deltablue

Thank you. Oh it was definitely one of my less convincing promotion seasons and during the final matches of the regular league season I was already looking ahead to our chances of doing it the following year but thankfully the team managed to find some form again (to a point) in the playoffs, As for rising through the leagues, the whole point of this save (aside from experiencing the different leagues and teams below the Conference North/South) was to have that long-term goal of rising through the leagues and counting the promotions. Now it's 8 down and just 2 to go and I wonder if I can do them both at my next club.

Playoff Final 2031 The playoff final was against Peterborough. The first half was very quiet, at least until they unfortunately took the lead. I started to worry until Sandjak headed in a cross to equalise. We kept pushing on and it wasn't long before the Algerian took the ball to the line and pulled it back for Hawkes to hammer home for 2-1! The celebrations were wild indeed, which gave way first to caution to see if we could hold on, and relief when the end came. We really don't do things the easy way at this club. That makes it 4 promotions, three of which were through the playoffs and one of those came after blowing a good lead at the top of the table. This season was a proper roller-coaster of hope and despair and I really thought we had blown it late on. As it was it took until the final day to even confirm our place in the playoffs. As it turned out we didn't win more than two league games in a row and probably never occupied the top 3 places so this was very much an unconvincing mess of a promotion season, yet we got there in the end. I will definitely leave after next season now with a promising array of future destinations (and Ipswich) and will leave quite a legacy behind. As a reminder, this was the situation I inherited... Star player: This was a toughie. In recent years it's gone to an attacking player based on goals and assists but this time I decided to go back to the player with the highest rating as it was won fairly comfortably by the Croatian defender Stojan. I really didn't expect him to be this good, and I only signed him over another player who had a long-term injury. He soon established himself despite an early straight red card and I am glad he found his old form in time for the playoff final. Squad Stats

Playoffs 2031 Semi-finals The first leg against Birmingham was my 900th match of the career but I wasn't sure I would have much to celebrate. Having to take off a couple of defenders early due to worrying body language ('complacent' and 'very nervous' respectively) didn't help. However when Brownhill slotted home, followed by a free-kick from Lobo (who came on for one of the defenders earlier) I suddenly felt we were in control. We could have gotten a 3rd before they pushed late on but 2 goals seemed a decent margin to take to the second leg. The plan to keep it tight in the away leg quickly fell apart as they scored an early goal and the defence once again looked a right mess. A second Birmingham goal seemed inevitable and it seemed like we really were about to throw it all away. That was why I was relieved when Hawkes broke away and lobbed the ball into the goal at mid-range to equalise on the night. That left us with a bit more breathing room which it turned out we didn't need as despite some close calls we managed to keep them out for the rest of the match.

I wanted to get the rest of the season done today and it started promisingly with a win against Barnsley and a draw against Mansfield that both sides had reason to be happy with. We then beat Doncaster and Rochdale with the FA Cup match at Norwich in between. We lost that to an early free-kick and a late penalty but otherwise put in a solid performance given the circumstances. However there were clear signs that we were starting to slow down as we had to rescue a point at home to Blackpool, followed by another draw against AFC Wimbledon and our unbeaten run finally falling (and deservedly so) at Kettering, though the latter two matches were at least tough ones against other playoff contenders though we then drew at York as well, Unfortunately it didn't help that we were suddenly getting a bunch of injuries to defenders in particular and the injured players seemed a shadow of their former selves when they returned. The most frustrating thing was that the gap to the top three didn't open up that much. Our rivals were stumbling and we were completely failing to take advantage of that. I thought we might have turned a corner after beating Sheffield Utd but it wasn't to be, as we then crashed to a humiliating defeat to Wrexham. Mathematically we still had a decent chance of making the top 3 but I knew it was fading away fast. It wasn't until the penultimate game at Port Vale that our chance of automatic promotion died when they equalised, leading to a chaotic final game against Accrington Stanley where we went behind, then 2-1 and 3-2 ahead before being denied the win by a soft penalty. In some ways I am glad that we had a gap of 6 points to 3rd in the end as at one point when we were leading it was only two and that would have left me thinking that we had really blown it. It still left us one place and 5 points worse off than last season, not good for a team that could have done so much better. Into the playoffs we go but in my experience your form going into them is everything so it probably won't go any better than last year.

I just want to make it clear that abuse of any kind in career threads is not acceptable. FMCU posters are entitled to focus just on whatever they deem relevant to their saves, including the level of detail they provide on what is going on elsewhere. Whether a user responds to any requests for information is completely up to them and action will be taken against anyone who responds in an aggressive and abusive way. You just keep on doing what you're doing Cheez3y.

Now that's an interesting move.

It's nice to see you doing well with Exeter.

I hope you have fun in Europe.

Hopefully you can hold them off.

Jan 2031 It's fair to say that this is a much more optimistic update than last time with no defeats at all in all competitions despite having two cup ties (both against higher division teams) go to replays. I wasn't looking forward to our initial run of December fixtures but we got a respectable draw at Peterborough and beat Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood Town, slashing the gap to Mansfield in 3rd from 10 points to 5. Suddenly a top 3 challenge seemed possible after all. Unfortunately we've not managed to win 3 league games in a row all season so it kind of seemed inevitable that we would drop points after conceding an equaliser to MK Dons but we rounded out the year with a comfortable win against Bromyard Town (whose wage expenditure would narrowly miss out on being in the top 6 in the Championship). We started 2031 with a draw at Halifax (which still allowed us to close to 3 points of Mansfield) after one of those games where both sides had a few 'how did they not score that!' chances before alternating home wins against Crewe and Gateshead with draws at Dagenham & Redbridge and Newport, the latter result being by far the most disappointing of the two. That's the one real negative, that at least a couple of draws in this run should have been wins and it's costing us badly. Barnsley and Mansfield (away) are next so we can't afford to slip up. So to the cup. Altrincham made it three out of three this season for drawing League 1 teams, though while we comfortably beat the other two, we barely held on in the first game thanks to a late-ish equaliser. I was glad to just be in the tie so I was delighted when a late Hawkes goal sent us through. Championship side Chesterfield were next but we took a shock lead in the first game. They equalised immediately but despite remaining deep and defensive we actually hada lot of chances and forced a lot of corners in the second half so had we got a winner it would have been deserved. The replay turned in the second half when they went down to 10 men I decided to push a little more and we almost immediately scored and went full defensive to send us through to the last 16! We face Norwich of all teams and will almost certainly lose but you have to wonder. This is part of why it would be harsh to get sacked if we don't go up. It's not just the promotions but the cup runs and what is now a long list of higher division scalps. I think I have earned the right to stay for one more promotion push after this (if need be) and leave on my own terms.

Here you are (with the Euro winners as well) 2014 2018 2022 2026 2030

Yep, it's just so frustrating. Both goalkeeper injuries happened just as it looked like we might be building some momentum and it was unfortunate that we had both keepers out on each occasion. There was some extra frustration about the York defeat since aside from the fact that we would otherwise have hoped to win that one comfortably, results elsewhere meant the gap to the playoffs and the top 3 remained 3 and 5 points respectively so we could really have closed in. I only played through to the end of the month to do the update because of how frustrating I was finding it. The playoffs aren't too far off but the gap to the top 3 looks big. The next three games are Peterborough, Accrington and Fleetwood all away which probably won't be fun either.

Nov 2030 Today's update can be summed up in one word... Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!! It didn't start too badly with a draw at Doncaster and a win at Blackpool where only their second consolation goal denied us the chance to move into the top 3 on goals scored. I didn't care too much about going out of the Football League Trophy to Halifax but then our goalkeeper Adams got injured, with last year's first choice Harris already being out for a while. That left us having to use a greyed-out player and I knew we were in trouble. However while both games he played were defeats, it was the rest of the defence who were the failures. Things didn't immediately improve when (an admitedly unfit) Adams returned against AFC Wimbledon. After that I decided to go back to a 'balanced' mentality from 'control'. We weren't taking full advantage of that up front and that may have not helped with the increasing uselessness of the defenders. It seemed to work a charm as we comfortably beat Sheffield Utd away, then had a surprisingly easy win over League 1 Gillingham in the FA Cup. Torquay was trickier but we got the job done to bounce back into the playoff places. Unfortunately Adams got injured again, and since he missed the start of the season with yet another, I was amazed that it didn't feature as a weakness on his coach report! Unfortunately this time greyed-out goalie was a massive liability as we lost heavily against York, and I was glad when Harris was finally available again as we beat Wrexham. However the defence hadn't stopped letting the team down as we lost both our remaining league games, though losing to leaders Port Vale (with a goal debatably disallowed) was less disappointing. We at least finished the month in the same way we started, easily beating a League 1 team in the FA Cup, though that didn't ease the frustration as it just demonstrated what we're capable of.

Not really. Weymouth also started beneath the Conference North/South and were in League 2 for a few years but not anymore, leaving the above two as the only current examples in the league. Stockport started in the Conference but are now in the championship, Jarrow started in the amateur leagues of level 11 and were our main rivals to get promoted to the football league (managing it without a tycoon), Dunton and Broughton Rangers did the same thing and Sutton Athletic made a similar journey (having been relegated to Level 11 in the first season). Plymouth are the only Premier League team who even remotely stand out.

They had a tycoon takeover so shot up through the leagues, winning the Conference with over 100 points. It's only a few years since Brimscombe & Thrupp did the same thing, ending up as a middling League 1 side for now. Bromyard Town have a wage expenditure that's probably bigger than a lot of Championship clubs and I did wonder whether they would dominate this season as well but clearly not.

Good thing for us! Things just haven't clicked yet results-wise but it's not costing us too much. It's like last season in a way with the lack of consistency from our rivals higher up the table but I do think that if it stays that way we have a much better chance of pushing on and doing enough, whatever 'enough' is. I'm certainly targetting the top 3 this season, no doubt about that!

You really seem to be rising through the ranks,

Excellent!

Hopefully you can turn things around at your new club.

Typical Bayern being spoilsports

That was a great title win last season.

Go get 'em!

Chelsea seem to be struggling a bit.

Shame it ended the way it did at Hartlepool.

Sept 2030 The season did not get off to the best of starts. Fleetwood had finished way down the bottom half of the table last season so as potential promotion contenders I thought we needed to win comfortably as a gesture of intent only to go down to an embarassing defeat. We then had an expected defeat to Championship Huddersfield before a late equaliser denied us a win against MK Dons. We came to life against Bromyard Town, the latest 'tycoon' team to rise through the ranks but the quality of their team really didn't match a wage expenditure almost 6 times that of everyone else. Over half their team is on more than 10kpw and one is even on over 20kpw! For comparision we have a total wage budget of 33kpw with Hawkes at 2.7kpw being our only player on more than 2kpw. As they were big promotion favourites once more (having wiped the floor with the Conference last year) it's interesting to see them struggle. We couldn't quite get a goal against Halifax (the 'best of last year's relegated teams) but got a big win against Crewe before beating Gateshead, with a cup win over Sheffield Wednesday in between. The first of those wins was actually achieved despite an early red card. That put us in early promotion contention before a heavy defeat against Barnsley (near the bottom of the table) really brought us crashing down to earth. We bounced back against Newport before dropping two points against Dagenham. The first half saw a few "How did we not score that!" moments before an own goal gave them the lead and the game quietened down after Hawkes' equaliser. Despite another draw against Mansfield we still ended the month in 4th, just two points behind the entire top three which is a decent position to be in at this stage. I was surprised when I checked and saw we have the exact same record as this stage last season. However we do feel like a much better team, perhaps helped by taking a more attacking and creative approach that is leading to more chances and goals, though has also provided some 'chaotic' and frustrating results. The summer signings have done very well so far for the most part (those who have played much anyway) and while last season I was wondering what we were doing in the playoff places and we did drop down into mid-table on occasion, this year it feels like we are underachieving and I feel more confident about pushing on and being serious automatic promotion contenders. We do need to rack up wins on a more regular basis though and looking at the table it did seem awkward that Mansfield are actually the only other top 10 team we've played!