A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

Out of sheer curiosity, I decided to attend the Forest Green interview.

They then came back to me and said the interview was unsuccessful, citing the reason as me wanting to remove ‘Play Defensive Football’ as a club ambition! Didn’t want the job anyway…

That news was followed up by us throwing away a great opportunity to make it into the 3rd round of the FA Cup by conceding in stoppage time against local rivals Rochdale. The match was played in front of a bumper crowd of 13,000 (our average attendance has been 2,887 in the league in comparison).

Over 2,000 Oldham fans made the short journey to Rochadale for the replay.

And we gave them a night to remember, beating our local rivals 2-1 in a memorable match that saw us progress to the 3rd Round of the FA Cup for the second successive season.

It’s a good job we had that result to lift the spirits because league form has become questionable over the Christmas period.

We are now just 3 points clear at the top of the table as Newport can’t stop winning. It’s never easy the National League, is it?

Yet more job interview offers came my way in December, this time from Accrington and Doncaster who were both in the League One relegation zone. It was a ”thanks but no thanks” from me, I’d much rather get Oldham promoted than save a club from relegation in League One.

With the January transfer window approaching it’s very likely that we’re going to lose some players. One of those is centre back Richie Towler who we can either sell for around £100k or let go for free at the end of the season.

But we also have a huge FA Cup 3rd Round game at home to Arsenal to look forward to.

We’re still £800,000 in debt but surely that match is going to help the finances?

So, FA Cup 3rd Round, important National League fixtures and potential transfer mayhem - January is going to be a busy month!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The odds were firmly against us in the FA Cup 3rd Round as we faced an Arsenal side that were 4th in the Premier League

Key players Harvey Loader and Aaron O’Reilly were also suspended for the clash after accumulating too many yellow cards in previous rounds.

And to top it all off, star striker Gary Griffiths (who came through Spurs’ youth academy) was ruled out for a month. That meant we were without our 3 best players…

So it was only going to go one way.

I was expecting to lose, but not by that much!

I was a bit disappointed the match was not chosen for TV as well, but we still made a lot of money from the match.

Meanwhile, midtable League One side Plymouth were the latest club to offer me a job interview despite me not even applying for the job.

Again, I decided to attend the interview to see what happened. Not that it mattered as it was yet another rejection… why bother approaching me if you’re just going to pick another manager anyway?

With Oldham we had a big game against Newport who were in 2nd place in the National League - a 2-2 draw ensured a 6 point gap remained between us.

That was the only time we dropped points in the league in January and we are chugging along nicely after a slight blip in December

We’re 9 points ahead although Mansfield, Newport and Cambridge all have games in hand. It is not over yet!

The Newport game was also the last for Ryley Towler, who joined MK Dons for £100,000 with just 6 months remaining on his contract.

He was my first signing as Oldham manager and joins a club chasing promotion in League One, whilst we make a decent fee for somebody whose contract was expiring at the end of the season.

We didn’t replace him as we actually have some decent depth at centre back, but we did bring in Archie Meekison on loan from Dundee United to provide more options up front.

And I couldn’t help but notice that Matt Gray had been sacked by Notts County - looks like they made a mistake by not appointing a certain someone at the start of the season (not that I’m still bitter…)

So we have 14 National League games remaining to achieve our sole objective of getting Oldham to League Two - let’s do this​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Hopefully with a league title under your belt might even be able to get a championship team in the summer

Yeah League One is the minimum I would take, also thought I'd be able to get a job in Scotland but that's not proving to be easy

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With us seemingly easing to 1st position in the National League, I think a bit of complacency was to be expected.

So that meant we lost the Hampus Silverholt derby against Altrincham…

And followed that up with a 0-0 draw against Gateshead despite us having 22 shots and 67% possession.

Then our goalkepeer got injured for a week, which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but we had 3 crucial games that he was going to miss - it was beginning to seem like things were falling apart!

But we got a crucial win against fellow title challengers Cambridge as the xG gods were finally on our side.

However, Mansfield Town cannot stop winning and have come from absolutely nowhere to challenge us at the top.

So with 8 games remaining we are actually level on points with them… Just when I thought we were breezing to the title!

The number of points we have is ridiculous and the fact that other teams are keeping up with us is a joke. We got 87 points last year and didn't get promoted whereas Hartlepool only needed 79 to go up 2 seasons ago!

So we’re going to need the deadly trio of Nadesan, Griffiths and Loader to fire us to the title. They have a combined 73 goals between them so far in all competitions.

Alongside that, I have started applying for a lot of jobs, in the hope that somebody will take me at the end of the season

But it’s not going great - not even Ross County in the Scottish Championship will accept me!

We’ve also inadvertently made it to the FA Trophy semi-final, where we’ll play my self-declared rivals Notts County.

It’s a two-legged semi-final that we could really do without in all honesty. It means we are going to play 2 games a week until the end of the season.

So it's between us and Mansfield for the title. Who do we play in the last game of the season? Mansfield, obviously.

If we finish runners up for the second season in a row I will cry…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 1-1 draw with Dartford meant that with 5 gams still remaining we had broken the Oldham record for most points in a season!

It was genuinely annoying me how many games Mansfield were winning, literally 11 in a row! Both of us were on course for over 100 points which is just absurd.

So with 5 league games remaining we were 2 points behind serial winners Mansfield.

It was not looking good and that was compounded by midfielder Forde getting ruled out with injury for the season. It was a big loss as he had played in all but one of our league games up until his injury.

We also lost 3-0 against Notts County to get dumped out of the FA Trophy. If we were going to get knocked out then I’d rather we did as soon as we entered the competition, rather than getting all the way to a two-legged semi-final only to lose it!

The FA Trophy also meant we had 2 games in hand of Mansfield, who KEPT ON WINNING!

I honestly can’t emphasise how ridiculous it is for them to have 101 points and for us to be so close behind. If you had told me we had 93 points after 42 games at the start of the season I would’ve thought promotion was guaranteed.

But we were not giving things up and got 2 big wins against Dagenham & Redbridge and Woking

And there was another twist as we had our match against Boston postponed and rearranged, meaning that our last game of the season would not be against Mansfield anymore.

So we spent our Saturday waiting for other results to come in…

Finally Mansfield actually lost a game!! That meant we were still 5 points behind, but had 2 games in hand with Mansfield’s final game being against… us! Mental!

So it was in our hands.

I thought it was not going to happen at home to Aldershot, but then Joe Smyth-Ferguson, on-loan from Carlisle, popped up with a monumental goal in stoppage time.

So we were 2 points behind Mansfield with a game in hand, with their final game being against us. Our postponed match against Boston was rescheduled to the Tuesday, meaning that every team would play their 46 matches and we would still have one game to play.

It could not get bigger or more dramatic than this.

A win would hand us the title, a draw would still be fine if we won our last game whereas a loss would mean Mansfield promotion

No pressure lads…

Unbelievable, we have done it!

What a whirlwind that was, I’ve never know an end of season quite like it!

But finally, after a long and sometimes painful season, we have won the National League with Oldham!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Talk about drama at the end there! Love it! Congrats on the league title bud!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What an end to the season there for you. Be interesting to see what jobs come up now in the summer and if the title has helped boost your rep for them

Definitely helped with the reputation to win another league title, and was glad to finally get a new job sorted so quickly...

Talk about drama at the end there! Love it! Congrats on the league title bud!

Was more of a relief in the end to get the title, if we got 100+ points and still didn't get promoted I think that would be me done with FM for a while haha

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I was so glad that we didn’t have to face the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row…

Cambridge ended up beating Mansfield in the playoff final, meaning that Mansfield got 101 points yet didn’t get promoted… you have to laugh.

But I honestly have little sympathy for them, our 32 wins was a National League record and we thoroughly deserved to get promoted

I feel like I’ve also not emphasised just how prolific we’ve been this season. We ended the season with 116 goals in the league!

That’s pretty impressive for our squad of just 21 players

I could go through them all one by one, but there are 5 players that have been integral to our success.

Ashley Nadesan scored 35 goals and got 10 assists this season from 48 appearances.

That meant that he won the player of the year and top goalscorer awards in the National League - he has been simply unbelievable since joining in January last season.

His strike partner Gary Griffiths was not far behind with 31 goals and 10 assists in all competitions

Harvey Loader, a loan signing from Crewe, also contributed 24 goals and 10 assists mainly from playing on the left

Hayden Hackney started all 46 league games for us and got 19 assists in total, which was the highest amount in the National League.

And our defense was a bit leaky, but Aaron O’Reilly has been a top signing for us and is now the best defender at the club.

It was a remarkable achievement finishing top despite the financial struggles of the club, which meant we had only the 18th highest wage budget in the league.

But I also have some news…

Just before the end of the season, Lincoln City of League One approached me.

And everything about their club vision was positive.

Most importantly, they were willing to let me join at the end of the season.

So it is Lincoln City who I’ll be joining one months time.

They finished 17th in League One last season but there is some potential there, and I feel my mission with Oldham has been completed.

We have guided Oldham back to the Football League and left them with a young squad with plenty of valuable assets that they can hopefully sell on to get the club out of the financial mess that hampered my time at the club.

We were in charge for exactly 100 games, winning 68, scoring 222 goals, but most importantly winning promotion to League Two.

But the time has come to move on, next season we will be manager of Lincoln City in League One.

It’s been a blast Oldham. League One here I come.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

In becoming Lincoln manager we join a historic club that also has great training and great youth facilities.

The financial status of the club is also ‘Okay’ so I decided to have a quick check…

£3m in the bank. That’ll do me!

It seems like the club has all this money from selling Max Sanders for £3.6m a few seasons ago.

That meant we had a transfer budget of £1.7m to play with.

So the very first thing I did was put a bid in for Gary Griffiths from my old club Oldham.

Triggering his £550,000 release clause just made sense - Oldham get money and we get a decent striker even for League One level that is only going to improve.

And that was just the start of a hectic transfer window. With many players into the last year of their contract and not willing to sign new terms, we’ve managed to recoup £1.7m so far.

Whilst we’ve spent just under £1m on new players.

Centre back Ross Sykes was the most expensive (after Griffiths) at £375,000 - he joins from Accrington Stanley who were relegated to League Two last season.

We’ve also managed to get left-back Arthur Masuaku on a free transfer. He joins on a one year deal on a relatively modest wage.

The versatile Ben Chrisene was another decent free singing after his contract expired at Villa in the summer.

And we’ve only made 2 loan signings so far - Rod Herd is one and I plan to play on the right-wing this season.

He’s actually been on my radar for a while after starring for Mansfield on loan last season in the National League.

So we’ve made some decent additions to go alongside quality League One players that were already at the club such as Sam Field, Jack Rudoni and Luke Woolfenden. I’m also still planning on a few more loans as long as they improve the squad.

Because the club has a number of decent central midfielders, I’m actually planning to play a 4-3-3 rather than a 4-4-2 that has served me so well at Colwyn and Oldham, but we’ll see how it goes…

And we’re also predicted to finish 8th this season, so I think a playoff push is definitely on the cards if we make a solid start to the campaign

The last thing that happened in pre-season was the draw for the EFL Trophy. Normally I wouldn’t be bothered about the draw, but on this occasion we have a very interesting opponent.

We will play Oldham in the group stages of the competition, so will be reunited with the club that we left in the summer!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game as Lincoln manager was at home to Plymouth in League One.

Freddie Draper got the nod over Gary Griffiths, my signing from Oldham, and paid me back with 2 goals in a match where 6 players made their Lincoln debut.

We then got battered by Birmingham City in the 1st Round of the League Cup - it was a rotated side but a really concerning performance against a team in the same division as us.

Then the injuries happened.

Firstly, Gary Griffiths was ruled out for a month after barely having a kick in a Lincoln shirt.

Then Arthur Masuaku picked up a 4-month injury, which basically makes him useless as he is only on a one year deal and I’m not expecting his physical stats to recover…

Those injuries, and the performance against Birmingham, was the start of some concerning performances and a lot of 0-0 draws.

Oxford away was the pick of the bunch, how we did not beat them I will never know.

I seriously have no idea why we can’t score, and it makes it even more annoying because the majority of our players average over 7 in every game!

So it’s very early days and we are mid-table, but 3 goals in 4 games is a bit concerning.

That is despite our xG being over 8 - expected goals versus actual goals is ridiculous and it's getting very frustrating even after just 4 league games!

The lack of goals also meant I went back into the loan market and picked up Tommy Walsh from Derby.

Again, he’s somebody I know from last season in the National League as he scored against us a few times for Cambridge.

There are plenty of games to go so it’s no time to panic, but we really need to start scoring some goals!​

 

[Enrico Pucci]

Have you ever set up mini-Leagues during preseason and on international breaks? Invite in the biggest clubs you can and turn your bank account green! Anyways, its worked for me for years now. Fun story, keep it up!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Have you ever set up mini-Leagues during preseason and on international breaks? Invite in the biggest clubs you can and turn your bank account green! Anyways, its worked for me for years now. Fun story, keep it up!

Never even thought of doing that at Oldham to be honest! Definitely one to do if I need to make money in the future, saves me from selling my best players anyway!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Crisis? What crisis?

The last 10 games for us have been a lot better and we’ve started to add some wins to go with our favourite hobby of drawing football matches.

Despite those draws, we are still unbeaten in League One as Lincoln manager - not a bad start I suppose!

And with 7 wins, we are just one point off the top and firmly in the playoffs.

We’ve tweaked the formation slightly from the original 4-3-3 and it seems to be working… I’m a sucker for 2 strikers and the False 9/Advanced Forward combo that served me so well at Oldham.

But a large part of the success is down to the defensive performance of the team and we’ve conceded the joint least amount of goals in the division

Our centre back partnership of Luke Woolfenden and Zeno Ibsen Rossi, both of whom were at the club when I joined, are amongst the highest rated in the league which is pretty impressive.

And Tommy Walsh is the highest-rated player despite only appearing in 8 games so far - he’s also just picked up an injury that will rule him out for a while…

That will give Gary Griffiths a chance to make his mark. The player who scored 31 goals for me at Oldham last season has just 1 in 13 so far this campaign (which was a penalty…)

The stage is set for him to score against his - and my - old club Oldham in the final group game of the EFL Trophy

But, aside from the Oldham game, I don’t really care about the EFL Trophy. I’m more interested in seeing how long we can remain unbeaten in League One!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I did not expect to return to Boundary Park just 5 months after leaving Oldham, but we had a dead rubber EFL Trophy game to attend to!

And of course it was Gary Griffiths who scored our only goal against Oldham, which was just his 3rd of the season since his move from them.

Elsewhere in the other domestic trophies, 2 late goals meant that we were taken to a replay against National League Woking in the first round of the FA Cup.

And then our strongest team struggled to get past them in the replay! I seriously hate games where we dominate and just can’t score and there have been too many of them as Lincoln manager already!

That game, ironically, was the one that broke the team record of most games unbeaten. Despite some average performances, we’ve gone 21 games without losing!

Our first loss in the league did eventually happen after 23 games with a defeat at home to MK Dons.

The irony of that game was that the player who scored for MK Dons was centre back Ryley Towler, a player who we sold to them as Oldham manager!

But we responded to that loss with wins over a strong Blackpool team and Forest Green, before drawing at home to Salford in the last game of 2026.

So with just 1 loss after 26 league games, we are top of League One by 5 points!

Striker Freddie Draper hasn’t impressed me too much, but at the same time has 14 league goals which is the second highest in the league!

And Gary Griffiths has finally decided to score some goals in the league. But 3 goals in 21 games was not the return I was hoping for when we splashed £500k on him…

At the other end of the field, goalkeeper Will Manion has the most clean sheets in the league with 11 - not bad for a player I signed for £81,000 in the summer!

With January approaching, we have a daunting tie against Everton in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, which will be a good test of just how strong we are.

I also didn’t realise I had one coaching badge remaining so have started the Pro Licence course, which should hopefully get those stats even higher!

So it’s looking likely that we’ll be taking Lincoln to the Championship in our first season at the club - hopefully we have a successful January transfer window to further improve the squad!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition for me to plan to have a quiet January transfer window, only for the complete opposite to happen…

I was more than happy with the loan signing of Morgan Rogers from Bournemouth - which includes an option to buy for £375,000 that I will almost certainly be taking up in the summer.

And I also managed to get Jordan Rossiter for £50,000 from Aberdeen to bolster my midfield options and conclude my January business… or so I thought!

That was because Norwich came in with a £2m bid for our youngster Ger Corr.

He’s a bright prospect but I just thought that £2m was too good to turn down. Only time will tell if that’s the right decision but I can’t see him becoming a top player in the future.

The transfer happened so late in the window that I spent a while scrambling around for a replacement.

But I happened to find the perfect one in Freddie Davidson from Spurs, who were happy for us to contribute £0 to his wages.

It turns out that was for a reason…

I somehow failed to realise that Davidson is recovering from a broken leg so won’t be available for another month at least!

To be honest our attacking depth is more than adequate even without him and that proved to be the case in January as our only losses were in the FA Cup and EFL Trophy.

We got two big wins against Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday - the latter of which was a top of the table clash where Freddie Draper scored a hattrick.

And we were also beaten 2-0 by Everton in the FA Cup 3rd Round - in all honesty it could’ve been about 8 as they absolutely battered us!

But those results in League One mean we’re 10 points clear and have lost just once in 31 matches!

With not too much of the season remaining, surely we’re going to win yet another league at our new club?

Also, something completely unrelated to all of the above is that Jurgen Klopp is Brentford manager.

A bit of a strange one I must admit…​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I think I'm more surprised about the fact Klopp chose to leave Liverpool in favour of Spurs!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I think I'm more surprised about the fact Klopp chose to leave Liverpool in favour of Spurs!!

It gets better...

3 draws, 4 losses and he's sacked!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Forever the pessimist, I was just waiting for something to go wrong this season.

But it took a 6-0 victory over one of the stronger sides in League One to convince me that we’re probably going to get Lincoln promoted this season…

And it was business as usual for us after that win against Birmingham, winning 3 of our next 6 games and drawing the other 3

So it’s now only a matter of time before promotion to the Championship is confirmed with us 14 points ahead of 3rd placed Blackpool. We’ve still lost just one league game all season which is mad!

Morgan Rogers has already been an inspired January signing and was the League One Player of the Month in February thanks to 4 goals and an assist.

He’s done so well that I’ve decided to buy him permanently from Bournemouth in the summer. £325,000 already seems like a bargain and he’s not even our player yet!

Another attacking player that we have on-loan is Rod Herd from Brighton who has been very solid for us the season on the right hand side. My coaches only rate him as a 2.5 star player but my faith in him has paid off as he has 11 goals in League One this season.

But it is Freddie Draper and his 27 goals in the league that has been totally unexpected, his goalscoring has fired us to the brink of promotion.

Losing just once in the league all season would be an incredible achievement - we have 7 games remaining to make that a reality!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 2-1 win over Crewe coupled with other results going our way meant that with 4 games remaining we were confirmed as champions of League One!

Normally I’d put out the kids for the last 4 matches, but there was still a chance of us getting 100 points as well as going through the whole league season losing just once.

We ended up achieving one of those things…

It would’ve been nice to get 100 points but losing just one league game this season is an outstanding achievement. That loss was at home so we’ve actually gone the entire league campaign without losing an away game!

That was all done with a team that only had the 8th highest salary in the division.

Our small squad comprised almost entirely of English players that were predicted to finish 8th at the start of the season have done incredible work this season

8 of our players were in the team of the year which shows just how dominant we were

Our very own Freddie Draper was the league’s top goalscorer by a mile with 32 goals. That’s despite him being League One quality at best!

Our centre back pairing of Luke Woolfenden and Zeno Ibsen Rossi were awesome all season, with the later winning the League One Player of the Year

Goalkeeper Will Mannion was signed from Barnet for just £81,000 at the start of the season and finishes the campaign with the most clean sheets in the league!

And captain Sam Field has been excellent all season as has fellow central midfielder Jack Rudoni, who ended up with 12 assists in League One.

Finally, there’s the curious case of Gary Griffiths - the one player I brought with me from Oldham had a really poor start to the season but actually ended the season with 16 goals, including 11 in League One.

So, what next?

Despite all the deserved plaudits I have for the current squad, we need to strengthen in a lot of areas in order to avoid a relegation scrap in the Championship next year.

We’re in a pretty secure financial situation with £3m in the bank, but is that enough to build a competitive Championship squad? Well, I’m about to find out…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The summer break was a good time for reflection to see just how far we’ve come since taking over at Colwyn Bay 6 seasons ago.

Since then we have not finished lower than 2nd in the league at any club, which is quite an impressive achievement

I’ve been in charge of 267 games so far and have a 70% win percentage, which is probably the highest that number will ever be!

In terms of my old clubs, Oldham actually had a pretty successful season back in League Two by finishing 15th.

On the other hand, Colwyn Bay have struggled to dominate since my departure.

Since winning the treble with them, they’ve finished 4th, 3rd, and 4th again which still gets them into the Europa Conference League in fairness.

Looking at the Welsh leagues got me reminiscing about the good times. A maximum of 40 games a season and European football, whereas in the English leagues you can play up to 60 domestic games in a season which takes its toll!

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to manage Lincoln in the Championship… but what harm could applying for other jobs do?

Hibs was the most appealing job so I applied for that straight away.

Two days later, midtable Championship side Preston also offered an interview and then also immediately offered me the job!

Before deciding on whether to accept, there was a Hibs interview to attend to.

Then out of nowhere Brighton, recently relegated from the Premier League, also offered an interview - at this point my finger was in many managerial pies!

So much so that I decided to turn down the Preston job.

If I was going to manage in the Championship for the first time, then it was going to be with Lincoln. But I was pretty confident of getting the Hibs gig at this point even though Brighton rejected me.

And after an utterly ridiculous amount time, about 5 weeks in total, Hibs eventually came back… and said no!

So after thinking I’d be leaving Lincoln all summer, it turns out I will be staying at the club after all!

It’s going to be difficult to keep them in the Championship, but then again I’m not expecting to stay around for much longer…​