Celtic But Not As You Know ‘Em

FM_TNSSO

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So for my new save, I’ve decided to take on a one club, bottom to the top, challenge. And the side I’ve taken over is Farsley Celtic in the Vanarama National League South, for no other reason than the fact their badge is like something from the NFL!

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Farsley Celtic are based in Farsley, West Yorkshire and were initially founded in 1908. However, they folded and were reformed in 2010 as Farsley AFC, before retaking their old name again in 2015. They play their games at the 4,000 (300 seated) capacity stadium, The Citadel, and are fondly known as The Villages, The Celts or The Celt Army.

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As per their namesake, we also play in green and white hoops.

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Poor facilities all round as expected down at this level.

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The club have very little in the way of trophies, have never been beyond the 1st round of the FA Cup or even the 3rd round of the FA Trophy.

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The owners would like the club to be challenging for the playoffs within the next 3 years, although a mid table finish will be deemed acceptable in my first year in charge. As expected, there’s no transfer funds available, and just £500 available in the current wage budget.

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Which may be a slight issue, as I’ve got a very small squad to work with!! Down at this level, I’ll be looking to play a bog standard 4-4-2 so more centre backs and more wingers are urgently required…let’s hope the loan market looks healthy!

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Joel Byrom might be 33 years old now, but he is absolutely mustard for this level and I’ll be building my team around him in the centre of the park!

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I’ve got my big man to play up top already as well in the form of Jimmy Spencer. A pacey little striker to play off him required now for the classic big man, little man combo up front!

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Getting down to business in the transfer market and what a signing this is!! Maziar Kouhyar was a free agent and is way too good for this league and I was shocked when he accepted our offer to come play football at The Citadel! I’m certainly not complaining though and I expect him to tear it up this year!

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Although he did get injured on international duty with Afghanistan and will miss the first couple of weeks of the season at least!

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And for the left wing, I brought in Tranmere’s Danny Walker-Rice on loan, beating the likes of Chorley and Southport to him who were both sniffing around as well.

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18 year old Danny Coogan comes in on a free to provide much needed cover at right back.

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Tom Hewlett isn’t exactly the best player in the world, but we were in need of another striker to bolster the squad and he was the best of what was available. He joins on loan from Burton Albion and will compete for a place up front.

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I asked the board to set up a link with a senior affiliate and Salford probably ain’t a bad choice to be fair!

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We immediately made use of the new partnership by bringing Alex Denny in on loan from Salford.

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And Sam Fielding quickly followed from Salford on loan for the season as well. That partnership with the League Two club has proven fruitful!

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The board’s expectations are realistic enough for my first season in charge.

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An unbeaten pre season with plenty of goals scored. Hopefully sets us up nicely for a good start to the competitive season.

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Talking of competitive stuff, with the season about to start the bookies have us down for a mid table finish. Although at 20-1 to win the title from 12th place, it shows just how competitive this decision is.

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Before we get into the league action though, there was the small case of Redditch to take care of in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Cup. Joel Byrom incredibly got 4 assists in this game!! Star signing Maziar Kouhyar was also getting back to fitness, got the last 10 mins and scored on his debut as well!

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Gloucester City are possible playoff contenders according to the bookies, so to kick off the season with a win against them would be a promising start.

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It was a promising start! Although it’s fair to say if their strikers could hit the target, it might have been a different game…they were awful in front of goal!

A point a piece was fair in an even game with Telford in our next match.

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A break from league action next as we took on lower league opposition in the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup. We should be beating the likes of Buxton without too much trouble.

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Easy as you like!

We drew with York City 1-1 in a pre season friendly a month ago, so neither team went into our league encounter with a psychological edge.

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But we’ll have the edge next time we meet though after this win. It was all about maximizing on the set pieces in this game as both our centre backs managed to score headed efforts from a corner and a free kick to give us the 3 points.

It means we’re 4th after 3 games, but obviously it’s still early days.

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Back to FA Cup action and we’d drawn Hartlepool from the National League and I was expecting a really tough game.

So you can imagine my surprise when we were 3-0 inside 13 minutes!!

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After that, it was a pretty even game to be fair, although we maybe just edged it on the stats.

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I think we just stunned Hartlepool but coming out of the gates so quickly and they just never recovered from our opening flurry! A 3-0 win sees us through to the 1st round proper and the board will be happy that I’ve achieved their target for the competition.

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So it’s an unbeaten start for me as manager and here’s the tactic that is doing the business so far. I created a very simple 4-4-2 as with the quality of players available to me, I didn’t want to over complicate things. The focus is to get my wide men forward and involved as much as possible as they are my best players for sure. The defence doesn’t push up too high as there isn’t enough pace there to cover properly and we’d leave ourselves exposed. At the back, I’m forced to play a no noncense CB as Clayton has no technical ability at all, so he is simply told to win the ball and clear it…..or give it to Sam Fielding his CB partner who is more comfortable on the ball and can pick out a pass so plays a ball playing role. In central midfield, it’s a case of having Byrom as the creator and Denny as the workhorse! An old fashioned little/big man partnership up front seems to be working well with Parkin feeding off the big target man. We’ve got good crossers of the ball in the winger positions too, so I have them pinging mixed crosses in….floating for the big man or whipped for the little faster striker.

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Looking forward to this man, love a good LLM save
 
Looking forward to this man, love a good LLM save

Glad you'll be following mate! I've got big shoes to fill with Hampus Silverholt's Altrincham story from FM20!!
 
We invited Hereford to The Citadel next and it looked like they were going to inflict our first defeat of the season on us when they led 2-0 at half time. They’d been the better side as well, so it was a deserved lead. I had to really lay into the lads for the first time since I took over, demanding better from the 2nd half. They responded well to the hairdryer treatment and a much improved 2nd period brought about a very good comeback to earn a point.

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Chorley were proving hard to beat already this season, losing only one of their opening 4 games. And it was no different against us as we only managed to take a point from this game….although a point away from home against a side that were relegated from the division above last season, isn’t a bad result.

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Back to the FA Cup for our next game and in the first round proper, we’d drawn a home tie against Forest Green from League Two. Our upcoming opponents have made a decent enough start to their own league campaign as well, sitting in the top half with 5 wins from their opening 11 games.

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We didn’t win, but we certainly weren’t outclassed by our opponents. Even when we were 3-0 down, it felt harsh and I’m pleased the lads were able to restore some pride into the result.

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Back in the league though, we kept our unbeaten streak going against Kettering Town with another much improved 2nd half display to turn the game on it’s head.

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But our unbeaten streak was broken by Fylde, the hot favourites to win the division this year. To be fair though, it was a pretty even game and could have gone either way. We did ourselves proud against the side that are widely expected to p1ss this league!

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I wanted a reaction in our next game!

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Thanks lads!

We were the most dominant we’ve been all season against Alfreton Town…

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…so it was disappointing to only come away with a draw after their injury time equalizer!

But the boys bounced back again with style against Bradford Park Avenue.

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Ten games in, just one defeat and 2nd in the table! I’ll take that all day long!

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Joel Byrom has clearly been the star man so far this season, with an incredible 12 assists in 12 appearances! He suits the deep lying playmaker role in central midfield perfectly!

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Gotta love a 4-4-2 in the lower leagues! Signs are looking good for promotion already

Two good wingers and someone who can put the ball in the back of the net and you're laughing at this level! The 4-4-2 is a dream, but what has surprised me is how good our play has been through the middle and how many assists we are getting with a quality through ball, or even a loft up to the big man to head home!
 
6th placed Brackley Town were expected to come at us with a full throttle attacking approach (according to my performance analyst’s report), so we took a more cautious and counter attacking approach to this one, rather than our own usual attacking stance.

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And it worked a treat!

I don’t know if it’s their League Two history back in the early 2000s, but I’ve always seen Kidderminster Harriers as I side that should be playing at a higher level than this, so I expected us to have a tough time against them.

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And it was tough, but the lads managed to grind out the win anyway as they show their resilience once again! Joel Byrom’s first goal of the season was an absolute banger….a volley from 30 yards out!

That win took us to the top of the league!

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We had a little break away from league option, with my first venture into the FA Trophy. A competition I feel like we could go far in with the way we are currently playing.

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I think we made our point!

Back in the league for just one game before we play in the FA Trophy again and we share a bore draw with Spennymoor. They were better in the first half, we were better in the second, nobody could score!

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We had drawn Guiseley in the FA Trophy 3rd round and we’ve only 1 place and 3 points separating us in the league, it was sure to be a tight game.

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It was close, but we just about managed to squeeze through! Guiseley’s boss will be absolutely battering his team at full time after his team managed to get on level terms in stoppage time, only to give away a penalty with one of the last acts of the game!

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We made light work of Leamington back in the league, even with a few players rested (with a game scheduled for just 2 games later).

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And with that, I’ve been in charge for 20 games already and apparently I’ve earned a reputation as a ‘talkative’ manager whatever that means….do I not shut up in press conferences or something?!

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A top of the table clash up next as we go away to Gateshead. In the current situation, it’s probably more important not to lose than anything else…a draw will do!

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But a win is a million times better!

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After that win, we replace Gateshead at the top of lead the division after 15 games.

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With us absolutely flying, it didn’t take long for me to get a new deal!

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And I have my first Manager of the Month award to celebrate! It literally couldn’t get any better right now!

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After beating Guiseley in the cup last month, we had every reason to feel confident we could do them again here in the league.

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And we probably should of done, but we threw a 2 goal lead and have to settle for a point!

We nicked an away win at Chester in a game where we were far from our best!

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Our next game saw us go away to Aldershot in the 4th round of the FA Trophy. They were lying in 15th place in the National League at kick off and their recent form included 2 wins from their last 5.

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And we gave them a really good game, with only a late goal in extra time seeing them get the better of us. A good performance though and I’m happy with my lads despite our exit from the competition.

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Three more league wins followed and with another 10 goals scored as well! In attack, we look unstoppable at the moment…we’re not keeping many clean sheets, but it doesn’t matter when we’re scoring between 3 or 4 a game!

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And that was enough for me to take another Manager of the Month award!

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As well as send us 4 points clear at the top of the table! I couldn’t have dreamed the first half of the season would ever have gone this well, but the team have played brilliantly, with my additions to the squad all proving extremely useful! I just hope we can keep it up all season!

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The players I added are technically gifted (for this level), especially out on the wings. And it seems that opposition defences have been struggling to cope with them as we have earned double the amount of penalties of anyone else this season! We’re not great at taking them though as we’ve missed nearly half!!

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Tom Hewlett was only brought in to be a backup this season and I wasn’t really expecting much from him, but 8 goals so far in all competitions isn’t a bad return at all.

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However, he couldn’t hit the back of the net when given a rare start against Boston and we fall to a disappointing defeat.

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Which was our first loss in 13 games!

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Another 10 points taken from our next 5 games, which included a huge win over our nearest rivals in the league, York City. Chorley were lucky to get the V over us as we dominated them for the entire match and simply couldn’t score. If we can just keep our best players fit over the next few weeks, we could potentially set ourselves up really nicely to potentially win this league!

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Ah b0ll0cks!

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Maziar Kouhyar has been nothing short of awesome this season since his arrival in the Summer. Involved in 15 goals this year and maintaining an average rating of 7.25, he is going to be a huge loss to us!

Although we didn’t miss his creativity too much in our next game.

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But we did against the Spartans!

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Against Kettering, we didn’t need anyone but the big man, Jimmy Spencer!

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So with 29 games under our belt, we sit pretty at the top of the tree and not only that, we’re 6 points clear, and not only that, we’re 16 points clear of 8th (playoff spots)! Absolutely tearing it up!

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Our strength has definitely been in attack this season, but between the sticks I think it’s fair to say I definitely don’t know who my best goalie is! Both keepers have 18 appearances, and virtually identical average ratings! Neither of them are great though if I’m completely honest and it’s one of the weaknesses in the current side.

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Fylde definitely haven’t lived up to their pre season ‘title favourites’ tag and instead find themselves in and around mid table! We piled on the misery of their disappointing season here as well with a very good 3 points!

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Four wins from our first five games in April was enough to see us secure a guaranteed spot in the playoffs this season! Already that’s an amazing achievement but we must surely have our sites set on becoming champions now!

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We rounded off the month of April with a really substandard performance against 3rd placed Gateshead who completely dominated us from start to finish. Possibly our worst showing of the season!

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Tom Hewlett has been pretty **** awesome this month and picks up a player of the month award. Not bad for a backup striker.

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We seem to have hit a bad run of form at just the wrong time in the season though as we follow up the loss against Gateshead, by only taking a point from our next 2 games!

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We’re still top with 4 games to go, but York have closed the gap and are now breathing right down our necks! It’s going to go to the wire by the looks of it!

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Looking at the run in, York will fancy their chances as 3 of their last 4 games are against sides in the bottom 4!

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The youth intake was pretty poor!

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Only Graham Reid looks like he might one day be a first team player.

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We look devoid of confidence at the moment, which amazes me after we’ve led this division for so long! A Joel Byrom free kick put us ahead against relegation battlers, Curzon Ashton, before they scored an equalizer with the final kick of the game! York won in an 11 goal thriller with Boston and join us on 79 points! 3 games to go!

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We’ve been struggling to beat sides in the bottom half of the league of late, so naturally I felt pretty nervous going into the game against 5th placed Southport. And my team seemed to share my nervousness….well, right up until the last 7 minutes when something finally switched and they though ‘nah, f*** this we’re gonna start playing now’!

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Despite fighting back to earn that draw, it might be a case of too little, too late as York won again and go top 2 points ahead of us and with a better goal difference!

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ABSOLUTELY DEVESTATED!!! No other way to describe my feelings when Boston’s Fraser Preston scored an absolute worldie in the 96th minute to level the scores! Three times we took the lead and three times they came back!

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Our saving grace was the York City also failed to win, meaning that the title still could be ours, although we need a bit of luck as well now!

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Going into the final game of the season, we are in a must win situation! We have to win and hope York lose, or if York get a draw then we have to win by 3 or more!

Can’t say I felt confident as we went into the final day on a 6 game winless streak!

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Well, York gave us a chance as they only managed a draw with Telford. The question now was ‘could we take advantage?’.

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The answer was NO!! We were complete and utter bottle jobs! After going 2-0 up, we allowed them to score 3 in 5 minutes and we lose the game and with it the league title!

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Somehow I need to pick these lads up for the playoffs! I have no idea how we’re going to do it with confidence at an all time low and with the lads feeling completely deflated after that last run of games at the end of the campaign!

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Great news…our best player won’t be around for our playoff game with Boston United due to being called up for international duty!

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Boston beat Southport in the first playoff game…we obviously had a bye for finishing 2nd. The tie isn’t exactly a great draw for us though as we’ve failed to beat them in either game so far this season!

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GET IN, GET IN, GET IN!!!! Finally a win as my boys come up trumps in the biggest game of their lives to date. We were the better side and the result was well deserved too….now can the lads deliver for me just one more time?!

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Chester overcame Gateshead in the other semi final! A team we have had mixed results against this season, but then our last game showed that previous form doesn’t mean anything!

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Chester came into the game in fantastic form though, with 5 wins on the bounce!

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Not quite sure who picked the shirts for this game, but I’m really not sure they thought it through! I couldn’t tell which side was which for majority of the game!

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But apparently we were the side that didn’t score!

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So it’s another season in the Vanarama National League North for us. We’ve still massively overachieved for the season as we were expected to make mid table at best, but I can’t help but feel disappointed after leading the way by 7 points at one stage of the season! Still, this will prove a major learning curve for the lads, we’ll improve the squad over the Summer hopefully and come again next year!

After an impressive season, we still have a very good dressing room atmosphere and I have the full backing of my players.

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Alex Denny didn’t have as good a season as I’d expected after joining us on loan and the full back positions could use some improvement. Tom Hewlett was definitely the surprise package as I only brought him in as a backup and he ended up bagging 18 goals!

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Fan’s Player of the Season = Adam Clayton
Young Player of the Season = Maziar Kouhyar
Signing of the Season = Maziar Kouhyar
Top Goalscorer = Luke Parkin (21 in all comps)
Most Assists = Joel Byrom (22 in all comps)

My Player of the Year = Joel Byrom
My Young Player of the Year (U23) = Tom Hewlett
Most Disappointing = Danny Walker-Rice

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Squad sorted in order of appearances

Our analysis of our season shows that we scored more than the average, but we also conceded more too. Our pass and tackle completion rates were in line with everyone else in the league. This really identifies to me that we need to tighten up at the back for next year.

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Here’s the money we brought in this season.

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But the finances at the club in general look precarious and there will be no money to bring players in over the Summer. We are also already overspending on our wage budget, so will need to have a shuffle around if I am to add to the team this Summer.

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Unlucky in the play offs mate, sure you'll smash it next season
 
The vision from the board has changed slightly as they now want us to focus on a high tempo pressing game and make the most of set pieces as well.

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I was delighted to confirm the loan of Tom Hewlett for another season from Burton Albion. However, this year, they did insist we pay all of his £350 p/w wages, but I think he’s worth it.

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Although I felt Alex Denny could have done better last year, I still decided to bring him back on loan for another season from Salford. Mainly because he bolsters the numbers and he doesn’t cost us anything. Maybe a season full of experience will see him improve this year, and I still can’t deny the fact he managed 10 assists last season despite his low average rating.

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Sam Fielding had a good season on loan with us from Salford last year and I managed to turn that into a permanent deal as we sign him on a free.

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I mentioned before that the full back roles for us last year weren’t our strongest and I’ve managed to add two new players for the RB and LB roles. Alex Whittle joins from Gloucester City, whilst Josh Clackstone comes in from Alfreton Town. Both sign on frees. Clackstone in particular had a good season in this division last year, making 27 appearances with an average rating of 6.92 and getting 2 goals and 6 assists.

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George Smith, another full back, joined the squad as well. He was Gateshead’s number one left back last year getting 10 assists from that position and I hope he can make a strong impression on my team as well.

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Making the most of my partnership with Salford, I did move to bring in 17 year old centre back, Cerny Ando, on loan. He joins for 6 months initially. To be honest, it looks like Salford have got a very good youngster on their hands here and I look forward to seeing what he can do for us.

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One more centre back added to the ranks as 18 year old Dylan Thompson comes in on a free. He was released by Everton and can do a job for us, although he’ll initially be a backup.

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My final signing for now was Polish keeper, Marcel Wusiewicz. He’s better than either keeper we had between the sticks last season and definitely improves the squad. He comes in on a free after being released by Burnley.

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With the season ready to kick off, the bookies agree that we have improved on last year, although they still don’t tip us for a top 7 finish. Obviously, I’d be delighted to make the playoffs again, based on the fact everyone else thinks we’re only the 8th best team in this division.

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And a final reminder of the board’s expectations. Nothing too demanding here.

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I couldn’t help but arrange a friendly against my beloved Gillingham, who soundly put us in our place. A brave effort against Cardiff as well, with a good win over senior affiliate Salford City. The friendly schedule produced some promising results and some of our new players look pretty tidy. I’m excited for a good season (I hope).

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Welcome to the division Warrington…

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A good start for us and one we needed after the way we finished the last campaign.

I still needed cover for a couple of positions and one of them was down the left wing, so 18 year old Jaden Forrester was brought in on a free. He has learnt his trade at Wolves so should be of a decent standard down at this level.

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A back and forth game with Chorley resulted in back to back wins for us to kick off the season. A good win as well where we showed the grit and determination that was missing at the end of last season!

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A frustrating performance against Gateshead next. We missed a lot of chances as our strikers had an off day and twice we were caught out by a simple long ball over the top….we must do better!

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Leamington had won 2 of their opening 3 games, so we knew it wouldn’t be an easy game against them.

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We got the win, but it definitely should have been by more as we had 20 shots on goal!

A really poor first half display was to blame for our defeat to Kidderminster. We absolutely battered their goal in the 2nd half and how they held on, I’ll never know, but it was our own fault for a dismal first 45 minutes.

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We bounced back in emphatic fashion against Kettering though. It really could have been 7 or 8 though, we were that dominant!

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I desperately needed another striker to give us more options up front and Kyle Joseph will add an injection of pace which I felt was lacking from our current crop. He comes in on loan for the season from Wigan.

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And it only took him 16 minutes to get on the scoresheet on his debut against Fylde. A game we went on to win by a comfortable scoreline, with Joseph finishing off the scoring at the death to bag a brace!

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Our inconsistent start continued as we recorded a defeat against bottom side Alfreton after having to play 50 minutes with 10 men, before then losing a tight game to the league leaders!

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It’s not been the best of starts!

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Nicky Walker is the latest signing I’ve made for the club. He only joins as a fringe player, but will provide valuable cover in the wide positions. He joins on a free after being released by Alfreton Town at the end of last season.

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Three wins in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup have seen us through to the first round proper for the 2nd season in a row and bring some welcome cash to the club! In the league, it’s been a bit indifferent with a win, a defeat and two draws. We’re proving tough to beat at the moment and I think if we can just string 3 or 4 wins together, it could kick start our season!

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The 4-4-2 isn’t doing the business as well this season, so it was time to change things up a bit. Welcome to the 4-1-2-3 Wide that I’ve created.

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Which produced an incredibly dominant performance against Buxton, on our first time of using it.

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Our follow up performance against a 17th placed Southport was a lot more underwhelming though! Maybe it will take the lads a little while to get to grips with the new set up after all?

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Yep, the result against Spennymoor confirmed we have plenty of work still to do!

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And to make things worse, Joel Byrom will now miss over a month with injury! This season is not quite going to plan thus far!

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With 16 games now gone in the league, we sit 10th and are struggling for consistency. We’re still within touching distance of the playoff places though, so it’s not all bad.

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Maziar Kouhyar is really coming into his own this year with 8 goals and 5 assists in 15 appearances in all comps. We may struggle to keep hold of him when the January window comes around with plenty of bigger clubs showing an interest.

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