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dafuge

By dafuge,
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments

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darren1983

darren1983

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My defence is the same as the last 2 years but they are doing much better. They have improved a lot (from 2 to 3.5 stars) but i also changed the midfielders duties to tighten up so the goals have dropped as well.

Hmm, might be worth me looking at, we might be a tad too open there.

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Wlv

Wlv

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2015/16 - Witton Albion Season Report

| League Table | Home | Away |

| FA Trophy | FA Cup |

Key Players

Andeele Martins - (AML) - Our top performer in terms of ratings and goals. Also broke to the Conference North goal record with 38 goals. We signed him for a free at the start of the season. Bit of an odd one, he was at Manchester Utd about 11 years ago and hasn't been at a club since?

Danny Andrews - (AMR) - Having Andeele and Danny on the wings blew away most teams. Unfortunately I don't think Danny will do as well in the Conference, he's quite a slow player.

Jake Moult - (CM) - I had him playing in a supporting midfield role. Plenty of assists and generally a good performer.

One for the Future

Jamie Pennie - (DM) - Our Anchor man put in a solid season - considering players of this elk rarely get a good rating, I was very happy with how he played. Our coaches think he could make it to a League 1 level.

General Info

Finances - Not great and the play-offs weren't really a money spinner for me. Fortunately our board pumped in ~150K early next season to help with the day-to-day running of the club

Transfers - The usual, lots coming in and lots going out.

Manager Profile - Slight jump in stats which is nice.

Review

I set my team out to play a mild attacking game, in the mold of a 4-1-2-2-1. All started well and come October we were always in an around the playoffs. Come January our away form really slipped (Jan=Patch) so I had to cut back on our style and play a standard game vs teams we should beat and a counter game vs teams we should lose to. Whilst this got us through, it wasn't ideal so we'll need to look at fine tuning our tactics for the conference. I'd like for our midfield to get more involved too.

We were extremely lucky in the play-off semi-finals. Brackley had a player sent off in the second leg which, as you'd imagine, gave us an easy game against a stronger side. The final was pure luck - Stockport are way too good for the Conference North.

I'm happy about going up, but next season is going to be vital. We need to sign some quality players and hope that we can ride the season out and stay up. I think relegation would cause the team to go bankrupt.

History

2015/16 - Conference North - 4th (Play-Off Winners) | FA Trophy - 3rd Qual. | FA Cup - 4th Qual. | PROMOTION :)

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deadfncat

deadfncat

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Stourbridge_FC_Crest.png

Stourbridge - Vanarama Conference North - 2017/18 - Second

Some moments in Football Manager just make you want to throw your keyboard out the window. My second playoff final in as many seasons was exactly that.

We got out to an amazing start and led the game 3-0 at the half after bossing them around the pitch. I asked the guys to continue on and in the 63rd we slotted in another. The commentators were talking about how we would fair next season in the Conference premier.

Then the wheels fell off.

Four goals in 21 minutes took us into extra time where our Young keeper played the ball from the back with 3 minutes remaining and was intercepted. Game over.

I am the new Padders.

League Table

Games

Finances - Suprisingly doing really well. Wage budget is still pretty crap though

FA Cup - Outclassed by York City in the First round

FA Trophy - Fantastic run to the final and I thought we fought really well

Squad - Need to shore up our defence and cut the weak players out

Key Player Profiles

Jordan Jivanda - Quality young back with an injury hampered season

Player of the Season

James Lemon - Only real quality in the team, scoring goals for fun

Youth Players

nil

Career Overview

Season       Team                       Country                  League                 League Finish             Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016/17       Stourbridge               England            Vanarama Conference North         5th                  Playoff Final Loss
2017/18       Stourbridge               England            Vanarama Conference North         2nd                  Playoff Final Loss

Next Season

First place

Increase our defence

Consistancy

Facility News

nil

Major Competition Winners

Vanarama Conference North - Hednesford, Leamington

FA Cup -Man City

FA Trophy - Barnet, Stourbridge Runner Up

English Premier League -Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Swansea

Championship - Sunderland, Brentford, Norwich

Champions League - Man City

Euro - Inter

Hyundai A-League - WSW/WSW

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Mooping

Mooping

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Mooping's Dulwich Hamlet 2019/20

Season in review:

We turned professional in the summer and the scouting range was upgraded to UK&I, which opened up the player pool significantly. With the finances in good shape I was able to bring in several players that improved the quality of my squad quite significantly. With these moves made, my expectations went from hoping for promotion to demanding it. We were very consistent throughout the season, but unfortunately we were not quite as strong as Wrexham, who ran away with the Vanarama Conference title and had to settle for the play-offs again. With the latest patch, goal scoring was tuned down through the league season, but the play-offs were a different affair as we beat Stockport 7-5 on aggregate in the semi-final. We drew AFC Wimbledon in the final and were trailing 4-2 entering the 83rd minute. We pulled one goal back before dramatically equalising in the 93rd minute and then went on to take the lead in extra time, winning 5-4!! On the third try of asking we finally won the play-off final.

Key players were CB Callum Connolly who was a rock in the heart of our defense and is probably our best player, and striker Cillian Connor.

Squad

League Table

Competitions

Finances - Finances again boosted massively by the play-off final appearance.

Career Overview

Season    League                     Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South  1st         [b]Champions[/b]
2016/17   Vanarama Conference        16th
2017/18   Vanarama Conference        3rd         Lost in Play-Off Final
2018/19   Vanarama Conference        5th         Lost in Play-Off Final
2019/20   Vanarama Conference        5th         [b]Promoted via Play-Off[/b]

Next Season:

Survival.

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XaW

XaW

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XaW - Cambridge City - Vanarama Conference North - 2016/17

Allright, another season done and not much improvement. The patch hit about halfway into the season and ended some of my troubles and gave me a bunch of new ones. After the patch hit we went on a 7 match winless streak. We managed to get our bearings towards the end, but still a rather disappointing season for us. I had higher hopes than another season in obscurity, but it was not to be. However, I do know what the problem is; our defense. Most of the defensive players just aren't good enough. This summer we are holding a major cleaning and I think most of my defenders are going to look for new a new employer.

In the FA Cup we got past Whitby, St. Neots and Alfreton before losing heavily to Portsmouth in the 1st round. In the FA Trophy we lost in the first match against Bradford PA in the 3rd qualifying round north.

The highlights of the players this season have been Terry Reed, who scored quite a bit, Josh Dawkin who once again did great on the wing and our topscorer Danny Kelly.

We do also have some promising talents now. 15 year old Thomas Price are one of the best defender we have and are already in the first 11. Other talents include Arran Bloomfield and Michael Murphy.

Financially we are losing money, but the away match against Portsmouth helped out big time.

Season	|     League	      |     Position	|    Europe	|    Top scorer   	|    Achievments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16	|  Conference North   |	     13th	|      N/A	|  Danny Kelly (25)	|   Mid-table
2016/17 |  Conference North   |      14th       |      N/A      |  Danny Kelly (30)     |   Mid-table

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Superowl90

Superowl90

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Just a quick update on my current FC United save. Had a great start to the year but injuries took their toll on my relatively small squad. I'm now anchored in mid-table obscurity. Thinking about waiting till friday and having a real hard crack at it with the release of the full game!!!

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Jean0987654321

Jean0987654321

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Just a quick update on my current FC United save. Had a great start to the year but injuries took their toll on my relatively small squad. I'm now anchored in mid-table obscurity. Thinking about waiting till friday and having a real hard crack at it with the release of the full game!!!
Small squad?? Should've packed up like I did. My team is basically ManU/C reject city :D
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Moriean

Moriean

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Posted

BlythSpartans.png

Blyth Spartans - Vanarama Conference North - 2015/16 (10th) & 2016/2017 (5th)

After a long tradition on anonymously participating in this challenge, I will be posting my progress on the challenge this year. In the past editions of Football Manager, I always gave this challenge a shot, however never went all the way. However, now that everyone is reading along, I may have just that extra bit of motivation to finish this challenge. After a first season of survival, with very little interesting going on, the 2017/2018 season was something special.

League Table

During the entire season, I had good runs in both cups, which caused me to under-perform in the league. I took me until the final match-day to move into the play-off places, after a very strong run in spring. (In January, Blyth was 14th) Unfortunately I lost the first round of the play-offs due to a bad return leg. After 57 minutes I was forced to continue the game with 10 players, after 4(!) injuries on my side.

Finances

Financially Blyth Spartans is doing amazing, thanks to a solid cup run and a very prudent chairman. Although I have earned Blyth Spartans a ton of cash, he won't let me touch it. Nor does he invest in any facility upgrades. I hope he'll turn around soon. The solid position is also due to a strong sponsoring income, with multiple contracts. Some of those end relatively soon and I am skeptical about their renewal. To top it all off, our chairman decided to sell my star striker without consulting his manager.

In June 2017, the chairman did give me a massive 62.5K transfer budget, so I might be able to get some capital on the field.

FA Cup - Made it to the 2nd round, with a lot of luck. Exeter turned out to be too strong. Due to conflicts with the FA Trophy and the League, this was a very exhausting run for my players. Especially considering the return matches and extra time.

FA Trophy - A miracle! The first ever FA Trophy in the history of Blyth Spartans. The fans are already considering a statue for Moriean!

This was a very special campaign, with an insane dose of luck. It did not only do well for us financially but hopefully will also affect our status, allowing us to sign better players. Even with all the money in the world, if the players don't like us, we can't sign them.

Squad

I started the season with a relatively young squad, with some experienced players. As the season progressed, my youngsters broke through into the first team. For the final games of the season, my oldest starter was often 23. The average age of the squad was 20. That is not considering it was mostly the older gentleman sitting on the bench! I am hoping to sign most of them for another year. If this squad keeps developing, I should be able to do great things next year!

Key Player Profiles

John Norris - My new star AMC. I hope he develops well

Antony Faulker - CB. No striker likes to play against this little kid

Nathan McAteer - CM. Decent.

Player of the Season

George Haile - This youngster really came through for me after the sale of my other striker. Without him, no Trophy, no playoffs.

Youth Players

My youth setup is surprisingly empty. All of the talent is in the first team already.

Career Overview

Season       Team                       Country                  League                 League Finish             Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2015/16       Blyth Spartans              England            Vanarama Conference North         10th                Survival
2016/17       Blyth Spartans              England            Vanarama Conference North         5th                 FA Trophy

Next Season Goal

Promotion

Facility News

No upgrades. My chairman prefers to keep the money in the bank

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heyhowie

heyhowie

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Anyone have any advice for scouting and finding decent players? I cant seem to find anyone decent via scouting. The only success I've had has been through offering about 15 trials out. Also, in regards to tactics, what formations/ roles are people having success with? I was 7th after 28 games with blyth in the first season, but after the patch I lost 11 of the last 14 games and came close to relegation. Any help would be appreciated, cheers!

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Jean0987654321

Jean0987654321

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Anyone have any advice for scouting and finding decent players? I cant seem to find anyone decent via scouting. The only success I've had has been through offering about 15 trials out. Also, in regards to tactics, what formations/ roles are people having success with? I was 7th after 28 games with blyth in the first season, but after the patch I lost 11 of the last 14 games and came close to relegation. Any help would be appreciated, cheers!
Player trials is the way to go, mate. Check the big teams transfer history/youth. If they got anyone released, offer them a trial. Cannot rely on scouting with LLM. :)
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heyhowie

heyhowie

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Player trials is the way to go, mate. Check the big teams transfer history/youth. If they got anyone released, offer them a trial. Cannot rely on scouting with LLM. :)

Yea sweet. Although i'm struggling to even attract ex-youth from league 2, let alone the EPL. Does offering trials impact the clubs finances at all like scouting?

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XaW

XaW

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well done on the new stats..what are your hopes for your team next season?

Thanks! Though I have no idea why i suddenly have a much higher mental coaching than the rest of the stats...?

I'm hoping we can push for the playoffs this season. I've gotten in some much better defenders and a couple of other quality players so that might give us the skill we need to progress. But, anything can happen! :)

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Wlv

Wlv

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Thanks! Though I have no idea why i suddenly have a much higher mental coaching than the rest of the stats...?I'm hoping we can push for the playoffs this season. I've gotten in some much better defenders and a couple of other quality players so that might give us the skill we need to progress. But, anything can happen! :)
Those stats increase overtime irrespective of bagdes
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XaW

XaW

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Those stats increase overtime irrespective of bagdes

I do think badges increase everything, because just before I got the badge all of my skills were at least 2-3 stats lower...

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Bartrcm

Bartrcm

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Has everyone the same problem of finding decent players?

It seems almost impossible to find 3* and better players for my Hendon team. And if I find a 3* player he doesn't want to talk, or sign for me. Very frustrating. Last year I didn't had this problem with LLM.

I have 16 players at the moment and only 9 are good enough I think. Going to be a long and hard relegation fight.

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XaW

XaW

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XaW - sorry, I meant they increase naturally, however badges bump them up even higher. My mental attributes have gone up by about 5 without doing any badges.

Yeah, I thought it was somewhat like that. Just thought you meant that badges doesn't do anything, and that didn't seem like what I had experienced. My stats have also increased before I got the badge, but it seemed to have bumped all stats. Still don't quite understand why my mental coaching is ahead of the rest of the stats though, but I'm not complaining.

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Wlv

Wlv

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Has everyone the same problem of finding decent players?It seems almost impossible to find 3* and better players for my Hendon team. And if I find a 3* player he doesn't want to talk, or sign for me. Very frustrating. Last year I didn't had this problem with LLM.I have 16 players at the moment and only 9 are good enough I think. Going to be a long and hard relegation fight.
I haven't had an issue as extreme as that however it takes an awful long time to find the right player which I think is a good thing.I'm scouting constantly, either the nation or any free transfers. Gone are they days of recruiting a perfect team in a small time period.
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deadfncat

deadfncat

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Has everyone the same problem of finding decent players?

It seems almost impossible to find 3* and better players for my Hendon team. And if I find a 3* player he doesn't want to talk, or sign for me. Very frustrating. Last year I didn't had this problem with LLM.

I have 16 players at the moment and only 9 are good enough I think. Going to be a long and hard relegation fight.

Try looking for players who have good key attributes for their position rather than just their star rating. Well rounded players can come later

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EvertonblokesMobile

EvertonblokesMobile

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Evertonblokes Billericay 15/16 Season

Im not one for big updates so will keep this brief.

I finished my first season a couple of days ago, and haven't had a chance to update my progress.

The league went well, in my opinion anyway, with a 13th place finish. We started strong, after about 10 games were in the play off spots which gave me hope of going straight up at the first time of asking. Sadly this wasn't to last and a 6 game losing streak dragged us right back down the table. After that we were pretty steady until the close of the season.

Managed to finish the cups very quickly, so no valuable cup run, but less games to play so silver lining there!

Money is a problem, we have gone well into the red. I think this could be due to me trying to pay my players with appearance bonuses rather than basic wage (which doesn't work by the way!)

Tactically, for some reason I had Mike Bassets advice ringing in my ears so created a traditional four four fu**ing two. Its working well and I rotate the mentality between Attacking, Counter, and Defensive depending on who we are playing.

Scouting is a nightmare, I love it! So much more realistic. This has led me to resorting to offering mass trials to players when I need a position covered.

Summary:

15/16 - Conf South - 13th.

Next season targets:

Sort out declining finances before the dreaded admin strikes

Reach play-offs

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Bartrcm

Bartrcm

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Try looking for players who have good key attributes for their position rather than just their star rating. Well rounded players can come later

Thanks for the info. Will try this when I get home from work.

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yugo23

yugo23

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Ashton United - Vanarama Conference North - 2017/18

ashtonunitedfc.png

After I got promoted with Hereford in the first season I was surprised to learn that board would accept nothing less than playoff spot. I started with mixed results, was a bit below mid table, but both the board and the players were mad because of underachievement. Two consecutive wins in mid October didn't help, and I was sacked. I waited till the end of season to see which clubs will be promoted, and two of them were without manager - Worcester and Ashton. Ashton were smaller of the two, and somehow I ended choosing them, even though both clubs wanted me.

League Table - Season started very well, with 3 wins out of 4 matches. Towards the end we slowly declined, but three wins in last three games meant we finished 15th. Not bad at all.

Squad - Balanced overall, but we need better players to push for the playoff.

FA Trophy - Early exit.

FA Cup - Also early exit.

Transfers - The usual free transfer story.

Finances - In decline, I need to start making profit.

Key Player Profiles:

Ben McKenna - Had great impact with 26 assists. For some reason, board are not happy with his performances.

Ben Wagstaff - Top striker, was very reliable.

Steven Kinsella - Quite good AML, had very nice contribution.

Career Overview 

Season   Position   League            Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16  2nd        Vanarama North     Promotion
2016/17  Sacked    Vanarama Conference   
2017/18  15th       Vanarama North

Next Season

I need to build from here, and silently hope for playoff spot. Squad thought that mid table finish was unrealistic at the end season meeting.

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G_D_K

G_D_K

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Do people find they are relying more on their scouts finding players than the player search section now? Im finding it really hard to judge the players stats now that they are between the different numbers.

I've always run this challenge only relying on scouts...much more interesting, perhaps a bit more realistic...and to me a lot more fun :)

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Vipertitan

Vipertitan

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175px-MargateFC_zpsdb93ba83.png

Club Profile - Semi professional team with high ambitions.

General Info - Local Derby's with Dover and Ramsgate should be interesting will be looking to beat these in my save as much as i can.

Squad - we seem to an average squad by the look of things hopefully i can add to this.

Finances - look ok at this time but i will no doubt make it worse.

Manager Profile - i set my self to the lowest possible as i want to work my way up with Margate. i have gone for new 4 5 1 formation witch i will use in the League and maybe change it in cups.

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Vipertitan

Vipertitan

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Margate - Vanarama Conference South - 2015/16

This was my first season in charge i was expecting a safe mid table finish this season

League Table

Past Positions - I was happy with the way the squad got there heads down and managed to get promotion first time asking.

FA Cup- we reached the forth qualifying round and got beat by Bristol Rovers in a replay 3-2.

FA Trophy - A decent run in this was ended by Altrincham 3 2.

Transfers - a made few signings this season they did well.

Squad1

Squad2- it took a while for the squad to get used to the way i wanted them to play but the seamed to enjoy the way i wanted to play.

Finances - I went over my wage budget a bit and we are in the red by £347K.

Key Player Profiles:

Daniel Sparkes - top scorer this season he was just a brilliant.

Nikki Bull - he was my first choice goalkeeper the only decent one i had.

Mark Overton -decent season from the 17 year old looking forward to seeing his development.

Sam Rents - probably our best player in the midfield his crossing and passing was class.

Alli Abdullahi - our def midfielder and he was quality all threw out the season.

Career Overview

Season    League                     Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South  3rd     play off winners

Next Season

next season is all about avoiding relegation and managing the clubs finances a bit better than i have been.

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darren1983

darren1983

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Posted

Urgh, been without a laptop since 9pm Tuesday, was playing FM when the laptop froze and my hard drive stopped working, tried everything I could Tuesday night but the hard drive was dead, had an engineer come out on put in a new one today, the flips side of which is that I've lost all my data (including a uni assignment due next week :() and my Dulwich save (as well as all my graphics) :(

Am redownloading all my graphic packs now and will restart the game (and this save) tonight/tomorrow - words can't even describe how pissed off I am :mad:

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Dons

Dons

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Skelmersdale United

Season Summary 19/20

Vanarama Conference

Final Position 1st

A season where the defense finally decided to work together. We "only" let 1 goal in on average and almost scored 2 per game. Stayed true to the tactics from previous seasons and going defense/counter vs strong opponents and attacking vs lesser. Only signed a few players, where most were defenders and let quite a few go. We were pretty much top of the chart all season and with 6 games to go, we only needed 7 points to secure the title.

The cup runs was all in all quite good. Had a lucky away draw in 3rd FA visiting Swansea. Despite a 4-0 loss, we had a beer at the pub and good smiles at the 150k that put into the bank. The FAT, we excited in the 4th round, which was quite disappointing as we lost to the now relegated Alfreton.

Bought 1 attacker that I hope can be really good for us, the rest on the list are defenders, purely because they had a really great season.

Nathan Ricket-Hopkinson - SC - Purchased from FC United for pretty much our entire transfer budget. 33.5k, but am sure it will be a good investment.

Gregg Pearson - DC -

Reece Clark - DC -

Kenny Strickland - DR - Our captain, but I think he is close to his limit now.

Scott Duxbury - DL

Adam Dixon - DM - My high hope future to be star.

Looking forward to see which players to give pro contracts, as well as being able to sign alot better players. Board increased coaches by 3, from going pro - The training program for next season also looks promising. Board has cancelled the youth improvements twice now. This I find quite frustrating!

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
15/16	Van N	11th	None	None	3d.Qual	None	None	3rd Rnd	None
16/17	Van N	1st	None	None	1st Rnd	None	None	4th Rnd	Promoted!
17/18	Conf	18th	None	None	1st Rnd	None	None	1st Rnd	Survived!
18/19	Conf	9th	None	None	2nd Rnd	None	None	1st Rnd None
19/20	Conf	1st	None	None	3rd Rnd	None	None	4th Rnd	Promoted

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