[FM23] The Promotion Challenge

[CapLFC450]

The Promotion Challenge (Blog #0)

Wow! It's been a long while since I've blogged anything on these forums, so long in fact that a new Football Manager game has dropped and boy do I have a good save to write about here. I doubt that anyone even noticed that I was gone, but it's good to be back and it's something that I enjoy even in the arduous perils of an unsuccessful save or when updating on the forums feels slow; it is very satisfying clicking submit post and satisfyingly scrolling through the journey of the save so far. At the end of the day, I really do enjoy writing, or at least the process of detailing out your thoughts onto a post even if nobody goes on to read it.

Anyways, enough rambling on about menial things. This is actually my second venture into posting on these forums, with my debut being my FM22 Scale The Tower series which lasted until 2035 where my enjoyment began to wane chasing for a trophy that seemed less and less attainable as the seasons went by. But I am back, this time at the beginning of the FM cycle (oh and I mean beginning!) With a new save premise, idea and a lot of fun to be had, that being what is deemed in the title and a couple other headings - The Promotion Challenge! So let me get into exactly what that is and what this means for my FM23 save.

So I usually dread writing intro posts as they are longer than usual and tend to be dragged out so that any reader can fully understand what the new save is but I am not only excited to write this but am also going to try to keep it as concise as humanly possible. So I'm not actually sure how innovative this save idea is but I'm pretty impressed with what I could piece together with the ideas that I had in my head. So The Promotion Challenge is essentially a chance for you to build up a club in many different European nations and get a real feel of the lower leagues of some European nations all in one save, whilst also being challenged but not limited massively with how you can conduct the save. Essentially, you take over a newly promoted side in the lower playable division of the nation highest currently in the coefficient (therefore England); and trying to take them to a top division victory (therefore the premier league.) Then resigning (or carrying on for a couple seasons) and picking another newly promoted side in the next lowest nation in the coefficient. This can be done by adding a new unrelated manager and resigning from the club of your choice then applying for the open job application and getting hired as the manager. So yeah, I think it's a pretty decent premise for a save and allows for a unique challenge.

The Teams

As you're now introduced to what the save premise actually is, it seems logical to introduce you to the teams that I will be starting out with for my main save. As I mentioned previously, we'll be taking over a club at the foot of the playable divisions in England (Vanarama National League North/South) and another small nation from somewhere across the world. So let me reveal who those teams are finally after a lot of waffle and text to get through, or if you couldn't already recognise the logos at the top.

The first club side that I will be managing in this save are one of my extremely local sides in Worthing FC. Recently promoted to the Vanarama National League South following three back to back years of finishing top of the Ryman League Premier Division but being affected by the global pandemic which stopped them from being promoted until this season. But now they are up and ready to fight in this division, hopefully with myself as coach leading them further than they could have ever imagined. The stadium, Woodside Road is only about a 20 minute drive from where I live and therefore are who I would consider to be my local club and already have a connection to outside of the game. But yeah, hired by the mighty Mackerel Men as their new manager and hopefully it will be the beginning of an era for the seaside club.

But as I mentioned prior, of course it is not just one side that I will be managing simultaneously in this save as I also will be managing a small nation of my choice and after a long amount of shortlisting and considering multiple different options I am very happy and pretty much dead-set on my final choice of nation. So let me just fill you in on who exactly that team is. Coming from North America and the fairly competitive confederation of CONCACAF, and if you didn't already recognise the logo above (which I would have to commend you on as that is some niche ball knowledge right there!) Our nation is the massive Aruba..!

So this is something that I am extremely excited to do, which is manage a small nation in Football Manager. Something I haven't done this about March in FM22 where I took over Dominican Republic for a few seasons which I really enjoyed for a number of reasons, which I will line out as I explain why you should be excited about this. As an underdog side we will have the sensation of hopefully beating teams that are better than us. Any achievement will be an achievement in this case, so it's going to be challenging but relieving. Also hopefully we will be able to convince some good players to come and play for our nation as we begin to build something, also I have made my manager from Aruba so that we have an increased chance in having Aruban players come through our youth intake and also I have loaded the Aruban league and force loaded Aruban players so that we will have a full team that has a consistent flow of players into our side.

So there you have it! Aruba and Worthing FC manager, a bit of an unconventional pairing however I have given real thought into who I am going to manage and why I am going to manage them. I am very excited to manage both of these teams and I think that these will make for an extremely fun save and very enjoyable to manage and hopefully for you to follow as well. I think that it will be interesting to see how we get on with both of these teams, especially Aruba as I feel like building a strong squad with a lot of options will take time but will be crucial in order for us to be successful in international football. 

How Am I Going To Blog It?

So I am going to try not to bog myself down with long and dragged out blogs now that I am wrapping up on the intro post. So I plan to do short and sweet monthly/bi-monthly updates and a season review alongside other details throughout the save. That way I won't be spending too much time writing and not enough time playing the actual game and enjoying myself in this save! And it also means I will be playing slowly if I am spending a long time writing, all of these plans are subject to change depending on how I am feeling throughout writing and playing. But I am very committed to getting stuck into this save quickly and soon and I am looking forward to playing.

I'm hoping that you enjoyed this post and are looking forward to more as there is definitely more to come. I am usually busy during the week so many uploads will be sporadic and not really very consistently put out but hopefully that doesn't mean that you struggle not to follow this save. I think that this is going to be something that everyone can enjoy and it feels good to be back and blogging away in a save! I'll see you once we have started the season with Worthing!

Edited November 11, 2022 by CapLFC450

[CapLFC450]

July/August 2022 Review & Pre-Season (Blog #1)

Welcome back to another post on The Promotion Challenge thread. Hopefully just a quick update to show you how we got on in our Pre-Season in July and our first month of the season with Worthing in August of 2022. I'm just a couple months in and I am absolutely loving playing this save game at the moment, hope you are interested in this too!

So with pretty much all of Worthing's transfer business done by my entry into the club, there wasn't really much more that I could do with a near minimal budget. However I did bring in one new signing, ex-Southampton academy player Jayden Smith joined in on a free transfer after being released from the prior mentioned South-Coast club. He looks to be a really good player for this level, with a lot of pace and a fair bit of dribbling and finishing ability making him someone that will be dangerous when in front of goal and when on the break. He is already considered one of our star players by the media and our staff and sets a good precedent in the future for signings that I will be bringing in. I already know that he will bag goals for us and I am intrigued to see whether or not he will fight near the top of the scoring charts, and if he will be a serious contender for the Vanarama National League South Top Scorer award.

So he came in a little bit later in our friendlies and pre-season so he was lacking a bit of match sharpness but he soon came into his own as a striker for us and I am looking forward to seeing more of his performances this season as I think he will end up being a very very good player for us. So as I mentioned previously, we got through the entirety of pre-season pretty quickly and most of the teams we played were in Tier 7 & 8 which allowed for us to really understand our attacking game. When you're the better side, it lets you get used to having a lot of shots and chances and therefore allows for you to practice putting them away and having your team run rampant and dominant for the most part of the match.

So yeah,  we dominated every team we played, rather weirdly we conceded a lot of goals despite scoring far more than our opponent in many of the games. Examples of this are 9-1 and 8-1 away wins against Chertsey and Redbridge respectively. Which sort of showed me that our defence may be a weak point in the side and time will only tell whether or not that is a fair assessment of our side however, I think it was interesting to give a lot of the players in our side a chance and really come to terms with who our best players are more or less. 

Good form in pre-season had me confident and I had sort of outlined a tactical identity. I think I always knew that playing direct was usually the way to win in the lower leagues. So I have created something which I think will help me bring success whilst we are a mid-table team and gain some results which some would consider a shock or at least playing without our means. So I am asking my backline to stay solid and defensive, not demanding too much of them with the ball and for the full backs to make up their own mind based on the tide of the game whilst we have an average line height, not standing too far forward and making us vulnerable to counter-attacks but also not too low to not be able to support our strikers.

I expect our midfield to be fairly balanced, offering defensive solidity in the Ball-Winning Midfielder but also having a Box-To-Box midfielder who can pick the ball up from the defence and wingers and drive it through the middle into the strikers and penetrating the edge of the box. The wingers are fairly conservative, staying wide for the most part and offering creativity by playing in crosses and low balls into the middle for our strikers to make the most of. Working nicely with the higher tempo as they are able to pick up the ball from the full-backs and make the most of wide creative opportunities into our strikers. I am asking them to do as much with the ball as they can, I ask my Deep-Lying Forward to drop deep and hold up the ball allowing for the wingers to push high and wide whilst also having my Advanced Forward press high and run wide being able to link up play and play final passes into the striker partner or trying a shot themselves from an angle.

So with pre-season done, a tactic built and a team assembled - the only thing left now is to start the season. I was conservative for the most part, with the board and fans having the lofty ambitions of a playoff finish despite being a newly promoted team, I had my doubts however I knew that we could bond really nicely and fit the tactic well as it was fairly simple and not asking too much of our players on the whole. Also direct but creative football had the opportunity to really hurt teams that are considered to be better than us, allowing for us to overperform when we are the underdogs. However, when we are the better team sometimes we could be vulnerable to teams that sit back considering a lot of our players push forward when the ball is played up the pitch quickly, meaning if they make a quick interception or a fast move - we are often victim to a really good chance which we usually would concede.

But I was quietly optimistic, knowing that we at least wouldn't struggle for goals in most of our matches. We have a strong enough squad for this division and a good tactical base for this season. Now I just needed all the players to dig in and be able to play in quick succession with each game. In the non-leagues games come thick and fast which means our team would need to be at the optimal fitness for most of the season or else we would be at risk of having a lot of poor results in a string. But our injury record was clean from the off and I was hoping it would stay that way.

And as you can see! It's been a good start to the season, a bit patchy but for the most part successful. Three victories, two draws and a defeat is a good record for a month where there is so much going on and I have been happy with our performances so far. I feel like we can keep this up as the season grows more and more and our team can really kick on and find some form. Our best result came against Chippenham Town where we ran rampant and finished the game in front of the home fans with a 3-0 victory. As you can see, our two strikers Ollie Pearce and Jayden Smith have been our primary source of goals and I have been really satisfied with how they fit the system so far. I already spoke about Jayden Smith but Ollie Pearce is a more of a traditional hold up and link up play and has been at Worthing since 2018 bringing experience from six years at Bognor Regis and having a far larger tenure at the club than most of the other players.

I won't show the league table just yet as we are only six games into the season however we currently sit in 4th place with the opportunity to rise and/or fall very quickly in this division, with two more action-packed months of football it will be interesting to see how our form holds up as we get into the meaty parts of the season. I find it fascinating and I will continue to tinker with the squad as well as our debut with Aruba in the North American Nations League B final two games where we need a few wins in order to survive from the position the previous manager left us in.

Hope you enjoyed and will keep an eye out for more entries into this series! I've been CapLFC and this has been The Promotion Challenge!

[CapLFC450]

September/October 2022 Review (Blog #2)

Welcome back to The Promotion Challenge thread and the next post in this series. I hope you are excited for this one as in this post we are covering September and October 2022 as we get much further into this season and really into this series. We will also have our first Aruba update in this series which is definitely exciting, wrapping up the previous nations league campaign.

So yeah, in the last post we started off our Vanarama National League South season with Worthing and it went pretty well. We were sat in 4th place in the league and considering we were a Semi-Pro and newly promoted side into the Vanarama National League South, I was pleased with this start. We had won 3 games, drew 2 matches and had 1 loss; but I was hoping for a bit more consistency as we progressed further into the season. The fact of the matter is, our players were playing well but we would need to be tactically flexible if we wanted to be able to come away with a win against almost everyone. But yeah, since then I have played September & October so let me show you how we got on in these months but I think that you will be happy with it.

So yeah! We've been good on the whole, a lot of wins and losses and a fairly large number of draws but on the whole mostly wins! You can also view our FA Cup run where we were able to beat two teams in tiers below us in Bowers & Pitsea and Gosport Borough by playing a fairly rotated side which allowed for us to make it to the Fourth Qualifying Round where we lost to National League opposition in Eastleigh which was disappointing considering the board and supporters had ambitions of reaching the first proper round however I was never expecting to beat a team in the tier above us and they proved to be just way too good for us which is annoying but we move.

As I mentioned earlier, we also played our first few matches with Aruba. We were finishing off our North American Nations League Division B Group 1 campaign, which the previous manager had already played two thirds of it which essentially stopped us from progressing any further and bar a collapse against both of our opposition meant that we couldn't go down. We had Guyana and Suriname in our group who were both fighting to get promoted and Montserrat propping up the bottom with 0 points. All we needed to do was beat one of Guyana or Montserrat in order for us to survive and be able to manage in our own North American Nations League Division B next time the competition comes around, and it also allowed for me to familiarise myself with the team.

So in the final two games, we played and drew 0-0 with Guyana and then we played against Montserrat and we were finally able to prove ourselves and get our first win with myself as manager with a 2-1 victory against the North American side. So yeah, with a third place finish we do not qualify for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup however we have also survived and will be able to start a new campaign next time around which I believe comes every two years which is cool. But it allowed for me to come to grips with my team and play with them for the first time which I really enjoyed. I'm hoping that this is the start of something really good and new and I hope that this team can slowly develop and improve.

But back to Worthing for now, with this good first half of the season basically. We win our fair share of games and we haven't been struggling for goals, mostly due to Jayden Smith's good run of form in both of our tactics depending on whether we are expected to win or lose. So we sit in 5th but this league is extremely close other than Oxford City who are beginning to pull away at the top. Genuinely almost every time in the playoff spots are on 28 points, should we finish 5th come the end of the season then I am satisfied so I don't have a major problem with where we sit currently. However should we hit a bad run of form, we could easily slip out with just seven points separating us and 15th position. On the whole we have been good but I think we need to improve defensively as we continue on through the season, we seem to leak goals in a lot of games (such as conceding 5 to Dulwich despite scoring 4 in response.

It's been a lot of fun so far in this save, and I have enjoyed both Worthing and Aruba as of so far and I can see a real future in this save. Also I am really enjoying the FM23 game engine despite a lack of real new features in the new game. It's been a competitive season so far and I think that we will need a couple good windows to really grow as a side and also we have some not great players in this team so depth will be an important thing to make sure of in this save. I hope that you are enjoying this too!

That's going to wrap up this update for today, I hope that you enjoyed and are fine with how I am setting these out as it is also not taking me too long to write these up and create this content which is basically ideal for me as I am trying to play through this save as quickly as I can and want to which is currently about the current pace.

[CapLFC450]

November/December 2022 Review (Blog #3)

Welcome on back to another entry into The Promotion Challenge. In this upload we will be going through November & December of 2022 as we get properly half way through the season. In the previous post, we went through September and October and we really hit some decent form. Sitting in 5th as a newly promoted side which is actually really good for our standards - however with the business end of the season approaching, how would we adapt to more fixtures in close succession and more competition from opponents, let's find out!

Before November & December, our form had been patchy but on the whole pretty good. Being in a playoff spot as a newly promoted side as well is always fairly impressive achievement. However the arrival of Jayden Smith had really made us look better than we are, bolstering our position with his unreal finishing ability and his ability to make a goal out of nowhere with an absolute know-house of striker's instinct. Being able to finish his dinner every time the ball finds his feet, as well as the team being able to score from other sources of goals and creativity never being an issue creating goals from a variety of different players. It's actually been really interesting to watch this team play so far. Looking forward to showing you more.

Yeah, you're seeing straight! Eleven straight wins in these two months, not a single loss or draw in the last time I spoke to you and now. And wow, what a team we have seemingly built, clearly scoring isn't an issue for us however, sometimes we concede a lot more goals than our xG suggests that we deserve. Our players have really been playing out of their skin, I guess most notably Jayden Smith of course, who was nailed himself down as league top scorer for the most part. Even bagging four against Ebbsfleet in pretty close succession. Every player seems to chip in with an assist or goal nowadays and I am never worried whether or not we will find a way into the match since we have a multitude of reliable goalscorers.

So of course, Jayden Smith has a bloody goal record of 25 goals in 25 league games which is absolutely mental. And the most crucial part of having a good non-league side in Football Manager is having a goalscorer that you can always rely on to score goals. Our team has actually played really well though, with many of our opposition just not being able to figure out our playstyle of direct but dominating football with the amount of chances we create and shots that we are having. We are also still in the FA Trophy with our Fourth Round game coming up against Wealdstone very soon.

With that unreal run of form, you would expect a distinct rise in the table and that is exactly what can be seen here. We sit at the top of the table with a gap of eleven points on second placed Chippenham Town. It's looking close between teams in the playoff spaces however we are really beginning to clear away ahead of the competition. But yeah, our team has just hit an unreal amount of form at the right time, mid-way through the season which allows for us to pull clear ahead of most of the other teams in the league therefore making us look very very comfortable going into the next few months of this save. And we look on course for a back-to-back promotion which I really wasn't expecting and I usually don't achieve especially in some previous FM journeys.

Anyways, cheers for reading and keep an eye out for the next upload which will probably come later today!

[CapLFC450]

January/February 2023 Review (Blog #4)

Welcome back to another upload of this series, here we are going through the penultimate bi-monthly update for the 2022/23 season. Last time out we went on a mental winning streak and had an absolutely unreal surge towards the top of the table. Everyone was playing well and our team was really coming together and playing as a unit. But with the real mid-season coming up and the cold winter months, we would need to be at our best and this would be of the upmost importance too.

January and February are both action-packed months in the Vanarama National League South, we had a lot of fixtures coming up and this is when we begin to play teams for a second time and will come back around against some of the best teams in the league on paper. We would also have our FA Trophy Fourth Round tie against National League Wealdstone which we were very much the underdog for despite our recent brilliant form in the league. So let me take you through how we got on in these busy and bustling months of January and February.

It's been a real mixed bag, we haven't really been very good or bad. We've just managed to get results in some games and others not, however we have still had our good patches of form and some bad. We started off the month of January with an end to our winning streak, losing out to a good Hampton & Richmond side who took advantage of our tired players for this outing. But we would bounce back against Welling United before falling short to one of our rivals Eastbourne Borough in a disappointing loss. Jayden Smith once again proving to be a very reliable goalscorer. We would unfortunately also lose in the FA Trophy however it was extremely close fought considering we had two sending offs in this match and managed to play really well.

We would edge Chippenham Town and lose to lowly Dartford in a disappointing defeat. Before hitting a nice patch of form by beating Tonbridge Angels, St Albans and Oxford City where we did not struggle for goals however did concede three in three which is not a good record for one of the best performing teams in the league. We would then witness a goal-fest in a 4-4 draw against Dulwich Hamlet which was absolutely mental and a really really terrible defeat to bottom of the league Hungerford Town to end off the month and to reach where I am up to now. This run of games would leave us in, well see for yourself below! But on the whole I have been disappointed with our play nonetheless.

We are still top of the league with a good gap of 10 points between ourselves and second place Braintree Town. It's a tight affair in the playoff spots which settles my nerves a little bit because genuinely I haven't got one single competitor pushing me to go and secure the title as soon as possible. However in these final eleven games, should my form drop off a cliff I could still easily slip out of this comfortable position and be at risk of fighting for a first season promotion in the playoffs. It's all about defensive security and fixing up our backline as it has been noted many times before, we do not struggle to score goals and in fact in one of the months we were considered the worst defensive team of the month but the best offensive! Mental!

In terms of how I am going to wrap up the season next time. We have two months left of the season which would coincide nicely with my bi-monthly update schedule. So the plan is to do another one of these with the final confirmed table, and if we are in the playoffs then include that as well and then in a post immediately after write a review wrapping up the season and cover the main talking points and discuss the season upcoming. We also have a couple Aruban friendlies coming up which is pretty exciting and always a nice change up from Worthing!

Anyways, see you later!

[CapLFC450]

March/April 2023 Review (Blog #5)

Hi there and of course, welcome on back to The Promotion Challenge and if are just discovering this thread for the first time then I welcome you along  on this journey! In the previous post, we wrapped up the penultimate two months of the 2022/23 season with a rough slump in form in contrast to our electric performances in the couple of months before. However on the whole it was satisfactory as we were still sitting at the top of the table and I was extremely pleased with our performances throughout the season that made up for it.

This is just going to be a short one as I show you how we managed to wrap up the season. So of course we had the months of March and April to get through as the National Leagues end pretty early and we will have a long transfer window regardless of whether we are promoted or not. Speaking of which, when I left you we were ten points clear of second placed Braintree with eleven games left to play of the season and I was hopeful that we could get a title win over the line.

I have to say that things did not start well whatsoever with two straight defeats against Slough Town and Ebbsfleet United only scoring one goal in that debacle. We would pick up our first point of the month with Bath City visiting us and not being able to score likewise to us. Then an away loss against Chelmsford City which would really epitomise our luck for the entirety of the month really. However I brought the boys into a meeting, gave them a whooping up their arses and a reality check and we would go out and beat Havant & Waterlooville. And the on would roll March with us still top of the division but barely hanging on by the skin of our teeth. So April would come up next and...

Our first match would be up against Farnborough away where we would have a really good attacking performance but like usual we were let down by our defence which would leave us with an unconvincing win and had me happy but pessimistic. However the next two games had me much happier with wins against Concord Rangers and Cheshunt beating them both out and had me satisfied with a likely league victory. Our next match could secure us a title against second-placed (at the time) Braintree in which we would secure a late draw and win the league going up automatically to the Vanarama National League. Our final two games we would field a rotated side and come away with two victories securing our claim as deserving league winners.

Worthing are Vanarama National League South winners! Bringing home a trophy from above the 7th tier for the first time in their history! Sending us through to one step below the football league with these bloody Mackerel men! I am absolutely chuffed with this win and I really wasn't expecting such a successful first season, I would've been satisfied with clinching playoffs and then going out however it means we will have a very big transfer window ahead of us in order to seal our place in the Vanarama National League next year. I hope you're pleased too!

Every single player has dug in massively in order for us to get this over the line. It really is an impressive achievement and I think that we are quite a good side going up however there are major areas of improvement.  All of the players who were involved in ourselves managing to get ourselves over the line as league winners deserve praise. It really is an impressive feat and I can't stretch enough how pleased I am that we managed to do it (you may be able to tell with the amount I am waffling!) The plan is to bring in as many available players as possible, whoever I deem to be of quality to be in the squad and I expect that I will let go of a lot of players in the team currently (I already have started working on it) in order to clear out the deadwood in the squad.

Currently this is the core of the starting eleven that I am thinking of building upon with a couple spoilers in new players! However many of these players are subject to change depending on who I can manage to bring in and who is in and around this division and sniffing for a new job. I think that we should be able to survive relegation next year (don't quote me on that!) However our defence will really need to improve if we want to make it comfortable and I can be responsible with that depending on who I do actually sign into the club. So watch what I am saying.

Anyways, I'm gonna wrap up this short one however I might post some extra stuff on Aruba in a little bit just to introduce you to the squad currently as I spent some time going through and analysing in order to develop our very best 23 man squad currently ahead of some real opportunities to raise our ranking. Bye for now guys!

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by CapLFC450

[CapLFC450]

Pre-Season/August 2023 Review (Blog #6)

Welcome back and apologies for the wait for this next post in this series! Following my previous post where we lifted the Vanarama National League South title, you will have been waiting for this one (hopefully) and I can bring it to you now despite a slightly longer wait for this one. Here I am to cover our pre-season for this new season and our start to this said new season in August 2023. So I hope you are looking forward to this one and let's dive on it straight away! Let's go and have a look at this...

Transfers In (Summer 2023)

Phipps --- Bailey --- D'Auria-Henry --- Campton-Sturridge --- Craig

So with us coming into a new division, I knew that we would be out of our depths so I needed to have a productive transfer window and bring in the necessary players in order to bolster the squad and bring us to a quality required of us. I am pretty happy with the business that we have managed to pull off, so firstly I've brought in some national league experience in Harry Phipps which will help with our young side. Sam Bailey for fairly local Southampton as a central utility man who will play as a centre-back for us and with heaps of talent. Luciano D'Auria-Henry comes in from Fulham to be our new starting right-back which has been a major weakness for us for the entirety of this save. A new strike-partner for Jayden Smith in DJ Campton-Sturridge has also come in and they should compliment each-other nicely going into the season. Matthew Craig was probably one of our best cops coming in from Spurs to be our defensive-minded midfielder.

So as I mentioned in a couple previous posts and elsewhere, we were always going to be picking off the scraps from the Premier League clubs but I am very pleased with this window. We've boosted up our starting eleven massively and we have kept hold of the key performers from last year too, ready to go into this upcoming season. The squad is looking strong and these players are fitting nicely into our style of play and should work really nicely with how we want to be lining up week in week out against National League opposition where we are expected to be the underdog.

Transfers Out (Summer 2023)

I've had to offload a fair amount of players in order to make room in the wage budget for the side. Bobomurodov is a big departure leaving after I realised he would not cut it in this new division, Cameron Tutt was a high profile loss as well, leaving due to essentially being majorly replaced in the side with other better options, Joe Rye was out on loan last year and left on a free being surplus to requirements. Danny Barker left for a record £1k fee to Maidstone after not being able to get enough games and trying to force a departure. As well as a couple youth departures and a loan out for a budding young centre-back going off to the league below to hopefully get some good game time for next season.

I'm contempt with most of these departures, however Danny Barker is a fan favourite in real life and any Worthing fans would be upset to see him go however maybe I will bring him back in the future as a legendary return to the club. These departures allow for extra space in the side and extra budget room, I also let a lot of players go right at the end of last season such as Callum Kealy and Darren Budd which have allowed for us to pull off what is necessary in this window so far.

So I was nervous going into the start of this season. We are really not backed to do anything good, being predicted a lowly 20th and backed as a weak side as well as still being semi-professional and training about a quarter as much as the other sides in the league. I was not confident and we were very much underdogs here. However with this slightly improved side, we were looking decent ahead of our opening match against Bromley. We would pull off a win in our Vanarama National League debut beating out Bromley in a closely contested game, showing off a much better defence in this game and having debutant Sam Bailey playing at centre-back scoring a header from a set-piece to decide the game. We would move on to Gillingham away!
 

We were now coming up against League Two relegatees Gillingham who are one of the favourites to win the league, we would put up a brilliant fight after going 2-0 down. We would all dig in and we would salvage a 2-2 draw in a major upset result and a powerful victory for us. Lewis White and Matthew Craig getting their first goals of the season too. Yeovil Town would be our next opposition at home, DJ Campton-Sturridge and Jayden Smith would show off their partnership for the first time both bagging their first goals of the season in this match to secure a 4-2 win against a strong Yeovil side. Lewis White would also score again in his new right winger role which allows for him to be extremely creative.

This has been a really positive start to the season and we currently sit in 6th place in the league. I very much expect a drop off soon however it is nice to see us pulling off good results to begin with and use our tactical unpredictability to beat opponents who are better than us. That will be all for this post as I am going to try to get started off properly into this new season with our better side and new hopes for a good season at Worthing! I will post a squad announcement for our upcoming friendlies with Aruba as well as give a proper update as I feel that you are not fully introduced to what we have at Aruba yet so it makes sense to do so. That will be all for now guys, I hope you come back for the next one!

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by CapLFC450

[CapLFC450]

September/October 2023 Review (Blog #7)

Welcome on back to the Promotion Challenge. This is the Eighth post in this series and I am thoroughly enjoying myself so far despite a slightly slower pace of play. In today's post we will be covering September & October of season 2. In the previous post, I went through and discussed all of my new signings and the players that have come into the squad ready for our first Vanarama National League campaign ever as a club. I will also be talking about some more Aruban friendlies as I really am getting more and more familiarised with this squad and all of my players in it.

September and October were both packed and busy months as well as our first game in the FA Cup this season in the 4th Qualifying Round against our local rivals Eastbourne Borough. But with our good form being carried on, I was hoping for another good couple of months where we could pick up a few good victories and be well on our way to secure more points in the league and a nice league finish. Also, this is where the league sort of heats up and we will face much stronger opposition and ones who are far more experienced in this division in comparison to the lowly Worthing. However, as usual I was confident that we could put a couple teams to bed and come away with some good results in order to increase our form and standing in the table.

Bang! So with September & October out of the way, it is safe to say that I am very pleased with how we played. Especially when you consider that we are a newly promoted side into this division. In September we had two gargantuan victories against Oldham Athletic and Dorking Wanderers, putting twelve past them without a reply equally in both games added up. DJ Campton-Sturridge continued his fine debut season for the club bagging in most games and complimenting nicely with our boy from last season Jayden Smith having fully forced Ollie Pearce out of the starting line up by this point. Myles-Meekums and Lewis White in his new found role on the wing also linking up nicely and bagging a fair few amount of goals and assists for the record.

October would scurry onwards and it would start off poorly with defeats against Solihull Moors and an absolute battering against Southend United who would put five past us at home and only a consolation goal in reply from our boys. However we would bounce back against Dagenham and Redbridge in the next game and truly feel much better about that defeat going on a winning run of so far around four games. With another FA Cup victory against prior mentioned Eastbourne Borough who we would comfortably beat in order to progress into the proper rounds of the FA Cup. We also managed a win against Scunthorpe and Chesterfield in our most recent games with a variety of goalscorers in these matches including a new secured penalty taker in centre-back Sam Bailey.

So with all of those months out of the way, I will finally reveal the league table. We sit in second place with a game in hand on Southend United (obviously the team that spanked us pretty hard) and as you can very clearly see, an extremely tight playoff contention race. With us easily being able to drop out should our form take a nosedive. However on the whole I am very pleased with our start to the league season and originally I was very worried about our chances with the major risk of getting relegated seemingly very much at stake. But yeah, not much to complain about and currently this journey with Worthing is going very smoothly. I usually aren't the type to fly through leagues however at the moment it is going that way so if that is annoying you then do not be worried!

Moving over to Aruba. In our quest to desperately increase our FIFA Ranking from the lowly 200s, I had organised some friendlies against opposition considered to be much stronger than ourselves. Therefore I could sort of gauge the idea of how good we are as a team and the quality that we have on offer in this side. So we had games against Montserrat, Antigua & Barbuda, Bonaire and Tahiti. Indeed only the big teams on offer against Aruba currently! So yeah, I've been tinkering around with the squad and the players but after these games I have an idea on who the better players are.

On the whole pretty positive, it got off to a good start against Montserrat (177th) ranked higher than us and were dispatched 2-1with Mishawn Molina and a pen from Fernando Lewis being able to make the difference in this tie. We then played the highest quality of opposition so far in a friendly against Antigua and Barbuda (133th) who would compete in a tightly contested 3-3 draw with Breinburg's brace of penalties very much relied on to make a difference in this game and a goal from striker Terence Groothusen being crucial in getting this result over the line and I was pretty pleased with this considering how much higher they are ranked than us currently. This is positive and gives me a good idea of our current level as a team.

Next we had unranked Bonaire who would be beat comfortably despite us conceding the first goal and looking worried before Glenbert Croes slotted home an equaliser and Kymani Nedd scored his first goal for Aruba before the 2nd Half. Tahiti (158th) were up next and God would you not think that they deserved this ranking based on their performance. They would barely even manage a shot and we would comfortably have them beat for the full 90, finishing off a nice and comfortable home 3-0 win.

So that leaves us in 187th with a lot more room to rise up through the ranks. I am very much confident that we will improve over time as a nation and our side is already improving and bonding as a side with the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers coming up next year, it will be crucial to have a strong and bonded side by the time that rolls around. Anyways, that's going to wrap up this post for now, I hope that you have enjoyed another instalment into the Promotion Challenge and are looking forward to more progress with Worthing and Aruba. I am really enjoying myself and can't wait for this save to kick on even further and carry on through throughout this FM23 game cycle considering I am finding it pretty fun currently. Buh-bye!

[CapLFC450]

November/December 2023 Review (Blog #8)

Hello all! I am back for the next upload in this series and another upload into the Promotion Challenge where we are still currently with Worthing and Aruba. Last time out, in the previous post we got stuck into the start of this season where we played September and October and managed to get 14 games into the Vanarama National League season. We were sitting pretty in second place which is an unbelievable record for a club that have just been promoted from the league below and I am still impressed by that achievement.

Anyways, moving on. We would have a busy November and December with a lot of cup games and other big matches including reaching the halfway point to our season. As I mentioned before, we would have at least one more game in the FA Cup and also our seasonal debut in the FA Trophy for this season. We also have a couple more friendlies with Aruba but I won't go through that in this post. 

November would start off really positively, with a victory against Boreham Wood in a game where there would be a lot of goals and a really strong performance from DJ Campton-Sturridge. We also managed to dispatch Bath City in the FA Cup First Round allowing us to progress further than we have ever been in this competition with Worthing so far. Then we would have back to back victories against Stevenage who we would easily defeat and Eastleigh who would be slightly more difficult in which we would rely on a penalty and a last minute goal to secure the win. Our final game of the month would be against King's Lynn Town who we would lose to in a close game where we probably deserved to get more from too.

December would start with us getting back on track with a nice win against Telford United however we would then be knocked out of the FA Cup in the second round vs Hartlepool and then go on a long winless run spanning out to 6 matches. This includes a 4-4 draw to Hampton and Richmond, a 2-2 draw against Notts County, an elimination from the FA Trophy Third Round to league companions Gillingham and then suffer another disappointing draw away to Bromley in a 1-1 affair.

Our form has completely tailed off however due to an inconsistent start for a lot of teams at the top, we sit in second with one game and one point off Oldham Athletic. Hopefully we can get our season back on track with some good performances in the upcoming months of January and February, considering most of the games have ended as draws anyways I don't see why we can't get back on the road. Also our goal difference is absolutely unreal, it's probably due to the battering that we handed first placed Oldham. However I think that it should help us in the long run should this playoffs/promotion race get really tight. I've not really got much expectation for this season however it would be interesting to see how we find the playoffs.

That's gonna wrap up this short one for today however. We enter a big year in 2024, which will have our first glimpses of CONCACAF World Cup qualification as well as another big year for Worthing considering the rapid progress we are making with this club. Including the net positive for cashflow currently at the club which makes the future look a lot more stable than it once did. We will see how we get on and I will see you after January & February! Have a good one and bye!

[CapLFC450]

January/February 2024 Review (Blog #9)

Welcome back to the next post in The Promotion Challenge! I am back for the next entry in our journey in this save, with purely Worthing in these two months coming up, let's get into this! In the last post, I spoke about the next part to our season, where we still sat in a consistent 2nd place with a strong November but a really poor December where we took a lot of defeats and draws which was unfortunate for us considering we were trying to clear out near the top of the table but we ended up keeping the league very tight.

So with January coming up, I was reserved due to our poor form in December and I felt like we could have a really poor month should it carry over. Especially with the games very tightly fitted between small intervals of time, meaning we would need to be at our absolute best. February would come swiftly afterwards and in order to continue our Playoffs/Promotion campaign we would thoroughly need to win the majority of our games or at least have some consistent performances in most of our matches. However the squad depth is not very strong and when players are in need of a rest we would really struggle due to our lack of quality backups in each area of the squad, so the players would need to stay fit and healthy in order for us to mount something positive.

January would start off interesting, with a tight contest between ourselves and Gillingham with a somewhat rotated side however it did not matter as we came away with just one point with one of our youth players, Shane Leggett managing to secure his first league goal of the season. Our next match would be Yeovil but we would be completely outclassed and defeated by Chris Hargreaves side however we still managed to continue our goalscoring form. Our next game was a true return to form with a battering against Maidenhead where a multitude of players would get on the score sheet in order for us to send Maidenhead home utterly disappointed. We would then play Halifax and Oldham Athletic to close off the month and we would beat them both in good and competitive matches, our overall aggregate score against Oldham this season ends up being 10-1! Which is absolutely crazy and shows our ability when everyone digs in.

February would open shakily with two close draws against Gateshead and Dorking respectively, needing a late equaliser from Jayden Smith for the former and a comfortable equaliser from DJ Campton-Sturridge in the second. But we would secure another win against Torquay in the next game, where Jayden Smith and Reece Myles-Meekums (two players from season 1) would show why they can still be competitive at this level and bring home the victory for ourselves. We would also secure a nerve-wracking and close win against Woking with the only goal of the game coming from DJ Campton-Sturridge in the 88th minute where he continued to show that he is a reliable goalscorer. We would play a weakened side against Solihull Moors in which they would put up a good fight considering the strength of the starting eleven with a consolation goal from Ibby Akanbi coming late on in the match.

So with yet another couple of months out of the way, not much has changed in terms of the league table. We still sit in second with Southend pulling away further at the top making it seem more probable that we will be in for a playoffs campaign come the end of the season. The playoffs is still extremely close and we still have a good amount of the season left to play where we could easily drop out of this comfortable position or we could begin to pull away near the top. It all depends on how these next few games go and our form ends up becoming however at the end of the day, as a newly promoted side - our direct football is clearly catching sides off guard and we are playing really well all things considered.

That's going to wrap up this post however another will come soon, these next few months will finish off the season and depending how things go there could be a second post. If there is a playoffs campaign then I will do a playoffs special and if I have automatically gotten promoted then I will let you know on that note. Hopefully you enjoyed this one and are planning on returning for the next one where we will cover the end of the regular league season at least. It's been a successful season and there is still a lot more to come from this! See ya!

[CapLFC450]

March/April/May 2024 Review (Blog #10)

Welcome on back for the next instalment of The Promotion Challenge! Brought to you by myself once again, last time out we played another two months of football and prepared for the final part of the season which I will be covering once again. We had ambitions and hopes for at the very least playoffs due to our great season so far, I have now finished off the league season and I am ready to show you how we got on in these last couple of months. Anyways, let's get that rambling out of the way and into this post!

We finished off February 2024, with some decent form 2 wins, 2 draws and the final game of the month which was a disappointing defeat. However we had really picked up the pace it's just our form was very patchy whereas when it was our day and everyone was performing we would beat literally anyone and batter them. But if I was rotating or players were on a bad run of form then we could absolutely lose to anyone. We enter these couple of months with likely the same issue, considering our team is still and has been the same group of lads for the entire season.

We would have the bulk of our matches in March and April with the final game of the 46 game league season against Halifax Town in early may. We would start off March with a draw to title rivals Southend away which all things considered is a strong result. Dagenham and Redbridge were our next opponents and we would hand them an absolute beating. Then a tightly contested 1-0 victory against Scunthorpe would follow and then two strong wins against Chesterfield and Boreham Wood where we would rely on late goals in order to secure wins that we were not really looking on for. However this month would end with a frustrating home defeat against playoff rivals Stevenage who would outclass us in a good game.

April would begin with the same patchy form with a defeat away to Eastleigh which would sum up our troubles in that current week. Before an average 1-1 draw with King's Lynn Town. But we would bounce back against Telford who we would beat comfortably in a 4-0 victory and then win away against Barnet with two stoppage time goals from Campton-Sturridge and youth prospect Eric Dunne to bring home the three points. However that would be our final win of the league season, with three straight defeats against 23rd placed Hampton & Richmond, a close defeat against Notts County conceding an 87th minute penalty to lose. Finally a loss in May against Halifax Town which would really hand our asses to us and we would have to pick ourselves up again and refresh.

Unfortunately these final three defeats in a row would rocket us out of 1st place where we sat following the victory against Barnet and we would slump to 3rd place despite scoring the most amount of goals of a Vanarama National League team ever, our defence would again let us down and we would throw away a good chance to be automatically promoted. We would now enter the playoffs which is an absolute lottery and coming off some really poor form too, I am not confident whatsoever. We would draw Oldham Athletic though who were beaten 7-0 and 3-1 by us this season which allows for me to be slightly more confident and a fresh team off the back of a decent break as well meaning we will be playing at full strength in this single legged affair.

In the next one, I will be doing a playoff special as well as wrapping up the season as a whole and be discussing the direction for Season 3 depending on which league we will be in next season, I already have some signings lined up however which allows for me to feel confident even if we crash out of the playoffs. I hope you are excited for this special which should drop tomorrow, and are continuing to follow this series and thank you for taking the time out of your day to keep up with my posts. I will see you next time!

[CapLFC450]

Vanarama National League Playoffs 2023/24 Special (Blog #11)

Hello all and welcome back to something that I mentioned in the previous post, the Vanarama National League Playoff Special! We finished off the league season in the last post and we completed our first season in this division with a 3rd placed finish. We dropped out of first position before the final three games of the season and unfortunately were not able to get back into it, leaving a sour and disappointing tone on what has been an extremely successful season otherwise. But let's get into these playoffs then.

With our third place finish, we automatically advance to the Vanarama National League Playoff Semi Finals where we will play whoever wins in that preliminary round between 4th and 7th place - fortunately we dodged these which allows for a more stretched out rest for our players who could now play at full strength and fitness for the semi finals. After all of the games were out of the way, we were drawn Oldham Athletic who I was completely pleased to draw. In the two games that we have played them, we beat them twice including a 7-0 victory at the very start of the season, considering they were the lowest placed team in the playoffs too - I couldn't have gotten a better Semi Finals draw for Worthing even if I asked for it!

So the game would kick off, we would have an early goal disallowed from DJ Campton-Sturridge who would frustratingly come very close to firing us one ahead. However our next chance would be a good one, White threaded through a composed through ball into the wings for Conrad Honore to latch onto. He played a hard low cross across goal into the box full of Worthing attackers, Jayden Smith could latch onto it first, taking a composed first touch and slotting it past the Canadian goalkeeper Leutwiler. 1-0 Worthing, 30 minutes in!

30' - Jayden Smith finishes a close range finish with a nicely-worked assist from Conrad Honore.

We would run the clock down into half-time, dominating and Oldham Athletic not having a single shot on target throughout the entire first half. The defenders were having a really good game so far with both Sam Bailey and Brandon Bryan-Waugh sitting high up and supporting the midfield without being caught out on the counter-attack with intelligent and clever positioning which meant we could provide a solid defensive performance so far into this game. We were looking pretty for the second half and Oldham were really struggling to get into this match.

We would kick-off the second half with an air of confidence, knowing we were 45 minutes away from going to Wembley for the playoff finals. Our attack was relentless and the Oldham defence couldn't handle it, Oldham would end up giving away a penalty to us in the 66th minute. We haven't had one set penalty taker throughout the season and many players have missed and scored penalties during the season. So it was a lottery and a big decision on who I put on it, considering they held the chance to send us 2-0 up in this very important game.

66' - DJ Campton-Sturridge slots home a high pressure penalty.

I took a gamble and put our ever reliable striker DJ Campton-Sturridge on it, who has been decent at penalties but has missed some pretty important ones this season. I put him on it in a choice between himself or Sam Bailey, he stepped up knowing full well the kind of pressure that was on his shoulders. He was composed and did not let us down with the finish sending it nicely into the bottom left corner and would celebrate as we were in a very good position to make the Vanarama National League Playoff Finals now. All we need now is to not concede for the next 24 minutes or perhaps go for yet another goal and make this victory look extremely strong and a really really good win for Worthing yet again. Let's go and see...2-0 Worthing, penalty!

For the rest of the game we would successfully run down the clock. We would end the game with a 2.83 xG which could suggest that we should've maybe scored another goal although penalties do add a fair amount to that total anyways. It was a really nice team performance; we would now have three wins against Oldham Athletic this season and they would go home now and know that they will have to go again next season. We would draw Solihull Moors in the final of the Vanarama National League playoffs - a team that we have never beaten before.

A really nice team victory for us as we advance. Once again, our style of play doesn't allow for us to have a monopoly over the ball hence why they had a bit more of the ball than us however our attacking efficiency was shown here as we tend to make the most of what we have a score a lot of goals. Breaking the record for the most amount of goals for a Vanarama National League team with 107 goals! Which I think is really strong however, you can tell that it is our defence that is letting us down as if you score the most ever and still finish third then you must be really leaky at the back.

So as I mentioned, we would play second placed (finished above us on the final day ffs) Solihull Moors who would be a real challenge considering we have never beaten them in the two games that we played them in the league this season. Regardless of fixture congestion, rotation etcetera; we knew that they would be a real test for us. They have a really strong squad and on paper we do not, our style of play is good especially against teams that play a high line and get caught off guard by the lumping forward from our midfield and defence. It was the biggest game of our season and the biggest game of this save so far! Whether or not we come out victorious come the end of the match, would define our summer and our season 3 for this save. It's going to be really interesting however another season in this division might not be detrimental, as a newly promoted side the bookies still do not rate us to do anything. The game would kick off...

25' - Andrew Dallas would send Solihull one up with a volley smashing past Harrison Male in goal.

Unfortunately it wouldn't take long for Solihull Moors to forge ahead, they had been dominating us for pretty much the full game and Andrew Dallas would send them ahead in front of the Wembley crowd and disappoint every single person involved with Worthing there. They deserved to lead and they already were, we would need to switch up our ideas after this if we wanted to come out with something in this match. It would remain goalless for the rest of the half and at the 45 minute mark it would be 1-0 Solihull Moors.

The Birmingham based side would be all over us and we could not handle the quality that they had and were bringing out in this match. Solihull would rub more salt in our wounds as the villain of this story Andrew Dallas would bag his brace at the 60 minute mark and everyone in the Worthing crowd would begin to be far more anxious about the result of this game and it was not looking good for us whatsoever, nobody was having a good game and absolutely nobody was putting in a good shift for the side. Something had to give otherwise is would stay 2-0 to Solihull Moors.

59' - Andrew Dallas finishes another composed 1-on-1 opportunity.

Unfortunately with all the tinkers and changes I made, nothing would give and we would disappointingly and unfortunately be defeated once again in this season and we would leave Wembley stadium feeling disappointed about our 2-0 defeat to Solihull Moors. They were going up to League Two and unfortunately we would be staying in the Vanarama National League for yet another season, which is actually quite positive considering our position at the start of the season but to do it in such a disappointing and heart-breaking way, really doesn't make me feel good about this whatsoever, we have another season to go again and reset and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in this next upcoming season. I would lose another FM final!

On a different note, with Aruba we would finally have our draw for the CONCACAF World Cup First Round Qualifiers Draw (god that's a mouthful), we would draw the mighty Puerto Rico who we would have in an away friendly before this game so we would have the ability to scope out our competition. I am hopeful that we can come away with a decent result considering some of our other results including a very very very close game against c.70th ranked Haiti and a win against Grenada in a comfortable result. But talking on a different tangent won't help with the pain I feel losing.

So we have another Vanarama National League season right around the corner, which will allow for us to at the very least improve our side ahead of next season where we will try even harder to get promoted and with a stronger team and more availability in the summer. I can't see why it shouldn't be an achievable goal to try to pull this off. We have a good side and a good style of play which fits the type of players that we have in the squad, if I can fill some gaping holes and develop some of the players that we have at the club and the starting eleven then we should all be good to go and potentially make a debut in the Sky Bet League Two in Season 4 of this series. Next season has a lot to be excited about and our first real competitive games with Aruba too!

Don't miss the next post where I will cover my pre-season with Worthing once it is all out of the way! I am really enjoying this save right now despite the unfortunate loss that would be handed to us in this playoff final. But it allows for us to develop a stronger squad and improve for upcoming seasons and going into League Two as less of the underdogs and with a higher reputation as a Vanarama National League side despite still being one of the few Semi-Professional sides in the division which isn't a great look, we could attract a higher calibre of players anyways. 

That's me done for the 2023/24 season, see you in the next one!

[CapLFC450]

Pre-Season/August 2024 Review (Blog #12)

Welcome on back to the next post in the Promotion Challenge, here with season 3 of this save! It's been an exciting and jam-packed journey so far, I am hoping for more and especially some more success in the upcoming seasons. In the last post, we lost the Vanarama National League playoff finals in disappointing fashion to Solihull Moors - having to stay in another season in Tier 5 of English football. However there were some positives to take from it, considering we were newly promoted and finished 3rd in the division, we would have a whole new season to build a new squad and kick on from what was a very positive start to our Vanarama National League journey with Worthing. Anyways, without further ado, let's get into this new season!

Transfers In (Summer 2024)

Appiah --- Jeffries --- Samuels --- Quamina --- Dudziak --- Aljofree

So we had an interesting transfer window, there was some decent availability for defensive players so I mostly went for them. I brought in Seb Ferdinand and Luis Brown from Arsenal before the window started which gave me original confidence of a good window. Paul Appiah was the first official acquisition of the summer, joining from Leicester to be another central defence option. Josh Jeffries was brought in as a second resort keeper, considering I had never had a proper backup to Harrison Male, I felt that this was worth investing in now that we were professional and injuries were far more likely and severe. Imari Samuels was brought in as cover for both full-backs slots which meant that he could play out on the left or as an inverted option on the right side.

Tino Quamina was a more interesting option, as I brought him in on a loan from Cardiff after selling him to them this summer. I think this is impressive business as we made a profit on a player that we brought in on a free and then were able to keep him for at least this season and I expect a couple more as he is nowhere near Cardiff's level yet. Harrison Dudziak was a signing from the Arsenal youth ranks after he was let go and he will allow for another development project in midfield. Sonny Aljofree was the final signing of the window and whilst not looking like too much now, he was our first ever signing that cost us money and has a lot of potential to go forward and be a very good defender and considering he was one of the best players in the Vanarama National League North before I brought him in from Boston United - he should have the necessary quality to play for us now. He's not a bad player either and I feel like he will become good for us.

Transfers Out (Summer 2024)

No high profile departures apart from Tino Quamina as I mentioned earlier. I shipped him off to Cardiff since he had been absolutely egging me to go and then I brought him back in on loan after Cardiff said they wouldn't mind it which I think is pretty good wheeling and dealing if I do say so myself. Adam Radford was just a youth departure going off to Southend U18s but he's not anything special. Kristi Shaw and Beckham Pamment are going off to forge a career in the non-leagues. I wish them the best but I knew they were never going to be good enough to play for us ever.

No major losses over the summer, although I can see myself getting rid of some defenders as I have been stockpiling recently and will need to cut the ones which aren't playing on a consistent basis and aren't worth keeping in the side. We have been building a solid little squad and although we are weaker and lighter in some areas, I feel as though we should be alright this season - may drop off a little bit from last season but we should still have a decent little season even if we're not as good or not as secure as we once were last season and the season before. Anyways let's move on from what has been a decent but not majorly topical pre-season and move towards the start of our season in August 2024 and what it means for the rest of the season...

If I am honest, August was a real mixed bag where we were never the dominant side and riding on through securely nor were we ever getting bummed completely. We lost opening day to Gateshead which throws back an equivalency to our opening day victory against Bromley last year which was an easy one-niller. Our second game was more like our former selves, beating Dorking 3-1 away with goals from Lewis White, DJ Campton-Sturridge and Jayden Smith. Swindon were our next opponents and they were newly relegated from Sky Bet League Two; Jayden Smith scored a late equaliser to rescue a point against those lot. Newport County were our next opponents, we would play them following their relegation from Sky Bet League Two as well and it would be an absolute thrilling classic. We would go one nil down before scoring an equaliser courtesy of Jayden Smith, we would then go ahead with Jayden's second of the game before conceding an unlucky own goal to tie it back up at 2-2. Harrison Male would punt the ball out at 90+4 and the Newport County centre-half would miss their header allowing Smith to burst through and slot home a winner.

Absolute limbs in that Newport County game and I was so impressed that we could beat decent opposition like that away from home, proving our quality when we're on the pace. We then played Yeovil Town, it would be a weird game full of different periods of domination, we would go ahead with a goal from DJ Campton Sturridge before they would equalise early in the second half then it would be a nerve-wracking but uneventful final half an hour of the match and it would end as another mediocre 1-1 draw at home for Worthing. This start to this season has shown that we do still have the consistent quality to beat opposition on our day but we have been found out tactically at times and we haven't always been playing at our best.

That's going to wrap up this post for now, I hope that you are pleased with the fact that we have started off season 3 swiftly and are looking forward to more from us. There is still a lot to come from Worthing and there are some crucial Aruba games on the way which will be important for the trajectory of our international career. We have Puerto Rico coming up in that all important CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier First Round, depending on how we get on with that will be a real prover of our quality and hopefully allows for us to kick on now as a nation and become more respected as a side and as a footballing nation on the whole. Anyways, that's enough jibber jabber from me for now, see ya later!

[CapLFC450]

September/October 2024 Review (Blog #13)

Hello, thank you for reading this next post on The Promotion Challenge. I am back with the next upload to cover September and October 2024 in this series with things to cover from Worthing and Aruba this time with some of our most important international matches to date in this post! Last time out, we started off the season in August with 5 games to start in the month which were all competitive and heavily contended but I'm gonna elaborate further on the more relevant topical and monthly things that we can discuss now. Let's hop on into this!

September would be a busy month for ourselves, we would continue to play in what is a competitive league. I am expecting a drop-off in form from last year, I feel as though we are getting found out a little bit by some opposition, often times our tactic relies on catching our opponents off guard and then dominating them once they are out of it. However now they know exactly what they are coming up against, so it may be back to the drawing board and I might need to craft up something different for the upcoming seasons, anyways I'll try to stop waffling and rambling on and show you how we got on with September and October for Worthing. (I will cover Aruba right afterwards but I'll do it in sections.)

It's been a decent little start, some games have definitely more successful than others and on the whole our performances were decent. Including a nice FA Fourth Qualifying Round victory against non-league side Hungerford Town where I rotated but played my regular attackers as I knew we might struggle for goals without them but we would now be advancing through to the FA Cup First Round where we will face Weston-Super-Mare of the Vanarama National League South, so a really good opportunity to advance further in the competition. September would start off with a victory against King's Lynn Town who would be beat in a goal-fest but at the end of the day fairly comfortable result. We would then draw to Dulwich Hamlet in a boring nil-nil but bounce back and beat top of the league Chesterfield by 6 goals to nil. We had a field day trying something a little bit different. Our final two games were against Woking and Scunthorpe where we would pick up 4 points.

October would start out with a nice and easy 1-0 win against Gillingham but would be followed by a more mediocre 1-1 draw to Telford and then a 1-1 draw to Stevenage who are actually a good side in this division before we would finish off the month in really saddening and disappointing fashion against Oldham Athletic who are a team that we have beat on multiple occasions and therefore really annoyed me to lose to. You can tell that in this month we struggled to score goals or create quality chances, we would have a decent crack at the few good ones we were creating but something needed to change if we wanted more positive outcomes in games and especially not a disappointing draw or defeat week in week out.

These results leave us in a decent, disappointing but overturn-able 7th place. Still playoffs but certainly something we could build upon in the future, but it is quite frustrating to be at this point despite finishing 3rd last year and making a run to the playoff final. It may well be a year of stagnation which isn't the end of the world but I may need to start crafting up something a bit more effective tactically as we are not nearly making the most of what we are doing and we are not playing even close to our best either. I am hoping for more and improvement for the future.

Aruban World Cup Qualifiers Opener

Anyways, onto Aruba and as I mentioned in a couple other previous posts we would draw Puerto Rico in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier First Round - a stage where some of the weaker North American can play their world cup games and either advance to the second and penultimate CONCACAF World Cup round or go out and have to come back in 4 years time ready to try and qualify for the 2026 World Cup instead. I was quietly confident that we would at the very least not embarrass ourselves to Puerto Rico and maybe pull off a slight shock in this competition.

Our first match would be an early game in October and then just a few days later the second leg at home in Aruba where we would hope to make the people of our country proud with their football teams' performance. Our ranking has been waning a little following some draws and defeats in friendlies against sides that are ranked higher than us although I still think that we are yet to find our level completely. Definitely more to develop from and improve upon but still the team is changing, adapting and beginning to gel nicely. Anyways, I'm going to reveal the results to you now and I hope that you are looking forward to seeing how we got on against another strong and competitive side in our continent making North America much more competitive generally.

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That's right, drink it in, breathe it in, take it in! Aruba are going straight through to the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers Second Round following a win against a team ranked 11 places above us and supposedly way superior to our side. We would play the first leg away from home and despite conceding first, we would go and put 4 past them to secure ourselves for the second leg. Glenbert Croes showed us that he was a player to be seriously missed and our captain Gregor Breinburg was composed when putting the leading goal from the penalty spot away and into the back of the net. We would be less good in the second leg but we had slightly less motivation in this match to be completely fair. It was 3-1 by half time to us with a real good attacking performance from our boys before we would concede two more unlucky goals which would make our First Round win look less convincing but don't be swayed we deserved to go through!

We have drawn Honduras in the Second Round, a real test for us as they were in the World Cup in 2014 and therefore will be the undoubted favourites going into this match but if we play like we did in that first leg against Puerto Rico then I can't see why we couldn't put up a decent test considering this team of lads is slowly coming together. I have also organised a friendly against them where I will throw out a decent team with a different tactic so they will scope the wrong side out and we can catch them off guard when we play them in a meaningful match. But I am absolutely gassed to be advancing in what are pretty competitive qualifiers. Honduras were not the easiest draw but I will take them as it will be a good spectacle and a real test for the team.

That's going to wrap up this post and it has been a really good one for Aruba! Hopefully things will pick up with Worthing and you are looking forward to that Honduras game in March! A long way still to go in this save but I am really looking forward to playing that next international fixture and there is still a lot to improve with Worthing. Catch you in the next post!