[FM24] Discovering Britain & Ireland while winning some trophies (1/49 | we've got a start)

[Hootieleece]

I love looking around the "World" in my save too. even if I don't put it in updates that often.

 

[SovietTea]

You had me gripped all the way. Especially with Llanidloes. Did a journeyman save with them many years back. Did win the league with them during the second season before moving to a club in England.

Can't wait to see the new job that you find.

[AM23]

20 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

I love looking around the "World" in my save too. even if I don't put it in updates that often.

 

It really is always interesting to see what's going on in all different leagues. I thought I'd do an update on it since I found some interesting things in there.

18 hours ago, SovietTea said:

You had me gripped all the way. Especially with Llanidloes. Did a journeyman save with them many years back. Did win the league with them during the second season before moving to a club in England.

Can't wait to see the new job that you find.

I still hope I will eventually return to Llanidloes and win the league with them, but for now I don't have the patience for that yet. Finding a new job took some time but I have just signed a contract!

[AM23]

Job hunt

Well, things didn't really go to plan here. As I said, I was mostly looking around for a job in Wales with the Cymru North/South still the lowest league in reputation, but I didn't really find a job that interested me. In the summer there were vacant jobs at the predicted top 3 of the Cymru South, but none of those teams really appealed to me, so I decided to holiday through the season and look at what jobs came free. I can now safely say that this was even less of a success, as barely any jobs became vacant in Wales, and the ones that did were all teams in relegation trouble. Now, I was not feeling like building up a club there again so short after my Llanidloes period, so didn't try to get any of those jobs either.

In the end I had holidayed a full season without applying for any jobs, and when there were even less teams in Wales without a manager in the summer, I decided to widen my focus. Since the Vanarama North/South is currently only one place above the Welsh second tier in reputation, this is where I started looking too, even though my initial plan was to steer clear of England for now. In the summer I did apply for the Swansea Uni job in the Cymru South, but it seemed as if they had already decided on another manager when I did so, as he was hired just a few days after. For the rest no interesting jobs in either country were vacant, so once again I holidayed a few months. 

Then at the start of October finally there was a manager fired by a team that interested me. The most northern based team in the English six highest tiers to be exact. Blyth Spartans are currently playing in the Vanarama North for their 18th season in a row. In this time though, they have grown from a team fighting relegation to one of the best teams in the league. In the last seven years they got into the playoffs six times, although they never even reached the final. This season getting to the playoffs was once again expected of them with a 4th place prediction, but the first two months of the season did not go well at all. After 11 matches the team found itself in 20th place, just one point above the relegation spots, with only 8 points accumulated. Their manager was fired after only 106 days in the job and I applied.

It took some time, but in the end I got a job interview, though after that another two weeks went by. I was quite irritated by this, as almost a month had passed from the moment I applied for the job until I was finally hired at the start of November. However, something very interesting had happened in that time. Under the caretaker manager, the club had notched up five straight league wins and is now already back in the top half, close to the playoff spots. Inbetween the league games, they also qualified for the first round of the FA Cup. So despite the awful position they were in, I am not taking over at a very bad time at all now.

                     

The Club

Founded in 1899, the club is of course based in Blyth, a town of 37,000 not far north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Obviously, Blyth Spartans is named after the Spartan Army, which is also shown in their badge. They play their home games at Croft Park, with a capacity of 4,435.

In most of its history, the club played in regional leagues. They enjoyed an especially succesful time in the Northern League, where they won the title no less than ten times between 1964 and 1994. In that time they also got the club's most famous achievement. In the 1977/78 season Blyth Spartans went all the way to the fifth round of the FA Cup, by beating Second Division Stoke City among others. They were eventually halted by Wrexham after a replay.

After two consecutive promotions in the 1990's, the club found itself back in the 6th tier of English football playing in the Norther Premier League Premier Division. Due to changes in the league structure, this eventually became the 7th tier, but in 2005/06 Blyth Spartans won the title and thus got promoted to the Conference North.

A 7th place in their first Conference North season turned out to be their best finish in a six year spell that ended with a relegation in the 2011/12 season. Things went from bad to worse as they only finished 16th in the Northern Premier League Premier Division the next season. The club turned their fortunes around again though, and won the league title for the second time in 2016/17 to get back to the 6th tier. Two top half seasons there followed, including one where they made the playoffs, but since then the club has been fighting relegation for the past four seasons.

With that we get to the start of this save. Since then the club has made gradual improvements. After four years of mid table finishes, they achieved the playoffs in 27/28. Though the next season saw them a little bit lower again, the five seasons after where all finished in the playoff spots, with a 4th place as the highest. In those six attempts, the club never managed to get to Wembley, getting knocked out in the first round and semi final three times each.

Edited February 14 by AM23

[SovietTea]

A club in England! 

Was expecting Ireland for some reason as they would've been halfway through their season when you left Warrenpoint.

Good luck!

[AM23]

51 minutes ago, SovietTea said:

A club in England! 

Was expecting Ireland for some reason as they would've been halfway through their season when you left Warrenpoint.

Good luck!

I did look into that a little bit as well, but with the second tier as the highest playable level and its reputation still quite a bit higher than the Cymru North/South and Vanarama North/South I thought I'd leave that for later.

[AM23]

Blyth Spartans 34/35

So after almost 18 months without a job, I'm finally back into management again. Something that has made me very happy in the meantime is the fact that Warrenpoint Town managed to defy expectations and stay up in the Premiership, albeit by winning a penalty shootout in the promotion/relegation playoff. 

When I applied at the Blyth Spartans job I expected this to be a season of rebuilding, after which a title challenge should be possible next year. However, with the team suddenly going on a rampage under the caretaker manager, it suddenly feels like a lot more is possible already. The playoffs are only four points away, and although first place is still at quite a distance with an 11 point gap between us, it doesn't feel like that is impossible to overcome. Besides the league, we also still have two cups to play in. Thanks to some relatively good draws, the club has reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the fifth time in the twelve seasons since the start of this save. In the FA Trophy our campaign is yet to get started.

                    

Finances

This is a big step up from what I'm used to. It has to be said that we are the 4th highest spenders in the league, but it is definitely way more than the budgets I had in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Apparently life in this league is good financially. The balance has been slowly increasing as long as I can look back. A good opportunity to get some work done at the club's facilities.

                    

Squad

Immediately after taking a look here I am left wondering who was in charge of the squad building here. There are only really 18 players that seem good enough for the first team, which seems like way too little for a 46 game league. I will need to find some more squad balance in the winter transfer window.

David Bennett is a great goalkeeper, but is injury prone and currently also out for two weeks. Behind him the options are a lot less good.

This team is as imbalanced as you will ever see. The players above are all able to play in defence, although two or three might be better in midfield. There is an abundance of center backs, but they are either very small, or unable to head the ball. Things are looking better on the sides where Sierra Leonean international Augustine Sanusie and Rees Hodgin look like good options.

And this is the rest of the players... A lot more quality, but no depth at all in midfield and attack. Darren Robinson looks like a player that can be very important for the balance of the team. We have two incredibly fast wingers with Shawn Glover and Tom Ferry, but there just isn't much behind them.

                    

Table

This is how it starts for me. Five games ago the situation was dire for the club, now things aren't looking all that bad. Getting to the playoffs was probably the pre-season goal, and that is still very achievable. Also, just look at how far Northampton have fallen.

[AM23]

November 2034

In my first month I will be introduced to all of our three competitions immediately. My tenure starts with an away game to National League side Worthing in the FA Cup. Starting off with a win there will be very difficult. In the league Braintree are four points above us, while both Radcliffe and Marine are below us in the table. Especially the game against Marine should result in a win.

                    

Worthing - Blyth Spartans (FA Cup)

xG: 1.42 - 0.95;  Shots: 9(5) - 11(3);  Possession: 68% - 32%

Definitely not how I hoped to start here. Still, Worthing are playing a tier higher and were also flattered by the score a bit. Having to play our back-up goalkeeper didn't help our cause really.

A well played out attack saw Worthing grab the lead, which was doubled just before halftime when we didn't react adequately enough to a corner. In the second half we went on the front foot a little bit more and finally got to creating some chances, but it was a Worthing free kick that put the scoreline at 3-0.

                    

Braintree - Blyth Spartans

xG: 0.03 - 1.91;  Shots: 1(0) - 9(4);  Possession: 47% - 53%

We do keep the league winning streak intact! What a performance this was really, as we only saw them able to attempt one shot from a free kick. The lead was thrown into our lap when Simon Baker was fouled with the ball ten meters away from him. He converted the penalty himself. Our second goal was assisted by inverted left wing back Rees Hodgin, who found himself back all the way on the right wing from where he pulled off a perfect low cross.

                    

Blyth Spartans - Radcliffe

xG: 0.78 - 1.27;  Shots: 10(4) - 14(4);  Possession: 46% - 54%

My first game at Croft Park ends undecided. A fair result too as Radcliffe gave us a lot more trouble than Braintree did a few days earlier. We did get the lead through an incredible solo by Shawn Glover, but just before the break a shot that hit two players on its way to the goal got the scores back level. In the second half Radcliffe missed a huge chance at the lead, while we were mostly holding on to the draw due to tiredness. The lack of squad depth already became obvious.

FA Trophy up next. We will host Bradford PA there. They are in the relegation spots of our league, so should be a win for us.

                    

Blyth Spartans - Bradford PA (FA Trophy)

xG: 0.20 - 0.76;  Shots: 4(2) - 8(5);  Possession: 47% - 53%

That was quite appalling really. To be honest it felt like no team really deserved a goal in this game, but things changed after we got reduced to ten men. To late set pieces were headed home by a center back that scored just four goals in his previous more than 200 career appearances and that was that.

I'm not too bothered about going out of this cup early given our small squad, although the way we played does worry me a bit.

                    

Marine - Blyth Spartans

xG: 0.66 - 0.88;  Shots: 6(3) - 15(5);  Possession: 41% - 59%

We had no business losing this one. Another set piece hurt us as they scored the only goal of the match through a direct free kick. We were unable to create real chances and couldn't score the headers and long distance shots we took.

                    

It hasn't been smooth sailing so far. Especially those last two losses have been a wake up call for me.