{FM24} Lets see a little Mansfield Magic

[Deisler26]

Easy money!

[andychar]

League One 2024-25

Gameweek 45

It is our last game at home and a brilliant chance to all but secure Promotion. It all 3 teams at the top win it won't be guarenteed but it would take the mother of all GD swings for us to miss out.

15th place Oxford United stand in our way. I would like it done here because I know what our final game is! I'm not a fan of the fact its a midweek game either!

More bad news in the run in. Kirk is out for the rest of the season. We are down our 1st and 3rd choice CBs now.

Barnsley play before us on the Tuesday. They are away to Port Vale who are fighting for their lives...

They go top. A point will take us back over them but it will also open the door for Posh. 

They play same time as us against Wycombe in 17th. The equation is simple. Match Posh's result and we are up (bar the shouting).

Its not our strongest XI but its the strongest we have avaliable to us. No matter what happens here, we can't drop below 2nd, so there's that at least.

Owen Moxon sends the crowd crazy with a brilliant strike. What a goal son!

I said DKD wasn't good enough, and he took that personally. Brilliant goal, great stuff.

Peterborough have taken the lead. They are going to push me all the way today.

Touaizi gets the start ahead of the injured Kun and he bags his 3rd goal since joining in January. Suddenly there is a party atmosphere inside Field Mill.

Couldn't have asked for a better half of football.

Surely not?

86th minute we have a goal chalked off for offside...

That won't be though, cheeky little OG after great work on the wing.

We did what we needed to do in the first half and then just held on really.

Posh went 2-0 before a fightback from Wycombe saw it at 2-2...and there was a winner...

But it went Posh's way! So as long as we avoid a swing of 39 we should be up!

[andychar]

1 minute ago, Deisler26 said:

Easy money!

I'm telling you now. If I blow a 40 goal swing I'm never playing this game again.

[andychar]

League One 2024-25

Gameweek 46

So its come to this. Promotion secured (right?!) and now we fight for the title. I wanted this wrapped up as we play Blackpool away, they are comfortably in the playoffs and can afford to rest some players maybe?

The 3rd striker falls. Its a good job we aren't in the playoffs!

Barnsley will have one eye on us for the title but its important to remember they haven't secured promotion yet. Posh can still steal the last place. They travel to Exeter in 16th place hoping for a miracle. Barnsley host 14th place Stockport.

The team is tired and battered. One more push lads!

It isn't our stongest XI by far.

1 point for the title. That's all we need.

Barnsley take the lead, they are promoted as it stands. Doesn't matter what Posh do. We are still Champions on Goal Difference.

Barnsley 2-0. Should be safe now for Promotion. Can we hold on?

We are holding on but its not been great.

Its been coming. One step too far. Too many injuries and too many players on their arse.

We throw everything at it the last 25 but the players look dead on their feet.

67th minute and Will Swan takes a shot from 30 yards out that absolutely destroys the crossbar. That's how close we were.

We gave it our all but it wasn't meant to be. Disappointed? Yes. But in the grand scheme of things we won Promotion and that's huge!

This is pretty much what we have now. I know what positions I want to improve but honestly I think I'm happy with 7/8 players for next season.

The final league table looks like this...

Brilliant stuff.

I'll go over the rest of the leagues when they have finished playoffs.

[Deisler26]

Ooooof. Stumbled at the last hurdle. Great work in going up though.

[andychar]

23 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Ooooof. Stumbled at the last hurdle. Great work in going up though.

Was just too much in the end. We crawled over that line but I'll take it. Hard work starts here!

 

Imagine goal of the season coming with the 2nd goal of the season.

The finances are genuinely worrying me.

 

[andychar]

2024-25 Review

Starting at the bottom...

It was York who finally end their non-league nightmare and return to the football league for the first time since 2015-16. Oldham return after a short stint.

Chesterfield narrowly miss out on a playoff place...shame while Fleetwood, Salford, AFC Wimbledon and Sutton all miss out on playing us next season.

You might have spotted Peterborough promoted from the season review. They beat Blackpool 4-3 in the final. Great game. Always nice seeing Top 3 all go up, especially after the battle we all had.

We swap places with some big clubs as Wednesday, Derby and Charlton all come down. Looking forward to playing Rotherham as that's my adopted home. Always a Stag though! United and Fulham bounce straight back up with Blackburn surprising everybody with Promotion. Leicester vs Mansfield has a nice ring to it don't you think!

Forest stay up so we don't get a chance to be the biggest team in Nottingham. That will have to wait another year eh.

Next season goal is very simple. Survive. By any means.

[Deisler26]

[andychar]

Mansfield Town

2024-25 Off Season

Lots to fill you in on including a bit of crap news. Our Training Facilities have been downgraded and with no chance in hell of affording the improvements that's just how they will stay.

I've given up on keeping Bola. He's on the transfer list for 1.5m. We paid just under 20k for him so it would be a huge profit made and it would massively help our finances.

I haven't sat on my hands either. Morris joins us on loan from Watford for only 3k p/m which I think for a player his calibre is a steal. Happy with that.

Flint has retired. He didn't get much game time last season so won't really be missed much. Alex Kirk becomes Vice Captain.

I am finding it a lot harder to find players to join the squad without absolutely breaking the bank! This feels like a huge off season for us.

Another loanee comes in as a back up to Archie Mair, I need that much this off season that just getting a cheap and cheerful GK back up was good to get out the way.

Ryan Ledson joins us on a free from Preston when his contract runs out. 11k a week and its made me violently throw up that somebody in the clubs earns more than 10k. But...needs must. He improves what I think is the weakest position.

I needed strength in depth at the CB role and now I feel its 100% our strongest position with 3 players I'm more than happy with. I'm not happy with the wages mind.

Besides...there's something in the works that might make me feel better about our transfer situation...

The early predictions have me finishing absolutely rock bottom, by a distance, which shows the job I've got on this season.

Holy crap on a cracker! That'll do pig! It will hopefully help us keep our heads above water financially anyway.

Well well well look who it is. No way I'm taking first round of the Carabao Cup lightly this season.

Not happy to see him leave...however...

An unhappy player, with 12 months left on his contract and he was bought for 17.25k. You got to take that 100 times out of 100. 

Finanically we are looking good and now I can move all the transfer budget across to Wage Budget and we can continue to improve this squad. It made sense. I've now got 16k in spare Wage to hopefully bring 1 or 2 more players in.

No surprises here.

I would also be stupid if I didn't attempt this...

It means we can get the Training Facilities to where they were before...woooooo.

The squad is looking quite bare at the moment. We don't have much if any deadwood at all. Everybody is here because I want them here, although I think there are 1 or 2 who will be sweating over a new contract! I want to bring in 2 more people both loans, both squad players both can play numerous positions otherwise we could be left a bit exposed.

On that note...its time for the friendlies to begin.

[warlock]

2 hours ago, andychar said:

We crawled over that line but I'll take it

Quite so. A good finish, given the injury crisis 

[andychar]

4 hours ago, warlock said:

Quite so. A good finish, given the injury crisis 

We can't have any more of them. Bare bones!

Pre-Season 2025-26

Championship

I used the money to "Improve" the Training Facilities. I also...

The Senior is to get good players with no wages.

I wanted two more players. I got one.

Another player to cover 3 different positions.

We have a favourite for Top Scorer! That's it. Nobody for best Player or Young Player which isn't a shock.

Good Pre-Season but nothing too tricky. It was about building confidence. 

We are still predicted to finish 24th. By a County Mile. Its going to be a long season.

We have no money to bring anybody else in and in fact we are over our wage budget by 14k. The reason why is I gave new contracts to 

That is a brilliant link. I'm delighted with it!

Mansfield (Vitesse) Town!

[andychar]

Mansfield Town Squad

Championship 

2025-26

Goalkeepers

Archie Mair will be the starter. I think he can get to the Championship level. Whitworth comes in as a backup and he's going to be mad he isn't going to get games! Palace aren't going to be happy with me either!

Defenders

Small defenders but capable. Kelland Watts and Edmunson will be the starting CBs with Kirk as a good back up. Kilgour won't get much time and he will be let go at the end of the season. Last bit of dead wood left I think. Sabanovic and Williams will split games and on loan James Morris will smash the LB.

Midfielders

This is pretty much my entire squad! Moxon and Ledson will be starting CDM with more playing time for Touaizi on the wing. DKD may not have the ability by stars but honestly I think he's going to be great. If not I can sell him for good money! Harry Anderson and Hartigan are the only deadwood left in my eyes. They won't be renewed at the end of this season. Maybe try and sell in January but I'd struggle replacing them so maybe not.

Attackers

Kun starts injured which is annoying however Swan and the onloan Osula will hopefully pick up the slack. Look at the wages on those bad bous, but they are locked in till 2028. 

The funny thing is we could be financially better off going down, a few players have a good release clause. If I sold I could have a good chunk to rebuild the squad.

So the last post I mentioned new contracts. They were for 

Kun Temenuzhkov - He has so many bonuses and fees but I felt like I needed to bust the bank on this one

Will Swan - No brainer, he's worth the most and can comfortably play at this level.

George Williams - He's been a rock at the back and deserved a new contract.

DKD - I said he wasn't good enough, then I gave him a 3 year contract. Yep. I know what I'm doing.

Archie Mair - I think he will do between the sticks for a while.

So here we go....Championship life awaits.

[Deisler26]

Calling it now... 12th

[andychar]

1 hour ago, Deisler26 said:

Calling it now... 12th

The mini spoiler alert after 2 games is...if we got Covid 2 Electric Bugaloo we'd be Promoted...

[andychar]

Mansfield Town

Championship 2025-26

August

We have said everything we need to say, we know its going to be tough, so lets just go out there and give it our all. 

Mini bit of housekeeping. Following the link with Chelsea I was able to bring in on more person with no worry about wage hit.

And the Eagle eyed of you will see that I've already played most of this month...

We started the season at home against a team we have already faced this save. We played Birmingham in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup Season 1 and lost but put in a good performance. Much different team now with only 7 surviving players from the team I inherited.

Well that is certaintly how you start a new season! We blew them away. We even had time to miss a penalty in there. Brilliant start.

It was County in the Cup next. I didn't want to lose but I also knew I had my priorities, even at this early stage I wanted to rest players.

We dominated and were pegged back 3 times. Frustrating not to put them away in 90 minutes but it was satisfying to break their hearts on penalties in the end.

We drew Barnsley in the 2nd Round. Winnable but it will likely be back ups still.

Back to league action next and I was hoping to keep the good times going away to Sunderland. The biggest ground we would hit this season not counting cups.

Another win and another deserved win. We aren't just rocking up and nicking it, we are controlling games. Its been the start of dreams.

Sticking with that part of the Country we welcomed Middlesborough with dreams of making it 3 from 3.

They had chance after chance but honestly had it not been for the penalty I didn't see them scoring. They were wasteful. DKD still proving I made the right choice sticking with him.

Still unbeaten and we went to Peterborough with confidence at a high.

Oh man I expecting a bump but not against the team we finished ahead of last season. This was a woeful performance. We had a goal chalked off just before half time that would have changed the game. They even missed a penalty so it could have been much worse. Back to Earth with an almighty crash.

We hosted Watford as we attempted to get back to winning form. They had started the season poorly so a small part of me fancied our chances despite the previous game.

A very good performance made sure we got all 3 points. I have a feeling our home form is going to be vital this season so to start it unbeaten at home is very encouraging. Again, not just a win but a performance to match.

Barnsley in the cup next. Our back ups will see game time, although at this stage I don't have many fringe players.

Uh-oh. I told him he should be recalled cos he ain't going to start, thinking it couldn't be done. I completely forgot we hadn't hit the end of the transfer window. We are going to be screwed. We don't have the finances to bring anybody in. I've scored a massive own goal here.

We sleepwalk our way into the 3rd Round of the Carabao Cup. Furthest we have gone. Still not fussed about it, but its nice to win.

Well its a home draw which is good for the finances. Its a draw against a fellow Championship side. Its a winnable game. Could we be heading to the Last 16? I still wouldn't care but maybe just maybe a kind draw there and I could start to dream?

Swansea away to round up a bumper first month. Some games I look at and think "Yeah play well and get something from this." This isn't one of them. This is a free hit I think.

Oh dear God this save. Lots to unpack. So the own goal that opened the scoring was a 35 yard looped back pass that went in. The 2nd was against the run of play and we went in 2-1 down, told the lads they were doing fine and they responded brilliantly. Then the penalty (both in the end) was harsh. The 4th came out of nowhere. At 4-4 I'm happy with a point but we had bossed the game up until that point. The last minute penalty was deserved. Brilliant win and we keep on rolling to start the season.

It means the way too early table looks like this...

STOP THE COUNT!

Osula has 7 goals in 6 games this season, he's scored in 2 games.

[andychar]

Our wages per week are 70k LESS than the nearest team, never mind the team at the top...

Just a little difference then!

[Deisler26]

Fantastic start! Osula is blazing hot

[andychar]

September 2025

Championship

Sorry for the gap but we are back and September is now in the books. Did we continue our fine start or was a crash down to Earth?

First thing we did was bring in a new loanee keeper. Honestly he is there to fill a slot in. He is cheaper than the one we forced away but he's not as good. Fingers crossed you will never see him. We will cross that bridge if we get there.

We started the month with a game in the middle of the month. Got to get used to these International Breaks!

A brilliant result saw us go away and come away with 3 points. The DKD 92nd minute goal was amazing because it was the first time I've seen their keeper come up for a corner and us score a 40 yard open goal. Was like watching Ice Hockey in the final minute. Brilliant result and amazing back to back away wins.

Two winable games at home follows as we look to really show up the Championship. Wigan first.

Its a great point. First half we were shocking and I told the lads that. Second half they came out and really took the game by the scruff of the neck, brilliant fightback and its a point to be proud of.

Rotherham at home next and its an interesting one. My place of birth vs my current place of residence...

I won't be able to show my face in the local pub! It wasn't a pretty game. Will Swan hasn't been great so seeing Kun go off early was a real blow and I don't think we really recovered. Not a pretty performance at all. Disappointing.

Chance for players to get a bit of rest next as we hosted Wigan in the Carabao Cup. I've mentioned my lack of interest and it remains here. Changes will be made.

I just can't seem to get myself eliminated. Great performance though including George Williams who I think just played himself back into the side.

The draw...

Oh my Word. A home draw against a League Two side. Madness at this stage. A real shot of getting to the Quarter Final...then maybe...just maybe...I'll have to take it seriously.

Some games this season are free shots. No pressure, expecting nothing. We finish the month with one as we travel to Norwich.

Expected nothing. Deserved everything. We had a period in between the sendings off where we could have got away but we didn't take it. This game was the ref screaming "Look at me!" and he capped it by giving them a soft penalty for 3-3. Proud of the performance but my God we deserved more! 

It means the table looks like this after 10 games...

Its still unreal to think we are in the Playoffs. But...most importantly...10 points clear of the drop. Fingers crossed we can keep up this level of performance and keep our heads above water.