[FM17] The Hart Chronicles - Volume II: Adam Hart is 'Yes Man'!

[PaulHartman71]

 

I've got a fair few more players on the cusp of signing, but James Sprudd is the only player I've got in before our first leg tie with FH. He's a very good player for this level and we managed to pick him up on a free after his contract expired with relegated Aberystyth. I'm surprised they went down with a CB this good in their team, he'll be a fine addition for us I'm sure. 

 

 

We'll be doing what we did last year in Slovenia, sit really tight and try to frustrate FH, with the main aim to not concede, but if we can nick an away goal that would be lovely. We lost 1-0 last year in Slovenia, I'm not sure if FH are a better or worse side than Domzale, but I just hope we can keep it respectable as we are 7-1 to win which makes us considerable underdogs.

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A huge result as we manage a 0-0 draw in Iceland. We sat back and held strong and despite FH having some decent chances, thankfully for us none of them tested Lewis Banks in goal too much. We had a couple of half chances but nothing to really write home about. I'm obviously very pleased with the result, I don't think we really have much of a chance of going through as we'd have to either win or keep a clean sheet against them, even though they didn't look a huge threat it will still be very tough as their strikers might just have had an off day. It's still a massive result and we can actually go into the 2nd leg still in the tie with a fighting chance which is really cool. 

My main worry is that due to our ground not meeting the requirements we'll be at the massive Swansea Community Stadium again, so it's almost not really like an actual home game. I think at home we could possibly have a chance, but on such a big pitch I think we'll come undone against a better side. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

We've got in 3 new players before the 2nd leg, although none of them were signed in time to be registered. Fitzpatrick is a Northern Irish striker who was let go by Dungannon, he looks good and should hopefully score us at least 10/15 goals this year. Aaron Goodwin is a fairly versatile central midfield player who can also play at LB, he joins after being let go by Leatherhead of the Conference. Finally, Kristian James, a CB who can also play LB, joins on loan from Barnsley. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Eidur Gudjohnsen, Bjork, Ser Gregor Clegane, Kerry Katona, Jimbokav1971 - your boys took one hell of a beating!!

 

It was much of the same as the first leg, we frustrated them for large periods of the game and then just before the hour mark we got a little bit of joy from a long ball. Pennock managed to head it down and knock it out wide left to a completely unmarked Robinson on the edge of the box, who knocked in a perfectly weighted cut-back for Pockett who managed to side foot it in 5 yards to give us a surprise lead. FH piled on the pressure but 10 minutes later had a lad sent off for a second yellow and that was when I really started to believe we could do it. I took a striker off for a defensive midfielder and we full on parked the bus to hold onto the lead. I did debate trying to get another but I knew if we went for it too much then all they would need is a goal and we were out, so we sat back and invited a bit of pressure, they did have chances but nothing troubled our keeper too badly, but Lewis Banks did put in a hell of a shift. There were absolute scenes at the final whistle as we took in what we had achieved. The 2nd Qualifying Round awaits!

 

 

We're actually joined in the next round by Haverfordwest who managed to get past Macedonian outfit Shkendija Tetovo. Afan Lido tanked out 3-6 on aggregate to Cliftonville of the Northern Irish league, which given Afan Lido are a decent side, I had expected them to do the best out of all 3 of us.

[MichaelBrown]

Great work l! Really enjoying this thread Adam!

[mrdanbartlett]

Superb recent updates!

Excellent news on the new signings and also on the Europa progress, can't wait for the draw.

Hopefully you can improve on your points total in the league this year and try and close the TNS gap.

[PaulHartman71]

This win does seem to have actually helped my reputation out, as I've been boosted up to 15%, just less than 1*, for the first time in my career. 

The draw has been made and we will play Vaduz of Switzerland/Liechtenstein in the next round. A very tough tie and one that will be much harder than our trip to Iceland, it should be a fun experience though. 

[noikeee]

Not just European qualification, but European success as well! What is this, did I click on the wrong thread?

[PaulHartman71]

 

We've managed to secure two more loan deals, as RB Owain Price and MR James Thomas both join the squad. They should both compete for first team places which should help give us a lot more depth than we've had in previous seasons. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

We've pulled off another unbelievable result in Europe! We held tight and frustrated Vaduz like we did FH, but this time we got lucky as just before half-time Pennock found himself in some space on the left hand side, he pulled in a whipped cross and Fitzpatrick on his debut managed to get a foot on it to slot it past the keeper. I couldn't believe it. Vaduz showed their class in the second half and after a huge amount of pressure got an equaliser from Hasler in the 54th minute, but despite that goal we held on for the 1-1 which is an outstanding result to take back to Wales. A big shout out to the 11 away fans who made the trip to witness a huge night. 

 

It was a big night for the Welsh Premier League as Haverfordwest came minutes away from earning a huge shock win in Serbia: 

 

 

Given the draws it's mad that both of us will go into our 2nd legs at home with a decent chance of progressing. 

[jim owen]

Restoring that welsh co-efficient, have TNS kicked off their european campaign yet?

[mrdanbartlett]

Blimey this is good!!

 

I imagine a Conference job will be knocking at the door soon. 

[wattzy]

Brilliant results in Europe. Fingers crossed you'll be showing us a screenshot of a home win or a 0-0 next!

[PaulHartman71]

 

I was worried when the first one went in early that the floodlights would open, but we held firm and had a few half chances to grab an equaliser and take it to extra-time. Unfortunately we're out, but we've had a lovely time and given a good account of ourselves. 

Haverfordwest also went out after losing 2-0 on the night. 

[PaulHartman71]

9 hours ago, jim owen said:

Restoring that welsh co-efficient, have TNS kicked off their european campaign yet?

 

TNS lost 5-1 on aggregate to Molde in the CL 2nd Qualifying Round. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Good effort against Vaduz.

No wonder FH shorten their name.

[PaulHartman71]

August

 

 

Just the one match this month, but what a match it was. A 4-0 win against Newtown to kick start the season with a bang! 

 

 

[noikeee]

Bloody Liechtensteiners.

There's always Europe to look forward to next year again. Provided you're not back to the English 8th tier.

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

 

A good start to our Nathaniel MG Cup campaign. 2nd tier Conwy actually took us to extra-time which was frustrating as it was a needless half hour, but thankfully we sealed the victory and avoided penalties. Goytre United were next up at home and we comfortably turned them over. 

 

 

A pretty troubling start to the season. On the one hand we pulled off a big away victory at TNS which was really good, although we did only score both of our goals through penalties so maybe that gave us a false sense of how we were doing. We nearly lost to Carmarthen but got a late equaliser, then after TNS we really struggled to get into the game with Haverfordwest. The Goytre United game was shocking, we were absolutely woeful and it was only after I threw everything forward for the last half hour that we managed to take some chances and get a point - it almost felt like a win when we got that last minute penalty in the dying seconds to draw level. The game at Connah's Quay was a complete write off though, woeful, deserved to lose for sure. 

I think part of the problem is I've struggled to get the strikers scoring. Pennock's on a goalless run of games which isn't helping but I think I will have to drop him for a while, as despite being top scorer for the last 2 seasons, he just isn't scoring at the moment and his confidence is shook. 

 

 

We sit in 4th place so far, which given the poor September isn't too bad. Airbus are flying high at the top of the table. 

[mrdanbartlett]

A point off TNS is good at this stage.

 

If I;m on a bad run I pick when we have an easier home game coming up and do a quick team meeting 'lets not let our heads drop as results haven't gone our way recently' - usually always gives a good morale boost and you'll win the game and get back on a run.

I assume you always do team talks after a game to keep morale up?

Sometimes I change tactic to something totally different for a game, it seems to fool the AI, then I revert back next game and it usually starts working again. 

[PaulHartman71]

I rarely ever do team meetings as they seem to always go terribly  

[PaulHartman71]

October

 

 

The month started off really poorly when we lost at home to Bangor City, a terrible result against a team we should be comfortably beating at home. We got a decent point at Airbus considering their impressive start to the season, but that only really came because we got a dubious penalty. Since then it's picked up, Pockett and Fitzpatrick have been playing well together and we managed to get a good 3-2 win at home to Prestatyn, as well as a 3-2 victory at Bala. We were 3-0 up at half-time in both games and did make hard work for ourselves in the 2nd half by letting in 2, but thankfully we held on both times. 

 

 

We're in 4th but our form is starting to pick up and I'm hoping it will stay that way. I think TNS will be tough to catch, but 2nd is very doable this year. 

[PaulHartman71]

In the last week or so I've had two fairly longstanding players in Rory Cusack and Dean Sherman ask to leave as they weren't playing or wanted a new challenge, I let them both leave on free transfers which got around £600 p/w off the wage bill. As a result of this I managed to get in a new right winger: 

 

 

Jamaal Buckley, a 29 year old Jamaican joins us. He's actually got 2 caps for Jamaica and has recently been called up for their World Cup qualifiers, so we actually have an international playing for us now which is pretty cool.

 

[andychar]

You must be getting bored, you've been with the same team for more than 2 seasons! Cold feet will be setting in...

[PaulHartman71]

November

 

 

A real comfortable 3-0 win against 2nd tier Chirk has sen us through in the Welsh Cup, with Chris Pennock back in the goals with a brace. 

 

 

We managed a big comeback in our Nathaniel MG Cup Semi Final with Prestatyn, they were 1-0 up at half-time and looked good value for that lead, but we fought in the 2nd half and it paid off when we scored twice to make the final again. 

 

 

Not the best month in the league as we won just once at Newtown, lost to TNS and then drew all 3 of our other games. We could've really done with turning some of those draws into wins. 

 

 

We're down to 5th, whilst it is tight and we'll almost certainly make the top half, we could really do with winning some games to get in a good position pre-split. 

[PaulHartman71]

December

 

 

A really strong end to the calendar year, with 3 wins in a row, including late winners against both Bangor and Afan Lido. We had a man sent off in the second half against Airbus which didn't help us as it was 1-1 and an even game after we equalised, so I was pretty annoyed at that, but that didn't put too big a downer on a month where I won Manager of the Month. 

 

 

4th place with 3 games to go pre-split. We've definitely made it so it's more just looking up the table now. I think TNS are probably too far away for us with an 8 point gap, but I think we could catch up Airbus and Afan Lido if we beat them in the post-split games. 

[noikeee]

On 15/03/2017 at 08:22, andychar said:

You must be getting bored, you've been with the same team for more than 2 seasons! Cold feet will be setting in...

Yeah I'm shocked he hasn't had job offers again.

A longer period settling on a club, to build a squad over time, would his career lots of good. I think this time in Wales could be a major breakthrough.

[mrdanbartlett]

7 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Yeah I'm shocked he hasn't had job offers again.

A longer period settling on a club, to build a squad over time, would his career lots of good. I think this time in Wales could be a major breakthrough.

I would agree but I've found sometimes interest in you just dies out it seems, in my Leeds save where I turned them into a decent CL side I never got linked to any jobs, even though my contract wasn't long and the salary was low.

Let's hope though that Paul does well and gets a better job soon, it would be nice to see him back in England next season and working towards the football league.  

[PaulHartman71]

Yeah it is interesting how I haven't had any offers from elsewhere. It must be something to do with going slightly off the radar, my pay has slightly increased now but in theory a decent side in the Conference North/South should be able to fork up for me by Jan/Feb time every season if they wanted. Will have to wait and see I guess, but certainly not bored of Wales or Port Talbot so it's not the end of the world, the Europa League stuff certainly helps keep it exciting. 

[Lenzar]

Has anyone other than TNS won the Welsh league?

[PaulHartman71]

26 minutes ago, Lenzar said:

Has anyone other than TNS won the Welsh league?

 

Afan Lido managed it the year before I came to the Welsh league, but other than that, no. Seems it was a one off fluke, perhaps TNS had a massive injury crisis that year or something. 

[PaulHartman71]

January (pre-split)

 

 

A decent start to January when you consider that both Afan Lido and Prestaty are quite tricky away games. We thankfully managed to beat Bala in our last relative home banker of the season. 

 

 

We start the split with 10 games to go in 4th place still, not bad, but not where we want to be. I'm aiming for 2nd and I think it is doable, we just need to win most of our home games and avoid defeat in the big away ones. TNS probably out of sight with 8 points away, it would take something special and Afan Lido, Airbus and us all beating them at least once for any of us to have a proper go at them. 

[mrdanbartlett]

I'd love to know what the budgets are like at Afan Lido and Airbus etc, more or less than yours etc.

 

If those jobs ever come up be sure just to check via the job advert as it will state the salaries.  Or if you have time check what sort of weekly wage their players are on maybe, 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, PaulHartman71 said:

Yeah it is interesting how I haven't had any offers from elsewhere. It must be something to do with going slightly off the radar, my pay has slightly increased now but in theory a decent side in the Conference North/South should be able to fork up for me by Jan/Feb time every season if they wanted. Will have to wait and see I guess, but certainly not bored of Wales or Port Talbot so it's not the end of the world, the Europa League stuff certainly helps keep it exciting. 

Try asking the board for some coaching badges, you must have the budget for it now with the Europa League presence. I think it was @Rikulec who was saying in some other thread, that they give you a big boost in reputation, so if you can get some you'd start progressing into better jobs more easily.

[Rikulec]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

Try asking the board for some coaching badges, you must have the budget for it now with the Europa League presence. I think it was @Rikulec who was saying in some other thread, that they give you a big boost in reputation, so if you can get some you'd start progressing into better jobs more easily.

That's right, doing my coaching badges (up to Continental C) at FC United enabled me to land the Trencin job in the Slovakian top flight after merely winning the Conference North. The badges give you a massive boost indeed, I'd even say it's unrealistic in its effect.

[PaulHartman71]

January post-split

 

 

Not the best start to the split as we only managed a draw in what was on paper the easiest game. We were 2-0 up as well and blew it in the 2nd half, we weren't helped by a red card, but still not a great result. 

 

 

We're now 3 points behind 2nd place Airbus, with Afan Lido 1 ahead of us. TNS are 10 points clear and almost out of sight of us. 

 

 

I was obviously quite pleased to see us get a 2nd tier side in the final, but it wasn't set in stone that we would beat them and in the end we only did so thanks to a 2nd half penalty. It's not a very highly regarded cup competition from what I gather, but I'm still very pleased to add another trophy to my collection. 

[PaulHartman71]

Also I've tried requesting to do coaching badges but they said no, probably because at the moment we're slightly in the red. I'll set a reminder to do it next season just after the Europa League money comes in and we have loads in the bank, if I'm still here of course. 

[Rikulec]

From my experience you only need as much money in the bank as the course costs.

[mrdanbartlett]

Also remove yourself from any training roles before asking, so they can't use the 'we need you on the training pitch' excuse. 

[deltablue]

A bit better so far this season. Surely you'll get an offer soon enough. 

[PaulHartman71]

4 hours ago, mrdanbartlett said:

Also remove yourself from any training roles before asking, so they can't use the 'we need you on the training pitch' excuse. 

 

Thats a good shout as this was a reason why I was rejected to do badges by one of the few early clubs which wasn't in massive debt. 

[PaulHartman71]

February

 

 

We had an absolute nightmare in the Welsh Cup. Holywell of the 2nd tier were causing us some problems after they made it level in the 23rd minute, but I thought we'd be fine and win it in the end. I made all my subs by the 75th minute, which turned out to be a disastrous call, as just 2 minutes later, our keeper and captain, Lewis Banks, broke his shoulder. He had to come off which put us down to 10 men with a defender in goal. We were still dominating them with 10 men though and I thought we'd be fine, but then 5 minutes later one of our midfielders, Aaron Goodwin, decided to get sent off for a stupid tackle, which put us down to 9 men. This was enough to give Holywell the advantage they needed and they scored late 2nd in the 86th minute, before doing us on the counter late on to seal a famous victory for them. A real blow as this is an easier way of securing Europa League than the league or the Playoff usually. 

 

 

We pulled off a pretty good point at TNS, with Shaun Chesterfield scoring in what was his first appearance of the season. We also got a point at Prestatyn, before an absolutely brilliant result against Airbus - I'm not sure what happened but we looked ****-hot and they looked awful. We have since beat Haverfordwest away from home too. 

 

 

As you can see the table has actually perked up quite a bit. We have a game in hand away at Afan Lido which is now looking like a huge game, if we manage to win that we'd go just 3 points behind TNS, even a draw would leave us 5 points behind them. 

 

 

This is TNS' form and as you can see it has been absolutely woeful. We've still got them at home and tbh, looking at their terrible form we really have to fancy ourselves to get something from that game. 

It could certainly be an interesting end to the season just yet. 

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

A solid 1-1 draw at Afan Lido and we went into the TNS game in decent form and with some confidence. I showed them a hell of a lot less respect than I usually would as given their bad form and us being at home I fancied our chances, this paid off as we properly battered them for most of the game, with Pockett's 1st half goal giving us the win. It was a nervy finish as I went gradually more defensive and TNS did have a couple of half chances which caused us a few problems, but we thankfully held on for a big big win. 

 

 

This now sets an unbelievable last 3 games to the season, as TNS, Airbus, Afan Lido and us will all fight it out for the title. I can't believe we're even in this position as we've been nowhere near being in contention for the title for most of the season, but suddenly a decent run of form and TNS bottling it has put us right up there and 2 points behind with 3 games left. 

These are the fixtures left: 

 

It's hard to say who has the best run in. I think outside of TNS it is possibly us because we have two home games and don't have to play TNS. Despite their poor form I think TNS are probably still favorites especially with that home game against Haverfordwest on the last day, but we'll have to see what happens. I'm really hoping we can at least secure automatic Europa qualification, but anything more would be a huge bonus!

[PaulHartman71]

Oh also we just went past the 1,000 games landmark. Whoop whoop etc. 

 

  

                                                                          

[PaulHartman71]

 

What a game that was! We took the lead in the 21st minute through Fitzpatrick and looked solid for the rest of the half, going in 1-0 up at half-time. Afan Lido were 1-0 down to Haverfordwest and the TNS/Airbus match was 0-0 at that point, so we were actually top of the table at half-time. Prestatyn equalised in the 69th minute which gave us a few problems, but Pennock came off the bench to set a goal up on a plate for Pockett to bang home in the 79th minute and I thought that was that, but Owen Jones fired home a late equaliser from an improbable angle and I couldn't believe we'd thrown the lead away again, but Carl Pockett and Chris Pennock again managed to combine late on to snatch a real fist-pump celebratory winner.Unfortunately TNS beat Airbus as we could've done with a draw in that one, but at least Afan Lido dropped points at Haverfordwest. 

 

 

2 games to go and we're 2 points off of TNS and top spot still, but we're now in 2nd place, with Afan Lido 1 point behind and Airbus 2 points behind. 

 

[Keano16]

Massive last minute winner!

[DazRTaylor]

Fingers crossed for you.

[mjaferrie]

Wow!  Good luck!

[jim owen]

Go on, win the league

[PaulHartman71]

 

A really tense trip to Airbus started off horrendously when they took an early lead. I was worried they were up for revenge after we spanked them last month, but we managed to keep ourselves in it and despite blowing numerous chances, the ball somehow scrambled into their net after a deflection in the 66th minute. Due to Afan Lido beating TNS at  home, if we'd won we'd have gone 1 point clear at the top of the table if we found a winner, so I thought it was worth the risk rather than taking the point and hoping things went our way on the last day, so we went all out attack late on to try and snatch a winner, but despite a few half chances we couldn't manage it. 

 

 

So going into our last home game with Afan Lido we have to win to have any chance of winning the title. TNS have Haverfordwest at home so it does look on paper like they might just scrape the title, although obviously if we lose to Afan Lido and their goal difference stays superior, we would hand the league to Afan Lido instead.