[FM23] Bringing the Exiles back to Wales

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - May 2025

Cardiff won the Welsh Cup, so Wrexham qualified for Europe automatically. Thus the play-offs were made up of the teams form 4th-7th.

In the semi-final we were up against Haverfordwest, who had finished 7th (top of the Play-Off Conference). We were comfortably the better team but didn't make a breakthrough until late on, Will Evans robbing their holding midfielder of the ball and playing in Offrande Zanzala to grab the only goal of the game.

The final against TNS was a classic, one for the neutrals. We went 1-0 up, then they equalised. We went 2-1 up, then they equalised. Then Chanka Zimba came off the bench and although he hadn't done much all season, he proved his worth here. He scored within 60 seconds of entering the pitch, then extended our lead to 4-2. TNS pulled one back, Chanka Zimba completed his hat-trick, and although the ref gave TNS plenty of time to add another a long way after the 90 had expired, it wasn't enough. We'd made it through the backdoor, but we clinched European qualification for a third time in a row.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - 2024/25 Squad Stats

Joe Day had a really poor season in goal, conceding an average of more than 2.0 per game. His contract is up and won't be renewed. Nick Townsend is also kicking up a fuss and wants to leave because he's not playing enough. The picture below suggests his CA is actually higher, but apparently my AssMan disagreed as he wasn't selected. We'll need a new keeper for next year.

Very little in the way of good defensive performances. Priestley Farquharson was decent but that's about it. Charlie Winfield damaged his spine near the end of the season and is out for at least nine months. Adam Lewis and 23a Daniel Jones are two of the worst professional footballers I have ever seen.

Midfield was a bit better, but not massively. Sam Bowen had a good average rating without really contributing much, and Will Evans chipped in every now and then but not as much as he should have. Dan Bowers is the best rated player in this group, but just 1 goal and 4 assists is a terrible return. Lewis Collins kind of snuck under the radar to be our top goalscorer and creator.

Omar Bogle scored far fewer goals than the previous two seasons, but his campaign was disrupted by a couple of injuries. It was still enough for him to be voted fan's player of the season though. Offrande Zanzala scored 8 goals for the third year in a row, he's a useful option but not someone you'd ever rely on. Chanka Zimba didn't really do much throughout the season, but was then the hero in the play-off final.

I'm tempted to let every player with a contract running out this summer leave the club. Maybe a couple of tough decisions in there which might go the other way, but a revamp is needed.

Edited September 20 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

2024/25 Wales wrap-up

Domestic Competitions: Cardiff (with Mark Hughes in charge) had an incredible season with a clean sweep of the domestic trophies. They won both cups last year and made it back-to-back wins this season, beating Cymru South side Llanelli Town 4-0 in the Welsh Cup final, and Wrexham 2-1 in the League Cup final. A six point winning margin in the Cymru Premier knocked Swansea off their perch.

Welsh Clubs in Europe: Just the three teams involved this year, but the best performance yet.
Swansea City: Beat Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro) 4-2 in the first qualifying round of the Champions League, then beat Ferencvarosi (Hungary) 2-0 in the second qualifying round, then drew 1-1 but lost on penalties to Zalgiris Vinius (Lithuania) in the third qualifying round. Lost 4-1 to Legia Warszawa in the Europa League play-off. Finished 10th in the group stage of the Conference League but lost 2-1 to Olympiakos (Greece) in the knockout play-off round.
Cardiff City: Beat Lech Poznan (Poland) 6-3 in the first qualifying round of the Conference League, then lost 3-2 to Koper (Slovenia) in the second qualifying round.
Newport County: We beat Sutjeska Niksic (Montengro) 3-2 in the first qualifying round of the Conference League, then lost 3-1 to Valmiera (Latvia) in the second qualifying round.

National Team: Only picked up four points in their Nations League A group (beating and drawing with Ireland, losing twice each to France and Belgium), but this was still enough to finish 3rd and avoid relegation.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - July 2025

The turnover began with six players leaving at the end of their contracts, and another being sold to Luton. All were regulars in-and-around the first team so we'll be going into the new campaign looking very different.

And seven new players were brought in, all on free transfers. Kieran Wakefield is a familiar face as we had him on loan for six months last year.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - July 2025

A disappointing European campaign as we were dumped out at the first hurdle. We had 17 shots at home, but only one on target. It took a penalty to get us on the scoreboard, Omar Bogle as reliable as ever, but it gave us an uphill task in the away leg in Georgia. Dinamo Tbilisi were too strong for us and completed the job at their place.

We've received £344k in prize money, obviously a lot less than the last two years when we made it to the next round.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - August 2025

Two final players came in on loan to complete our summer recruitment.

We've made a good start to the domestic campaign, with progression in the League Cup followed by three straight league wins. Several of the new recruits have impressed in their first few games, Kieran Wakefield (ST, 21, English) scoring three games in a row on his return to the club, Basilio Rieno-Socoliche (AMRLC/ST, 20, Equato-Guinean/Spanish) scoring once and getting three assists, while Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko (GK, 19, Colombian/Spanish) has kept two clean sheets. 

Not to be forgotten though, old reliable Omar Bogle bagged a hat-trick against Gap Connah's Quay.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - September 2025

10 wins in a row, lovely stuff. We were knocking on the door against Wrexham for a long time without quite getting the good chance we needed, but our tenacity paid off as we eventually won a penalty which Kieran Wakefield dispatched. Wrexham didn't even manage a shot on target.

We made it through in both cup competitions, though weren't too far away from being upset by Ruthin. They're in the Cymru North relegation area and shouldn't have been a threat, especially as we were playing our strongest team (bar a couple of injuries). But they got an early goal and our first-half display was awful, before Chanka Zimba rescued things in the second-half.

The table is starting to take shape with the big four in the top four places, though not in the usual positions yet.

There's only been one game between the big clubs so far, us beating Wrexham, but Wrexham are still top due to having a better goal difference (from their extra game played).

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - September 2025

Our winning streak ended at 11 games, with a result against TNS that was disgusting. We were 1-0 up and coasting, then a nothing attack by them suddenly turned into a tap-in when my goalie and centre-back collided, gifting them with an empty net. Then they snatched it in the 88th minute, a free-kick hit the crossbar and they were quickest to the rebound. 

We've won four since, but it hasn't been hugely convincing. We're creating enough to score four or five a game, but Omar Bogle is out injured and the attack isn't consistent enough without him. We've made it through in both cups, but have been drawn against Cardiff in both of the next rounds.

Second place looks good, but we haven't played Swansea or Cardiff yet. The latter have games in hand due to making it into the Europa League group stage.

Paul Mullin (Wrexham) is leading the goal charts with 13, then Joel Piroe (Swansea) has 11.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - November 2025

Omar Bogle is back from injury and we're looking a much better side. We managed four wins this month, all with clean sheets, and he netted three times while his strike partner Kieran Wakefield grabbed five (including a goal in the opening minute in back-to-back games). The 5-0 win over Merthyr was our largest victory so far this season.

We also had two games in a row against Cardiff, which obviously was a much tougher proposition. We completely rotated the team for the first match and predictably lost, but this left the first team fresh to take a point three days later.

There's not much to separate the four of us at the top, with the caveat that the unbeaten Swansea and Cardiff both have games in hand.

Edited September 22 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - December 2025

If you'd have offered me six points at the start of the month I'd have taken it, but after beating Swansea it was disappointing not to get anything from Wrexham. They're the side we're really competing with, taking points from them would have been more useful.

Omar Bogle did the business in the home game against Swansea, latching on to a long ball and crossing to Chanka Zimba for the first, then doing the honours himself from the penalty spot.

Spoiler

Cardiff and Swansea have now played their games in hand and predictably pulled away, while Wrexham have a small advantage over us at the moment. Two games left before the split.

Josh Thomas (TNS) is now leading the way with 19 goals, then it's Paul Mullin (Wrexham) on 17.

Edited September 22 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - January 2026

We're out of the League Cup. It was a tight game, but our attack was basically silenced and Cardiff managed the only goal of the game.

The game against Haverfordwest was bonkers. We were all over them for the first 15 minutes but couldn't score, then conceded twice from highlights that you knew would be Haverfordwest goals from the moment they started. I was raging. Just after the 60 minute mark we made four substitutions and went all out attack and within 15 minutes we were 3-2 up, Chanka Zimba taking the star role with a brace. When Kieran Wakefield made it 4-2 I thought we'd killed the game off, but there was still time after the 90 minutes had elapsed for them to get one back and briefly worry us until we scored again.

We're up into 3rd place but only one point ahead of Wrexham. 

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - February 2026

This is annoying. Loanee Will Andiyapan (DRLC, 20, Welsh/English) just disappeared from my bench. I though Preston had recalled him as they were annoyed I was using him as a sub or full-back rather than as a starting centre-back, but it turns out they'd sold him to Swansea and it didn't create any kind of notification for me. Being able to play anywhere along the back made him a very useful option off the bench, it does leave us a bit short now. 

I started this month annoyed at dropping points to TNS, but by the end of February was in a much better mood. Seven points from Wrexham, Swansea, and Cardiff in back-to-back games is a great return, and we knocked Cardiff out of the Welsh Cup too.

Wrexham drew their first game of the Championship Conference stage, then lost three in a row. We were one point ahead at the start of the month, this has now grown to eight.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - March 2026

A couple of academy players were poached away this month. The first one (poached by Swansea) didn't have much potential, but the second could be something special. Manchester City seeing something in him has to be a good sign. 

Edit - the very next day another player was poached by Watford with even more potential. Though I have just remembered that there are also gold PA stars, not just silver, so these are probably just very good players rather than absolute superstars. Would have smashed it at our level though.

Spoiler

We also had the youth intake this month, seemingly of a much lower standard than the lad above. Six players were signed.

Edited September 24 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - March 2026

A good win over Haverfordwest, a disappointing draw with TNS, and a solid point from Wrexham. The latter game was a boring affair though, not one for the neutral.

The Welsh Cup game with Swansea was also a dull one, neither team created much, but they won a penalty and that made the difference.

With three games to go we're guaranteed 3rd place. We need four more points to beat our previous record.

[scarp]

Great idea! I am curious to see how long its gonna take for you to catch up with the big 2. Do you have any specific transfer strategy?

[DaneBramage]

15 hours ago, scarp said:

Great idea! I am curious to see how long its gonna take for you to catch up with the big 2. Do you have any specific transfer strategy?

Thanks! When I start a save I often delegate most recruitment tasks, then bring them over to myself after a couple of years. In 2022/23 and 2023/24 the recruitment team dealt with transfers, I just made the occasional interference to fill in a gap if needed. They found good players, but also were too reliant on loans.

I think I took control for 2024/25. But I realised that the scouting budget was only set-up to look at the current division (£300 p/m), so options were limited. Again, a lot of loans. I changed the scouting budget at this time to cover all of the UK & Ireland (£10k p/m, or until the budget runs out).

The 2025/26 window was largely a case of signing players released from English clubs. They generally weren't interested if I made them an offer with time remaining on their contracts, but trying again when the contracts were just about to expire and their demands were a lot more reasonable. Of the seven permanent signings six have been regulars in the first-team (and the other went out on loan). We were a lot less reliant on loans ourselves, bringing in just two.

So that's basically the strategy going forward. We don't have the money to make signings, so we're looking out for talented players being released, and just a couple of loans to fill a gap or provide a level of quality above what we already have. 

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - April 2026

A point from Cardiff and a narrow loss to Swansea, I'll take it. Last year we went through a period of being mullered by the other big clubs, while this year the largest loss was 3-0 to Cardiff and the other defeats only had a one goal margin, so that's a big improvement.

We were 4-0 up against Haverfordwest and coasting after just 25 minutes, both strikers scoring twice. Then we completely switched off after half-time and did our best to let them get back into it. We just about held on but it was a nervy ending to the game, half the squad were already on the beach.

69 points, nice. Our highest tally so far. 61 goals is the fewest we've scored but it's still nearly 2.0 per game so it's okay, even if it is going down every year, Only conceding 29 is much improved though, less than half the amount we shipped last year.

Also, Conference League qualification is confirmed. We made it in due to the Welsh Cup winner coming from the top two.

Joel Piroe (Swansea) was top scorer with 26 goals, the second time he's won this after 2023/24. Josh Thomas (TNS) was second with 24.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - 2025/26 Squad Stats

Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko, what a loan signing he was. His name's a pain to write but he had a great season, conceding an average of less than 1.0 goal per game. A huge upgrade on anything we've had before. His contract with Arsenal is running out in a few weeks so I'll be keeping an eye on that, but at the moment he won't even negotiate as he doesn't think we can offer enough.

None of the defensive numbers really stand out as being particularly strong, and Alex Kirk was on the only one to manage a green average rating. But given our defensive record clearly it was a good year for them. 

All of the midfielders contributed, but again there's a scarcity of green average ratings. This was our best season so that does seem a bit harsh. Basilio Rieno-Socoliche had a really good first half of the season but massively died off after Christmas. Sam Bowen finished with the highest average rating and most assists, and was voted fan's player of the season.

Omar Bogle reached double-figures for the fourth time in a row, though he was long way below his 2023/24 peak. Kieran Wakefield was top scorer in his first full season at the club managing 20 goals. It was Chanka Zimba who had the best minutes-to-goal ratio though, but for some reason I just don't feel like he fits into our strongest XI. He's considering his options and wants to move to a bigger club, but there's no interest at the moment.

[DaneBramage]

2025/26 Wales wrap-up

Domestic Competitions: Swansea might have won the first two Cymru Premier titles of this era, but Cardiff have now firmly taken over as the top club with a second league win. They also won the League Cup for a third time in a row, beating Penybont 2-1 in the final. Swansea did pick up one trophy though, hammering Merthyr Town 4-0 in the Welsh Cup.

Welsh Clubs in Europe: One good run in the Europa League, but a couple of disappointing early eliminations.
Cardiff City: Beat Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) 3-0 in the first qualifying round of the Champions League, then beat Glentoran (Northern Ireland) 4-2 in the second qualifying round, but drew 2-2 and lost on penalties to Maccabi Haifa (Israel) in the third qualifying round. Beat Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) 2-0 in the Europa League play-off, before being eliminated in the group stage after finishing 30th.
Swansea City: Beat Progres Niederkorn (Luxembourg) 4-0 in the first qualifying round of the Conference League, then lost 2-0 to St. Johnstone (Scotland) in the second qualifying round.
Wrexham: Lost 5-1 to Dunajska Streda (Slovakia) in the first qualifying round of the Conference League.
Newport County: We lost 3-1 to Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) in the first qualifying round of the Conference League.

National Team: Failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup after a miserable qualifying campaign. Finished 4th in their group on 6 points, below Netherlands, North Macedonia, and Hungary, but above Malta.

Most Expensive Signings: Cardiff spent £5.75 million on new players, with the bulk of it on Emmanuel Longelo (DL, DR Congolese/English, 25) from Birmingham for £5.5 million. A 7.10 average rating, 7 goals, and 4 assists over 37 (7) appearances suggests he's a good player, but you'd hope so for that price. Swansea spent £3.1 million, with the big money signing being Craig Halkett (DC, Scottish, 30) from Huddersfield for £2.4 million. He played very well, a 7.39 average rating over 37 (2) appearances. The other 10 clubs spent less than £75k combined.

Most Lucrative Sales: There were no high value players leaving, all 12 clubs combined made less than £75k from sales.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - July 2026

4 hours ago, DaneBramage said:

Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko, what a loan signing he was. His name's a pain to write but he had a great season, conceding an average of less than 1.0 goal per game. A huge upgrade on anything we've had before. His contract with Arsenal is running out in a few weeks so I'll be keeping an eye on that, but at the moment he won't even negotiate as he doesn't think we can offer enough.

Arsenal gave Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko a one year contract renewal so we weren't able make an approach to sign him permanently, instead we've got him back for another year on loan, still not paying any of his wages.

That's the only business we've done this summer. Any contracts that were due to expire were renewed, so we've got a full squad in place. 

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - July 2026

If I ever have children, my firstborn is being named Omar.

When everyone else was making a mess of the away leg in Belarus, Omar Bogle rescued us a draw. Going into the second leg 3-1 down would have been difficult and maybe we wouldn't have managed the home win we did, but going in level made it a lot more comfortable and gave us a good opportunity to knock Gomel out.

We were better than Maccabi Haifa in the away leg, but their keeper was MotM and kept us at bay. But then the second leg came along and we turned on the style, and Omar Bogle grabbed another brace to secure progression. That's the first time we've gotten past the second qualifying round.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - August 2026

I realised we only had one senior and one junior goalie in the squad, so a back-up was brought in just in case. Chances are he won't ever see a minute on the pitch.

Our European dream carried on a bit longer as we knocked Aktobe out of the third qualifying round. A draw at our place in the first leg probably should have been a win and we gave ourselves some work to do, but we just about came out on top in Kazakhstan due to a display of efficient finishing. We even managed to hold on for more than 30 minutes with just ten men after a red card.

In between these games we hosted Swansea in the second round of the League Cup. I just wrote this game off, threw in the second string and a few kids. They got whooped, fine, whatever. Not a priority.

In the Conference League we came up against Viktoria Plzen, and I think it was obvious our run was going to end here. A 2-0 loss in the Czech Republic gave us an uphill task and although we won at home, it was just by a single goal so it wasn't enough. A great run nonetheless though, and we pocketed a very nice £1.6 million for our troubles.

In the league we've made an unbeaten start, three wins from three. I thought we'd struggle playing two games a week and we might take a hit in these matches, but we got away with it. I am glad that we'll be going to a more relaxed schedule in September though.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - September 2026

With our recent windfall from the Conference League I managed to get our junior coaching improved to the next level.

Six more wins to make it nine in a row, perfect. None of them were against tougher opposition, a full complement of points and progression in the Welsh Cup is what should be expected from these games.

Both Kieran Wakefield and Omar Bogle have reached double-figures for the season, and they cleaned up against Guilsfield with four and three goals respectively. They were both outdone though by Basilio Rieno-Socoliche who bagged a five goal haul. 13-1 is obviously the biggest win of this career so far, but in truth I'm a little disappointed. It should have been more. We were 11-0 up after just 25 minutes, we should have scored at least 20!

Top of the table! But we have played an extra game, and not faced Cardiff or Swansea yet.

Edited Monday at 13:37 by DaneBramage

[BML]

On 25/09/2024 at 10:10, DaneBramage said:

So that's basically the strategy going forward. We don't have the money to make signings, so we're looking out for talented players being released, and just a couple of loans to fill a gap or provide a level of quality above what we already have. 

Playing in Wales this year I found great success in offering trials to all the Scottish Prem players released (end of May, not June, which means if you get them in young enough they will turn into HG players) and then again all the Prem (and bigger Champ teams) in June - bugger scouting, you only need them in for a day or two to get an idea.

Early on (you may be past this point now) taking all the unattached/amateur players in the Gibraltarian (and other overseas territory countries) squads on trial was also very fruitful and got around work permit rules.

[DaneBramage]

@BML Scotland's not a bad shout. To keep things going along quickly the only other leagues I have on are England (down to Conference N/S), so I've amended that down to just League Two and added the top two Scottish divisions instead.

The rule that keeps catching me out is the requirement to have two U19 players in the matchday squad. Should probably start scouting youth competitions.

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - October 2026

The loss to Swansea was a close-run game, but it's a defeat nonetheless. That's our 14th loss to them in 22 games (with 5 wins and 3 draws).

Omar Bogle's second goal against Bala Town was his 74th in the league for the club, making him our all-time league top scorer. 

Newtown packed everyone behind the ball and when we went down to 10 men after a red card I thought we were only getting to get a point, but then they also had a sending-off late on and we made the breakthrough.

Still top, but Cardiff are looming with three games in hand. They're in the Conference League group stage which is playing havoc with their scheduling.

Annoying, Wrexham have also reached the Conference League group stage. But at least their domestic performance is suffering for it.

[BML]

18 hours ago, DaneBramage said:

The rule that keeps catching me out is the requirement to have two U19 players in the matchday squad. Should probably start scouting youth competitions.

Yeah that's a pain, but I found I was producing enough 4-5* PA kids to stick a couple in the squad each game, especially with a 7 man bench.

If you've got no decent youth, as you're firmly in the 'best of the rest' position now, you'll probably lose very little by having a couple of duffers on the bench.

[DaneBramage]

 

Newport County - November 2026

Chanka Zimba was allowed to leave for a minimal fee. He managed 20 goals in 21 (39) appearances, which is actually better than I realised, but he was never a first-choice pick and had made it clear a while back he wanted to leave, so wasn't in the picture this season.

We beat Wrexham for the second time this season, that's always an enjoyable moment. Dropping points to Penybont though, that shouldn't happen. Their goalie was MotM but it wasn't a superkeeper performance, it was just our forwards having an off-day.

We got away with one against Cardiff, they missed an early penalty and that left the door open for Sam Bowen to curl home a late equaliser.

Still top! Madness.

Josh Thomas (TNS) has 14 goals so far, next up is Omar Bogle on 13.

Edited 21 hours ago by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - December 2026

Another upgrade approved. Our facilities are obviously still a long way off Cardiff's and Swansea's, but I think they're better than everyone else's now.

The draw with Cardiff Met Uni was annoying. We were coasting at 2-1 up, then a centre-back gave the ball away in a dangerous area to let them equalise. Between that and the hammering from Cardiff we had a bit of a miserable Christmas.

Normal service has resumed. Cardiff have caught up with their games in hand and gone steaming into first place. Our dropped points have also allowed Swansea to overtake us.

So we're in our traditional 3rd place, but well clear of the rest.

Edited 18 hours ago by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Newport County - January 2027

Louis Phillips spent the second half of last season on loan at Bala Town, where he scored 12 times in nine appearances. He hasn't really made much of an impression for us yet, his playing time has mainly been infrequent appearances from the bench, disrupted by injury. So finding the only goal of the game against Caernarfon was a good time to get off the mark.

We ended the first phase of the competition with the standard loss to Swansea.

I think we're pretty much already nailed on for 3rd place, but we now have to go through another 10 games in the next phase.

Jack Vale (Cardiff) and Josh Thomas (TNS) are leading the way with 17 goals apiece.

Edited 15 hours ago by DaneBramage