[FM10] When The Saints Go Marching In - Crouchy's Mighty Saints Save!

[crouchaldinho]

Thanks for all of the comments guys.

Unlucky on losing out on the playoffs

Luke Hoyte looks amazing for that level

Thanks.

Hoyte does look rather good, doesn't he!

Just read this thread, and its been very interesting so far! Will look out for updates and wish you a lot of success in the future! Keep up the good work Crouchaldinho!

Many thanks Standard liege.

Went to the game today and just wanted to say your keeper is a legend.

Bazza is a legend, definitely. Great 'keeper and a nice guy too.

The club is in trouble at the moment in real life. We've released a lot of players due to budget cuts and we're going to really struggle from now until the end of the season.

Haven't been on the Careers Forum in a while. Come back and find this lovely little thread. Enjoyed having a read through it. Decent first season there, Crouchington.

Welcome back Mike7077. I've missed you.

Will we be seeing a new career from you soon? Maybe a sequel to 'Juve got to be kidding me!?

[Mike7077]

Welcome back Mike7077. I've missed you.

Will we be seeing a new career from you soon? Maybe a sequel to 'Juve got to be kidding me!?

Nah, the Juve one is dead and buried. I don't know why but I suddenly lost interest. I think things went a bit too well a bit too quickly.

I have another career on the go I'm already a season in so I can't see me starting anything on here now.

I shall just have to keep up with the progress of the Saints.

[crouchaldinho]

PRE-SEASON 2010/11:

I'll try to move quite quickly through pre-season and just post up the results and a one line comment, as I know it isn't the most interesting time of the year. Then we can get on to the more exciting part - the summer transfers!

Working 0 - 1 SAINTS (Pre-season Friendly)

Dominated this game against the Conference North side and deserved the win.

City scorers: Jason Norville.

City MoM: Andy Duncan.

Harlow Town 0 - 0 SAINTS (Pre-season Friendly)

Really ought to have won this one but we weren't clinical enough in front of goal.

City Scorers: None.

City MoM: Youth player Luke Hoyte.

SAINTS 0 – 1 Kidderminster Harriers (Pre-Season Friendly)

Didn't deserve anything here against the Conference National side.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Andy Duncan.

SAINTS 1 – 3 Grimsby Town (Pre-Season Friendly)

Grimsby got the win but the scoreline flattered them somewhat.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

SAINTS 0 - 3 Port Vale (Pre-Season Friendly)

Soundly beaten here by the League Two side.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Goalkeeper Ross Worner.

SAINTS 1 - 5 Reading (Pre-Season Friendly)

We didn't really compete here, which was very disappointing, and Reading showed their quality and punished us for our poor display.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Croydon Athletic 0 - 1 SAINTS (Pre-Season Friendly)

We showed our superiority here but should have got a few more goals.

City scorers: Youth player David Ojapah

City MoM: Youth player Luke Hoyte.

SAINTS 3 - 0 Saints Reserves (Pre-Season Friendly)

Finally, I used this behind closed doors friendly against the reserves to field my starting XI for the first league game and to get some extra match fitness for the squad before the season kicked off.

City scorers: Ryan Hall, Craig Calver x 2.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Manager Comments for Pre-Season:

Not a great pre-season really. Soundly beaten by every league side we played.

I used pre-season to check out a few youth players and was impressed with what I saw. One or two local lads may have a part to play this season. I also experimented with the line-up, introducing a few new signings.

We open up the season at home to Maidenhead United, before head to Truro City for what will no doubt be a tough away match. I’d like to think we’d be able to get something from these two games against sides who are predicted to finish below us in the league. Fingers crossed because we could really do with a strong start to the season this time around.

 

[crouchaldinho]

SQUAD AND TRANSFERS SUMMARY:

Transfers:

This screenshot shows my transfers during pre-season.

The disappointing news was that I couldn't manage to get either Godfrey Poku or JJ O'Donnell to sign on loan again from Luton Town. Both of them seemed to want to stay with the Hatters and the Luton manager appears to consider them as part of the first team squad now. The same situation occurred with Jake Beecroft too.

Putting those disappointments to one side, I did some good work in the summer to improve the squad.

First the 'outs', and I had to let quite a few fringe players go to free up the budget to improve the team. The likes of Mark Peters, Chris Sullivan and Angus McLachlan were released at the end of their contracts.

Much to my regret, I also had to take the decision to let Ryan Frater go. I had too many good alternatives and I couldn't see him getting much first team football. I also had to let Lee Clarke go as he was simply a total flop since I took the risk of bringing him back towards the end of last season.

Now for the 'ins', and the major news was the signing of former Saints captain and defender Ben Martin. A great signing for the club. As you can see from this screenshot, Ben is a solid and composed defender who is particularly good in the air.

I also signed some quality players to bolster the squad in every position to make sure that we were going to be a stronger outfit this season. Ex-Boreham Wood midfielder Wes Daly came in as a replacement for Poku really, to be a strong defensive midfielder to partner Shields in the midfield. Ex-Woking midfielder Jamie Hand came in to offer extra options in the middle of the park.

Ex-Bromley winger, Ryan Hall came in on a free after being released by the Lillywhites and he looks like quite a promising player at this level. I also signed up Ben Greenhalgh to continue the St. Albans City tradition of signing football reality TV stars (we used to have Sam Hurrell)!

A few loan players also came in from Southend, who the Saints tend to loan players from in real life. Winger Justin Hazell is the pick of the bunch and will probably start most games. Finally, we got Adam Watkins from Luton for another loan spell after he did quite well for us last year. All loans were signed for three months so we'll see how it goes.

I have a good sized squad now and no real intention of bringing anyone else in, that is unless O'Donnell or Poku become available

First Team Squad:

| Pkd     | Inf     | Name             | Position      | Nat     | Height  | Weight       | Age     | Value   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK      | PR      | Ross Worner      | GK            | ENG     | 5'11"   | 12 st 8 lbs  | 20      | £2K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Nathan Silver    | GK            | ENG     | 6'1"    | 11 st 13 lbs | 18      | -       | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Inj     | Laurence Gaughan | D RC          | IRL     | 6'2"    | 12 st 1 lbs  | 20      | £30K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1      |         | James Quilter    | D RC, DM, M C | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 27      | -       | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR      |         | James Fisher     | D R, M RC     | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 26      | £4K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Jamie Dennis     | D R, M C      | ENG     | 5'11"   | 12 st 10 lbs | 18      | £3K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4      | Rsv     | Luke Hoyte YP1   | D L           | ENG     | 5'7"    | 10 st 5 lbs  | 16      | £6K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC      |         | Ryan Carolan     | D LC, DM      | IRL     | 6'1"    | 13 st 3 lbs  | 20      | £35K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL      | Inj     | Peter Smith      | D L, AM L     | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 24      | £4.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Simon Dunne      | D C           | IRL     | 6'0"    | 12 st 8 lbs  | 20      | £24K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Andy Duncan      | D C           | ENG     | 5'11"   | 14 st 2 lbs  | 32      | £1.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC      | Inj     | Ben Martin       | D C           | ENG     | 6'7"    | 13 st 7 lbs  | 27      | £16K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Adam Everitt     | D/M L         | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 28      | -       | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2      | Inj     | Jamie Hand       | DM, M C       | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 26      | £5K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC     | Rsv     | Wes Daly         | DM, M C       | NIR     | 5'9"    | 11 st 0 lbs  | 26      | £3.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC     | Inj     | Solomon Shields  | DM, M C       | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 13 lbs | 20      | £45K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Inj     | Ryan Hall        | M LC          | ENG     | 5'10"   | 10 st 3 lbs  | 22      | £5K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3      |         | Danny Williams   | AM R          | ENG     | 5'9"    | 10 st 1 lbs  | 29      | £3.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR     | PR      | Justin Hazell    | AM RLC        | ENG     | 6'0"    | 12 st 10 lbs | 18      | £3.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Wes Fogden       | AM RC         | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 4 lbs  | 22      | £4K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML     | Wnt     | Ben Greenhalgh   | AM RL         | ENG     | 5'7"    | 11 st 6 lbs  | 18      | £3K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Gary Cohen       | AM R, ST      | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 26      | £3.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5      | PR      | Jason Norville   | AM/F C        | TRI     | 5'11"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 26      | £4.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Inj     | Paul Hakim       | AM/F C        | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 2 lbs  | 28      | £14K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC     | Rsv     | Adam Watkins     | AM/F C        | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 9 lbs  | 18      | £50K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST      | Wnt     | Craig Calver     | ST            | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 13 lbs | 19      | £75K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

The real stars of the squad are Craig Calver, the forward we signed from Southend last season, and Justin Hazell, the 18-year-old attacking midfielder who is on loan until the end of October. Sol Shields is another star and he will be my deep-lying playmaker. Forward Paul Hakim is the other major star of the team and I'm hoping that he will have an injury free season and improve on his goals ratio from last season. At 28, he is probably at his peak now, and I want him to see out his career at Clarence Park.

As you can see, we have quite a good blend of youth and experience. Hopefully this will serve us well as we look to move forward this season and challenge for promotion.

[EvilDave]

A little late but well done on a good first season and unlucky with the playoffs. I'm sure you can improve further this coming year, do you think you've got a realistic shot at going up? Good luck!

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR AUGUST 2010:

SAINTS 1 – 1 Maidenhead United (Blue Square South)

Well, this really ought to have been a win to start the season off the way we mean to go on but we just couldn’t get ourselves sorted today.

In terms of dictating the play and making chances, it was a great performance but there were too many individual errors.

We lost a goal in the first-half and then struggled to break down the Maidenhead defence in order to pull level. It took us until the last minute of the game, as we pushed everyone forward and went to 4-2-4. Craig Calver eventually found the back of the net and rescued a point for us.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 375.

Truro City 2 – 2 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

I think this was a good performance and a decent result against the newly promoted side.

We really dominated possession and made a number of good chances which should have seen us winning this game. However, Truro were very strong at the back and they managed to keep themselves in this game somehow despite our best efforts.

Truro actually went ahead first with an early goal. We found an answer through Adam Watkins.

Again, they went ahead in the second-half and we found ourselves fighting back in the final minutes of the game to salvage a point.

Paul Hakim was the hero for us in the third minute of added time. He popped up and scored a cracker to save us a point.

City scorers: Adam Watkins & Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Adam Watkins.

Attendance at the Treyew Road: 617.

SAINTS 3 – 0 Basingstoke Town (Blue Square South)

An extremely strong performance here, which makes up for the disappointment of drawing our first two games of the season.

We were outstanding, bossing the game, and Craig Calver scored a sensational hat-trick and walked off with the match ball. A wonderful display and, I hope, a sign of things to come!

City scorers: Craig Calver x 3.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 297.

Bath City 0 – 3 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

Two 3-0 victories in a row. Absolutely outstanding!

We paid Bath back for that defeat at the end of last season which really knocked the wind out of our sails before the play-offs.

Truly outstanding football here and we weren’t flattered by the scoreline.

Southend loanee Justin Hazell grabbed the opening goal and then ex=Bromley winger Ryan Hall scored twice to seal the points.

Absolutely outstanding result and I was delighted with this. Hopefully we are starting how we mean to go on.

City scorers: Justin Hazell & Ryan Hall x 2.

City MoM: Ryan Hall.

Attendance at Twerton Park: 502.

SAINTS 1 – 0 Bromley (Blue Square South)

A very tight game here and we just edged it.

We had trouble beating Bromley at home last season. They seem to be a hard side for us to break down.

We did a good enough job and deserved the win but we failed to create a lot of chances. Still, Justin Hazell popped up and grabbed the winner for us with 10 minutes to go, and we can be very pleased with another fine win.

City scorers: Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Defender Ryan Carolan

Attendance at Clarence Park: 449.

Manager Comments for August:

We seem to be having another injury crisis, which happens way too often for my liking. We currently have Peter Smith, Ryan Hall and Paul Hakim out. All first team players. Whenever I get a player playing really well, I fear for him, because I just know an injury will be around the corner.

Anyway, this is a fine start to the season. 11 points from 5 games is an excellent return. I’m absolutely delighted with how we have started in the league this season.

[crouchaldinho]

END OF AUGUST SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Chelmsford  |       | 5     | 4     | 1     | 0     | 9     | 2     | +7    | 13    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Staines     |       | 5     | 4     | 0     | 1     | 10    | 4     | +6    | 12    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Woking      |       | 5     | 4     | 0     | 1     | 7     | 2     | +5    | 12    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 4th   |       | St. Albans  |       | 5     | 3     | 2     | 0     | 10    | 3     | +7    | 11    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Crawley     |       | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 11    | 4     | +7    | 10    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Thurrock    |       | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 5     | 4     | +1    | 8     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Grays       |       | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 4     | 3     | +1    | 8     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Lewes       |       | 5     | 2     | 1     | 2     | 8     | 7     | +1    | 7     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Salisbury   |       | 5     | 1     | 3     | 1     | 6     | 4     | +2    | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Tiverton    |       | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 7     | 6     | +1    | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Eastleigh   |       | 5     | 1     | 3     | 1     | 5     | 5     | 0     | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Maidenhead  |       | 5     | 1     | 3     | 1     | 5     | 5     | 0     | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Sutton Utd  |       | 5     | 1     | 3     | 1     | 4     | 4     | 0     | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Bromley     |       | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 3     | 4     | -1    | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Dover       |       | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 4     | 6     | -2    | 6     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Gloucester  |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 5     | 7     | -2    | 5     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Truro       |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 6     | 12    | -6    | 5     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Havant & W  |       | 5     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 3     | 5     | -2    | 4     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Dorchester  |       | 5     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 3     | 5     | -2    | 4     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Bath        |       | 5     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 3     | 7     | -4    | 4     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Maidstone   |       | 5     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 2     | 13    | -11   | 4     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Basingstoke |       | 5     | 0     | 1     | 4     | 2     | 10    | -8    | 1     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps  | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    | PR    | Ross Worner      | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 6.84  | 20    | ENG   | £2K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    |       | James Fisher     | 4     | -     | -     | -     | 6.88  | 26    | ENG   | £4K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    | Inj   | Peter Smith      | 4     | -     | -     | -     | 6.43  | 24    | ENG   | £4.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Inj   | Ben Martin       | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 6.64  | 27    | ENG   | £16K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    |       | Ryan Carolan     | 5     | -     | -     | 1     | 7.04  | 20    | IRL   | £35K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Rsv   | Wes Daly         | 5     | -     | 1     | -     | 6.94  | 26    | NIR   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Inj   | Solomon Shields  | 4 (1) | -     | 1     | -     | 6.88  | 20    | ENG   | £45K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR   | PR    | Justin Hazell    | 4     | 2     | 1     | -     | 7.03  | 18    | ENG   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML   | Wnt   | Ben Greenhalgh   | 2 (3) | -     | -     | -     | 6.88  | 18    | ENG   | £3K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC   | Rsv   | Adam Watkins     | 3 (2) | 1     | -     | 1     | 6.80  | 18    | ENG   | £50K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | Wnt   | Craig Calver     | 3 (1) | 4     | -     | 1     | 7.28  | 19    | ENG   | £75K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1    |       | James Quilter    | 0 (4) | -     | -     | -     | 6.83  | 27    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2    | Inj   | Jamie Hand       | 1 (2) | -     | -     | -     | 6.85  | 26    | ENG   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3    |       | Danny Williams   | 1 (1) | -     | 2     | -     | 7.00  | 29    | ENG   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4    | Rsv   | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 1     | -     | -     | -     | 6.90  | 16    | ENG   | £6K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5    | PR    | Jason Norville   | 0 (1) | -     | 1     | -     | 6.80  | 26    | TRI   | £4.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Simon Dunne      | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 20    | IRL   | £24K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Andy Duncan      | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 32    | ENG   | £1.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Laurence Gaughan | 1     | -     | -     | -     | 7.20  | 20    | IRL   | £30K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Ryan Hall        | 3     | 2     | -     | 1     | 7.20  | 22    | ENG   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Gary Cohen       | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 26    | ENG   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Adam Everitt     | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 28    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Paul Hakim       | 4     | 1     | 2     | -     | 7.00  | 28    | ENG   | £14K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Jamie Dennis     | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 18    | ENG   | £3K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Wes Fogden       | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 22    | ENG   | £4K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Nathan Silver    | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 18    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[crouchaldinho]

A little late but well done on a good first season and unlucky with the playoffs. I'm sure you can improve further this coming year, do you think you've got a realistic shot at going up? Good luck!

Thanks for the message EvilDave.

It's never too late, I always like having some comments on my career thread.

Basically, I want to improve on last season, so I'm looking at play-offs minimum. I feel as though the squad is stronger than last year, so I can't see why we shouldn't be up and around there at the end of the season. Fingers crossed!

[Almondo]

A strong Month there for the Saints, especially with 2 cracking 3-0 wins in a row.

[ryan_sacfc]

Hi Crouchy.

You are going up this year

You better be careful about using that banner - you-know-who will come a-knocking soon enough!

[crouchaldinho]

Haha Ryan.

Promise you won't tell!

Thanks for your comment!

When will we see your Saints career on this forum though? That's what I want to know!

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2010:

Eastleigh 1 – 2 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A superb three points for us and I’m not quite sure how we managed it. In truth, Eastleight maybe deserved something from the game but we managed to grind out this result. A Craig Calver goal gave us a lead heading into the half-time break. In the second-half, Eastleigh pulled level before Calver pounced to score his second of the game to win us the points.

City scorers: Craig Calver x 2.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at the Silverlake Stadium: 512.

SAINTS 1 – 1 Lewes (Blue Square South)

A bit of a disappointment here against Lewes. We really ought to have won it but failed to get the second goal and also failed to defend our lead. Lewes equalised in the 4th minute of injury time.

City scorers: Craig Calver (pen).

City MoM: Luke Hoyte.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 420.

Dover 0 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A solid point for us away to one of the promotion favourites. A very equal game with few chances and a draw was a fair result.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at the Crabble: 919.

SAINTS 5 – 0 Hitchin Town (FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round)

FA Cup time and we drew our Hertfordshire rivals.

I was determined to have another decent run in the cup and so did not take this one lightly.

A dominant display with five different goalscorers. I couldn’t have asked for much more really!

City scorers: Wes Fogden, Ryan Hall, Gary Cohen, Craig Calver, James Quilter.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 850.

THE SAINTS DRAW WALTON & HERSHAM IN THE FA CUP THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND.

SAINTS 3 – 0 Maidstone (Blue Square South)

Another dominant performance, this time against newly promoted Maidstone.

Craig Calver scored a brace of goals and the kid is absolutely on fire right now. If he keeps scoring like this then we have to be challenging for the title.

City scorers: Craig Calver x 2 & Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 314.

Havant & Waterlooville 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We were favourites but this was a very tight game in the end.

They got an early lead and we ended up pulling level after half-time.

We were fairly equal in terms of the play and chances created. Maybe Havant edged it but there wasn’t much in it.

We’ll always take a point away from home though so we can’t be too disappointed.

City scorers: Ryan Hall.

City MoM: Ryan Hall.

Attendance at Westleigh Park: 285.

Walton & Hersham 0 – 1 SAINTS (FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round)

We were clear favourites here but really struggled to find the back of the net.

Ryan Hall managed to put us ahead in the middle of the second-half and we held on to get through to the 4th Qualifying Round.

I’m obviously pleased to get the result but a little disappointed by the struggle we had in today’s match.

City scorers: Ryan Hall.

City MoM: James Fisher.

Attendance at Stompond Lane: 350.

THE SAINTS DRAW EVESHAM UNITED IN THE FA CUP FOURTH QUALIFYING ROUND.

SAINTS 3 – 0 Dorchester Town (Blue Square South)

A man of the match performance from Craig Calver got us the points. He scored one and set one up too. The lad has really come of age lately and he is lethal in front of goal.

We dominated but had a testing last 10 minutes as we were only leading by one goal. Paul Hakim, on as a sub, grabbed the third in the last five minutes to put the result beyond all doubt.

City scorers: Justin Hazell, Craig Calver & Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 356.

Evesham 1 – 2 SAINTS (FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round)

This was much more comfortable than the scoreline suggests, with Evesham getting a late consolation at the end of the game.

It’s great to get to the first round proper again!

City scorers: Craig Calver x 2 & Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at St. George’s Lane: 183.

THE SAINTS DRAW BRADFORD CITY AWAY IN THE FA CUP 1st ROUND.

Salisbury 0 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We won this one against the run of play really.

It wasn’t a classic performance, more of a backs-to-the-walls kind of job.

We had few chances and really Salisbury could have scored a couple of goals. Fortunately, we kept them out, and ended up nicking all of the points thanks to a Jason Norville penalty in the second-half. A super result.

City scorers: Jason Norville (pen).

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium: 610.

SAINTS 2 – 0 Grays Athletic (Blue Square South)

Grays are expected to be up there and challenging for promotion so this was another very good result for us.

The game itself was quite even though and 2-0 maybe flatters us somewhat.

I had to make a number of chances due to the recent build up of fixtures. In the end, one of the fringe players ended up winning it for us. Gary Cohen, playing wide right, scored a marvellous brace of goals, one in each half, to give us an important win at Clarence Park.

City scorers: Gary Cohen.

City MoM: Gary Cohen.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 431.

Manager Comments for September & October:

Well, this has been some couple of months!

18 points from 8 matches is an absolutely superb return in the league.

We’ve progress in the cup too and have a first round proper match against Bradford City to look forward to next month. I imagine that this will result in us exiting the competition earlier than last season but an away match against a big side who have a 25,000 plus stadium could do us the world of good financially.

At the moment, we are on an extraordinary unbeaten run. I barely want to talk about it in case the ‘forum curse’ strikes my game.

We are the only unbeaten team in all of the English leagues. 13 games unbeaten in the league and 16 in all competitions this season. I know it has to end sometime but I hope that we can keep it going for a bit longer!

It’s a marvellous start and we really have to be looking at a title challenge this year after this early run of form. But how we react when the first loss does come is going to be absolutely key to how successful we are going to be this season.

[crouchaldinho]

END OF OCTOBER SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 1st   |       | St. Albans  |       | 13    | 8     | 5     | 0     | 23    | 7     | +16   | 29    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Woking      |       | 12    | 9     | 2     | 1     | 22    | 6     | +16   | 29    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Chelmsford  |       | 13    | 8     | 2     | 3     | 20    | 11    | +9    | 26    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Crawley     |       | 13    | 7     | 4     | 2     | 25    | 8     | +17   | 25    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Dover       |       | 12    | 6     | 2     | 4     | 13    | 10    | +3    | 20    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Lewes       |       | 13    | 5     | 4     | 4     | 18    | 14    | +4    | 19    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Grays       |       | 13    | 5     | 4     | 4     | 16    | 15    | +1    | 19    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Staines     |       | 13    | 5     | 3     | 5     | 15    | 16    | -1    | 18    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Salisbury   |       | 13    | 4     | 5     | 4     | 16    | 10    | +6    | 17    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Bath        |       | 13    | 4     | 5     | 4     | 12    | 14    | -2    | 17    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Tiverton    |       | 12    | 5     | 1     | 6     | 14    | 15    | -1    | 16    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Bromley     |       | 13    | 4     | 4     | 5     | 12    | 14    | -2    | 16    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Basingstoke |       | 12    | 5     | 1     | 6     | 13    | 17    | -4    | 16    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Truro       |       | 12    | 4     | 4     | 4     | 16    | 23    | -7    | 16    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Sutton Utd  |       | 12    | 3     | 6     | 3     | 14    | 13    | +1    | 15    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Eastleigh   |       | 13    | 3     | 6     | 4     | 12    | 13    | -1    | 15    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Thurrock    |       | 12    | 4     | 2     | 6     | 12    | 14    | -2    | 14    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Maidenhead  |       | 13    | 2     | 7     | 4     | 8     | 11    | -3    | 13    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Gloucester  |       | 13    | 3     | 3     | 7     | 10    | 22    | -12   | 12    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Dorchester  |       | 13    | 2     | 4     | 7     | 12    | 16    | -4    | 10    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Havant & W  |       | 13    | 2     | 3     | 8     | 8     | 21    | -13   | 9     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Maidstone   |       | 12    | 2     | 1     | 9     | 6     | 27    | -21   | 7     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps  | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    |       | Ross Worner      | 16    | -     | -     | -     | 6.81  | 21    | ENG   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    |       | James Fisher     | 13    | -     | -     | 1     | 6.82  | 26    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    | Wnt   | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 5     | -     | -     | 1     | 7.14  | 17    | ENG   | £35K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Rsv   | Andy Duncan      | 2     | -     | -     | -     | 6.35  | 33    | ENG   | £1.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Rsv   | Ryan Carolan     | 15    | -     | -     | 3     | 7.07  | 21    | IRL   | £9K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   |       | James Quilter    | 2 (11)| 1     | 1     | -     | 6.85  | 27    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Rsv   | Solomon Shields  | 14 (2)| -     | 4     | -     | 6.93  | 21    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR   | Rsv   | Gary Cohen       | 1 (3) | 3     | -     | 1     | 7.55  | 26    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML   | Rsv   | Ben Greenhalgh   | 7 (3) | -     | -     | -     | 6.71  | 18    | ENG   | £2.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC   | Loa   | Adam Watkins     | 6 (2) | 1     | 1     | 1     | 6.84  | 19    | ENG   | £50K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | PR    | Paul Hakim       | 9 (3) | 3     | 3     | -     | 6.90  | 28    | ENG   | £14K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1    | Rsv   | Laurence Gaughan | 2 (1) | -     | -     | -     | 7.17  | 20    | IRL   | £28K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2    | Rsv   | George Cox       | 0 (1) | -     | -     | -     | 6.80  | 18    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3    | Rsv   | Danny Williams   | 2 (3) | -     | 3     | -     | 6.80  | 29    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4    | Yel   | Ryan Hall        | 9 (1) | 5     | 1     | 1     | 7.17  | 22    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5    | Wnt   | Craig Calver     | 13 (1)| 11    | 5     | 5     | 7.44  | 19    | ENG   | £80K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Jamie Hand       | 2 (9) | -     | -     | -     | 6.78  | 26    | ENG   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Yel   | Wes Daly         | 14    | -     | 2     | -     | 6.86  | 26    | NIR   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | PR    | Jason Norville   | 4 (4) | 1     | 2     | -     | 6.85  | 27    | TRI   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Yel   | Ben Martin       | 15    | 1     | -     | 1     | 7.04  | 27    | ENG   | £16K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Adam Everitt     | 2     | -     | -     | -     | 7.75  | 28    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | PR    | Justin Hazell    | 12 (1)| 4     | 1     | -     | 6.98  | 18    | ENG   | £3K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Wes Fogden       | 1     | 1     | -     | -     | 7.20  | 22    | ENG   | £4.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     |       | Peter Smith      | 8     | -     | 1     | -     | 6.71  | 25    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[crouchaldinho]

I should also have mentioned that I renewed the loan contracts of Justin Hazell and Adam Watkins (of Southend United and Luton Town respectively) so that they will be with us until the end of the season.

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2010:

Staines Town 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A draw was a fair result in this fairly uneventful game. Both goals were scored just before half-time, with Staines taking the lead and Ryan Carolan equalising three minutes later.

City scorers: Ryan Carolan.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at Wheatsheaf Park: 156.

Bradford City 3 – 0 SAINTS (FA Cup First Round)

Our first loss of the season came away to Bradford City. I think we were always going to lose this one against the side who currently sit at the top of League Two. We were outclassed and outplayed. Not a day to remember.

Still, it’s great to have made the first round proper and we can be pleased with the cup run. We made a fair bit of money from this tie as well, clearing the debts somewhat.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Nobody really stands out.

Attendance at Valley Parade: 8,500.

SAINTS 3 – 1 Sutton United (Blue Square South)

Back to the league and a nice solid win for us here. We were truly dominant and well worth the three points.

City scorers: Justin Hazell, Ryan Hall & Craig Calver.

City MoM: Justin Hazell.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 400.

SAINTS 3 – 2 Dover Athletic (FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round)

I made quite a few changes to rest players for this game, although I did put out a team that I felt could win the tie as I really wanted to progress in this competition.

In the end, we were fairly comfortable here, although Dover put up a challenge. A late goal from Dover gave the scoreline a slightly different spin but it was otherwise fairly comfortable for us.

City scorers: Jason Norville, Ben Martin x 2.

City MoM: Ben Martin.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 294.

THE SAINTS DRAW OXFORD UNITED IN THE FA TROPHY FIRST ROUND.

SAINTS 1 – 2 Woking (Blue Square South)

This one was 2nd (us) versus 1st (them).

We went ahead early and gave every sign that we were going to win this one fairly easily. However, we couldn’t find a second goal and they equalised on 84 minutes.

I decided to go all out for the win for the last 5 minutes. Big mistake.

I was too cocky and too confident. I went for glory when securing the point would have been the sensible choice.

16 league games undefeated. This run went to my head. This is a case of manager complacency.

I can’t believe I blew it. I was really annoyed with myself. They scored in the 4th minute of injury time. I was livid.

A big mistake from me that has really cost us. Our unbeaten run is ended.

City scorers: Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Peter Smith.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 422.

Tiverton Town 1 – 2 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

I was still hurting from the last game but we bounced back nicely here against Tiverton and I felt pleased with the response.

We were in control and fairly dominant, so this was a very pleasing display. Great to get back to winning ways.

City scorers: Craig Calver, Ryan Hall.

City MoM: Ryan Hall.

Attendance at Ladysmead: 201.

Chelmsford City 2 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

The build up of games lately has really hit us hard and I had to rotate here. What followed was a very narrow defeat and only our second loss of the season.

I had hoped that our superior fitness would tell in the end but we were 1-0 down in the first 10 minutes and struggle to get back. In fact, we conceded again before Paul Hakim pulled back a goal.

To be honest, we were worth a draw today and we can feel very hard done by indeed.

Chelmsford are a top side in this division, so I guess that we can’t be that disappointed. It just goes to show that when you’re on form, you just can’t stop picking up results, and then one loss can just change the whole complexion of the team. We would have got a point here a couple of weeks ago.

We need to bounce back now in December and hope for better things over Christmas.

City scorers: Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Paul Hakim.

Attendance at Chelmsford Sport & Athletics Centre: 1, 213.

Oxford United 1 – 0 SAINTS (FA Trophy 1st Round)

Well, we were up against the best team from the division above, so it was always going to be tough. Losing an early goal didn’t help matters.

The performance was okay but we weren’t truly in it. I’m pleased just to have satisfied the requirements of the board in this competition. Oxford United are probably the best team in the Blue Square Premier so we can’t exactly be disappointed with the scoreline.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Nobody stood out.

Attendance at The Kassam Stadium: 3,817.

SAINTS TOP SCORER CRAIG CALVER INJURED AND OUT FOR FOUR WEEKS.

SAINTS 4 – 0 Gloucester City (Blue Square South)

A truly excellent result with us firing on all cylinders again. We were hugely dominant and we didn’t give them a sniff all game.

City scorers: Ben Martin, Jason Norville x2 & Jamie Hand.

City MoM: Jason Norville.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 357.

Thurrock 1 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

I’m not sure I could be much more frustrated over this result, not least because we were in control and had the chances to win it!

A really frustrating day out for us. We lost an early goal and just couldn’t break down the opposition. Their whole defence played a blinder and we just didn’t look as clinical without the injured Craig Calver in the team.

Very disappointing as we were drawing and winning games like this only a few weeks ago.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: James Fisher.

Attendance at Ship Lane: 280.

Crawley Town 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

Almost a similar story to above here.

They went ahead in the first half and although we were making chances, we just couldn’t seem to find a goal.

It took changing to 4-2-4 and going to overload to get the draw. It was 6 minutes into injury time before Adam Watkins scored to bring us level and win us a point.

Now this is a result we can be pleased with against one of the promotion favourites.

City scorers: Adam Watkins.

City MoM: Ben Greenhalgh.

Attendance at Broadfield Stadium: 901.

Manager Comments for November & December:

Well, at the beginning of November, I was actually kidding myself that we could go a whole season unbeaten in the league. After losing three in the league, and two in the cup, I have to say that I’m embarrassed to admit this now. :o

To be honest, 11 points from 8 games is not too impressive. However, we have to consider that 5 of those games have been away, with 3 at home. We’ve also had to play two aways in a row on no less than two occasions. Add in the three tricky cup ties and I think it mitigates the situation somewhat.

Still, not a great month. Our cup interests were ended by Bradford City and Oxford United but I don’t think we can be too disappointed by that. It’s in the league that I have my worries as we have suddenly shown some frailties that were not present when we were going 16 games unbeaten.

The target this season has to be to improve on last season and we are all set to do that. It is conveniently the half way point of the season. We need 31 points from 21 games in order to match last season’s points total, which I think is more than manageable. So, from that perspective, we are doing very well. We will, however, need to improve in January if we are to keep up a title challenge.

[crouchaldinho]

END OF DECEMBER SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Woking      |       | 21    | 14    | 4     | 3     | 35    | 13    | +22   | 46    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Crawley     |       | 21    | 12    | 6     | 3     | 38    | 17    | +21   | 42    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Chelmsford  |       | 21    | 13    | 3     | 5     | 37    | 19    | +18   | 42    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 4th   |       | St. Albans  |       | 21    | 11    | 7     | 3     | 36    | 16    | +20   | 40    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Grays       |       | 21    | 12    | 4     | 5     | 32    | 21    | +11   | 40    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Dover       |       | 21    | 9     | 7     | 5     | 25    | 16    | +9    | 34    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Lewes       |       | 21    | 9     | 6     | 6     | 30    | 22    | +8    | 33    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Thurrock    |       | 21    | 9     | 4     | 8     | 28    | 25    | +3    | 31    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Bromley     |       | 21    | 8     | 6     | 7     | 24    | 24    | 0     | 30    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Bath        |       | 21    | 7     | 8     | 6     | 21    | 23    | -2    | 29    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Salisbury   |       | 21    | 6     | 9     | 6     | 24    | 17    | +7    | 27    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Staines     |       | 21    | 7     | 6     | 8     | 22    | 25    | -3    | 27    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Sutton Utd  |       | 21    | 6     | 8     | 7     | 25    | 25    | 0     | 26    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Eastleigh   |       | 21    | 6     | 8     | 7     | 20    | 22    | -2    | 26    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Basingstoke |       | 21    | 8     | 2     | 11    | 20    | 26    | -6    | 26    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Maidenhead  |       | 21    | 4     | 12    | 5     | 16    | 16    | 0     | 24    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Truro       |       | 21    | 6     | 6     | 9     | 22    | 35    | -13   | 24    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Tiverton    |       | 21    | 6     | 5     | 10    | 19    | 26    | -7    | 23    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Gloucester  |       | 21    | 4     | 5     | 12    | 15    | 39    | -24   | 17    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Dorchester  |       | 21    | 2     | 9     | 10    | 23    | 30    | -7    | 15    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Havant & W  |       | 21    | 3     | 5     | 13    | 15    | 37    | -22   | 14    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Maidstone   |       | 21    | 3     | 2     | 16    | 10    | 43    | -33   | 11    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps  | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    | Rsv   | Ross Worner      | 27    | -     | -     | -     | 6.78  | 21    | ENG   | £2.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    |       | James Fisher     | 21 (1)| -     | -     | 1     | 6.81  | 26    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    | PR    | Peter Smith      | 16    | -     | 4     | -     | 6.87  | 25    | ENG   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Rsv   | Andy Duncan      | 4 (1) | -     | -     | -     | 6.44  | 33    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | PR    | Ryan Carolan     | 26    | 1     | -     | 4     | 6.93  | 21    | IRL   | £8K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   |       | Wes Daly         | 22 (1)| -     | 3     | -     | 6.85  | 26    | NIR   | £3K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Rsv   | Jamie Hand       | 6 (14)| 1     | 1     | -     | 6.80  | 26    | ENG   | £4K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR   | PR    | Justin Hazell    | 20 (1)| 6     | 3     | 1     | 7.00  | 18    | ENG   | £3K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML   |       | Ryan Hall        | 17 (2)| 7     | 1     | 1     | 7.07  | 22    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC   | Rsv   | Jason Norville   | 10 (5)| 4     | 2     | 1     | 6.87  | 27    | TRI   | £4.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | PR    | Paul Hakim       | 13 (8)| 4     | 3     | 1     | 6.81  | 28    | ENG   | £14K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Laurence Gaughan | 2 (1) | -     | -     | -     | 7.17  | 20    | IRL   | £22K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Danny Williams   | 3 (4) | -     | 4     | -     | 6.79  | 29    | ENG   | £2.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Gary Cohen       | 3 (6) | 3     | -     | 1     | 7.04  | 26    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Sus   | Ben Martin       | 24 (1)| 4     | 1     | 2     | 7.11  | 28    | ENG   | £16K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Adam Everitt     | 2     | -     | -     | -     | 7.75  | 28    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Craig Calver     | 20 (1)| 13    | 7     | 5     | 7.26  | 19    | ENG   | £90K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Wes Fogden       | 1     | 1     | -     | -     | 7.20  | 22    | ENG   | £4K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Sus   | Solomon Shields  | 22 (3)| -     | 5     | -     | 6.90  | 21    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | George Cox       | 3 (2) | -     | -     | -     | 6.64  | 19    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     |       | Adam Watkins     | 11 (3)| 2     | 1     | 1     | 6.76  | 19    | ENG   | £50K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | James Quilter    | 4 (18)| 1     | 2     | -     | 6.79  | 27    | ENG   | -     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Ben Greenhalgh   | 10 (3)| -     | 1     | 1     | 6.74  | 18    | ENG   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     |       | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 8 (3) | -     | -     | 1     | 6.95  | 17    | ENG   | £40K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2011:

Maidenhead United 0 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A dull game which we just edged and probably should have won.

We’re drawing a few too many away from home this season. If we want to challenge for the title, we will need to improve on the road.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: James Quilter.

Attendance at York Road: 280.

Basingstoke Town 1 – 3 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We were really in control here. A nice confident performance with Jason Norville stealing the show with a fantastic brace of goals in the second-half.

An excellent win!

City scorers: Gary Cohen & Jason Norville x 2.

City MoM: Danny Williams.

Attendance at The Camrose: 281.

SAINTS 2 – 0 Bath City (Blue Square South)

A top quality performance here against Bath City. We really restricted their chances and made sure that this was a comfortable win. A professional job done at Clarence Park.

City scorers: Jason Norville & Craig Calver.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 362.

SAINTS 1 – 0 Truro (Blue Square South)

This one was really tough. Truro were tenacious and we struggled to break them down.

Despite being overwhelmingly dominant, we took until the final minutes of the game to get the winner. Youth player Luke Hoyte chose this moment to score his first ever goal for St. Albans City.

City scorers: Luke Hoyte (YP1).

City MoM: Luke Hoyte.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 457.

Bromley 0 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

This one was a bit of a thriller, even though it ended 0-0. Both sides had chances to win the game.

In the end, we can be pleased with the point. We bossed possession but Bromley probably made more than us.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at Hayes Lane: 367.

SAINTS 1 – 1 Eastleigh (Blue Square South)

Gary Cohen got us ahead with an early goal but then disaster struck before half was out as Godfrey Poku got himself sent off.

When down to 10 men, I tend to withdraw my wide players and flood the middle of the park by playing three centre-mids. It didn’t work so well today as Eastleigh ended up pulling level.

A draw was probably a fair result. We were far from at our best today though.

City scorers: Gary Cohen.

City MoM: Jamie Hand.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 382.

Lewes 0 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We ended the month of January with yet another 0-0 draw and this one was a bit of a snooze fest, with both sides unable to really come up with much in front of goal.

Lewes probably edged it, which is disappointing. We seem to be losing our form a little bit at the moment.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at The Dripping Pan: 559.

SAINTS 2 – 1 Dover Athletic (Blue Square South)

We started February with this terrific win. It was good to get back to winning ways, although we made this one difficult for ourselves.

We won the game because of an absolutely sensational performance from attacking fullback Peter Smith, who scored both goals.

City scorers: Peter Smith x2

City MoM: Peter Smith.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 419.

Maidstone 2 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A big mistake today. We got ourselves in the lead and then went on a self-destruction mission.

Peter Smith got himself sent off. We then proceeded to play too defensively for the rest of the game and struggled to hold on to our lead. Eventually, Maidstone equalised in the second-half, and they then won the game in the final minute thanks to some pretty awful play by us.

This was an awful, embarrassing result against one of the poorest sides in the league.

It’s a reminder that tactically, I should always go with my instincts rather than overcomplicating things.

Hopefully I will remember this result for the rest of my career and not make the same mistakes of ignoring all I have learnt about FM over the years.

City scorers: Sol Shields.

City MoM: Sol Shields.

Attendance at The Homelands: 219

SAINTS 3 – 0 Havant & Waterlooville (Blue Square South)

We bounced back, thank goodness, and in some style.

Havant & Waterlooville were well and truly humbled. All three goals came in the second-half, in a 12 minute spell of utter dominance.

A fine display and hopefully we’ll turn a corner after some disappointing results lately.

City scorers: Adam Watkins, Godfrey Poku and Ben Greenhalgh.

City MoM: Justin Hazell.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 369.

Dorchester 2 – 2 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We went ahead, then they equalised, then we went ahead again and then they equalised again. That was the pattern of the match.

The truth is, we were dominant and probably deserved the win. However, we had a shocking three injuries today, meaning that I had to use up all of my subs on injuries rather than on tactical or fitness substitutions.

It’s not the worst result in the world but I can’t help but feel that we are perhaps drawing too many to be up there and challenging for the title.

City scorers: Craig Calver and Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Justin Hazell.

Attendance at Avenue Stadium: 240.

Manager Comments for January & February:

So, we reach the business end of the season and our form is faltering. The truth is that we dropped some points against poorer sides this month. Too many mistakes against the weaker sides. We also have a lot of injuries, especially to key players such as Craig Calver, Ryan Hall (probably out for the season) and Ben Martin. We’ve struggling to the end of the season and we have a real fight on our hands.

11 matches during these two months and 20 points recorded. I think that’s actually a really decent total and we can be quite pleased with that. It could have, and should have, been more though when you look at some of the teams we have been playing.

The interesting thing for us is that we have 6 homes games to go and only 4 aways, which could stand us in good stead. In addition to this, we finish the season with three home games in a row, which could really help us at a key time. The aim has to be to keep ourselves in it until the last three. We’ll have a real advantage if that is the case.

We will be playing all of the top sides in the remaining games, so this is going to be a really tough end to the season. In our last two games, we will meet Chelmsford and Crawley, which could be the defining games of the season. All still to play for!

 

[crouchaldinho]

END OF FEBRUARY SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Chelmsford  |       | 32    | 19    | 5     | 8     | 53    | 31    | +22   | 62    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Grays       |       | 32    | 19    | 5     | 8     | 51    | 30    | +21   | 62    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Crawley     |       | 31    | 17    | 10    | 4     | 56    | 25    | +31   | 61    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 4th   |       | St. Albans  |       | 32    | 16    | 12    | 4     | 51    | 23    | +28   | 60    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Woking      |       | 32    | 17    | 7     | 8     | 47    | 27    | +20   | 58    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Thurrock    |       | 32    | 15    | 8     | 9     | 46    | 37    | +9    | 53    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Bromley     |       | 32    | 14    | 10    | 8     | 37    | 31    | +6    | 52    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Dover       |       | 32    | 14    | 9     | 9     | 44    | 31    | +13   | 51    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Lewes       |       | 32    | 13    | 10    | 9     | 40    | 31    | +9    | 49    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Eastleigh   |       | 32    | 11    | 14    | 7     | 35    | 26    | +9    | 47    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Salisbury   |       | 32    | 11    | 12    | 9     | 37    | 23    | +14   | 45    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Staines     |       | 32    | 11    | 11    | 10    | 38    | 35    | +3    | 44    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Bath        |       | 32    | 11    | 11    | 10    | 29    | 33    | -4    | 44    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Basingstoke |       | 32    | 12    | 6     | 14    | 32    | 38    | -6    | 42    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Sutton Utd  |       | 32    | 10    | 10    | 12    | 33    | 36    | -3    | 40    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Maidenhead  |       | 32    | 7     | 15    | 10    | 21    | 26    | -5    | 36    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Tiverton    |       | 32    | 9     | 7     | 16    | 32    | 43    | -11   | 34    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Truro       |       | 32    | 8     | 6     | 18    | 26    | 50    | -24   | 30    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Gloucester  |       | 32    | 6     | 9     | 17    | 23    | 53    | -30   | 27    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Dorchester  |       | 32    | 5     | 11    | 16    | 35    | 47    | -12   | 26    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Havant & W  |       | 32    | 3     | 7     | 22    | 24    | 69    | -45   | 16    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Maidstone   |       | 31    | 4     | 3     | 24    | 13    | 58    | -45   | 15    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps    | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    |       | Ross Worner      | 38      | -     | -     | -     | 6.75  | 21    | ENG   | £1.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    |       | James Fisher     | 26 (2)  | -     | 1     | 1     | 6.87  | 26    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    | Slt   | Peter Smith      | 24      | 2     | 5     | 1     | 6.97  | 25    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    |       | Laurence Gaughan | 6 (1)   | -     | -     | -     | 6.97  | 21    | IRL   | £2K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    |       | Ryan Carolan     | 37      | 1     | 1     | 6     | 6.99  | 21    | IRL   | £9K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Inj   | Godfrey Poku     | 5 (1)   | 1     | -     | -     | 7.12  | 20    | ENG   | £40K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   |       | Solomon Shields  | 31 (3)  | 1     | 6     | 1     | 6.92  | 21    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR   | Rsv   | Justin Hazell    | 29 (1)  | 7     | 4     | 2     | 6.97  | 19    | ENG   | £3K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML   | Rsv   | Ben Greenhalgh   | 13 (5)  | 1     | 2     | 1     | 6.74  | 18    | ENG   | £4K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC   | Rsv   | Jason Norville   | 17 (5)  | 7     | 2     | 1     | 6.85  | 27    | TRI   | £10K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | Inj   | Craig Calver     | 28 (2)  | 15    | 9     | 5     | 7.13  | 20    | ENG   | £90K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1    | Rsv   | Andy Duncan      | 6 (5)   | -     | -     | -     | 6.27  | 33    | ENG   | £500  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2    | Inj   | Jamie Hand       | 10 (20) | 1     | 1     | -     | 6.79  | 27    | ENG   | £2.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3    | Rsv   | Wes Fogden       | 2 (2)   | 1     | -     | -     | 6.90  | 22    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4    |       | Adam Watkins     | 15 (7)  | 3     | 1     | 1     | 6.78  | 19    | ENG   | £50K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5    | Slt   | Paul Hakim       | 15 (12) | 4     | 4     | 1     | 6.75  | 28    | ENG   | £14K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Danny Williams   | 4 (5)   | -     | 6     | 1     | 6.99  | 29    | ENG   | £2K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Ryan Hall        | 23 (2)  | 7     | 2     | 1     | 6.94  | 23    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Wes Daly         | 24 (1)  | -     | 3     | -     | 6.83  | 26    | NIR   | £2K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Gary Cohen       | 5 (9)   | 5     | -     | 1     | 7.00  | 27    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Ben Martin       | 32 (1)  | 4     | 1     | 2     | 7.06  | 28    | ENG   | £16K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Adam Everitt     | 4       | -     | 1     | -     | 7.58  | 28    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | George Cox       | 3 (2)   | -     | -     | -     | 6.64  | 19    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     |       | James Quilter    | 9 (20)  | 1     | 2     | -     | 6.80  | 27    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 10 (4)  | 1     | -     | 2     | 6.96  | 17    | ENG   | £70K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[SCIAG]

It's still wide open, you could easily win the league. Good luck

One thing: in your previous post, you accidentally had Maidstone playing themselves, rather than the Saints.

[crouchaldinho]

Yes, it's still wide open and I'm pleased with our run in with more home games than aways. It'll be an interesting couple of months though, as we're going to finish by playing all of the top sides. It's going to be absolutely key.

Thanks for spotting the mistake as well. Corrected now. Obviously too many glasses of wine last night.

[Standard liege!]

Im still enjoying reading this Hopefully promotion can happenthis season! Come on you Saints!

[crouchaldinho]

Fingers crossed Standard Liege! Thanks for the comments.

I have some exciting news to report.

SAINTS NEWS: JJ O'DONNELL RETURNS TO THE CLUB ON LOAN FROM LUTON TOWN.

With Ryan Hall probably out for the rest of the season, I wanted to bring someone in at wide left. I've been tracking JJ the whole season and hoping that I could bring him back. I'm delighted that I've made this signing.

It means I've bought O'Donnell and Poku back to the club on loan for a second season.

JJ's Luton contract is up at the end of the season, so I'll be trying everything I can to sign him this summer.

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR MARCH & APRIL 2011:

SAINTS 2 – 0 Salisbury (Blue Square South)

A win as straight-forward as the scoreline suggests. We were by far the better side and got a great victory here to start off the month of March.

The second goal was a real peach as Poku scored with a fantastic long-range effort. We were done and dusted by half-time and the second-half was a bit of a non-event.

City scorers: Laurence Gaughan and Godfrey Poku.

City MoM: Laurence Gaughan.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 352.

Grays Athletic 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

This was a decent result against one of the promotion candidates.

They got ahead first but we showed real tenacity to get back into it through a Jason Norville goal.

City scorers: Jason Norville.

City MoM: Jason Norville.

Attendance at Recreation Ground: 373.

SAINTS 1 – 0 Staines Town (Blue Square South)

This was far from a classic performance from us but we managed to somehow grind out the win, which was probably just about deserved. I’m a bit worried by our lack of ability to really finish teams off lately.

City scorers: Own goal.

City MoM: Peter Smith.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 364.

Sutton United 2 – 0 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

Well it all went utterly wrong in this game.

We lost an early goal, and, in the process of fighting back lost another one late in the second-half.

We didn’t play too badly but also didn’t really deserve much from this game. This is a poor result against what is basically an average mid-table side.

A poor end to the month of March.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Ryan Carolan.

Attendance at Gander Green Lane: 394.

SAINTS STRENGTHEN FOR PLAY-OFF PUSH:

Some transfer news to bring you now. All season, I’ve been working way below my wage budget, knowing that it was there for me if I needed it. Just as many real life non-League sides do when they are involved in a play-off push, I decided to strengthen the squad.

In came free agents Mike Lord (centre-midfield), Simon Rayner (goalkeeper) and Chris Dagnall (striker).

I also have some major news, which is that I decided to take a big risk and spend some money. There was no transfer budget but by releasing a few fringe players, I was able to increase the wage budget to the point that I could transfer some of it to the transfer budget.

In an effort to show the Saints fans that I meant business, and that we were determined to make the Blue Square Premier, I went and broke the club transfer record by signing JJ O'Donnell for £30k from Luton Town (to be paid over 12 months). He is such a quality young player though and I hope that he will be playing for us for years to come. I think it is worth the risk.

SAINTS 3 – 1 Tiverton Town (Blue Square South)

We started April really well with this fine win at home to Tiverton Town.

An early goal sent us on our way but Tiverton equalised before half-time. However, two more goals for us followed in the second-half.

We were by far the better side and deserved the win.

City scorers: Adam Watkins, Sol Shields, Justin Hazell.

City MoM: Justin Hazell.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 356.

Woking 0 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

A huge result for us today!

Woking were right up there and in the title race. We desperately needed a win to keep the pressure on Crawley and Chelmsford at the top of the table.

It was a dull game, with neither side making many chances and a draw would have been a fair reflection on the play. However, JJ O’Donnell popped up with an amazing goal to win this game in the last five minutes.

City scorers: JJ O’Donnell.

City MoM: Justin Hazell.

Attendance at Kingfield Stadium: 1,582.

Gloucester City 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

We really needed a win today to keep the pressure on Crawley who were top.

All seemed to be going well when JJ O’Donnell gave us a lead in the first 20 minutes. However, we had a poor second-half and ended up conceding an equaliser.

It’s two points dropped today and it has probably put us out of the title race.

City scorers: JJ O’Donnell.

City MoM: JJ O’Donnell.

Attendance at Corinium Stadium: 153.

SAINTS 1 – 1 Thurrock (Blue Square South)

Well, this draw at home to mid-table Thurrock put us out of the race for the title.

We conceded first and, although we managed to pull level fairly quickly, we just couldn’t find a winner.

We were much the better side today and should have won this game. It just wasn’t meant to be though.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 345.

SAINTS 0 – 0 Chelmsford City (Blue Square South)

This was 3rd (us) versus 2nd (them). By this stage, the title was gone for us but I really wanted to beat Chelmsford to claim 2nd place.

Unfortunately, we looked tired today and didn’t make the most of our performance. A dull and disappointing draw. It leaves us needing a win, and also results to go our way, in order to claim the runners-up spot.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Peter Smith.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 487.

SAINTS 1 – 0 Crawley Town (Blue Square South)

This was a great result against the Champions with Craig Calver getting the winner in a very tight game.

Luckily for us, Chelmsford drew their last game of the season, leaving us to take the runners-up spot in the league on goal difference.

It’s a great achievement to get second place. Now we must turn our attentions to the play-offs.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Sol Shields.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 580.

Manager Comments for March & April:

We recorded 19 points from 10 games during March and April. A decent return but it just wasn’t quite enough. If we could have turned some of those draws into wins, it could all have been different.

Now we will look to go and win the play-offs. We have drawn Woking in the semi-final and I feel confident of reaching the final, although I know we will need to be at our best over both legs.

Details of the play-offs to follow.

 

[crouchaldinho]

BLUE SQUARE SOUTH PLAY-OFFS UPDATE 2010/11

Brace yourselves for I have quite a story to tell.

Woking 3 – 3 SAINTS (Blue Square South Play-off Semi-final, First leg)

A bit of an epic here at Kingfield Stadium.

We started off well with Sol Shields grabbing the opening goal after just 7 minutes. However, Woking equalised from the penalty spot after the half-hour mark.

At half-time, I was happy that we had scored and felt that we were playing really well and should get something from the game.

Around 5 minutes into the second-half, JJ O’Donnell popped up with a goal for us to put us 2-1 up. Then Adam Watkins unbelievably made it 3-1 and I thought we were home and dry.

I was wrong. Woking pulled one back just two minutes later and then grabbed an equaliser ten minutes after.

I felt slightly disappointed after the game, especially as we were in such a great position at 3-1. But I also felt pleased to take a draw back to Clarence Park, as I felt that we could go and win the tie at home.

Line ups

Match stats

City scorers: Sol Shields, JJ O’Donnell and Adam Watkins.

City MoM: Sol Shields.

Attendance at Kingfield: 3,922.

SAINTS 5 – 4 Woking (Blue Square South Play-off Semi-final, Second Leg)

(Saints win 8-7 on aggregate)

Simply the most extraordinary game of football in my career so far.

Amazing stuff. What a match!

We went ahead with an early goal and I felt that it would be smooth sailing from here onwards. I was wrong. Woking equalised before the first-half was over and then managed to score another two goals in the first 15 minutes of the second-half. All of a sudden, we found ourselves 3-1 down and looking as though we would go out of the competition.

Resigned to defeat, I decided to go to all out attack and was rewarded with a goal to make it 3-2.

Believing that it was all over, I nevertheless switched to 4-2-4 and pushed everyone forward. To my delight, we pulled level in the last five minutes of the match. This made it 6-6 on aggregate and extra-time was needed. Extraordinary.

I simply couldn’t believe it when Woking went and scored almost straight away in the first-half of extra-time. It required yet another comeback from us.

Luckily, we had Paul Hakim to save us, and the striker grabbed two goals in the last 20 minutes to equalise and then put us through. We won the tie 5-4 (8-7 on aggregate!)

It’s probably the most extraordinary match I have witnessed on FM to date. I was delighted though, obviously. We were through to the final where we would play Chelmsford City.

Line ups

Match stats

City scorers: Wes Fogden, Chris Dagnell, Adam Watkins and Paul Hakim x2.

City MoM: Chris Dagnall.

Attendance at the Clarence Park: 3,585.

SAINTS 1 – 1 Chelmsford City (Blue Square South Play-off Final)

(Chelmsford win 6-5 on penalties)

Heartbreak. Utter heartbreak.

When we went behind after roughly quarter of an hour, I was really worried, but we bravely fought our way back into this game with Justin Hazell scoring an equaliser in the last 10 minutes.

Having got back into the game late on, I now felt that the momentum was with us and that we could go on and win it. That was until Ben Martin managed to get himself sent off leaving us with 10 men.

We managed to get through extra-time but couldn’t offer much going forward. Then again, neither did Chelmsford. Finally, it went to penalties.

Well, it’s a total lottery isn’t it. I had a feeling that we weren’t going to win. The young lad on loan from Southend United missed his penalty and Chelmsford won the shootout.

Line ups

Match stats

City scorers: Justin Hazell.

City MoM: James Fisher.

Attendance at the The Kassam Stadium, Oxford: 4,960.

Final Thoughts

To be denied promotion based on a penalty shootout was harsh, especially when the stats show how equal the teams were on the day.

There is nothing we can do about it though.

I guess I’m not too disappointed to be in the Blue Square South for another year. We’ve got a really talented squad now and we should be challenging for the title again next season.

[crouchaldinho]

There seems to be something hugely wrong with the confidence feature.

I agreed with the board that we would try to get promotion this year. We finished 2nd in the league and got to the play-off final, and the board are 'disappointed that the team only reached the playoff'.

[crouchaldinho]

END OF SEASON 2010-11 SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | C     | Crawley     |       | 42    | 24    | 12    | 6     | 76    | 37    | +39   | 84    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 2nd   |       | St. Albans  |       | 42    | 21    | 16    | 5     | 62    | 29    | +33   | 79    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | P     | Chelmsford  |       | 42    | 23    | 10    | 9     | 70    | 43    | +27   | 79    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Grays       |       | 42    | 22    | 8     | 12    | 67    | 49    | +18   | 74    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Woking      |       | 42    | 21    | 9     | 12    | 61    | 36    | +25   | 72    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Bromley     |       | 42    | 20    | 12    | 10    | 53    | 39    | +14   | 72    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Dover       |       | 42    | 19    | 13    | 10    | 60    | 38    | +22   | 70    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Thurrock    |       | 42    | 17    | 12    | 13    | 52    | 47    | +5    | 63    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Eastleigh   |       | 42    | 15    | 17    | 10    | 48    | 36    | +12   | 62    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Lewes       |       | 42    | 17    | 11    | 14    | 50    | 45    | +5    | 62    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Bath        |       | 42    | 16    | 14    | 12    | 45    | 41    | +4    | 62    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Sutton Utd  |       | 42    | 15    | 12    | 15    | 46    | 49    | -3    | 57    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Basingstoke |       | 42    | 16    | 9     | 17    | 43    | 47    | -4    | 57    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Staines     |       | 42    | 14    | 13    | 15    | 53    | 52    | +1    | 55    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Salisbury   |       | 42    | 12    | 17    | 13    | 46    | 38    | +8    | 53    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Maidenhead  |       | 42    | 9     | 21    | 12    | 30    | 36    | -6    | 48    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Dorchester  |       | 42    | 10    | 13    | 19    | 43    | 54    | -11   | 43    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Truro       |       | 42    | 11    | 9     | 22    | 35    | 60    | -25   | 42    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Tiverton    |       | 42    | 10    | 11    | 21    | 44    | 60    | -16   | 41    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  | R     | Gloucester  |       | 42    | 7     | 12    | 23    | 37    | 75    | -38   | 33    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  | R     | Havant & W  |       | 42    | 6     | 10    | 26    | 31    | 79    | -48   | 28    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  | R     | Maidstone   |       | 42    | 4     | 5     | 33    | 16    | 78    | -62   | 17    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps    | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    |       | Simon Rayner     | 6       | -     | -     | -     | 6.53  | 27    | CAN   | £6K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    |       | James Fisher     | 31 (3)  | -     | 1     | 1     | 6.88  | 27    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    |       | Peter Smith      | 34 (2)  | 2     | 7     | 3     | 6.90  | 25    | ENG   | £1.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Slt   | Ben Martin       | 41 (1)  | 4     | 1     | 2     | 7.02  | 28    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    |       | Ryan Carolan     | 50      | 1     | 1     | 6     | 7.03  | 21    | IRL   | £8K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   |       | Wes Daly         | 32 (1)  | -     | 3     | -     | 6.81  | 27    | NIR   | £1K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DMC   | Slt   | Solomon Shields  | 43 (3)  | 3     | 10    | 2     | 6.98  | 21    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMR   | Inj   | Justin Hazell    | 41 (1)  | 9     | 5     | 4     | 6.93  | 19    | ENG   | £2.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AML   | Rsv   | JJ O'Donnell     | 8 (1)   | 3     | 2     | -     | 7.02  | 19    | ENG   | £30K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| AMC   |       | Jason Norville   | 19 (8)  | 8     | 2     | 1     | 6.82  | 27    | TRI   | £10K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | Inj   | Chris Dagnall    | 2 (3)   | 1     | 2     | -     | 6.85  | 25    | ENG   | £6K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1    |       | James Quilter    | 10 (23) | 1     | 2     | -     | 6.77  | 27    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2    | Rsv   | Wes Fogden       | 3 (2)   | 2     | -     | -     | 7.07  | 23    | ENG   | £1.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3    | Wnt   | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 13 (9)  | 1     | -     | 2     | 6.79  | 17    | ENG   | £65K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4    |       | Craig Calver     | 35 (3)  | 17    | 10    | 5     | 7.05  | 20    | ENG   | £70K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5    | Rsv   | Paul Hakim       | 19 (16) | 6     | 6     | 1     | 6.78  | 28    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Simon Dunne      | -       | -     | -     | -     | -     | 21    | IRL   | £2.5K | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Laurence Gaughan | 17 (1)  | 1     | -     | 1     | 6.92  | 21    | IRL   | £6K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Ryan Hall        | 23 (2)  | 7     | 2     | 1     | 6.94  | 23    | ENG   | £9K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     |       | Gary Cohen       | 5 (14)  | 5     | -     | 1     | 6.91  | 27    | ENG   | -     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Ross Worner      | 45      | -     | -     | -     | 6.74  | 21    | ENG   | £6K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Adam Watkins     | 26 (8)  | 6     | 2     | 1     | 6.75  | 19    | ENG   | £45K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | George Baldock   | 0 (2)   | -     | -     | -     | 6.50  | 19    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Ben Greenhalgh   | 15 (5)  | 1     | 2     | 1     | 6.69  | 18    | ENG   | £14K  | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[crouchaldinho]

I should have added that the first leg of the playoff semi versus Woking was my 100th in charge of St. Albans City.

[Standard liege!]

Gutted that you didnt go up Next year will be your year!

[hrbfcrule]

So unlucky in the playoffs, I'm sure you will get promotion next year.

I'm just playing Chelmsford in the playoff semi final in my h+r save i'll try and get some revenge for you

[crouchaldinho]

Crouchy's Mighty Saints Save - St. Albans City in the Blue Square South (Season Two at Clarence Park - 2010/11)

End of Season 2010/11 Screenshots:

League Table

League Positions Graph

FA Cup - an excellent run to the First Round proper.

FA Trophy - got to the first round but beaten away to Oxford.

Transfers - Best signing was defender and captain Ben Martin who was really solid for us at the back, while the best loan signing was Godfrey Poku from Luton Town again. Flop of the season award goes to Jamie Hand who really didn't perform that well and I decided to release him towards the end of the season. The biggest signing was of JJ O'Donnell towards the end of the year. With our insecure finances, it is a bit of a risk, but he is a fine young player and I think he will prove to be worth every penny in the long run.

Key players:

Ryan Carolan - Once again, Ryan Carolan was brilliant for us. Another outstanding season from the ever reliable defender.

Ben Martin - A quality defender at this level and undoubtedly my signing of the season. When he came in I made him captain, and he has been absolutely brilliant for us. A leading example for some of the younger players.

Sol Shields - Sol Shields had a much improved season in the middle of the park, providing a great deal of assists and playing really well for the team. Super stuff and I'll be looking for the same and hopefully more next season.

Justin Hazell - A great loan signing for us. Hazell terrorised fullbacks in this division and put in some quality performances, chipping in with goals and setting them up too. I'd like to bring him back next season and I will be keeping an eye on him as a potential signing should Southend release him in the future.

Craig Calver - I had planned that Paul Hakim would be the main forward this season but Calver came in and couldn't stop scoring early on. Calver is perhaps still quite a young player and a little inconsistent but he is also a quality goalscorer and 16 goals in the league in your first full season is pretty special in my opinion. Great stuff.

Team of the Season.

Overall Best XI - Ben Martin, Wes Daly, Laurence Gaughan, Ryan Hall, Justin Hazell and Ross Worner have been added to the best XI.

Other Club Info:

Fans’ Player of the season: Craig Calver.

Signing of the season: Ben Martin.

Top goalscorers: Craig Calver 17 goals in all competitions, and also the top league goalscorer with 16 goals.

Most Assists: Sol Shields and Craig Calver both on 10.

Most MoM awards: Ryan Carolan on 6.

Best Average Rating: Craig Calver 7.05.

Average Attendance: 542 (down from last season, although of course we didn't have the FA Cup 3rd Round home tie this year!)

Season Tickets: 84 (same as last year).

Club finances: We're around £500 under the wage budget and spent most of the season way under budget. However, the club is still around £200k in debt with the chairman regularly pumping extra funds in.

City Legends: Wilfred Minter, Steve Clark, Phil Wood (no new additions).

City Icons: Colin Lippiatt, Lee Clarke, Peter Risley, Kevin Mudd, Richard Evans, Paul Bastock (no new additions).

City Favourites: Paul Hakim, Ben Martin, Ryan Frater, Luke Thurlbourne, Sol Shields, Godfrey Poku, JJ O'Donnell, Gary Cohen and Craig Calver (new addition).

Most League Apps for Club - Steve Clark 488 (all time), Paul Hakim 171 (current).

Most League Goals for Club - Steve Clark 322 (all time), Paul Hakim 57 (current).

Youth academy products season reports (the youngsters that my assistant recommended):

Luke Hoyte (YP1) - A pretty decent first season from the youngster.

100 club (players that have made 100 apps for the club under my management): None that qualify at present. Credits go to Terk for this great idea. All the kids are doing it these days.

Other News:

- Blue Square South: Crawley win the league. Chelmsford promoted via the play-offs. Gloucester, Havent & Waterlooville and Maidstone relegated.

- The Big Boys:

o Arsenal retain their league title. Man City and Chelsea finish outside the top four with Everton joining Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton in the Champions League spots. Reading, Burnley and Preston are relegated.

o Chelsea win the FA Cup. Man City win the League Cup.

o Olympique Lyonnais win the Champions League defeating holders Juventus in the final. The Europa is won by Inter who overcame Liverpool in the final.

- Local Interests:

o Bishop's Stortford, who were moved to the BSN, ended up winning the playoffs in their new division and will be in the Blue Square Premier next season.

o Meanwhile, Luton had a decent first season back in the Football League, finishing in mid-table. However, Stevenage outdid them by getting into the play-offs, only to lose to Tranmere in the semi-final.

o Watford finished in a mid-table position in the Championship.

- Ex-Saints: Jake Beecroft was the pick of the bunch, going back to Rushden after his season long loan last year and not only winning the BSP with his team but also contributing as one of their best players. A real success story for him.

Manager Awards:

- 2010/11 Blue Square South Manager of the Season third place.

- 2009/10 Blue Square South Manager of the Season runner-up.

Career Overview:

My managerial record at the Saints:

P	W	D	L	F	A	GD
102	51	29	22	145	90	55

Cups:

| Season 	| FA Cup	| FA Trophy		| 
|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 09/10 (BSS) 	| 3rd Rnd    	|   3rd Qual Rnd 	|
| 10/11 (BSS) 	| 1st Rnd    	|   1st Rnd 		|

League:

Season      	Team      		League      Position   	Achievements & Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10      	St. Albans City   	BSS	    4th      	FA Cup 3rd Rnd, Play-off semis, 2nd in Manager of Season 
2010/11		St. Albans City   	BSS	    2nd      	Play-off finalists, 3rd in Manager of Season 

Next Season: It has to be about a promotion push next season. Although I am likely to make some transfers, I feel that little improvement is needed to ensure that we really challenge next time around.

In other news, I've had a sudden desire to go back to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation and will be working on a new tactical approach for next season.

[crouchaldinho]

Gutted that you didnt go up Next year will be your year!

Thanks for the message of support Standard Liege.

To be honest, I'm not too gutted because I'm quite enjoying my time in the Blue Square South. Losing on penalties like that was a bit much though!

So unlucky in the playoffs, I'm sure you will get promotion next year.

I'm just playing Chelmsford in the playoff semi final in my h+r save i'll try and get some revenge for you

Cheers! Good luck!

I hate penalty shoot-outs.

[crouchaldinho]

We are being made long shots for the league again by the bookies.

Media prediction 7th. You'd think after finishing 4th and then 2nd that we'd be one of the favourites now.

Just been told that we have one of the youngest squads in the league. So perhaps I will need to bring in some experience to bolster our squad for a title challenge in the new season.

[crouchaldinho]

PRE-SEASON 2011/12:

I'll try to move quite quickly through pre-season and just post up the results and a one line comment, as I know it isn't the most interesting time of the year. Then we can get on to the more exciting part - the summer transfers!

SAINTS 0 - 3 Fulham (Pre-season Friendly)

My idol, Roy Hodgson, has long since left Fulham, who are now a Championship side.

We were well beaten today although we might have scored a goal if it wasn't for a bit of rustiness. Still we didn't expect anything from this game and it's just a case of getting some match fitness under our belts.

City scorers: None.

City MoM: Nobody stood out.

Oxford City 1 - 1 SAINTS (Pre-season Friendly)

A draw probably a fair result here.

City Scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Luke Hoyte.

Bishop's Cleeve 1 - 3 SAINTS (Pre-Season Friendly)

Very comfortable win and maybe should have scored more goals.

City scorers: Harry Arter, Craig Calver and James McDermott.

City MoM: Ben Greenhalgh.

Cray Wanderers 0 - 3 SAINTS (Pre-Season Friendly)

Nice and comfortable again. We could have scored four or even five such was our superiority.

A marvellous hat-trick from Craig Calver was very good to see.

City scorers: Craig Calver.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Harlow Town 0 - 3 SAINTS (Pre-Season Friendly)

Another easy win for us, as we totally dominated this one.

City scorers: Craig Calver, Chris Dagnall and Paul Hakim.

City MoM: JJ O'Donnell.

SAINTS 3 - 1 Saints Reserves (Pre-Season Friendly)

Finally, I used this behind closed doors friendly against the reserves to field my starting XI for the first league game and to get some extra match fitness for the squad before the season kicked off.

City scorers: Harry Arter, JJ O'Donnell and Chris Dagnall.

City MoM: Harry Arter.

Manager Comments for Pre-Season:

Pretty standard pre-season. Great results against the smaller side and soundly beaten when we played superior opposition.

I experimented with my tactics during pre-season, reverting to a very traditional English-style 4-4-2. I also experimented with the starting line-up, introducing a couple new signings.

We open up the season at home to Eastleigh, before head to Thurrock for what will no doubt be a tough away match (they tend to be our bogey side). We could really do with a strong start to the season this year and hopefully we will start off how we mean to go on.

 

[crouchaldinho]

SQUAD AND TRANSFERS SUMMARY:

Transfers:

This screenshot shows my transfers during pre-season.

The disappointing news was that I couldn't manage to get Godfrey Poku to sign, either on loan or as a transfer, from Luton Town. Godfrey seemed to want to stay with the Hatters for now and the Luton Town manager appears to consider him as a backup for the first team squad at the moment. I will have to keep my eye on him for the rest of the season to see if I can pry him away from Kenilworth Road.

So, to the transfers and first of all we'll deal with the 'outs'. The big disappointment for me was losing Gary Cohen and Adam Everitt. I had hoped that both players would see out their careers with the Saints, however both were making huge contract demands compared to their probable status as backups. When their contracts came to an end, we still hadn't reached a deal, and both decided to leave the club.

More bad news followed as I was unable to agree a deal with a promising youth player called David Ojapah, who decided to to sign for Hitchin Town. This has taught me a serious lesson, which is to ensure that all promising youngsters are offered contracts as soon as possible.

Putting these disappointments to one side, I did some good work in the summer to improve the squad with a few quality players. So, now for the 'ins', and I'm pretty pleased with my work in this direction. First of all, I went all soft and nostalgic, and signed up some ex-Saints. Jonathan Hunt and Simon Martin are older players now and certainly won't feature in our first team. I've brought them in for tutoring possibilities and mainly with an eye on converting them to future coaches at the football club. Both have shown an interest in taking up coaching in the future. I also brought in ex-Saint Hassan Sulaiman, who is a decent fullback and who will do a job for us this season.

The major news though was the double signing of two ex-Woking players - Harry Arter and Moses Ademola. Arter is a quality midfield player, while Ademola can play wide right or as a striker. They are both proven talents at this level and are also quite young so will continue to improve while at the club. Finally, I brought in a couple of youngsters who might feature in the future.

My most talented new youth player to come from my academy this season is Ryan Jones. My coaches suggest that he has some promise but I'm very concerned by the low mental stats and he has a lot of improving to do.

I have a good sized squad now and no real intention of bringing anyone else in, that is unless Godfrey Poku becomes available

First Team Squad:

| Pkd     | Inf     | Name             | Position      | Nat     | Height  | Weight       | Age     | Value   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK      |         | Simon Rayner     | GK            | CAN     | 6'5"    | 15 st 3 lbs  | 28      | £3.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC      | Wnt     | Laurence Gaughan | D RC          | IRL     | 6'2"    | 12 st 1 lbs  | 21      | £4K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1      | Rsv     | James Quilter    | D RC, DM, M C | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 28      | £500    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | James Fisher     | D R, M RC     | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 11 lbs | 27      | £1K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       |         | Ryan Carolan     | D LC          | IRL     | 6'1"    | 13 st 3 lbs  | 21      | £8K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL      | Wnt     | Luke Hoyte YP1   | D L           | ENG     | 5'8"    | 11 st 2 lbs  | 17      | £70K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Peter Smith      | D L, AM L     | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 25      | £1K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Simon Dunne      | D C           | IRL     | 6'0"    | 12 st 8 lbs  | 21      | £1.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC      |         | Ben Martin       | D C           | ENG     | 6'7"    | 13 st 7 lbs  | 28      | £12K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR      |         | Hassan Sulaiman  | D/WB/M R      | ENG     | 5'8"    | 11 st 13 lbs | 25      | £4.5K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MC      |         | Harry Arter      | DM, M LC      | IRL     | 5'9"    | 11 st 6 lbs  | 21      | £8K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Wes Daly         | DM, M C       | NIR     | 5'9"    | 11 st 0 lbs  | 27      | £500    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MC      |         | Sol Shields      | DM, M C       | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 13 lbs | 21      | £10K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2      |         | George Baldock   | M C           | ENG     | 5'10"   | 12 st 8 lbs  | 19      | £1K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Wes Fogden       | AM RC         | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 4 lbs  | 23      | £1K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3      | Rsv     | Ben Greenhalgh   | AM RL         | ENG     | 5'7"    | 11 st 6 lbs  | 19      | £500    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MR      |         | Moses Ademola    | AM R, ST      | ENG     | 5'6"    | 10 st 12 lbs | 22      | £6K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4      | Rsv     | Ryan Hall        | AM LC         | ENG     | 5'10"   | 10 st 3 lbs  | 23      | £5K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ML      |         | JJ O'Donnell     | AM LC         | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 6 lbs  | 19      | £35K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Inj     | Craig Calver     | AM/F C        | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 13 lbs | 20      | £100K   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -       | Rsv     | Dylan McGeouch   | AM/F C        | SCO     | 6'2"    | 13 st 7 lbs  | 18      | £40K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5      | Rsv     | Jason Norville   | AM/F C        | TRI     | 5'11"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 27      | £6K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST      |         | Chris Dagnall    | ST            | ENG     | 5'10"   | 10 st 9 lbs  | 25      | £6K     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST      | PR      | Paul Hakim       | ST            | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 2 lbs  | 29      | £10K    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

The other very important thing I did this summer was to offer long-term contracts to the most promising players in the team such as Luke Hoyte, JJ O'Donnell, Sol Shields, Craig Calver, Ryan Carolan and Chris Dagnall. In addition, I offered new long-term contracts to a few of my favourite players, including Paul Hakim who signed a 5 year contract that will effectively keep him at the club for the rest of his career.

[crouchaldinho]

UPDATE FOR AUGUST 2011:

SAINTS 2 – 0 Eastleigh (Blue Square South)

A really great start to the season against a side who are sure to be up there challenging for the play-offs this season.

We got ahead early on through Chris Dagnall. Paul Hakim missed a penalty during the first-half, before Chris Dagnall managed to put us two up in the second-half.

Chris Dagnall, by now on a hat-trick, stepped up to take another penalty for us in the second-half, but blasted in straight at the goalkeeper.

It could easily have been more today as we were totally in charge. A super performance.

City scorers: Chris Dagnall x 2.

City MoM: Chris Dagnall.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 412.

Thurrock 0 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

Paul Hakim grabbed the winner after the half hour mark and this single goal was enough to win the match.

It was an otherwise fairly dull match with few chances. We were a little lucky to come away with the result and, on another day, we might even have lost here. Nevertheless, this is a terrific three points and a great start to the season.

City scorers: Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Luke Hoyte.

Attendance at the Ship Lane: 314.

SAINTS 3 – 0 Woking (Blue Square South)

Last season, Woking came to Clarence Park and ended up coming away with all three points against the run of play. I was determined that we shouldn’t make the same mistakes this time.

In the end, I didn’t need to worry, as we thrashed them with Craig Calver scoring a marvellous hat-trick.

We were utterly dominant today and well worth this convincing win against one of the teams predicted to win the title by the media.

City scorers: Craig Calver x 3.

City MoM: Craig Calver.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 494.

Merthyr 1 – 1 SAINTS (Blue Square South)

This could have, and maybe should have, been a win.

Things seemed to be going our way when Paul Hakim scored in the middle of the second-half. All we needed to do was to get our heads down and grind out the result.

Unfortunately, we let Merthyr in for a goal during injury time. So very frustrating.

On reflection a draw was probably a fair result though.

City scorers: Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Luke Hoyte.

Attendance at Penydarren Park: 336.

SAINTS 2 – 3 Bath City (Blue Square South)

Absolute disaster.

They went ahead early on and we struggle in the first-half to create very much.

At half-time, I asked the players for more and in the second-half, we came out strongly, and Moses Ademola managed to score to pull us level.

However, Bath were soon ahead again, just ten minutes after our equaliser.

Pushing men forward, I was totally delighted when we got back into the game through a Paul Hakim equaliser in the last 10 minutes.

By this stage, we had gone to 4-2-4, pushing up the wingers to become forwards and bringing on some subs to go all out attack. After our equaliser, I decided to leave things as they were to see if we could nick a winner. Big mistake as Bath quickly took the lead again and held out for a result at 3-2.

It was a silly mistake. I really ought to have gone back to 4-4-2 and been content with the draw. My risky decision to continue pouring forward when we had got level costs us the points. Bath are a good side and they punished us for this mistake.

City scorers: Moses Ademola, Paul Hakim.

City MoM: Moses Ademola.

Attendance at Clarence Park: 440.

Manager Comments for August:

A really disappointing way to end the month.

My target for this month was 11 points. In the end, we came out of it with 10 points from 5 games, which isn’t bad going at all.

The last two games were frustrating and we really could have won all five games this month, or at least won four and drawn one. Still, we have had a decent start. It will be important to bounce back from the defeat to Bath in our next match though.

 

[crouchaldinho]

END OF AUGUST 2011 SUMMARY:

Blue Square South Standings:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team            |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Staines         |       | 5     | 3     | 2     | 0     | 8     | 3     | +5    | 11    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Maidenhead      |       | 5     | 3     | 2     | 0     | 5     | 2     | +3    | 11    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Eastleigh       |       | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 10    | 4     | +6    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 4th   |       | St. Albans      |       | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 9     | 4     | +5    | 10    | [/b]
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Eastbourne Boro |       | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 6     | 2     | +4    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Basingstoke     |       | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 9     | 7     | +2    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Tiverton        |       | 5     | 3     | 0     | 2     | 10    | 5     | +5    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Bath            |       | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 8     | 7     | +1    | 8     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Bromley         |       | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 3     | 2     | +1    | 8     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Grays           |       | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 3     | 2     | +1    | 8     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Sutton Utd      |       | 5     | 1     | 4     | 0     | 7     | 5     | +2    | 7     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Salisbury       |       | 5     | 1     | 3     | 1     | 2     | 3     | -1    | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Dorchester      |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 7     | 8     | -1    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Dartford        |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 6     | 7     | -1    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Forest Green    |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 3     | 4     | -1    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Woking          |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 8     | 12    | -4    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Dover           |       | 5     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 2     | 7     | -5    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Merthyr         |       | 5     | 0     | 4     | 1     | 4     | 5     | -1    | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Truro           |       | 5     | 1     | 0     | 4     | 4     | 8     | -4    | 3     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Kingstonian     |       | 5     | 0     | 2     | 3     | 2     | 6     | -4    | 2     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Thurrock        |       | 5     | 0     | 2     | 3     | 2     | 8     | -6    | 2     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Lewes           |       | 5     | 0     | 1     | 4     | 2     | 9     | -7    | 1     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

First Team Squad Statistics (all competitions):

| Pkd   | Inf   | Name             | Apps  | Gls   | Ast   | MoM   | Av Rat| Age   | Nat   | Value | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| GK    | Rsv   | Simon Rayner     | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 6.66  | 28    | CAN   | £3.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DR    | Rsv   | Hassan Sulaiman  | 4     | -     | -     | -     | 6.83  | 25    | ENG   | £4.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DL    | Wnt   | Luke Hoyte YP1   | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 7.16  | 17    | ENG   | £70K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Rsv   | Ben Martin       | 3     | -     | -     | -     | 6.60  | 28    | ENG   | £12K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| DC    | Wnt   | Laurence Gaughan | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 6.82  | 21    | IRL   | £4K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MR    | Rsv   | Moses Ademola    | 4 (1) | 1     | 1     | -     | 7.08  | 22    | ENG   | £6K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ML    | PR    | JJ O'Donnell     | 4     | -     | -     | -     | 6.85  | 19    | ENG   | £35K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MC    | Inj   | Harry Arter      | 4 (1) | -     | 4     | -     | 7.18  | 21    | IRL   | £8K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| MC    | Wnt   | Sol Shields      | 5     | -     | -     | -     | 6.64  | 21    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | PR    | Paul Hakim       | 4     | 3     | -     | -     | 6.72  | 29    | ENG   | £10K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| ST    | Rsv   | Chris Dagnall    | 5     | 2     | 4     | 1     | 7.56  | 25    | ENG   | £6K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S1    | Rsv   | James Quilter    | 0 (2) | -     | -     | -     | 6.80  | 28    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S2    | Rsv   | George Baldock   | 1 (4) | -     | -     | -     | 6.72  | 19    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S3    | Rsv   | Ben Greenhalgh   | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 19    | ENG   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S4    | Rsv   | Ryan Hall        | 1 (2) | -     | -     | -     | 7.40  | 23    | ENG   | £5K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| S5    | Rsv   | Jason Norville   | 0 (1) | -     | -     | -     | -     | 27    | TRI   | £6K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Simon Dunne      | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 21    | IRL   | £1.5K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | PR    | Ryan Carolan     | 3     | -     | -     | -     | 7.03  | 21    | IRL   | £8K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Wes Daly         | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 27    | NIR   | £500  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Inj   | Craig Calver     | 1 (2) | 3     | -     | 1     | 7.57  | 20    | ENG   | £100K | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Wes Fogden       | 1     | -     | -     | -     | 6.80  | 23    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Dylan McGeouch   | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 18    | SCO   | £40K  | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | James Fisher     | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 27    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| -     | Rsv   | Peter Smith      | -     | -     | -     | -     | -     | 25    | ENG   | £1K   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[crouchaldinho]

I must say how nice it is to get back to a traditional 4-4-2.

I'm definitely a 4-4-2 man.

[crouchaldinho]

Something I forgot to mention is that I decided to give the vice-captaincy to Paul Hakim.

Haks is 29 now and has plenty of experience to offer the other players.

Ben Martin continues as the Saints' first-choice captain.

[AcidBurn]

The league says you have lost none yet Bath beat you. Good start to the season really scoring a decent amount and conceding little as well.

Got to ask do you try to play realistically? I ask because most teams I see at this level are filled with foreign players on other peoples saves, make a change to see a team like this. Good luck with the rest of the season this thread is as good of a read as I thought it would be given your real life passion for the Mighty Saints.

[crouchaldinho]

The league says you have lost none yet Bath beat you.

Goodness me, that had me confused for a while.

Then I noticed that Chelmsford were still in the division in the table I had posted. Turns out I had somehow got muddled and posted last season's table after give games.

I've fixed it now. That's for spotting it.

Good start to the season really scoring a decent amount and conceding little as well.

Yes, it has been a decent start. I was very disappointed with the Bath game though.

Got to ask do you try to play realistically? I ask because most teams I see at this level are filled with foreign players on other peoples saves, make a change to see a team like this.

You know me Acidburn. I try to play as if it is real life.

The only foreign players I have in my squad are a Canadian goalkeeper (who used to play at Crawley Town) and a forward from Trinidad and Tabago who used to play for AFC Wimbledon.

I actually know most of the players I have signed from watching them in real life. For instance, I watched Moses Ademola and Harry Arter playing for Woking against the Saints this weekend.

I'm actually finding it really fun because I know most of the players I am managing. Sometimes, there is more of a thrill to be managing players that you have seen in real life.

Good luck with the rest of the season this thread is as good of a read as I thought it would be given your real life passion for the Mighty Saints.

Thanks Acidburn. That's kind of you to say so.

[crouchaldinho]

Oh, exciting! My chairman's status has changed to 'will listen to offers'!

Hopefully a takeover is on the cards. I really want a supportive chairman this time around as I always seem to end up with a total idiot in charge.

[Nobby_McDonald]

A takeover where you get replaced..?

[crouchaldinho]

I hope not Nobby! After all I have done for the club!

I'm excited about this current season as this is easily the best Saints team that I have assembled so far. I just need to sign Godfrey Poku to top it all off. I'm holding out for him but he won't sign right now.

[williamshankley]

Loving this Crouchy, Usual standard set.

[crouchaldinho]

Thanks WS! You are too kind, as usual.

[hayeseeboi]

Brilliant, Just Brilliant you have inspired me to give The Saints a go. After Struggling with Wycombe, i felt St Albans was a realistic choice as i live close to them, Chesham United.

[crouchaldinho]

Thanks for that Hayeseeboi.

[crouchaldinho]

Currently, my coaches are telling me that the likes of James Quilter and James Fisher are no longer good enough for a club sustaining a title challenge in the BSS. They have become fringe players this season. Due to nostalgic purposes, I'm determined to get both of them up to 100 league games under my management before thinking about moving them on.

Quilter is on 67 and Fisher on 66. I'm going to be mainly playing them in home games now and giving them sub appearances to take them to the century.

[crouchaldinho]

Just got a message to suggest that the Supporters' Trust might be taking over the club.

[hayeseeboi]

Good news regarding the Supporters' Trust maybe taking over. Quilter and Fisher getting to 100 would be something special.