Matlock Town The Next Big Thing...With alittle love from Russia

[mark wilson27]

Authors Notes: Played on FM17 with in game editor. Using English leagues down to Level 9. This is just a little experiment to pass the time. Not sure how long the story will last however we'll see

Matlock Town are a side that have been languishing in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid. They currently ply their trade in the Northern Premier League. Their most notable piece of history is when they listed the  FA Trophy in 1975. They were founded in 1885 and are know as The Gladiators.
However this barren history could be all about to change as they have been taken over by me a Russian billionaire. I am called Richious Gittious and my ambition was not too buy an established side but to get a side from the lower leagues up to the top. I have ploughed £10,000,000 into the club and brought out a local gym and park area to transform into the clubs training facilities. 
The first part of my plan is to set into motion upping the capacity of the ground and becoming professional. The latter shouldn't take too long, hopefully by the end of the forthcoming season. However long term I will have to look at building a new ground as there is little in the way of growth room along Causeway Lane.
The current manager is Glenn Kirkwood and I don't intend to remove him from his job at the moment as his has only just joined. His contract runs out in 2018.

[mark wilson27]

July 2016:
The club are currently quoted at 9-2 for promotion and the pundits are expecting us to equal last seasons 7th placed  finish. I would be very happy with this position and will give G.Kirkwood all the help he needs.
The clubs pre-season started with a 2-1 win over Stockport thanks to a brace from M.Newsham. Next was our annual friendly against local side Chesterfield and we were beaten 2-0 and this was followed by a 3-0 win over Rocester with M.Dinanga, L.Needham and J.Atkinson all scoring.
G.Kirkwood made four signings during the month with Clarke Thorley a 19yr old central midfielder, Keenan Quansah a 19yr old central defender/midfielder, James Atkinson a 19yr old central defender and Jasper Johns a 21yr old attacking left midfielder all joining on free transfers
He also let Alex Pursehouse join Bury Town on a free 
 

[CFuller]

Going by the title, I assumed this was a mark wilson27/EvilDave collaboration at first! 

I'm not overly convinced by the name of your 'Russian' billionaire, but I'll be keeping a close eye on this story. I suspect that Jasper Johns will be a very artistic and creative player for the Gladiators!

[mark wilson27]

August 2016:
A good start to the season saw us beating Mickleover 2-0 with goals from M.Dinanga and J.Johns, it was then followed by a 1-0 win over Stourbridge after K.Quansah headed in. We then faced Spennymoor and beat them 2-1 as M.Dinanga fired in from close range and the other goal was scored by L.Needham. Corby were the next opponents with S.Ottley and A.Todd scoring in the 2-1 win. The first loss of the season saw us losing 2-1 against Blyth with K.Quansah scoring our only goal. The final game of the month saw us thrashing Marine 4-0 with M.Dinanga grabbing a brace and the others were scored by K.Quansah and C.Johnson. We finished the month ion 2nd place which is the sort of start I wanted. 

G.Kirkwood brought some more new faces into the club as Jay Smith a 17yr old central defender has joined on loan from Chesterfield, Spencer Forte a 19yr old central midfielder has joined on a free and Sam Ottley an 18yr old right sided defender has joined on loan from Barnsley
He also let Nico De Girolama and Jamie Yates join Hednesford on a free
I was informed by the clubs accountants that we made a £26,088 profit to make the bank balance a nice £10,026,088

[mark wilson27]

September 2016:
The blistering start to the season seems to have ended as we struggled in the league. The month though began with a FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round tie against St.Neots however we only managed a 1-1 draw with J.Atkinson doing the honours. The replay saw us progressing after we beat them 2-0 with goals from M.Newsham and M.Dinanga to set up a tie with Stourbridge. However before that tie we faced a couple of league games with our first being against Ashton United who we managed a 2-2 draw with thanks to late goals from M.Newsham and K.Quansah. The next league game saw us drawing again against Workington this time with a C.Johnson goal. The FA Cup 2nd qualifying round tie against Stourbridge saw us beating them 2-0 thanks to goals from M.Dinanga and M.Newsham to set up an away tie against St.Albans. We then faced our final three games of the month as we played local rivals Buxton and we were beaten 2-1 with M.Newsham grabbing our goal. Whitby were our next opponents and we easily beat them 3-1 with M.Dinanga grabbing a brace and C.Johnson firing in the other goal. The final game of the month saw is losing 1-0 against Barwell to end the month in 6th place. I wasn't that pleased with the sudden drop of form but the up side is that the cup run will be good for the club.

G.Kirkwood didn't make any signings but let four players go as M.Williams left on a free, L.Marsden joined Brighouse on a free and A.Yates joined Coalville on a free. D.Wiley was the last player to leave as he joined Halesowen also on a free.
The clubs finance saw us make a profit of £36,528 to move the balance to £10,062,616

[mark wilson27]

October 2016:
The month started with a FA Cup 3rd Qualifying round against St.Albans and the side did well to beat them 2-1 with goals from K.Quansah and M.Newsham. However after the victory we seemed to struggle as we lost 2-0 against Hednesford and this was followed by another 2-0 loss against Rushall. We stopped the losing run with an unconvincing 1-1 draw against Warrington with A.Todd scoring our first goal in two games. The following game was a FA Cup 4th Qualifying round but we didn't play well again as we were knocked out by Guiseley 2-0. We returned to the league and managed to beat Frickley 2-0 with A.Todd and J.Johns, however we followed this with a poor performance which saw us losing 3-1 against Stafford with K.Quansah grabbing our only goal. We now faced a Northern Premier League Cup 1st Rd tie against Spalding and made hard work of it as we drew 1-1 and went through on penalties after M.Dinanga scored. The final game of the month saw us drawing 0-0 against Bedworth in the FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round. We ended the month in a disappointing 9th place, 9pts off the play-off spots and 14pts off the top spot.

The manager made three signing this month with 30yr old central defender Mat Bailey, 20yr old Goalkeeper Sam Guthrie and 21yr old right midfielder Tyler Roche all joining on a free.

[mark wilson27]

November 2016:
The month began with a 2-1 win over Bedworth in the FA Trophy 1st Round replay to set up a tie against Harlow thanks to goals from T.Roche and S.Ottley. The next game in the month was a Northern Premier League Cup 2nd Rd tie against Ossett Albion and we unfortunately got ourselves knocked out on penalties after a 2-2 draw with goals from M.Newsham and J.Johns. Another cup game saw us facing Harlow in the FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying round and we went through 1-0 with a late goal from L.Needham to set up a tie with AFC Telford. We finally played a league game as we beat Grantham 2-0 with M.Dinanga and J.Atkinson scoring the important goals. This was followed  by an entertaining 3-2 victory over Halesowen with R.Allassani, T.Roche and M.Dinanga scoring the goals for my side. Ilkeston were our next opponents and we beat them 2-1 with K.Quansah and M.Dinanga doing the honours. We now followed a FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Rd tie against AFC Telford and we didn't play well and the game finished 1-1 with T.Roche scoring our goal to set up a replay. The replay was better for us as we beat Telford 1-0 with T.Roche again coming too our rescue to set up a first round tie against Hereford FC.
The upturn in form saw us move up two places in the league to 7th place with us 9pts off the play-off spot and 13pts off top spot.

The manager made another three signings with 28yr old striker Niall Cummins joining from Curzon Ashton on a free transfer, 29yr old central defender Tom Hamblin joining on a free from Wealdstone and 20yr old striker Reise Allassani joining on a free transfer.
G.Kirkwood also let C.Lloyd joining Bedworth on a free transfer 
Over the last two months the club made a £56,522 profit mainly due to the cup runs to see the bank balance at £10,119,138
 

[mark wilson27]

December 2016:
A busy month my side saw us start with a 1-0 loss to Stourbridge in the League luckily the gaffer got the best of the players in next game as we beat Nantwich 2-0 with goals from M.Dinanga and S.Ottley. We now faced a FA Trophy 1st Round tie against Hereford and drew 1-1 with K.Quansah grabbing a late equaliser. The following game was the replay and we performed well to beat them 2-0 with T.Hamblin and R.Allassani scoring from the penalty spot to set up a tie with Barrow. In the league we faced Corby and thanks to a S.Forte goal we drew 1-1 and we repeated the scoreline against Coalville with N.Cummins doing the honours late in the first half. The next game saw my side beating Skelmersdale 3-0 with N.Cummins grabbing two goals and R.Allassani firing in the other goal. The final two games of the month saw us beating Marine 2-1 as M.Dinanga and R.Allassani scoring and this was followed by a 2-0 win over Blyth as T.Roche and M.Dinanga gave us all three points to end the month in 7th place 2pts out of the play-off spots and 8pts off top spot.
The gaffer made one signing as Aaron Chalmers joined on a free, he is a 25yr old defensive midfielder from Stalybridge. He also let A.Amu join Dunstable on a free. M.Bailey, C.Taylor and J.Kennedy all were released from their contract.

On the financial side we made a £4,759 profit with the bank balance being at £10,123,897. On another note I have started the process of turning the club professional. I have also been given the go ahead to up the capacity of the club

[mark wilson27]

January 2017: 
The month didn't get off too the best of starts as we lost 1-0 to Workington and this was followed by us getting knocked out of the FA Trophy as Barrow beat us 3-1 with R.Allassani grabbing our only goal. We got back into winning ways as we beat Mickleover 2-1 thanks to goals from S.Ottley and R.Allassani, however our next game saw us losing 2-1 to Ashton United with S.Ottley again finding the net. A 2-0 loss to Spennymoor was followed by a poor 1-1 draw too local rivals Buxton with J.Atkinson heading in the equaliser late in the game. The poor run of results saw us move down to 8th 7pts off the play-offs and 13pts off top spot. With nine games remaining in the season.
The gaffer made just the one signing this month as we welcomed 17yr old central midfielder Joe Rowley on loan from Chesterfield. We also let N.McManus join North Leigh on a free transfer

Financially we made a loss of £2,004 to make the bank balance looking at £10,121,893. Work has now started on upping the ground capacity so it means that crowds will be down over the next few months. Hopefully the higher capacity and better facilities will bring in extra crowds and revenue

[mark wilson27]

February 2017:
The month didn't get off too a great start as we lost 1-0 at home too Barwell and we followed this by a 1-1 draw to Hednesford with R.Allassani doing the honours from close range. We finally got the first win of the month as we beat Whitby 2-0 thanks to a stunning strike from M.Dinanga and a header from A.Chalmers. Another loss though saw us being beaten by Warrington 2-1 with M.Dinanga slotting in from close range. The month ended on a high though as we beat Rushall 2-0 thanks to goals from M.Dinanga and C.Thorley and this was followed by a 3-1 win over Nantwich. The goals were scored by J.Johns and a brace from T.Roche to end the month in 6th place 4pts off the play-offs and 12pts off top spot 

Financially we made a loss of £1,561 with the bank balance standing at £10,120,332. I was expecting more of a loss so pretty happy with only just over a grand
 

[mark wilson27]

March 2017:
A better month than February as we remained unbeaten. The first game of the month started with a 3-1 win over Frickley with S.Ottley scoring one and R.Allassani grabbing a brace. It was followed by a 1-0 win over Stafford thanks to R.Allassani. The month ended with two draws as Skelmersdale shared the points with a 1-1 draw as R.Allassani heading in and Ilkeston drawing 1-1 as M.Newsham scoring very late in the game to end the month in 6th place still 4pts off the play-offs and 9pts off top spot.
The gaffer made a single signing this month as Josh Tipping as 17yr old striker has joined us for the rest of the season on loan from Chesterfield. He also let T.Cribley join Royston on a free transfer.

Financially we made another loss of £4,990 with the bank balance currently at £10,115,342
 

[mark wilson27]

April 2017:
The final month of the season and we performed well with a 2-1 win over Coalville thanks to goals from J.Johns and S.Ottley, this was followed by a 3-1 win over Halesowen with M.Dinanga grabbing a brace and S.Ottley getting the other goal. We then faced Sutton Coldfield and managed a 2-2 draw with M.Dinanga and R.Allassani grabbing the goals. The final match of the season saw us beating Grantham 2-1 with K.Quansah and J.Tipping scoring to finish the season in 6th spot a point off the play-offs and 6pts off top spot

Financially we made a loss of £381 with the bank balance standing at £10,114,961. Other news sees us finally turning professional which was one of my first objectives as chairman
 

[mark wilson27]

May 2017:
Obviously as we didn't make the play-offs we haven't had any matches but the gaffer has made a few signings with all on free transfers. Elliot Newby a 21yr old right midfielder comes from Barrow, Jordan Gough a 26yr old left back has come from Brackley, De'Reece Vanderhyde a 22yr old right back from Staines, Glenn Walker a right midfielder/striker from Brackley and Manny Parry a 23yr old central defender from Braintree

June 2017:
With the majority of the squad on their pre-season breaks me and the gaffer started to sort out stuff for next season. The gaffer released L.Needham after he failed to agree another contract. We made three more signings with Kayden Jackson joining from Barnsley in a deal worth £31,500 which could rise to £38,500, he is a 23yr old attacking left midfielder / striker. We also welcomed Joe Leesley a 23yr old defensive left midfielder from Harrogate and Michael Thalassitis a 24yr old striker from Hemel Hempstead both on a free transfer.

Financially we made a £2,745,364 loss over the last two months. I was expecting a loss but not this much
 

[mark wilson27]

Season Two 2017/18:
July 2017:
The pre-season began with a 2-0 loss to Gateshead and this was followed by a 3-0 loss to Middlesbrough which in truth I wasn't too bothered about as we did perform quite well against our more elite competitors. We then faced Welsh side Airbus UK and beat them 3-1 with C.Johnson grabbing a goal and M.Thalassitis grabbing himself a brace. The final game of the pre-season saw my side beating Chesterfield U23's 3-2 with J.Atkinson, R.Allassani and S.Forte all scoring. The bookies have made us 3rd favourites for promotion at 4-1. 
The gaffer made some free signings this month with Stephen Akbas and Charlie Oliver joining after being released by their previous clubs. Theo Lewis is our next signing who has joined from Havant & W on a free.
S.Akbas is an 18yr old right back, T.Lewis is a 25yr old attacking midfielder and C.Oliver is a 19yr old centre back
He also let N.Cummins leave on a free to join Maidenhead

Financially we made another loss of £227,020 with the bank balance standing at £7,142,577
 

[mark wilson27]

August 2017:
The season began with a 2-0 win over Leek with a brace from M.Thalassitis and this was followed by a 3-0 win over Ashton United with M.Thalassitis, R.Allassani and an own goal by C.Jakovlevs. However the excellent start was interrupted by a 2-0 loss to Nantwich. Then followed a couple of draws with a 2-2 draw against Gainsborough with R.Allassani and K.Quansah both scoring, the next draw was a 1-1 draw against Grantham thanks to a last minute goal by J.Johns. The final game of the month saw us back on winning ways with R.Allassani scoring the equaliser against Sutton Coldfield. We finished the month in 6th place, three points off top spot and a point off the play-offs.
The club made no signings this month but released A.Todd on a free, A.Chalmers on a free to Slough and C.Johnson on a free to Spalding.

Financially we made a loss of £240,557 with the new balance at £6,902,020. We seem to be bleeding money at the moment but in truth I was expecting it as the ground hasn't yet been finished. Also we were always going to make a loss until we move further up the leagues

[mark wilson27]

September 2017:
The month began with us being knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle as Witton beat us 2-1 with S.Forte grabbing our only goal. The first league game of the month saw us going down 1-0 to Clitheroe but after that we went on a winning spree with Coalville being the first to succumb to us as we beat them 1-0 with S.Akbas doing the honours. The following game saw us beating close rivals Ilkeston 3-1 with S.Forte grabbing a goal and T.Roche grabbing a brace. Droylsden were next up and we managed to beat them 2-0 with C.Morrison and R.Allassani both scoring, next was another 2-0 win over Marine this time with E.Newby and R.Allassani again scoring. The final game of the month saw Skelmersdale going down 2-1 thanks to goals from R.Allassani and C.Morrison. The run of wins means we are now top of the league by four points

The gaffer made three signings with Curtis Morrison a 19yr old striker joining from Chesterfield on loan, Jordan Brown is a 25yr old left back joining on a free from Gosport and Ben O'Hanlon a left back joining on a free transfer after being released from his previous club. He also let T.Hamblin join Hitchin on a free transfer

Financially we made a loss of £243,672 with balance now standing at £6,658,348. I'm delighted that the manager has got us too the top of the league but I was hoping for more of a cup run to help the finances
 

[mark wilson27]

October 2017:
A very busy month for us saw it beginning with a 1-1 draw against arch rivals Buxton, our goal came late in the game via K.Jackson, this was followed by a 2-0 win over Stourbridge thanks to goals from C.Oliver and C.Morrison. Then followed two 2-1 losses against Barwell and Rugby with M.Thalassitis scoring our only goal in each game. We made up for it though in the next game as we beat Soham 3-1 with M.Thalassitis scoring again and E.Newby getting himself a brace. The next game was a Northern Premier League Cup tie as we faced Carlton, we only managed a 1-1 draw with M.Thalassitis scoring, however we lost 3-2 on penalties. The final two games in the month saw us facing a FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round against Maldon & Tiptree. The opening game saw us drawing 2-2 with C.Morrison and C.Oliver scoring to earn the lower league side a replay. The replay saw us beating them 1-0 with M.Thalassitis heading in the early goal to send us through to the next round.
We remain top of the league by a single point over Blyth who have a game in hand.

Financially we made a loss of £266,025 with the bank balance standing at £6,392,303. It's good too see us still at the top of the table but we are losing a lot of money each month now. Maybe turning professional so early on wasn't a good idea

[mark wilson27]

November 2017:
The month began with an entertaining game against Warrington as we beat them 3-2 thanks to goals from M.Thalassitis, R.Allassani and K.Jackson. We then faced a FA Trophy Cup tie against Aylesbury and we managed to beat them 3-0 with late goals from J.Johns, C.Morrison and E.Newby to set up a tie with Kidderminster. The next game was a league tie against Hednesford and we beat them 2-0 with R.Allassani and G.Walker doing the honours and this was followed by a 3-1 win over Workington as M.Thalassitis scoring and a brace by C.Morrison. Nuneaton were our next opponents and we scraped a 1-1 draw as G.Walker scored deep into injury time. We next faced Kidderminster in the FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round and in truth we never turned up as they beat us with ease 2-0. The final game of the month saw us beating Whitby 2-1 with K.Jackson and K.Quansah to see us finish the month still top of he table by 4pts over Blyth who still have a game in hand over us.
Glenn Kirkwood made a couple of signings with Max Cornhill joining on a free from Chelmsford, he is a 30yr old central midfielder. He next signed Harrison Georgiou on a free from Boston United, he is a 22yr old central midfielder.
Financially we made another big loss as we lost £244,825 with the bank balance standing at £6,147,478. Another good month in the league and I have no qualms with going out of the cup to Kidderminster, its just a shame the we didn't really turn up for the match 
 

[Jibby123]

Is this type thread not more suited to FM career updates forum?

[CFuller]

FM Stories come in all shapes and sizes. We’ve got everything from epic novels (think tenthreeleader) to quick monthly summaries. Mark is excellent when it comes to the latter.

I’m still keeping an eye on this story. Is that Reise Allassani you’ve got in your team, Mark? I remember him playing for England Under-16s and thinking that he had plenty of potential, but he just didn’t get anywhere at Crystal Palace.

[Jibby123]

Fair one, just wondering the criteria of the difference between the 2 forums.

[mark wilson27]

1 hour ago, Jibby123 said:

Is this type thread not more suited to FM career updates forum?

Pretty much what CFuller said below, it would however probably do pretty well in FMCU

1 hour ago, CFuller said:

FM Stories come in all shapes and sizes. We’ve got everything from epic novels (think tenthreeleader) to quick monthly summaries. Mark is excellent when it comes to the latter.

I’m still keeping an eye on this story. Is that Reise Allassani you’ve got in your team, Mark? I remember him playing for England Under-16s and thinking that he had plenty of potential, but he just didn’t get anywhere at Crystal Palace.

It certainly is the same. At the moment he is doing pretty well for me hopefully he can help us the leagues. Especially with the way the finances are going, 

59 minutes ago, Jibby123 said:

Fair one, just wondering the criteria of the difference between the 2 forums.

In FMCU the main difference is that they allow screenshots which we don't. 

[mark wilson27]

December 2017:

The festive month was a busy one for my manager as played seven games. The first of which saw is drawing 1-1 against Ashton United with C.Morrison grabbing the late equaliser and this was followed by an impressive 3-0 win over Leek with C.Oliver, K.Quansah and C.Morrison all scoring. We grabbed another win with Nantwich going down 3-1 thanks to goals from K.Quansah, R.Allassani and J.Johns. We made it three wins in a row as we beat Grantham 2-0 as J.Johns and M.Thalassitis scoring to earn the three points and afterwards we beat Gainsborough 3-0 with R.Allassani scoring one and C.Morrison grabbing a brace. However our winning run came to an end as Clitheroe beat us 2-1 with C.Morrison grabbing our only goal. The final goal of the month saw us beating Sutton Coldfield 2-0 with K.Jackson and E.Newby doing the honours for my club. The month ended with us still top of the table but only by goal difference after Blyth won their game in hand.

Glenn Kirkwood made one signing during the month with Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong joining on a free transfer, he is 20yr old attacking left midfielder.

Financially we made another loss as we loss of £285,184 with the bank balance standing at £5,862,294. Our current form is very pleasing and I hope we can continue to stay at the top of the table.

 

[mark wilson27]

January 2018:
The new year didn't get off to the best of starts as our main rivals Blyth beat us 2-1 with C.Oliver grabbing our only goal and this was followed by a 1-1 draw against Coalville with E.Newby equalising for us. The next game saw another 1-1 draw with local rivals Ilkeston battling for the point. D.Wright scored early on for us but we couldn't hold on. We made it a hat-trick of 1-1 draws as K.Jackson grabbed the equaliser against Droylsden. The final game of the month saw us beating Marine 3-0 with D.Wright, K.Jackson and C.Morrison all scoring. We ended the month in 2nd place 7pts off top placed Blyth
Glenn Kirkwood made a few signings with Drew Wright joining from Colchester for £105,000 which could rise to £155,000, he is a 22yr old right midfielder. Rory Gaffney was the next signing and he came on a free transfer, he is a 28yr old attacking right midfielder who can also play upfront. The final signing was Cy Goddard who also joined on a free, he is a 20yr old central midfielder. He also let J.Leesley join Hitchin on loan.
Financially we made another huge loss of £375,555 with the bank balance standing at £5,486,739. Maybe I spoke too soon last month and the drop in form hasn't been missed by myself. Lets hope the form doesn't drop anymore or words will have to be said