Season Goals
Promotion to League 2
Big money cup tie to offset losses and develop youth facilities in future
I knew I was going to blow away the highland league, the tough part of the season would be dealing with injuries and beating East Kilbride in the playoff. They have such a strong squad that they would romp L2 if they were in it. As it turned out I had a sticky part of the season for ten games or so dealing with injuries and suspensions to my midfield. Lets see how it turned out.
First Half of Season
I had a great start to the season blitzing to a 8/9 winning spree and knocking out Raith Rovers in the Challenge Cup. I ended up drawing Arbroath and then Dundee United to subsequent rounds, losing to the Terrors at home 0-2. I could have really done with the Dundee United tie being away from home as you split gate receipts in half in cup games and with a home stadium capacity of just 2000 meant I could only make 7-8k on that game. Park was probing to be an amazing player on the wing scoring 15 goals by christmas, which compensated for the fact my Striker was really hitting the net much. In fact my entire midfield were 8-12 goals each by xmas. My leaky defense was not costing me too much at this stage, only losing 1-0 to Turriff United early on. Brora and Formantine United were pretty much keeping pace with me but I had a feeling if I kept even pegging with them that they would both fall away by the new year.
State of affairs by early January
Best player in first half of season
I ran into a difficult patch through December when injuries and suspensions started to bite. Ended up playing a few games with only1/3 recognised midfielders in the team. luckily managed to draw most of those difficult games.
Second Half of Season
I was really needing some new team members so March couldnt come around quick enough. I pretty much strolled the league from them on and pulled away by 10 points as both Brora and Formartine basically crumbled and kept drawing and losing games. Managed to bea QotS in the Scottish Cup and drew Hearts at home where I got pumped 0-3. Could have done with that game away again. Finally March came along and got a fairly good (by highland league standards) youth recruitment. Ill talk about the top three players I signed up.
Ok CM
Decent sub for midfield, not better than my current lot but i really needed cover in there. He'l get decent game time plus i have him playing u18s every week as well.
Ok CB
Actually better than my current 2nd CB so he went straight into the first team, actually shoring up the defense a bit. Conceded fewer goals and he may develop into a decent lower league player.
Best Till last
Supposedly he is the gem in a golden generation but Im sure they say that about alot of lower team regens. Anyway, he seems to be pretty good, 4 star to 5 star potential and also a CM, downside is he is a DM so i jigged the formation a bit and made him sit in the hold which is probably something I needed as i leaked 20 or so goals by december so having a bit of defensive cover probably would help my team when it came to playing East Kilbride in the playoffs. I actually suspect he will be in my team for a few years as he has reasonable stats and a determined attitude. Good at tackling helps for his position.
Final stretch
Coasted the rest of the season and won the league with 5 games to spare. As i thought, I played East Kilbride in the playoff. I won the first leg at home 3-1 which i was surprised about. Totally dominated the game and probably let my guard down a bit in the 2nd leg cause i alot threw it all away.
Jesus almost wept
With one minute left to play i was heading out on away goals when up popped Mitch 'the man' Megginson to save my bacon, I was almost have a panic attack watching my whole season go up in flames as we played gash all game which was really unusual. Thankfully we made it through and had the relatively easy task of playing Albion Rovers in the promotion playoff. I only won this 2 legged playoff 2-1 but in reality the total shot count was 25 to 1 over the two legs and they score with their only shot on target. I was never worried cause they won 4 games all season and had terrible moral.
Capped off the season by winning the Highland League Cup against Forres Mechanics. All in all a good season.
First Season Review
Good season and went a bit beyond expectations. Got far in both Challenge Cup and Scottish Cup. Just didnt get that money making Celtic/Rangers tie away from home that I needed. Nevermind, plenty season to do that. Regen intake was pretty good and filled some positions I needed cover for. I scored a barrel full of goals, 93 in 34 league games.
A funny fact is that playing attacking high pressing football in lower league Scotland is like sending a pack of wolves out to maul some helpless sheep. My disciplinary stats were eyewatering. I got more yellow cards than goals and ended up with 96 yellows and 5 red cards. Guess they were literally going about kicking the **** out of the opposition, and took their craft seriously.
Top Player - Ryan Strachan - 47 games, 17 goals, 20 Assists and 7.37 Rating (pretty amazing for a CM)
Top Goal Scorer - Daniel Park - 28 goals on the Wing, enough said
Young Player of the year - Jordan MacRae - Solid season off the bench to help out when needing a goal, scored 11 from the bench.
final player stats, front 6 - awesome goal return
Aims for next season
With most of the squad retained and some decent youngsters to suppliment, I could see a playoff position with in reach. Got teams like Peterhead (McAllister goal machine) and Edinburgh City to look forward to playing. Hopefully my youth intake with cover some of my problem positions namely, goalkeeping and right back. Id like to get promoted but midtable would be ok, cant see myself getting relegated as I was easily beating teams like Arbroath (cup) and Albion Rovers this season.
For the link to my original post on Reddit, I'm now into my 16th season.
Promotion to League 2
Big money cup tie to offset losses and develop youth facilities in future
I knew I was going to blow away the highland league, the tough part of the season would be dealing with injuries and beating East Kilbride in the playoff. They have such a strong squad that they would romp L2 if they were in it. As it turned out I had a sticky part of the season for ten games or so dealing with injuries and suspensions to my midfield. Lets see how it turned out.
First Half of Season
I had a great start to the season blitzing to a 8/9 winning spree and knocking out Raith Rovers in the Challenge Cup. I ended up drawing Arbroath and then Dundee United to subsequent rounds, losing to the Terrors at home 0-2. I could have really done with the Dundee United tie being away from home as you split gate receipts in half in cup games and with a home stadium capacity of just 2000 meant I could only make 7-8k on that game. Park was probing to be an amazing player on the wing scoring 15 goals by christmas, which compensated for the fact my Striker was really hitting the net much. In fact my entire midfield were 8-12 goals each by xmas. My leaky defense was not costing me too much at this stage, only losing 1-0 to Turriff United early on. Brora and Formantine United were pretty much keeping pace with me but I had a feeling if I kept even pegging with them that they would both fall away by the new year.
State of affairs by early January
Best player in first half of season
I ran into a difficult patch through December when injuries and suspensions started to bite. Ended up playing a few games with only1/3 recognised midfielders in the team. luckily managed to draw most of those difficult games.
Second Half of Season
I was really needing some new team members so March couldnt come around quick enough. I pretty much strolled the league from them on and pulled away by 10 points as both Brora and Formartine basically crumbled and kept drawing and losing games. Managed to bea QotS in the Scottish Cup and drew Hearts at home where I got pumped 0-3. Could have done with that game away again. Finally March came along and got a fairly good (by highland league standards) youth recruitment. Ill talk about the top three players I signed up.
Ok CM
Decent sub for midfield, not better than my current lot but i really needed cover in there. He'l get decent game time plus i have him playing u18s every week as well.
Ok CB
Actually better than my current 2nd CB so he went straight into the first team, actually shoring up the defense a bit. Conceded fewer goals and he may develop into a decent lower league player.
Best Till last
Supposedly he is the gem in a golden generation but Im sure they say that about alot of lower team regens. Anyway, he seems to be pretty good, 4 star to 5 star potential and also a CM, downside is he is a DM so i jigged the formation a bit and made him sit in the hold which is probably something I needed as i leaked 20 or so goals by december so having a bit of defensive cover probably would help my team when it came to playing East Kilbride in the playoffs. I actually suspect he will be in my team for a few years as he has reasonable stats and a determined attitude. Good at tackling helps for his position.
Final stretch
Coasted the rest of the season and won the league with 5 games to spare. As i thought, I played East Kilbride in the playoff. I won the first leg at home 3-1 which i was surprised about. Totally dominated the game and probably let my guard down a bit in the 2nd leg cause i alot threw it all away.
Jesus almost wept
With one minute left to play i was heading out on away goals when up popped Mitch 'the man' Megginson to save my bacon, I was almost have a panic attack watching my whole season go up in flames as we played gash all game which was really unusual. Thankfully we made it through and had the relatively easy task of playing Albion Rovers in the promotion playoff. I only won this 2 legged playoff 2-1 but in reality the total shot count was 25 to 1 over the two legs and they score with their only shot on target. I was never worried cause they won 4 games all season and had terrible moral.
Capped off the season by winning the Highland League Cup against Forres Mechanics. All in all a good season.
First Season Review
Good season and went a bit beyond expectations. Got far in both Challenge Cup and Scottish Cup. Just didnt get that money making Celtic/Rangers tie away from home that I needed. Nevermind, plenty season to do that. Regen intake was pretty good and filled some positions I needed cover for. I scored a barrel full of goals, 93 in 34 league games.
A funny fact is that playing attacking high pressing football in lower league Scotland is like sending a pack of wolves out to maul some helpless sheep. My disciplinary stats were eyewatering. I got more yellow cards than goals and ended up with 96 yellows and 5 red cards. Guess they were literally going about kicking the **** out of the opposition, and took their craft seriously.
Top Player - Ryan Strachan - 47 games, 17 goals, 20 Assists and 7.37 Rating (pretty amazing for a CM)
Top Goal Scorer - Daniel Park - 28 goals on the Wing, enough said
Young Player of the year - Jordan MacRae - Solid season off the bench to help out when needing a goal, scored 11 from the bench.
final player stats, front 6 - awesome goal return
Aims for next season
With most of the squad retained and some decent youngsters to suppliment, I could see a playoff position with in reach. Got teams like Peterhead (McAllister goal machine) and Edinburgh City to look forward to playing. Hopefully my youth intake with cover some of my problem positions namely, goalkeeping and right back. Id like to get promoted but midtable would be ok, cant see myself getting relegated as I was easily beating teams like Arbroath (cup) and Albion Rovers this season.
For the link to my original post on Reddit, I'm now into my 16th season.
Good start to your first season, promotion to League 2 and winning the HFLLC. I'm like yourself I know a lot of teams in the Highland/Lowland Leagues would do well in L2 and L1 even but its getting there thats' tricky. Any team that has goal scoring machines like Mitch Megginson and Paul McManus has to be surely favourites. Unlucky against the arabs and yeah I know what you mean, if only it was away cup games against bigger teams.