FC United - A Youth Project

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rryanwilliams

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FC United of Manchester​

Hi everyone, I'm new to this story thread kind of thing but I had the idea of doing a lower league management as my first save, but hoping for it to be long term hence adding the youth challenge factor to it.

I've had a few thoughts on which club to manage and thought about FC United of Manchester, mainly because I am a Man United fan and FC United is my local team, but it would be good to see FC make their way into the Premier League and come up against United themselves.

I'm thinking of adding a few rules e.g. no signings over the age of 18 / using youth system only. I might add IGE to it and up the youth facilities to 20 or a bit less (let me know) as I would not be able to gain first team players straight away if I had facilities of 5 or whatever they are in non league.

I would appreciate any feedback and would love to get started if people are interested. Thanks :)
 
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FC United of Manchester

F.C. United of Manchester is a semi-professional football club based in Moston, Manchester, England. The club competes in the National league North, the sixth tier of the English football league system, and play their home matches at Broadhurst Park.
Founded in 2005 by Manchester supporters opposed to American businessman Malcolm Glazer's takeover of that club, F.C. United entered the North West counties football league Division Two in their inaugural season. They achieved three consecutive promotions in the first three years of their existence and were promoted for a fourth time to compete in the National League North for the 2015–16 season. In cup competitions, F.C. United reached the second round of the FA Cup during the 2010-11 season and the fourth round of the FA Trophy during the 2014-15 season.
After sharing multiple stadia across Greater Manchester between 2005 and 2015, F.C. United opened their own ground, Broadhurst Park in north-east Manchester, in May 2015. The team has been managed by former professional footballer Karl Marginson since its formation. The club's regular kit colour are red shirts, white shorts and black socks. Their badge is based on the Manchester coat of arms and features a ship at sea and three stripes for the three rivers that flow through Manchester.
F.C. United are the largest fan-owned football club in the United Kingdom and have one of the highest home attendances in English non-league football. The club is democratically run by its members who have equal voting rights and own one share in the club each.

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The Stadium

F.C. United play at the 4,400 capacity Broadhurst Park, which opened in May 2015. The ground was built at a cost of £6.3 million, using £2 million from a Community Share Scheme and the remainder from a variety of governmental and charity grants. The ground is surrounded on all sides by covered stands: the St. Mary's Road End (east), the North Stand, the Lightbowne Road End (west) and the Main Stand (south), the latter of which has seating sections. Within the Main Stand is a clubhouse with a bar and catering facilities, club offices, changing rooms, a medical suite and a classroom. The stadium is shared with a local junior team, Moston Juniors F.C

The Supporters

F.C. United are owned by 5,000 of their members and are the largest supporter-owned football club in the United Kingdom. Each member can vote on how the club is run, including voting for board members, kit designs and season ticket prices. Most F.C. United supporters still support Manchester United and many were previously season ticket holders at Old Trafford. F.C. United fans are known for the large range of songs that they sing at matches, and the atmosphere created by fans has been praised in the media.
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The Manager
Ryan Williams, appointed 1st July 2016 is a long-life Manchester United supporter from Manchester, England, holding a season ticket since 2006. A man who has United in his blood, followed FC United after hearing about their recent promotions to the Vanarama North. Wanting to have an input himself, he has been appointed looking for a long term project by implementing youth into the club and hopefully having a long future at Broadhurst Park.
​
 
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Pre-season 2016/17
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In pre season there were a few ups and downs, but had a good ending to it with three wins on the trot. I arranged friendlies myself with Motherwell and Forest for financial reasons to gain more revenue so wasn't really bothered with the outcome of them fixtures, however left my assistant manager to arrange the other friendlies.

Summer transfers 2016/17
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My first transfer window was fairly eventful bringing in five new faces, mainly for depth and cover in the squad, and getting rid of no one. I did list a few players up for transfer and offer them to clubs but wasn't picked up by anyone. My standout signing is probably Curtis Strong who may not have the best of stats but is a quality player for his age of 21 at this level. I'm looking forward to how this season is going to go.

August 2016/17 Results
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The start of the season proved to be a bit difficult for me, by not getting a win in the first three games and seeing myself in 14th. We then came up away against rivals Salford and definitely entertained our fans, maybe not theirs :P. That seemed to be the turning point for FC United, winning three games in a row and being unbeaten in four.

Player of the Month August
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A great start for the new singing Jason Gilchrist. The striker bagged 5 goals playing a vital part in this month for the Red Rebels. Hopefully many more to come!

I'm not sure why the photos seem to be uploading really small but if someone can let me know how to change that it would mean a lot. Also let me know if I should continue to do a player of the month or do several standout players. Next two months to follow in the next post :)​
 
September Results 2016/17

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Definitely a month to forget for FC United, still going unbeaten for the first 2 games of the month but then an awful streak of games not won, and our worst defeat of the season so far losing 5-0 to Tamworth, who are chasing for promotion spots. The morale is down for the players after this month, which needs a change around. Lets have a look at where we are in the table.
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Ok, not too bad sitting in 10th with a +2 goal difference, we have Kidderminster in a few weeks so a win against them would help us climb the table. Too many goals conceded is the downfall of us which needs improving. Maybe a new signing in January at the back would help, but if we continue to concede goals then that could affect us in the future if the points came down to GD.

Player of the Month - September
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Luke Dobie picks up the award for September, although I honestly wouldn't choose anyone if I could due to poor performances. This player was dominant in the midfield with an average rating of 7.2 and great goals & assist ratio compared to games played in the league.
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October Results 2016/17
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A great turning point for us, going unbeaten for the month helping us climb the table. A significant fixture was Kidderminster who on paper looked like they were going to beat us, but we certainly gave them a game winning 5-1. Only playing four games in the month also helped the players to regain fitness and not cause any injuries. Who was the player of the month for October?

Player of the Month - October
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The Englishman Jason Gilchrist gets it again, who scored in every game of this month. The second time in three months for Jason and the highlight of the month was getting a fairly late equalizer against Gloucester to prevent a loss.

I am going to add new rules for this save, seeing as though it's a Youth Project. Obviously I didn't want to do it for the first season as I just wanted to get into the game more and aim for promotion without any rules standing in the way and no youth in the squad as of yet.​
Rule 1: No signings over the age of 23, if you do sign a player aged 23+ then it must be a free transfer.
Rule 2: The players who are signed aged 23+ must not play more than 50% of the games in a season, as he is mainly used for tutoring youth players.
Rule 3: No payed transfers for players 21+

I'm still thinking of some more rules, but please add your own rules which I think I should include but obviously not too hard as I would like to move away from the Vanarama North :)
​
 
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November Results 2016/17
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A month of late goals for FC United, with two coming in the 92nd minute and gaining 7 points in the league out of a possible 9. We did well saying we were losing to Stalybridge until injury time and managing to grab a point in that fixture. I'll settle for 7 points.

Player of the Month - November
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Adam Mitter wins the award for November, mainly for being a rock at the back but helping us get the results for this month by preventing many goals from the opposition that could've easily been scored.

December Results 2016/17
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This month was a tough ending to 2016, with only one win in four games to Boston Utd who were in the play off spots at the time. After getting knocked out in the first round in the FA Trophy, we are now in no other competitions which gives us a chance to focus more on getting promotion in the league. Onto 2017!

Player of the Month - December
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Decembers player of the month goes to our left back Curtis Strong, scoring two goals in a month for a defender which isn't bad. He's turning out to be a great signing for us, especially at a young age and could already be a regular.
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Vanarama National League North Table
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The table looks promising still for FC United sitting one place outside of the play off places, however are on the same points as Stockport, but 5 goals behind on goal difference. January will be a tough month for us, starting off with the back to back fixture against Altrincham before coming up against league leaders AFC Fylde ​at their ground, which will be a real test for the Red Rebels.​
 
So I'm back after the Christmas break, hope you all had a great Christmas and happy new year, but lets continue with FC United!
January Results 2016/17
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The new year didn't start off as we hoped, drawing to Altrincham and losing to league leaders AFC Fylde convincingly. We then dropped two points in the late minutes vs Worcester which was devastating for us. We managed to pick ourselves up after that by finishing the month on a high with two wins, one being our close rivals Salford.

Player of the Month - January
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Our player of the month for January was George Thompson who dominated the middle of the park for most games throughout January, finally finding the form we wanted from him.
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We only had one piece of transfer business in January, being Callum Nicholas on a free. A young, promising looking player who we could fit straight into the starting 11, with some minor adjustments to the formation.

February Results 2016/17
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February was a great month for FC United, picking up from the end of last month. Nicholas got himself a debut goal and sealing us a win against mid-table team AFC Telford. Playing three away games this month was tough for us, but we managed to dig through it and grab 10 points total.

Player of the Month - February
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Chris Chantler got the POTM for February, who caused problems down the left side and even getting a goal himself against Chorley.

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We're finally in the play off spots at the end of February, being two points behind Boston Utd with a higher goal difference, and two points ahead of Gainsborough. Lets just hope we can stay here or maybe climb even higher!

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I just wanted to add this to show you all my manager stats in case some were curious to whether I'm cheating or not. I want to do this with no handicaps as I'm starting from the bottom so my manager may as well start from the bottom too. :)

​
 
March results 2016/17
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No body can seem to beat us at the moment, as we go another month without a loss and the morale among the changing room continues to increase as promotion hopes actually start to become realistic. I feel we should have got all 12 points this month after dominating Tamworth for the full 90 minutes but just couldn't find a way through. However I am very happy with two 2-0 wins away from home in the space of three days, as fitness could've really cost me at that point.

Player of the Month - March
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The main man up top Jason Gilchrist gets it again, with 4 goals in 4 games this month, and has had an amazing season so far with a great record to say he's a part timer. Scoring many vital goals to win us games and is playing a huge part in our promotion hopes.

Youth Intake
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One of my favorite times in a football season and seeing as this is a youth project, this is a great way to get things started in terms of youth for FC United. To be honest, this youth intake couldn't have gone much better for me. Lots of potential, two players already three star ability so can head straight into the first team and an u18's squad ready to gain many promising youngsters so we can finally enter a youth league to see where we stand.
I also managed to pick up a Loughborough graduate before he signed a youth contract with them. Also able to go into the first team at a young age which is what we like and has better attributes than our main centre back.

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Just when things couldn't go better, the chairman wants to speak to me about extending my contract! Very happy and looking forward to see what happens in the future. Join me in my next update as we see out April and May and maybe we can clinch play offs with our new squad members.​
 
kylegrason123 said:
How did Dale Hopson end up doing?
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He didn't really live up to expectations unfortunately kylegrason123, coming off the bench more times than starting but thanks for asking.

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April Results 2016/17
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The momentum continued until the final few games of the season, until the very end where we tripped up on the last hurdle. Despite getting a 92nd minute winner against Darlington, we drew away to Nuneaton who are sat just above relegation at the time which demotivated a few of the players going into the final game where we needed a win with any chance of winning the title. A loss to Gainsborough really added the icing to the cake as I was gutted to lose this, I must admit.

Player of the Month - April
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George Thompson ended the season on a high, bagging two games in one of the games in April and was an all round top central midfielder for FC United. He glued defence to midfield to attack and even added a few assists to his name as well.

Final Vanarama North League Table
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Here's how the final league looked as we end April at 3rd place, three places higher than expectations so I am more than pleased with this spot. This position means we play Gainsborough again another two times in the play-offs, with hopes to obtain promotion to the Vanarama National League. As well as us, AFC Fylde also slipped at the last hurdle after sitting in 1st for so many weeks, as Tamworth just nicked it on the last day of the season. Heart breaker for Fylde fans.

I hope you have enjoyed the first season in my FC United youth project and hopefully many more to come, and I am looking forward to the next update where we have our play off fixtures and recap the first season as FC United manager.

​
 
Play off Semi-finals
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So here we are, early May facing Gainsborough away first, and I would happily settle for a draw here. It wasn't an eventful game so needed to keep the players' morale high going into the second leg. Playing at home in the second leg gave us an advantage, however early into the game Gainsborough were awarded a penalty, which young Charles Albinson tipped wide brilliantly. This boosted our confidence as the first half finished 0-0. Second half started and we went on the front foot straight away, with Tom Greaves bagging one home from 6 yards. Our job now was not to get complacent and not concede. Gainsborough were pressing for the equalizer but we caught them on the break as Chris Chantler found himself 1 on 1 with the keeper, composed himself as he slotted into the far bottom corner. We're into the final! AFC Fylde won their other semi so a tough final for us away from home but whatever the result, I was extremely pleased with the players after this season.
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Just a couple days before the play-off final, I get this message and was delighted! I've been granted with a £4m budget heading into next season so can't wait to bring in some new faces and re-evaluate the squad.

Play off Final
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Amazing. Jason Gilchrist ends his goal drought with his most important goal of all season. On paper it looked like Fylde edged as the better team, but every one of FC United's players dug through for the full 90 minutes and played their best performance. Up to the Vanarama National we go!

FC United 2016/17 season recap
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This was our end of season awards, with Adam Mitter picking up Fans' player of the season, and Young player of the season. What a signing he was. Tom Graves grabbed goal of the season with a stunning free kick against Chorley, and Charlie Albinson was our Signing of the season, picking up 8 clean sheets in 15 league games. Our formation for the Team of the season was 4-4-2 however after January I switched up to 4-3-1-2 after injuries and a new signing.

FC United's expectations for FA Cup was to reach fourth qualifying round, however underachieved in that and lost in first round of FA Trophy which met our expectations so I'll settle for that. I wasn't too fussed about what happened in them two competitions as I wanted to focus more on the league.

"So come on cheer the boys, FC make some noise, we go wild wild wild.."​
 
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Congratulations, Vanarama National will be a different kettle of fish with bigger clubs like Tranmere. Looking forward to seeing summer transfers and how next year fairs for you
 
NathanITFC said:
Congratulations, Vanarama National will be a different kettle of fish with bigger clubs like Tranmere. Looking forward to seeing summer transfers and how next year fairs for you
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Thanks Nathan, I'm looking forward to next season as I like a challenge. With all the business I've done hopefully I'd be able to fit in well.
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So here we are, second season of FC United manager and one league away from league football. Much more competition in this league so I will need to be doing a lot of business in the window to bring in new faces and unfortunately let a few go in order to be real competitors and avoid relegation, or even better, finish in the top half of the table. Lets have a look at the ins and outs for this summer.

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Very happy with our new signings, spending a total of 14k with out final signing taking up most of that amount costing us 9.5k. Three people came in on a free due to either handing in transfer requests, or their contracts were coming to an end so we picked them up before they were lured away to perhaps bigger clubs. Looking at the outs, as you can see I had to release a lot of players, 12 in fact, as they were getting too old or they weren't good enough to cope in the Vanarama National. I am gutted to see our youth graduates Ryan Hunt and Willem McCann leave, who both wanted to play for clubs in higher divisions. I tried my best to keep them both but unfortunately just wanted to go.

Pre season & Preview - August 2017
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Probably couldn't have gone any worse, but that won't affect our season. I organised a few of them myself just for financial reasons so the score didn't really bother me.
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Quite surprised at the fact we're predicted 9th, giving us big expectations for the season ahead. Our other promoted team from the North (Tamworth) are predicted relegation along with Maidenhead, Guiseley and North Ferriby. Accrington are predicted to win the league who had just been relegated so it'll be good to play them to see where we stand for the season ahead.​
 
Well done on the first promotion mate, looks like you have better playoff luck than I do! Good luck in the VNN!
 
dani3w said:
Well done on the first promotion mate, looks like you have better playoff luck than I do! Good luck in the VNN!
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Thanks mate, it's a massive challenge playing over 20 new better teams but I'm looking forward to it. Especially with high expectations too!

Sorry I haven't posted the past week, I've had mock exams in college so been revising the past week, hence having to play less Football Manager.

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August Results 2017
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What a start for the Red Rebels, scoring 11 goals in the opening six games and conceding five. A shame we lost the last game to Accrington or we could have opened the season with an unbeaten month. I'll even take three clean sheets with two of them being away so the keeper has impressed also. The game against Dag & Red got televised so there's a bit of finance income to put in the bank.

Player of the Month - August
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Shaquille Agard was one of the new summer signings who came in from Durham, and what a start he's had for the club. Scoring 7 goals and grabbing 2 assists in 6 league games, his average rating of 7.87 awards him August's player of the month. Hopefully many more goals to come.
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So 6 games gone, and we sit in 3rd just below Gateshead and Lincoln. I'd happily allow the season to end now and go to the play offs. Our only defeat came to the team who are sat below us so I don't mind taking a loss to a highly rated team.




​
 
Quality first season and start to this season! When I was Bishops Stortford before I bought Auduris Laucys and Levi Sutton, both were good players for me in the Vanarama National. Got Jordan Lussey on last years FM and sold him to Swansea for £2.2mil in the end.
 
NathanITFC said:
Quality first season and start to this season! When I was Bishops Stortford before I bought Auduris Laucys and Levi Sutton, both were good players for me in the Vanarama National. Got Jordan Lussey on last years FM and sold him to Swansea for £2.2mil in the end.
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Cheers Nathan, yeah they've both started off quite well and able to fit into the team regularly on some occasions, hopefully I might get that money for Lussey in a couple of years too!

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September Results 2017
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Ok, now coming back to reality as we lose three games on the bounce. Happy with a 4-3 win against Forest Green, however the lack of goals in 4 games resulted in us dropping in the table. A late winner in a tough game vs Ebbsfleet however did pick up the morale after a fairly disappointing month.

Player of the Month - September
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The Man Utd loanee picks up Septembers best player. He's only 5'4" yet dominates the park. Was unlucky to get the losses as he was one of few players who was carrying the team but unfortunately not all were good enough.

October Results 2017
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An improvement to last month despite the dodgy start to Woking. Scraping a win against Macclesfield away helped pick ourselves up for the next fixture where a win would help us qualify in the FA Cup, easily winning 5-1. FC United then ended the month with two 0-0 draws and a 2-0 win with Torquay.

Player of the Month - October
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This left back is one of the strongest points in the squad. David Ferguson picked up a couple of assists down the left flank this month and gaining player of the month with a rating of 7.82.
​
 
November Results 2017
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So we start off the month going away to league one side Walsall in the 1st round of the FA Cup, where former premier league player Adam Le Fondre bagged the winner for them, narrowly losing 2-1. We had to pick ourselves up from that so eased a win to Tamworth, who are battling safety at the moment. It was then back and forth after that, with a loss, then a win, then another loss to Lincoln and Chester who are aiming for play off spots, and Boreham Wood, who are currently lurking around mid-table.

Player of the Month - November
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Another centre mid picks up player of the month towards the end of 2017. The ball winning midfielder Carl Killner loves to get stuck in and is a big game player. So with an average rating of 7.76 he grabs Novembers POTM.

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Two job interviews offered to me in November, as well as Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood later on in the month. Of course I reject all of these as I hope to stay with FC United for the foreseeable future.

December Results 2017
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A whopping 8 games to play in the end of 2017, and starting to pick up a few injuries so scraping for players at this current moment in time. Two losses in four days, one being to Cheltenham who are sitting on top of the table. FC then go away and travel to Barrow in the FA Trophy 1st round, where we gained a well deserved draw, and a replay back at home 5 days later winning 1-0 thanks to last season's wonder Jason Gilchrist. Once again ending the month with back and forth wins and losses in the league, despite just losing out to Barrow as they grab a 90th minute winner.

Player of the Month - December
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Anthony Jeffrey is the one who ends the year with player of the month. Loves to cut in from the left hand side with pace and flair in his game to cause threats for opposition. Another player who we signed late on in this season's transfer window from Forest Green.
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So here's what the table looks like at the end of the calendar year. We sit just around mid table comfortably which I'm delighted with, just above Tranmere by two points and a few points behind Maidstone and Dag & Red. Many points dropped in the past few months which we didn't deserve to drop on few occasions caused us to have nearly as many losses as wins. Hopefully next year we can climb the table and I'd be very happy to end the season around 6th - 10th.​
 
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