombarded them. On our part, the slippery surface was causing mis-timed tackles and we were picking up cards. It was till a struggle and in the end we were clinging on but we got the points with a 2-1 victory. It was particularly pleased with young Crittenden who worked hard to win the ball and made a lot of good runs down the left, but he was never found by Fitzjohn or anyone else as the team didn’t seem confident in him. All our opening matches are against early front-runners or favourites and next up was professional outfit Kettering Town. We had a week to prepare and over the days I decided to be more flexible over my intended first and second teams as so many of the latter were out-performing the former. In fact only three of my original first-choice started. I retained Bozan in goal, Crittenden and Wakeham in defence, Bannister and Armitage in the middle and Foy-Hayes and Rich up top as they’d done more to justify their places than Hart and Allison, our two superstars. Controversial! (and, in retrospect, in error). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 Just to make a point, the players I’d dropped smashed neighbours Harwich for six in an Under 23s friendly. No worries, after the Kettering match the next game is in two days so they’ll all be called upon. Problem is, that games against 4th-placed Barrow (in or out of their Furness I’m not sure these days) before we travel to 1st placed Boston United. I can’t see us sustaining our start under this sort of intensity. There’s nothing to say about the utterly dreary 0-0 draw with Kettering except that at this level it is a huge mistake to drop both Allison and Hart. They both, along with a host of other regulars had a chance to assert their priority over the Kettering starters at Bloomfields two days later versus Barrow. After going behind to a rocket, Allison and Hart suddenly remembered they have a partnership and we were ahead. Add in a comedy 30-yard own goal and we had three going into the break. In the second half we got sloppy and ended up conceding a 90th minute equalizer to finish 3-3. Christian Blackwell, who has been a great servant for over five years, has clearly hit his ceiling and is not cut out for this level. His 16-year-old understudy Morrison came on for him and will remain main right-wing back-up. Similarly, Simon Armitage, who’s careless passing in midfield cost us, was replaced by his younger brother Patrick. Our attendances are by far the poorest in the division. Of course playing our home games away in another county is a major factor, but I’m also dismayed with the prices. We have no control over the tickets, but 17 quid is rather stiff when in previous years no one paid more than half that. In fact, they the most expensive in the division – more than York City, even. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 13, 2019 Author Share Posted January 13, 2019 Need to pop in a post as I've fallen off the front page. My laptop died on me and the hiatus was due to prizing open the piggy bank. got meself a monster, i7, 16gb ram, nvidia geforce card etc. I've dialled up the graphics, loaded facepacks and that, and if I start another save later I can add a ton more leagues. In the meantime before my career recommences tomorrow, as I chose this wee village club due to its new academy, let's see how it's going - pretty close to FM life really: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_987 Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 Great save you have going here. Interesting to see how Ronnie Wilson develops, tall, strong, good on both feet for 16yr old and decent personality to boot. Shame the laptop died but new machine sounds good. I've spent the last 3 days setting up my save, TheFMEditor Level 10 database, 3D Kits, 10gb facepack, better match balls, can't believe how much more immerse it is (never bothered before). How did you get your U18 side playing in a legit competition? Also was you Manager's initial starting salary way too high? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 16 minutes ago, Dan_987 said: Great save you have going here. Interesting to see how Ronnie Wilson develops, tall, strong, good on both feet for 16yr old and decent personality to boot. Shame the laptop died but new machine sounds good. I've spent the last 3 days setting up my save, TheFMEditor Level 10 database, 3D Kits, 10gb facepack, better match balls, can't believe how much more immerse it is (never bothered before). How did you get your U18 side playing in a legit competition? Also was you Manager's initial starting salary way too high? Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I've loaded up the 10gb facepack - bit late given all my boys are regens, but the big news page looks good. Got all the stadiums and cities loaded too. Ronnie Willson appears to be my best-potential kids after Allison. Unlike the latter, he wasn't ready for regular first team starts in his first year but is now on the border between 1st choice and 1st sub defender. I do expect him to establish himself as my 1st choice defender for years to come some time during this season. I just hope his personality is more loyal than Allison who's giving me kittens. The U18s - from the second season on the chairman has been informing me that they've been invited to join the competition and the board has accepted on my behalf. For the first 2 seasons we finished rock-bottom but now can expect 3 or 4 teams to be below us. On a good week I can put out maybe 9 U18 players for a match but the number frequently falls to 1 (the keeper) or 2 when I have midweek games, injuries and senior players leaving to contend with, especially as the months roll on and I release youngsters who are not developing. My salary - I think I started on about 500 quid a month, which wasn't a lot, and I negotiated a ridiculous rise for the second season. However, in the next round the chairman wised up and cut my basic by 50%! Since then pay rises have been modest. I compare myself with other managers in my division and on average 3 or 4 might get better paid than me. I always get in a 90% compensation clause to secure myself from being fired, and a 50% pay rise for promotion if possible. The U18 tournament and manager's salary might be affected by what database you use. As you can see from my 1st post, mine's different to yours, so I can say you will experience the same. On the other hand, it's quite probable neither editor fiddled with those, so maybe you will! Who are you managing? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_987 Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 That's the good thing about playing further down in the tiers, you can give the good potential kids games and a chance to establish as a 1st choice player. Quite often I find they can even be an impact player off the bench. Ahh that's awesome. I've only been simulating a few seasons to test the databases, so maybe I am skipping the chairman invitation (I hope!). Yeah the mid week games and cups frequency are killer. I have an issue where I don't like selecting players with low condition, so I tend to rotate a lot but noticed most people and the AI will try play best side every single game. Your right, it might be due to the database. I downloaded three different Level 10 databases and did 3-4 season tests, review results. All had their pro's and con's but most importantly were stable. The starting salary I've been given is 2,600 quid a month, but comparable reputation team managers are only on 800 a month (highest paid is 1600). Issue will be finances, might have to edit it down to average otherwise it might wreck my save. I don't live in the UK, so I struggle to get an affiliation with a side.. but my old man emigrated to Australia 50 years ago and grew up as a kid around Morecambe. League 2 is too far up, so i'm thinking Lancaster City or Kendal Town. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 I haven't bothered with scouting and the transfer market for years as I love the idea of bringing young kids through and nurturing them with first-team experience, which you can only do at this level. I've lived in Cambodia since 2005 and left England in 2001, so I'm living off the fumes of youth myself. I grew up in NE Essex, but my home village now play at Level 11 so my next save will be with either LeoMessi or DanBHTFC's forthcoming database. In fact, by the time I leave this one, Dan will probably have his 22-level one ready! In my story, I blend my childhood memories with research on google for up-to-date info on each opponent I face. If I were you, I'd google the area you're targeting first. You might get a feel for the Lake District or bond with a team that plays at "The Giant Axe"! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_987 Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 True, there is nothing better than a youth player becoming a future captain or club legend. I still dabble in the transfer market but now only use scouts or for staff the job centre. Oh wow Cambodia, that's an exciting adventure. I used DanBHTFC's Level 22 database for FM17 and was it amazing. You are lucky you have a club in Level 11, a nice level to start from. Funny enough I've been following a few clubs Twitter accounts, checked out YouTube, google mapping.. just a shame the grounds in FM19 don't resemble anything like 'The Giant Axe'. I tried FC United on FM17 after watching a documentary, but found them too easy with attendance of 2,500 in Conference North, decent facilities, low board expectations and had $1-2M in the bank after the 1st season. Well good luck with your save. I will kick off mine tomorrow! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 Every year when Dan's database has been ready I've restarted at Level 22. Don't think I will this time as it's too easy to get promoted every season. I always get bored and give up after half a dozen seasons. Level 10-11 feels like the right level to begin. A couple of FMs ago I could go into the data files and delete stands and so on to make my"stadium" a bare field but they took that away, unfortunately. I got beat by FCUM this afternoon - just about to post my latest month now! Good luck starting your career tomorrow then Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 September 2023 We closed out August undefeated and in third spot, one above our next opponent who had just suffered their first defeat. Nevertheless, Boston United are a formidable and prosperous club, and the newly opened Community Stadium was a daunting, intimate, noisy venue. We started nervy and they scored in the first minute. Our defence and midfield were being run ragged by the superior speed of thought of the more experienced Pilgrims. Nevertheless, Kelvin Hall got us level with a trademark spectacular free kick bent around the wall. That allowed us to grow into the game as Boston’s tempo dropped. Our chances were falling to Allison who kept spurning them leaving me with a dilemma at half time – to keep going with our most dangerous player or replace him with one with a better mindset? I decided to defer the decision for another twenty minutes. The minute I made that move the game changed as another Hall free kick was converted by Kenny Hoyte, who soon after bundled in another. The boy ran himself into the ground but was our hero in a superb backs-to-the-wall 3-1 victory. Special mention should also go to Willson who came on at half time to solidify the back line along with Harding with some excellent saves. We were back to winning ways and sat third as we prepared to face our next two opponents occupying second and first places in the table. Our next game attracted a lot of travelling support who were keen to meet the best supporters in the land as we hit the north west to play FC United of Manchester. Their hopes to overtake their rivals Salford City were dashed last season as the latter made it to the Football League while FCUM suffered relegation, but they maintained high spirits on and off the park. Their reputation and a well-run friendly club is an inspiration to many at this level and we hoped to learn a lot while still besting them on the pitch on the day. Willson would start, as would Allison even though he was still dragging the dressing room down. Riskily, away to a fancied undefeated outfit, I decided to start young Crittenden in an offensive wingback role down the left with Crawford waiting on the bench should my experiment fail. Well, they exploited the space down the left in the third minute to take the lead; I made the switch at half time even though the tactic didn’t account for the other two goals we’d conceded in the first half. In the second half the game was drifting away when Hoyte forced the goalkeeper into knocking the ball into his own net, following that up with deflecting a clearance off his arse into the goal although it was incorrectly ruled out – he really is becoming the king of the scrappy goal! We lost 1-3 to what was now the leading side in the league, but we played well enough to remain positive. The next morning as we sat around the radio to learn who our FA Cup opponents would be, I was momentarily excited to learn we were travelling to Royston, until my wife pointed out that it was the non-descript Hertfordshire town and not the non-existent Royston Vasey. She went on to cheer me up, however, with an outline of her latest ambitions for the club. Despite yesterday losing for the first time this season, she was convinced that we really could hold our own at this level and with the quality of youth coming through, continue our rise up the leagues. Without the revenues of a Salford or Billericay, she maintained, we could still follow them into the Football League under my leadership, and she resolved to back me. Although she’d taken out a loan to build the new stadium just as the local council had terminated their monthly grants that had sustained us since we established the academy, my wife insisted that her business interests in Cambodia were healthy enough that she could invest about 60K per month to support our running costs. With a lot of rivals sinking under debts, we could be a sustainable outfit providing we continued to nurture our youth and avoid transfers while keeping wages low. I had to accept that we’d inevitably become a selling club in time and that our training facilities were unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future; nevertheless, where we fall short of the richer clubs in the league, between her careful financial management and my football management skills, we could and would march onwards and upwards. So in good spirits, we prepared for the Sunday visit of Altrincham, who had been top until held to a draw by the aforementioned Royston. On the Saturday we heard the news that Boston United had slammed in seven at St. Albans to remind us of the company we are keeping at this level. Restoring Crawford to the starting lineup and shifting Foy-Hayes, who’d impressed in Under 23s friendlies, to the bench were the only changes I intended to make to the FCUM-losing team. It meant keeping ‘faith’ with Allison with his solitary goal so far. However, given his unreliability, I was dismayed with Hart’s woeful finishing in training so at the last minute I decided Foy-Hayes would start in place of the captain. In a remarkable carbon-copy of the previous game, we were 0-3 down by half-time, having given away two penalties. The scorer who had a hat-trick is a Maltese international on 1.5 grand a month. Although the problems were at the back, I could no longer stomach Allison strolling around completely indifferent tour plight, so he got hoiked. Within five minutes of the restart a lovely turn and show proved that Hart had his boots after all, and another five minutes on and Hoyte had another scruffy one. And yet again we pressed and pressed but couldn’t fine an equalizer - 2-3. Problems and the back and front. Maybe this year is not our year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 With the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round at Royston Vasey up next, changes had to be made and on-form fringe players came in. They included Fitzjohn back on the left after I challenged him to improve his crossing, and young defensive midfielder Clive Burton-Jones making his debut. Allison takes up the seventh space on the bench. Spirits are sinking and we really need a morale-boosting victory to get back on track. To be fair, after losing to the two top sides in the division, all our results have met bookies’ expectations with the exception of turning over Boston United. Royston are in our division and expected to be relegated, so going by the formbook we ought to win this, but we have to tread that fine line between complacency and despair. The first half went differently, this time. We weren’t playing well in the rain, but we weren’t up against a side that could punish us with three goals. Instead, Hoyte showed that his messy goalscoring is by no means jammy with a close range effort off a block to put us up one. In the second half Allison’s understudy Harrison Rich scored a long-range worldy to show his idol how it should be done and we were cruising. Hall bagged an even more spectacular long range effort with a banana, demonstrating his curved free kick was no fluke, and in the last second of added time a kindly defender gift-wrapped a tap-in for Allison to make it 4-0. ‘Flat-track bullies?’, you say? Listen, I’ll take it right now. Over the next week we play two mid-table sides in the league to ascertain where that line in the sand is drawn. On Wednesday we made the long journey to Blyth for an evening kick-off against 10th placed Blyth Spartans who’d just drawn with Royston. Only three players including the keeper had enough stamina to start a second game in three days, but the spirit was now good and I felt we could get something out of the game. We couldn’t. Goodall got sent off for a nasty tackle as our front line of Rich and Foy-Hayes with Hart on later fired blanks to lose 0-1. Our third league defeat on the bounce sent us out of the play-off spots into eighth. That set-back left us feeling apprehensive as we prepared for South Shields to visit Suffolk next. I really wanted to punish sulking Allison but as all our other forwards were shooting blanks I felt I had to suck it up and start him again. But then I held a team meeting to address out slump and everyone was on board except for that git, so I took a chance after all and left him out of the squad. I was so caught up in thinking through how to turn our form around that I completely forgot about the youth squad and only learned that we’d been dumped out of the FA Youth Cup after the loss to Kettering. At home in front of a ‘crowd’ of 200 to the 16th-placed team we went 4-0 up by half-time before we eased off to finish 5-3 with goals from Hart, Rich, Hall and Joseph. Is that our level? The month ended with a divisional Player of the month award to Kenny Hoyte with Kelvin Hall runner up. First time we’ve won any such awards. Less wonderfully, we were told Paul Lambert was in the stands in that last game snooping on Ronnie Willson. So, at the end of September after ten games, we were ten points off the top but just clinging onto the last play-off spot in seventh position. We’re only supposed to be staying clear of promotion so we’re well ahead of the curve. The problem is that with such young and frail individuals, it only takes a couple of bad results for despondency to set in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 Sorry for the delay, work and life have gotten in the way of the important things. October 2023 We entered the FA Cup at the Third Qualifying Round as October came around. I took a back-up squad up to Warrington Town as we had a midweek league match to contend following it. In central midfield Patrick Armitage lined up for his debut alongside his big brother Simon, and there were four more kids on the bench hoping to make their debuts. The only player I took who had played more than a handful of games was that git Allison. I’m hoping that with a new month turning, clubs will lose interest and he’ll suddenly express his heartfelt desire to play for the shirt, but until then he’s reduced to turning out with the kids for sucky-cup matches. We weren’t sure what shaped ball Warrington would produce but it turned out to be our favourite. We couldn’t do much with it, mind you, but at least ‘player of the match’ George Allison laid on a ball for Calvin Foy-Hayes to tap home even if Warrington’s lightning-quick attack got behind our defence in added time to earn a dreaded replay with a 1-1 result. It meant our league fixture was put back a week as we had to play the replay four days later. Thus, the first team I was saving would be the team to start the replay at home and hopefully see the round through. We changed to our controlling tactic, which we hadn’t used this season, but I felt we had the means to dominate the game and the change would maybe catch the opposition off guard. Just as I was about to set off to Ipswich, the wife called me into her office to inform me she’d had a call from Harlow town, inviting me for a job interview. As it would be a step down she declined on my behalf; we shared a laugh and thought no more of it. Warrington are a very good side and they gave us a damn good game. As if a draw and replay isn’t bad enough, this time they took us to extra time after another 1-1 draw with Harrison Rich getting our goal, and then onto a penalty shoot-out in which Allison converted the decisive kick. Through to meet Eastleigh from the Vanarama National, but too knackered to turn out for the weekend league fixture. That match was up in wet and windy Southport, who were struggling, so we felt we had a chance. It was a poor game against a poor side, but Foy-Hayes grabbed a goal and we did a professional job to bring home three points in a 1-0 win and keep us in the play-off places. We didn’t train between that game and the next three days later up at Darlington, as we struggled to put a fit squad together. Rich couldn’t manage another game so I reluctantly had to start Allison. In front of a huge crowd of over 1300, he went and banged in two lovely goals (lovely in the sense that Hart and Hall did great work to put them on a plate for him), with Hoyte making it 3-0 against the dispirited Quakers who’d played very well but found our cobbled-together defence resolute. Any hopes I had of Allison showing a bit more commitment were undermined when I caught the Burton Albion manager making eyes at him. Still, after three league defeats in a row, we’d won three on the bounce. After three league defeats in a row, we’d won three on the bounce. Young Leo Molyneux, who never gets a mention because he’s mediocre and anonymous, figured out that as the only right-back in the squad and playing every match, he could hold us to ransom over a huge new contract. To be fair, he wasn’t wrong even though the wife was seething as she rewarded the worst player in our first team squad. We sweetened him with a clause giving him 200 quid for every goal he scores. He’s never scored and never will, but he didn’t seem aware of that. Still, Luther, deliver us something special next March, will you? We were soon back in the cup – four days later in fact, as we took a trip down South for once, to play Eastleigh in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round. There were only twelve league places between us and Eastleigh were on an awful run, incapable of scoring, so we knew we had a chance of making it to the First Round proper if we could summon up the mental strength in the midst of this intensive sequence of matches. The board didn’t expect us to get past this stage, but I was curious to see what draw we’d get if we made it past the furthest stage our club has got to in its history – and more. Allison would have to start again of course; otherwise, it was a simple job of picking the only eleven who still had legs. It was our third away game in front of a huge hostile crowd in the rain in a row, and we were starting to quite enjoy the reaction and atmosphere. We wondered if we’d ever get four-figure crowds in our new stadium back home. As mentioned, they can’t score, but they don’t concede many either, so the lack of entertainment was not a surprise. What was a surprise was Allison thumping home a winner just two minutes from full time to actually spare us a replay. 1-0 and on we go on a historic cup run. We’ve also received an astonishing 45K this month in prize money. We’re in the big time, baby. The draw’s been made and we’re at home – to Rochdale. They’re riding high in League One so it’s one of the toughest draws – and also one of the least sexy. Can’t see us being on the telly, but will we get a sell-out at Bloomfields? Will George Allison have gotten over himself by then? We had one more match to play before enjoying a fortnight break. We hosted Brackley Town four days later, and this time I didn’t have to rotate so much as the squad was starting to find reserves of stamina to recover more quickly between all these biweekly matches. With time running out and the game tied after Hart and Hall had scored, Allison came off the bench and hit a quick-fire brace to win the game 4-2. Tap-ins to be sure, after work from Hall and Hart again, but that’s what poachers do. Keep that chip on your shoulder as long as you like George if it means you’re hitting the back of the net again – we’ve been waiting a long time! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 November 2023 November broke with a little bit of a dilemma. The FA Cup tie was on Wednesday, three days after a crunch league match at home to York City – rich, professional, sitting second in the table. Sending out a weakened team for the league game would guarantee defeat, but we have to give the cup game our all. Yes, our squad is managing its fitness better now, but three days’ recovery is not enough. I figured I’d have to put out my strongest line-up in the first match (with Allison on the bench to reprise his supersub role if needed), then rest everyone and put out the best line-up possible against Rochdale even if they were a bit fatigued. It would be our third match (another mere three days later) where the first choice would be rested; this of course depended on not drawing the cup game! With all that forward planning in mind, the month broke with a little bit of a special moment for me – I was awarded a gong for Manager of the Month – the first in my career. Thanks to the cup prize money, we made a whopping profit for the month of October – another first, as our balance edges close to a cool million. How much before you grant us an upgrade to our training facilities, chairwoman? What I’m noticing, and this should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, not even her, is that those academy kids who don’t get into the first team squad are simply not developing sufficiently and I’ll likely have to let most of them go which is a direct contradiction of the club philosophy that the chairwoman ascribes to. Maybe after Rochdale, eh? Unfortunately, we were outclassed by York. Allison came on and scored but by that time we were three down, not helped by Molyneux being weighed down by his pay-packet. Would that 1-3 defeat affect our mood for the big one? Morale was still high, so I kept faith in the players although I started my most senior players (i.e. twenty-year-olds), Crawford, Goodall and, yes, Allison lest the occasion caused the younger Turks to freeze. And thus it was that the FA Cup First Round proper came to little Oakley – except that it was in bloody Ipswich which was a shame, but I expected the whole village to embark on our fleet of free coaches for the big day – until I learned that we were fleecing them 30 quid each for the match tickets. We duly welcomed Rochdale and their travelling support in our club’s first ever competitive encounter against football League opposition – a truly historic day whatever the outcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 Our scout had reported that apart from being very one-footed, the Rochdale squad really had no weaknesses that we could exploit, and to expect a bombardment. That’s how the match started, so the lads instinctively tried to take the heat out of the game by patiently passing the ball around the back – which is not our forte as proved by O’Neill’s disastrous pass-back to there keeper Harding wasn’t. Eight minutes in and we were a goal down before we’d even got out of our half. By the time we had a shot of any description we were three down. At half time the boys took in my words of sympathy, other than Allison whose thoughts were written all over his face, “This is my bloody shop window and you muppets are destroying my career”. Nobody needed that so I took him off. Hart scored in the second half to give us something to cheer; a 1-3 defeat was no disgrace against a side 73 places above us, and there was no criticism of the boys. Thirteen hundred supporters was a record for an Acorns home game even though it would have been more had the prices been reasonable; I trust my wife’s business sense in recouping a record 35K, but I hoped we hadn’t lost the affection of the village over it. I deemed it an opportune moment to ask for some investment in either our training facilities or youth; she didn’t. It’s all about the new stadium these days. For the next match at Curzon Ashton, I listened to Ellis D’Ath my sports scientist and left a number of the lads at home for a complete rest (D’Ath reported the rest resulted in a fully fit squad). I’d substituted Joseph and Hart in the Rochdale match so that they’d supply the spine of a side that had a chance of beating a mid-table side. With Hart and Allison up top, there was always a chance. And there was – they scored in a straightforward 3-1 victory although Molyneux again disgraced himself in an utterly uncommitted performance. He’s out, banished to the Under 23s to play the occasional friendly in front of tumbleweed – the back-up raw kid Andy Bruce will have to fill in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 I’ve been going over some statistics in a meeting with Andy Hunter our data analyst and the chairwoman. On the pitch, we’ve scored the most goals in the division but our defence is amongst the worst, particularly in conceding from free kicks and corners, and giving away penalties. I think that comes down mainly to individual mistakes by poor-quality personnel. I can’t do anything about that other that take the patient approach – the defenders in my first team squad are young and gradually improving, particularly on the mental side. If I tried to shore up the defence with roles or numbers it would blunt the attack, and given where we’re at, there’s no point, unless we go on a losing streak. Off the pitch, our attendances are less than 50% of the next most modest club in the league. Compared with the giants, we’re not in the same library. York’s average home gate is well in excess of 7,000 whilst ours is barely more than 250. Even when we move back home, the new stadium’s capacity will be half of York’s average attendance. Given the size of our village, however, we’re unlikely to fill it anyway, at least not until our reputation exceeds that of Colchester and Ipswich. In connection with that, our total spending on wages is about 87K per year, compared to over 2.2 million quid at professional club York, yet we’re still insecure financially. I know my wife’s doing her best, but we’re minnows swimming in a sea of sharks. It’s a miracle we’re here, but the likes of Burton and Accrington have reached and established themselves in the Football League on modest resources, so in time I believe we can too. We had an eight-day respite before taking to the field again, in a home tie against struggling Spennymoor Town. It was time for the whole squad to rest, recuperate and get themselves mentally refreshed. After our fantastic run in the FA Cup had finally come to an end, we were preparing for another cup adventure in the FA Trophy. We’ve been drawn at homme to Havant & Waterlooville of the Vanarama South in the Third Qualifying Round which takes place the weekend after the next league game. To be honest, the Trophy does nothing for me; the board just require us to get through this one qualifying round, and my focus is on keeping our foothold in the play-offs for the league, so any progress we make will be dependent on the commitment and desire of fringe players who want a spot in the first team. The team to face Spennymoor Town was pretty established other than the two 16-year-olds, Clive Burton-Jones who’s quietly made and kept his position as a defensive midfielder, and Andy Bruce whom I’d already mentioned is getting a chance due to the mercenary attitude of Molyneux, banished to the reserves, at right back. Our scout Nathan Hodge had reported that they have the worst possession stats in the division, so despite our ropey ability to pass the ball, I figured a controlling tactic would suit us so long as we didn’t overelaborate at the back. The match was disappointing. The established players didn’t seem sufficiently motivated which meant the youngest kids were poor. Allison nodded in a straightforward equalizer in a 1-1 draw, but we threw away a precious two points due to lack of desire. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 We were now in a position where we six days to prepare for the cup, but that would be followed three days later by a trip to Scarborough with whom we were neck-and-neck in the play-off spots, a game I really didn’t want to lose. I worried that a weakened side losing the cup game might lead to a negative vibe, so I decided to drop only those who lack the endurance for a quick turn-around. After all the following two league matches would be against the bottom two in the division and surely we’d win those? To complicate matters, Molyneux put in a good shift in an Under 23s friendly game, so I restored him to the first team for that cup match. Can Crittenden, our 16-year-old left back who’d previously proved a bit out of his depth in the first team also got a chance with the senior pair of left-backs showing signs of losing confidence. Lee Hart was one card away from a suspension, and I figured I needed him for the next league game but he could serve a suspension after that, so he got a break too. We also reverted to our more typical counter-attacking longer ball tactic. The chairwoman informed me that she’d received a phone call and that she felt duty-bound to consult me over a request for an interview at Chelmsford. It’s an Essex club, about an hour’s drive from home, a club with bigger resources, but a club in the relegation zone of the Vanarama South. There was nothing to consider, for me. I guess I made the wrong call; on the other hand probably my unspoken indifference to the competition probably communicated itself to the team – we just never got going and wimped out 0-2 in the FA Trophy. I went through the motions of laying into the lads for such a poor performance but really I just wanted to focus on the next game. With only the league left and a training regime light enough to keep injuries to a minimum, it was really a test of my man-management skills to ensure we finished the long season in the play-offs. Realistically, I felt winning the league with automatic promotion was beyond us, and winning the play-offs when there are clubs with vastly superior resources is beyond us, but given we were currently in a play-off spot, my goal was to end the season no lower than seventh. We took the coach up to the seaside at Scarborough without Wilsmere who was suspended, but with Hart. Bruce had to come back in; Molyneux couldn’t manage a second game. Whilst he was quite poor against those two clubs hiding behind Portsmouth on the south coast, he was no worse than the rest of the team, so I overlooked that. I’ll admit, I set out not to lose the game which means to stop Athletic playing. The result was ten yellow cards and no goals; 0-0 was not an unsatisfactory outcome even if we didn’t win any boy scout badges for our performance. Four of the cards were for us including Hart, but that was fine in the circumstances. Now was the time to take stock – we’d only won one of our previous six games; now we had a string of matches against sides beneath us in the table starting with Chorley, cast adrift with only points. That had to be the launching pad for a winning run, and we had to get our heads right over the coming five days as we moved into December. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 12 hours ago, phnompenhandy said: The team to face Spennymoor Town was pretty established other than the two 16-year-olds, Clive Burton-Jones who’s quietly made and kept his position as a defensive midfielder, and Andy Bruce whom I’d already mentioned is getting a chance due to the mercenary attitude of Molyneux, banished to the reserves, at right back. This surprised me a little, the couple of players I've encountered with 'mercenary' personalities have done quite well & developed relatively quickly off the pitch. You're still making good, steady progress and nice to see George Allison still contributing. He looked a real talent previously! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 47 minutes ago, coady said: This surprised me a little, the couple of players I've encountered with 'mercenary' personalities have done quite well & developed relatively quickly off the pitch. You're still making good, steady progress and nice to see George Allison still contributing. He looked a real talent previously! Yeah, I didn't mean 'mercenary' as the FM19 descriptor, but the way he stopped giving a fig the moment he got a 300% pay rise. Allison's morale has been stuck on 'poor' all season, and every game he either does naff all or does naff all and bags a tap in or two. He's still getting green arrows every training report so is developing nicely, but he wants someone else to get the benefit, not us. At some point, surely, he's got to come off his hump, enjoy his football and start playing like a non-league Rashford again. Surely? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 2 hours ago, phnompenhandy said: Yeah, I didn't mean 'mercenary' as the FM19 descriptor, but the way he stopped giving a fig the moment he got a 300% pay rise. Allison's morale has been stuck on 'poor' all season, and every game he either does naff all or does naff all and bags a tap in or two. He's still getting green arrows every training report so is developing nicely, but he wants someone else to get the benefit, not us. At some point, surely, he's got to come off his hump, enjoy his football and start playing like a non-league Rashford again. Surely? In my experience, once they've got the hump it's hard to win them back. It's different if they're unhappy about a specific topic, but when they're generally unhappy it's difficult to manage. I always find that with certain loan players, if they're unhappy at their parent club, you can't always swing the morale back to a positive state. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share Posted January 21, 2019 8 hours ago, coady said: In my experience, once they've got the hump it's hard to win them back. It's different if they're unhappy about a specific topic, but when they're generally unhappy it's difficult to manage. I always find that with certain loan players, if they're unhappy at their parent club, you can't always swing the morale back to a positive state. Ouch. His discontent is specific - disappointed I won't let him join St. Mirren. We had the same last season and he did get over it, but this time it's dragging on longer, and various scouts are still rocking up and unsettling him. I suppose even if I do get half a season, it'll kick in again next year. Thing is, I'm only ever getting offered 9K which even for us is about one week's income. If someone would stump up proper money I could let the chairwoman and him have their way. Maybe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share Posted January 21, 2019 December 2023 Right, with just one victory in six last month, it’s time to get back to winning ways with five eminently winnable ties to take us to the end of the year. The schedule’s due to get a little crowded over Christmas and New Year, but short of weather disruption, we should be able to deal with that now the cups are no longer a distraction. Chorley are rock-bottom, having only won once in the league all season so far – we couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to get the show back on the road. With morale dipping, I nominated the more positive-looking and determined players to start, including Bozan over Harding in goal even though the latter hadn’t played in months. It helped a little that Ronnie Willson finally accepted a part-time contract over his non-contract with Derby and Nottingham Forest hovering; I promised him more first team football next season. Then, whether connected to Willson’s decision of not, I was rather taken aback when on the morning of the match, George Allison announced in my presence to a hack from The Non-League Football Paper that he had reconsidered and was now willing to commit to Little Oakley and requested to start the game. I’m not one to bear grudges – his demeanour was positive, he was in. Talking of demeanour, at the last minute I’d decided that Leo Molyneux could not be trusted, and I asked Willson to fill in at right back even though he’d never played there before. It took a last-second volley from Kelvin Hall to add to goals from Allison and Foy-Hayes to get us the three points as we scraped through 3-2. Interestingly, in addition to Willson learning a new position, the cross for Hall came in from Joyce whom I substituted on at left wing even though he’s a left back. I think I’ll try him out there again as we have two good left backs and no good left wingers. To be fair, we didn’t play badly but Chorley really belied their position by putting in a far greater performance than I’d anticipated. Giving Ferhat Bozan one isolated game may have backfired as he immediately demanded regular first team action. I can’t drop Zac Harding and we’re not in a position where I can faff around with goalkeepers, especially as we got nowhere in the FA Trophy where Bozan was supposed to get competitive games. The Under 18 keeper is not developing but I f Bozan is unhappy, I might need to let him go. I hope he can simmer quietly until I see who comes through the academy. Luther Blissett and Jack Blake, our low-key Under 18s coach/manager came to inform me that Cambridge United wanted to take one of our whelps, striker Kieran Kellett, on loan. I couldn’t find out whether they wanted to actually play him or even pay him, but I figured that their training facilities would probably be superior, he wasn’t in my first team plans and apparently he was up for the move, so I gave my assent and left it with the chairwoman to follow it up. The next day she told me that the deal had been rapidly agreed and signed, and that the lad had completed his transfer. Did something get lost in translation? No loss as I wasn’t going to retain him next season anyway, but I’d better be more careful in future! Mysteriously, the sale sparked something in the remaining Under 18 kids who suddenly upped the game in their fixtures. I know I’ll get nowhere, but I need to again raise the issue of upgrading training facilities; recently two of our coaches have completed coaching course and have come back with a ton of new ideas – which we can’t implement. I fear we’re merely paying for them to leave us and benefit a rival club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share Posted January 21, 2019 We took our new, slightly-tweaked line-up including bringing young defensive midfielder Burton-Jones back for the underwhelming Goodall to Macclesfield Town, an erstwhile league club hitting the skids although a mini-revival had taken them away from imminent relegation trouble. Joyce, a natural wingback whom I’d played as a left back, was instructed to fulfil a defensive winger role while Crawford behind him and Willson on the other flank would play as defensive wingbacks in fullback positions. For fear I was over-complicating things, I decided to wait until after the match when we’d have ten days – or six training sessions, before the next fixture to tweak the fullback roles. In an error-strewn and niggly match we were lucky to come away with a 3-2 victory where we were fine down the flanks but the two central defenders were a disaster – Wakeham even getting sent off in stoppage time with the score even before a sensational winner courtesy of Allison, with Rich and Hart bagging earlier. Harshly, it seemed to me, we heard Macclesfield had sacked their manager as we returned on the coach back to Essex. On the training ground over the next week I reassessed my proposed tactics and decided to push the full backs up just slightly, asking Crawford to support Joyce the left winger but no more, and Willson should stick to no-nonsense defending while I monitored his long-term suitability in the role. O’Neill would fill in for the suspended Wakeham and Allison would start over Rich in an otherwise unchanged line up to face Royston at home in a midweek fixture. Two wins on the bounce – as unconvincing against weak opposition as they were – put the young lads in a positive mindset as we enjoyed the training routines, especially the novel ones focusing on set pieces. We eked out another narrow victory with the 2-1 score-line. Joyce was showing his rawness down the left so Fitzjohn came on and hit a late winner, adding to an earlier goal from Hart. Boxing Day would send us to King’s Lynn with a match on New Year’s Day and another on the Saturday between, so I’d need to rotate. Some of the youngest players were shining in the Under 18s such as full-backs Bruce and Crittenden, so I readied them for another game in the first team. Crittenden I decided, as a sixteen-year-old showing huge enthusiasm on the training ground, was the left-back we should be converting to a winger, so I told his Under 18 manager Blake to play him consistently in the role and monitor his progress. Joyce wasn’t really cutting it but he’d be fine as a substitute covering two positions. Hoyte had trained a hammy in the Royston match, and Burton-Jones felt something the day after; the medical staff reckoned both would be okay to play the next game but I decided not to chance it as we were heading into the fatigue season and I’d need to rotate for the following game anyway. Goodall could underwhelm once again and Bannister was happy to earn a deserved chance. Goodall did indeed underwhelm but a Hall brace added to a Hart goal delivered a routine 3-1 win to consolidate third place as we reached the half-way point of the league. Our first match at this level had been at Edgar Street when we thought we’d pulled off a major shock by winning at giants Hereford United, yet as we welcomed them for the re-match, we found ourselves ten points ahead of them and the fear was absent. With no signs of cold turkey, we smashed the Bulls 3-0 in a magnificent performance with a brace by Hart, both assisted by Allison, and a ridiculous own goal. With five wins out of five we were sorry to see off December as we saw in the new year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 With my career having stalled recently, it has now hit termination What happened was my old laptop died, although before it did I was able to back up my FM files. I bought a new laptop and moved (not copied) the files over. Four days in and I hit a repeated BSOD. Turns out a faulty stick of RAM was installed. I took it back to the shop yesterday and it was fixed - but I forgot to stand over them and ensure my FM folder was saved. So everything has gone. My save file, my edit files, my graphics, the lot. Of course, I will reinstall FM19 via Steam and redownload the graphics and edit files, but my Little Oakley career has gone forever. To be fair, I was slowing down anyway due to other commitments (life) but I'm gutted it had to end this way. What I'll probably do is wait until a Level 11 or Level 12 English file is ready (which will be soon now) and take over my actual childhood village team and do much the same thing but without the academy boost, and without committing the time to write up the career in this forum. I'll still be loitering and following threads here, especially Daniel Coady's, but as far as this thread, this story, this life is concerned, it's a sad farewell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Sad news. I’ve enjoyed your threads this year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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