OleDK

Spring 2026 (National League) The following seven matches provided us nine points (two 1-0 wins three draws and two defeats) and we now had a secure distance to the relegation spots (7 points down with 8 rounds left) and we could breathe a little easier so I began changing our tactics a little bit in order to make our offensive better - to score more goals after scoring only 34 goals in 38 matches. And it seemed to help 😀💪 At a moment we were very close to the playoff spots but after the final match in the season we were sitting in 11th place. A great result for small Hungerford Town to finish in the top half of League Two when everybody believed we would end with a relegation to VNL. And we scored 12 goals in our final 8 matches 19-year old Anthony Donovan had been a major contributor in our offensive actions and finished a League top goal scorer Our youth Department delivered the promised striker. As expected not first team material at the moment but I was hoping he could develop into a backup striker in future if he could develop well Our team cohesion was also improving: Anthony Donovan and Nathan Browne were unhappy about their contracts and after negotiations they ended with £525 per week contracts (triple of previous wages) but with an extension to 2028 + option for an extra year if the club wishes to extend the contract. All in all okay. The most expensive contract is Andrés de Gracia with £625 per week. Not large figures considered they are playing as full time professionals. All players in first team squad are on contract in 2026/27 👍 Our financial status is okay after receiving £483K in solidarity payment for participating in League Two so our bank account balance is in plus again We were expected to move into our brand new stadium Hungerford Stadium in the end of June but very disappointing the project was 5 (five) months delayed so instead of moving into a brand new stadium we were required to rent another stadium for the first half of next season 😡😡😡 The Board’s ambition for next season is still to stay in League Two so not necessary to be doubting in my chances to stay in charge of Hungerford. Howvever they now think we should be very good at set pieces 🤨

Winter 2025/26 (League Two) Our participation in FA Cup ended as soon as it begun. We had drawn Hartlepool from VNL away in First Round and went to Hartlepool as favourites. After a terrible performance by our side Hartlepool could celebrate a well-deserved 1-0 victory 😡 We had a small success by winning our last match in Papa Johns Trophy, 1-0 away over Cambridge from League One. We ended third in our group - an acceptable result in this peculiar tournament. £10K in price money for beating Cambridge. After ending our cup run with little success we could concentrate on our survival efforts in League Two. The attendance record at Bulpit Lane was broken when losing 0-1 to our local rivals from Swindon (we used to be an afilliate club to Swindon) - 3,560 in old Bulpit Lane which probably wouldn’t be broken as we were moving to our new stadium after the season Some of our young players were developing rapidly. Midfielder Nathan Browne (18) and striker Anthony Donovan (18) were developing into key players despite their young age The continued scouting for new players is necessary for us as there still are no good news from our Youth Department…Perhaps a striker for our reserve squad if lucky. At New Year we were placed comfortably in 11th place with seven points down to AFC Winbledon in the relegation zone. We didn’t score many goals but were difficult to defeat. A little bit as our debut season in VNL two years ago. Our only goal is survival - not entertainment! Two of our biggest profiles, keepe Beau Hudd and right back Callum Jones were injured in January. Instead I promoted two big talents from our reserve team, 18-year old Welsh/Italien keeper Nicola Castelli (free transfer from Bournemouth in June 2025) and 18-year old right back/defensive midfielder Barry Rose (free transfer from Crystal Palace in July 2025). Both had developed very well in our reserve team and seemed ready for first team action The January transfer window provided us with a single addition to our first team squad. 18-year old right winger David Parker who had played 68 League matches for Carshalton in Isthmian Premier for the last 2.5 season (a former Boston U youth player) and was ready to be tried on a higher level. A fast player with nice dribbling and crossing skills. In December/January we had an unbeaten run of eight matches which is great but when you look at the figures, two wins and six draws and among these five 0-0 draws I could understand that our fans didn’t feel much entertainment but I felt it was necessary for us to survive in a close League standing. After 31 matches we were still placed in the middle of the League (13th) and with the best defence in the League. Almost half of our matches had been draws. Despite the few goals scored by our team Anthony Donovan was in top of the goalscorer list together with Freddie Draper from Shrewsbury. Our financial situation was not good. Our savings had been spent primarily because we were paying on our loans regarding our new stadium (£300K year to date) but they were still building it…. Thanks for reading

Autumn 2025 (League Two) Our first match ever in EFL was set to be a home match against Northampton. In front of 2,235 fans at Bulpit Lane we had a great start with debutant Irish striker Anthony Donovan giving us an early lead after only 11 minutes . After 90 minutes the standing was a 1-1 draw but altogether I was very happy with our start of the season. Only four days later we should have our debut in another tournament the Carabao Cup away against Swansea from Championship. We were given no chances at all but we followed up with our well-known recipe from our recent successes in cup tournaments: focus on the defence and let our Cup goalkeeeper Tommy Jackson (21) take care of the rest…. So yet another goalless draw and a 4-3 win after penalties - a sensational victory Last penalty goal executed by our determined captain Renedi Masmampu (age 25) Sadly Masampu was injured with sports hernia a few weeks later. He had become a key player for our squad with his great personality and leadership. We couldn’t follow up on the sensationel win in Swansea. In second Round of Carabao Cup we were thrashed 4-1 by league rivals Crawley… We are also done in the “small” tournament Papa Johns Trophy after losing 1-3 to Fulham reserve team and 1-2 to Forest Green Rovers. Not a priority with PJT for us in that tournament but a bit disappointing altogether anyways. After the promotion we had turned full-time professional. After a few months more or less the whole first-team squad had signed professional contracts with our profiles Andrea de Gracia and Callum Jones as some of the last first team players. We still had some reserve players on part time contracts but I was seroiusly under pressure with my wage budget so some players were denied a new contract. We strengthened our defence by signing 20-year old Noah McCann (DLC) from QPR - last season on loan at Chesham/18 matches in VNS. I see him as a central defender but is a natural left back. I also decided to strengthen our staff. I had been unhappy with the players from our Youth department for some years and I hoped that 34-year old Mark Scott could improve the quality coming from our own ranks. Josh, you’re fired😈! At the same time I felt we could do better in DoF so I hired 59-year old Cristian Jarvis as our new DoF with better quality and a better personality. It did take some of our money to make the two changes in staff but I felt it was necessary for us in order to stay on track with our positive development. A curious thing from our League Match against Port Vale - Port Vale received a red card after only 15 seconds! This helped us take an fine 2-0 win in the match… After 15 league matches we were sitting comfortably in 13th position. Just five points behind the playoff zone but more importantly nine points above relegation zone! Our 18-year old striker Anthony Donovan as top goal scorer (7 goals)

Pre-season 2025 (League Two) In March 2024, a local investor named Rob Richards took over the ownership of Hungerford Town FC. I had never been impressed by his actions. His injection in our funds in March 2024 was only £1,500 (lol) and with his stadium plans our bank loans exceeds £4 million. Therefore, I welcome the news about Rob Richards’ plans to sell the club and wind down his career in football. The takeover process was completed a month later. New owner is another local investor Peter Murphy (44) and with an initial injection of £150K in the club’s coffers I feel that we’re going to become good friends…😈 The Board’s expectations were not affected by the takeover. The ambition is to avoid relegation and to be competitive in the cup tournaments (FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Papa Johns Trophy) Our funds were also strengthened a bit by a record sale of our former top goal scorer Niko Muir to Dover for £10,500 (former record sale was £4,000) regarding a transfer to Barnstaple).. Now back to the football. We were one of the smallest towns ever to play in the English Football League ((Hungerford is about the same size as Nailsworth where Forest Green Rovers is based) and with this becoming our first season as professional and our first season in EFL nobody believes we will be able to survive😥 So this could definitely turn out to be the most difficult season until now for me and my players. We managed to sign some talented players to strengthen our side: * John Obinna, 18 years, DC/DMC/MC, from Ipswich * Izac Khan, 19 years, DR/DMC/MC, from AFC Telford * Sumaila Owusu, 18 years, MC/AMRC, from Tottenham (Ghanaian) * Nathan Browne, 18 years, MC/AMRC, from Bradford PA (51 league matches) (Northern Irish) * Danny Gough, 18 years, :ML/AMLC, from Stoke * Anthony Donovan, 18 years, SC, from Newcastle (Welsh) Also Alfie Matthews, 23 years, AMRLC/ST (4 league matches for Hungerford in 2023/24) returned to Bulpit Lane afte a successful loan at Maidstone last season and was once again battling for a place in our starting lineup. With the latest additions to our squad we had too many wingers in our squad. Claudio Ofosu (26) went to Salisbury on a season loan. Captain Joel Rollinson (26) could become a suplus to our requirements this season so in respect for him I offered him for sale). He found out so now he’s not talking to me….😱 I hope he’ll be good again so he can stay as backup or leave us on a loan Here are our new players: And our first team squad before our debut in League Two:

Spring 2025 (National League) Harvey Beckett who had joined us in the pre season last year had turned into an extra weapon for our side on corner kicks and free kicks. With his great qualities in air (17 in Jumping Reach) we had found a way to get goals and points even when our play wasn’t working. In our home match against Bromley we were pressed through the whole match but two goals after corners from Harvey Beckett gave us an undeserved 2-0 victory (Bromley got FM’ed ) We were going through a very good period with seven victories in seven matches and thing were definitely going our way at the moment. Notice: six clean sheets in the seven won matches! Gateshead also got FM’ed…. Overall we managed to get 11 wins in 12 matches (and a 0-2 defeat against Halifax) with a total goal score of 21-7. Not a lot of goals but definitely enough With eight matches left of the season we were in leading position, four points ahead of Woking and seven points ahead of Carlisle. Our best league position ever was already a reality and Top-3 seemed certain. But now we are heading for promotion as our only ambition 👀 Bulpit Lane is turning into a new Theatre of Dreams… But we were soon to get back to realism. Our next match was a home match against Southend (4th position). A live TV match and 2,249 fans in Bulpit Lane - perfect for a real show-off from our side. And so it began. Two goals by Gerald Muchechetere and a great long range goal from Jake Evans gave us a 3-0 lead after 27 minutes. I praised my players a lot at half-time but in the other dressing room Southend manager Luke Garrard performed small miracles. They came out to second half with great motivation and quality and 20 minutes later we were down 3-4 😡 and eventually lost. Man I was angry with my players… But the catastrophic 20 minutes against Southend turned out to become a minor thing in our run for promotion. We won the following match 2-1 in Hartlepool and maintained a steady lead in front of the National League with a five point lead to Woking. The table standings was so great for us that I didn’t even got annoyed when our HOYD presented this year’s intake of youth players…. The following match could be very decisive for our season - against no. 2 Woking. A win would give us an eight point lead but a defeat would open the race for the league title. Thankfully, our young striker Youssef Yahyaoui (19) gave us the lead in the middle of first half and in the rest of the match we managed to keep Woking away from scoring - with this win we were heading for League Two 💪 After the Woking match we lost 0-2 to Colchester and played a goalless draw in Yeovil so with three matches left the lead to Woking had been reduced to three points (and with Woking having the better goal score). Now it was only a fight between us and Woking as Carlisle no longer could pass us in the table. We needed seven points in the final three matches to be sure to keep Woking behind us. The first of the three final matches was our last home match - against Boreham Woods (placed in 11th position). We definitely didn’t play good but our “secret weapon” (a header from Harvey Beckett - his 10th league goal of the season) was enough for us and as Woking played 1-1 in Scunthorpe we were five points ahead with only two matches left. The following match was to be played at Beveree Stadium in Hampton. Hampton & Richmond had already been relegated to Vanarama South and their fans showed their dissatisfaction by staying at home so in front of only 398 spectators we outplayed Hampton & Richmond 4-1. Hungerford Town had won the National League and are promoted to League Two 😀😀😀 In the end we finished with a four point lead to Woking The promotion to League Two had immense consequences for our club. First of all the Board decided to go from semi professional to professional meaning new contracts for all of us and a wage budget which had grown from £8,500 per week to almost £21,000 per week. However this was nothing compared to the Board’s decision to build an entirely new stadium - Hungerford Stadium with a 5,000 capacity ! An investment of £6.1 million and a loan of £3.7 million after a grant from the authorities and a sale of Bulpit Lane. A bit emotionel as Bulpit Lane has been the home ground for Hungerford Town FC since just after World War I - for more than 100 years! If this went wrong Hungerford Town FC could end in bankruptcy. I took the responsibility upon myself by extending my contract. We’re in this together, Hungerford 👀 Our squad for the season: Thanks for following 😀

Congratulations - great season 👍. Also a very good story to follow so keep up the good work 💪

Winter 2024/25 (National League) Our fantastic run of 16 undefeated league matches ended in Southend. Our luck simply ran out and Southend deserved their win after a miserable performance by our side Then we could look forward to our replay match against Salford in First Round of FA Cup. If we could win the match it would be first time for Hungerford Town to qualify to FA Cup Second Round. Furthermore, we could expect a record turnout at Bulpit Lane (record turnout at Bulpit Lane until now was 1,684 against Sudbury in 1989 - club record is 3,368 in 2023 when we played in Basingstoke during expansion of Bulpit Lane). Salford plays in League One which is two levels above Vanarama National League. They showed their class in second half of the first match when they turned a 0-2 deficit at half-time to a 2-2 draw and in the replay match they continued to show their high level with a well-deserved 2-0 victory in a match where we never came really close to a result. But the turnout of 2,684 fans at Bulpit Lane was a new stadium record and also a record revenue income from gate receipts for Hungerford 👍 and a record balance in the bank of £236,000. As I was struggling to keep us within the wage budget of £8,500 per week I thought this was the time to ask for an increased wage budget - but no way - Chairman Rob Richards seems to be a new Uncle Scrooge….😱 Btw.: The 2025 intake from our youth team doesn’t seem to include the new Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo…👎 A new disappointment! After a tight program during the autumn with many league and cup matches we had severe scoring problems. In December we played five matches and only scored once so we lost the top spot in National League and fell to fifth place in the table. I had noticed that we lost possession very much and therefore I tried to tweak the tactics and it helped so after 31 of 46 league matches we were in second position in the table only two points behind the table leaders from Carlisle after five wins in a row. We had introduced two new players in our first team. Max Giani (20, AMRC/ST) had came to Hungerford from Salisbury a year ago on a free transfer. He had spent last season on loan at our affiliate club Potter’s Bar in Isthmian Premier and I wanted to have him at our Reserve Team this season but he had played well and passed Syme Mulvany as my preferred backup as right winger. Max can also play as striker or AMC I had for some time wanted to get 18-year old midfielder Ellis Horan from Boston United to our team on a free transfer but had failed due to my “budget problems” but instead I managed to get him on a season-long loan without any costs from Boston United and followed that up with a conctract at season end when it became possible! Great talent and a possible backup for our DLP Andrés de Gracia. Reece Wylie (22) our previous backup in midfield wasn’t too happy about his playing time and was sent on loan at Billericay after playing 39 league matches for our side during the previous three years. After last season’s FA Trophy final at Wembley we hoped to make it once again. It started out fine with a win over Dover after a penalty shootout (after 0-0 in 90 mins) and an easy 2-0 win at home over Wealdstone but our hopes for a new success in FA Trophy ended with a defeat in yet another penalty shootout - this time against league rivals Eastleigh in Fifth Round Now we could concentrate our efforts on National League!

Autumn 2024 (National League) We started the league competition away against Chesterfield, last season’s no. 12 in Vanarama National League. As we had finished in 15th place we were underdogs but - despite a missed penalty kick by Jake Evans in first half - we came out of the match with a very comfortable 3-0 victory. Callum Jones in right back and Harvey Beckett in central defence started in as debutants and Ma’kel Bogle-Campbell also made his debut as a substitute in second half. Great start 💪 As mentioned in the latest update, talented midfielder Andrés de Gracia wasn’t too happy about playing for Hungerford in National League and probably wanted to move on and I was expecting him to leave after the season if we didn’t receive an attractive offer for him before that. During our third league match - against Torquay - he had played a miserable first half and I pulled him out in 55th minute as a consequence of his poor match performance. Some days later he asked for a personal meeting with me where he wanted to discuss his future at Hungerford. His ambitions were definitely higher than National League so he wanted to leave to a bigger club as his teammates weren’t good enough I told him that I would look to bring in players to help the team match his ambitions instead of him leaving us now. He wasn’t happy about my reply but at least I was honest to him that I wouldn’t just let him go. So his message to the press was that he may leave us on a Bosman after this season. Not pleasant and it was definitely also very upsetting and concerning that one of our star players wants to leave AND ditches his teammates in the process. I was worried about the possible negative effect on his performance in the coming matches but Andrés de Gracia has a resolute personality which means that his professionalism and determination are very high so my worries turned out to be unnecessary, in the following three matches he performed very well with a goal and a very good effort in a 5-0 win over King’s Lynn as the icing on the cake. A true professional! Actually we had a great start of the season 😀 After nine league matches we were still undefeated - four wins and five draws - and in second place in the League. The atmosphere was great around club both among players and with the fans. One of our new players, right back Callum Jones was developing remarkably and everyone in the club had skipped talking about the absence of former captain Rhys Tyler who had been sent on loan to Gloucester to ease the pressure on our budget. I don’t know whether it was due to our good results, the great atmosphere surrounding the club or the good performances by our new players but I noted that De Gracia’s mood had changed. Now it was no longer an issue that his teammates weren’t good enough or that he wanted to move to a bigger club. Now he was slightly unhappy with his contract (£150 per week) instead. I chose to start negotiations with de Gracia regarding a new and improved contract and I managed to close a deal with de Gracia so that he signed a 3-year prolongation of his contract - with an option for Hungerford to extend the contract with an extra year Now we could focus on making Andrés de Gracia to a club legend at Hungerford instead… My major problem with the new contract was that he will become the highest earning player with a £675 per week contract (8% of our present wage budget) at the end of this season. I was already struggling with the present wage budget (sent Niko Muir on loan to avoid his £120 per week salary plus he was only a fringe player after the signing of Youssef Yahyaoui) With this issue handled we could focus on our successful run in National League. We broke a new club record with sixten matches in a row undefeated (last match in previous season and 15 matches with no defeats in this season) - and a top spot in the league as a result. The best performers in the season so far had been Gerald Muchechetere (age 20) in front (7 goals), Reece Nicholas-Davies (age 20) as left winger, Harvey Beckett (age 21) and Callum Jones (age 19) in defence and Beau Hudd (age 20) in goal. We were definitely heading for a bright future… Simultaneously with the success we were trying to get more success in FA Cup. Our first match was in 4th Qual. Round away against Tonbridge from National League South. It turned out to be more complicated than expected but after a late goal by Baylin Johnston we scrambled a 2-1 victory back to Hungerford. Not impressive but enough. The qualification to First Round Proper in FA Cup pleased the Board but that would probably become the end for us as we were facing Salford from League One in an away match. But Salford probably took it too easy as we were up 2-0 at half-time 💪 but we came under a massive pressure in second half so it ended with a 2-2 draw and a reply match in Hungerford (with £35K in TV money coming to us) 🤑 More about that in our next update….

Pre-season 2024 (National League) After finishing in the middle of National League in our first season my ambitions for the coming season were to get us in the best half (or perhaps in the best third) of National League. The Board had fewer ambitions - they were happy if we could avoid relegation so there were nothing in their level of ambitions for the season I don’t think we can’t match. The Board provided me with an improved wage and transfer budget but it had been expensive to keep hold on the first team squad of last season so I was struggling to find enough money to sign new players to our first team or interesting talents for our reserve team. Therefore, we had to say goodbye to several fringe players on free transfer or on loans. One of the players we said goodbye to was our vice-captain and club record holder Rhys Tyler who went on loan at Gloucester in National League North after 250 league matches (club record). I had extended his contract during last season until June 2026 (probably an error it could seem to be) but at 31, he had been passed by younger players in our right back position and with a £275 p/w conctract he was too expensive to be playing in our reserve team. Gloucester also had a buy option on Rhys Tyler so to be honest I think we will never see Rhys Tyler in Hungerford’s first team lineup again 😥 Now we must rely on two 19- year old teenagers in right back: Owen Cochrane who played 27 league matches last season as our second choice on right back and young Welshman Callum Jones who came to Hungerford last season from Cardiff and went last season on loan at Slough in National League South and after 37 league matches at Slough (4 goals) he seemed ready for National League games. We also strengthened our defence with 20-year old central defender Harvey Beckett from Cambridge (last season on loan at Dover in National League South - 36 league matches) We signed two talented central midfielders in Ma’kel Bogle-Campbell from Fulham and Kieran Morgan from Tottenham. I believe we’re having fine backup players if Andrés de Gracia decided to leave us after the season. I will try to build them up during the season in hope that become contenders for our starting lineup next season. Last season we signed 21-year old Syme Mulvany at Folkestone and let him finish the season at Folkestone on loan. Now he was ready to fight for a spot in our first-team against older players like captain Joel Rollinson (25) and Claudio Ofosu (25) who can feel the breath from several younger players on the back of their necks. The last - but not the least - newcomer was an 18-year old striker from QPR, Youssef Yahyaoui who had spent last season on loan in Nuneaton in National League North. Interesting to see if he could partner up with Gerald Muchechetere in front and become a regular in our starting lineup. In total I believe we have an exciting squad for the season. Many talents but still with experienced players among them. Two good and very talented keepers, reasonably good players in defence, a star duo in midfield (Andrés de Gracia and Jake Evans), great wingers and talented strikers (and still with veteran striker Niko Muir in the squad as backup player.

Yes at least this removes a potential problem with the financials at the moment. However, I suggested the Board that they should spend some of the money on improvemts regarding our youth setup or our training facilities - but both requests were rejected But to be fair - they had provided me with an 25% increase in my wage budget so perhaps it was fair enough…

Spring 2024 (National League) As mentioned in my last update we had won two FA Trophy matches after penalties due to goalless draws in 120 minutes. Incredibly, the same thing occured in our 5th Round match against Farnborough. Same recipe - keep them from scoring and Tommy Jackson (our reserve keepers who plads our cup matches) deals with the rest in the penalty shootout…😈 The defence was definitely our basis behind the good results. Keep them from scoring press them and try to move quickly in fluid counter-attacks was our style of play and it gave us some results but it was not necessarily of much entertainment for our fans. I just need to say that our primary goal is to survive in National League and with a squad with much talent but not a lot of quality this must be the way it works right now. Then entertainment must come later. One of our most important players in this setup is our DLP Andrés de Gracia who still was improving stats all the time. He is developing into our star player with potential for more. De Gracia is on contract until 2025 but perhaps it may prove difficult to extend the contract period as he is aware that he is a better player than his teammates In March, the club was taken over by a local investor, Rob Richards after a short period (a week or so) with a transfer ban. I was really looking forward to find out which new opportunities this could provide us in order to attract better players. I don’t know - perhaps it’s just me expecting too much - but I wasn’t too impressed about the new investors injection of capital - £1,500 won’t change that much for us….😡 I would have appreciated if we could have enough funding for an improved youth setup. At least I won’t embarrass too many people by stating that the youth player generation of year 2024 at Hungerford Town wasn’t even near being characterised as an improvement for our squad….😩 A lost year I would say Well, back to the League. We were still collecting points from time to time and with five matches left of the season we were sitting comfortably in the middle of the league table in 13th place with six points up to the playoff zone but - more important - 13 points above the relegation zone. Therefore, we could focus on the FA Trophy. After beating Eastleigh 2-1 at home at Winklebury Football Complex in the quarter finals we were facing Chesterfield at home in the semi final. A difficult match against a team sitting above us in the league. Game very close - heading for injury time but in 88th minute midfielder Jake Evans scored our winning goal at long range. 1-0 and we were ready for the FA Trophy final at Wembley Stadium 😀💪. Just after the FA Trophy semi-final we had other good news. The expansion project at Bulpit Lane to a capacity of 4,388 spectators had ended and we could terminate our rental in Basingstoke. Home sweet home ⚽️ We finished our league season with only one point in the final four matches so we dropped two places and ended in 15th place. As this was Hungerford’s first season ever in National League this still was a new club record. In the following three weeks we had no planned matches so we played three friendlies against lower ranking teams to keep the good form and to improve the team’s morale - and with victories of 5-1, 9-0 and 8-0 morale was high before the most important match in the 138 years of club history: the FA Trophy final of 2024 between Hungerford and Chesterfield (who finished second in National League but lost their playoff final at Wembley a week before the final 1-0 to Oldham). Chesterfield had to be favourites before the final. The final developed similarly to our previous cup matches. Gerald Muchechetere (our top goal scorer) made it 1-1 in first half just a minute after a goal to Chesterfield. No more goals were scored despite 120 minutes of play. We had great confidence in our keeper, Tommy Jackson, ut this time he didn’t manage to save their penalties and with a missed penalty from 19-year old winger Reece Niicholas-Davies we lost the final 6-5 after penalties 😩 Despite our great disappointment with the result of the final it gave our finances a great boost. With 19,360 spectators at Wembley Stadium and £30K in prize money improved our bank status from zero to £165,000 - a solid economy as basis for future developments 👍 Now we could go on a well-deserved holiday after a very long season with great hopes for the coming season!

Great read! Looking forward to following your career 👍

Winter 2023/24 (National League) In FA Cup we had started out in 4th Qual. Round with an easy 4-0 win over Bath from National League South - a clear evidence of our development as we were in same league last season. The win meant that Hungerford Town had qualified for First Round for the first time since 1979-80 but with a difficult opponent in First Round - away against Crawley from League Two. We were sooo close to defeating Crawley 😩 we were ahead 2-1 until 89th minute (ahead 2-0 after 10 minutes) but the pressure from Crawley was immense and in the end we crumbled after being reduced to 10 in 75th minute). A very costly red card to Baylin Johnson the result meant that we should play a replay match at Winklebury a bit later. Once again we were fighting well. Got ahead 1-0 in the middle of first half Crawley scored an equalizer a few minutes later and were the best team and produced many chances - until 110th minute in overtime when we once again were pressed too far back in field. Actually we did play better than Crawley in the replay match but we have a young squad with little experience and in the end they were more clever than us 😡 We signed Tommy Jackson (19, from Stoke’s youth team) as a new backup keeper for Beau Hudd who kept developing rapidly. With Hudd and Jackson we had both quality and potential im goal 💪 Not a lot in quality difference between our keepers: A good thing that we could attract young quality players from other clubs as there definitely NOT is anything coming up from our own youth Department this season…. We played our FA Trophy matches with Tommy Jackson in goal and he turned out to be quite a penalty specialist. We ended in penalty kicks after 0-0 draws both away against Billericay and away against Scarborough but Tommy Jackson saved us from embarrassing defeats both times and qualifying us to 5th Round just like last season - more about that in my next update. Our major problem - like in the two goalless cup draws - was to score goals. Last season’s top goal scorer Niko Muir was not as effective anymore at 30 years and we also struggled due to our quite defensive tactic. We played 12 matches in December and January with a total goal score of 6-6. The Board also wasn’t too impressed about the entertainment so I decided to tweak our tactics and it seemed to help and secured a 4-1 home win over Gateshead. Several players in the first-team was developing rapidly especially Andrés de Gracia in midfield, Baylin Johnson in attack and Beau Hudd in goal - definitely players we could build further on We were almost impossible to score against and we did increase our number of points enough to be far away from the relegation zone and just below the Playoff zone (placed 12th) so we were definitely good enough to play in this league - and perhaps more entertaining in future Our chairman has decided to retire (63 years old) - who knows what influence that can have on our future ?

Autumn 2023 (National League) Hungerford Town FC’s first ever match in Vanarama National League was to be played at Huish Park in Yeovil. Yeovil Town finished 16th in National League last season so a good test for us regarding our chances to survive in the league this season. (Board expectations was only to try to survive in the league). Beau Hudd kept clean sheet in his debut match and winger Claudio Ofosu became match winner as we started our season with a fine 1-0 victory Next match was both our home debut in National League but also our first match at rented Winklebury Football Complex. No less than 3,368 spectators (new club record - former record attendance was 1,684 against Sudbury in 1989) witnessed our home team win 2-0 against King’s Lynn after two goals from young Gerald Muchechetere. What a start 👍 After the fantastic start of the season, it became everyday for us. It was increasingly difficult for us to make results (worst result was a 0-3 defeat away in Aldershot) but we did manage to win a few matches so altogether we were doing okay. We signed a young striker from Ireland (Dylan Gavin, 20, ex-Charlton, played 20 matches on loan at Tonbridge last season) and a young midfielder in Charlie Veevers (18, ex-Swansea youth player) to make the squad better in depth - and also two players for the future. Our 31-year old vice-captain and regular right back Rhys Tyler also made a club record with his 223th league match for Hungerford Town 💪 and our very talented profile in midfield Andrés de Gracia decided to switch nationality to Colombian 🇨🇴 (he also has the possibility to represent Spain). Perhaps a possible Colombian U23 player? After 16 matches switching between wins, draws and losses we were sitting comfortably in the league standings in 11th position. Four points behind the Playoff zone but also only five points ahead of relegation zone so a very close league at the moment. Beau Hudd had grown considerably as our first choice goalkeeper and two other teenagers, Gerald Muchechetere and Baylin Johnson were pushing hard for places in our starting lineup.

Pre-season 2023: I really thought we had a deal, I really thought we had a deal….but apparantly we didn’t As I wrote in the previous update I had made an agreement with Bristol Rovers to extend the loan of our great goalkeeper Jed Ward for an extra season but the day before the extension period was to begin Jed Ward rejected the loan offer 😩. Apparantly his ambition now was to become first-choice goalkeeper at Bristol Rovers in competition with 32-year old James Belshaw. I was extremely disappointed but must have respect for his ambitions. Good luck, Jed 👍Instead I needed to secure a contract for the season with last season’s backup keeper, Marcus Beauchamp in order not to loose both keepers but also started a search among free transfers for a talented keeper who could replace Jed Ward as good as possible. My search for a new keeper ended with this guy: 18-year old Beau Hudd from West Bromwich youth academy. Not far from the level of Marcus Beauchamp and not at all at Jed Ward’s level but I think he has the potential to reach the level required for National League. Other new players for our first team squad: Will Owens, DL/WBL, 19, from Oxford Owen Cochrane, DR, 18, from Stevenage (last season 24 league matches for Chippenham on loan) Declan Hutchings, DC/MC, 18, from Shrewsbury Alfie Matthew, AMRLC/ST, 21, from Braintree (42 league matches last season) Baylin Johnson, AMRL/ST, 18, from Bournemouth Especially Baylin Johnson seems very talented and a man for the future but all new signings will have their part of the matches this season. We let 24-year old winger Leighton Thomas left on a free transfer to Margate but apart from him and Jed Ward the first team squad of last season was still here. After the promotion to National League the Board had the idea to tell me what style of play we should play. Defensively solid football, possession football and high-tempo pressure football. Well not far from our previous style of football so perhaps we could agree on that the othe expectations were minimal. Attempt to avoid relegation from National League and be competitive in the cup tournaments. I’m okay with these expectations. Due to higher standards in National League, Bulpit Lane was no longer good enough so the Board decided to rent Winklebury Football Complex in Basingstoke (25 miles from Hungerford) and to invest £712k in expanding Bulpit Lane from 3,000 to 4,400 Expected return to Bulpit Lane: April next year….(meaning that 21 of 23 home matches this season will be played in Basingstoke). The Board also announced a new partnership with Potters Bar Town from Isthmian League (tier 7) a good supplement to our existing partnership with Thatcham (tier 8) so that youth players could get valuable match experience in Isthmian league at Potters Bar. No more talking and waiting - come on National League we’re ready!

Spring 2023: FA Trophy is the “small” cup tournament only for Non-league clubs (tier 5-8 in the English football pyramid - Hungerford is placed in 6th tier). We had never had much success in the FA Trophy. We had been engaged in the cup 13 times and our best results so far had been two 3rd Round defeats (in 2013-14 to Gosport and last year to Weymouth). We succeeded in making a new club record after winning over Havant & Waterlooville in 2nd Round and Dover in 3rd Round until facing Welling in 4th Round. Two early goals by Niko Muir and Claudio Ofosu gave us a fine win and a place in 5th Round (final 16 clubs) for the first time in club history However, that’s where it ended Brackley from Vanarama North won 2-1 in a pretty close encounter but still: we could be quite proud of our cup run! We continued our fine results in Vanarama South but my players did seem to become more tired than previously and injuries started becoming more or less regularly so with a fine lead in the table 12 points ahead with six matches left I decided to tweak our tactics with the intension to lower the match intensity. Bad idea The following two matches were lost so with four matches left our lead was suddenly reduced to only six points and with second placed Havant & Waterlooville in our next match….😱 So we went back to our usual draining tactic but our momentum were gone. We certainly didn’t play well but after a good fight we managed to secure a 0-0 result and thereby maintaining our six point lead 💪 Our next match gave us a 1-0 win in Chelmsford and this meant that we had our fate in our own hands as a draw at home against Dulwich Hamlet would secure the club’s first promotion ever to Vanarama National League 👍 but we were still struggling to get back om track. We lost 1-0 but Havant and Waterlooville didn’t win their match so Hungerford Town wins the league and gains promotion to National League!!! The promotion made the Board provide us with a larger wage budget so now I could make a deal with Joel Rollinson for a new season (on a £500 per week contract) and after many attempts I persuaded Bristol Rovers to send Jed Ward to us for an extra season (paying 60% of wage - an increase from 50% this season). Now all of our profiles in our squad from 2022/23 was ready for 2023/24 👍 We had signed a few players for our first team squad in the spring too: Sam Odaudu, DCR, 20, from Dartford (5 league matches earlier this season) Latrell Humphrey-Ewers, 18, from Oxford (21 league matches earlier in this season) Gerald Muchechetere, AML/ST, 18, from Oxford (24 league matches earlier in this season) I was getting more and more happy about our squad depth and the early report from our youth academy had made me hopeful to welcome a fine young winger for our squad: but something must have gone wrong in the meantime….🤨 so i must be back on the transfer market again…. We ended the season with a £21k deficit and there were steady rumours going on about a possible takeover of the club. Let’s see what comes out of that… Btw: I won the Manager of the Year prize 😀

Winter 2022/23: We managed to stay undefeated for a total of 23 league matches 💪 until defeated. Our defence was impressively solid and still we managed to score - not a lot but enough to secure points in all matches. The great stability made us sit in top of the league with a seven point lead to Havant & Waterlooville. But of course it should end at some point. Farnborough ended our unbeaten run with a 2-1 win after a lousy performance from our side We were still trying to improve our squad by finding young players on free transfers mostly on non-contracts and therefore can be signed by other clubs on a free transfer. We lost talented backup player, George Sheridan, to Hornchurch on that account but instead we signed Charlie Noakes (20, DLC) from Chelmsford, Eden Sears (20, DC) from Bath and Nathan Tormey (22, AMRL) from Bromley to strengthen our squad. Charlie Noakes made it to our starting lineup as Sears and Tormey are backup players at the moment. One of our young players, 20-year old Andrés de Gracia was developing very well. First team regular with good technique and very good ability to spot a pass and create chances. He is turning into a key player for our side if his development continues. When it comes to development: we seem to be having a great winger talent on the way from the youth team With 1/3 left of the season we were still in top of the league ahead of Havant & Waterlooville and Ebbsfleet as our primary contenders for first place and promotion to Vanarama National League. We were definitely heading towards the playoffs and the best result ever in the history of Hungerford Town FC Jed Ward was our best rated player. I was trying to convince Bristol Rovers to extend the loan to next season but they were not convinced… Furthermore I was struggling to extend Joel Rollinson’s contract so next season’s squad could end less qualitative then the present squad

Autumn 2022: The first League match of the season is always important. A defeat can weaken our confidence but a win can boost your players and provided optimism to players and fans. This season our first match was a home match against Concord Rangers. Luck went our way as Claudio Ofosu converted a penalty kick to goal in 18th minute and substitute striker Reece Miller secured the win with a 2-0 goal in second half. A good win and a comforting season start for us 👍 We also played very well in our second league match but were unlucky to lose 3-2 away to Dover. Following this defeat we didn’t look back. 12 league matches in a row with no defeats ! The fine run left us sitting in first place after one third of the season ended two points ahead of Havant & Waterlooville (and 20 points ahead of the relegation zone…). A major surprise and the Board was very delighted with the performance These fine results can despite of a five-week injury period to our star player Joel Rollinson. In his absense, Leighton Thomas (23-year old winger from Cayman Islands) came in a made an astonishing effort. Good to see a player take use of the chances provided! We also had our go in the FA Cup - with very few expectations to us from the Board - so no pressure at all. Our first match (2nd Qual. Round) gave us a 2-1 win away against Hanwell from Southern Premier South and we also had a favorable draw in 3rd Qual. Round against Bognor Regis from Isthmian Premier at home at Bulpit Lane but despite a 16-2 shot statistic we actually were a bit lucky to end up with a 1-1 draw However, in the replay match in Bognor Regis we took our “revenge” with a smashing 5-0 win after a hat-trick by our young striker Shae Hutchinson. The win qualified us to an away match against Woking (placed mid-table in National League) and the match showed that we still did not have the strength to beat an National League team. Defeated 2-1 (with a late goal by Sammy Ompreon) and no more FA Cup for us this season. We were still trying to strengthen our squad and in the period we signed the following players for our first-team squad: - Kai Garande, 19, DL/WBL, ex-Charlton - Junior Paiva, 19, DR/DL/WBR, ex-QPR - Henry Njonjo, 19, MC/AMC, ex-Bristol Rovers - Reece Nicholas-Davies, 17, MRL/AMRL, Derby - Shae Hutchinson, 21, AMC/ST, Farnborough I was paricularly happy about the signing of Reece Nicholas-Davies as a good prospect for the future with fine technical attributes and Shae Hutchinson as a possible rotation player in attack. A great beginng of my first season

Pre-season 2022: The squad I “inherited” from the previous manager was not that bad in my opinion. We have a very talented keeper on loan from Bristol Rovers (Jed Ward, 19) and a competent winger with 64 league matches for Eastbourne (Joel Rollinson, 23) but apart from that I expect to say goodbye to half of the squad - perhaps keep 10-12 players in total from the original squad. There was nothing left in our wage budget (£ 4,392 per week) so I needed to ship off some players before I could sign other players. Seven players left us on a free transfer in pre-season and on player was sent on loan with a 90% salary refund. Now we have some space My transfer strategi is to sign under-23 players on free (also necessary as no transfer funds are available) and preferably players that can turn into first team regulars within a year or two. Following this strategi, we signed the following players for our first-team squad: Renedi Masampu, DLC/WBL, 22, Birmingham Ryan Maclean, DLC/DMC/MC, 20, ex-Watford Brandon Channell, DC, 19, ex-Bournemouth James Matthews, DRC, 20, Welling George Sheridan, DC/DMC/MC, 20, Aldershot Andres De Gracia, DMC/MC, 19, Derby Lewis Lynn, DMC/MC, 19, Stevenage Reece Miller, AMC/ST, 21, Aldershot Jovel Jackson-Davis, ST, 19, ex-Nottingham Forest Two of the new signings: The weaknesses in the original squad was in defence, in particular on left back and I was happy that the new players could improve the overall quality in these areas and the position depth had improved immensely. We could do with a better backup goalkeeper but it is not an urgent matter. My staff is of various quality but ok on this level. Best staff is my Assistant manager and HOYD We have some fine wingers so I start with a 4-2-4 as preferred tactic: In Pre-season we played a number of matches agains lower ranked clubs and managed to win them all My new friendship with Patrick Chambers as chairman is probably going to end soon…. We are ready⚽️

Here we go - new manager appointed Hungerford has survived six seasons in National League South with a 6th and 7th place as the best results despite being one of the smallest clubs in the league Hungerford is a small town (5,869 inhabitants) between Reading and Swindon in Berkshire. Hungerford’s facilities are quite humble to say the least. Home matches are played at Bulpit Lane (capacity 3,034 - more than half of the people who lives in Hungerford can see the home matches ) training facilities are basic and youth facilities are poor. The Board (represented by Chairman Patrick Chambers) was pretty realistic in their demands to me. Survive in the league and don’t embarass us in the cups…. Here’s my new boss: presenting Patrick Chambers (seems like a very nice chap):

Hungerford - Against all odds Four years ago I posten what I expected to be a long term save with FM19 with Hungerford But after a few months I had to end it due to many work hours and limited time for FM 😥 Now I will restart it with FM23 👍 one thing hasn’t changed in the period - Hungerford is once again in the bottom (IRL) of Vanarama National League South (England Tier 6) and still has a lot to improve…. https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/match-info/tables?table_id=d-5660542 I hope I can hold on to this save for a longer time than last time and everyone is welcome to follow my task to improve the status at Hungerford in a longterm save