Forest Green Rovers: The Meatiest Vegan Club

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Only 4 fixtures this month, including an FA Trophy tie against Eastleigh. We haven’t missed Murphy as much as I anticipated. However, another late goal cost us a point away at Torquay. Robert who’s been coming off the bench to bolster either the attack or midfield plugged the gap caused by the absence of Murphy initially, before our new loan signings came in and made an impact.

New Loan Signings

Josh McQuoid​

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Former Bournemouth and Northern Ireland International Josh McQuoid joins on a season long loan, where we’re contributing £300 p/w towards his wage. He can play up front and as a right winger, so he’ll add depth to each position. He’s already proved a decent signing, bagging the winning goal in the away fixture at Dover. He initially rejected our loan offer, but after declaring interest in him and swooning him through the media, he accepted our second attempt.

Rushian Hepburn-Murphy
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Shortly after Murphy’s injury, I requested a senior affiliate club to loan players from. The board returned Aston Villa as a suggestion. As such here we’ve managed to loan Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, a pacey, determined striker made a Premier League appearance last year. He lacks Murphy’s physical presence, but I’m hoping his pace makes up for this. He’s got 14 dribbling and 14 finishing, so he should be a handful. He scored on his debut against Torquay, however it wasn’t enough to avoid defeat.

League Table

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Despite the loss at Torquay, we’ve extended our lead to 6 points. The rest of the pack have closed the gap to 2nd place. We’re safe for now, but we need to pushing for clean sheets and wins.
 

Four wins on the trot is somewhat overshadowed by a draw against Barrow and a loss at Sutton, where we looked very poor. However, in the absence Murphy a surprising hero stepped up to continue scoring. Fabien Robert, who had been a utility player came and asked for more game time. I wouldn’t usually pander to these requests, but I thought I’d give him a shot. He rewarded me with 6 goals in 5 games, including a hat-trick against Bromley.

Hepburn-Murphy had been coming off the bench and linking well with Palmer and Robert, registering a few assists and another goal. However, he joins the injury list with a twisted knee against Braintree, he’ll be out for 3 weeks. Hopefully Robert can keep his good form going and lead the line in the absence of Murphy and Hepburn Murphy.

Transfer Window​

We’ve had a quiet transfer window, we’ve shipped out some of the deadwood and agreed a contract for next season.

We’ve sold Marcus Kelly who’d come back from a long-term injury and second keeper Sam Russell. We’ve got two good youth keepers so Russell wasn’t needed.


I feel the team now has the physical presence to be dangerous from set pieces, but the delivery has been lacking. So, we’ve agreed a £650p/w deal with dead ball specialist Dean Brett who will be joining us next season. He’s lacking physicality, but as he’s taking the set pieces it doesn’t matter too much. He has the correct mental attributes to join the squad and will be deployed down the right flank.

League Table

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Despite missing Murphy, we’ve kicked on and increased our lead to 10 points at the top. We now need to keep calm, avoid injuries and keep pushing steadily towards the title, avoiding complacency.
 

It’s been a difficult month in the National League for us. We’ve cruised to the FA Trophy semi-final, but haven’t won in 6 National League games, which is rather worrying. I’m blaming this major drop in form on our poacher injury crisis.

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This screenshot was taken at the end of the month, so the time out indicates the time until the players will be fully fit from 01/03/17. Murphy who’s our first choice has been out since December and won’t be returning until the end of March. I have no idea what Robert and Hepburn-Murphy were doing together, as they both somehow suffered twisted ankles in the same training session. McQuoid would have been an adequate replacement; but he’s needed to cover the right wing as Marsh-Brown is also out with a twisted knee.

So, we’ve had little option except to give youngster Blake Davies a run out in the poachers role. He had little impact in the Gateshead and Woking game, but then from nowhere smashed in a hat trick against Torquay before bagging another against Tranmere. Davies and Palmer need to quickly form an effective partnership in the National League. Previously we’d been conceding more than I would have liked, but always had the firepower up front to get us the win. It’s a worrying situation I’m hoping Davies and Palmer can solve themselves without me having to instigate a change in tactics, as any change could cause us to decline further.

League Table​

But has this run caused us to fall off our perch at the top of the table?

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Not quite yet! That 10 point gap has saved us and we’re now only 3 points ahead of Maidstone in 2nd. We need to start picking up wins quickly, I’m confident our tactics and system will see us through.
 
March​

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Oh dear. We managed to finally pick up a win against relegation candidates Macclesfield. But it was merely a blip in what was a shoddy month to come. A loss to National League South side Chelmsford in the away fixture of the FA Trophy was rather embarrassing. I’d made the decision to rest the 1st​ team as we needed to keep them fresh to push for a win in the National League. However, its worrying that our 2nd​ team can’t beat a team in the division below.

Keeping the first team rested didn’t pay off as we then lost in a Dag & Red game, where Hepburn-Murphy featured after making a quick recovery from his injury, before then picking up another. Key player Palmer also picked up an injury, adding to the crisis.

I called a team meeting after we drew against Chelmsford at home. I told them that they’d been rather diabolical recently and surprisingly everyone agreed. I think the general determination in the squad caused this response, which was good to see. We then reacted incredibly well, with a decent 3-0 win against Solihull at home.

Just as things were looking up, further discord in the squad struck. For some bizarre reason, both Christian Doidge and Mohamed Chemlal pranced off to the media about their lack of playing time, which I was not amused about. I’d made a promise to Doidge to attempt to loan him out, in which we offered him to clubs but no one was interested in taking the snake. Chemlal had been getting game time recently as the squad’s been bare due to injury, so I have no idea what he’s complaining about.

I didn’t even approach them about what they did. I wasn’t angry, I was disappointed, the worst thing that your parents could be. So I composed myself and then did what any self-respecting, dignified manager would have done. I sent them to rot in the under-18’s and transfer listed the pair of them. The sooner we get rid of ‘Devious Doidge’ and ‘Crafty Chemlal’ the better.

The reaction of the rest of the squad was interesting though, a number of key players lead by captain Raynes rallied, reiterating that the pair were out of line. I was pleased as this highlights the decent mentality of the squad. However, Robert and Moore were angry at how I treated the two. I really don’t need players who’re going to stick up for snakes, so they’ve also sealed their fate and will be released when their contracts expire at the end of the season.

League Table​

After another turbulent month, surely we’ve dropped off the pace at the top of the table…….

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Somehow, we’re still clinging on to 1st​ by only 1 point. Next month is rather hectic and the last month of the National League. We now however only have this competition to focus on. I’m going to try switch up our tactics to surprise the opposition in our last 6 games of the season. Hopefully this will stop the rot which seems to be spreading.
 
Going well so far! let's hope you keep going as strong and get the Title!
 
April​

Did we manage to turn around the poor run of form and secure the title?

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Of course we did! We went on to rack up 6 straight wins, smashing in 19 goals. We switched up tactics, introducing a 4-1-2-3 as well as using our 4-4-2. I think the decline was down to my stubbornness and not being willing to adapt to our system. The element of surprise was lacking from our game and our opposition knew how to exploit our system.

As a result of our decline in the later months of the season, I’m going to add more variation to our play next season and get the players more familiar with other formations.

The return of Rhys Murphy was a catalyst in the end of the season push for the title. I thought he may have taken awhile to regain his form, but I was clearly wrong. He was grateful for the faith I’d placed in him!

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League Table

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​
We finished 1st​, leading the rest of the pack by 8 points, achieving our season target and gaining promotion to League 2 for the first time in the clubs’ history!

Next post will be the end of season round up and awards.
 
End of Season Review​

Overall I’m very happy with how the season has gone, despite the sketchy decline of form in March. I’ve learnt that you can’t tinker solely with one system all year as your opponents adapt and can predict how you’ll play. The element of surprise is a rather useful weapon and can be deployed to completely throw off the team you’re facing.

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National League Golden Boot​

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Rhys Murphy finished 2nd​ despite missing 4 months of the season, I reckon he could have won the award of he remained fit. However, credit goes to Jamar Loza who tucked away an incredible 37 goals.

Season Awards​

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We can see Ollie Palmer was voted ‘Fans player of the season’ by a considerable amount. I agree with the fans, when he played well (which was the majority of the time) the rest of the team followed. He also bagged the goal of the season to help his cause.

Stats​

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Again we can see Palmer had the highest average rating at 7.41, which is pretty impressive. He did his job as a target man incredibly well, this is also highlighted by the 15 assists he racked up. His loan ends at the end of the season. We do have the option to make it permanent by paying £35k. However, I think I’m going to be sneaky with this one, his contract also expires at the end of the month. So instead of a paying the fee I’m going to try snap him up on a free transfer. He loves the club and the fans love him, so it’s a no brainer to try get him to stay.

Finances​

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We’ve already declared new sponsors for the upcoming season, which is definitely needed. Our finances aren’t in as good of a state as I originally thought. We’ve been hemorrhaging money this season, despite being well under the wage budget. As a result, we haven’t been able to put in place that youth system I’m wanting to develop. I’m thinking we’re going to have to stick to the ‘Moneyball’ rules and accept any offers more than the value of the player. Faure had a good season and already has clubs sniffing around him. Unfortunately, I doubt he’ll be at the club for next season.
 
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Forest Green Rovers: 17/18 Season

EFL League 2

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After a great first season, we managed to secure promotion to the EFL League 2 for the first time in the clubs history by winning the title. We did so by playing defensive, direct no nonsense football, setting up a system which can now be used in a league where we’ll always be the under dogs. It should be an exciting season where hopefully we topple teams expected to thrash us. The tactics used seem to work with players who I didn’t particularly want last season, so I’m excited to see how it fares where we can bring in physical players specifically for this system.

I’ll also be closely monitoring the finances this season, I’m hoping now we’ve stepped up a league we’ll have a bigger match attendance and more income. Last season the board rejected nearly all my requests due to financial worries. If the club is to grow and for us to start developing a good youth system, we need better finances.

On another note, thanks to Zinedine Zaiddin we’ve got these sweet new kits for the upcoming season! I tried to keep to club’s owners vegan vision so the eco friendly (I think) Tesla Motors are the new sponsor.

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Pre Season​

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We’ve had a good pre-season with some decent results. We thrashed minnows Brimscombe and Bishop’s Cleeve with convincing 5-0 and 6-0 wins. Senior affiliate Aston Villa and Everton proved tougher challenges, but we managed to avoid defeat in both games. The clean sheet against Everton was impressive as we nullified Lukaku and he left the field with a 6.4 rating.

Transfer Window
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We’ve had a busy transfer window, bringing in a whopping total of 17 players. We’ve shipped out 16 players as we search to build a squad with the correct mentality and physicality.

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Good riddance to Devious Doidge and Crafty Chemlal. However, as predicted we couldn’t keep hold of the heart of our defence Faure, he had a great first season and had plenty of clubs sniffing around him. When League 1 Plymouth came in for him I knew he wouldn’t be happy if we’d rejected the bid, so we haggled within reason and secured a fee of £190k for him. We brought him in on a free transfer, so it’s a tidy profit after just one season at the club.

The total incomings (£215k) amounted to more than the outgoings (£210k) which was pleasing. We’ve formed a squad capable of performing in this league without losing money.

Key signings

Jed Wallace​

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Championship winger Jed Wallace joins on a season long loan. We’re not paying his wages, but we’re paying £12.5k a month, which is essentially like contributing £3k a week wages. He’s rated by our coaches as a ‘decent championship player’ so he should excel against League 2 teams. He displays the correct mentality to fit in with the team and will be a key player for this season.

Stephen Kingsley

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A ridiculously good signing for a League 2 club. Premier League full back Kingsley joins on a season long loan where we’re contributing £700p/w to his contract and 3k a month fee. So it’s about a £1.5kp/w we’re contributing. He featured in the Premier League last season for Swansea, so clearly he’s a player of high pedigree. We’ll be looking to use him on the left flank and ask him to get forward to influence the attacks.

Joey Barton

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Another player who featured in the Premier League last season. The infamous Joey Barton joins on a free transfer from Burnley with a £1.2p/w contract, expiring at the end of the season. He’s getting on at the age of 35 and this is reflected by his physical stats, but he’ll be sitting deep and he’ll be rather static, so he won’t have to do much running. He’s determined and a good long range passer, so he’ll be able to find our forwards with some searching long balls.

Youth Signings

DJ Buffonge

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Former Manchester United youth player, 18 year old DJ Buffonge joins on a free transfer with a £600p/w contract. He’ll develop into a good championship winger and is decent enough for the first team now. But we need to work his mentality, hopefully with him being around our other players displaying the correct attitude, he’ll soon develop this.

Thomas McDermott

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Former Tottenham goalkeeper youth prospect Thomas McDermott. He’s a current under 21 international and should develop into a good keeper. He’s determined and has the “Uses long throws to start counter attacks” player trait, which should fit with our tactics well.

Rhyle Ovenden​

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Welsh Under 19’s player Rhyle Ovenden joins on a free transfer with a £250p/w contract. At 6’4”, he fits our philosophy and has already developed physically, so we don’t need to worry about that. He’s got a good attitude which will definitely aid his development. We’ll be focusing on improving his technical attributes.

Other notable signings include:
- Ben Tozer, a utility player who’s natural at central defence, central midfield and right back. He’s got a long throw of 17, so we’ll hopefully be replicating some Rory Delap throw in routines.
- Irish under 21 Kevin Toner on loan from Aston Villa, capable of playing in central defence and left back.
- Keinan Davis on loan from Aston Villa, who’s be acting as a poacher and should hopefully bag some goals.
- Big man Ollie Palmer on a sneaky free transfer after his loan finished last season.
- Fraser Franks on a free transfer, to bolster the defence.
- Youth prospect Herson Alves, a tall Portuguese attacking midfielder.
- Ben Gordon on a free transfer, a veteran centre back and potential captain for the upcoming season.
- The French Nigel Atangana, a 6’4” centre midfielder with a great engine on him, at the moment he’s the best candidate to play alongside Barton in the midfield.
- 23 year old centre back Joe Gorman for £12k, a player with plenty of scope for development and already great in the air.
- Aaron Amadi-Holloway on loan, who was quickly returned to Fleetwood after he was injured and never really challenged in the air whilst in the target man position.
- Instead, in came the taller and stronger Amadou Bakayoko, who’ll be back up to Palmer.

Next post will be the squad roster for the season and any changes to our tactical system!
 
Squad

Goalkeepers

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Ian McLoughlin is still our first team choice, he performed well last season despite a couple of minor blips. McDermott will feature in some games to ensure he continues to develop.


Franks and Brett will feature at right back, with Franks being the defensive option and Brett used to influence attacks. We’ll be partnering Gorman and Gordon in the centre. Gordon is tutoring Gorman, so hopefully they’ll develop a good relationship and work well together. Kingsley will feature heavily throughout the season at left back and on the left flank. We’ll be asking him to get forward more.

Midfielders​

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Championship winger Jed Wallace will be operating on the right wing, I’m hoping he can register plenty of assists. Joey Barton and Atangana will be playing in the centre. Barton will be the brains whilst Atangana will be the brawn. I’m keen that DJ Buffonge gets plenty of first team experience and continues to develop, so he’ll be featuring on the left flank.

Strikers​

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Palmer will continue to be an integral part of the team, operating as our target man for the season. Playing off him we have the options of Murphy and Davis. Bakayoko will be a decent rotation option if Palmer’s fatigued. We’re pretty bare on the striker front currently and any major injury could damage us. I’ll keep sniffing around for a decent free transfer to add depth up front.

Here is our first choice team for the season! Franks and Davis have injuries which should clear for the start of the season.

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A steady start to the 17/18 season in League Two, with some good results in the EFL Cup & Trophy. We’ve also started bagging goals from corners, being effective from set pieces is a trait I wanted to develop at the start of the season, so it’s encouraging we’re heading in the right direction.

We managed to overcome senior affiliate Aston Villa in the 1st round of the EFL Cup, with Racine burying the winning goal from a well worked corner. We then went on to beat Brighton in the 2nd​ round, with Davis coming on as a sub and bagging the winning goal. We also dispatched League One Burton in the EFL Trophy Group stage, however there’s still plenty of games to play in group stages so we won’t get too excited just yet.

However, we only registered one win the League Two, we need to start picking up wins. We had a slow start to the National League and still managed to finish first, so I’m not too concerned at this stage.

League Table

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We’re currently 16th​ in the table which is rather disappointing, but we’ve only played 5 games whilst others have played 6. Another win and we’ll rocket up the table.
 
September

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A month where we managed to find our stride. We’ve started racking up points in the League and we also played perhaps the most exciting game of FM I’ve seen in the 3-2 win away to a strong West Ham side. It was decided from a last minute penalty by Bakayoko, I’m usually relatively calm whilst playing FM, apart from the occasional outburst of “What are you doing you pleb!?” But this game had me acting like a mad man. I even got carpet burn as I slid across the living room as Bakayoko blasted in the winning goal.

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(Mourinho replicating my celebration as Bakayoko scored)​

Aston Villa loanee Keinan Davis found his scoring boots and he’s bagged 7 goals throughout the month. Hopefully his form will continue.

For the first time I think in forever, we made a monthly profit! So, in alignment with our philosophies, I requested a youth recruitment improvement which was accepted. I think this is a major turning point for the club, we’re starting to head in the right direction, we need to continue to compete without relying on investments from the chairman to keep us afloat.

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League Table​

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Without sounding too smug… As I predicted we found our feet in the League and we’ve shot up the table to 3rd​ place and to an automatic promotion place. But we won’t be getting too excited just yet, there’s plenty of football to be played.
 
Usually a silent reader, but I'm loving this! I really like how you go into detail about how you think when playing FM and the reasoning behind your choices.
 
@shasterix Thanks for the comment, it's encouraging to hear you're enjoying the detail of my ramblings!
 
October
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A difficult month. We lost to Chelsea Under 20’s on penalties in the EFL Trophy Group stage which was pretty gutting. It was a match that on balance we could have won. The rest of the month comprised of 2 wins and 2 losses in League 2 and another loss on penalties to QPR in the EFL Cup 4th​ Round. We put up a good fight against a Championship side, so it’s not all bad. It also allows us to focus on the League, which can only be a good thing.

Our young, ex-Manchester Utd, free transfer DJ Buffonge has lived up to the hype this month. He’s really kicked on despite my reservations about his attitude to claim Player of the Month award, scoring 3 goals in 4 appearances from the left wing. I hope he continues to push on and develop his stats.

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League Table​

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Our 2 wins and losses have seen us drop off the pace slightly, but we’re still in the play off’s. We’ll continue to push for an automatic promotion spot!
 
November​

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A month with plenty of ups and downs, including smashing Portsmouth with a mighty 7-1 victory, where loanee Bakayoko plundered 4 goals winning him Young Player of the Month award. Buffonge also continued his impressive form from the previous month, making him runner up.

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In a similar turn of events as last season, we lose our striker in the poacher role to long term injury. Keinan Davis is struck with knee tendonitis, ruling him out for 5-6 months. As we were in this situation last season, it’s pretty frustrating. Fraser Franks who’s been excelling at right back is also ruled out.

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However, as soon as Davis was injured we set out to scour the transfer market for free transfers and stumbled across a very good player. Adam Le Fondre or ALF for short, joins on a free transfer.

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He’s a decent all round player, with good finishing and composure who scored 8 goals in the Championship last season. Ideally, I would like him to be slightly more pacey but with 13 acceleration he’s no slouch. His age is a slight concern as he’s only going to get slower, but he should tie us over until we find a good long term replacement.

League Table
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At the end of November, we’re still up near the top of the table and only 1 point off the automatic promotion places. If we can keep up this form, I’m sure we’ll be in a good position for promotion.
 
December​

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A great month in the EFL League Two, but a disappointing exit from the FA Cup to Championship side Burton. The number of clean sheets we’ve racked up this month is encouraging and we’ve only conceded one goal in 5 games. The defence is really starting to gel despite being chopped and changed this month. Barton and Atangana are providing great cover in central midfield, breaking up attacks before the opposition works the ball into our box.

Adam Le Fondre has only scored once this month, I was hoping for a greater goal output from him. However, he’s just been introduced to the team and is still adapting to our system so we’ll give him more time before we drop him to the bench.

League Table ​

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After a good month, we’re flying in League Two and are 3 points clear of Leyton Orient. Hopefully we can keep this up, but I have a feeling that Orient are going to give us tough competition until the end of the season. We’ve already played and lost to them earlier on in the season and are playing them away next month. It’s a must win game if we’re going to win the title, but I’ll be happy if we end up in any of the automatic promotion places.
 
Happy with automatic promotion place is not enough, keep focused on winning the title! Best of luck, good lad :D

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 
This is great stuff mate! I also enjoy a Forest Green save, they're an interesting team. We also think very similarly in terms of how we manage. I'll be keeping an eye on this, for sure! (H)
 
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