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[FM20] Bringing Her Home


Earnie is God!
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We go top for the first time shortly after my last post 20200502011846_1.thumb.jpg.32db5c459fa3f6d1d73c1f9b85a85ca8.jpg and it wasn't the only good news 20200502020315_1a.thumb.jpg.dfd82f708d2fd76e58febbff3a2da449.jpg

Slough were also finding form again and it becomes a 3-horse race
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Our away form this season has been poor though and may still cost us in the run-in
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In what could be a title decider, we then played the Bulls in the snow and ice

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But ran out 4-1 winners 😁

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7 games to go and Hornchurch are making a late surge 20200503070140_1.thumb.jpg.069c49147643485d883e4ba770f4c1be.jpg It's going to be a tense finale.

 

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1-0 up at Rugby and then Killjoy (I mean Kilday) decides to pass back to our 'keeper

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Yeah, so that happened.
Thankfully, our man mountain at the back, Chris Burgess, popped up at a corner to head home his 14th goal of the season 😁

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Just 1pt from 3 games to seal the title then, our 4th straight promotion

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FA Trophy QF and we play Woking who we beat in the Semis last season. Predicted to be a tight affair...
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We draw 3-3 after being 3-1 down and take it to a replay at their place. In a tense match, it finishes all square yet again and goes to penalties.
The first 10 are all tucked away and on to sudden death.

They make it 6-5 20200503215229_1a.thumb.jpg.0cfafe02164a63c774732e2a5c18c096.jpg and Killjoy has to score...

20200503215229_1.thumb.jpg.58209f02a81dc0fbc34ed6f1f4ca4ff7.jpg He does and it's 6-6 20200503215234_1.jpg.402ddb00c2c1ae7fe093134ca1bd3675.jpg

They score to go 7-6 up and the pressure is on my RB

20200503215319_1.jpg.602c0a8ac432096c5bc623231b8e0728.jpg but he drags us back into it again 20200503215323_1.thumb.jpg.7f6c887a42a82e0720582d9aa3d3519b.jpg

14 penalties taken, all of them scored but then our GK saves one!

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And so it's all on young ex-Liverpool midfielder Dixon-Bonner to send us through

20200503215407_1.thumb.jpg.0fd22705e8aced326e89eab0222461ce.jpg Up he steps... and he's off celebrating before it's even hit the back of the net, the cheeky Scouser! 20200503215409_1.jpg.3dafec3fae0f44480f850838f6b659ad.jpg

Closely followed by his teammates

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Into the semis where we will have a two-legged tie against Chesterfield. They are far too good really but we'll give it a go
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Two games to go in the league and we are 5pts clear so, due to our superior goal difference, we just need a draw at already relegated Royston.

Just three minutes in and we are down to 10 men, my backup CB - in for suspended captain Burgess - elbowing a striker in the head 😡

0-0 at HT, that'd do!

Even better when we take the lead shortly after.
With 5min to go, our fans are celebrating in the stands. Seemingly, the players are too as they think it's all over.
My RB then gets his 2nd booking of the game and we are down to 9 men 🙄
Rubbish Royston equalise in the 89th minute and we are now holding on.

Thankfully, that's how it ends and we are champions

20200503223933_1.thumb.jpg.4ae10df5895293a00b5d868a39fe3eba.jpg As it happens, Jersey Bulls lost their Balls and all 3pts in their game 20200503224406_1.thumb.jpg.dcc9a2e99eebda8ef39d4f741671b600.jpg

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And that's a healthy budget for next season!
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Here's the SF 1st leg

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They caught us out three times but partly my own fault for pushing for the win.
We had nothing to lose going to their place for the return fixture and needed a fast start.

That's exactly what we got, so fast that the cameraman missed it 🤨😉

Sam Ackroyd scored his 30th goal of the season to give us a glimpse and after 14min he doubled his tally and brought us back to within one.
On the half hour mark, he had the chance of a hattrick from the penalty spot and made no mistake

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30min gone and this crazy tie was now level at 3-3; that's how it remained til HT 20200504022051_1.thumb.jpg.8dc789702343eac442e7d8162fb68ac9.jpg

We battled on in the 2nd half, searching for the winner that would mean avoiding extra time but we just couldn't break them down.

Then, with 10min left, heartbreak

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Try as we might, we couldn't get another but a spirited performance against a far superior opponent nonetheless

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Season 2022/23 Review

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And some news for next season...

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Which is great, hopefully get bumper crowds for cup games.

Although, as it's a groundshare with Matlock Town, we'll have to somehow deal with a square pitch as we won't be allowed to change it

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Something to think about for next season anyway.

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@LeedsUnitedLad thanks.

From what I can see, the Dronfield Town squad was correct but no real idea on the others. I mean I'm not a non league guru so how would I know? 🤪
I would guess they were correct though, yes.

If you check out Jack's Work The Space video in the OP, he has the link for the tier 10 database. If you are going to do something similar, I'd also recommend copying his advice about only having England as a playable league(s) as well as the Bulgarian top division to give you that early start date (plenty of time to look for a job, etc). What he does later on in his save as he promotes up the leagues is to then remove the divisions he's promoted out of (via add/remove playable leagues in preferences). If you don't do that, the game could slow down quite a bit with all the newgens being added to the db year on year. I think my save started with around 40,000 players but it soon ballooned up to 70k+ after a couple of seasons so it was important for me to remove those lower leagues. [edit: just re-read your post and realised you probably know what you are doing, don't need advice from me!]

I'm about to start season 5 and the board yet again expect promotion from the Vanarama South (tier 6). It was much tougher this past season and I suspect it'll be tougher still for the next one.
highly enjoyable though!

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A bit of a game changer here, it looks like we are now allowed to offer part time contracts to our players rather than the non-contract pay-as-you-play deals that have seen us lose many a fine player through poaching.
So not only a 'new' 5,500 capacity stadium but player contracts too. This may take me a while to sort out. £8k wage budget, currently spending £5k of it in appearance money. I have to be careful I don't give it all away 😝

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Interesting. My backup GK has been on this... 20200504154013_1.thumb.jpg.ac1b481452d924ca020e0970fb8cd8a9.jpg (the high unused sub fee is almost meaningless as I don't keep a GK on the bench except for 7-sub cup game)

and has now accepted this... 20200504153950_1.thumb.jpg.2c829eca397edb577f9b9b17eb49d006.jpg

£20 guaranteed wage is the lowest we can offer a senior player but for him to accept that with just a £110 app fee is a bonus, and it's a 2yr deal starting next April so we have him tied down for 3yrs.
Fingers crossed I can do the same with most of the others.

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So Long Dion - My Heart Will Go On

I'd just like to say I hate player agents. The scumbag representing Dion Donohue, one of my best players, wanted me to take his £400 appearance fee and turn it into a guaranteed wage of £925 plus loads of add-ons.
Most we could offer was £425 so I tried with numerous bonuses but never came close to what he was asking for 😢

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He will be sorely missed but remember...
♫Near... Far... Wherever you are, I believe that the club will go on♫

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Around the Grounds

Because I know some people will be interested, here are the final(ish) tables for the 2022/23 season

Liverpool looking for a 4th straight title...

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Playoff Finals
Brum v Watford...........................................Preston v Colchester.....................................Burton v Wrexham

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FA Cup Final

A Merseyside derby in the showpiece with Liverpool clear favourites.
They had next to no luck though and the game was 1-1 at FT.
Everton took the lead in extra time and with time running out this was the Reds' last chance...

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But it wasn't to be. Good to see that it's not just us managers who get FM'ed 20200505013546_1.thumb.jpg.67bdccf3419f8813e5922b473c8b5d3b.jpg

20200505013551_1.thumb.jpg.054be939e36df0603a716d02108f708b.jpg Everton win something for the first time in decades

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15 hours ago, Earnie is God! said:

So Long Dion - My Heart Will Go On

I'd just like to say I hate player agents. The scumbag representing Dion Donohue, one of my best players, wanted me to take his £400 appearance fee and turn it into a guaranteed wage of £925 plus loads of add-ons.
Most we could offer was £425 so I tried with numerous bonuses but never came close to what he was asking for 😢

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He will be sorely missed but remember...
♫Near... Far... Wherever you are, I believe that the club will go on♫

Hello! Is it me you're looking for?

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We got him to sign after all 😀

Just 3 players left to go, Ackroyd my top scorer from last season, McNall top scorer from the season before and my CB man mountain Burgess.
Really need them to commit or I'll be very upset

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This square pitch is really screwing me up. Results in pre-season so far: 2-2, 2-6, 4-1 😲

Dropping the d-line helped in the most recent game, going a bit more direct also makes it easier to find my strikers with balls over the top.
Hmmm, will persist and see

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We're gearing up for the start of the 2023/24 season

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Stature improving 20200505062258_1.thumb.jpg.4336a45cb24fff1e63737c94c0e278d6.jpg

Although I'm not so sure this is worth reporting 😀 20200505063042_1.thumb.jpg.edb66935c21bf228a9c271dd8fd26bc8.jpg We'll celebrate even the little things though I guess

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Expectancy is high yet again...

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Early Season and new boy Simms is so far justifying his top scorer tag
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8 in 6 league games is a great start, including a couple of hat-tricks.

Season ticket sales aren't exactly prolific 20200506004737_1.thumb.jpg.8d82b6a26a1a0e53bcfa6f39d2d22e75.jpg but I think that's gone from something like 16 > 33 > 39 > 49 > 62

 

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Transfers In

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Some major additions there, just hope they gel quickly. We should be able to hold onto almost all of them too, now they are on part time contracts so I don't expect many more signings this season.
The part time deals are very different and the board aren't particularly happy with some of the wages I've handed out.
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My mistake really and I've learned since then not to pay so much as a guaranteed wage and try and pile more into the appearance and bonus bit.

Early fixtures

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After deciding on 442 during pre-season, I ditched it last minute due to too many goals conceded and switched it up to a 451/4321 formation which is working very well so far.
1st v 2nd in our next game and this will tell me more about where we exactly are and if we do indeed have a great chance of a 5th successive title

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It's December and we are in the thick of a cup run. We finally managed to avoid Wigan in the FA Cup 1st round for the first time and ended up with Barnet instead, at home too.
Managed to get past them easily enough and we were into new territory, the 2nd round of FA Cup and just one round away from the big money.
We had to travel to AFC Wimbledon for the 2nd round. The draw could have been kinder but I guess it could have been worse too.
It certainly wasn't going to be easy as they are 3rd in League Two and have a very determined squad.

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Still, we were in great form ourselves so I was hopeful.

We took the lead by total fluke... 20200506233127_1.thumb.jpg.bfc533cf56bae656afc912e9d670c95e.jpg as the cross beat everyone and nestled into the bottom corner


20200506233142_1.thumb.jpg.152d4cdc10635c86d505e476801b2c73.jpg We then went 2-0 up after new signing, CB Ryan Reynolds*, smashed one into the top corner from fully 30yds

2-0 up at HT and cruising. But the Wombles came out biting in the 2nd half and had their own 'Goal of the round' contender.

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Yes, he really did manage to curl one in from that distance!

Just a few minutes later and our 2-goal lead was set to evaporate as they were awarded a penalty.
Thiam, still celebrating his wonder goal, stepped up to equalise...

20200506233209_1.thumb.jpg.9499d95c42e7bd71a4e20ea667680fc0.jpg Our GK saves it onto the crossbar 20200506233210_1.jpg.78bcb8cf9691462f47b4029452786e41.jpg
The ball bounces down, did it go over the line? 20200506233211_1.thumb.jpg.3e3b86e7b0673d605483c9d7a977b161.jpg

20200506233212_1.thumb.jpg.26bef6f6a1e9099c42d97225d8634d8c.jpg Apparently not and Turner pounces on the ball to prevent any rebound.

*Yes, Ryan Reynolds is his real name. Released by Cardiff (I've had him in a few of my Cardiff saves before) and I just had to sign him.
20200507001630_1.thumb.jpg.94cab27dbeb9782f5cfd7458b5d1300a.jpg although he cost a fair bit in wages and the board aren't happy 20200507001555_1.thumb.jpg.4ac9fb3844bd219f932533fd7e566e8d.jpg

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Show Me The Money!

We held on and won the game 2-1. Into the 3rd round!!!
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But who were we going to get?
I'd want an easy game at home or one of the big boys away please! 🤞
The draw did not disappoint 😲😁
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I'm praying it's a televised game.

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It Simms Like There May Be Trouble Ahead

Also plenty of interest in our 34-goal top scorer Ellis Simms and he doesn't look like he wants to stick around

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We've only been allowed by the board to offer a max of £700 a week in wages but thankfully they have recognised the importance of keeping Simms and let me offer this as a maximum

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He accepted but that's a lot of wonga to give away. I'm not as daft as I look though and the contract doesn't start until the end of his current one so he'll be around next season too.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't accept a longer contract but I'll deal with that next season

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Take Me To The Bridge

The day is here and we are off to London to take on Chelsea in the FA Cup 3rd round.
After much thought and preparation, including playing a fully rotated side in the league where we had two games in three days (and subsequently lost 3-2 at home to relegation threatened Barrow), I'd decided on my line-up.

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The odds were stacked against us but we'd give it our best.

20200507025426_1.thumb.jpg.ef27c74225b7e1226dbe1fa160a965ab.jpg Good to see my AssMan full of beans 20200507025437_1.thumb.jpg.093a513ab6a77f2e776516b8ddb333ce.jpg

Chelsea have a very youthful line-up, this gives me hope!

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Until I actually look at some of their kids...

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Jeepers, that's some CB pairing! To go along with some more familiar faces

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Nervous tension as the game is about to start but the boys react well to my rallying speech. If we can hold on and somehow nick a goal, who knows what might happen?
30min gone and it's still 0-0. They are all over us but we are holding firm, until my CB trips up Mason Mount in the area.
The young Chelsea starlet dusts himself off and steps up for the penalty...

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20200507030810_1.thumb.jpg.3f7276df6487804040ab2ef02a0ea6fb.jpgHe buries it in the bottom corner, leaving my 'keeper eating grass 20200507030811_1.thumb.jpg.91ccd1f3f76dbbf25564fa2a5a1c3bb3.jpg

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I try to encourage the players at HT and the 2nd half starts promisingly...

20200507031041_1.thumb.jpg.5f7bd981a722bd10e37988db79175f3c.jpg with my top scorer racing away from the defence, but can he get in the box and finish?

Get in the box, yes. Finish, no. He hit it straight at the GK 😒 20200507031043_1.thumb.jpg.a4af877f712f761787c6000df3a534b7.jpg

We were battling but just didn't have the quality. Just after the hour mark, they break on us...

20200507031234_1.thumb.jpg.83761f0f543d813baec00910ca019a6f.jpg He puts a cross in for Correa 20200507031236_1.thumb.jpg.a840c31ef87ecba5a2503107e3e4849a.jpg
Who makes no mistake. 2-0

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With 10min to go, I decide we have absolutely nothing to lose and really go for it.
We have a chance down the left...

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But Reynolds is robbed of the ball and before we know it we are in trouble once more

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Young winger Joe Haigh makes it 3-0. We played out the last 10min with next to nothing happening; truth is it was all over at 2-0

20200507031738_1.thumb.jpg.313841e252f903d5338cf09aa86d09e4.jpg Proud of the boys though, they did pretty well considering 20200507032059_1.thumb.jpg.904af623dd6a1f20a4ffa9938bb08ce1.jpg

Prize money isn't a great deal for losing but still very welcome

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We took 898 fans to London and they had 32,000 home fans turn up, pretty decent when you think they are playing a non league side like ours

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So how much did we get in gate receipts? I was pleasantly surprised 😀 20200507032403_1.thumb.jpg.546ad3628e33d7254bea7d6d4b65d3d6.jpg
20200507032149_1.thumb.jpg.72d7add84b9475838756d2c6289fa73b.jpg £750k? Whoop! Although the taxman took his cut 😒 20200507032255_1.thumb.jpg.e58ab1e5e1600b92f56a9a06c8670985.jpg
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Still, £600k net and I've put it to good use already

 

 

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20200507012113_1.thumb.jpg.617cbbde5b80747bbda7c38a957a1ee8.jpg £650k cost but it'll do us good in the long run.

And we need it as this was our latest Youth Intake Preview last month 20200507012645_1.thumb.jpg.6029f5cce6e9fc680c922cded1c6ff5e.jpg

Got to be the worst I've ever seen but I suppose it's to be expected as we've had 4 successive promotions and the youth facilities have not been able to keep up with the quality of player we need.
Just got to hope it gets there with time.

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4 hours ago, Earnie is God! said:

It Simms Like There May Be Trouble Ahead

Also plenty of interest in our 34-goal top scorer Ellis Simms and he doesn't look like he wants to stick around

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It's January and the vultures have been circling...

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Pffft, sod off! £2m or nothing...

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Bugger, that's Fulham with an offer there, the club he wants to join... 20200507050425_1.thumb.jpg.0c1ad5a894001ad9626e464389c0a13d.jpg

I kept negotiating for £2m or even £2.5m but their paltry offers went up to only £77k.

Then this happened... 20200507051106_1.thumb.jpg.bb05293e45c25adeccbb934926acc00c.jpg

I didn't want to sell and spoke to the chairman... 20200507051056_1.thumb.jpg.2596d1f405c9889b78945d3fb2a54e17.jpg and they negotiated for an extra £15k 🙄

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So that's Simms gone for just £99k and the squad isn't happy. I tried to talk to the main whinger but he wasn't listening

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I hate transfer windows

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47 goals in 34 games!
Ah well, no point in crying about it now. Someone else will just have to step up instead.

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During the same window, teams were trying to prise away my RB. In the end he went for more than Simms did, which is a bit daft really.

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A few days later, as if to rub it in about losing our top scorer, this popped up:

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😒🙄😒

20200507062605_1.thumb.jpg.d468a816f2320005df07a404a2e0b07d.jpg We struggled in our next few games without Simms and Wilson 20200507062611_1.thumb.jpg.ecec4fbe329f859621de29640d96c337.jpg

And our form was patchy for the remainder of the season, conceding far too many goals.
Fan favourite McNall stepped up with the goals though, as did Ackroyd and especially Bearne who has come on leaps and bounds.
Wasn't enough to see us progress in the Trophy but the league was pretty easy in the end, despite our wobble but more on that later.
Yet another ridiculous offer for one of our stars...

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18 hours ago, Earnie is God! said:

20200507012113_1.thumb.jpg.617cbbde5b80747bbda7c38a957a1ee8.jpg £650k cost but it'll do us good in the long run.

And we need it as this was our latest Youth Intake Preview last month 20200507012645_1.thumb.jpg.6029f5cce6e9fc680c922cded1c6ff5e.jpg

Got to be the worst I've ever seen but I suppose it's to be expected as we've had 4 successive promotions and the youth facilities have not been able to keep up with the quality of player we need.
Just got to hope it gets there with time.

Youth Intake wasn't quite as bad as predicted after all

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Still not great though

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Tanti, Sainrimat, Short, Steele and Hale might be decent.
I'll keep the vet too 😉

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Mambo Number Five

Fifth title in five seasons

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Dodgy form, the short pitch really doesn't help, just couldn't figure out how best to use it, but another promotion nonetheless.

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Great budget for next season! But I think I'll keep concentrating on freebies tbh, there are so many available.
So the plan is to bring in more and sell them on for profit, hopefully more than the £100k or so we've received so far.

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Still 3 games to go, I'll do a season review after that. Give me an hour 😉

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Season 2023/24 Review

Final Table
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20200508022117_1.thumb.jpg.b6ab8d0ac189f6fd0e02d34dc7bba30a.jpg Cups 20200508022124_1.thumb.jpg.70147cb94564fa6daea195a07a25299e.jpg

Oops
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Seasonal and Overall Best XI. McNall has been pushed out of the starting XI

New club Vision

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That's the first time we've not been expected to win the league, a bit of relief tbh and the pressure coming off.

I hated having to play at Matlock's ground. The short pitch meant far too many goals for both sides and we never really gained much of a momentum.
Not sure what's happening for next season yet, I suspect we may be sharing with them again as opposed to somewhere else.

However, as part of the club vision, we are building a new stadium!
No details yet and no idea where the money's coming from but that's massive news.
I just hope they are ambitious enough to build a decent sized one rather than just the minimum for stadium requirements.
I suspect they will not have the foresight to plan too far ahead though but we'll see.

 

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My favourite club struggling

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But I'm not going to apply for it. Have managed Cardiff to death and Dronfield is very different and a lot more fun.
My target is to be playing Cardiff in whatever division they are in by the end of May.

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The Summer of '69
Or 2024 but it didn't have quite the same ring to it.

This is going to be a big season, I can feel it. I reckon I will spend most of the summer months fending off interest in our top players which will infuriate me for sure.
But my plan is to not buy anyone unless it's a replacement for someone who has left.
The truth is, up until now it has been far too easy to sign players, mainly due to them all being on pay-as-you-play deals until last season when we could start offering p/t contracts.
But that means I have too many languishing in the depths of the U23s and it's time to sort it out.
Unfortunately, some of them are fan favourites, who have been with us since season one, but they should really go.

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For two years now, I've secretly been hoping that Anderson retires but he's still not announced it 🙄😁
And how McNall still performs and scores plenty with just 7 in finishing I'll never know.

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1 hour ago, Earnie is God! said:

For two years now, I've secretly been hoping that Anderson retires but he's still not announced it 🙄😁

Perhaps he's signed up to this forum 👀

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Just a day's notice too

20200508170739_1.thumb.jpg.374b9d16b5180a5306694e90e88a72fa.jpg did exceptionally well considering his limited skill 20200508170931_1.thumb.jpg.1cdcd3f5ad3ece281b64b852b211e83f.jpg

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I'm not sure what shocks me most.

This... 20200508175544_1.thumb.jpg.7c42b610a35d36a86b0bf335eb189f05.jpg20200508175552_1.thumb.jpg.2e4bdb100c0ae0fcc1a7379d35290e93.jpg

or this... 20200508175655_1.thumb.jpg.e45024fe5dab5c74684c284660f36b32.jpg

Man U releasing Greenwood is a major surprise and it's not as if he's got a transfer elsewhere.

But where the heck did our new wage budget come from??!!

I may go shopping after all :)

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So far resisted the temptation to sign new players. Tbh, I looked at a few and, according to my scouts, they all wanted too much in wages. Perhaps the jump up to the Vanarama National League i bigger than I thought.

Having said that, the bookies make us favourites for the title, with FCUM fairly close behind, a reversal of the predictions of last season. Plenty of other really good sides to compete against too and I'm happy the board only wanted a top half finish.

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We're definitely at the same shared square ground this season :(

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Board happy with me so far and we are building a decent squad with plenty of great characters.

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Pre-season has been up and down. We seem to create chances aplenty but struggle to stick them away.

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