Assembling The (Budget..) A Team!
Starting with Colne the squad is a clean slate. Those greyed out players just aren't gonna cut it. So it's time to wade through the bargain bin that is our realistic targets. This means looking through the countless young players without clubs who haven't been snapped up by other teams yet. Also the grizzled veterans who still have something to offer and still have love enough for the game to play at this level for peanuts...Luckily with playing games at this level before I already had some go to players that I could tack down straight away. There were also some players I've never signed before. So time to check out our mix and match squad!
GoalKeepers
John Bateman - 22 year old former West Brom and Aberdeen Trainee
Gregory Hartley- 21.Former Man City youth.
Defenders
Calum Flanagan 19 CB. Former Aston Villa trainee solid cb stats
Martin John 20 CB. Started out in th US with Ottawa Fury. Was with Agentinos in argentina. Moved to Britain spent time with Cardiff and Newport. Also a Gambian International.
Adam Dougan 19, CB/RB. Former Queen Of The South reserve.
Ed Williams 18,RB. Former Burnley youth. Coaches will say he's pretty average but does a solid job at this level and half not bad stats.
Sean Pike 20,LB. Released by Port Vale
Richard Cowen 19,CB. Another Former Burnley youth.
James Bonner 18, RB. Former Carlise youth brought in as backup and as a prospect for future.
David Duke 32,RB,LB. An older head in the squad. Signed on a free from Jarrow Roofing. Started at Sunderland, Had spells at Swindon and Darlington in the leagues.
Danny Cecil, 31,LB. Older player in as backup. Played for Croydon Athletic in the non league.
Dom Bates 19,CB. More backup will probably not feature in first team. Former Altrincham reserve.
Midfielders
Eric Farro 34,ALM,LB.Reunion player and great left winger for this or any non league level. Can also play left back too.
Patrik Vaz,32,ALM,CM. Another greatly skill midfielder for this level. Can also slot into the centre of the pitch when needed.
Willie Boland,36,CM. Veteran tough tackling CM with bags of experience. Played over 300 league games for Coventry,Cardiff and Hartlepool. Signed for free from Guisborough.
Harry Rubins,19,CM. Good young talent, Learned his trade at Chelsea and Bristol City.
Stephen Stirling,21,CM. Another great find. Former Rangers reserve. Great stats for this level.
Dominic Marella,21,ARM. Former Blackpool trainee,fell into non league with Burscough and Weymouth.
Taser Hassan,20,ARM. Released by Huddersfield. Son of actor Tamer Hassan.
Jordan Bowen,19,CM. Spent several years in Blackburns academy. Not the best tackler but has a decent amount of skill and flair.
Fraser Toms, 31,ALM,CM. An experienced backup to the first team. Started out at Charlton before moving to Barnet then played for a string of non league teams.
Stephen Connor,22,AM,CM,STK. Versatile player from Everton's youth set up. Will be able to cover several areas if injuries hit. Will also compete for the right wing role.
Strikers
Marc Hughes, 21. Fomer player for Bohemians. Has the potential to be a counties level messi! Played in the Rep of Ireland. Starting with Bohemians. He pick up a League Of Ireland cup winner medal. Also on loan at Shelbourne he scored in the final of the Leinster senior cup picking up another winners medal. Mybe the fact that he wasn't really prolific meant he was released. He's a beast at this level on FM though.
David Lee,28. A more experienced head and another Irish front man. Again another poacher who can net a shed load of goals if he gets the support. Can also play the supporting role if need though. Played accross Ireland For the likes of Shelbourne, Monaghan Utd, Killkenny and Longford.
Jamie Forrester, 36. He getting pretty long in the tooth for a striker but you don't get much more experienced than him. He's played all over Starting out in France for Auxerre, He's played for Leeds, Grimsby,Southend,Scunt, Dutch premier Utrect for a short time, Northampton, Walsall, Bristol Rovers, Hull, Lincoln City and Notts County. All in all notching up over 480 league apps. Can still do a job too as a supporting striker. He's excellant at binging on young players too.
Gordan Patton, 22. A new player to me but has great stats and is still pretty young. Played a few games for Coltraine in N Ireland before being released.
Fergus Bell, 20. I've ended up with an embarassment of riches up front with all my targets wanting to join. His great stats meant I couldn't pass up signing him for the £80 a week he accepted. Usually goes to Conefence level clubs at least. Came from Sunderland and Hibernian.
Jack Jeffrey, 22. Unfortunately for him with all the firepower we have he'll stuggle to get a game. His wages are small and he's pretty decent backup if we get hit bad with injuries. From West Ham's youth set up. Spent time at Hampton and Richmond, Cambridge, Leyton Orient and Eastbourne Borough on loan. Move to Grays on a free before becoming a free agent.
So that's all the players I signed before the last game of pre season. Next up! Pre-season was it a confidence boosting success? Or did we stumble before we even got to the starting blocks?