Cloondawg

Season 1 (2024/25) - Vanarama National League North Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League North (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Attempt to avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 9th (17-2). Finish: 1st. A great start to the season had us up near the top of the league and then a flawless October and November allowed us to move top and build a gap between the rest of the teams. We just kept on winning and cruised to the title which was sealed in March. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fourth Qualifying Round by Halifax Easy wins against Heybridge and King's Lynn set us up with a tough tie away to Halifax who are a league above us. This proved too difficult and we went out in a closely fought tie with a 3-1 defeat. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by AFC Fylde Our stay in the FA Trophy was short lived. We managed to get through against Bury Town in the Second Round, but then we were narrowly beaten by AFC Fylde of the National League 3-2. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: The squad remained injury free and I was able to rotate quite well, having quite a solid second XI. I also played my back ups in the cups so that I could really concentrate on promotion. Transfers: I made a lot of free transfer signings to fill the squad up because the one I inherited was quite bare. A lot of my non-contract players were released when they got injured or when they weren't performing and then replaced with new non-contracts. Board/Supporter Feedback: Expected to attempt to avoid relegation in the Vanarama National. Was offered a new 1 year extension with another year if we got promoted which could now extend my stay until at least 2027. Key Players: Tom Fellows - Signed at the end of October when he finally wanted to join on reasonably wages and also signed a 2 year deal so will be playing again next season. Had 24 assists which was the best in the league. Udoyen Akpan - He was at the club when I arrived and 30 league goals whilst winning Vanarama National League North Player of the Year. Leslie Adekoya - Top goalscorer in the league and formed a great partnership with Akpan. Scored 34 league goals to get the Vanarama National League North Golden Boot. Ayden Garrigan - Signed on loan from Preston who are my parent club so there were no wages. At only 17 he became the club's youngest goalscorer and had a great season, rotating on the right wing once Fellows arrived at the club. Jack Moorhouse - The 18 year old was snapped up after being released by Man Utd. He scored a huge 16 goals as a box-to-box midfielder with a lot of them being penalties. Best Youth Intake Player: I signed a few youth players and this was the best one - David Edwards Overall Best Eleven: Garrigan shown as a central midfielder even though he hardly played there Finances: It looks ok for now! Manager Profile: Completed my National C when I was finally allowed to start it by the board. Currently studying towards the National B license. Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 4th Qual. Round 3rd Round Adekoya (34) Fellows (24) Promoted as Champions!

Time to get going with this again. Back at Bamber Bridge after I didn't get much time to play this challenge in FM23!

Season 1 (2023/24) - Vanarama National League North Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League North (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Attempt to avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 11th (33-1). Finish: 1st. It was a poor start which suddenly turned into a great start once Nyal Bell started scoring goals for fun. After not winning the first two league games, we quickly recovered to win the next 9 with Bell scoring in all of these. After these 11 games we suddenly looked like strong promotion contenders and Bell had already scored 17 goals. We continued to win games and stay top of the league until about March when we started to lose games to promotion rivals and Chester charged into first place, but it wasn't enough to stop us being promoted as Champions as we charged to 7 straight wins to end the season. Although Chester did push us all the way and were unlucky not be automatically promoted on 100 points. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fourth Qualifying Round by Barnet Easy wins against Rushden & Diamonds and Bedford set us up with a tough tie away to Barnet who are a league above us. This proved too difficult and we went out in a closely fought tie with a 2-1 defeat. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Southport Our stay in the FA Trophy was short lived. We managed to get through against Matlock in the Second Round, but then we were narrowly beaten by Southport of the National League 2-1. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: The squad remained injury free and I was able to rotate quite well, having quite a solid second XI. Transfers: I made a lot of free transfer signings to fill the squad up because the one I inherited was quite bare. Managed to sell Roache for £8k which was quite nice as he rarely featured due to Bell's form. Club Vision | Board/Supporter Feedback: Expected to attempt to avoid relegation in the Vanarama National. Was offered a new 1 year extension with another year if we got promoted which could now extend my stay until at least 2026. Key Players: Harvey Rhoades - Very solid at the back and chipped in with 8 goals and has signed a contract until the end of next season. Tom Allan - A great CB partner to Rhoades who helped contribute to the league's best defence. He was also a massive threat from set pieces with 9 goals and has also signed on for next season. Brad Jackson - Provided great deliveries from the right wing and got 29 assists in the league which is ridiculous. Kamil Conteh - All action centre midfielder who was all over the pitch in the box-to-box midfield role. Signed on for next season. Nyal Bell - The main man up top, scoring massive 42 league goals. He had a purple patch at the beginning of the season with 17 goals in the first 11 games, but then struggled in the middle of the season when we went on bad run, before finishing strongly and helping us seal promotion. Best Youth Intake Player: I signed a few youth players and this was the best one - Fabiano Donnetti Overall Best Eleven: As expected Finances: It looks ok for now! Manager Profile: Completed my National C and National B licenses. Currently studying towards the National A license. Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 4th Qual. Round 3rd Round Bell (42) Jackson (29) Promoted as Champions!

Didn't get far with my first save and stopped playing for a while, so going to start again now so everything is fresh. Back at Bamber Bridge again!

Time to get this going again now the Winter Update has landed.

Season 5 (2026/27) - Sky Bet Championship Competitions: Overview Sky Bet Championship (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Fight bravely against relegation. Season Preview Odds: 23rd (200-1). Finish: 4th (Lost in Playoff Final to Fulham). I thought this would be a tough season because the gap in finances and reputation between us and other teams in the league had increased massively at this level, especially given the last 4 promotions. We had a transfer budget for the first time really but it was tough to improve the squad significantly due to our reputation and players not being interested. However, after a great first half of the season we gave ourselves a chance at promotion and went very close to both automatic promotion and then via the playoffs - but we just fell short. In the balance of the season, Fulham, Palace and Hull were better team and deserved to go up. Any other season so far, a total of 88 points would have been good enough for automatic promotion, apart from this season so it was a competitive league at the top of the table this year. We lost a lot of games against our promotion rivals and struggled a bit on the road towards the end of the season and this inconsistency ultimately led to a 4th placed finish after we had been top for a period. We managed to beat Brentford in the Playoff semi final over two legs, which included a huge 3-0 win at home in the second leg. Then we had Fulham in the Final and this was a very tight game that could have gone either way, but in the end they just edged it and we will play another season in the Championship. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fifth Round by Spurs. Another decent run in the FA Cup. We had a favourable Third Round tie and edged through against Swansea who were also in the Championship. Then we managed to beat Premier League Birmingham, who have since been relegated, in a thrilling 4-3 replay win. We drew Spurs away which was a very nice tie and provided a good cash injection. It ended 3-0 as we were outclassed and knocked out. EFL Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Quarter Final by Newcastle A second Quarter Final, in two years, for us in the EFL Cup. We played lower league opposition up until the Fourth Round where we edged through past promotion rivals Fulham. Then we got a big away tie against Newcastle, who were at the time top of the Premier League. They absolutely destroyed our makeshift team 6-2. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: Most of the squad stayed to begin with and then we sold some players who weren't being played in January. We added a few to the squad but it was tough to find those which would improve us. We were a little thin on the ground at times, but there is less matches in the Championship season (without the EFL Trophy) so it was not too bad. Transfers: This was the first time we had some transfer budget to spend and we brought in a few players for around 200k who came in and did well, but weren't our top performing players. We also sold a few for less than 100k each in January when they weren't playing and wanted to move, or their contracts were not going to be renewed. This sadly included club legend Harry Boyes who had been with us since the start and was one of the top performing players at the club in recent seasons. Club Vision: We had a member of the board who bought out the owner this season. The club vision has the objective to continue to fight bravely against relegation. Key Players: Sam Pearson - Quickly becoming a fan favourite and was outstanding this season. 8 goals and 19 assists from right wing in the league this season - breaking the league record for assists in a season. Harry Smith - Another good season from him. We brought in Kelly who I thought would start ahead of Smith, but his form was too good and he played most of the games. He got 17 goals in 26 league starts. Jake O'Brien - Rotated in and out of the centre back position with some of the other options we had, but he was the best performer. Started 21 league games and finished with a 7.21 averagerating. Samuel Iling - Another season on loan from Benevento and another great season. 11 goals and 6 assists from left wing for him this season in the league was amazing. I would like to bring him back on loan again but they are asking for a lot more wages and money for the loan now. Vitezslav Jaros - He's been the first choice keeper for 4 seasons now and he was one of the best performers this time. He's developed with the club and is solid for this level. Best Youth Intake Player: The youth intake was predicted at 5 starts but it ended up at just 1.5 stars. This was the best of them - Hassan Ugwu Overall Best Eleven: 2 players inducted Finances: The finances look very good and the best they have been. This is due to the TV money in the Championship and some good cash injections from cup ties. We also didn't spend all our transfer budget this season so this remained in the club's account. The board also announced plans to build a new stadium, which will cost £14m (including a £9.25m loan taken out) and this will be 13,452 capacity and be completed at the end of the 2028/29 season. Manager Profile: I completed the Continental A Licence and have started on the Pro Licence now. Season Team League Finish FA Cup EFL Cup EFL Trophy FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round N/A N/A 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions! 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League 1st 3rd Round N/A N/A 4th Round Shaw (16) Boyes (14) Promoted as Champions! 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League Two 1st 3rd Round 2nd Round Runner Up N/A Smith (28) Matheson (11) Promoted as Champions! 2025/26 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League One 1st 3rd Round Quarter Final Winner N/A Beresford (23) Iling (13) Promoted as Champions! 2026/27 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet Championship 4th 5th Round Quarter Final N/A N/A Beresford (18) Pearson (19) Lost in Playoff Final

Season 4 (2025/26) - Sky Bet League One Competitions: Overview Sky Bet League One (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Fight bravely against relegation. Season Preview Odds: 22nd (100-1). Finish: 1st. It was difficult to bring anyone in who would significantly improve upon what we already have so we started the season with mainly the same squad and extended almost all the loans from last season too. The team cohesion, tactical familiarity and great team morale saw us carry the momentum into this season, even with a squad of less quality than many teams around us. We started really well and performed well in all competitions - we were actually still fighting in all competitions until an EFL Cup exit in December. Due to the sheer amount of fixtures being played, fatigue and injuries started to hit and we went on a slump in January - only winning 4 league games between New Year's Eve and the end of February. However Barnsley and Portsmouth, our promotion rivals, also struggled and although they closed the gap, we stayed in the automatic promotion spots. We kept grinding out wins and were quite consistent until the end of the season, this left us in a 3 horse race for promotion and it was very tight. We lost to Portsmouth with 3 games to go and then both they and Barnsley played before our penultimate game - we dropped out the promotion places for the first time since October! Colchester was next, a must win game, which we did... just! A last minute goal from Harry Smith sealed 3 vital points and set up an exciting last day. Fortunately we blew Burton away to seal the title and go up to the Championship! FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Everton. We got favourable ties against League Two Doncaster and Exeter to make the Third Round. Unfortunately it was a home time against Everton. It would have been nice to get an away draw for the money but we still sold out at home at least. This was at a point in the season where we just had so many games so I had to play a weakened side which included some youth players. We lost 3-1 which was respectable and Dimitris Vasilogiannis scored his first goal for the club at 17 years of age as a consolation. EFL Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Quarter Final by Southampton What an unexpected run in the cup this was! We breezed past Rochdale and Tranmere to make the Third Round. Then we faced tougher opposition in Stoke of the Championship and thanks to an early red card for them, we won comfortably and progressed. Next was another Championship team at home, Middlesbrough and we snuck past them against all match stats. There were some big names in the pot for the Quarter Final and it was sure to be a good money maker. Unfortunately we drew Southampton away and not the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal, but it was still a good draw. Southampton dominated the match but couldn't put away their chances, which seemed to be why they were struggling in the Premier League this season. Although, they did have too much quality and won 3-2, our goals only being consolations and coming from nothing. EFL Trophy (Results): Finish: Winner After last year's final disappointment, I was determined to try and go one better here and we did it! Finishing top of the group containing Hull U23s, Rochdale and Shrewsbury and then dispatching Grimsby, Leicester U23s, Lincoln and Bristol Rovers, we made it to Wembley again. The opposition would be Cardiff and there was an almost 80,000 crowd. Cardiff really had the better of the game and will feel very unlucky not to have won, but we found a way to grab 2 goals and grind out the win for our first win at Wembley. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: Most of the squad stayed again and we continued to try and rotate often. This was forced upon us more often than not due to the amount of fixtures we had coming thick and fast. We really need to try and freshen up the squad for next season because I think they aren't of the required quality for a step up again, but that might be easier said than done. Transfers: The only first team transfer in the Summer, apart from loan extensions, was Marley Redfern coming in from Hamilton for £23,000 (the highest fee I've paid for anyone yet). This was a replacement for Joshua Williams, who decided he wanted to move to Bradford for £50,000. Redfern did ok and had some memorable moments but was quite inconsistent. In January we were forced to bring in several free transfers due to other players who had interested and wanted to leave the club due to it. Will Forrester (to Chesterfield for £125,000), the captain Elijah Dixon-Bonner (to Swindon for £50,000) and Bayli Spencer-Adams (to Cardiff for £50,000) all got interest and eventually left after telling me they wanted to go. Ideally I would have kept them all, but they forced my hand. I think this caused some disruption to the squad and led to poor results in January and February. I brought in Shaun Hutchinson, Rollin Menayese and Matthew Craig as direct replacements, all on free transfers with short term contracts. Finally, George Long came in as a backup loan goalkeeper for 1 month to cover whilst Jaros was out with a sports hernia. Club Vision: All objectives met and now expected to fight bravely against relegation in the Championship. Key Players: Harry Boyes - Another season, another stormer from him. I was very close to letting him go in the summer, but he was happy to stay as the back up LB on a good contract. He made 16 starts in the league and featured heavily in cup competitions. A 7.59 average rating and 15 assists across all competitions was amazing again. Harry Smith - Followed on from last season and just kept scoring. He was a constant menace in the air and bullied defenders to get 20 goals in the league including a hat-trick on the final day to seal the title. Ronny Nelson - A mainstay in the heart of the defence, especially after 2 CBs left in January. He was heavily relied upon and delivered. Ben Beresford - On loan from Birmingham for the 3rd season running and it was another great decision to bring him in as he continues to develop with the club. This was his best season yet, with 23 league goals and on course to win the League One Golden Boot dependent on the playoff scorers. He will be back again for a 4th season on loan from Birmingham. Samuel Iling - A second season on loan from Benevento and performed very well again. He was the go to player at left wing and scored 7 league goals and had most assists in League One with 13. His contract is up and we are trying to bring him in for the Championship, but his wage demands are huge. But we will see! Best Youth Intake Player: The youth intake was awful, just 1/2 a star. This was the best of them - Laurent Ouattara Overall Best Eleven: 6 players inducted Finances: Looking good for now due to success in the cups this season. The training facilities and youth facilities were upgraded early in the season, as well as getting improvements to junior coaching and youth recruitment. The board have provided a healthy wage and transfer budget for next season, as well as deciding to build a new stadium some time in the future. Not sure where that money is coming from! Manager Profile: I was busy completing the Continental B License this season and have also started with the A License too. I got offered a new contract at the end of the season, which extends it to 2029. Season Team League Finish FA Cup EFL Cup EFL Trophy FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round N/A N/A 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions! 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League 1st 3rd Round N/A N/A 4th Round Shaw (16) Boyes (14) Promoted as Champions! 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League Two 1st 3rd Round 2nd Round Runner Up N/A Smith (28) Matheson (11) Promoted as Champions! 2025/26 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League One 1st 3rd Round Quarter Final Winner N/A Beresford (23) Iling (13) Promoted as Champions!

Season 3 (2024/25) - Sky Bet League Two Competitions: Overview Sky Bet League Two (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 14th (33-1). Finish: 1st. Kept the majority of the squad from last season, with many getting professional contracts. After an inconsistent start, I was expecting that we would have to push for a playoff spot at best, but a lot of wins in September and October quickly propelled us to the automatic spots. With three automatic promotion spots available there was not too much pressure on us and we kept pace with Colchester and Chesterfield at the top, before a great end to the season saw us win the title with a game to spare. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Wolves. Made light work of Port Vale, before impressively beating League One Cardiff at home to setup another Third Round tie. This would be against Championship Wolves (who ended up being promoted back to the Premier League) at home. Maybe an away tie would have been better for the finances here, but nevertheless it was still a good tie. Unfortunately they were too good and won comfortably 2-0. EFL Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Second Round by Burnley We beat Tranmere to make it to the Second Round where we drew Premier League Burnley. Burnley eased to a 3-1 victory at Turf Moor. EFL Trophy (Results): Finish: Runner Up to Forest Green This was a great cup run and our first visit to Wembley. We won every game in the group, including against Newcastle U23s and then beat Sheff Wed (L1), Tranmere (L2), Ipswich (L1) and Oxford (L1) to make it into the final. A lot of these teams played weakened sides and we managed to scrape a few 1-0 victories. Forest Green proved to be one League One side too far and they played their best team in the final. They were on top for most of the game, and then scored a screamer to go 1-0 up. Beresford then decided to two-foot someone, but we still managed to get a late equaliser with 10 men to go to extra time. In extra time, they found the winner and we had no reply. Maybe next season! Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: A lot of the squad from last season remained and continued to develop. It was hard to improve the starting XI and most of the backups were as good if not almost as good in the same position. Therefore we were able to rotate a lot without weakening the side too much. This was maybe a big advantage because we did well in all competitions and kept everyone happy. Transfers: Managed to keep Forrester, Jackson (free transfers) and Beresford (another season loan) as well as add some additional loans and free transfers to make up the squad. In addition to this (not shown in screenshot as happened in May) we sold Cannonier to Cardiff for £170K with a 50% sell on clause and also got a one season loan back clause in there. Although, he ended up not playing very often for us. Club Vision: Met all the objectives for this season comfortably. Expected to fight bravely against relegation in League One. Key Players: Harry Smith - An amazing season for the new target man who won the Golden Boot in League Two this season with 28 league goals. Ronny Nelson - Another great season from him after being the second best player last season too. He was ever present at the back and contributed with even more goals in the league. Jake O'Brien - He was actually only signed in November after Rod McDonald complained about game time and was sold to Oxford for £35K, but what a signing. Slotted straight into the back line and was solid. Harry Boyes - Another season, another great one for him. He played mostly as a back up at left back towards the end of the season, but every time he was called upon he was great. 21 league apps and 8 assists. Samuel Iling - On loan from Benevento, this was gem of a loan signing found by the Director of Football. He caused problems on the left with his pace. Signed for another season on loan. Best Youth Intake Player: The youth intake wasn't great. This was the best of them - Steve Finney Overall Best Eleven: Nothing unusual Finances: Kept alive by the cup runs. Board have announced plans to improve training facilities which took a big chunk of money out here. Manager Profile: The board allowed me to complete coaching courses for the National A and Continental C licenses. I have now started the Continental B license too. Season Team League Finish FA Cup EFL Cup EFL Trophy FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round N/A N/A 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions! 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League 1st 3rd Round N/A N/A 4th Round Shaw (16) Boyes (14) Promoted as Champions! 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League Two 1st 3rd Round 2nd Round Runner Up N/A Smith (28) Matheson (11) Promoted as Champions!

Season 2 (2023/24) - Vanarama National League Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 7th (12-1). Finish: 1st. After adding some better quality to the first team and keeping hold of some our better players to be used in the squad, we were in a good position before the season started. Then we were able to add a few more as it begun to give a bit more strength in depth. We got off to an excellent start, being unbeaten until November in the league and not picking up too many draws either. This propelled us to the top of the league. Only defeats to Halifax and Wrexham slowed us down until we hit March with about an 8 point gap over Wrexham in 2nd place, who also just kept on winning and winning. We then went on to draw 5 straight matches and suddenly Wrexham were level on points and it was going right down to the wire. We went into the penultimate game, which was Wrexham away, 1 point ahead at the top - it went terribly and we lost 2-0. It looked like the dream of being champions was over and we would have to settle for playoffs unless a miracle happened. We played relegated Barrow at home and managed a comfortable 2-0 win. Wrexham played Barnet away and amazingly lost this 2-1 and handed us the title. I expect them to win the playoffs after missing out on automatic promotion, even though they beat us home and away and finished on a massive 107 points. Promoted again and on we go to League Two! FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Watford. A great run in the FA Cup, which saw us reach the Third Round for the first time and generate a bit of income. We comfortably saw off Witton in the qualifying round and then knocked out Rochdale (admittedly playing reserves) in an impressive away performance. We then struggled to get passed Halifax, but did eventually after an unwanted replay. A good draw away to rock bottom of the Premier League Watford came next. It was always going to be a tough ask and I was just happy to take a nice bit of income from gate receipts, but we made the tie interesting. We managed to stay in the game, coming back from behind twice to equalise, but then Maguire was sent off for a second yellow on 90 minutes. Watford then scored two in quick succession in injury time to knock us out. A good effort. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fourth Round by Barrow This was very disappointing and I felt we should have made it a lot further. We knocked out Barwell easily and then drew Barrow who were struggling in the league. It came at a time where we had a lot of matches and needed to rest first team players. It was a poor match and they snuck a 1-0 win to knock us out. Maybe our last chance to win that trophy gone since we got promoted to League Two. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: It was quite a small squad and we really struggled with injuries and fatigue at times, even though we were scraping results consistently. We had a long term injury to Quitongo who played LM most of the season, then his backup Hilsser didn't get a work permit renewed and had to be released. We were excellent at the back, but our strikers struggled to score. Transfers: I kept some key players from last season and tried to add as much National League quality as I could. Club Vision: Expected to avoid relegation in League Two. Was offered a new 2 year extension until 2026! Key Players: Harry Boyes - Player of the season once again and fan favourite! Another impressive season and 14 assists this time in the league. Let's see how he manages another level up. Ronny Nelson - A rock at the back. 6'5" with 16 jumping reach, he won everything in the air. Chipped in with 6 league goals too. Gary Shaw - Carried his good form from last season into this one. I expected him to play as a backup, but he started 27 league games and was our top goalscorer with 16 goals. Luke Matheson - The plan was to play Josh Dawodu RB, but he left to Hartlepool. Matheson was an amazing replacement in the first team and didn't disappoint 11 assists is amazing considering he is not taking set pieces. Will Forrester - On loan from Stoke and the partner to Nelson for most of the season at the back. He was very consistent and scored 7 goals. Looking into keeping him on for next season. Best Youth Intake Player: The youth intake wasn't great, but this guy looks ok - Andre Smith Overall Best Eleven: Nice to see a mix of players from both seasons here now Finances: A bit of a boost from the FA Cup run. Still looks ok. Manager Profile: The board allowed me to begin the coaching course for the National B Licence, once the season had ended Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions! 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League 1st 3rd Round 4th Round Shaw (16) Boyes (14) Promoted as Champions!

Season 1 (2022/23) - Vanarama National League North Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League North (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 7th (9-1). Finish: 1st. I was unsure if we would have the squad to get promoted this season after a major overhaul, but thanks to periods where we were able to go on several winning streaks we created a gap at the top of the league that meant Gateshead couldn't catch us. It was a two-horse race between us and Gateshead really, who were also too good for this league. We got off to a very good start, winning the opening 5 games of the season and we also ended quite strongly, going on a 7 match winning run from March to mid-April. We only picked up 1 win from the final 4 games and did our best to let Gateshead back in, but they thankfully also dropped vital points and we were crowned Champions after a 1-1 draw on the penultimate game of the season! FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in First Round by Peterborough United. We had some favourable early ties which meant we could rotate the team and give our best XI a much needed rest. We easily got past Brightlingsea and St. Ives and then were drawn against Colchester in the final qualifying round. They ended up finishing as Champions of the Vanarama National, so our most impressive result of the season was knocking them out of the cup 1-0 with a snatch and grab victory. Peterborough were up next, who finished 6th in League One, and they just had too much quality and comfortably beat us 2-0. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Wrexham Our stay in the FA Trophy was short lived. We managed to get through against Hemel Hempstead in the Second Round, but then we were easily beaten by Wrexham of the National League by 2 goals. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: The squad remained mainly injury free and I didn't have to use my fringe players so often. I had a few problems with players not happy with playing time, but by the end of the season this had been resolved. Transfers: I overhauled a lot of the squad and thankfully got offers to take some dead wood on big wages off my hands. I made good use of the loan market and also brought in a lot of youth players who were happy to be Fringe players, whilst I worked out my best XI. Martin Svidersky, one of my starting CMs, has already signed with a Slovakian team and will join at the end of the season. Club Vision: Expected to avoid relegation in the Vanarama National. Was offered a new 1 year extension which now extends my stay until 2024. Key Players: Harry Boyes - What a season from my LB. A 7.91 average rating in the league, with a massive 16 assists. He was my set piece taker and also provided a lot of good deliveries from the left. Signed a contract to stay again next season. Tom Allan - My most reliable CB and a threat from set pieces, scoring 5 goals. He dominated in the air being 6'4" with 14 jumping reach. Looks likely to sign a deal to stay next season. Elijah Dixon-Bonner - I was shocked this guy was interested in joining us given his quality. He was our highest paid player and was offered Star Player, playing most of our games. He performed very well as a box to box midfielder. Unfortunately, it seems like he is not interested in extended his contract right now, so will have to wait and see if we can keep him next season. Nickseon Gomis - Another solid CB who played the majority of the matches alongside Allan. He provided some pace to the backline and was consistent throughout the season. Conor Carty - The main man up top, scoring 24 league goals. He was signed on a non-contract and expected to be backup but started scoring and never looked back. A great season for him. Best Youth Intake Player: I signed a few youth players and this was the best one - Louis Brady Overall Best Eleven: As expected Finances: They look ok for now! Manager Profile: At the end of the season, the board finally agreed to let me start the coaching course for the National C Licence Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions!