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Whitby Town – Blue Square North 2008/09 Season Review

League: 1st - Champions!

FA Cup: 2nd Qualifying Round

FA Trophy: 1st Round

Setanta Shield (North): 3rd Round

This season was very positive from the outset, with Middlesbrough becoming our parent club and sending Tom Craddock (Striker) and Rhys Williams (Centre Back) on loan, with both players being instrumental in our success. Craddock and free signing Waide Fairhurst (ex-Doncaster and Sheff Utd youth) were phenomenal up front, scoring 65 goals between them. This was vital as we failed to keep a clean sheet for 3 months from November to February! Fairhurst was arguably the most consistent performer, though Craddock really became a different class in the latter stages of the season – at one point scoring 4 goals in each of two consecutive away games.

For the first half of the season we floated around the top half, before finally establishing ourselves in the top three around Christmas time. After another couple of months Burton Albion fell away from ourselves and Nuneaton, so it was left to the pair of us to battle it out for the league title. A hard-fought 3-2 home win against Nuneaton in late January was extremely important, as before and after this match they were winning almost every game, so thankfully we took some points away from them and drew more or less level in the title race. See the position graph.

Cup-wise we were very disappointing in the FA cup, losing 2-1 at the first hurdle to Welling who went on to finish 19th in the Conference South. We had a decent run in the Setanta Shield, and to be honest I wasn’t at all happy when we went out in the 3rd round, losing 2-1 to Harrogate, a team that we comfortably beat twice in the league. Our FA Trophy performance was decent yet unspectacular - after qualifying we lost away at Conference Premier side Weymouth in a 1st round replay.

League Player of the Season: Tom Craddock (Waide Fairhurst - 3rd place)

Top League Goalscorer: Tom Craddock (37)

Signing of the Season: Waide Fairhurst

Fan Player of the Season: Waide Fairhurst

My Player of the Season: Jamie Yates (ex-Rotherham youth). Despite the strikers’ efforts, Yates’ performances on the right wing still stood out to me above anyone else. He contributed 10 goals and 16 assists over the course of the campaign, occasionally filling in up front, and strikes me as something of a lower league James Milner.

Other Key Players

Andy Ritchie – Solid defensive midfielder who also has a keen eye for goal and good passing. Formed a lethal partnership with Sam Wedgbury in the centre of the park.

Matthew Lowton – A surprisingly adept centre-back considering he’s only 5’9”. Worked very well with Rhys Williams and also played right-back when required.

Jamie Stevens – My new captain (replacing Alan Massey) as I begin in the conference premier, he starred at right back throughout the season, and was flexible enough to also compete at left back and on the left wing. A fans’ favourite.

In the build-up to the conference season, my assistant amazingly managed to arrange a home friendly with Lazio, bringing in over three times our biggest crowd so far! First conference match we won comfortably 3-1 vs Histon... however a poor 2-0 defeat against Rushden brought us back to reality. One major plus is that I've retained Craddock for another season, hopefully he's primed and ready to continue his heroics!

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Same here rancer.. I'm crapping myself going into my last year of school

Same...must focus on school to ensure I get high marks when i get to university, which may mean not playing FM:(

another 90th minute penalty! this time against Halifax!:mad:

The FA warned me...of course they're right!:mad:

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He better not:p. There's also some interest from Leyton Orient for Dawkins. And I wouldn't mind selling him for $300k.

The standings going into the final game of the season:

5th Wycombe - 76pts, +19

6th Exeter - 76pts, +8

7th Brentford - 75pts, +19

8th AFC Wimbledon - 74pts, +16

The final day:

Exeter vs Brentford

Hartlepool vs AFC Wimbledon

Wycombe vs Chester

I'm in the playoffs as long as I beat Hartlepool.

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AFC Wimbledon, 2012-2013 Season (Coca-Cola League 2)

Media Prediction: Last (as usual:rolleyes:)

Finishing Position: 7th

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Lost in the South Quarter-Final against Bournemouth 2-1 on penalties

Carling Cup: Lost in the 1st Round to West Brom 2-0

FA Cup: Lost in the 3rd Round to Charlton 6-0

The Squad:

Squad

A good team overall. We exceeded media expectations (as always:p) and sneaked into the playoffs in the last game.

Our first opponents in the playoffs were 2nd place Swindon. We defeated them 2-0 in the home leg and was hoping to only lose narrowly in the away leg (considering my bad away form). We lost 3-1 but beat them on penalties.

The Final at Wembley matched us up against Wycombe. They defeated us 2-0 and were promoted to League 1.

The Transfers:

Transfers

Brought in many new players this season, which made many of the players the previous season expendable. Many teams were interested and I sold players off to the highest bidder.

Darius Charles was decent at left back, compiling 3 assists in 55 league and cup games, with an average of 6.84.

Jonny Dixon, who I've been chasing since my scout found him while the BSS, finally came to AFC Wimbledon. He scored 6 goals and added 7 assists in 52 league and cup games.

Loanees Jonathon Obika scored 11 times in 22 league and cup games while Sam Cox, which i used mostly as a dm, had 2 goals and 5 assists in 39 league and cup games.

Backup gk Michael Taylor went on a free unfortunately, and starting gk Shayne Barlow left for Stockport. I was willing to sell as I felt Scott could do the job.

Bacon, a first-team regular last year, was sold for US$60k. Often unused defender Dale Bennett was sold for US$20k, another steal in my opinion lol. I offered Cameron to clubs and Shrewsbury wanted him, so he was sold there. And in the January transfer window, former Spur youngster Yaser Kasim, who never played a league game for me, was sold to Rochdale.

Key Players (League and Cup appearances totaled)

Simon Dawkins - 50 appearances, 32 goals, 3 assists, 11 Man of the Match awards, 7.14 average

A great player who will only get better. Did complain about being substituted in a match 2 months ago though, which was annoying. 6th in the league in goals. I wouldn't selling him if the right offer came.

Kazenga LuaLua - 54 appearances, 9 goals, 9 assists, 4 Man of the Match awards, 7.20 average

Another very solid player. The most consistent player this season. Many Championship clubs want him. Won't selling him for anything less than US$300k.

Maxi Gradel - 51 appearances, 0 goals, 23 assists, 1 Man of the Match award, 7.12 average

Led the league in assists. Bit undisciplined though with 11 yellows and a red.

Finances

Finances

Very healthy bank balance:D

Goals for next season (in order from highest priority to lowest:))

  • improve training and youth facilities
  • get promoted
  • get US$5 million in the bank by next year
  • please SI, can I not be predicted 24th again next season lol
  • reach the semi-final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy
  • reach the 3rd Round of the FA Cup
  • do better in the Carling Cup

AFC Wimbledon Challenge

2008-2009: 2nd in BSS. Promoted

2009-2010: 12th in BSP.

2010-2011: 5th in BSP. Promoted

2011-2012: 17th in L2.

2012-2013: 7th in L2.

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Offers for LuaLua, Yeo, and Johnson all accepted.

Johnson rejected because he thinks playing first team football for AFC Wimbledon is better:D

A player with a bit of loyalty! :p I find that a lot of them are just out for themselves and will jump ship at the first opportunity.

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3rd season in I got promoted to the conference, after some brilliant signings and all my title rivals started choking at the end. Buit I'm in the conference, no money still, then suddenly I get to the 3rd round and get drawn against Chelsea, at stamford bridge! Best day in Chippenhams history (lost 6-0 :( ) But my finances http://i36.tinypic.com/13z6cm1.png wahey!

oh and i survived my first season in the conference, just! NowI must make some decent signings.

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Gateshead FC Season 2009/2010

After a decent first season (9th) I expected this season to at least challenge for a playoff spot. How wrong I proved to be!

The board expected a respectable league position and I agreed but really hoped for a bit more. Things started bad after taking only one win from the opening five games. It didn't get better and after 10 games we had only taken 13 points from a possible 30. From there, consistency proved to be the enemy: one week we would win 3-0 against a promotion pusher, the next lose 3-0 to a relegation fighter.

Despite battling up to 7th at one stage, results one again dropped and there seemed little I could do to turn things around. Tweaking the tactics, a few new signings, but neither helped and on the back of just two wins from the last 12 games, we slumped to a depressing 19th (11 points clear of the drop though). Not at all what I wanted from this season and it leaves a lot of work to do.

Looking back, the major problem was our cup progression. We played 11 cup games over the season and during November played a total of 7 games, only one of which was in the league. The other problem was the whole team never fired as one. For whatever reason, when the strikers were on form, the defence became suicidal, and when the defence looked unbeatable, the forwards couldn't hit a barn door!

Competitions:

Blue Square North: 19th 46pts -10g.d.

Setanta Shield: 2nd Round (Lost 3-2 at Hucknall)

FA Trophy: 1st Round (Lost 3-2 vs Weymouth(BSP))

FA Cup: 2nd Round (Lost 4-3 (replay) at Wrexham(L2))

Transfers:

Signed a total of 13 players, all on frees. A good mix of youth and experience. Unfortunately only about 50% proved to be fruitful signings and the others are all set to be released. Sold 6 players, also all for free but with sell on clauses.

Despite reasonable success last season, there still seemed very few players willing to sign for me this season. Similarly, noone with any ability wanted to come in on loan, and due to the continuing lack of parent club, we had no loanees to back up the small squad.

Players:

Star Man:

Jamie Cureton - Second signing of the season, without him probably would have been closer to relegation. Dried up towards the end of the season but still came 3rd in BSN Player of the Season award.

Apps 45+2, Gls: 28, Assts: 5, MOM: 8, Avg.Rat.: 7.38

Disappointment:

Mark Arber - First signing of the season, thought he would solve last seasons defensive troubles. Ended up causing more problems than he solved and found himself warming the bench a lot in the second half of the season.

Apps 24+4, Gls: 0, Assts: 1, Avg.Rat.: 6.84, Mistakes leading to goal: 7!!

Next Season:

Looking for a few quality signings over the summer to make massive improvements in every department of the squad. Hopefully will finally push for the playoffs but will be happy just to get my midtable position back and try to build after that again.

Game Summary:

Season 1 - 9th Blue Square North

Season 2 - 19th Blue Square North

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my parent club keeps sending me crap players on loan, and my chairman critises me for signing them :@

yeah I've had this happen too. it's pretty stupid when you can't reject the loan but your fans are upset at the player's signing!!

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Guest roberto922

The legend returns! Rui Fonte, who up until last season was our all time greatest goalscorer, has returned to AFC Wimbledon.. The difference? This time it's permanent! He's worth a huge 3.3 million now :D He was released by Arsenal so I snapped him up. The rest as they say.... will be history :)

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The legend returns! Rui Fonte, who up until last season was our all time greatest goalscorer, has returned to AFC Wimbledon.. The difference? This time it's permanent! He's worth a huge 3.3 million now :D He was released by Arsenal so I snapped him up. The rest as they say.... will be history :)

Very nice bit of business there roberto will be good to see the effect a returning hero has on your team.

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Guest roberto922

Yup it's gonna be an exciting first year in the championship with an extremely strong attack :D The only problem now is that I have nowhere to put El-Zhar :(

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The legend returns! Rui Fonte, who up until last season was our all time greatest goalscorer, has returned to AFC Wimbledon.. The difference? This time it's permanent! He's worth a huge 3.3 million now :D He was released by Arsenal so I snapped him up. The rest as they say.... will be history :)

Funny coincidence that: I am playing a career game and just got him on loan for Sutton United, he's scored two goals to beat the mighty Yellow Army (Canvey Island) 2-1. We lost the parent-feeder club friendly 11-0. :(

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Rhys Murphy? I will consider those two then when it comes to making some short term loans. But this is off-topic, so we shall say no more.

I noticed for about 20 posts in a row on this page, the usernames began with an R and ended with numbers. (Razer, roberto, rancer).

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Rhys Murphy? I will consider those two then when it comes to making some short term loans. But this is off-topic, so we shall say no more.

I noticed for about 20 posts in a row on this page, the usernames began with an R and ended with numbers. (Razer, roberto, rancer).

Interesting observation:D, but not 20 posts in a row, considering that you broke up the streak of usernames beginning with r and ending with numbers:D

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The dream is over at Guiseley - I was sacked 18 games into the season when we were sat rock bottom of Blue Square Premier without a win to our names.

I'm holidaying for a new game now and will most likely look to take control of AFC Wimbledon, mainly because I want a big London side as a parent club.

canvey!! - You notice some strange things!

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Guest roberto922

And now it's three :D We're doing quite well atm, we were unlucky to draw our first match and now we're 2-0 up vs Crewe at half time :)

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Guest roberto922

Ouch :( Brought back down to earth after a 7-2 defeat vs Norwich, we had to put Pedro at centre back after Radicevic (Who was only playing because Sahin was out) got injured.

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