The Official AFC Crewe – Journey up the Track Challenge

[antonyjguyan]

Season 15

After a short break and coming back only to find my save was corrupted was really a blow to the family jewels! Especially after 14 seasons and going pretty well in season 15. I think I was sitting in 4th after 17 games and was hopeful of maintaining that only to find the file was corrupted. I really considered just ending the save there and then and just didn’t have the stomach starting all over again and wait till FM25 for the new AFC Crewe challenge. Thankfully I have rolling saves on and after a brief time thinking about it I went through the rolling saves. Sadly almost all were buggered as well and I got to the last one with a heavy heart but it loaded with no problem! It was like Christmas!!! The bad news was it was back in Season 14 with 12 games left to play! After some more deliberating I continued that save and thankfully I finished almost indentical to the one I had already finished! So finally onto Season 15 & it couldn’t have been any more different than what I had already started before it corrupted! The season was a huge struggle despite having a decent team and considered to be good enough for a mid table finish! Spent all season fighting relegation and it looked on the cards at one point being 6 points away from safety having played more games! But got a nice little run together with one defeat in 9 games but we then began to find consistency a little hard to come by but managed to grab 5 wins in 14 games to keep us above the dreaded drop zone. Thankfully we secured safety in the penultimate game not for the want of trying but more to do with others not winning as we drew two & lost two of our last 4 games. I can it see being a massive struggle in this league until the board to make us professional. Being part time is part of the problem as we continually lose out in signings or being flat out rejected due to them wanting a full time contract. Until we turn fully professional we won’t make any progress in this league unless I find some good signings and manage to get them to sign! Talking of signings there will be definitely some goings as a few signings just haven’t worked and they continuously dropped 6.1’s, 6.2’s! Even when played in their favoured roles! They also could never pair well with anyone and I could never get a good understanding with them never getting those lovely green lines and only getting the horrible broken orange lines which indicate they don’t play well together! I only persevered cos I have a small squad! Nothing to write home about in both cup competitions going out at the first hurdle in the FA Cup & only getting through to the third round in the FA Trophy.

Also had yet another takeover, the fourth in about 3 years!

Edited June 10 by antonyjguyan

[aldiyaz]

Treble Winner!

Previous = 195 points
NPP = 60 points
Integro = 5 points
FA Trophy = 20 points

Total points = 280

We're going Professional with this one!!!

[antonyjguyan]

Season 16

We were predicted to finish bottom and it was looking rather ominous in the first nine games as we sat in the relegation zone. But a change of tactics changed things around. I thought if we’re gonna go down may as well do it in style so I went with an aggressive attacking tactic. It worked and we shot up the league and by the new year we were knocking on the door of the play-offs. The tactic was certainly entertaining and we scored lots but also conceded quite a few. It was a case of you score three we’ll score four! Sometimes it didn’t work against the top clubs like Solihull Moors, Hartlepool etc and they absolutely pumped us! I went with a slightly more conservative approach when facing them and when away. It helped and we sealed a 6th place finish. Absolutely chuffed with that considering we were expected to go down and the board saying fight bravely against relegation. We somehow beat Hartlepool in the first play-off game after going down to 10 men! But things just went horribly wrong in the semi against Solihull and we got absolutely pumped 6-1! Ratings wise it’s possibly one of the worse I’ve ever seen! The subs I brought on got a better rating so it doesn’t look as bad! We did finish 25 points behind them and the gap certainly showed and it was clear how much I’ve still got to do in plugging that gap! 

[ramboacdc]

I went back and started again from scratch. Back to back 4 seasons with an FA Vase on the way. Strangely I got moved out of the ground after 2 seasons and sent to some training ground, then the next season to another training ground. The chairman's solution just as we reach regionals?

 

 

£57k a month loan repayments for 25 years. 

 

 

 

 

I wasn't really trying to do this for any other challenge than to see if I could do better. I could, and then the chairman nuked the club.

[antonyjguyan]

Hope everyone is enjoying the Euros!

 

Edited July 9 by antonyjguyan

[antonyjguyan]

Season 17 sees a second consecutive 6th place finish. We only finish 9pts off the top, a poor run of form in Feb/Mar sees us fall out of contention for automatic promotion and the title out of reach. Pleased overall as I feel I'm finally making some progress in building a squad good enough to make a push for promotion, eventually! Lost at the first hurdle in the playoffs to Halifax. We were the better team until a rather dubious decision by the ref to award a penalty to Halifax. The tackle looked clean in the highlights with the ball looking to have been won fairly and cleanly. We completely collapsed after that and fell to a 3-1 defeat. Nothing to write home about concerning the cups although had a better run in the FA Trophy than I usually have getting through a few rounds where I normally fall at the first attempt!

[antonyjguyan]

Seems I'm the only one doing this challenge now but I don't mind it's something to do until that beautiful day in November when FM25 comes out. Plus I don't quit.

Anyway Season 18 finished and it’s a third consecutive 6th place finish. This time we were nowhere near challenging for the title with York, Barrow and FC United just being on another planet with all three getting 100+ points. We faired a tad better than usual in the play-offs getting to the semis-final. Despite having the most chances, hitting the woodwork three times we lost 2-1 to Barrow. We had our best season in the FA Cup reaching the First Round for the first time in the clubs history. Anyway a sixth season in the VNL North beckons.

Edited July 17 by antonyjguyan

[antonyjguyan]

Season 19

Champions! We finally did it! Never expected it having Blackpool & Morecambe in the league as well as Notts County. So it was never going to be easy and we never made it easy for ourselves. We went unbeaten for the first half of the season but found ourselves in 2nd due to far too many draws. Morecambe never really pulled away being 4pts clear at numerous points of the season. We did take top spot on a few occasions but kept drawing the week after and slipping back again. We eventually gained top spot with 4 games to go with a win & Morecambe losing giving us a 3pt cushion. But we lost the following week and Morecambe won but we stayed top cos of our superior goal difference. And that’s how it stayed for the remaining two games clinching the title on goal difference! Cups were nothing to write home about, getting to the 4th qualifying in the FA Cup & going out first time in the 2nd Round of the FA Trophy. Went to the board to ask we go full time and they said not to waste their time!!! Go figure! Hopefully this chairman will go as there’s a proposed takeover! 

Edited July 28 by antonyjguyan