dafuge's FM15 challenge

Tristen · January 4, 2015

Hereford United, 2021/2022

After a few bad tries decided to go with The Bulls from the start, because I thought it would be a little easier in the first few seasons.

Because of the bad financial situation of the club, I couldn't get a high wage budget for a long time, so I depended on loans, usually 5 per season, and they were mostly my best players.

SEASONS

I started with a 7th place in the conference north, which nearly got me sacked. Then easily became champions to secure promotion.

I spend 2 years in the conference, in which I found some of my best players to this day. My central midfielders and my wingers have been with me since the conference.

In the league 2 and league one, somehow I promoted in one season, with my season in league one with media prediction of 24th and loweste annual salary became second.

In the championship I got absolutly destroyed. my annual wage was 55% of the 23th highest, and 7% of the highest. There were even players with a higher salary than my entire squad. I relegated with 18 points less than 23th.

PLAYERS

Martyn Biggs, left winger, has spend 5 years at the club, is already a legend and my captain, and most assists every season since joining, exept one where he had a lot of injuries, player of the year 5 times

https://www.dropbox.com/s/438ppyvfavam952/Martyn%20Biggs_%20Overview%20Profile.png?dl=0

Josimar Quintero, right winger, about as good as biggs, always second in assists, exept for one season.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1tnay25b4jzeqwd/Josimar%20Quintero_%20Overview%20Profile.png?dl=0

Javier Cuevas, currently on his sixth consecutive loan to me, my vice-captain and playmaker

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xosq4abmyg5ms4/Javier%20Cuevas_%20Overview%20Profile.png?dl=0

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
15/16	Van N	7th	None	None	3rdQual	None	None	4thRnd	None
16/17	Van N	1st	None	None	2ndQual	None	None	3rdQual	Promotion
17/18	Conf	8th	None	None	1strnd	None	None	Winner	None
18/19	Conf	1st	None	None	1strnd	None	None	Winner	Promoted
19/20	Lg 2	3rd	None	None	4thRnd	2ndRnd	1stRnd	N/A	Promoted
20/21	Lg 1	2nd	None	None	5thRnd	1stRnd	1stRnd	N/A	Promoted
21/22	Cham	24th	None	None	3rdRnd	3rdRnd	N/A	N/A	Relegated

PhilJay · January 4, 2015

Load a game with the English leagues only, with the Vanarama N/S selected. All of the boxed should be left unticked apart from 'do not add key staff' and 'prevent use of in-game editor'. It should look like this.

Just to check, when I followed these rules (and the subsequent extra players) but the OP image showed 52k players whereas my database only loaded approx 19k? is that right?!

Has anyone come across the following teams? DYING to start a game with these but never came up in 13 or 14 and no luck in 15 so far! They are from the lower leagues so makes them less likely to come up. Couple of local teams I would like a go with:

Kendal FC

Lancaster City

or at worst- Salford City?!

Many Thanks

Vipertitan · January 4, 2015

Margate - Vanarama Conference - 2021/22

This season was much like last season we could not get any kind of form going

League Table

Past Positions - but we managed to stay in the league only just on the last day of the season.

FA Cup- We are never going to win this but few good cup wins would not go a miss.

FA Trophy - played my fringe players in this years competition to give them match practice and did ok.

Transfers -i was not going to buy anyone but i had to the squad was soo weak.

Squad1

Squad2- We were proberly the worst team in the league to be honest im suppressed we managed to stay in the league.

Finances - just when i think they are getting better they get worse.

Key Player Profiles:

Joe Down - much better season from him top scorer.

Bartlomiej Fogler -bit poor season from him this year want see improvment next season.

Richard Stephenson -ever present at the back was solid this season yet again.

Nikolas Charalabous - originally bought for cover but has been doing grate.

Career Overview

Season    League                     Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South  3rd     play off winners 
2016/17   Vanarama Conference          19th     None   
2017/18   Vanarama Conference          24th     None  
2018/19   Vanarama Conference South   6h      
2019/20   Vanarama Conference South   1st     Champions 
2020/21   Vanarama Conference             20th  None  
2021/22   Vanarama Conference             19th  None

Next Season

I will try and look to play a different formation than the one i have been use and stick, hopefully have a good cup run try generate finances a bit better.

Ruh Roh · January 4, 2015

Season 4 | 2018-19 | Conference National | 17th place

League table | Transfers

I played through this season a while ago, so I hardly remember what happened. It wasn't anything dramatic - we were nowhere near the relegation battle, but we weren't very good either. We tried a more expansive style of play, but we didn't really have the horses. An ancient Joey Barton was expected to play 90 minutes as often as not. We also had trouble up front, with players from our promotion team like Maguire really struggling to find themselves in the new division. Sunderland loanee Nicky Rzonca was expected to be the "talisman," but he couldn't piece it together either. We were solid at the back, with the young central defenders Axel Tuanzebe from Manchester United and Kevin Brennan from Everton featuring in almost every game, and at least we never looked like a serious relegation contender.

Season 5 | 2019-20 | Conference National | 1st place (Promoted)

League table | All Competitions | Transfers

Our last season wasn't anything glamorous but we had established ourselves as a "Conference National side," for whatever that's worth, so it looked like we had more players of better quality available to us in the transfer market. Freddie Woodman from Newcastle was a commanding presence in goal and his U21s teammate Chris Evans made massive strides. Dan Jones helped keep a young backline steady and David Syers was running the show in our midfield before he a horror tackle tore his calf muscle.

Dan Holman, one of a few players signed from our rivals Gateshead, was ever-present in the champions' side, leaving Gateshead supporters wondering why the club let him go so easily. He was a great foil for a resurgent Nicky Rzonca, who finished the season with 28 league goals and the highest average rating in the league. Nicky's pace and movement were just too much for defenders at this level. Interestingly enough, if transfer target Nicky Maynard hadn't retired, we might have never volunteered for a second season of Nicky Rzonca after his struggles in his first. He won the terraces over.

Defense pairing Brennan and Tuanzebe were key once again. Tuanzebe is the best player in the side - we were able to see off interest from Championship side Crystal Palace and after promotion, it looks like he wants to tie his future to Spartans.

We're finally in League Two, which means we're finally professional. We have some extra wage budget to play around with, but a lot of that will be taken up by contracts moving to full-time. The nucleus of the team will probably stay intact.

kingjericho · January 5, 2015

Just to check, when I followed these rules (and the subsequent extra players) but the OP image showed 52k players whereas my database only loaded approx 19k? is that right?!

English extra leagues, large db, and players from top clubs should give you more than 19k.

Thebaker · January 5, 2015

DJ clarke boy - Looking at the strength of your squad, you have done well to stay up, not sure how Down scored 30 goals.

I would suggest not really changing your tactics much, but pruning your squad. You have a lot of poor ability players, just get rid of players with less than 3 stars unless they have high ratings in matches. Maybe don't change the match squad so much as you have used a lot of players in the season which effects the team.

darren1983 · January 5, 2015

Dulwich Hamlet - Season 2016/17 - Conference

League Table - plan was to stay up, done that! Looked like we might get dragged in the the relegation scrap but a run of only 3 defeats in our final 15 games saw us finish well clear (points wise at least) of the bottom 4

FA Cup - poor again, can't seem to get going in this.

FA Trophy - made the 4th round for the 2nd year in a row.

Transfers - shifted a lot of players, needed to with moving up a league. I expect less transfers this summer.

Squad - got a good nucleus here, needs fine tuning though

Finances - awful spent the season around £3k under wage budget and still lost loads. Need a good cup run next season. Wage budget has been cut by around £3k as well

Key Players

Danny Stenning - if he could stay fit for more then a few games at a time we'd be much higher up the table

Anthony Gerogiou - left winger scored some key goals in our run in.

Ricky Shakes - veteran wide man was key again, never seems to tire in games.

Erhun Oztumer - Turkish midfielder is a hero at Dulwich, was brought in on a free last season, really stepped up this year.

Scott Kashket - young forward found his form in the 2nd half of the season. Hope for more from him next year.

Career Overview

Season    League                     Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South  1st         Title winners
2016/17   Vanarama Conference        18th

Aims for next season

Kick on

LarkFenFizz · January 5, 2015

St Neots - League 2

Weeks to administration nearly scuppered my bid for promotion from the Conference but some major cost cutting which included wage drops, youth / training facilities being sold, players released & luckily a playoff final appearance (Beat Grimsby 5-4) managed to keep my head above water & go into League 2 pre-season without the worst case scenario happening. Unfortunately I had work to do & managed to sell a few players (luckily) & this coincided with TV rights of 315k which (IMO) all contributed me to keeping a wage budget set of 30k per week, which I've used 16k of. My attendances for St Neots are averaging around 1,200 a game which, again, is extra income compared to gates in the Conference.

Currently lying mid table in my first season not too far off the playoffs. Narrowly went out of the Capital One Cup 4-2 to Championship West Ham United - Missing a penalty when I was 1-2 up in the 61st minute. Once again a game where I was able to benefit with some added gate receipts.

Recently beat 1st placed Barnsley 3-1 at home, but this was followed by a disappointing 3-0 reverse at fellow promoted side Cambridge.

Highlights so far:

Leyton Orient 2 St Neots 7 Where did that come from?

Mr St Neots - Robbie Hayward Main striker signed from Birmingham

Dutch LB High hopes for this player

Another fans favourite One of my best players again

The 3 players above I'm hopeful of attracting a big fee in the future & compared to most games I'm prepared to let my better players go so I don't compromise the future of the club!

streety · January 5, 2015

Rushall Olympic 2014/15 season - Vanarama Conference North

Well the season has finished for me and I have the overwhelming sense of "if only"

http://i62.tinypic.com/2lu2hjb.jpg]League Table Looking back at the league campaign I am very happy but coming so close and qualifying for the play off's and falling at the first hurdle I do feel it was an opportunity missed.

http://i58.tinypic.com/16hsx87.jpg]FA Cup The FA Cup naturally I wanted to do well in Englands major cup competition but the team stuttered and never really got going and we eventually went out to AFC Fylde.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2eby6qa.jpg] FA Trophy The FA Trophy was a case of it was over before it began when the team were soundly beaten by Wrexham.

http://i61.tinypic.com/20z6v4k.jpg] Transfers The transfers I made for the club were OK I will have to maybe re look into my new players and maybe sell a few squad players to in turn improve and sign better players but this has not been decided.

http://i58.tinypic.com/25s5085.jpg] Squad Happy with the squad I have some good players with Nathan Rooney being the focal point.

http://i62.tinypic.com/vgn8r6.jpg] Finances The club is in the red by 42.5 k but my good performance in the league could help although the poor runs in the cup certainly did not.

Manager Season Summary

Overall it was a good season for the club in the league and coming so close to promotion via the playoffs spurred me on. Cup runs were way below my standards and this will be looked into next season.

Season        League                                           Achievements   
2014/15      Vanarama Confrence North                          6th - Playoffs

Andrew Haines · January 5, 2015

St Neots Town FC

2025/26

Skybet Championship - 6th

FA Cup

League Cup

Overview

A disappointing season and I only have myself to blame. The team looked toothless upfront. Record signing Kenny Monk who joined for £13.75 from Norwich had good pace but missed too many chances. Alongside him I attempted to convert Leon ardo Taborda to a number 10 without much success. I then tried Kenny Monk in the deeper role with younster Conor Melling leading the line, this had a degree of success but Melling only scored 4 goals in 29 games. I finally ended up with

Andrew Banks in the deeper role and Monk further forward. In the end we dominated almost every game but didn't take our chances and were punished time and again. Eventually we lost fair and square to Swansea in the playoff semi final.

For this season I have sold off Monk on the cheap to Barcelona but with a big sell on clause, this may pay off in the future as he is definately very promising. Upfront I have brought in two England u21 internationals, Ben Jones (dubbed the new Gary Lineker) and Bradley Bramble. Jones is an out and out goalscorer while Bramble should be a good foil.

The minumum requirement this season is promotion.

The Team

GK Graham Kirkwood - England u21 goalkeeper. Developing okay and decent enough in the championship. A higher quality keeper would have helped last season though,

WB Jose Coelho - Dual nationality English/Portugeuse right back. Sold to Tottenham in the close season for £3m.

CB Gylfi Jonsson - Icelandic centreback did okay in the Premier League and had a good season last year.

CB Ariel Chaparro - Argentine defender left for Everton in the close season for £19.5m which funded many of the new signings.

FB Robert Hughes - Winger turned Fullback has played for the club for 4 seasons. Was outclassed in the Premier League.

RM Chris Shields - Right Winger will re-train as a right back next season where his attacking endeavour will be of use.

AP Leonardo Taborda - Spent 2 seasons on loan before joining permanently last season for £9m. Will play in the holding role in midfield next season.

DLP Sofiane Boulaares - Algerian Midfielder joined from Juventus for £1.7m last summer and left for £6m to Norwich this close season.

W Liam Thomas - England international has gained 4 caps in the championship. Was the star player in the premier league but was subdued last season.

AF Kenny Monk - £13.75m record signing last summer from Norwich disappointed (despite 20 goals) and was sold on to Barcelona for £5m with a hefty sell on clause.

DLF Andrew Banks - With the team for 3 seasons without ever being a regular. I always ended up with him back in the side by the end though.

Next seasons lineup

As I have made a number of big signings I thought I would post up the new line up going into 2026/27.

GK Graham Kirkwood

WB Chris Shields

CB Gylfi Jonsson

CB Dan Butcher

FB Robert Hughes

RM Will Piercy - Agreed a £9m transfer from Celtic last summer but had to see out his loan spell with Norwich. Adds attacking flair on the right.

AP Tommy Herd - Playmaker joined from MK Dons last summer for £1.2m. Developed well and will be first choice this season

DLP Leonardo Taborda

W Liam Thomas

AF Ben Jones - The "new Gary Lineker", as a Leicester fan how could I resist. Joined from Arsenal for £14m.

DLF Bradley Bramble - Joins for £10m from Chelsea and should be a good foil for Jones.

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
16/17	Van N	12th	None	None	2ndRnd	None	None	1stRnd	None
17/18	Van N	2nd	None	None	3rdQual	None	None	1stRnd	Playoff Final Losers
18/19	Van N	1st	None	None	3rdRnd	None	None	4thRnd	Promoted
19/20	Conf	1st	None	None	4thRnd	None	None	Semi F	Promoted
20/21	Lg 2	5th	None	None	6thRnd	1stRnd	2ndRnd	N/A	None
21/22	Lg 2	2nd	None	None	5thRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	N/A	Promoted
22/23	Lg 1	2nd	None	None	3rdRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	N/A	Promoted
23/24	Champ	4th	None	None	5thRnd	3rdRnd	N/A	N/A	Promoted Playoffs
24/25	Prem	19th	None	None	3rdRnd	2ndRnd	N/A	N/A	Relegated
25/26	Champ	6th	None	NOne	4thRnd	1stRnd	N/A	N/A

SirToby · January 5, 2015

I'm up for the challenge. I have previously taken Blyth to the Championship but now I intend to lead them all the way to the top of Europe.

streety · January 5, 2015

Stadium Expansion

Great news!. But taking out a loan when the club is already in a fragile state is a bit stupid :mad:

Dagenham_Dave · January 6, 2015

Having basically chucked the Hereford save after three straight promotions, I am keen to get started again with a smaller rep side. Would love another crack at Dulwich Hamlet, I'll see what happens...

RonnyDonny · January 6, 2015

Stadium Expansion
Great news!. But taking out a loan when the club is already in a fragile state is a bit stupid

League requirements! Check the comp rules.

G_D_K · January 6, 2015

I'm on pins and needles here, as the season (our first in league football) comes to a close. Watson just nailed his 39th goal of the season, 23 minutes into the penultimate match against 4th placed Burton (catapulting us to 4th, temporarily). Will he be my first player (perhaps ever) with 40 goals in a season? Collins might be the best player I've had prior to this season -- he featured in my Bedford run last year...his personal best was 39 goals in a season!

150 minutes of football to play for Watson to hit that magical 40! (He scored 4 in a 4-1 win over Port Vale in the match prior, giving him the boost he needed to make a run at 40....the second time this season he's scored 4!)

LOL -- Burton, in their final home match of the season, battling for a playoff spot (or auto promotion even), drew a crowd of --- 838! Really????

Ugh...87th minute corner, and youngster Terry Perry gets a brace, handing us a 2-1 loss in a match that we really deserved to get at least a point out of. Leaves us in 7th, 2 points clear of 8th placed Luton for the final playoff spot (and a +6 GD over them). A draw or better and we're in the playoffs, or a Luton draw or worse.

And, we're in the playoffs (3rd consecutive season for a playoff appearance---last two were in VC). No Watson goal, so he now has 2 (or hopefully 3) playoff matches to hit the maic #40. It is Stevenage for the Semis --- lost 3-0 and 1-0 against them in our two appearances this season...not an auspicious omen!

EvertonblokesMobile · January 6, 2015

Evertonblokes Bognor Regis Season 27/28

Predicted dead last by the media this season after 2 straight promotions was hardly a shock. After 13 games we were top of the table, now that was a shock!

Although I am easily convinced we're going to smash everyone if we get a bit of good form, even I wasn't expecting to keep up this pace, and sure enough we steadily glided down the promotion spots, and into the play off positions, I was more than happy with that!

Coming to the end of the season and we couldn't get any kind of form together, win, lose, draw, win, lose, win, etc! in the final game of the season and I am 9th on equal points as 7th and 8th, but with a much worse goal difference, I thought that was the end of the season.

We won the final game of the season, and both the other two teams on 67 point lost, we made the play offs. It was totally deserved, we only spent 3 weeks lower than 7th all season, and two of those were right at the end of the season too.

Going into the playoff with my shakey form didn't exactly fill me with confidence, but smashing Bristol Rovers 5-1 in the first leg helped! To bring me back to earh the lads kindly capitulated in the second half, 3 nil, giving us an aggregate win of 5-4. Into the final.....

This could go either way, on our day we are amazing, if not we get beat badly. Sadly it was not our day and a 2 nil lose flattered us to be fair. I don't think we were ready for league 1 football yet, but that's my target for next season.

Finances were a problem again, starting the season with a wage budget of £6,600 was ridiculous, I actually weakened the squad trying to get the money down. Any players I wanted to go full time required a payrise to go with it!

Luckily after about 6 or 7 games I had the brainwave of asking for more money! I doubt anyone has ever thought of this, but I did, and it was granted, £22,000 a week on wages, now to start spending!

I brought in a player people have probably heard of, Josh Mceachran, formerly of Chelsea, lovely mental stats and at 34 should still be able to do it in league 2. He was total underwhelming! Luckily due to his high wage demands I only gave him a 1 year contract!

Another player I was unsure of was my new Keeper, O'Brien, hes a real player, much better than Hooper my old keeper, but watching him he seems slower, and less agile than Hooper, hes on the verge of being dropped, but then I check the attributes and think, no, hes much better. Its a tough call, but currently hes just got the nod head over heart.

I got an entire new first XI, mainly of regens, some worked some didn't, and I couldn't really tell why, but the end of the season my first XI was maybe 6 new players, 5 from the Conference.

We're still losing a lot of money, luckily I got £250k at the end of the season, plus the Wembley appearance so we are back in black by about £200,000, but had we finished 8th I think it would be more like £300k in the red.

Next season I am looking to push on, any of the players that cant justify their wages are going, looking at you Mceachran!

Summary:

15/16 Billericay - Conf South - 13th

16/17 Billericay - Conf South - 9th

17/18 Billericay - Conf South - 20th - Relegated and sacked

18/19 Margate - Conf South - 11th

19/20 Margate - Conf South - Sacked in October

20/21 Canvey Island - Conf South - 22nd - Relegated and sacked

21/22 Stamford - Conf North - 20th - Relegated and sacked

22/23 Bognor Regis - Conf South - 5th - Promoted via Play-offs

23/24 Bognor Regis - Conf Prem - 20th

24/25 Bognor Regis - Conf Prem - 23rd - Relegated

25/26 Bognor Regis - Conf South - 1st - Champions - Manager of the Year

26/27 Bognor Regis - Conf Prem - 3rd - Promoted via Play-offs - Manager of the Year

27/28 Bognor Regis - League 2 - 7th - Play Off Finalists

streety · January 6, 2015

League requirements! Check the comp rules.

Completely skipped my mind, will check later

col_nufc1 · January 6, 2015

Blyth Spartans, Vanarama Conference North 2015/16 Review.

League Table - We were crowned champions in our first season, not too bad but I expect next season to be much harder.

FA Cup - We had a great cup run and got knocked out by Premier League Leicester City in the 4th round, it's just a shame that we didn't get one of the top teams away from home to boost our finances.

FA Trophy - I never took it seriously and we got knocked out early on after fielding weakened teams to rest the first team for league games.

Transfers - No real quality really but what can you expect with our repuatation so poor.

Squad - We did a lot better than expected but a few of them will not be good enough for the next level.

Finances - Due to our good cup run our finances don't look to bad, for now anyway.

Key Players

Dan Maguire - Our best player, he was immense and was our top goalscorer and also top assists maker.

Scott McCarthy - If it wasn't for him being very injury prone he would of had a even better season than he did.

Lee Chappell - A great season for our left wing back who also chipped in with nine goals, most of them from free kicks.

Next Season

Hopefully our reputation increases a bit so we can sign some decent players on free transfers because it was a struggle this season trying to sign players.

G_D_K · January 6, 2015

So...I'm in the playoffs, and have decided to stream the playoff matches (hopefully 3!). You can find me at twitch.tv/castinar if interested!

edit: a 1-0 home win vs Stevenage was enough to see us through to the League 2 Finals! Thanks for those who came by to watch history being made! The finals will be streamed in 2-3 hours for those of you not sound asleep that are interested

michaeltmurrayuk · January 7, 2015

FC United – Championship 2021/22 – Season 7

So after surviving our debut season in the Championship the boards expectations this season were for a mid-table finish, with the bookies not giving us much hope of promotion and the media predicting we'd finish 14th - and rather interestingly I became a club Legend :cool: Though our facilities are lagging way behind due to a lack of funds.

Transfers - Whilst we had some money I went out and spent it on some new defenders with a club record £2.4m spent on Defender Nicky Thornton from relegated Rotherham, though we did recoup nearly half of that by selling Young Finnish Left Back Vanhanen to Forest for £825K plus clauses which was money I couldn't turn down for someone who might not make it. January sales saw me sell off several squad players who were unhappy and on high wages.

League Cup - Not great we needed pens to beat Scunthorpe after they scored in the 90th and 120th minutes before crashing out to Birmingham.

FA Cup - We exorcised our demons of last seasons defeat to non-league Stockport (who have just walked League 2) in style, we brushed past League One Portsmouth in the Third Round, then easily knocked out fellow Championship sides Aston Villa and Luton to set up a Quarter Final tie against Nottingham Forest who'd just fired their manager who lasted just 152 days (not that the previous guy did much better lasting 191 days) though they still finished bottom of the Premier League and at this point I was just happy to take the ~£600K earned from this tie as it got us out of the red, however my team had other ideas as we tore Forest apart with two goals from each of my loanees enough to send us through to the FA Cup semi-final.

When the draw for the semi-final came up I was again just happy for the money until I noticed the teams left in the draw; Crystal Palace (13th), Watford (14th) and Southampton (19th) all teams fighting to stay in the Premier League and my mind turned from thinking of the payday to the fact that this might be our best chance to win the FA Cup for quite awhile.

In the Semi-Final against Palace we didn't even give them a chance to get going as Rui Pedro opened the scoring with our fastest goal ever scoring after just 15 seconds, not that he knew much about it as the Palace Keeper kicked the ball straight at him and it bounced into the empty goal he then soon added a second with a fine header and with just about 20mins played he claimed his hat-trick as we hit them on the break and he cooly rounded the Keeper for number three, he then coasted in at the back post to make it four, and in the second half his replacement added two of his own to complete the rout to set up an unlikely Final against Southampton (would have been in trouble if Watford won as I have two of their loanees who wouldn't have been able to play).

In the Final we got off to a great start as Centre-Back Thornton reacted first to a loose ball from a set-piece and he soon made it 2-0 with a fine header from a corner, though we did let Soton back into the game before Winger Pamlidis restored our two goal lead, but in the second half we let Soton pull it back to 3-3 before Thornton was fouled in the area in the dying minutes and Rui Pedro stepped up to smash home the resulting penalty that saw us claim the FA Cup :eek: :cool:

[video=youtube_share;2ejWp93D8b4]

FA Cup Review - Not surprisingly we were named the Overachievers as Rui Pedro lead the way with sevene goals with our 24 goals being a new FA Cup record.

Championship - I'm not sure what shocked me more winning the FA Cup or winning the Championship. We got off to a mixed start, though my 4-4-2 formation wasn't really working and the game helped out by injuring my players so I needed to switch formations first I switched to 4-3-3 but the game then took out my DM and the only other option was a Centre-Back with that not working I decided to drop the DM back to the DC position and put him on a stopper duty and that seemed to work as the back five made us more solid at the back and we started to snatch a couple of wins winning five out of six games which saw us climb to the top of the league, though it didn't last as a poor October saw us lose three and draw two as I tried to fit in returning players, however in November things finally clicked and we won a record 10 straight games to see us somehow top the table come the New Year though the game did it's best to stop me forcing me to play most of a game against Luton with Winger Costa upfront where he promptly scored a hat-trick

In the New Year our form started to drop off as injuries, lack of squad depth and too midweek games took its toll on our squad, which meant we three games left we were just three points clear of Newcastle and Norwich with Fulham and Bournemouth waiting in the wings, on the plus side we were safe from relegation.

Then boosted by our destruction of Forest in the FA Cup we thrashed West Ham 4-0, Reading 5-0 and Brighton 4-1 to give us a two point lead over Norwich with a game in hand and even better we now had a better goal difference than Norwich, whilst Newcastle had fallen further behind and were now behind a Fulham side who were finding form at the wrong time for us, though we then blew it losing to Leeds and drawing to Barnsley to see Norwich top the league on goals scored with just five games left and with Fulham just two points behind breathing down our necks on the plus side we were at least assured a play-off place.

Next we faced Newcastle where a 1-1 draw did neither of us any favours, then it was FA Cup Semi-Final weekend for us, which actually proved handy as it meant we avoided the Sat-Mon Easter games instead getting the slightly better Sat-Tues fixtures, but the other teams couldn't advantage of us not playing as Norwich drew to Hull and Fulham lost to MBoro, Norwich could then only draw to Bournemouth whilst both Fulham and Newcastle won, which put us in fourth but with two games in hand and we just about won the first of them with a 3-2 win at Luton thanks to a last minute howler from their keeper (though two of my ex-players scoring for Luton didn't help matters) put us back in Second.

In the Second to last weekend ourselves and Newcastle won 1-0 whilst Norwich beat Fulham 1-0, which ended Fulham's chances of getting an automatic promotion spot, and left Newcastle two points behind us with one game left to play and Norwich one point top with also one game left, but we still had games left and a crazy 4-0 win over Wolves secured our promotion to the Premier League and put us in the driving seat for the title - Rui Pedro scored all four goals three of them pens, whilst Wolves finished with just eight(!) men thanks to two red cards and an injury.

The final day proved uneventful as Norwich could only draw in Bristol and we beat Ipswich 3-2 to make their result moot anyway, though there was drama at the bottom as Wolves won which saw them leap from 23rd to 19th sending Brighton and Charlton down with MK Dons who'd gone a long time ago - though to be fair they stood no chance as their wage budget was half of ours and they were the only team we beat, whilst Norwich and Newcastle's wages were 10 times our wages.

Championship Review - We were finally named a leagues biggest overachievers after somehow missing out every other season.

Rather interesting was the fact that our 95 points were a new in-game record, whilst our 43 goals conceeded were the least by a Champion (were the joint least overall with Cardiff from a couple of years ago)

Squad and Overview

Keeper Dean Henderson was again in excellent form, which was good as I had no cover for him, thankfully he only missed one game and becomes our first player to amass over 200 league games for the club.

At Full-Back Promising Serbian Denis Milikic had a solid season despite still being roar but was my best performer and rotated between the sides depending on the form of my other two full-backs, down the Right was Belgian Loanee Felix Charrier, whilst on the Left was Frenchman Baptiste Cristofari who'd arrived from Monaco but I was expecting better things from him.

At Centre Back Record Signing Nicky Thornton proved to be a bargain as he had an excellent season ending with his goals winning the FA Cup, on the Left of the trio was Belgian Dries Wouters who had a solid season but went missing a few times, and on the Right was Swede Jakob Jakobsson who unluckly broke his foot when he was coming into form and missed the second half of the season, which saw loanee Max Bell pushed into action and he did well but we were as solid without Jakobsson, whilst the only other option I had was Young Fin Topias Priha who did ok bar an absolute shocker against Leeds.

In the Centre of Midfield was another one of my many ex-Brugge Belgians Birger Verstraete who added some much needed extra quality in the centre, partnering him was fellow Belgian Thibault De Jaeghere who did well but tore his calf muscle which ruled him out for four months and has dropped his attributes down, providing cover at the end of the season was Foday Nabay who was helpfully loaned to me by promotion rivals Fulham I also gave a run out to my new Promising Croatina Midfielder Dean Krizmanic who is highly rated by my staff.

On the Right Winger Bruno Costa was in excellent form playing in his preferred AMR position as he proved a real goal threat this season and managed to out shine highly rated Flamboyant Greek Winger Alexis Pamildis who was loaned from Arsenal and was in excellent form once I'd retrained him to play down the left.

Upfront German Marc Brasnic had a better season unfortantley it was badly interrupted by injuries as he missed half of the season through injury and then when he did return from injury he demanded a move to Freiburg even though they didn't even look at him , thankfully Rui Pedro was on fire, though the longterm plan was to retrain him as a Centre Midfielder to provide a threat from deep as I don't really have a goalscoring midfielder and he actually played better in midfield but with Brasnic out injured he was needed upfront, providing cover was Ben Chorley who was loaned from Watford and was largely used as a sub to replace Pedro when he got a knock to keep him fit.

Championship Dream Team - Slightly poor that Thornton is the only one selected with Costa on the bench, and yes that is the Italian International Ciro Immobile leading the line for Hull

Fans Player Year - Won by Costa in a landslide.

Best XI - I'd agree with that.

Overall XI - Rui Pedro becomes part of our Overall XI with Wouters making the bench joining GK Henderson and DC Bell as the only current players in the side.

Finances - Thanks to the FA Cup they are looking good, though with promotion to the Premier League it doesn't really matter any more.

Expansion - Due to Premier League rules we are doubling our stadium capacity to 12,500 though we'll spend the next season sharing Boltons ~25,000 capacity ground which should do our finances good next season, little surprised the board didn't build a new stadium.

Facilities - Got the board to increase our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment which is now better than our Training Facilities that the board just won't improve.

Profile - I get my National A License and obtain Continental Reputation, whilst my coaching attributes increae a little though it seems hard to get the Mental attributes to increase - Adaptability, Determination and Level of Discipline all haven't increased since I started.

I think this is a personal record for making it to the Premier League, definately a record for winning the FA Cup (though I seem to remember reaching the final in the Championship in a previous version but cannot remember if I won or lost?), and is better than my last attempt with FC United when we got stuck in the Championship for 10 years, it took me 10 years to make it in FM2010 with Nantwich though we did go straight back down then hopefully that won't happen this time, it took me just eight years to make it with Ashton in FM11 before that game was lost to constant crashing, and then 10 years again to make it with AFC Fylde last year.

Goals for next season

- Hopefully survive our debut season in the Premier League, our performances in the FA Cup against the lower Prem sides gives me hope, failing that I'll take the money to build up our club.

- Enjoy our European Debut, hopefully it won't prove a costly distraction from the league, however on the plus side as the FA Cup Winners we go straight into the Group Stage and avoid the early qualifers and getting a bad seed, it also gives us six games to enjoy no matter what.

- Sign some Premier League Quality players or failing that sign some squad depth as my squad is threadbare, could really do with some quality Full-Backs and we'll need a new Left Winger, as I tried to get Pamildis in but he is demanding an insane £50K p/w to sign with us, he then signed a new contract with Arsenal at the last minute but refused to come back on loan to us

Leaderboard points (FM Mode) (My Steam Username is same as here if anyone wants to add me)

(points / position)

Single Game: 3,613,600 (38,591)

Single Season: 1,617,187 (41,567)

Single Season in England: 1,617,187 (22,916)

Single Season Championship: 1,617,187 (170 :cool: )

Career Overview

[TABLE=class: cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_ cms_table_cms_table_MsoTableLi cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_ghtShadingm, align: center]

[TR]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Season[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]League[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Position[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Achievements (Domestic)[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Achievements

(Europe)[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Leaderboard Points

(Season / Game)

[/TD]

[TD=bgcolor: #007ACC]Euro C/E

(Place)

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]15/16[/TD]

[TD]Conference North[/TD]

[TD]7th[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]13,793 / 13,793[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]16/17[/TD]

[TD]Conference North[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Winners - Promoted!!![/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]427,741 / 441,534[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]17/18[/TD]

[TD]Conference[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Winners - Promoted!!![/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]617,814 / 1,059,348[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]18/19[/TD]

[TD]League Two[/TD]

[TD]4th[/TD]

[TD]Playoff Winners - Promoted!!![/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]61,136 / 1,120,484[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]19/20[/TD]

[TD]League One[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Winners - Promoted!!![/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]758,596 / 1,879,080[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]20/21[/TD]

[TD]Championship[/TD]

[TD]17th[/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]117,333 / 1,996,413[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]21/22[/TD]

[TD]Championship[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Winners - Promoted + FA Cup Winners!!!![/TD]

[TD]-[/TD]

[TD]1,617,187 / 3,613,600[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

maxi7 · January 7, 2015

Hereford United - League One - Sink or Swim

Season 21/22

League Table.

http://i.gyazo.com/7c1689bce4c4ac36e6c84d8cbd2f7a6a.png

A lot better this season, if we were more consistent we would have made the playoffs.

Good league cup run though, wins over Reading (5-0), Tottenham (1-0), West Ham (2-0) before losing 2-0 at Everton.

FA Cup saw us lose to Millwall again after a first round win at Gillingham and Peterborough put us out the JPT.

Transfers in for the 2022/23 season, A lot more newgens, but I really need sellable assets.

http://i.gyazo.com/25733bd86f29a0a0d52a88e60464e8c4.png

My Squad for the upcoming season.

http://i.gyazo.com/dd71e3b51d7fe2a7f5e5940a283634f9.png

Season    Division                    Position   Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference North   1st    Champions  Fa Cup 2nd Qual round FA Trophy 4th Round
2016/17   Vanarama Conference           1st     Champions  Fa Cup 1st Round, FA Trophy 1st Round
2017/18   League Two                          14th    JTP Round 2, League Cup Round 1, FA Cup Round 2.
2018/19   League Two                           2nd      Promoted, League Cup Round 1, JPT Round 2, FA Cup Round 3
2019/20   League One                           22nd     Relegated, League Cup R1, JPT Round 1, FA Cup Round 2.
2020/21   League Two                           1st       Champions, League Cup R1, JPT Round 1, Fa Cup Round 2.
2021/22   League One                         11th        League Cup Round 4, FA Cup round 2, JPT Quarter finals.

kingjericho · January 7, 2015

My first wonderkid :cool:

Tristen · January 7, 2015

what league are you in jericho?

kingjericho · January 7, 2015

First season in the Premier League.

Tristen · January 8, 2015

I really don't know how, but, back to back promotions, highest level, with the 23th annual sallary and lowest average attendance. It's really the most exiting and heartskipping final league table i've ever seen in all fm versions i've played. https://www.dropbox.com/s/umpsdez86nf8ry9/Sky%20Bet%20Championship_%20Overview%20Profile.png?dl=0

RonnyDonny · January 8, 2015

Automatic promotion into the PL on goals scored, WOW!

Crownejewell · January 8, 2015

No strange clubs in the championship in 2024 (maybe Newcastle, however they relegated before to the 2nd level) , or did one of the premiership stakeholders drop futher down as the championship?

Tristen · January 8, 2015

wigan in league one, you got west ham, that's about it.

G_D_K · January 8, 2015

King's Lynn

Season 2021/2022

Table / Position Graph / Squad / Finances / Transfers / Manager / Lg. Records (team) / Lg. Records (ind) / Confidence / Competitions / Reputation

Season 7 -- our first in League Two, was, quietly, an outstanding success. After a decent preseason (only 5 matches, due to the late run through the playoffs the previous season) in which we went 3-1-1, with Robin Watson scoring 8 goals, we entered our first matches in league football. I expected a bit of a slow start due to the jump in leagues, and wasn't disappointed. A 2-0 win at also-just-promoted Bury was followed by a pair of losses -- 2-0 and 5-3, but at least it looked like we wouldn't have problems scoring in the new league. Buried among those first matches was a C1C loss against Championship Swindon--- no big deal, and we kept a respectable 2-0 scoreline. A 3-2 win (Watson scoring 2) took us out of the danger area, but two straight 1-0 defeats knocked us right back down, and it looked like we would be running a long, contested battle to stay clear of relegation.

However, I needed not fear, as those two losses would take us to our lowest point in League 2, and everything went pretty positively from there. By matchday 12, we were actually challenging for playoff spots, and while nothing was ever certain, it wasn't until matchday 41 that we dropped as low as 9th. In fact, 26 of the 34 final matches saw us in the playoff spots or better, and we were actually in auto-promotion zone for 4 of those 26 weeks. Looking at the league table around match day 42, all four playoff teams at the time were level on about 71 points, with only goal differential separating us, and with at least three teams challenging to make the jump up to the playoffs. In the end, our season came down to the final match, with only 1 point separating me from 8th placed Luton. Luton would go behind early in their match, but I still wanted a win in case Luton could stage a comeback, and my go-ahead goal came through left full-back Vinnie Cox in the 28th minute. That margin would hold for the rest of the match, and regardless of the Luton result, we were in the playoffs. Amazing!

In a season this successful, we obviously had to have some standout players, but really, there was only one standout, and the rest was a solid team effort. Robin Watson, in his 6th season, once again had an amazing year, proving that he could make the leap to League Two football by becoming (perhaps) my first ever 40-goal scorer in the 15+ years I've played this series (note: it is possible I've had 40-goal a season scorers, but none that I can remember...and he is certainly the first I've had while running this challenge. Last year's Tom Collins came close one season, netting 38 times). It took a playoff finals appearance for Watson to get there, however, and for a bit it looked like he wouldn't make it. A 4-goal performance (his second of the season) against Port Vale in match-day 44 gave him 38 on the season (37 league + 1 cup), and he netted #39 in a 2-1 loss to 4th placed Burton the next match to give me hope. However, it would be left to the playoffs to see if he could hit magic #40, as our 1-0 win in the final match left him sitting on #39.

In addition to Robin Watson, newcomer (and John Lesley van Engel replacement) Martyn Thomas showed a lot of promise, operating in the DLF role van Engel performed so well in during previous seasons. He ended with 10 goals and 10 assists in 29 appearnces, with an AvR of 7.03. A broken ankle, however, sidelined him for three months, and nearly cost us our playoff spot, as we went on a long stretch with few wins after his injury (5 wins in 16 matches in his absence). Fortunately, when we didn't win, we did get a fair number of draws to keep us in the running. Back from injury, he went right back to work, getting goals in his first two matches back. Already w/ good league two CA, and the ability to "improve significantly in the future", I expect him and Watson (also w/ Good+ League One PA) to be a potent strike force in League One, and hopefully be enough to keep our head above water in the new league.

In addition to a new striker, I strengthened the midfield with one new DM/MC signing and one season-long DM/MC loanee. Alongside midfielders Turl, Thornton, Greenhaf and Beech from previous years, this group did an outstanding job at controlling the midfield. Four of the six could easily rotate among any of the four MC/DM positions that I run, so I always had options to change things up and keep players fresh. The only "scare" I had was in one of the final matches of the season (actually, the first playoff semi-final match) where I lost two of the MC players early in a match (and also lost Striker Thomas late) through injury. Only one would prove long term, however, and Hidgon would miss the final matches with a torn hamstring and be out until the start of the next season.

Defensively, there was only one change, with newcomer Vinny Cox replacing last year's left fullback Parker, who, at 34, was let go in the offseason. Cox had an excellent season overall, making 45 appearances, scoring 3 and providing 4 assists, accumulating an AvR of 6.93. He also led the league in tackles/game at a little over 8 (Right Fullback Ramm was 2nd in tackles/game at just about .1 less, though he played less than 30 total matches). However, countering those good stats, he was also joint 4-th worst in yellow cards, getting 12 through the season, and contributing to the leagues' 2nd most disciplined team, with only Morecambe receiving more yellow cards in the season. I've come to expect this however---it seems that every time we jump a league, our yellow card count is among the worst in the new league. When I made the jump to the Vanarama Conference, season one saw us the most carded team...but season two (and our final season in the VC) saw us the in the top 5 best for the category). Jumping to League one, and I expect we'll have some more issues w/ yellow cards. Fortunately, despite being second-worst in the yellow card category, we only had a single red card issued to the team --- that in a bloodbath that saw 13 yellows (leading to a red card for each team) handed out -- 8 for King's Lynn! The referee ended up with a match rating of 3.0 for the match...the lowest I think I've seen so far in FM15!

In goal, Martin Ellis returned to put on some outstanding displays of goalkeeping prowess, with backup Fell only featuring in a couple matches near the transfer window in order to shop him (unsuccessfully, as it turned out). Ellis (and the defence) would end up around fifth place, maintaining 13 clean sheets...he would also turn in some brilliant performances during the playoffs. Rated CA at only "good VC level" (with unknown potential), I'm hoping he can keep up with the flow of the game in the new league...if not, there are a couple goalkeepers on my list to keep an eye on. Going into the new season, he is currently the only goalkeeper on my books, w/ 2 U18 keepers not nearly ready for first team football.

If it ain't broke...don't fix it.....still. My 4-1-3-2 formation made the jump to League Two without hardly skipping a beat. It helped to have four of my six (or five of eight, including some rotational youth players) able to play in any of the four midfield roles for the tactic. I'll be riding it right into League One, and hoping it continues to succeed. As someone mentioned during the playoff twitch streams, it has proven to be very solid defensively....and as Watson's 40 goals can attest to, it provides plenty of punch!

Financially, we are doing better than well. We ended the season with nearly £1.5M in the bank (that after a £300K tax hit and a youth facility upgrade), thanks in part due to our third consecutive playoff final and an outstanding FA Cup run (more on that below). Unfortunately, the board set next seasons' budget between the playoff semi-finals and finals, dropping the salary budget by £5K/week (were they telling me they didn't expect me to win the finals? Well...I guess I don't blame them!) to £25K. Thankfully, I hadn't been overspending (before promotion/annual payraises, I was only spending £16K of the £30K alloted)! I also managed to pry another £3K/week out of them during my contract renewal talks, so we've got £28K/week spending room, and nearly £300K transfer money...hopefully it will be enough. (It should be, as usual I will be retaining a fair number of key players, and brining in 4-6 new faces, until I can determine specific weaknesses).

PROMOTION/PLAYOFFS

A bit unbelievably, we made the playoffs in our first League Two season! As mentioned early on, it was a quiet, almost predatoral , climb up the table...in fact, at one point of the season when I went to check the table, I was surprised that we had actually entered the playoff race. And, once there, we were always in the race, though it took a 1-0 win in the final match to guarantee our spot.

And our first matchup, the semi-final against 4th placed Stevenage, would be a tough one. Facing them twice in the season, we had yet to even score against the team, losing 3-0 and 1-0 in our two meetings. Not only that, but the media had to remind me that their keeper had been in excellent form, not having conceded a goal in more than 3 matches! To counter that, we had super-Watson, on 39 goals on the season, and a fully healthy team to play with. I pulled Watson aside and confided my faith in him, both as Captain and as league leading goalscorer....to which he replied that I was putting a lot of pressure on him. **GULP** Oops...possibly one of my very few man-management errors to date!

The home match started off on a brilliant day, sunny and about 16C, in front of 4500 rabid fans eager to see us progress. Did i mention a fully healthy team? Oops...maybe said that a bit early, as I lose DM Howard Greenhaf at the 17 minute mark. No problem, I'll move HIgdon back to the DM spot and put Turl (who as played more sub roles this year) in the defensive CM spot. Then, disaster in stoppage time, as Higdon goes down with a torn calf muscle (45+4 minute mark), and my outstanding midfield team is suddenly severely depleted in a tightly contested 0-0 home draw against a team which I have never scored agasint! Second half, and a subdued team comes out, having heard the bad news about Higdon. Despite losing two key players, the midfield and defense held firm, however, denying Stevenage many clear attacking opportunities throughout the match. And, in the two occasions the defense broke down, Goalkeeper Ellis came up huge, making key saves in one-on-one situations to keep the game level. King's Lynn finally broke through in the 77th minute, Watson turning provider for striker partner Thomas who netted our first ever goal against a very tough Stevenage side. The final incident of the game came late in stoppage time, as goalscorer Thomas was hacked down near the corner flag (90+3 minutes of 4 minutes stoppage time--leading to Stevenages's 2nd team yellow card) and had to be carted off. The match ended shortly after, with King's Lynn holding the most slender of 1-0 leads, and dreading the physio's post-match report(s).

Fortunately, Higdon's injury was the only lasting one, and we had both Thomas and Greenhaf back for what would prove to be a difficult away leg. Did I mention my team defence being stingy? It was sorely tested away at Broadhall Way, as Stevenage threw everything they had at us in an attempt to first equalize, then get the go-ahead goal in order to advance to the finals. They never achieved that first step, however, as the defense stood firm, and of Stevenage's 18 shots (8 on target), only 2 were CCCs, as the defense kept the pressure on the would-be goal-scorers. The two clear-cut-chances---Ellis came up huge, making a double near-post save in the 68th minute to deny Stevenage. Watson and Thomas both came close for King's Lynn, but neither would convert, and the match finally ended in a goalless draw. But, a goalless draw was enough, and despite only scoring one against Stevenage in 4 matches, we were now through to the playoff finals (and Watson's final attempt to become a 40-goal scorer!).

That win sent us off to Wembley for the 3rd time in 3 years (and 3rd time in history) to face Morecambe, who had finished 5th in the league, and had beaten Exeter (3-0/1-0) in their semi-finals. During the season, we had split games, losing 3-1 away before beating them at home 1-0 in the final game of the regular season to book our spot in the playoffs. Nearly 52,000 fans arrived at Wembley, hoping for at least an entertaining spectacle, though few would give upstarts King's Lynn much of a chance if offered odds. Both teams were on form, having shut out their opponents in the semi-finals. It remained to be seen whether King's Lynn outstanding defense (just over 270 minutes w/o conceding) could put a stop to a Morecambe side that had put 4 past an even better defense in Exeter; or whether Watson (now 340 minutes w/o scoring) would find that magical 40th goal of the season.

A cagey opening by both sides suddenly took a great turn for heavy favorites Morecambe...a short throw in knocked back to the taker, who crossed to Jayden Stockley (22 goals on the season) who buried an uncontested free-header past Ellis. The defense had finally broken down, and it was all to do for King's Lynn to try to get back into the match. It looked like a 1-0 scoreline would be enough, too. After the gaffe, King's Lynn defense would strangle the game, but every attacking attempt by King's Lynn was turned aside. At the 71 minute mark, I made the decision to pull 35 year old FK taker Thornton in favor of fresher legs, and on 73 minutes, King's Lynn was awarded a penalty! However, for some reason, Thornton had not yet been allowed to leave the pitch, and he stepped up to take the penalty. No problem...he'd gone 3/3 in the season on penalty kicks, but the keeper guessed right, and just got a hand to Thornton's high corner shot to palm the ball off the crossbar, and eventually out of bounds. (I had to rewatch the play several times --- in the end, it was an outstanding save--- it appeared the keeper was beat, the ball was going inside the top post, a couple feet from the corner. how he reached it I'll never know!). At this point, it looked to be game over. a converted PK would have changed the game...or so I thought. Maybe the missed PK was the cause for what followed?

Finally allowed a sub, van Engel made a rare appearance (well, rare compared to previous seasons...he did feature 26 times, though 18 times as a sub---he'd even gone out on loan on two different occasions to keep him match fit). I pushed him forward into an offset AMC to try to provide some more punch...as past seasons have shown, he is more than able to score. The 80-minute mark came and went, and I went into an overload tactic in order to push for an equalizer. It was simple---score or go home, right? And, in the 82nd minute, it happened. THAT MAN.....MY man, Watson, hit #40 on the season! The ball was floated into the near corner of the 6-yard box by FB Barnes, and Watson calmly buried it near-post by a keeper that barely saw the chance taken. #40 for Watson, a lifeline-equalizer, and it was a new game!

Unfortunately (for Morecambe), a stoppage time (90+4 minute) penalty would force Jeffrey Monakana off, and Morecambe would play 30 minutes of extra time a man short. King's Lynn would take every advantage it could get, though the first 15 minutes came and went, with neither side even getting a shot off; however, King's Lynn were dominant, and it really was just a matter of time. The go-ahead goal came almost off the start of 2nd half of extra time, with FB Barnes again lofting a cross into the box. This cross was cleared, but only to Left Fullback Vinny Cox, who sprinted with the ball to a point level with the 6 yard line, then picked an excellent pass to Martyn Thomas who put a fierce shot, once again on the near-side post, past the flat-footed keeper. 2-1, and it looked like the unlikely was to happen...King's Lynn was going to League One!. That wasn't the end of the story, however, as Vinny Cox played provider one last time, with a low cross to Watson, center on goal on the 6-yard line. Watson is never going to miss there, and he calmly picked his spot and buried the ball in the back of the net: at 117:30, Kings Lynn up 3-1, Watson with 40 league goals (41 season goals), and an ecstatic fan-base cheering the team right into League One Football. A glorious end to what will (hopefully) be our first and last season in League Two!

Postmortem: It's hard to tell what effect losing the 10th man had, though it certainly did affect the outcome. In extra time, Morecambe was utterly, completely, and totally unable to get the ball in our half of the field. King's Lynn had 59% possession in the extra time period...25% in the midfield, 25% in the final third, and 9% in our own side of the field. By Contrast, Morecambe's possession was 28% midfield, 12% in their own 3rd, and only 2% in the attacking third of the field. I think they managed to only get the ball past midfield perhaps 3 times in the extra 30 minutes of play. Having said that, Morecambe only managed a total of 7 shots (1 on target) in the entire 120 minutes of play, with 5 of those shots in the first half. After the miscue that allowed Morecambe to go ahead at the half-hour mark, King's Lynn utterly strangled the opposition chances. So, perhaps, a win was always likely to happen (In contrast to Morecambe's 7 shots, King's Lynn ended with 14 shots (7 on target).

As someone in the twitch channel mentioned---the tactic is very impressive defensively!

Cup Competitions

League two brought early (and historic first ever) attempts at the Capital One Cup and JPT competitions. With no expectations, we faced Championship Swindon away at The County Ground, where a battling King's Lynn lost in a very creditable 2-0 competition.

The JPT 1st round brought a matchup I thought we might win, away at newly-promoted-to-league-One Rotherham. This was a team which, I felt we might be able to have some success against; I was wrong, and we ultimately went out 3-0 losers, as Michael Holohan netted a hattrick to send us packing. (Their striker would end up playing about 30 times and getting 10 goals through the season).

That left us with the FA Cup; albeit one with fewer warmup rounds than we were used to. We quickly dispatched our first three opponents, however -- Fullback Barnes and (of course) Robin Watson putting VC Braintree down in a 2-1 win; Learnington (back down in the regional premier leagues battled, but also lost to King's Lynn 2-1, with van Engel getting the first of his (only) 5 goals on the season to seal the outcome in the 84th minute. Finally, our toughest challenge (of the three) came in the form of sister League Two team Dagenham. At the time, they were struggling down in the relegation zone, and we ran out comfortable with a 3-0 win, with Thornton, van Engel, and FB Barnes all getting their second of the competition overall.

That win (our first ever attempt at FAC Round 3 proper) gave us a historic 4th round draw---away to Chelsea! £££ flashing in my eyes! I was just hoping to avoid a 5-0 (or worse!) defeat and the morale slide it might lead to, and come match day I told the lads to go out and enjoy the historic occasion...hoping to ease any nerves. A televised national game against Chelsea, at (Harris stadium???) was sure to set the nerves alight for anyone! In the end, we were dominated, as expected, giving up 23 shots while only managing 4 ourselves. They were at least well taken shots, w/ 3 of 4 on target, but easily handled. Ellis made a number of excellent saves, but in the end the quality was too much; and though we held Chelsea scoreless through the first half, it only took 4 minutes of second-half play time for Chelsea to score. They would go on to score two more to tally a 3-0 final scoreline.

All in all, a credit to the team for hanging with Chelsea for so long! Oh..and between tele money and gate receipts, we pulled in £1.1 or thereabouts for the match!

Additional Details

Team of the Season Watson, of course, led the charge this year. Martyn Thomas, w/ 10 goals+10 assists in an injury shortened year, and season-long loanee Stewe Gwinnett also were key.

Best XI Inductees -- Somewhat surprisingly, no new players added this season!

Historical Best XI

Other awards/mentions

Note: Despite his 40 league goals (2nd place goalscorer had 27 league goals, and most ever in League two "modern day--by a long shot!). Despite his 8 assists. Despite his 7 PoM awards (joint 3rd). Despite his 7.22 AvR (6th overall). Robin Watson did *NOT* win the League Two player of the year?!?!?!?!?! That is CRIMINAL! Instead, Northampton's Jack Stacey (MR -- 8G18A, 7.51AvR, 6PoM) got the nod. Northampton's NIgel Worthington also beat me out for Manager of the Year. (Predicted 8, end 1st, vs our Predicted 24, Finish 7+promoted). Not quite as surprised or resentful....but WATSON SHOULD HAVE WON POY HANDS DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fans Player of the Season: Watson, for the second year running, and as a runaway winner, garnering 75% of the vote.

Top Academy Graduate

S1: Robin Watson looks to be someone who will be useful in the coming years. Already potential starter material, the coaches figure that he could be useful late into our Varana Conference campaign.

S2: Arran Harding should excite fans for years to come, and he will make an excellent target man. I need to work on his pace a bit to get him ready for real action, but hope to feature him in a season or two!

S3: Robb Lynn --- possibly useful in a year or two. Will have to see if he develops enough...only has Vanarama North potential, and hopefully will be beyond that level soon!

S4: Lee Bolton -- real possibility of using him in the next season or two....my 2nd w/ good conference potential or better

S5: Colin Kean -- injury prone and slow...we'll have to see what we can make of him!

S6: Scott Dunford--pretty average looking, we'll have to see if he develops at all

S7: Seamus Goodchild -- Not starting with the best attributes, but perported to be at least Decent L2 potential

Team, Individual, and league records

A host of records were set or broken this year: (* denotes ongoing record-bold indicates record broke current season)

[b]Vanarama Conference North+ Vanarama Conference[/b]
Most league games without losing:  King's Lynn -- 48

[b][i]King's Lynn -- Team[/i][/b]
[b]Highest League Position -- 2nd in Sky Bet League 2 (2021/22)[/b] (Previous high--2rd in Vanarama Conference (2020/21)
Most Games won in a Row -- 9 (previous high: 4)
Most Games without Losing -- 29 (Previous high: 9 -- 2019)
Most games without conceding -- 5(2020/21) (Previous high: 3 -- 2019/2020)
Highest Attendance -- 5232 (vs Wigan,  FAC 1st round) -- previous record -- 3151 (2019 vs Gillingham, FAC 1st round)
[b]Average Attendance -- 2335[/b] (previous high, 1491, 2019/20)

[b][i]King's Lynn -- Individual[/i] [/b]
[b]Top Goalscorer -- Robin Watson --41 (2021/22)[/b] (previous record, John Lesley van Engel -- 38  (2020/21) 
[b]Top League Goalscorer -- Robin Watson -- 40 (2021/22)[/b] (previous record, Robin Watson -- 34--2020/21)
Most Assists -- Kegan Everington -- 22 (2019/20) (previous record, Jackson Ramm, 20  2018/19)
[b]Most League goals for club -- Robin Watson -- 166*[/b] (previous record) Robin Watson (126)[/b]
[b]Most League Appearances for club -- John Lesley van Engel(291)[/b](previous record, Mamadou Fofana (282)
Highest AvR -- Ryan Cooke (DR) -- 7.55 (2015/16)
Most Player of Match awards -- Robin Watson -- 11 (2020/21) (previous record, John Lesley van Engel -- 10 (2015/16)
Youngest player -- Lewis Hatch (Striker), 16y20d
[b]Fastest Goal -- Robin Watson -- 38 seconds (25 Jan 2022) [/b] (previous record, Ryan Cooke -- 40 seconds -- 16 April 2016)

Promoted from the Regional Premier Division Teams:

Weston-Super-Mare, Hayes & Yeading, Marine, Basingstoke, Tonbridge, Blyth

League Winners (relegated)

EPL Man City (West Brom, Leicester, Blackburn)

Championship Cardiff (Portsmouth, Newcastle, Leeds) (might be first time I've seen 3 former EPL teams all relegated from Championship in same season---although it's been a long time since Leeds have been in the EPL)

League One Wigan (Peterborough, AFC Wimbledon, Gillingham, Barnet) *back-to-back promotions for Sheffield Utd

League Two Northampton (Newport Co, Bury)

Vanarama Conference Coventry (Bath, Havant & Waterlooville, Stalybridge, Accrington) *League Overachievers

Vanarama North Nuneaton(Harrogate, Colwyn Bay, Forest Green)

Vanarama South Ebbsfleet (Canvey Island, Eastbourne Boro, AFC Hornchurch)

Cup Winners

English FA Cup Q.P.R (vs Arsenal) -- King's Lynn overachievers!

Capital One Cup Man City

Jonhstone's Paint Trophy Milton Keynes

English FA Trophy Rochdale

Euro Qualifcation

Champions League Group Stage: Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea

Champions League Best Placed Playoff:

Euro Cup Group Stage: Q.P.R, Arsenal

Euro Cup Playoff: Aston Villa

Euro Cup 3rd QR:

Euro Cup 1st QR:

Continental Achievements

Tottenham -- Eliminated from Euro Cup First Knockout Round (By FC Red Bull Salzburg)

Hull -- Eliminated from Euro Cup First Knockout Round (By Shakhtar)

Man Utd -- Eliminated from Euro Cup First Knockout Round (by Napoli)

Arsenal -- Eliminated from Champions League Quarter Final (by Barcelona)

Man City -- Eliminated from Champions League Quarter Final (By Liverpool)

Liverpool -- Won European Champions League (against Chelsea)

Chelsea -- Eliminated from Champions League Final (by Liverpool)

Extra detail

England, USA eliminated from World Cup 2nd round. France defeats Holland 4-2 to take the trophy.

What's Next?

What's next? Catch my breath? Turn down dozens of job offers? Exalt in a miracle?

Completely unexpected, but here we are, and here I plan to stay. Well, not stay....but certainly not go back. After back to back promotions, I really want a year to consolidate, keep reign on finances, and grow into the next stage. I can categorically state we are not ready for Championship football, and we do not have a hefty transfer budget at the moment. I did manage to get a youth academy and youth training facility upgrade, and near-term I'll be hoping to get some decent youngsters through the ranks. I've already started looking at replacements for next year---as well as our defense performed, I do not think my center-backs are ready for L1 football, so they will be a priority. I'll likely keep two of them on, as they might be able to grow into the new league---but I'll be bringing in a couple new faces there. In the midfield, I'm pretty solid....but I do have Thornton retiring, so I'll need a free kick taker/midfield playmaker to replace him. I'll also want a replacement for loanee Gwinnett -- a DM/MC type. Up front, I'm sold, with both Watson and Thomas capable of making the transition to League One. I will need a to bring in a sub, as my reserve/youth talent isn't quite ready yet...so I'll look for one more name up front. Goalkeeper Ellis I'll keep on, but will need a backup for him as well, as my two remaining U18 goalkeepers are not anywhere near able to play at this level (and might never be).

We did take a wage cut, and after the initial summer signings wll be about 9K under budget, with about 250K remaining transfer budget, so I have room to grow/fill in spots as I need. A lot of new staff came in on the summer as well (additions to meet the board allowances (in total, by the end, I'll two new U18 staff, a new physio, 2 or 3 new 1st team coaches, and 5 additional scouts, including this gem, who answered a job advert!).

Here's hoping for a solid summer of signings and conditioning/training, and an injury free preseason round of matches!

Career Overview

Season            Team                 League        Position(Predicted)         Achievements
2015/16	        Kings Lynn	     Vanarama North	19(21)
2016/17	        Kings Lynn	     Vanarama North	15(19)		
2017/18	        Kings Lynn	     Vanarama North	12(22)		         Vanarama North Overachievers!
2018/19	        Kings Lynn	     Vanarama North      1(20)		         Vanarama North Winners/Overachievers!
2019/20         Kings Lynn           Vanarama Conf       5(24)                   Vanarama Conference Playoff finalist/Overachievers!
2020/21         Kings Lynn           Vanarama Conf       2(24)                   Promoted via Playoffs (Overachievers!)
2021/22	        Kings Lynn           Sky Bet League 2    7(24)	                 Promoted vie Playoffs (League Two, FA Cup Overachievers)

kingjericho · January 9, 2015

Going well G_D_K!

kingjericho · January 9, 2015

Dulwich Hamlet - Barclays Premier League - 2026/27

League - we debuted in the Premier League in style and booked a place in the Europa League next season.

FA Cup - a predictable defeat.

Capital One Cup - penalties haven't usually gone our way so far.

Squad - we have a nice squad but some positions only have one quality option.

Transfers - we finally started spending money, but the free transfer market is still full of good players.

Finances - healthy, which is allowing us to constantly improve training facilities.

Career overview

Season    Division                    Position   Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South   6th
2016/17   Vanarama Conference South   8th
2017/18   Vanarama Conference South   16th
2018/19   Vanarama Conference South   7th
2019/20   Vanarama Conference South   1st        Promotion
2020/21   Vanarama Conference         12th
2021/22   Vanarama Conference         5th        Promotion via play-off
2022/23   Sky Bet League 2            4th
2023/24   Sky Bet League 2            2nd        Promotion
2024/25   Sky Bet League 1            2nd        Promotion
2025/26   Sky Bet Championship        1st        Promotion
2026/27   Barclays Premier League     6th

Next season

After a good debut season we want to keep this going and aim for european spots again.

Andrew Haines · January 9, 2015

St Neots Town FC

2026/27

Skybet Championship - 1st

FA Cup

League Cup

Overview

A quality season and we are going back to the Premiership after two seasons away. Having not been given any funds while in the Premier League I have been able to used the accrued revenue to build an exciting team of young English talent. I can see 6 of the current first 11 as England internationals, 2 of them have been in the squad this season in the Championship. The defence will be strengthened in the summer with the arrivals of two England international centre-backs, Mike Hampson and Jordan Mitchell who arrive from Liverpool and West Ham respectively for a combined £20m.

I am confident that we can do better this time in the premiership and I can even see us having a good crack at European qualification.

The Team

GK Joseph Ali - Nigerian keeper arrived in January then disappeared to the African Nations Cup for a month. Did well in his 20 games.

WB Chris Shields - Converted from a right winger this season. The 21 year old is decent but may be replaced next season.

CB Dan Butcher - The 21 year old was meant to fill a gap until Battigelli arrived in January but the sale of Jonsson meant he played 54 games.

CB Nicolas Battigelli - Arrived for £4m from Estudiantes in January. Good player but may warm the bench when Mitchell and Hampson arrive next season.

FB Robert Hughes - Another midfielder cum fullback. Did well in his fourth season with the club.

RM Will Piercy - The 23 year old added dynamism on the wing since his move from Celtic last season. Called up for England in March but was injured before the game.

AP Leonardo Taborda - The playmaker had a good fifth season with the club but is now only an average player in the side.

DLP Ezequiel Dal Poggetto - Argentine Midfielder added bite in midfield when he arrived from Instituto for £6.5m in January.

W Liam Thomas - A big improvement on last season for the England international. Scored 16 goals.

AF Ben Jones - The "new Gary Lineker" came so close to 50 goals. An England call up can't be far away. Joined from Arsenal last summer for £14m.

DLF Bradley Bramble - Linked up with Jones superbly following his £10m move from Chelsea and scored 27 goals himself.

Incoming Players

Mike Hampson - 24 years old and Regular 1st teamer for Liverpool. Holds 7 caps for England.

Jordan Mitchell - 2 Caps for England and a mainstay of West Hams promotion side from the Championship this season.

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
16/17	Van N	12th	None	None	2ndRnd	None	None	1stRnd	None
17/18	Van N	2nd	None	None	3rdQual	None	None	1stRnd	Playoff Final Losers
18/19	Van N	1st	None	None	3rdRnd	None	None	4thRnd	Promoted
19/20	Conf	1st	None	None	4thRnd	None	None	Semi F	Promoted
20/21	Lg 2	5th	None	None	6thRnd	1stRnd	2ndRnd	N/A	None
21/22	Lg 2	2nd	None	None	5thRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	N/A	Promoted
22/23	Lg 1	2nd	None	None	3rdRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	N/A	Promoted
23/24	Champ	4th	None	None	5thRnd	3rdRnd	N/A	N/A	Promoted Playoffs
24/25	Prem	19th	None	None	3rdRnd	2ndRnd	N/A	N/A	Relegated
25/26	Champ	6th	None	NOne	4thRnd	1stRnd	N/A	N/A	
26/27	Champ	1st	None	NOne	QtrFnl	6thRnd	N/A	N/A	Promoted Champions

Bonzo1 · January 9, 2015

Marine 2022-23 (Season 7)

"Consolidation"

League - 10th

FA Cup - 1st Round

JPT - Semi Final

League Cup - 1st Round

The hilarious over performance by my defensive players continues (2nd best defence in the league) and we battle to valiant 10th place in the league. Our excellent home form was the shining light of the campaign and gives me great hope that we can improve it next year on a newly relaid pitch. Poor-ish cup performances, excluding the JPT, inhibited our ability to make any reasonable cash but we are in profit which is nice. Our £100 12 year sponsorship deal comes to an end next season so we could improve our admittedly terrible commercial income significantly. A decent away tie in the cups next year would be nice.

Key players

Connor Hunt - Another expectation defying season from my keeper. 12 Clean sheets is wonderful.

Fiyako Tomori - Filled in at right back for large portions of the season and his athleticism was useful the but missed in the centre back pairing. Will unfortunately be moved to more of a squad roll next year as I search for a better centre back and right back

Dave Cross - Came in late in the season and managed to be a great super sub to my two big but immobile forwards that I had on loan. Had the best goals to minute ratio in the squad. Only 18 so I have big hopes for him next year.

Axel Tuanzebe - Continues to be consistent at the back. Has handled this division quite well and will be important next season

Connor Hunte - Played both at left back and wide left and had another good season. Not as prolific as last year but playing at left back limited his goal scoring opportunities to free kicks.

Hein Van Aken - Forced Hunte to left back for large swathes of the season but lacked the goal threat of Hunte but was more creative. Not returning this year.

Craig Bishop - Star of the season by a mile! Fans player of the year and ever present (although having no other player capable of playing wide right enforced this). Broke both the POM and Assists records this year while still providing 11 league goals. All the more impressive when considering his finishing stat!

Plans from last season

Survive SUCCESS

Plans for next season

Cup Run

Look at the playoffs

Reduce reliance on loan players

History

Season    Level   League      FA Cup     FA Trophy   JPT      League Cup          Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    VCN     19th       2nd Qual   3rd Qual
2016/17    VCN      9th       2nd Qual   1st Round
2017/18    VCN     15th       1st Round  3rd Qual
2018/19    VCN      3rd       3rd Qual   2nd Round
2019/20    VCN      1st       1st Round  1st Round
2020/21    NAT      1st       1st Round  Semi Final
2021/22    L2       1st       1st Round  N/A        1st Round 1st Round
2022/23    L1       10th      2nd Round  N/A       Semi Final 1st Round

G_D_K · January 10, 2015

Going well G_D_K!

So far, so good. 4 seasons in N/S, 2 in VC, 1 in L2. Going to be a bit rough start in L1 --- 4 away matches to start the season (inc. 1 C1C) --- and our first home match against one of 3 former EPL teams that were relegated from Championship last season --Newcastle Utd!

edit: Not a bad start...a win, 2 draws, and a loss in first four (+ a loss in the C1C).

First three matches, conceded 10 first half goals, but (barring a PK) kept clean sheets for the 2nd halves of matches. Fourth and fifth match (home against Newcastle) were much better full-length efforts, giving few quality chances to opponents. In fact, we took a 61st(ish) minute lead against Newcastle...who were down to the 1st league after two Championship years. They endedup earning a PK shortly after and equalizing....but it ended up being a creditable 1-1 draw against a team that had us outmatched in nearly every category. One spanish AMC (Ayoze), on £57K/week, nearly 2x my total squad wage budget!!!!!!!!!!

(actually, a careful examination of newcastle squad shows 5 players on a weekly wage which exceed my entire squad budget!

Mr_Demus · January 10, 2015

Hereford United - League 1 - Mooing on up

Final position: 8th

League Table.

Our first season in League 1 was a mixed bag of nuts. We started off by winning a lot of games, and lead the league at one point. Then we dropped down and was in or around playoff spots. Then we started playing horribly, and I was seriously fearing relegation at one point, as nothing was working. We then stabilized a bit, and managed to get into 8th place. A marvellous achievement, yet I still have a weird feeling that we will battle next year. The sale of star man and top scorer James Demetriou was part of our demise, as his replacement didn't do very well.

Once again, our cup matches was nothing to talk about.

Transfers.

As always a lot of activity in the transfer market. Our budget is tight, so I really have to offload players who isn't performing rather urgently.

Squad.

We didn't perform well, but goog enough I guess. Once again Jake Gray was our best player.

Top league goalscorer was former Watford man Uche Ikpeazu, who really stepped up this season.

As mentioned, Jake Gray was our best player. Championship team Yeovil showed brief interest in him, so now he wants to go and join them. It will probably end up as with Demetriou, and he will go to the bottom of league 2.

Year	League	         Pos.	 	Achievements
15/16   Van N	         2nd          Promoted via playoffs
16/17   Conf National    11th         None
17/18   Conf National    4th          Lost in playoff semifinal
18/19   Conf National    5th          Promoted via playoffs! Lost FA trophy final, Manager of the year
19/20   League 2         2nd          Promoted, Manager of the year
20/21   League 1         8th          None

michaeltmurrayuk · January 10, 2015

We finally win our first away game of the season at the start of December with a 4-0 thrashing of Man City which lifts us upto 11th place after 13 games and above Man City :cool:

Tristen · January 10, 2015

on the last day consolidated in the premier league and named legend, let's hope the name of the stadium will be mine

michaeltmurrayuk · January 10, 2015

And we follow that game up with a 2-0 home win over Arsenal thanks to a cracking goal from Rui Pedro:

[video=youtube_share;bbpDuJruUUM]

8

We then followed that up with a defeat in France but it was enough to see us through the Europa Group Stage on goal difference :cool:

Andrew Haines · January 10, 2015

In my game QPR are the dominant team in the EPL by 2028. The manager... Ian Holloway.

dafuge · January 11, 2015

Canvey Island - Barclays Premier League - 2032/33

Last season we won everything we took part in, this season we had a chance to win everything possible.

League Table - it was a record points total as we stormed to the title. Other than Man Utd (who we failed to beat), most of the points dropped were when I rotated the squad to rest players.

Community Shield - a perfect way to kick off the season.

UEFA Super Cup - this one was a bit closer.

FIFA Club World Cup - I think the scoreline actually flattered them.

Capital One Cup - the backup players got us there, but the first team made easy work of the final.

FA Cup - Brentford nearly gave us a shock, but we showed our class again in another Wembley final.

UEFA Champions League - the group stage saw a new record win for the club as we marched on to another final. Despite missing a load of player on international duty, we beat Inter in the final.

Transfers - I sold a backup player and replaced him with someone who was described as World class, at a profit!

Squad - it is becoming hard work to improve this squad.

Finances - the prize money covers up the fact we made a loss, we would be in huge trouble without it.

Key Player Profiles:

Iván Gorostidi - top scorer again, I just hope he continues his form after his injury.

Tobias Koller - yet another stunning season.

Didier Kouakou - he's 30 now, but I can't see how it will be possible to replace him.

Muhammed Benali - a World class winger.

Dimitri Guilbert - an amazing number of goals and assists for a midfielder.

Career Overview

Season    League                       Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South    9th       
2016/17   Vanarama Conference South    1st         Promoted as champions
2017/18   Vanarama Conference Premier  20th        FA Trophy finalists
2018/19   Vanarama Conference Premier  13th        FA Trophy finalists
2019/20   Vanarama Conference Premier  1st         Promoted as champions
2020/21   Sky Bet League 2             2nd         Promoted
2021/22   Sky Bet League 1             2nd         Promoted
2022/23   Sky Bet Championship         10th        
2023/24   Sky Bet Championship         1st         Promoted as champions 
2024/25   Barclays Premier League      8th         
2025/26   Barclays Premier League      1st         League Cup winners
2026/27   Barclays Premier League      1st         FA Cup winners
2027/28   Barclays Premier League      1st         League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League winners
2028/29   Barclays Premier League      1st         CWC and FA Cup winners
2029/30   Barclays Premier League      1st         League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League winners
2030/31   Barclays Premier League      1st         CWC winners, FA Cup and Champions League finalists
2031/32   Barclays Premier League      1st         League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League winners
2032/33   Barclays Premier League      1st         CWC, League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League winners

Next Season

Ideally I would like a new stadium, but there is likely to be a wait of around another 10-15 years for that. With everything won, is it time to move on?

Tristen · January 11, 2015

nice, in 18 years. you should stay at least 2 more years for the club legend achievement. after that, maybe try the same but in spain or something?

dafuge · January 11, 2015

nice, in 18 years. you should stay at least 2 more years for the club legend achievement. after that, maybe try the same but in spain or something?

I have three years left on my contract, so maybe that would be a good time to leave?

If I leave, it will be to another English club. Probably to have a second go at the challenge.

Tristen · January 11, 2015

make sure you get the stadium named after you

Thebaker · January 11, 2015

2024/25

Table |Squad | Transfers

Started the season with hopes of getting into the playoff positions but good home form was matched by poor away form (only 2 points from the first 9 games!), It was also not helped by a terrible injury crisis where all 4 of my wingers were out for 2 months or more and 2 of my strikers for 3 months along with a few backup defenders as well. A change in my away tactics aided by a return of players especially Masters, led to a streak in Dec and Jan where the team gained 26 points from 11 games to move into the playoffs. A slight blip in mar dropped the team out of the top 5 but a run-in of 7 unbeaten meant the team finished 3rd, helped by Newports complete collapse of 5 points from 9 games. Eased past Tramere 5-4 on agg in the playoff semi which should have been by more. Won the final in ET.

Was beaten by L2 strugglers Stockport 4-1 at home which was very disappointing. Won the FA trophy 4-2 against Tamworth in the final.

Finances have increased as a result of the FA trophy and playoff finals from about 100K to 750K.

At the end of the season the team went professional and converted the terracing to 1750 seats to meet league requirements at a cost of 260K.

Signed Masters at the end of last season which proved a great signing as he was the best player. This meant fan favourite Quintero (245 aps, 68 goals) was let go. I also let Clarke (229 apps,8 goals) go.

Gold (62 aps, 2 goals) was a promising young player who was pinched by league 1 fleetwood, i was also unhappy that my only youth player in James (50 apps, 8 goals) to play any number of games was pinched by a league 2 club.

I signed Pears who was the 3rd top scorer in the league the previous season in aug and although he started well before injury, it took until the last few months before he really hit top form. I signed Cann when he came available in Nov who got a good partnership going with Pears. Pryce and Odur were sidelined as a result and suffered poor form.

Defence was again weak but the signing of Hickey strengthened it for the 2nd half of the year.

My central midfield was a bit underwhelming although i signed Daly as he is an iron-willed player with a bit of potential.

Season            League             Position       FA cup     FA Trophy/JPT   League cup    Europe       Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016/17        Conference North        12th       2nd Qf Rd    3rd Qf Rd       N/A          N/A          None
2017/18        Conference North        17th       3rd Qf Rd    3rd Qf Rd       N/A          N/A          None
2018/19        Conference North        18th       1st Rd       1st Rd          N/A          N/A          None
2019/20        Conference North        7th        4th Qf Rd    3rd Qf Rd       N/A          N/A          None
2021/21        Conference North        5th        4th Qf Rd    1st Rd          N/A          N/A          Promoted
2021/22        Conference              9th        1st Rd       1st Rd          N/A          N/A          None
2022/23        Conference              9th        1st Rd       1st Rd          N/A          N/A          None
2023/24        Conference              9th        2nd Rd       2nd Rd          N/A          N/A          None
2024/25        Conference              3rd        1st Rd       Winners         N/A          N/A          Promoted, FA trophy Winners

Thebaker · January 11, 2015

I have three years left on my contract, so maybe that would be a good time to leave?
If I leave, it will be to another English club. Probably to have a second go at the challenge.

Have you got any youth players come through into the squad or are they all bought?

dafuge · January 11, 2015

make sure you get the stadium named after you

That was something I had in mind. I don't really want to leave on bad terms just in case they build that stadium years later and name it after someone else!

dafuge · January 11, 2015

Have you got any youth players come through into the squad or are they all bought?

Everyone in my first team was bought.

I have been signing up the best youth players coming through at my club, but none of them are that great. I might promote one of them to backup keeper next season, but that's about it.

Mr_Demus · January 11, 2015

Just had my biggest result. FA Cup 4th round away at Anfield. Drew 2-2 with Liverpool after leading until the 87th minute. Made £800k in gate reciepts as well.

michaeltmurrayuk · January 11, 2015

Well this is a first my Striker Brasnic gets himself injured taking the kick-off :rolleyes:

Though it didn't stop us from claiming our second away win of the season with a 3-0 win at Arsenal in the League Cup Quarter Final thanks to Brasnic's replacement having a hand in all three goals

Andrew Haines · January 11, 2015

St Neots Town FC

2027/28

Premier League - 7th

FA Cup

League Cup

Overview

A strong first season back in the Premier League and despite a slow start we battled for a Champions League spot right up to the end of the season. My team is built around English talent and a couple of Argentines. Hopefully the board will give me funds this summer to push us on. We need a couple of fullbacks and a midfielder and we will be a force to be reckoned with.

The Team

GK Bradley Aris - England's reserve keeper arrived from West Ham for £10m at the start of the season

WB Claudio Pulido - Proved to be a bargain at £1.2m from Racing Club last summer.

CB Mick Hampson - England international signed from Liverpool for £6m in the summer and was one of the players of the season.

CB Jordan Mitchell - England squad player signed for £12m from West Ham formed a strong partnership with Hampson.

FB Robert Hughes - Had a decent fifth season with the club but isn't quite good enough and will be released.

RM Will Piercy - Right winger broke into the England side and had a very good season in the Premier League.

AP Leonardo Taborda - Five years ago he was the star of the side but has been eclipsed by new arrivals. May be sold in the summer.

DLP Ezequiel Dal Poggetto - Argentine midfielder did well and added bite in midfield.

W Luke Thomas - Club Captain and England regular had another good season.

AF Ben Jones - Injury prevented him repeating his 49 goals of last season but still had a reasonable ration of goals to games.

DLF Bradley Bramble - Jones' injury allowed Bramble to shine. When Jones returned late in the season the old partnership linked up well again.

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
16/17	Van N	12th	None	None	2ndRnd	None	None	1stRnd	None
17/18	Van N	2nd	None	None	3rdQual	None	None	1stRnd	Playoff Final Losers
18/19	Van N	1st	None	None	3rdRnd	None	None	4thRnd	Promoted
19/20	Conf	1st	None	None	4thRnd	None	None	Semi F	Promoted
20/21	Lg 2	5th	None	None	6thRnd	1stRnd	2ndRnd	None	None
21/22	Lg 2	2nd	None	None	5thRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	None	Promoted
22/23	Lg 1	2nd	None	None	3rdRnd	1stRnd	WINNER	None	Promoted
23/24	Champ	4th	None	None	5thRnd	3rdRnd	None	None	Promoted Playoffs
24/25	Prem	19th	None	None	3rdRnd	2ndRnd	None	None	Relegated
25/26	Champ	6th	None	None	4thRnd	1stRnd	None	None	None
26/27	Champ	1st	None	None	QtrFnl	6thRnd	None	None	Promoted Champions
27/28	Prem	7th	None	None	5thRnd	QtrFnl	None	None	None

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