IbrahimAliMaher Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) With a tear in my eye I reluctantly left my job at league one Crawley Town after almost 4 seasons (and 15 months IRL) for the bright lights of Bristol and the Championship. I tried not to follow the team I left behind too closely as I needed to focus on my new job, however with the season petering out at Bristol City and having achieved the aim of a top half finish I thought I would check up on my old side. Usually it's painful to watch the AI dismantle the team you left behind, flog off the best players for a pittance and pick all the wrong players and tactics. Amazingly however the Crawley board actually did a really good job in replacing me, and went for an inexperienced coach with little managerial experience in Ciaran Toner but who had a similar philosophy and tactical approach to how I used to play. I gave him a little bit of help; shortly before I left I signed a quality CB on a free and arranged a bargain acquisition of a youth regen prospect from Leyton Orient (Robert O'Sullivan). In the transfer window the AI manager flogged the now 5th choice CB, and sold Bobby Duncan, a talented but inconsistent young striker, both of which I probably would've done myself. He also sold my captain and ball-playing CB to a Championship side, and signed some Scandinavian RB for a nominal amount. By and large though he kept the same awesome squad of mostly frees and loanees I put together. Fast forward to the season end and the club had a horrible set of fixtures, away to the sides in 1st and 3rd. The club was still in the 2nd place spot I left them in. They lost the first game but could still be promoted automatically with a point at third place Wigan, and I watched the highlights of this pivotal clash as it was the day before my new side's final fixture. Despite playing awfully they pulled it back to 1-1, but then went down 2-1 with 10 mins to play to equal my third place finish from the previous season. The playoffs then beckoned, and following a credible 2-2 draw away in the first leg they went 2-0 down at home in the first 20 mins. The AI manager threw caution the wind and switched to a 4-3-3 formation, making all three subs by 70 mins. Miraculously this worked and the team pulled it back to 2-2, holding out for extra time despite effectively playing with 9 men as both CBs were orange injured and had swapped positions with the two CMs. Then on-loan AMC Calum Slattery, a player with bags of talent and potential POTS but who never really did it for me, scored in extra time despite having only 48% condition! Crawley held on for a mammoth result and would play 4th place Ipswich in the final. With the current lack of football (and not wanting to encourage the Belorussian PL) I decided to watch the PO Final on full game mode. I've never done this before but I figured that IRL as a former manager I would have been invited by Sky to guest as a pundit for the TV coverage anyway, so why not! As a fan I could just sit back and watch the game and not have to worry about tactics or substitutions. Despite Ipswich pressing strongly and winning a succession of corners, and with the Crawley attackers struggling to get into the game and frequently giving the ball away, the shoe-in for league one player of the season Aaron Lewis put in a fantastic cross from RB for Crawley to take the lead. A couple of counter attacks before half time saw Crawley in dreamland at 3-0 up at the break, though an injury to an out of sorts Slattery meant O'Sullivan was thrown into the spot light in the second half. If the Ipswich manager had steeled his team during the halftime team talk, then it was blown to pieces within seconds of the restart owing to an absolute howler of a back pass from Ipswich CB Dunkley. The same player was at fault as he missed a vital header from a corner, allowing Crawley to stroll to a 5-0 victory. Mixed feelings at the final whistle for me; on the one hand delighted for my former club to make the step up, at the same time sad that I missed the opportunity to win them some silverware myself. The AI manager then effectively did better than I did the previous season, though as the squad was much stronger this season I reckon I would've gone up automatically Anyone have any similar stories to share? Edited April 10, 2020 by IbrahimAliMaher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilhoskins77 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Afternoon, and welcome to FM Stories. Would you kindly give the thread linked underneath a read for me? Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark wilson27 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 15 hours ago, neilhoskins77 said: Afternoon, and welcome to FM Stories. Would you kindly give the thread linked underneath a read for me? Cheers What he said Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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