A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

After our League Cup victory we made a few signings to further bolster the squad, the first being Millenic Ali to provide more competition on both wings.

We also brought in centre back Jamie Stott on a deal that allows us to extend his contract to the end of next season.

The reason we needed a centre back is because Duncan Idehen has left to join TNS. There’s not much you can do when the best team in the Welsh leagues want a player at a part-time club, I couldn’t even get a £500 transfer fee out of them!

It just so happened that he was on the bench for his very first TNS match, which was against us in the Welsh Cup.

It was by far the toughest match on paper that we’ve faced to date. And we were so, so close to beating them.

I was looking forward to getting back to winning ways in the league after that very rare loss. But the unthinkable then happened…

We actually lost a league game. Look at all that red!

Thankfully we soon recovered with 2 emphatic wins in the league.

We’re now at the point of the 30-game season where only 8 matches remain - and we’re 23 points clear.

Those who are good at quick mental maths will know that means we need just one more win to get promoted so it looks like we’re going to get promotion confirmed in February!

And things are ticking along nicely in terms of coaching badges as I’m now onto the Continental C Licence.

With the league virtually wrapped up, one player I'm going to give game time to is 16 year old Davies who I’ve mentioned before and started the League Cup final for us.

He signed from Bangor for £0 in the summer and I’m interested to see how far he can go with the Bay (and also in the duration of the save)

Right then, let’s get our last 8 games in the Cymru North done and dusted!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve known for months that we’ll be champions, but it was still a very satisfying moment when it was 100% confirmed by smashing Guilsfield 5-0.

Some of our players were already on the beach after confirmation of the title win but we still ended the season with 5 straight wins

So, all in all, it wasn’t a bad season… We finished top of the league by 28 points and won the Welsh League Cup!

Unsurprisingly we broke all the records for points gained and goals scored

Eddie Brown ended up as top goalscorer in the Cymru North. It would’ve been close between him and Lloyd if the latter had not got injured towards the end of the season. Third choice striker Tra Lucas therefore snuck in 14 league goals after an extended run in the team.

Robbie Parry was top of the assist charts, with right back Sule and centre midfielder Creamer 2nd and 3rd although I am planning to upgrade on those two in the summer if possible

The Team of the Season contained 10 of our players, which was probably a bit harsh on our starting left midfielder Yasin Arai who was on loan from Bangor.

Only 3 of our players averaged under 7.00 this season, which shows just how dominant we were.

The only problem is that some English clubs are taking notice and 3 key players are wanted by clubs in the National League. It might be difficult to persuade them to stay at the Bay and even more difficult for us to get any money for them.

Having said that, we’ve actually got a significant wage budget for next year that should allow us to bring in a few players even if we do have some departures.

The first decision we need to make is on our top scorer Brown, who got 33 goals in 34 games last season. Our highest player is on £275 (which is a bit steep even for us…) and he wants £350 a week. The question I’ll be losing sleep over is do I offer Eddie Brown £350 a week?

In more positive contract news, I’ve signed another one year deal at the club to take my wage from £140 to £190 a week.

It’s probably deserved considering I have an 85% win percentage! At what point do I outgrow the club?

I’m not interested in moving on yet and want to see what we can do in our first season in the top division in Wales.​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Amazing season mate! Looking forward to seeing how you get on in the Premier. I've got a feeling you're going to have a pretty good season if I'm honest.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Amazing season mate! Looking forward to seeing how you get on in the Premier. I've got a feeling you're going to have a pretty good season if I'm honest.

cheers mate and yeah we've got a pretty strong squad as it is so am hopeful of a top-half finish this season at least. Just need to not get too attached to Colwyn Bay as this is a journeyman save after all!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s nearly 2 years since we took the Colwyn Bay job and we’ve made some decent additions ahead of our first season in the top division of Welsh football.

Firstly, we gave Eddie Brown a new contract. Of course we did. With almost a goal a game last season we had to, and him signing a new deal was as good as a new transfer.

Another piece of brilliant business was getting Yasin Arai on a free transfer. He’s on just £100 a week and will be our starting left winger after spending last season on loan at the club from Bangor

Next in was Jake Gallagher on a free after his contract at National League South Maidstone United expired. He’s not rated by my scouts but has some decent attributes for this level. Although I ended up signing 2 better centre mids anyway…

The first quality midfielder was Remi Walker who left Birmingham in the summer. The only bad thing about this deal is that he’s on a one year contract

Which is why I also decided to bring in Luke Butterfield, another quality midfielder at this level who is on a 2 year deal. Fair to say we have enough midfielders now, especially as we play 4-4-2!

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We’ve also made one defensive addition in Adam Senior, who made one substitute appearance for Bolton in League One last season. I was unsure whether to play him at right back or centre back this year, but he won’t be playing at all after getting injured straight away!

All of those transfers mean that the season preview is very interesting. We are apparently the 3rd strongest team in the league!

Cefn Druids are predicted to win the league, which is surprising because I thought TNS would be clear favourites...

Turns out that they've been taken over by a Tycoon! No wonder they're favourites!

We actually have a decent looking fixture list for our opening 4 matches as well, although we have to face Bangor and TNS consecutively after that. (We’ve also started our defence of the League Cup well with a 2-0 win over Llandudno).

The pressure of having big expectations this season is now on us. A top 3 finish means European football. We couldn’t, could we?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

For our first game in the Cymru Premier against Penybont, a mixture of injuries and selection policy meant that none of our new signings were in the starting XI. Turns out they were not needed…

I can think of worse ways of starting off the season with a 4-0 win!

We should’ve followed it up with another win, but just could not get a goal against Caernarfon Town.

But then a 6-0 win against Barry and 2-0 victory against the hungover students at Cardiff Met Uni calmed any fears. It’s these next 2 games against Bangor and TNS that worry me though!

We’re only 4 games into the league season but sit in 2nd in the table whereas season favourites Cefn Druids are bottom! I bet their Tycoon owner is not happy…

Eddie Brown is at it again with 3 in 4 games. He now has 26 goals and 9 assists in just 31 league appearances for us!

But the surprising thing this season has been the performance of our defenders. It’s the exact same back 4 as we had last season, who actually conceded quite a lot in the Cymru North, but this season they are unbeatable and have kept 4 clean sheets in a row!

That’s quite impressive for a team with just the 6th highest spend on wages in the division, with the 3 professional teams in the league unsurprisingly spending the most.

One thing I haven’t realised until now is just how bad Welsh football is. Gibraltar and Malta have more coefficient points!

TNS beat a Latvian team in the Europa Conference League before going on to be knocked out, so hopefully that moves Wales up the coefficient table at least.

It’s a bit annoying that only 3 teams qualify for Europe from the division, but not much we can do until we actually qualify for Europe.

Can you tell I’m thinking about qualifying for Europe already?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Two big games in a row occurred in September. The first was a 3-1 win against Bangor City, which was a great win against one of the three professional teams in the league.

But the real test was next against league champions TNS. They knocked us out of the Welsh Cup last season but we were very, very close to get something from that tie.

It was a similar story this time around.

TNS are becoming very annoying already! That game was equally frustrating because Robbie Parry broke his ankle, which means we’re down to the barebones in terms of wingers and need to get a replacement in ASAP.

But, not for the first time this season, we responded brilliantly with wins over Haverfordwest and Gap Connah's Quay in the league before beating Bangor again in the Welsh League Cup (which I am aiming to win for the 2nd season in a row)

Then Cefn Druids happened.

There were own goals and red cards but mainly it was just a rubbish performance by us - one of the first ones I can remember as manager.

I suppose one bad game every two years isn't that bad…

That result didn’t change our league position, as we’re still in 2nd, but TNS are pulling away at the top of the league and it looks like it’s going to very close between 2nd-5th positions

Our key player this season has actually been left winger Yasin Arai. He has 6 goals in 9 matches and if he gets injured then we are in trouble as he is the only quality winger at the club who is fit.

So, unless TNS start dropping points, this season looks like it’s going to be a battle to finish in the top 3 which would still mean European football!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s fair to say that we responded to our loss against Cefn Druids quite well - by winning 6 league matches in a row.

We also scraped through in the quarter final of the League Cup against Cwmbran meaning that our defence of the trophy we won last season is still on!

That’s despite only having 2 fit wide players, one of which is Millenic Ali who has been brilliant with 8 goals and 6 assists in the league so far.

He’s a big reason why our results in the league have been incredible, typified by a 4-1 win away against 3rd place Bangor

Next up for us were runaway leaders TNS, where a stoppage time equaliser ruined a wonderful performance by us.

Except…

they’re not runaway leaders…

TNS have been dropping points!

Despite being newly promoted, we are in a serious title race!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

For the second season in a row, our captain and star striker Eddie Brown is carrying us… so much so that he is the player with the most goals and assists!

He was the only standout in a truly woeful performance against Bala Town - our opponents went down to 10 men in the first half but we still managed to lose!

That result had been coming, as we’d dropped points a few times in our league matches before then.

So the slight slump in form means that we’re in 2nd place, 3 points off TNS.

Having played each team twice, the league is now split into 2 with our final 10 matches being played against the other teams in the top half.

We’ll play TNS two more times, but my confidence of winning the league is slowly decreasing…

A good thing is that we should easily finish in the top 3, which means European football next season at least.

We’ve also made it to the final of the Welsh League Cup once again.

And will face tycoon-backed Cefn Druids in the final as we aim to win the trophy for the 2nd year in a row.

2nd place in the league and another trophy would be a very decent season considering we’ve only just been promoted!​

 

[Gerarddrog]

Always enjoy your stories, I feel like an attachment is forming with the bay.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Always enjoy your stories, I feel like an attachment is forming with the bay.

Cheers mate and yeah the attachment is forming very quickly indeed... Believe it or not, this is my first ever save that will be with multiple clubs so I need to accept that I'll be leaving the Bay one day!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our 2nd final as manager of the Bay was once again in the Welsh League Cup. And it seems we’re some sort of specialists in the competition…

A wonderful performance against a very strong Cefn Druids side saw us win the League Cup for the 2nd year in a row!

The only goal of the game was scored by substitute Louis Lloyd, who has been kept out of the starting lineup for most of the season but is back in the team now thanks to his heroics.

That was enough to get Ashley Williams the sack with the Druids also 5th in the table despite being predicted to win the league - they’re 1 of the 3 professional teams in Wales so if we weren't in a title race with the Bay then it would be a genuine temptation to apply for the job!

The only negative from the League Cup triumph was an Injury to key player Millenic Ali, who has 10 goals and 7 assists in the league this season.

But a 2nd trophy in 2 years gave us some newfound momentum and we threw the season wide open with an unexpected away win against TNS!

And it turns out that result kick-started a horrific run of form for them. The seemingly unbeatable TNS have not won in 5 matches and only scored once in that time!

On the other hand, we have continued to pick up valuable wins as well as 0-0 draws against an Ashley Williams-less Cefn Druids and Gap Connah's Quay.

TNS then lost AGAIN to third place Bangor, which means we are top of the table… by 5 points!

Suddenly the league title is ours to lose! There are only 5 league games remaining and all of them are going to be huge, particularly the first 2 against Bangor and TNS.

We need our key players to show up in those games, mainly Eddie Brown who is the top scorer in the league, centre back Edobar who has one of the highest average ratings as well as Butterfield and Ali who have the joint most assists.

Alongside all of this, we’ve made it to the Welsh Cup semi final after a ridiculous quarter final at home to Bala Town which we won on penalties.

TNS and Bangor have already been knocked out, so we are favourites to go and win it. Especially as our semi final opponents are in the division below us!

So, out of absolutely nowhere, we are on the cusp of completing the domestic treble in Wales with a part-time club - these next 6 or 7 matches are absolutely massive!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

League match 28 out of 32 was a cruel game against Bangor. We created the better chances but it was the results that mattered at this stage

Suddenly we were the team that was out of form and had not scored in 3 league matches! So it was a good job that TNS were absolutely rubbish…

What is going on with TNS?! I honestly could not believe my eyes! With 4 games remaining Bangor were starting to force their way into the title race too.

Who did we play next? TNS of course.

The excruciatingly tense end to the season was made worse by a waterlogged pitch cancelling the game - at this point I just wanted to get the game done!

The match finally went ahead 3 days later.

It was undoubtedly the biggest game of the save so far and I would've taken a 0-0 at the start of the game, but I just wish we’d take our chances!

With goal difference on our side, we needed 4 points from our 3 remaining league matches.

Tycoon-owned, pre-season favourites Cefn Druids away from home were up next and we’d actually gone 4 games in a row without scoring! I really was not confident going into the game…

YOU BEAUTY! The players turned on the style when the pressure was on and that win virtually wrapped things up.

We were 7 points clear with 2 matches remaining.

So the next thing to do was to patiently wait for the TNS and Bangor scores to come through…

I cannot believe TNS the absolute bottle jobs! Over to you Bangor…

We have done it! Champions of Wales with 2 games to spare!

We have won the Welsh Premier Division in our first season after promotion. It does not get any better than that…

Well actually it does.

We were also in the final of the Welsh Cup

It was not pretty but the team got the job done on penalties after a 1-1 draw, meaning that we have won every competition available to us.

Welsh League Cup
Welsh Premier League
Welsh Cup

Welsh football? Completed it mate.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Well that was a whirlwind.

After expecting a mid table finish in our first season after promotion and maybe a decent cup run, we have surpassed all expectations to win the domestic treble!

Despite a nerve-wracking end to the season, we actually ended up 7 points clear of 2nd placed TNS.

Our success is made even more remarkable by the fact we’re a semi-pro club, whereas TNS, Bangor and Cefn Druids are all professional.

The treble also means I’m into the top 10 most successful managers to have managed in Wales!

That’s largely thanks to a squad not too dissimilar to the one we had last season.

For the second season in a row Eddie Brown was our top goalscorer and the top scorer in the division.

He has been sensational for us in the last 2 years and has 59 goals in 74 appearances for the Bay in all competitions

Unsurprisingly I was Manager of the Year and have also just gained my continental B Licence, so those attributes are going up!

We also recently passed the 100 games mark for the Bay and still have an 80% win percentage, which is ridiculous

So having won everything available in Wales, surely it’s time to move on soon?

The only thing that makes me want to stay is the prospect of leading the Bay in the Champions League (although we’re in the preliminary rounds so start our season late in June!)

Another thing is that we’ve had an unbelievable player come through our most recent youth intake, so the future is definitely bright at the club

But the truth is that I’m not sure if I’ll still be Colwyn Bay manager at the start of next season and I am eyeing up the Larne job in particular

Surely some clubs will want a manager who has won the Welsh treble with a part-time club?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Still unsure about where I wanted to go next, I decided to apply for a few jobs to see if any clubs were interested in me.

The first club was Southend in the National League.

Hmmm, that was a bit concerning that a club in the 5th tier of England did not even want to interview me.

I did actually manage to get an interview with League Two Forest Green but they also decided to go with someone else.

The process of applying, interviewing and waiting was so lengthy that we had no time to sort out our future because the Bay’s first match in the Champions League was so early in the season.

We played Lincoln Red Imps in the First Preliminary Round - which is basically qualifying for the qualifying rounds!

The fact it was on 25th June meant that we had no time to make any transfers… most of our targets still had a week left on their contracts!

Nevertheless, this was a chance to manage the team we had taken from the Cymru North into the Champions League. So we started in style by going 1-0 down after 11 seconds…

Thankfully it was a bit of a fluke goal and we ended up cruising to a 5-1 win.

And 3 days later we had our next game, this time against San Marino champions Tre Fiori. There really was no time to try and find a new club!

That game was also a doddle and we ended up 6-0 winners

So we face Moldovan champions Sheriff Tiraspol in the first qualifying round proper in a few weeks time.

All throughout those preliminary round matches I was waiting for news from the Larne job that I had applied for.

I had interviewed with them, and waited… and waited… and waited… then found out that the interview was unsuccessful!

Why does nobody want me?!

No other jobs really appeal to me so it looks like we’ll be staying at the Bay for the foreseeable

I want my next club to be a fully professional side so I’m not interested in the National North/South or mid-table clubs in the Northern Ireland Premiership.

Looks like we’re on a European adventure with the Bay for now!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Shocking really....I know it's only Welsh football but surely a treble winning manager would be able to find work!!

 

[Gerarddrog]

A special

Still unsure about where I wanted to go next, I decided to apply for a few jobs to see if any clubs were interested in me.

The first club was Southend in the National League.

View attachment 576132

Hmmm, that was a bit concerning that a club in the 5th tier of England did not even want to interview me.

I did actually manage to get an interview with League Two Forest Green but they also decided to go with someone else.

View attachment 576133

The process of applying, interviewing and waiting was so lengthy that we had no time to sort out our future because the Bay’s first match in the Champions League was so early in the season.

We played Lincoln Red Imps in the First Preliminary Round - which is basically qualifying for the qualifying rounds!

View attachment 576134

The fact it was on 25th June meant that we had no time to make any transfers… most of our targets still had a week left on their contracts!

Nevertheless, this was a chance to manage the team we had taken from the Cymru North into the Champions League. So we started in style by going 1-0 down after 11 seconds…

View attachment 576135

Thankfully it was a bit of a fluke goal and we ended up cruising to a 5-1 win.

View attachment 576136

And 3 days later we had our next game, this time against San Marino champions Tre Fiori. There really was no time to try and find a new club!

View attachment 576139

That game was also a doddle and we ended up 6-0 winners

View attachment 576138

So we face Moldovan champions Sheriff Tiraspol in the first qualifying round proper in a few weeks time.

View attachment 576140

All throughout those preliminary round matches I was waiting for news from the Larne job that I had applied for.

I had interviewed with them, and waited… and waited… and waited… then found out that the interview was unsuccessful!

View attachment 576141

Why does nobody want me?!

No other jobs really appeal to me so it looks like we’ll be staying at the Bay for the foreseeable

View attachment 576142

I want my next club to be a fully professional side so I’m not interested in the National North/South or mid-table clubs in the Northern Ireland Premiership.

Looks like we’re on a European adventure with the Bay for now!​

A special European adventure and this will no longer be a journeyman story I've just taken over at your old stomping ground in Sligo. Hopefully have even half your success.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Shocking really....I know it's only Welsh football but surely a treble-winning manager would be able to find work!!

I know! I was already planning out what to do with Larne as I really thought I'd get that gig but it wasn't to be - also can't believe how long the interview process takes as it took about 4 weeks in total for Larne. I'd rather they just came back and rejected me straight away instead of keeping my hopes up all that time!

A special

A special European adventure and this will no longer be a journeyman story I've just taken over at your old stomping ground in Sligo. Hopefully have even half your success.

Haha I know but it was also going to be tough with a semi-pro team - Europa Conference Group Stage would be the absolute best we could do! The reason I haven't uploaded the Irish leagues in this save is because of the Sligo save, very fun but got a bit repetitive smashing everyone and getting knocked out of the Champions League at the last 16 for about 4 years in a row!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Not much was expected of us against Sheriff in the Champions League First Qualifying Round. Probably because remarkably 8 of our starting 11 were at the club when we were in the Cymru North!

So it was no surprise that we lost, especially when central midfielder Remi Walker picked up his second yellow card after 26 mins!

We had nothing to lose in the second leg and were so close to pulling off the impossible job!

Still, £85,000 is welcome money for a club our size

The defeat over two legs means that we drop down to the Conference League where we’ll play Hungarian champions Fehervar

In the meantime, we were actually able to make some new signings including goalkeeper Matthew Turner and left back James Furlong

I also decided to get Josh McEachran in - we didn't really need him but he’s on an amateur contract so we are not paying a penny for him!

None of those signings featured in the Europa Conference League first leg match against Fehérvár, which was an incredibly disappointing game.

The result really took all the life from us and we just couldn’t overturn that deficit in the second leg.

The defeat hurts but we’ve earned a ridiculous amount of prize money for a semi-pro team. It should set up the club for the next few years at least.

But that brings our fleeting European run to an end…

…with the start of the Welsh domestic season still 8 days away.

If there was ever a time to resign and look for a new job, it’s probably now...

Alexander the Great cried tears of salt because there were no more worlds to conquer and having won the domestic treble last year, I feel as though I have nothing more to give to the Bay.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve been in charge of 110 games for the Bay, with 87 of those being wins…

And have taken the club from mid-table in the Cymru North to treble winners, all in the space of 3 seasons.

With the club’s finances strong because of the European exploits, my parting gift was an upgrade to the youth facilities

There are many players that will hold a special place in my heart, including Andy Coughlin and Robbie Parry who have been at the club since the very start. Will Pritt was ridiculous from set-pieces but the main man has been Eddie Brown with 63 goals and 18 assists in 80 matches in total.

But the time for sentimentality is over.

I leave only as favoured personnel, with centre back Jarvis Edobar somehow considered more of an icon than myself (not that I’m bitter or anything…)

I also leave a much better manager, with my Continental A Licence less than 12 months away.

So it was time for a new challenge.

With it being August, and the start of the season, not too many jobs were available…

It was time for a holiday!

2 months went by before a few jobs started popping up that interested me.

One of those that intrigued in particular me was Oldham, who were struggling in the National League

And this time, for whatever reason, a club in the National League actually offered me a job!

From the Champions League (Qualifying Rounds) to the National League in the space of 2 months… We are off to Oldham Athletic!​