A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

After they rejected me at the start of the season, it was incredibly satisfying to go to Notts County and completely out play them.

It was made sweeter by the fact that it kickstarted a run of brilliant form in which we won 7 consecutive National League matches.

And we’re also into the 2nd Round of the FA Cup where we have a very tasty tie against local rivals Rochdale

Back in the league, our form was abruptly halted by Boston as we somehow only managed to score once

But despite that result we’re still top of the National League table by 7 points

Our players are also dominating the individual stats in the league. Centre back Ryley Towler, my first signing as Oldham manager, has one of the highest average ratings too.

Hayden Hackney has been incredible as a box-to-box midfielder for us. I was surprised he even joined us in the summer so I am going to enjoy every moment we have with him in midfield whilst I can.

So it’s been a near perfect start on the pitch, off the pitch the financial situation at the club is still not looking great (when has it?!). We’re approaching £1m in debt meaning we might have to sell key players in January

My work with Oldham is also finally getting noticed, with both Northampton and Leyton Orient offering me job interviews out of nowhere.

But they’re both at the bottom of League Two, so there’s no interest from me despite the financial issues at Oldham

What is a temptation, however, is the Forest Green job…

They’re 16th in League One and courting me for the job.

I’ve got to lead Oldham to promotion first surely?​

 

[zacram]

Can you negotiate the Forest Green Manager position to start at the end of the season? I remember I managed to do that on an old FM version when I was looking set to win League Two and had an offer from a mid-table Championship side.

Although I suppose you are only November/December so probably too far out to be an option anyway.

 

[leckuno]

Could you gp in and get forest green into a position to get promoted?

Guess the big question is "is there any loyalty left in football" when going up the leagues on a journeyman save?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Can you negotiate the Forest Green Manager position to start at the end of the season? I remember I managed to do that on an old FM version when I was looking set to win League Two and had an offer from a mid-table Championship side.

Although I suppose you are only November/December so probably too far out to be an option anyway.

Yeah I did have this option actually, not that it mattered anyway...

Could you gp in and get forest green into a position to get promoted?

Guess the big question is "is there any loyalty left in football" when going up the leagues on a journeyman save?

That was the big temptation with such a big amount of the season remaining and the January transfer window approaching... it wasn't to be but at least I now know that I won't settle for anything worse than a League One team

 

[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​

 

[leckuno]

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

 

[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!​

 

[leckuno]

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

 

[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!​