In need of an Oxford degree; in miracles

Sorry, I had been reading it on my phone and it didn't give the option to check. Gutted for you... Looks like the battle to get back up is in full swing! Smash it!!!
 
Danny21237 - haha no worries mate! Thanks, hopefully we'll bounce straight back up at the first time of asking.

January
View attachment 23461Henry Cowans is ruled out for 3 months with a torn hamstring, he usually comes off the bench for me and has yet to show his best form whilst at the club.

View attachment 23457Welling - The most uneventful game highlighted by the fact there were no goals scored.
Chesham - Back to winning ways with a goal scored by Norman Wabo.
Dartford - We managed to just about scrape a draw as we struggled to get going against a strong side chasing the play offs.
Bromley - We face Vanarama National side Bromley in the FA trophy and don't let the scoreline fool you, we should've got well and truly battered, they were dominant throughout the whole game!
Kingstonian - Luke Wanadio scored a fantastic 25 yarder before Tshimanga rounded off a well worked team goal. Norman Wabo then also got on the scoresheet with an equally good team goal! Harry Pritchard then scored a header for his first goal for the club.
AFC Hornchurch - We went a goal down against the run of play but dug deep and turned it round with 2 late goals!

View attachment 234564th placed, 4 points off of top. Wealdstone and Woking are level on points with Bath City 2 points behind them followed by us.
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How have you found the board with you this season mate? 4 points off the top... A fair bit of Footy to play yet too! Keep it up mate!!
 
Looks like the top 4 are starting to pull away a little now. Hopefully you can have a good month and mount a serious title challenge from here!
 
Danny21237 -I'm enjoying this season, just need more consistency. The board absolutely love me tbf, I think as I got them promoted and into their highest ever league position they feel I cant do any wrong.

TheNotSoSpecialOne - Yeah there seems to be a gap growing at the top of the table. We are just a bit too inconsistent for my liking.

February

View attachment 23393Truro - A game where we deserved to win but failed to convert our chances and we paid for it with a 2-1 defeat.
Bognor Regis - We were 2-0 down at half time against bottom of the table at home so I went ballistic and changed to a 4-3-3 formation which aided a comeback, Wabo scoring the equaliser in the 92nd minute!
Havant & Waterlooville - We absolutely battered them but only managed to score thanks to a Tshimanga penalty, a harsh penalty to give as well may I add.
Chippenham - Back to back 1-0 wins thanks to a set piece goal, obviously it was a free kick from Teddy Bloor.

View attachment 23392We dropped valuable points at the start of the month to relegation threatened Bognor Regis and Truro! We finish the month in 3rd however 9 points off of Wealdstone who have started to pull away from the rest of us slightly. Bath City form has fallen off of a cliff and are now 12 points off of top after leading for most of the opening months of the season.

One more addition to the side in February and a household name joins...
View attachment 23391Sone Aluko - A player that once went for £7.5million joins the club on a free. My scout really didn't rate him and stated him as last resort however I feel he can offer something different. His physical attributes have taken a massive hit but he still possesses good dribbling, first touch, passing, off the ball, flair with other decent attributes. He signs until the end of the season on £275 a week so there's little risk to this transfer.
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Aluko has super sub written all over him!!
 
TheNotSoSpecialOne - Yeah technically he is superb for this level just hasn't got the legs anymore.

March
View attachment 23385Wealdstone - A relatively close game which was level pegging until late on when Wealdstone got their deserved win. Our title hopes are all but over now.
Hemel Hempstead - We weren't very good at all but managed to salvage a draw out of the game.
Torquay - A non eventful game although we get the win we needed thanks to Pete Whittington's goal.
Woking - A game against 2nd placed Woking to finish the month and we took the lead after a horrendous mistake from their keeper which allowed Norman Wabo a tap. Tshimanga then killed the game off in injury time to seal a much needed win.

View attachment 23384We are 3rd in the table after another inconsistent month however the title is out of reach after Wealdstone are 12 points clear of us. They have already got play offs as a minimum but surely they cant throw the title away now with a 10 point lead from Woking in 2nd.

We have had our youth intake this month aswell, I only signed one on, guess which player that was…
View attachment 23387After we spent money upgrading our training and youth facilities, we have benefitted with a five star potential player...

View attachment 23386Connor Bashir - A 16 year old Englishman. At 6ft 1, he possesses great physical attributes alongside decent finish, first touch, decision making and determination. Hopefully with age and experience he will improve some other elements of his game but by far my best youth prospect yet.
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April

We have extended the contracts of Ryan Huckle and Rob Sinclair who have both taken a pay cut in order to stay here. As has Eddie O'Brien who has signed a 2 year contract so will be here until 2024 at least. One player who has had a pay rise in order to stay with us is Kabongo Tshimanga who is now on £475 a week until next season.

View attachment 23362
St Albans - We start the month with a 2-1 win. Despite not being at our best I particularly enjoyed this win as this was the reserve fixture of the game where Ryan Huckle was wrongly sent off inside 18 minutes.
Eastbourne Boro - We fell to a defeat against Eastbourne Boro despite shading the game.
Dulwich Hamlet - WHAT A GAME! The most entertaining game ive had at Oxford City. 3-1 up at half time before they pegged us back to 3-3 10 minutes into the second half. Teddy Bloor then scored a free kick but we were pegged back again when they scored in the 89th minute. Up step Tshimanga who scored the winner in the 92nd minute to seal a 5-4 win!
Gosport - A classy performance capped off by a brilliant goal from Wabo in injury time of the first half.
East Thurrock - We conceded a 89th minute goal which I thought would be the winner until Cameron Healey scored a 20 yarder curler with seconds left to share the spoils.
Bath - We finished the season with a comfortable 2-0 win over Bath thanks to a brace from Tshimanga. I gave our new academy prospect his first taste of first team football as he came off the bench and played 40 minutes but the game mostly passed him by.

View attachment 23363This is how the final league table looks. Wealdstone deservedly go up as champions with ourselves finishing 2nd. If only there were two automatic spots in this league! Instead we will face either Dartford or East Thurrock at home in the play off semi final!
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Play-off Semi Final

We play the winner of East Thurrock and Dartford...
View attachment 23361It turns out to be Dartford, I probably would've fancied East Thurrock but we can certainly beat Dartford. A thrilling game that finished 4-3 to the home side.

So how would we fair against Dartford...

We edged the first half and missed a few great chances in particular Wabo and Pritchard. In the 75th minute there was a throwing for the away side, it comes to their striker at the edge of the box where Huckle goes through the back of him. I say it was outside the box, the referee calls a penalty but have your say...
View attachment 23354Anyway up steps Sammy Ompreon who calmly converts to make it 1-0 Dartford. Despite a great chance for sub Liddle in the closing stages, we fail to break their resolute defence and fall to a defeat.

View attachment 23360Gutted! I thought we were by far the best side particularly in the first half. If Wabo and Tshimanga were on form we would've won. They won despite having 1 shot on target which was from the penalty spot.

The Final was between Woking and Dartford with the winners getting promoted...
View attachment 23351Dartford get promoted after winning in extra time and getting another penalty!

View attachment 23353Teddy Bloor has been superb this season and claims fans player of the year and young player of the season. Unsurprisingly Eddie O'Brien claims signing of the season although Whittington may have run him close. Huckle and Healey came second and third in the fans player of the year with Tshimanga scoring goal of the season with an incredible strike against Hungerford.

View attachment 23352Tshimanga claims top goal scorer for Oxford City and also water is wet. Norman Wabo did run him close this season. Bloor picked up highest average rating and most man of the match awards with 7. Healey got the highest pass completion rate. Sinclair got most assists despite not playing as much as usual this season. Whittington had most yellow cards with 9 and Huckle got our only red card of the season.

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Unlucky there in the playoffs again mate! Shame Wealdstone were so impressive or you might have won the league this season! I'm assuming the aim next season is to finish top of the pile now?
 

TheNotSoSpecialOne - Believe it or not but the board expect a mid table finish this season! I am aiming for top spot though especially after this summer transfer window.

Pre-season & Transfers

First of all the released players...View attachment 23219Caolan Lavery departed after his contract expired, I am deeply disappointed with his spell at the club as when I first signed him I was adamant he'd be a big hit here at the club, especially when his value increased to £250,000 when he signed his 2 year deal. With deep regret Joe Anderson has left, he didn't get much game time last year and wanted to much money for a back up. The trio of Joseph, Holland and Wassmer were released from their part time contract due to new arrivals coming in and them not going to get any game time this coming season.
Now for the arrivals...
View attachment 232186 new arrivals, 5 on a free transfer and one season long loan. The signing I am most pleased with is Teddy Bloor who signs on for a season after winning fans player of the season and several loan spells with the club.

View attachment 23217Harry Wright - We only had one goalkeeper at the club in Ben Dudzinski so needed a new goalkeeper. I acquired Harry Wright, son of Richard Wright, on a free transfer and he has some very impressive attributes for a sweeper keeper, a role I haven't used yet.

View attachment 23216Teddy Bloor - No explanation needed, if only he had better crossing than 7! How his free kick taking attribute is only 11 astonishes me!

View attachment 23215Tyler Walker - A new striker, son of Des Walker, has come through the youth ranks at Nottingham Forest before he got released. He has all round decent attributes without any being excellent so should be a good asset to the side.


View attachment 23214
Russell Higham - Released from Man City, he should be a fantastic player once his technical attributes improve as his physicals are outstanding!

View attachment 23213Chris Blake - Released from Bristol City, he has outstanding passing at 15, technique of 13 and vision of 11 so should be a good deep lying playmaker. At the age of 18 he should hopefully blossom into something special.

View attachment 23211Matt Sargent - A season long loan signing from Wrexham. Not the tallest of centre halves but has excellent strength alongside some impressive other attributes with little weaknesses to his game. Should push O'Brien and Huckle for a spot in the first team.

View attachment 232077 games played, 5 wins, 0 draws and 2 defeats. We only drew one blank and that came in a narrow home loss to league one side Oxford. We had impressive wins against Kidderminster, Havre AC reserves, RC Lens Reserves, QPR U23s, AFC Rushden and Diamonds with Highman, O'Brien and Tshimanga catching the eye. We also lost narrowly to a strong Accrington Stanley side so we should be a good outfit this season!
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August

View attachment 23059Slough - We kicked off the season with a tricky home game against recently relegated Slough however Higham scored within 5 minutes of his debut before Tshimanga scored the winner after Slough had equalised half way through the second half.
Kingstonian - A fantastic away win, Teddy Bloor scored his first free kick of the season and then Cameron Healey scored a 20 yard stunner in injury time to seal a dramatic late win.
Havant & Waterlooville - Tyler Walker got his first for the club, 5 minutes after missing a penalty before Higham made it 2 in 3 games with a fine goal early in the second half.
Brackley - We weren't at the races but managed to nick a 1-0 win thanks to a deflected goal from Pete Whittington.
AFC Hornchurch - Another impressive win, both Whittington and Walker scoring their second goal of the season.
Woking - A fantastic win! We didn't play brilliantly however we were ruthless with Tshimanga grabbing a brace alongside a Norman Wabo strike.

View attachment 23058A perfect start to the season with 6 wins from 6 games! I feel this is the best squad of players I have had since becoming manager of Oxford City. I will still be looking for 2 more players to add a bit more quality to my starting 11 throughout the season but hopefully we continue this amazing form!

View attachment 23057It probably comes as little surprise that after our unbeaten month, I claimed manager of the month.
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September
View attachment 22981St Albans - We were really dire during this game and were lucky to come away with a point as we lose our 100% record.
Hemel Hempstead - Back to back draws and two poor performances on the trot however Tyler Walker's goal ensured we kept our unbeaten record in tact.
Eastbourne Boro - A Tshimanga brace and Walker penalty got us back to winning ways!
Weston Super Mare - We faced an away tie in the FA Cup and managed to come away with a win. Coming on was Conor Bashir who got the all important 4th to seal the win, his first professional goal since coming through the youth ranks!
Chippenham - We were very good and deserved to win by more if it wasn't for wasteful finishing, thankfully Tshimanga scored his usual goal a game to win us the game.
Hungerford - What a way to end the month! Whittington, Pritchard and Walker with the goals to round off a fantastic performance and month.
View attachment 22980We finish the month as we started it, top of the league! We extend our lead to 2nd place Torquay to 4 points with a superior goal difference. Interestingly we are already 13 points clear of 8th!
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October

Connor Bashir turned 17 during October and as a result we tied him down to his first professional contract, £20 a week for two years. He has progressed nicely so far and we hope this continues!

View attachment 22883Dorchester - A routine cup win. Connor Bashir came off the bench and celebrated his birthday and professional contract with a second FA cup goal!
Dulwich Hamlet - Big game away from home and we get an impressive win via a Tshimanga strike.
Hendon - Another Teddy Bloor free kick for the collection however we got pegged back late on to drop 2 points.
Ashton United - We had Vanarama North side, Ashton, in the last qualifying round of the FA cup and we saw them off comfortably.
Chesham - A bore draw, without any clear cut chances for either side. We did have a goal ruled off for offside which was very tight and on another day may have been given.
Welling - What a dramatic late equaliser! After controlling the game we conceded an 87th minute goal before a 96th minute screamer by the impressive Pete Whittington kept the unbeaten run in tact!
Bath - Which didn't last much longer! We shaded the game however were no where near our best. We had 2 goals correctly disallowed in this game.
Whitehawk - Back to winning ways in style albeit against bottom of the league. O'Brien, Tshimanga, Wabo and Bloor with the goals.

After our impressive run, we made a new club record...
View attachment 22885
View attachment 22881We remain top of the table however the gap to second has been cut to 1 point by Slough, who we lost to in our first season in the play offs. Torquay have gone off the boil and dropped to 4th. We need to convert more of our chances and become more consistent to keep our place at the top in the upcoming months.

After beating Ashton, we are in the first round of the FA Cup and face...
View attachment 22879League one outfit, Fleetwood Town! A tricky tie at home but should produce some good revenue for the club.
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Going really well so far...it's almost a bit of a shame that Slough are also having an outstanding season otherwise I think you'd be ******* the league at this stage!
 
TheNotSoSpecialOne - Yeah totally agree! Considering we have only lost one game up until October, its staggering we were only a point clear. Their squad is very strong as well when I was looking through their side.

November

View attachment 22794We started the month with our FA Cup 1st round game with Fleetwood. We started the better side and took the lead through a free kick from Teddy Bloor, Shock! At half time we were looking comfortable with our 1-0 lead. Fleetwood changed system and really took the game to us creating a lot more chances, eventually taking 2 of those chances to turn the game on its head and win 2-1. I am delighted with our performance though, basically matching a league one outfit and having more possession as I adapted our 4-4-2 to cautious approach.

View attachment 22792As a result of our FA Cup game, we gained £55,000 on the gate receipts which set a new club record!

View attachment 22793
View attachment 22791Bognor Regis - A game we dominated however couldn't take any of our chances until Teddy Bloor scored another free kick, that's 2 in the last 2 games for him from set pieces.
Torquay - What a win! We were 2-1 down after we gave away a harsh penalty. We changed to a 4-3-3 attacking formation and Wabo came off the bench to score with 10 minutes to go before Tshimanga sealed the win in the 86th minute!
Margate - Awful second half defensive performance. I made 11 changes in the FA Trophy and we took the lead through a fine striker from Harry Pritchard. We then had 25 shots at goal, one of which from Adam Liddle was ruled correctly offside. They then managed to turn the game around with a 3-1 win.

View attachment 22790A good month of league results as we played 2 and won 2. Slough managed 2 draws so our gap increases to 5 points! Our cup form was the complete opposite with 2 games and 2 losses however I am not too concerned as we can now completely focus on the league.

View attachment 22789After playing 2 league games in November, I managed to win manager of the month with a 100% record. Paul Terry and Tony Craig also had 100% records but I assumed I won it due to being top of the league and the way we managed to turn the game around against Torquay.
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December
View attachment 22460Merthyr - A dismal performance although a bit of pride was restored thanks to Pete Whittington.
East Thurrock - A day to forget! Tshimanga did score but it was too little too late as we start December not how we wanted to!
Slough - What an important win this could be! A tight game that we slightly edged and Mr Reliable aka Tshimanga unsurprisingly grabbed the all important winner!
Kingstonian - A fantastic performance that saw us 3-0 before half time thanks to Eddie O'Brien, Whittington and Tshimanga who made it 3 in 3.

View attachment 22459That all important win away at Slough sees us top of the league 6 points ahead of Slough now! Hopefully we kick on from here and cement our place at the top.
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Wow just caught up on this and I'd missed a lot (like the playoff final defeat, promotion, relegation and more playoff heartache!) Loving the story though mate. KIU
 
neaviepops23 - Thanks mate. I have certainly had a lot of entertainment each year with 2 play off heartaches, a promotion and a relegation in my 4 years at Oxford City.

January

Some injury news for the first time in a while to start the month...
View attachment 22392Russell Higham will be out for the remainder of the month after twisting his ankle. thankfully we have an adequate ready replacement in the shape of Luke Wanadio.

View attachment 22387
Havant & Waterlooville - We face relegation threatened Havant and went a goal up before getting over complacent which coincided with us throwing our lead away to lose 2-1.
Brackley - Not the best of performances but we get an important win thanks to Tyler Walker who was outstanding!
AFC Hornchurch - A very dominant display which we won comfortably with our striker force grabbing a goal each.
Woking - Another resolute performance. Whittington scoring his 8th league goal of the season which is a fantastic return for a centre midfielder and of course Tshimanga grabbed the other goal.
St Albans - We went into the break a goal down so I made 2 substitutes with Bashir and Blake coming on for Wanadio and Pritchard and we switched to an attacking 4-3-3 formation. It didn't work as straight after half time they doubled their lead before Teddy Bloor scored his monthly free kick to offer a glimmer of hope. Up step academy graduate Connor Bashir who unleashed a fantastic striker from 25 yards to rescue a point! We did actually score again through a Ryan Huckle header but it was ruled out after he had allegedly pushed their defender to win the header.View attachment 22388We finish the month top of the league again, 6 points ahead of 2nd place Dulwich Hamlet. Slough are now 7th however have 3 games in hand and can climb back up to 2nd if they win all of those. They have had several replays in the FA Trophy which they are still currently in so hopefully that will work against them in the race for the title.
We end the month how we started it, with injury news...View attachment 22391Norman Wabo suffers the same injury as Russell Higham, just like Higham he is out for 4 weeks with his twisted ankle. Connor Bashir willstep up and be substitute to Walker and Tshimanga in his absence, as he proved with his equalising goal in the last game.
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February
View attachment 22225Hemel Hempstead - A good important win despite not dominating the game. Ryan Huckle scored a header from a corner and Wanadio scored his first of the season with a tap in from a rebound.
Eastbourne Boro - A dominating performance that we ended up losing 2-0 following an own goal and a screamer.
Chippenham - They took the lead with an outrageous strike from 30 yards. Bloor and Healey then scored screamers themselves before we conceded with 2 minutes left to drop 2 valuable points.
Hungerford - An important win, Tshimanga scored with the last kick of the game to seal a dramatic win.

View attachment 22224We remain top of the league however our lead is now only a point after a rather inconsistent month whereas Dulwich Hamlet won every game to heap pressure on ourselves. Our next match is a 6 pointer against Dulwich Hamlet!
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