Cloondawg

Season 1 (2024/25) - Vanarama National League North Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League North (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Attempt to avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 9th (17-2). Finish: 1st. A great start to the season had us up near the top of the league and then a flawless October and November allowed us to move top and build a gap between the rest of the teams. We just kept on winning and cruised to the title which was sealed in March. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fourth Qualifying Round by Halifax Easy wins against Heybridge and King's Lynn set us up with a tough tie away to Halifax who are a league above us. This proved too difficult and we went out in a closely fought tie with a 3-1 defeat. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by AFC Fylde Our stay in the FA Trophy was short lived. We managed to get through against Bury Town in the Second Round, but then we were narrowly beaten by AFC Fylde of the National League 3-2. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: The squad remained injury free and I was able to rotate quite well, having quite a solid second XI. I also played my back ups in the cups so that I could really concentrate on promotion. Transfers: I made a lot of free transfer signings to fill the squad up because the one I inherited was quite bare. A lot of my non-contract players were released when they got injured or when they weren't performing and then replaced with new non-contracts. Board/Supporter Feedback: Expected to attempt to avoid relegation in the Vanarama National. Was offered a new 1 year extension with another year if we got promoted which could now extend my stay until at least 2027. Key Players: Tom Fellows - Signed at the end of October when he finally wanted to join on reasonably wages and also signed a 2 year deal so will be playing again next season. Had 24 assists which was the best in the league. Udoyen Akpan - He was at the club when I arrived and 30 league goals whilst winning Vanarama National League North Player of the Year. Leslie Adekoya - Top goalscorer in the league and formed a great partnership with Akpan. Scored 34 league goals to get the Vanarama National League North Golden Boot. Ayden Garrigan - Signed on loan from Preston who are my parent club so there were no wages. At only 17 he became the club's youngest goalscorer and had a great season, rotating on the right wing once Fellows arrived at the club. Jack Moorhouse - The 18 year old was snapped up after being released by Man Utd. He scored a huge 16 goals as a box-to-box midfielder with a lot of them being penalties. Best Youth Intake Player: I signed a few youth players and this was the best one - David Edwards Overall Best Eleven: Garrigan shown as a central midfielder even though he hardly played there Finances: It looks ok for now! Manager Profile: Completed my National C when I was finally allowed to start it by the board. Currently studying towards the National B license. Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 4th Qual. Round 3rd Round Adekoya (34) Fellows (24) Promoted as Champions!

Time to get going with this again. Back at Bamber Bridge after I didn't get much time to play this challenge in FM23!

Season 1 (2023/24) - Vanarama National League North Competitions: Overview Vanarama National League North (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Attempt to avoid relegation. Season Preview Odds: 11th (33-1). Finish: 1st. It was a poor start which suddenly turned into a great start once Nyal Bell started scoring goals for fun. After not winning the first two league games, we quickly recovered to win the next 9 with Bell scoring in all of these. After these 11 games we suddenly looked like strong promotion contenders and Bell had already scored 17 goals. We continued to win games and stay top of the league until about March when we started to lose games to promotion rivals and Chester charged into first place, but it wasn't enough to stop us being promoted as Champions as we charged to 7 straight wins to end the season. Although Chester did push us all the way and were unlucky not be automatically promoted on 100 points. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fourth Qualifying Round by Barnet Easy wins against Rushden & Diamonds and Bedford set us up with a tough tie away to Barnet who are a league above us. This proved too difficult and we went out in a closely fought tie with a 2-1 defeat. FA Trophy (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Third Round by Southport Our stay in the FA Trophy was short lived. We managed to get through against Matlock in the Second Round, but then we were narrowly beaten by Southport of the National League 2-1. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: The squad remained injury free and I was able to rotate quite well, having quite a solid second XI. Transfers: I made a lot of free transfer signings to fill the squad up because the one I inherited was quite bare. Managed to sell Roache for £8k which was quite nice as he rarely featured due to Bell's form. Club Vision | Board/Supporter Feedback: Expected to attempt to avoid relegation in the Vanarama National. Was offered a new 1 year extension with another year if we got promoted which could now extend my stay until at least 2026. Key Players: Harvey Rhoades - Very solid at the back and chipped in with 8 goals and has signed a contract until the end of next season. Tom Allan - A great CB partner to Rhoades who helped contribute to the league's best defence. He was also a massive threat from set pieces with 9 goals and has also signed on for next season. Brad Jackson - Provided great deliveries from the right wing and got 29 assists in the league which is ridiculous. Kamil Conteh - All action centre midfielder who was all over the pitch in the box-to-box midfield role. Signed on for next season. Nyal Bell - The main man up top, scoring massive 42 league goals. He had a purple patch at the beginning of the season with 17 goals in the first 11 games, but then struggled in the middle of the season when we went on bad run, before finishing strongly and helping us seal promotion. Best Youth Intake Player: I signed a few youth players and this was the best one - Fabiano Donnetti Overall Best Eleven: As expected Finances: It looks ok for now! Manager Profile: Completed my National C and National B licenses. Currently studying towards the National A license. Season Team League Finish FA Cup FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 4th Qual. Round 3rd Round Bell (42) Jackson (29) Promoted as Champions!

Didn't get far with my first save and stopped playing for a while, so going to start again now so everything is fresh. Back at Bamber Bridge again!

Time to get this going again now the Winter Update has landed.

Season 5 (2026/27) - Sky Bet Championship Competitions: Overview Sky Bet Championship (Table| Results): Board Expectation: Fight bravely against relegation. Season Preview Odds: 23rd (200-1). Finish: 4th (Lost in Playoff Final to Fulham). I thought this would be a tough season because the gap in finances and reputation between us and other teams in the league had increased massively at this level, especially given the last 4 promotions. We had a transfer budget for the first time really but it was tough to improve the squad significantly due to our reputation and players not being interested. However, after a great first half of the season we gave ourselves a chance at promotion and went very close to both automatic promotion and then via the playoffs - but we just fell short. In the balance of the season, Fulham, Palace and Hull were better team and deserved to go up. Any other season so far, a total of 88 points would have been good enough for automatic promotion, apart from this season so it was a competitive league at the top of the table this year. We lost a lot of games against our promotion rivals and struggled a bit on the road towards the end of the season and this inconsistency ultimately led to a 4th placed finish after we had been top for a period. We managed to beat Brentford in the Playoff semi final over two legs, which included a huge 3-0 win at home in the second leg. Then we had Fulham in the Final and this was a very tight game that could have gone either way, but in the end they just edged it and we will play another season in the Championship. FA Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Fifth Round by Spurs. Another decent run in the FA Cup. We had a favourable Third Round tie and edged through against Swansea who were also in the Championship. Then we managed to beat Premier League Birmingham, who have since been relegated, in a thrilling 4-3 replay win. We drew Spurs away which was a very nice tie and provided a good cash injection. It ended 3-0 as we were outclassed and knocked out. EFL Cup (Results): Finish: Knocked out in Quarter Final by Newcastle A second Quarter Final, in two years, for us in the EFL Cup. We played lower league opposition up until the Fourth Round where we edged through past promotion rivals Fulham. Then we got a big away tie against Newcastle, who were at the time top of the Premier League. They absolutely destroyed our makeshift team 6-2. Club: Squad | End of Season Awards: Most of the squad stayed to begin with and then we sold some players who weren't being played in January. We added a few to the squad but it was tough to find those which would improve us. We were a little thin on the ground at times, but there is less matches in the Championship season (without the EFL Trophy) so it was not too bad. Transfers: This was the first time we had some transfer budget to spend and we brought in a few players for around 200k who came in and did well, but weren't our top performing players. We also sold a few for less than 100k each in January when they weren't playing and wanted to move, or their contracts were not going to be renewed. This sadly included club legend Harry Boyes who had been with us since the start and was one of the top performing players at the club in recent seasons. Club Vision: We had a member of the board who bought out the owner this season. The club vision has the objective to continue to fight bravely against relegation. Key Players: Sam Pearson - Quickly becoming a fan favourite and was outstanding this season. 8 goals and 19 assists from right wing in the league this season - breaking the league record for assists in a season. Harry Smith - Another good season from him. We brought in Kelly who I thought would start ahead of Smith, but his form was too good and he played most of the games. He got 17 goals in 26 league starts. Jake O'Brien - Rotated in and out of the centre back position with some of the other options we had, but he was the best performer. Started 21 league games and finished with a 7.21 averagerating. Samuel Iling - Another season on loan from Benevento and another great season. 11 goals and 6 assists from left wing for him this season in the league was amazing. I would like to bring him back on loan again but they are asking for a lot more wages and money for the loan now. Vitezslav Jaros - He's been the first choice keeper for 4 seasons now and he was one of the best performers this time. He's developed with the club and is solid for this level. Best Youth Intake Player: The youth intake was predicted at 5 starts but it ended up at just 1.5 stars. This was the best of them - Hassan Ugwu Overall Best Eleven: 2 players inducted Finances: The finances look very good and the best they have been. This is due to the TV money in the Championship and some good cash injections from cup ties. We also didn't spend all our transfer budget this season so this remained in the club's account. The board also announced plans to build a new stadium, which will cost £14m (including a £9.25m loan taken out) and this will be 13,452 capacity and be completed at the end of the 2028/29 season. Manager Profile: I completed the Continental A Licence and have started on the Pro Licence now. Season Team League Finish FA Cup EFL Cup EFL Trophy FA Trophy Top Goalscorer Most Assists Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League North 1st 1st Round N/A N/A 3rd Round Carty (24) Boyes (16) Promoted as Champions! 2023/24 Bamber Bridge Vanarama National League 1st 3rd Round N/A N/A 4th Round Shaw (16) Boyes (14) Promoted as Champions! 2024/25 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League Two 1st 3rd Round 2nd Round Runner Up N/A Smith (28) Matheson (11) Promoted as Champions! 2025/26 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet League One 1st 3rd Round Quarter Final Winner N/A Beresford (23) Iling (13) Promoted as Champions! 2026/27 Bamber Bridge Sky Bet Championship 4th 5th Round Quarter Final N/A N/A Beresford (18) Pearson (19) Lost in Playoff Final