[FM20] Chester

[profii]

October 2021

 

A busy busy month - with our participation in this Tunnocks cup thing we have 8 fixtures to play and we are still semi pro!

I couldnt do anything against Hartlepool so we start the month with a 0-0 but I think that's ok as we drew last season in the cup and they got relegated so they should be better than us
I then got a close win of Solihull - winning 3-2 with a couple of early goals then a late winner
Next up we invite our friends from north of the border, Kelty Hearts (no idea either) and our 2nd string won 1-0 - played better than the score line suggests.
Back to the league and we easily disposed of Harrogate 2-0
A lower league opponent next in Boston as our FA Cup Quali opponents - again the 2nd string walked through this fixture 3-0

2 losses next - Woking 0-1 and Northampton 1-3 - these were 2 top teams so they were always going to be tough, but the Northampton loss was enough to push us down to 2nd

Final fixture of the month was another Friday night rivalry fixture on TV away to Wrexham it was particularly nice to beat them after going behind twice - 3-2 in the end

As you will see below we drew Rochdale so that will probably be the end of our FA cup adventure this year and I would expect ICT to be a tough game too
It's a pretty tough fixture list again in November so hopefully we can keep the pressure up at the top

[profii]

So the start of OperationBeatBrexit has begun

[profii]

Youth Update - Darren Morgan

I noticed that I keep getting positive reports from my staff about Darren Morgan who came through the youth academy in Season 1. He is current on loan at Weston Super Mare in the Vanarama South.
He does look like he is progressing well and has managed to bag 5 goals and 5 assists in 22 league appearances which is pretty good when I look at Brad Jackson in the senior squad who got 5 goals and 15 assists in 42 when we were in the VNL so that's cool.

 

The scout report says he is operating at a Vanarama National Level but I dont think he is quite there when you compare him to, for example, Brad Jackson who occupies that spot - that being said I would say we are a leading team so there is that.

 

When you look at the comparison above it's quite good to see that his main deficit is technical which will obviously come along with development - just have to hope that high team work stat compensates for that poor finishing!

Hopefully he can continue to progress this season, enough to earn him a loan spot at a lower VNN team where he might get a regular start and then he should be really knocking on the door. It might be tricky as his development will be hampered by being part time but maybe I can loan him to a fully pro team to circumvent that...

Overall I'm pleased with my first prospect 

[profii]

November 2021

What a month, exceeded expectations all round to be honest

We changed to a 4-5-1 against Rochdale to try and stem the flow of inevitable defeat and we pretty much cancelled them out and pinched a goal to win 1-0.
That game was also our record income from ticket sales, bringing in about £130k

So I figured the  team needed a change and I stuck with the 4-5-1 for the rest of the month. We made a quick start against York and managed to win 3-1

Next up another international fixture for the Cestrians as we invite Inverness Cally Thistle to the Deva, still sticking with a defensive 4-5-1 I assume Scottish Championship is a bit higher quality than the conf so I expected a spanking again. We hung on until the 60' where ICT took the lead but we soon fought back on 70' and 79' to put ourselves ahead with 10 mins to go - what a miracle! Only until the 87' when we give away a really soft pen and the game is equal again. This time only for a minute as Moore manages to get on the end of a route 1 ball in the 88' - Chester go through 3-2 - wow! We drew Arbroath but we won't play the semi final until mid feb (what a relief!)

So next up, 3 tough fixtures, Chesterfield and Cheltenham, followed by a cup tie against Bristol Rovers - I took a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude and stuck to my 4-5-1 formation and just about managed to get past the 2 league fixtures and incredible heald Bristol to a 0-0 draw - there were certainly chances for either team to have won that game (admittedly a lot more for Bristol than us!)

To finish off the month a trip to bottom of the league Barrow - surprising as they beat us 5-0 last season and were in the playoffs - not quite sure what has happened there (no one has left the club this season - weird!)

So overall a fantastic month and we are competing on all front still (Which I am sure will be a blessing and a curse)
No player of the month (if anything it's me for my inspired decision to go 4-5-1 to be quite honest***)
Most importantly, we are back on top of the league!

 

***Even the game recognises this:

Edited December 7, 2019 by profii

[profii]

December 2021

Another year down and we capped it off with a good month.

Firstly, we struggled but we got a win vs Hartlepool - i think it was an early goal from Mampala and we hung on the rest of the way.
We then had the big replay with Bristol Rovers coming to the Deva Stadium - we were under the cosh for most of the game but we pinched a long ball after half time to take a 1-0 lead. I honestly think my mistake was subbing off the tired Ercolani for Joe Lewis who probably isn't quite good enough for us - Rovers managed to equalise in injury time and then took a lead in ET - we also got a red card so a bit of a capitulation  Out we go 1-2 (et)

Not to worry about that too much as we were never expected to get that far, we also have another trophy to have a crack at with our next fixture against Barrow - they are still way down in the league so we easily won  2-0

For the rest of the month, we will focus on the league. We couldnt do anything against Eastleigh and took a point from a 0-0 draw.
Next we travel south during midweek to promoted Billericay and walked over them 3-0
At the weekend we are away again to Harrogate who despite a similarly low league position put up a bit more of a challenge after going 3-0 down and managed to pull it back to 3-2 by the end of the game

Last but not least, 2 days after Harrogate we hosted Yeovil and managed to beat them easily enough 2-0 even though they are 3rd.

I think we did drop our top spot briefly just due to how the fixtures played out but now everyone is on 27 games played we are sitting pretty at the top - Northampton are very close on our tails but I am really hopefully this squad can do it this year.



Player of the Month will be Shamar Moore - scoring all over the place, including a hat trick at Harrogate!

[profii]

January 2022

So I have learnt that SI are predicting a tough winter in Jan 22 as we only managed to play 4 fixtures this month in something that resembles a Sunday League teams schedule sheet

There was nothing particularly noteworthy this month, though the 0-0 vs  Bromley was frustrating. That was enough for the top spot to escape our grasp - we have 1 game in hand but Northampton have a far superior goal difference  - though we do have to play them still so it's in our hands... Just.

We also managed to win in the FA Trophy after a double postponement and we will face Woking in the next round.

Player of the month is probably Shamar Moore again, carrying the team at the moment!

On to next month and hopefully we will progress in the cups as they start again!

[profii]

February 2022

Madness, it's the only word for it...


We beat Chelmsford easily enough, weirdly even though we scored in the 88' their goal was 89' so we were in control the whole game.
Woking was also straightforward enough in the Trophy and that put us through to face Dulwich Hamlet - nice to get an easy draw at this later stage.
Billericay, another easy win as expected against one of the teams that just came up 3-1

Arbroath - Now this was a bit mad, I beat ICT but all the press were saying I was massive underdogs which wasn't the case last time so I switched to a countering tactic - 10 mins in, corner, flick on - open goal at the far post 1-0! 20 mins in, the keeper fumbles and it drops over the line, 2-0!!! What is happening?!
Eventually Arbroath did peg one back but we kept chances to a minimum and held onto the win - we will play Hamilton in the final in March.



We beat Maidstone easily enough but had a bad day at the office with Cheltenham, we then faced Woking in the league and beat them easily enough again.

Our final game of the month was the FA Trophy tie with Dulwich Hamlet - given that it was a busy month (again!) I sent out a 2nd string lineup against a lower division team, apparently that was a bit of a mistake as we went 0-1 down at the end of the first half and did not look good in anyway shape or form. The team got the hairdryer treatment at half time and we started to create chances but it took our super sub to put in 2 late late goals to secure a win. Mental!




I've accidentally played the first game of March so we are now top of the league, not sure where we were at the exact end of the month - it's still a very close run thing though. We have secured a playoff spot though so that is good news.

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by profii

[profii]

2022 Youth Intake


Some good potential by the looks of that, but when you look closely there are a lot of pacey players which i always thinks warps the coach reports.

Weird to see a Ukranian coming through the ranks - I have no idea how that has come about, that Goalie also has a greek passport.

Matt here is probably the pick of the intake, nothing that really stands out tbh.

[profii]

March 2022

Obviously I've covered the youth intake as above... An interesting month in football for Chester as well though...



Firstly, we host bitter rivals Wrexham and it was a close game which i didnt expect us to win. Then at the end a great run from Sousa pinched it in injury time... unlucky Wrexham!
We had no issues getting past Chesterfield and then we had the cup final to deal with...

Off we go to Scotland - to Inverness stadium, we didnt play there as that game was at home so we faced Hamilton, a long range super strike from Glendon meant we managed to beat Hamilton 1-0! 

The Cup is ours!!!

A double bonus on this day, Northampton dropped points at the same time so they lost their advantage and we went top of the league outright again! Get in!

We had an interesting game vs Macclesfield afterwards, both teams conceded a goal where a long ball went over, the centre half made a stupid turn and left the ball for the striker to just run through. But we did get another and won 2-1.

We then had the FA Trophy Semi final vs Northampton to deal with - a 2 legged back to back affair against the favorites - we drew the first leg 1-1 - I actually made a mistake and didnt realise this game was at home and played my away tactics but managed to get 1-1 anyway. In the 2nd leg I actually applied my away tactics which was obviously a bad move as I was 0-3 down before I knew it. I did pick up a goal before HT and then started to pull the game back in the 2nd half - I nearly made it as I scored a 82' min peno but Northampton scored shortly after and that was me out of the cup. 

Finally 2 similar games vs Barnet and York - I was dominating both with plenty of chances but in game one I eventually managed to put away 1 of about 10 one on ones, in the York game we just couldnt finish, so 1-0 and 0-0 respectively 

That leaves us top of the league with a 4 point gap, but we do have to play Northampton and they probably are better than us. Other than that, no one is even close, so we go into the final month of the season with the main prize all to play for...

 

 

[profii]

New Signing - Simon Murray

 

I got the announcement that we can start approaching the youth players and I could only find 2 decent ones, I've managed to get my hands on Simon Murray on modest wages which is super



There is another chap who requires £400k in compensation so I am hoping he just gets released and I can get round that... But if I get promoted or stay in this division, this guy looks class!

[profii]

March 2022

It is fair to say we made this month very very hard for ourselves...

scoring 3 goals in 6 games is outrageous and I didnt know what to  do - I think the issue was that I constantly had 2 or 3 fatigued players heading into most of the games.

Never the less...

As you can see, Northampton and ourselves ran away with the league - in season 1, 87 points was enough to win and weirdly, last season Barrow came 2nd with 96 points.

The other good news is



I've also been given a transfer budget of £1mil (I dont understand why Chester are so rich, there is a chairman vote every year which i assume means we are owned by a fan consortium... but hey, shan't complain!)

 

 

 

[profii]

Squad Summary



So as you can see Moore was our top player with 28 in 36 - a great return!
I am surprised Mampala didn't surpass him but maybe now he has had a season with us he will find even better form next year
Waring is unhappy as he is now a sub - his 6'5" frame was great for unlocking games but he wants more time and will probably leave on a free.

Sousa, McGhee, Glendon, Sinclair, Maxwell & Lynch were all key players 

Brad Jackson is probably at the limit of his ability now which is a shame.

I desperately need quality for the RB position. 

I also snuck my reserve GK in for the last game just to give him a winners medal

I thought Kennedy would be good but I ended up with 3 LBs and couldnt really get him games, he is likely to leave along with Agbontohoma, Waring and Thomas who couldnt really make an impact this season despite finding some good partnerships at the end of last year - I think when we went back to 4-5-1 his time with us was done.



I think my priorities for the window are:
A RB (said that last year, but couldnt find anyone)
an extra CM to support fitness in a 4-5-1 system
Wingers - but only if they increase quality in the squad. (Rolando Aarons is available but is asking for double what anyone else is getting)

Obviously if i find people who are better than I've got I'll take them but those are what the scouts are after.
 

I'd largely agree with that but maybe put in Joe Lynch for Hunter and drop Maxwell to the DM - Lynch was a good passer that could create a chance, Hunter and Maxwell were both ball winners so probably clashed but I guess the TotS doesn't really care...

Edited December 8, 2019 by profii

[profii]

June/July 2022

Moving up a division is always tough, looking for players who are good enough and willing to come, added with the fact we have only just turned pro is going to be a big ask.

Here is how we did:



I'm really pleased with Simon Murray and Adie Higginson, both young promising centre halfs who will probably inevitably make the club a profit but lets try and get the best out of them for now. Interesting that Murray came from Man City and Higginson came from Boreham Wood - couldn't have started more than far apart.
(also, Adie, 17 years old and that beard man!)




Next up was someone that actually appeared in those reports where the agent says 'my guy wants to play for you' and I was struggling to find willing wingers so i jumped at this free transfer. Also more facial hair! But hopefully he can do a job and progress with the club for some years.

This guy also appeared frequently in the agent offer thing, I thought he was going to get released but weirdly signed a contract and went on the transfer list - seeing as I have loads of money, I bought him for about 20k. Seems like a promising option for a position I've struggled to fill for years.

Another player that signed a contract at the last minute with his former club, I was going to chance him on a free but instead I've taken him on loan, which probably is better than the plan as I can send him back if he is pants as he doesn't look that great, I just was desperate to bulk up the squad in a new division

Matt Blake was a bit of a luxury signing, but I dont really rate my LB's so I grabbed him, he was on loan at Yeovil (who somehow managed to beat Northampton to promotion) so I think he will do well

Smith was a speculative check of Northampton when I realised they weren't going up. His contract was up and I was losing my 6'5 striker, so it just made sense...



If I had more of a choice, I probably wouldnt have signed this guy, but not many people would come and he was the best of the scout reports that didnt want over 2k per week



I really like the look of this guy, who was released from Glenavon in NI so no compensation to pay, hurrah, I am pretty certain he will get picked up by a bigger team at some point... I just have a good feeling here

 

Gambin was a bit of a panic buy, I felt like he looked decent, was cheap and would provide some quality, so fingers crossed

[profii]

Oh nearly forgot - the season has started, we started with a trip to Sunderland - nice to go to the first of the stadiums I have played in in real life (other than the Deva) 
We lost 1-2, but Gambin got a goal on his debut

We then played Cambridge, who typically have been around the playoffs so a 1-2 loss wasn't the end of the world there, Etete got his first goal which came 3rd in goal of the month.

Onwards and upwards...

[profii]

August 2022

So now we are getting stuck into things.



We held on to a 0-0 against Accrington - I think I just parked the bus a bit after 2 defeats
I thought we might be able to beat Carlisle after taking the lead twice but they managed to equalise late in the game - we did play well though so I started to think a bit more positively about our chances in the league.
Our 1-0 win against Wycombe was more luck than judgement, we basically got a peno as the last kick of the game. Joe Lynch was the man to step up and convert!
Losing to Exeter was tough but again pleasing that we competed with the league leaders
At that point I kinda thought stuff it - back to attacking and pressing and  that got us 2 good results against Grimsby and Oldham

If I'm being honest, I didn't try in the JPT trophy - the sooner I reduce the fixture list, the better!

I think Luke Gambin is probably my favourite player this month.

Interestingly, I nearly forgot to post a screenshot of the table, I was pleasantly surprised to see ourselves 9th - that is literally the first time I've looked at the table, I'm just focused on hitting 45 points + to establish the team in the division.

Edited December 8, 2019 by profii

[profii]

September 2022 
 

Probably learnt a bit more about League 2 this month is what I can say here...

I continued with my Gegenpress which seems to work well for this team. As you can see I won 3 games - I would argue I played better than Swindon, although, another visit to a ground I'm very familiar with from my youth I am secretly pleased to have lost but it was interesting never the less just to get picked apart by the quality players.

I also got absolutely trumped by Crawley - I went 2 down and went to a defensive tactic, which got me 1 back, so I went sod it, stick the big man up top and attack on the wings... then I found myself 1-4 down, obviously it finished 2-5 so I guess the lesson is that my theory of throw everything at a loss to try and pull it back may end up being embarrassing in this division.

By some madness, we have 20 points and sit 6th which is great considering my expectations. Busy month coming up though

[profii]

October 2022

A little bit more red than green on the old results page this month

I think the Colchester game was a war of set pieces, all the games came off free kicks and wide corners for both teams... we just lost
I threw the Bolton game because I dont care
Stevenage was another game where I have no idea why I got battered
Aldershot was an easy win - As was Southend until we tried to sabotage it - we got a red card after 3 subs, so that was a tricky situation, but then we also got an injury so finished on 9 men - but we hung on so that's cool
Finally, Bradford, a top team and we had to go 4-4-2 due to injuries so struggled a bit


I think this shows when my first choice players get depleted I struggle but I knew that would happen in season 1

The thing that is really interesting, is I seem to be flying up and down the league each time I win/lose - there is only 5 points between the entire top half of the table and no one is really running away with a massive goal difference at the top so it's really close but that seems to be keeping us in it so I'm certainly not complaining.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Going great Proii.

[profii]

November 2022

So so close to a perfect month...


I've been busy over the last few days so just took a chance on the line up I'd saved for Barnet and we got 2 long range screamers to give us a solid lead before grabbing a 3rd.
I then chucked in all the players that dont get enough games for the JPT as I dont care and somehow we won on pens but that is also us knocked out. Never mind.
A game of 2 halves against Gillingham - we took a massive lead but let them grab 2 back in the 2nd half which was a bit silly.
A tactical change from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 helped us defeat Crewe with relative ease

Final game of the month was 2nd round of the FA cup against Yeovil - we usually do well against them and we even took a lead, but they managed to pull 2 back which is a shame as I could have done with a big 3rd round fixture as turning pro is eating into the finances a bit more than it used to!

That leaves us 5th going into the busy festive period and out of all the cups so we can focus on the league. We probably only need 5-10 more points to ensure we stay up which is awesome so let's just see how far we can go :D

 

 

[profii]

December 2022

Another great month but a couple of frustrating results

The first 2 wins were against teams near the bottom and straight forward enough - it's interesting that we are now pretty casually beating lower teams without too much thought. Obviously the squad is better than I expected it to be.

The Leyton Orient result is really tough to take - we missed a penalty and they scored a penalty
I then tried to play up the wings against Colchesters 3-5-2 and it turned into a bit of a crazy goal fest :)

Capped off with an easy win at the end of the month and we end up 2nd



I'm starting to think we could actually push for promotion now, the transfer window has just opened and I'm not usually a fan of January, but I think I might see if we can just add something to the squad. Not sure what but fingers crossed I find something good.

We've also had a few injuries through the month, so that's been a bit disruptive. Justin Rowley has turned out to be a great winger and broke his foot. We also had 2 virus' and Gambin done some ligaments so it's not been ideal but we've managed to get through it which is pleasing.

[profii]

January 2023

Another solid month, although not free from a couple of hiccups.

Firstly, the eagle eyed will spot a slight amendment to a December result there - my laptop decided to reset due to windows update and apparently I hadn't saved - whoops
I dont think I faced anyone in the top half until I got to Cambridge so the results were fairly easy to come by, despite the injury issues to a winger after winger:



We also had another disaster on the day before the Exeter game, which is a massive top of the table 6 pointer for us - our GK fell ill for the week so no chance he could play. The sub keeper dropped the ball in the net in the first 10 mins, so that score really does not reflect how badly that game went!

We do still sit in the automatic promotion spots with a slight gap so that is great


I mentioned that I was looking for something to improve the squad - It was a tough ask but we brought in one of Brian Anderson's pals from the NI international youth scene. I'm really curious to see how that stamina and work rate benefits our team - normally I'd wait for his contract to expire but I have noticed the club is starting to lose money so I thought I'd make hay whilst the sun was shining - a gamble admittedly but if we can secure League 1 football in the first time of asking I think it will pay off

Edited December 13, 2019 by profii

[profii]

Staff Signing, Head of Youth Dev.

I lost my HoYD to a VNS management job, so I put the advert out. Some key stats in there, so a big welcome to Stevie and an optimistic wait for the next intake 

[profii]

February 2023

Another decent month... but still improvements can be made


Annoyingly couldnt beat bottom of the league Newport, and Southend was one of those games where i just couldnt get control of it. The rest were quite straightforward

This does mean the gap between promotion and playoff is now 6 points, but the first game in March is Bradford so that's a big test



Also, the board tell me I've achieved the objective of become an established L2 team, so I must be mathmatically safe from demotion. 

We still struggle with injuries but just about getting through it, so still on course for an attempt at getting into League 1, one way or another at least!

Edited December 13, 2019 by profii

[profii]

2023 Youth Intake

This is an actual decent intake!!



Golden generation, some high PA reports there, let's look at the picks of the bunch...








I'm really pleased... might try and get David Alexander into the first team as a 3rd choice striker as it looks like we will lose Moore and Mampala plus a 1 striker formation is working so this could be a good opportunity...

Edited December 13, 2019 by profii

[profii]

March 2023

More losses than wins this month but we cling on to our auto-promotion spot...



I had a sneaky feeling I'd never beat Bradford. The Gillingham and Crewe games had strangely identical goals, but just 2 for AI, then 2 for me. The Swindon result was hard to take with 2 late goals meaning we lost



it's very close!!

[profii]

This is going to be an issue next season

[profii]

The run in, crikey...

Edited December 13, 2019 by profii

[profii]

April 2023

I have to say we tried our hardest to throw promotion away, but in the end Bradford tried harder and somehow we managed to secure 3rd and a place in League 1 next year! 



Going into the last game, it said we were 20th in the form table, but somehow Bradfords form was LLLLW at the end of the season so we pipped it.

The Plymouth result was frustrating because we scored early and they went straight down to 10 men - probably shouldnt have thrown a 17 year old up front but oh well... I gave him time in every game just to try and kick start his development and in the end I got away with it.



I'll have a look at the market and do a end of season type update tomorrow. Last season I knew there was only 1 team that could have stopped me, Northampton, how they cocked up the play offs I will never know... This season I beat Plymouth once and Crewe twice, but other than that, I struggled facing the top teams in the div. I have a problem coming up! Especially with the finances plummeting month by month...

[deltablue]

At least you made it up in the end

[profii]

End of Season Update 22/23

Here is the team of the year:


I mostly agree, although as per last year, I typically wouldnt play Hunter and Maxwell together as they are both what I think of as 'Mascherano' type players and if you play 2 you can't get the ball forward quickly. Midfield was a strange place for us this year as we had a little superstar come from N. Ireland in Brian Anderson but he developed a poor link with our captain, Glendon- this did eventually lead me to manipulate the game a little bit and play Maxwell (BWM), Glendon (BBM) then Anderson as the CAM which voided the link issues.

Halliday was a good option for us to solve a problematic area at right back, but he gets a booking almost every game which is concerning. I still dont consider this a problem solved.

Alinden was steady, coming in the January window - he always gets great reports from the coaches but I dont think of him as first name on the team sheet, I am guessing this is usually indicative of some kind of super hidden stat so I'm hopefully that develops into something good perhaps. Rowley on the other wing was really good but suffered a broken foot or something so we really missed him towards the end of the season - probably explains some of our dip in form if I'm honest.

Etete was a great signing - the first striker I've had who has gone a whole season without ever getting the 'worried about a drought' message - he will get a shot at L1 and hopefully he will do well. Smith on the bench did really well as coming in for George Waring as the big man option too.

Higginson didnt get a fair crack at the whip, I dont seem to have many club grown players so I was constantly sticking James Jones on the bench, but now I've promoted David Alexander from the youth candidate that should be problem solved and his development should flourish as the coaches already tell me he is flying and he doesnt really play as much as I'd like.

The awards reflect the sentiments above I feel, interesting to see yet another free kick win goal of the season award and if it was me, I'd keep Etete as player of the season and perhaps give young player to Rowley



We then get this interesting news, bring back Harry Clapham I say...



Anyway, life goes on and here come some signings - we will initially concentrate on the freebies as always and the first player to come in is a new centre mid, we've been clinging on to Joe Lynch and George Glendon since our VNN days so let's take the chance to upgrade here:



Similar to my issues with the DR position, I've struggled to get a goalkeeper, Griffiths is another player who has been with us since the start but even he accepted a backup keeper contract despite playing every game in League 2 so we will take a chance on Will Dennis from the reserve leagues. Thought I might get Will Jaaskelainen as Crewe didnt win the playoffs but for some reason he re-signed - perhaps i should have declared interest but you win some, you lose some



Whilst we are still at Crewe, we pinched a full back in Macdonald, should be a good improvement on Lowey and provide compeition for Blake



Not a fan of the loan market, but needs must as I can't trust Halliday not to get suspended every 5 games or so ha ha



I also want to bulk out the squad a bit so a youngster from over the Mersey comes in...

a 1 year offered to bolster the back...



Another striker option, I feel nervous, if Etete gets injured I'm up the swanny... bit of a gamble on this one... big wages and unproven in L1

[profii]

Oh no, transfer out!

Good bye to Simon Murray - a big offer and frequent bad links to main stay Ercolani meant it was ok to see him go. This also opens the door for Higgo to step into the back line and we have Shotton to cover also.

Murray came in on a free and made 41 appearances, scored 1 goal and averaged a rating of 6.75 in 1 season. 



 

[profii]

Tried to sign this guy but he elected to go to Derby in the Championship - no problem, a loan deal for me then...

[profii]

August 2023

So football returns and this time League 1 football is on the agenda. The squad looks good but I am sure over the first couple of busy months a first choice 11 will emerge as I probably dont know it myself yet.

Anyway, the football went really well...

 

If you said to me 1 loss in the first month, I would snap your hand off - if you look at the fixtures there are a lot of Championship drop outs so this looks like a baptism of fire.
We started with Boro, it was a bit weird because they were favorites in the season preview but the press stuff seemed to indicate I should win... I wasn't expecting to get anywhere but we started off with a 25 yard thunderbolt and never looked back!

We've had to fight pretty hard in all the games to get the results we got so hopefully that doesn't take its toll on the squad too much 

my favorite win of the month was the cup game against Preston - in midfield we had Glendon who has been with us since the start, Iwan Murray who has been on loan since the start but seems to developing into a first team contender (hence the cup start) and Hunter who I signed from Blyth ages ago. It pleased me that none of those players have a super calibre or history, but we beat the undefeated league leaders!

50 points is the magic target for survival, so if we can continue in this vein we should be fine... It's been a good month, long may this continue!

[profii]

September 2023

Another cracking match, 8 fixtures in all and we took them in  our stride, whereas in previous years I probably would have felt  the squad getting tired

MK Dons are not doing great so that was an easy win. I rotated a lot for Liverpool Reserves and was surprised to win that as I just dont care about that cup!
Hull & Orient were a shame - annoying that I still can't beat the top teams from last years division!
Salford and Wimbeldon were both hard fought wins which was pleasing
Then we had Championship Brentford in the Milk cup - again, I didnt care, but thought I'd try 2x DMs and 1 CM, instead of 1 DM and 2 CMs like normal. Not sure if it made any significant difference but we took a lucky lead from a 1st min free kick and never looked back.
The last game against Swindon was pleasing - another team I've never beaten and we played really well.

Trying not to get too excited, but this unexpected success was how last year began...

[profii]

October 2023

Another decent month, some mixed results, but some tough fixtures so no shame in the defeats 

It was a battle against Sunderland, I was hoping to beat them as they knocked me out the Milk cup last year and I nearly did it, but for a pesky red card in the dying moments which was too much for us to hold out the 1 goal lead we had. Shame.
Blackpool was a rotated squad and unlucky to lose but I'm not too bothered.
The next 3 league games we won quite easily, the gegenpress is starting to feel like a cheat code!

Finally, as I grew up with Swindon, I really wanted to beat Oxford, they are in the Championship (which is annoying) and they have a great appointment of Slaven Bilic as manager (which is annoying) -  We concede early on but equalise soon after, a spilled corner was the difference and we couldnt quite do the job. Though going close with Oxford and beating Brentford is a really positive sign for the club
 

[profii]

November 2023

Well not a particularly busy month, but some good results

We struggled with Halifax but the rest of the games were straightforward enough. It was enough to get us through the JPT group and into the 2nd FA Cup round. We will face Halifax in the JPT so we will need to improve on the league result and we've got Southend in the FA cup which hopefully will be straightforward too.

It was a shame to lose against Mansfield but that might be a reality check I guess

[Nobby_McDonald]

Going excellently Profii.

[profii]

December 2023

I think we were supposed to play 8 or 9 fixtures at the start of this month but only managed to get 5 in due to the winter

Most results went our way - Bolton, despite being bottom was a bit of a push, but good to overcome the first of the Neville brothers that are now both managing in league 1. Finally another disappointing result against Sunderland.
 

The loss means we drop out of the auto-promotion spots. Next up we have 11 fixtures in January... crikey.
 

[profii]

January 2024

Oh what a month! 11 fixtures, some due to cup progress, some due to winter postponements. The worst of it was Burton/Bolton in the snow + Boro all in 5 days!



That being said we have done really really well (and I sympathise with Jurgen Klopp a lot right now!)
We did particularly well against Halifax in the cup, considering we struggled in a league game, but we rotated the squad well and as we both had games 2 days before, our fitness paid off.
The Bolton game was interesting, it went to peno's and it ended up 11-10 to us in the end i think... the main nice thing was to beat the Neville brothers back to back ha ha - I wasn't really sure what changes to make for the snow so I'm glad to take 2 wins there.
Another pleasing result was the Preston game, they are running away in the league so beating them away was really good - as much as I like to focus on promotions, the prize money has come in really useful, so I'm grateful for the easy cup run this year!

There is 2 bits of bad news this month - we couldnt keep hold of Luca Ercolani - he ran his contract down due to Brexit and he went to Serie B for £5k per week compared to the £1.5k I can offer him

Also, we got our youth product David Alexanders first couple of goals this month, but the offers just kept coming in and eventually, I saw this:

Really sad to see him go, as given the interest, he clearly had potential!

[profii]

February 2024

Not our best set of performances to start off with, but we got things back on track by the end of the month.

Well, slight fib, disposed of Blackpool easily enough but then struggled with top Preston and relegation battlers Coventry. We also dropped points to Bolton but luckily whilst all this was happening, Shrewsbury also kept losing so our 2nd place is intact!

We also had a couple of cup fixtures in the league trophy thingy, we were super lucky to get past Mansfield, scoring an injury time equaliser and winning on penalties. That then gave us a tie against Man Utd reserves-  I was not looking forward to this as a couple of FMs ago this happened and I had to face Alexis Sanchez! But nothing like that this time, although we kept getting put under pressure from counter attacks, so I thought we were probably going out here, until United got a red card and I chucked on an extra striker - this enabled us to turn a corner in, followed by ANOTHER red for United in the dying moments, which i assumed would be meaningless but we went and put a 2nd goal in to put things beyond doubt... Our first trip to Wembley is on the cards!

[profii]

Operation Beat Brexit Update

Noticed I had a decent looking bank balance, so made a couple of board requests before they decided to spend it elsewhere...



Youth intake is close this year so might have to wait for the next one for a notable improvement, but this is a good step in the right direction - although the youth facilities cost us £600k, bit more than I thought but hey ho!

[profii]

Youth Intake Day 2024

Best day of the year every year  We only got 1 stand out youth player this year, but he is probably the best we have seen since I took over...



I am probably going to chuck him straight into the first team once the 2 big cup games have passed. He is on a par with our backup winger already, so why not...



Pleased with that!

[profii]

March 2024

Well, what a month!

We started with a straight forward win over Halifax, we rotated to try our best against Cardiff... It ended up being a boring game without much in the way of chances, but by some miracle, George Glendon who has been with us since the Conf North runs through the defence and puts 1 in during injury time to send us through, pandemonium breaks out! 

Some bad results in the league, Mansfield have snuck up the table and beating us will certainly help them. Exeter, like Halifax was an expected win and MK was a disappointment given they were in poor form despite being quite high in the league.

But that's all a distraction really, everyone is talking about Newcastle coming to the Deva Stadium - and in something that probably resembles the recent Liverpool Villa game, we got battered 0-4 by HT. We did pinch a goal but then Newcastle just shifted up a gear and scored another to make sure we didnt get any ideas. Terrible all round to be honest. The only interesting point is due to fitness, internationals etc. Gary Lambert was on the bench and came on after 10 mins due to an injury so that's was interesting...

So then we had a team meeting and made sure the lads chins were up going into the following weekend as we only had a trip to Wembley!
I had to do it - Lambert was handed his first full start on the right wing. We played well and probably could have got a goal or two first, but we didnt take our chances. Once Spurs scored it fell apart a bit - particularly that last goal where the keeper came out for miles, didnt clear properly and left an open goal. 

I can only hope that our form improves as we are just about clinging on to 2nd. If we do drop into the play off places, perhaps a Wembley experience will go in our favour, but who knows. Hopefully we dont even have to worry about that - all we need to do now is focus on the last handful of remaining league games and see if we can earn a spot in the Championship.

[profii]

April 2024

Well, we tried our best to mess this up but we have put ourselves in pole position for the last game:

We were unable to past Hull and then lost to Orient and Salford, 2 games we really should be winning. I started to wonder if the injury to Gary Chandler was basically the difference between us winning and suddenly not getting anywhere.

For the P'boro game, we switched to a counter rather than pressing tactic and it seemed to work, so we tried it again with Burton - they went ahead, then we saved a peno of theirs. We equalised before half time and I switched back to a press - soon after half time, young starlet Gary Lambert got his first senior goal, which just so happened to be the winning goal

 

That leaves us 1 point ahead of Shrewsbury, with 1 fixture left to play... Shrewsbury at home. Massive!

Edited December 20, 2019 by profii

[profii]

May 2024 / Season Finale

Need I say more? An early red card, we kept our left winger on as a CAM as he has a high work rate, for the last 10 mins, I went 4-3-2 route 1 to see if we could nick a goal but it didnt happen. Either way, we just just just scrape over the line. Championship here we come!!

[profii]

Season Wrap Up

Well here is the best 11:

Etete once again smashing it and got his goal bonus again so an easy contender for top spot, but Humphreys was an able deputy as well. 
Rob Swift was our best right winger, a position we are a bit thin on, but I am surprised McAlinden got the left spot, I thought Chandler might have pinched that one.
A centre 3 that I generally didnt pick as Murray and Anderson are both DLP's - however, I'm really pleased that Murray has gone out on loan a couple of times and come back and won an award, he is a player that has been with us from the start.
The defense is interesting, Ercolani signing elsewhere means he is a distant memory and well done to Halliday to pipping the right back spot - another unexpected result.

Looking back at the transfers, I think they all worked out well, which is good. I didnt realise I paid that much for a keeper but I think it paid off.

 

Goal Of The Season
(this might not work...)

https://i.gyazo.com/c08e1afa52f60b44ffec95d6edf10093.mp4

Transfers Out

As ever, a number of players will be leaving us and here they are:
Justin Rowley - AMR - 3 goals in 33 appearances, didn't quite do enough to break into the League 1 team and with Lambert coming through the youth ranks, we wont be renewing his contract.
Shamar Moore - ST - 43 goals in 81 appearances, a fan favorite and this will probably be a controversial release, but he struggled once we got out the Conference so we wish him all the best.
Harry Smith - ST - 6 goals in 23, a target man that we probably didnt need just due to the quality of Etete and Humphreys - shame it didnt work out but sometimes that happens.
George Cox - LB - 64 appearances, mainly in the conference, was in the club when we had a surplus of LB's so he never managed to make it.
Daniel Lowey - LB - 34 appearances and largely suffers the same fate as Cox. A good defensive option for someone to pick up.
Luke Gambin - AML - 33 appearances in league 2, he was a bit of panic buy who showed early signs of promise but not very consistent in the long run so he lost his place and ultimately his contract.
Dion McGhee - AML - a great player when we were down in the conference, 13 goals in 81 (20 assists) - he was out on loan at Sutton and won the Conference so I'm sure he will have no trouble getting a new team.
Manasse Mampala - ST 12 goals from 44 - when he joined I expected him to do better than Moore, but he just didnt. Went out to Fylde and got 8 in 20 (along with a broken leg) so he will be released and not sure if he will have much of a future?
Jack Hunter - DM - 55 appearances, League 1 is probably just beyond his ability, so I am sure he will drop to the Conference with an AI team but can also do a job in L2 so fingers crossed for him



Interestingly our stadium was 93% full this year - I kind of hope this means an expansion is on the horizon but I dread the cashflow issues that may follow!

 

I dont think any more interesting news items are going to pop up so - next up will be the wheeliing and dealing
 

[profii]

Pre-season 24/25 and Signings

As ever, I dont even care about the pre-season friendlies, it's purely a fitness exercise so I'm pleased the ass-man rotates the team in this years version. He didnt do a great job last year though so we are about to find out if he has improved

More importantly, the transfers!

I was after Dronfield last year, so when my staff told me he was transfer listed, I jumped right in. That should be good.
I tried to sign Long, but he went to Derby, luckily, I nabbed him on loan anyway!
Wiggett will be a reserve mostly, but a decent quality defender none the less
Sotona and Mengi from Utd - I've broken the wage budget to bring in some massive quality here, hopefully it pays off.
Dean Lye, annoyingly this proves you dont need to break the wage budget every time, a great centre mid.
Matt Butcher seems to have good attributes but no previous experience in the Championship. I figured, given I have Glendon and the coaches think he is a conference player, it can't hurt to  bring in extra midfielders!
Knowles is a replacement for Rob Swift, sadly, every man and his dog made an offer for Swift, so we lost out to Newcastle and I had to look elsewhere.
Chandler, we know and love so welcome him back
Brandon Cooper - an interesting looking centre half prospect.

I am probably a bit overloaded in DC/CM positions - at least I can go 5-3-2 if I start getting battered I guess!

edit: seeing as that's the signings done and the bank balance is nearly at £3mil which is the highest it's ever been, I thought I'd try and expand the stadium... we mustn't own it as the choices are buy or build....... and..... the board agree with looking into a build!!! Boom!!!

Edited December 20, 2019 by profii

[profii]

August 2024

And we're off! A decent start, 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss

We got pumped by Watford, but i think that will be the story this year when we face the ex prem teams.

We should have beat Birmingham, but they nabbed a last second equaliser. Even though we had an easy start with Burton, I let the reserves take care of the cup and we lost - we can focus on the league until next year which hopefully should help.

That leaves us in a good position, next we have an international break...where we aren't expected to play anyway, what is this madness

[profii]

September 2024

The shortest month we have had for years. 3 games due to internationals.

I was pretty mad with the Barnsley result - we lost the lead twice. The Bristol keeper was man of the match which probably stopped us and the Rotherham result was glorious if not unexpected - infact I played the game and we were winning 2-1 in the 92nd minute and my battery ran out so I had to replay it. The replay was similarly close but the last goal was a keeper mistake where the striker pressed and scored.

So in the end, we retain a decent position

[profii]

October 2024

Now this was a strange set of results

I would have been happy with beating QPR and putting up a good show against Brentford, seeing as we beat them last year(?) in the cup.
Somehow, we win 3 games against teams all loitering around the play off places. I even switched from counter to press again as it seemed to work better.
 

I was desperate to beat QPR as they are playing Simon Murray, who I still regret selling but they absolutely trounced us somehow, I switched back to counter which stemmed the flow, but too little too late.

Luckily, we have done enough to stay in a great position - over half way to Championship safety!