[FM17] The Seagulls are trying to nick my chips again...

[BoxToBox]

Hard luck on the Brexit.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League Two 2019-20 (December/January update)

A lot more red is appearing and that is never a good thing. I feel like I may be starting to second guess myself and after a few bad results, I've started to veer away from what made us so successful in the first few seasons. Our poor defending and inability to hold leads is really frustrating. We picked up a win in the first game of December over Colchester, just about, before a torrid run of results with goals suddenly proving hard to come by. The struggling clubs are even having their wicked way with us and it's something we're going to have to figure out or we'll fall out of the promotion hunt. 

After the Colchester win, our next victory didn't arrive until the trip to Gateshead on January 18. In the previous game, we played really well at Forest Green and should have won but the performance at Gateshead gave me cause for optimism. That was until we welcomed Leyton Orient to the Woodspring Stadium a week later and we got absolutely thumped. Something just isn't clicking in our team at the moment and I've got to find the answers before the season slowly starts to get worse and worse.

I brought in a couple of new players in January. MK Dons right-back Barry Todd had been performing pretty badly in recent weeks so I signed Plymouth's Sam Long who will compete with him for the number two shirt. I've also signed free agent Ryan McGivern, somebody I had been tracking since the summer. He may be a bit undersized for a central defender but he can also fill in at left-back and that's a position we're struggling for cover in after terminating the loan of Oldham's Juanma after constant moaning!

FA Cup

Not much better here, either. We played well going forward against League One side Stevenage but naivety at the back cost us once again and some really sloppy goals meant we were knocked out at the second round stage. At least we got a nice amount of money from the game and the people watching on TV were treated to a goalfest! 

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League Two 2019-20 (February/March update)

Oh dear, it looks as if our season is crumbling before my very eyes. We actually started February very well with encouraging wins over Cambridge United, Bristol Rovers and Rochdale but a poor defeat at Fleetwood then sent us into an terrible run of form which saw us lose six of eight. We actually led against both Fleetwood and Accrington but poor defending allowed them back into the game. Two ridiculous goals at Accrington saw us lose - just hopeful long balls that my defenders made an absolute mess of.

In the midst of our terrible run, we did pick up two clean sheets and two victories at home against Chesterfield and Carlisle but I don't think, ultimately, that it's going to enough to save us as we ended March with two dreadful performances, and results, on the road at Northampton and Yeovil. In my frustration, I've carried on into April without taking a screenshot of the table, but I can tell you that we are now eighth in League Two. We are a point outside the play-offs which is crazy considering how bad our run has been. We've got six games to go and a pretty rough run in, it looks as though we may just miss out on the play-offs again. We need to find some form from somewhere - has anybody got any going spare?!

Youth Intake

Martin Martin (DC) - Lewis Mawford (MC) - Tyrique Shaw (MC)

With us getting a hard Brexit, I may have to rely on the academy to produce some gems for us. Unfortunately, this intake certainly didn't provide any! I only signed a handful of the youth candidates we had come into the club as most just wouldn't have had a chance of making it and would just take up room in the wage budget.

The three best players are shown above although they're nothing to get too excited about. Martin Martin (not so good they named him twice...) looks like he could be decent but nothing more than that really. Lewis Mawford and Tyrique Shaware are both central midfielders who are good on the ball with really nice determination. Again, they probably don't have what it takes to become a star but they're something to work with at least.

[Bitner]

Good luck, Brexit hit hard, but i'm sure your academy will deliver soon. Hope the sucess continues (and now i'm nervous because of my save, i'm @ england too.)

Cheers,
Bitner 

[King Costly]

4 hours ago, Bitner said:

Good luck, Brexit hit hard, but i'm sure your academy will deliver soon. Hope the sucess continues (and now i'm nervous because of my save, i'm @ england too.)

Cheers,
Bitner 

Thanks Bitner. I'm definitely going to be asking the board to improve the youth side of the club, it will be vital for us. I haven't seen many people get the Brexit I did so you should be fine. Good luck!

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League Two 2019-20 (April/May update)

Well we just about came into enough form, winning four of our last six games, to secure a play-off spot and only missed out on automatic promotion by two points. Thankfully for us, all the other teams around us also threw away plenty of points towards the end of the season with the league champions only winning half of their total games across the campaign. We started April with two games we absolutely had to win against strugglers Eastleigh and Barnet. We needed two late goals to see off Eastleigh before we just sneaked past Barnet. The next two games in April were much tougher and we lost them both. Champions Oldham tore us apart, beating us 3-1, and we then fell to a late defeat at Blackpool, leaving our promotion hopes up in the air.

The last two games weren't easy by any stretch of the imagination but a team meeting to rally the troops before the Cheltenham game really seemed to help. Savvas Mourgos continued his recent goalscoring streak with the winner against Cheltenham and we went into the final game guaranteed a play-off spot but also with a chance of automatic promotion. We needed to win and hope Wimbledon lost and while we kept our end of the bargain with a fantastic win at Colchester, unfortunately the Dons won and earned automatic promotion to League One.

After beating Colchester on the final day, we have set up a play-off semi-final against, yep, Colchester! Hopefully we can replicate the result in that match. As you can see by the league table, Forest Green have already beaten Carlisle in the other semi-final so the victor of our tie will face them at Wembley for a place in League One.

Some other great news coming in is that central midfielder Mourgos has now been in England long enough to earn a UK passport and has swiftly signed a new two-year deal! Unfortunately, keeper Amadeusz Skrzyniarz still has 127 days until he earns UK nationality so it looks like he'll be gone at the end of the season with no work permit forthcoming.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League Two Play-Offs 2019-20

Semi-Finals v Colchester

Three consecutive games against Colchester and three consecutive clean sheets - not too shabby! We kept things really tight in the first leg away from home, I didn't want to come back to the Woodspring Stadium losing as we're not always the best at chasing games. We defended really well and the only negative was striker Franck Betra breaking his foot meaning he would miss the rest of our campaign.

Fortunately for us, Dayle Southwell stepped in and got the winner for us in the second leg after Colchester had a man sent off in first half stoppage time. We completely dominated the game from then on and Southwell popped up with the winner to send us to Wembley in the play-off final against Forest Green Rovers.

Final v Forest Green Rovers

Forest Green are a very good side and were the second highest scorers in League Two this season. Their defence leaked more goals than ours so I was expecting goals in this one. Fortunately, we had defended really well in our last few games so I was hoping that would continue at Wembley in front of a crowd of 51,751.

We started the game well, keeping the ball comfortably against Forest Green's 4-4-2 formation. However, disaster struck in the 21st minute when Blake Davies took advantage of some sloppy marking from a free-kick, scoring at the back post to put Forest Green ahead. We didn't change too much as I was very happy with how we were playing before the goal and we were rewarded eight minutes later. Southwell battled with a defender for a long ball, it dropped to Savvas Mourgos and the Greek midfielder curled home a wonderful finish from the edge of the penalty area.

The second half was more of the same as we continued to dominate the ball despite the fact we are not set up to do that. Our extra man in midfield certainly helped in that regard and we kept Forest Green relatively quiet - a set-piece looked to be their biggest threat. With the game reaching its final 15 minutes, we were handed a huge chance as a Forest Green defender raised his foot in the penalty area as a wild cross flew into the box - penalty!

Dayle Southwell, only playing due to Betra's injury, stepped up and smashed the ball into the net. We went a tad more defensive to try and hold onto our lead but the game was made secure on the counter. Southwell held the ball up well and fed Mourgos who subsequently fired home at the near post. We're somehow going up!

 

[MadCatPT]

Back to form.

Congrats.

[deltablue]

Well done on salvaging the season. 

[Bitner]

14 hours ago, King Costly said:

Thanks Bitner. I'm definitely going to be asking the board to improve the youth side of the club, it will be vital for us. I haven't seen many people get the Brexit I did so you should be fine. Good luck!

At least i'm managing Man Utd, so i'll cope quite easily, i guess... but i'm still nervous haha.

Cheers,
Bitner 

[danmcconnell1]

Fantastic once again. Yours is easily my favourite story so far this year. Amazing achievements, hopefully Brexit won't cripple you!

[King Costly]

4 hours ago, MadCatPT said:

Back to form.

Congrats.

 

4 hours ago, deltablue said:

Well done on salvaging the season. 

 

1 hour ago, danmcconnell1 said:

Fantastic once again. Yours is easily my favourite story so far this year. Amazing achievements, hopefully Brexit won't cripple you!

Cheers guys and thanks for reading. I don't think Brexit is going to affect us too much - it's not as if we had loads of scouts scouring Europe anyway! 

Bringing in League One quality players with a weekly wage budget of £25k, however, is going to be... interesting.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League Two Season Review 2019-20

League Two: We had some good runs of form and some absolutely awful ones too. It was a very even league this season with even the top teams struggling at times which was great for us. After ultimately missing out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season, we successfully navigated the play-offs. It was another season of overachievement considering we had the lowest budget in the league by some distance. 

FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy: The Cups haven't been too kind to us since we got promoted from Non-League. We beat Tranmere in the FA Cup before losing to League One side Stevenage in the second round. We fell at the first hurdle in the EFL Cup to Birmingham City and once again couldn't make it out of our EFL Trophy group.

Team Awards: Mr Dependable Elliot Richards takes home the fans' player of the season for the fourth straight campaign and you can't really argue with it. He's been superb since I took over and continues to make the step up - I hope he'll be able to handle League One football. Savvas Mourgos was arguably better than Richards and came second, ahead of central defender Connor Essam. Callum O'Sullivan's only goal of the season saw him take home some silverware while Ben Whiteman, our holder in midfield, was named our best signing. Mourgos was deservedly given the young player of the season award.

Squad Stats: Mourgos continues to improve and ended up with our best average rating. He started to add goals to his game at the end of the season and that will really help lift the burden off the striker if he continues it into next term. Richards and Essam were the only other players to have an average rating over 7 although Franck Betra deserves an honourable mention for his 27 goals in all competitions.

Finances: The League Two solidarity payment has once again boosted the finances and they're not looking too bad at all. We continue to pay out very little in terms of wages so we should, in theory, build up a nice reserve of cash to spend on facilities.

Club News: Our youth recruiment has been increased with Brexit in mind, and the board also agreed to improve the club's youth facilities to the tune of almost £200,000. There have been talks of a takeover with the current chairman keen to retire. Let's hope it doesn't make for a summer full of transfer embargoes... 

The club has been forced to expand the capacity of the Woodspring Stadium, with standing area for 2,650 more fans being installed. Unfortunately it's going to take ten months to complete meaning we'll spend almost all of next season playing our games at Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Marvellous effort going up.

[King Costly]

11 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Marvellous effort going up.

Cheers Nobby!

[King Costly]

A bit of news from over the summer as the rumoured takeover of the club was completed. Unfortunately we were under a transfer embargo for a week or so and it interrupted our recruitment a little but at least it's now all done. 

It looks like it's just a standard local businessman takeover - no oil barons here! Jerry Harker is the new man in charge and his first move was to restructure the existing club debt into a long-term loan. It doesn't look like any investment will be made just yet but at least my job appears to be safe, for now...

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One Season Preview 2020-21

Key Signings

Callum Stanton (GK) - Ellis Barkworth (DC) - Reece Webb-Foster (ST)

With our number one Skrzyniarz being denied a work permit, we had to bring in at least one keeper. Skrzyniarz is actually still at the club and sitting in the U23s as he has just a couple of months left until he is given a UK passport. But for the time being Stanton will be our first choice goalkeeper. The former Reading and Bournemouth stopper looks pretty solid and is still young. Ex-Hull City man Barkworth should help shore up the defence but he also gives us a decent passer at the back - something we've never really had. With Frank Betra wanting £2,000 a week, we had to look elsewhere for goals and Webb-Forster looks like he has them in his locker. Decent in the air, with decent pace and a good finisher, he joins from Notts County.

Other Signings

Danijel Nizic (GK) - Andy Arnold (DC) - Liam Wakefield (DR) - Jack Flisher (MC)

 Mattias Käit (MC/AMC) - Diallang Jaiyesimi (AMC) - Rhys Murphy (ST)

With Skrzyniarz unavailable for the few few months, I swooped for Nizic as our other keeper although there's not much between him and Stanton so they will fight it out for the number one shirt. Arnold is a young centre-half from Liverpool and looks promising while Wakefield, a decent all-rounder, will most likely fill in at right-back for us. Flisher is a big lad and adds a bit of steel to our midfield after he was released by Chelsea and Käit will help cover any potential injuries in the middle of the park - he joins on loan from Fulham. Jaiyesimi also joins on loan, from Norwich, and I hope he can help us out by chipping in with a few goals from behind the striker. Murphy is a good, experienced striker who will back up Webb-Foster.

Expected Lineup

The shape remains the same but we have slightly tweaked the roles. I want my full-backs to start contributing to our play a bit more and I'm hoping the switch to wing-backs will have that effect. I've tried this 'new' tactic out on another save and it's playing like I want it to so we'll see how that transfers to Weston. I'm still searching for a new left-midfielder as Grant, I feel, isn't quite up to League One standard. He's also coming off an Achilles tendon injury that saw him miss four months of last season. Apart from that, I may look at bringing in another couple of loan players as cover but the quality on the loan list is lacking at the moment.

Season Aims

Our board expectations are 'fight bravely against relegation' - exactly what they were last season! League One seems like a massive jump from League Two if the budgets are anything to go by so it's going to be a long old season. Survival is the only aim - if we can stay up it will be a huge achievement, especially as four go down from this division. We kick off the season at home (well, Bristol Rovers!) against Wigan, who we famously beat in the FA Cup while we were a Non-League team. We then host Championship club Fulham a few days later in the EFL Cup before our EFL Trophy campaign gets underway shortly after. In our group this year are League One side Exeter, our old rivals Yeovil and Leicester's U23s. Quite a south-west feel to the group...

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (August update)

The results, on paper, don't look great but we were handed a very difficult opening month. Wigan are predicted to win the league and Oxford, Coventry and Forest are all expected to be in and around the play-offs. Despite our tough run, we competed well and kept every game tight - I was left disappointed we only picked up three points. We started the season against Wigan and were 3-0 down at half-time, not ideal! We brought it back to 3-2 but couldn't find an equaliser.

We then lost to Oxford by the same scoreline although we really should have got at least a point. We were 2-1 up with eight minutes to go but despite sitting back on defend we got countered twice - go figure. Our frustrations continued at Coventry as we missed an 89th minute penalty to take home a point and suffered two long-term injuries. Thomas Grant has once again injured his Achilles tendon and is out for four months while Reece Webb-Foster is out for around six weeks with a sprained ankle.

I was forced to look for reinforcements and I brought in four new players at the transfer deadline. Free agent midfielder Jake Hessenthaler looks pretty handy despite the high wages, loanee Conor McKendry will go straight in as our left-sided midfielder while Harvey Bradbury (he's back!) and Charles Dunne join on loan as backup.

We ended the month with a much needed win against Crewe with Rhys Murphy scoring two great goals before we suffered another 3-2 defeat at Forest. It's disappointing because although we've conceded a lot of goals, they're easily preventable. We've let in too many from set-pieces and just poor play higher up the field so I'm hoping once the defence has tightened up, we'll hopefully be OK.

EFL Cup

A swift exit for us in the EFL Cup as we were once again paired with a Championship club in the first round. I made a number of changes but we actually played quite well, Richards grabbing us an equaliser in the second-half. Unfortunately, Fulham took the lead again and despite us hitting the post late on, there will be no EFL Cup journey this year. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Diallang Jaiyesimi sounds like a posh tea.

[Deisler26]

Did Skrzyniarz get his UK passport?

[King Costly]

10 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Diallang Jaiyesimi sounds like a posh tea.

Funnily enough, we tend to play some tasty liquid football when he's in the side!

2 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Did Skrzyniarz get his UK passport?

Just checked and he's 29 days off the amount needed to gain nationality. I think they then have to claim the UK passport rather than automatically being given it, or at least Mourgos needed to claim his. 

Skrzyniarz is currently getting games for the U23s and I really like him so I think I'll promote him to number two if/when he qualifies and give him a new contract. That will mean I'll have three senior keepers though so Nizic will probably go in January as he's on a high wage and has already moaned about a lack of game time.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (September update)

Now that looks much better. I thought our results would improve based on the performances we put in during the first month and that turned out to be the case. Jaiyesimi and Murphy have been superb as the AMC and ST duo and were scoring for fun at the beginning of the month. An end-to-end game at Bury was decided by a comical own goal from their keeper - finally a 3-2 scoreline going in our favour! We then picked up two more wins at home against sides I'd expect us to beat if we want to stay up. We weathered an early storm from Oldham before absolutely demolishing them in the second half and we did just enough to beat Bradford courtesy of a lucky deflection.

We played really well at Stevenage but missed a number of chances, needing a late Richards goal to claim a point. The main reason for the wasted chances was that both Jaiyesimi and Murphy got injured in the Oldham game - the Norwich loanee will miss three weeks with a thigh strain while Murphy won't be back for two months due to torn ankle ligaments. Injuries have really hit us this season - not ideal when you're running with a small squad! Mattias Kait has stepped into Jaiyesimi's shoes rather well but Bradbury, back on loan from Pompey, has been rubbish. Fortunately, Reece Webb-Foster is due back at the start of October. We finished the month with a defeat, although we were unlucky against a pretty average Wimbledon side.

On an interesting side note, Elliot Richards' goal at Stevenage means he has now scored in every division (National League South, National League, League Two and League One) we have competed in.

EFL Trophy

We've kicked off our EFL Trophy campaign with victory, again. I rotated much of the squad and two of the loan signings from deadline day, Bradbury and Dunne, got on the scoresheet. Murphy also headed home from a free-kick as we ran out 3-2 winners against our League One rivals.

[Nobby_McDonald]

6 minutes ago, King Costly said:

Funnily enough, we tend to play some tasty liquid football when he's in the side!

Is it brown and smelly?

[King Costly]

11 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Is it brown and smelly?

That describes our defending at times...

[King Costly]

Some good news for the youth side of the club. The upgrade to the youth facilities agreed in the summer has now been completed and with a bit of extra cash in the bank, I asked the new chairman to increase the junior coaching budget and he duly obliged.

[MadCatPT]

So far not far from the last playoff spot, waiting for the next instalments.

 

[King Costly]

4 hours ago, MadCatPT said:

So far not far from the last playoff spot, waiting for the next instalments.

 

Thanks for reading! The league seems really tight and I think you'll need a decent points total to stay up so that remains our primary goal. I don't think we have anywhere near enough strength in depth to realistically think about the play-offs unfortunately.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (October update)

A much more mixed month compared to the famine and feast of August and September but we've kept the points coming in and that's all that matters for us. We kicked off the month with a solid display at Port Vale, who are flying high, and we hit the post towards the end so almost nicked it. We then travelled to Bolton and picked up a huge win. Käit starred again before the returning Jaiyesimi saw his deflected effort fly in with two minutes to play. Unfortunately we were outplayed by Charlton in the game after with our best football coming away from home at the moment.

We bounced back with another strong defensive performance at a play-off team in Wycombe, earning another clean sheet on the road. We finished October with a victory against our South-West rivals Exeter although we made it hard for ourselves. Marcus Barnes, a target for us in the summer, took advantage of some awful marking to put his side 2-0 up after 15 minutes. We pushed up and took a few more risks and were rewarded as Webb-Foster's shot hit the post, the keeper and then went it. He then scored his first proper goal in what felt like years, before McKendry grabbed the winner. 

The goals have dried up somewhat with Webb-Foster not playing well at all. Jaiyesimi returned but then quickly got injured again so Käit will be given a longer run in the team. Fortunately, Rhys Murphy should be back at the start of November because we need to start scoring more if we want to pick up points consistently. Still, it's been a good start overall for us in League One.

EFL Trophy

An EFL Trophy record low crowd watched on as we lost to Leicester City U23s on penalties. I thought this competition was all about youngsters getting first team opportunities through the U23 teams but we were undone by two full internationals on a combined £110k a week! At least I know the fans dislike the competition as much as I do. We got a losing bonus point for the defeat so will most likely need at least a draw at Yeovil in our final group game to progress. I won't be heartbroken if we don't!

[MadCatPT]

11 minutes ago, King Costly said:

Thanks for reading! The league seems really tight and I think you'll need a decent points total to stay up so that remains our primary goal. I don't think we have anywhere near enough strength in depth to realistically think about the play-offs unfortunately.

It's been a pleasure.

Your current struggles seem the ones I have in the Vanarama North, enough quality to not fear going down, but not enough quality/depth to make a consistent push for promotion.

Injuries are also hurting you, another thing I'm familiar with, good luck with that.

[BoxToBox]

1 hour ago, King Costly said:

An EFL Trophy record low crowd watched on as we lost to Leicester City U23s on penalties. I thought this competition was all about youngsters getting first team opportunities through the U23 teams but we were undone by two full internationals on a combined £110k a week! At least I know the fans dislike the competition as much as I do. We got a losing bonus point for the defeat so will most likely need at least a draw at Yeovil in our final group game to progress. I won't be heartbroken if we don't!

Sounds realistic, Stoke have been playing Crouch and the like in it, in real life.

[King Costly]

7 hours ago, MadCatPT said:

It's been a pleasure.

Your current struggles seem the ones I have in the Vanarama North, enough quality to not fear going down, but not enough quality/depth to make a consistent push for promotion.

Injuries are also hurting you, another thing I'm familiar with, good luck with that.

Yep, the inconsistency has continued. Some of the goals we concede are comical, bordering on slightly buggy. Not sure if it's tactical or just the poor quality of my defenders 

6 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Sounds realistic, Stoke have been playing Crouch and the like in it, in real life.

Yeah, I know the rules allow them to play some senior players - it's the rules themselves I think are ridiculous!

[King Costly]

Our patience paid off - Skrzyniarz now holds a UK passport and has signed a new deal. He'll go right into the reckoning for the number one shirt.

Farwell Danijel, we hardly knew ye...

[BoxToBox]

1 hour ago, King Costly said:

Yep, the inconsistency has continued. Some of the goals we concede are comical, bordering on slightly buggy. Not sure if it's tactical or just the poor quality of my defenders 

Yeah, I know the rules allow them to play some senior players - it's the rules themselves I think are ridiculous!

Aye, my point was more complaining about Stoke and the like, agreeing with you much as anything.

 

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (November update)

Another month of mixed results and some pretty poor performances which is worrying. We started the month with a game against Scunthorpe, who were bottom of the league, and one we should have won. However, they tore us apart with ease and that started the alarm bells ringing. Fortunately, we bounced back with an important win at Southend - our away form is so much better than our home at the moment and I'm not sure why. 

We should have beaten Chesterfield but they once again got ridiculously lucky against us and somehow stole the points before we took the lead and then crumbled against Rotherham - I just have no hope in our defence at the minute. We ended November with a really good performance against Walsall but unfortunately we couldn't get all three points. We conceded an awful goal but Barkworth got his first for the club to equalise before we hit the bar in stoppage time. We've got three away games in a row in December so could have done with winning that one.

FA Cup/EFL Trophy

We were too strong for National League club Mansfield in the first round of the FA Cup and we will be at home in the second round as we host our League One rivals Coventry City. In the EFL Trophy, we performed really well at Yeovil to go home with a 3-0 victory. That result meant we won the group and qualified for the knockout stages for the first time. We've been given another home game in the second round and we'll host Portsmouth, who are currently top of League Two.

[Deisler26]

Good work in the EFL Trophy. Consolidate this season, then charge next season.

[King Costly]

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Good work in the EFL Trophy. Consolidate this season, then charge next season.

Thanks. I might not like the competition but at least it's a bit more prize money for us. And we desperately need it too. We're spending more on wages than we ever have (despite having the lowest budget in the league by a long way) and because we're playing our games at Bristol Rovers, the matchday earnings are next to nothing. The finances aren't looking too pretty at the moment. Bit like our defence  

[MadCatPT]

Sliding a bit.

Hopefully the poor teams get poorer and you get more breathing room, it's tight.

[King Costly]

4 hours ago, MadCatPT said:

Sliding a bit.

Hopefully the poor teams get poorer and you get more breathing room, it's tight.

We are very hit and miss at the moment. Every home match we seem to go behind and it leaves us chasing the game. If we could take our away form back home (well, Bristol Rovers...) it would make things a lot more comfortable!

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (December update)

December was always going to be a tough month for us with just four league games and three of those coming on the road. Fortunately we seem to be better away from home and picking up six points is a decent return. We played really well at Doncaster to kick off the month, scoring three in the first half as we carved them open at will. We let them back into it in the second half but managed to hang on before we were well beaten at Wigan. We took an early lead but their movement in attack was just too much for my defenders to handle. 

Swindon were in a poor run of form and we took advantage with a really impressive showing. We missed a number of good chances in the first half but thankfully created loads more after the break and finally made the breakthrough before scoring three times in five minutes. Mid-table Peterborough visited us to end the calendar year and we put in another shoddy home performance which saw us deservedly lose. We always seem to give teams a goal head-start at home - that needs to change and quickly.

Those two wins have seen us climb the table slightly but it's still extremely tight and a poor run could easily see us sucked towards the bottom four.

FA Cup/EFL Trophy

Our league rivals Coventry were simply too good for us in the FA Cup and kept us quiet all afternoon, just a bad day at the office for us. We had better luck in the EFL Trophy, comfortably seeing off League Two side Portsmouth. Reece Webb-Foster grabbed a couple and that will hopefully give him a bit of a boost as he's been pretty poor in our league games. We travel to Chelsea Under 23s in the third round - I'm not expecting too much out of that one!

[MadCatPT]

2 places up but same distance from the last relegation spot and 1 point closer to the last promotion spot. 

The home goals, are you suffering the same type of goals or suffering them at the same time?

Could the home advantage making your players that little more adventurous and you need to rein them in more?

[King Costly]

1 hour ago, MadCatPT said:

2 places up but same distance from the last relegation spot and 1 point closer to the last promotion spot. 

The home goals, are you suffering the same type of goals or suffering them at the same time?

Could the home advantage making your players that little more adventurous and you need to rein them in more?

It's definitely a tight league! The four relegation places make it a bit more difficult too so we'll need to keep picking up wins to make sure we don't get dragged into a scrap.

The goals we concede at home aren't really any different. The only thing I'm noticing is that quite a few come from us just giving the ball away high up the pitch or one of our players being dispossessed and the others are slow to get back. I think this may be because teams sit slightly further back away from home and it's causing us issues. 

Going a bit more conservative at home could well be the key and it's something I'll have a look at for the next few games, cheers! 

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (January/February update)

Another mixed bag of results although we could have done with turning some of those draws into victories. We've slipped down the table but are still eight points clear of the bottom four with 12 games to go. We started off January in typical fashion, going behind in two home games but thankfully we came back to draw 2-2 with Oxford before grabbing a late win against Coventry. We collapsed at Crewe and suffered a heavy defeat before a hugely frustrating game against Forest. Andy Arnold's first goal for the club in the 86th minute gave us the lead but we still had enough time left to completely screw it up! We ended January with a 3-3 draw at Oldham, Trickett-Smith climbing off the bench to earn us a point.

February started with the visit of Bury and you could see why they're in rouble - they were woeful. We bossed the game and two first-half goals were enough to give us a much needed win. We were poor on the road at Bradford, conceding twice from set pieces before a home draw with Stevenage. Another crazy 3-3 draw at AFC Wimbledon followed with new signing David Spence getting a stoppage time equaliser before we had to settle for another point at home to Port Vale. We could have done with another win or two but at least the draws keep our points total ticking over.

With no transfer budget available, January was simply a free agent and loan hunt. With no decent free agents available (that would get a work permit at least) and the quality of loanees on offer being pretty low, we only brought in two players. The aforementioned David Spence joined on a free from Northern Irish side Cliftonville. He may not turn out to be anything special but it's worth a gamble. He got some game time after Reece Webb-Foster was ruled out for the rest of the season with knee tendonitis and Rhys Murphy missed the whole of February with fractured ribs. The other addition was Kieran Dowell on loan from Everton and he can cover all the midfield positions.

EFL Trophy

Well this certainly wasn't expected! I may not particularly like the competition but we're going to Wembley again! It's actually been a nice break from the slog of League One and it's helped raise the morale quite a bit. We fought back from 2-0 down in the third round at Chelsea before winning on penalties and we were then drawn against Leicester, who were in our group. We ran riot at the King Power Stadium, marching through 3-0. We hosted Wolves in the South Semi-Final and despite a late goal, we held on. We meet Rochdale, currently third in League Two, in the final after they beat Grimsby Town.

[Nobby_McDonald]

I would say you're doing pretty decent but you're behind Port Vale,

[Deisler26]

Wow. Best of luck in the EFL Trophy.

[King Costly]

11 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

I would say you're doing pretty decent but you're behind Port Vale,

We can't have everything  

11 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Wow. Best of luck in the EFL Trophy.

Thanks. I think the South section must be tougher than the North as Rochdale beat their fellow League Two side Grimsby in their semi-final. Hopefully we'll get a decent amount of money from the final at least.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (March update)

We may well have just climbed out of trouble with a fantastic unbeaten month. We started March with three draws, meaning we had drawn six league games in a row and the gap between us and the bottom four started to close. We're playing more conservatively and the defence does seem to be a bit stronger which showed in the goalless draw at home to Bolton. We then picked up a good point at Charlton before a 2-2 draw with Exeter where only a late penalty denied us the win.

We needed to start winning and we did just that at home against leaders Wycombe. We played really well, fought back from 1-0 down and late goals from McKendy and full-back Matthew Grice grabbed us a massive victory. Grice was signed on a free a few before the start of last season and spent the campaign on loan at York. His stats aren't fantastic yet but he's started playing more with normal right-back Liam Wakefield out for a month or so. Grice then got another to help us to another big win, at relegated Scunthorpe, but we had to settle for a point against ten-man Southend. That draw leaves us ten points above the relegation zone with six games left.

Youth Intake

Tom McDonald (GK) - Mark Wilson (DC) - Wayne Avery (DR) - Wayne Pring (MC)

 Toby Francis (AML) - Jon Paice (ST) - Thomas Lines (ST)

Despite the increases in our youth facilities and recruitment, it was another very average youth intake unfortunately. I signed a few more than usual to fill our U18 team more than anything but there really isn't much to get excited about. Wayne Avery is rated as the best and it's hard to argue with that - he may have a shot of making it. Wayne Pring as well looks like he could possibly develop into a useful player but we certainly don't have a future club legend on our hands with this lot.

[King Costly]

Weston-super-Mare AFC 

EFL League One 2020-21 (April/May update)

We comfortably retained our League One status for next season with a good run of form, drawing the first game at home against Rotherham before two good wins against Walsall and Chesterfield. The Chesterfield result was especially sweet as it knocked them out of the play-offs and they've been a horrible team to play against in this save.

The next game against Doncaster was the very first back at the Woodspring Stadium following the improvement works which increased the capacity to a whopping 5,000! Käit, who had come into the team up front after another Murphy injury, scored twice as we returned home with a win. We drew at Peterborough before ending our season with a poor performance at home to Swindon, which pretty much summed up our campaign - flashes of brilliance but not quite good enough overall.

EFL Trophy

We saved our most disappointing performance for the EFL Trophy final - typical! It was a rubbish game between two average teams although we did take the lead just after half-time and it looked like it would be enough with Rochdale hardly threatening. However, right-back Grice decided to play one of their strikers in on goal straight from a throw-in (not for the first time...) and they equalised with 15 minutes to go. They then nicked the win in the final minute from a free-kick. There were under 7,000 at Wembley and I can see why!

[the--dud]

I'm really sorry, I don't mean to digress your excellent thread but there's something I'm desperate to find out; How do you make your images larger or smaller? Whenever I try to post images they're always tiny!

For instance if I want this image to be larger:

 

[King Costly]

42 minutes ago, the--dud said:

I'm really sorry, I don't mean to digress your excellent thread but there's something I'm desperate to find out; How do you make your images larger or smaller? Whenever I try to post images they're always tiny!

For instance if I want this image to be larger:

 

No problem at all! I do it all manually. I take a screenshot, then crop the image in an editing programme (I use GIMP) and resize it. I normally use 800-850 pixels width and then I upload them to Imgur.

All I do then is grab the direct link to the image and paste it inbetween the image tags so it will be: (img)place link here but use [ and ] instead of usual brackets(/img) . There's probably a simpler way to do it but it works for me. Hope that's helped!

[the--dud]

14 minutes ago, King Costly said:

No problem at all! I do it all manually. I take a screenshot, then crop the image in an editing programme (I use GIMP) and resize it. I normally use 800-850 pixels width and then I upload them to Imgur.

All I do then is grab the direct link to the image and paste it inbetween the image tags so it will be: (img)place link here but use [ and ] instead of usual brackets(/img) . There's probably a simpler way to do it but it works for me. Hope that's helped!

Let me try

 

Okay now it works! Thank you so much. I've been using the "Insert other media-> insert image from URL", which apparently has some annoying resizing built-in...