Rise of The Wood - Vanarama South S1

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Welcome to Rise of The Wood. In this story I will be managing Boreham Wood FC, a promising team from Vanarama South, with the goal of becoming the best team in England. For the first season, our team is predicted to reach 6th place in the league. I hope to do better than that and get into promotion race from the get-go.

So.. who is this clown, thinking he can get a low-tier team to BPL? Let me introduce myself, John Sixkiller - the 23 y.o. manager. Here are my stats:


This is the first team I'm managing, and hopefully I'll have a long run here. With the introductions over, let's get down to business and take a look at the squad we'll be working with.

The first person that takes my interest is the young striker Lee Angol. Lee is on a loan from Luton and his contract will keep him here for at least a year. His stats are amazing for this league and I'm confident he'll be a key player for us this season.


Talking about talented young strikers, we have one of our own! Junior Morlas from Jamaica is a 19 year old striker. With multiple +10 physical stats, he should be invaluable to our offense.



Already, I'm loving the offense of this team but how about the defense? Although we have one decent CD, Callum Reynolds, the team definitely lacks good defensive players. I believe our first priority in transfers will be finding another Callum, though that might take a while with our 3.3K transfer budget.



Looking through all the other players, I decided on running 4-3-1-2 for this team. I usually like playing 4-4-2 but the team has a really good attacking midfielder that can't play central midfielder so we'll have to adjust, at least for now. We'll be playing positional football, not because my team is amazing at handling the ball but because... I simply enjoy playing positional football! With all that under consideration, here is the tactics and instructions I ended up with.

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I won't prepare any other tactics until I test this one out, we'll see how it performs in the friendlies soon enough... Thanks for reading and please leave a comment! (Especially about these pictures.. how do I make them bigger/smaller? >.>)
 
Promising start! To alter the pictures,click on them after adding them into the reply box, and you should get a control panel to size/move your picture as necessary
 
Thanks, I didn't try double-clicking! I talked about defense and strikers, here is how my midfield looks compared to other teams. 1st in Teamwork, 2nd in Technique and 4th in Passing should be really good news for possession based football! Once again our defense lacks though, 18th in tackling.


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SEASON 1 - PRESEASON ​



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I was upset after the first team meeting, half of the team doesn't think we have what it takes to compete for the promotion. At least the bookies give us 100/1 odds, which isn't terrible. I just hoped we'd get some good results in the preseason so the players would start believing in themselves a bit more. And the results were indeed alright. We scored 2 wins and 2 losses in the friendlies, mostly against better teams. We were only favored against Potters Bar.

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Luton actually had more shots at goal than us but our goalkeeper did wonders. Even though the match ended 3-0, it really could go both ways. Our defense allowed too many clear chances and I made sure they knew about this after the game. The team wasn't thrilled about me yelling at them after a 3-0 win but I had to do it. Also as I expected Lee Angol, the striker I have on loan from Luton, scored two against Luton and showed he is capable.

The next two games followed the same scenario. Great offense, bad defense, ~%55-60 possession. I believe we deserved at least a draw against Brentford but it was an unlucky match for us. However against Watford we were trampled, as expected, they showed class and completely outplayed us in our own game. It goes to show how much we need to improve in order to compete at the Premier League. We were trailing in every part of the game and were just lucky to score 2 against them.

During the preseason even though I hired a good scout I was upset about not getting any loans or free transfers to improve my squad, so when Reading helped me out right at the end of preseason I was delighted. Apparently Reading and The Wood have a local partnership for loans! I didn't expect this at all so naturally I was very happy about getting two key players out of nowhere. They aren't defenders but still, it's great news. Here are the free loans I got from Reading.

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With this boost, I fully believe all we need is a decent first-team CD and we will be on our way to a promotion! The tactics seem to work fine, so I won't be changing it or adding new ones for now.
 
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SEASON 1 - A GOOD START

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First 3 matches are over and we are off to an amazing start! We had 3 matches in the first 8 days and most of our players weren't match fit to begin with so I had to use a lot of backup players in the process but we somehow managed to win all three games!

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Lee Angol, our Poacher Striker, managed to score every single game and has 4 goals to his name! A name I didn't pay much attention to, Ricky Shakes, shined in the games against Hemel Hempsted and Staines, scoring a long-range effort in each one. Both of his goals were spectacular so I checked his long-shots after the game.. 7. I don't know what got into him these two games, but I know I'd love to see more of that. Here are his stats.

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The closest match was against Hemel Hempstead, which was actually tied until 90+5! After an amazing pass 18-yo Defensive Forward Junior Morlas was left one-on-one against the keeper and he managed to score under pressure, it was a very even game overall so I'd say we got lucky in that one. In the other matches we truly earned our victories so I'm optimistic about the future.

In other news, Maidenhead is doing very well in the league. They also won 3/3 and are in the lead with fewer goals allowed. We are in 2nd place and there are no other teams that won every game. Havant & W and Bromley have drawn against each other and won every other game, so they both enjoy 7 pts. The contenders are already starting to show themselves!

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That's it for this update, our next game is against Bromley. I believe they'll be our first big challenge. They are one of the favorites to win the league. Wish me luck!
 
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SEASON 1 - 10 MATCHES IN​


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10 matches into the league we have the lead! We didn't have any serious injuries and everyone is starting to get in form. Lee Angol has been unreal, scoring 13 goals in the first 6 games! He's leading the league in scoring and player of the match awards. He also won the player of the month award! It seems like he will be my top priority transfer target after the loan. The last few matches were way closer than I'd like but I don't want to change anything while we are getting decent results. Next match is the first cup match we will play. Hopefully it will be an easy win against Kingstonian with 7 free days to get prepared.


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I also got the manager of the month award in my first month, so that was nice! Still, Bromley and Havant & W are right behind us waiting for a mistake. We have to keep up the good performance if we want that 1st place. Initially my goal was just promotion through playoffs but the team proved to be even better than I thought! So far I couldn't land any free transfers but I'm scouting non-stop, I'm also in talks with a couple of players right now.. hopefully we'll have our new center-back soon!
 
SEASON 1 - FA CUP UPDATE

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As we near November, a lot has happened in the FA Cup and we finally found some good free agents for our team! League results will be posted next update.

The board expectation is to reach 4th qualifying round of FA Cup, and I intend to fulfill it so I always try to use my best players in cup games instead of resting them. Obviously this is challenging in a busy schedule but I somehow had a whole week of rest before the first match: 2nd qualifying round. You may recall that we were matched against Kingstonian in this round and I said they are a weak team. Boy, was I wrong.

Kingstonian - Boreham Wood​

The first half started even better than expected. With some great assists Lee Angol managed to complete his hat-trick in just 16th min! Him completing hat-tricks hasn't been a rare occurence lately but I didn't expect this much of a beating. The first half ended 4-0 after a penalty kick we scored at 37th minute.

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Lee Angol with another hat-trick!
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Then everything changed. Our players had amazing morale and nobody was tired, but over-confidence got to them. Kingstonian was attacking fiercely and in 17 minutes we allowed three goals! Players were starting to panic and if I didn't do something we could easily be out of the cup! I subbed in a couple of defenders and gave a furious pep-talk in the sidelines to get them back in line. We were still forced to defensive play against a much weaker side but at least now we were defending well and we managed to hold the score at 4-3. Crazy match!
Our next opponent was drawn before long and it was a surprise. The team that we'd match is in my eyes the strongest contender for Vanarama South. Yep.. Bromley. This was a risky draw for us because we HAD TO reach 4th qualifying round. We simply could not lose to Bromley here. It would be demoralizing for the race in league and the board.. the fans would be furious.

Before the Bromley match I managed to finally get a decent CB for the team. Well.. decent is an understatement. I think this guy is our new key defender. Meet Luis Morrison-Derbyshire, the 20-yo Centre-back.


I have been looking for a centre-back for a while now, so this was uplifting. However, he is not allowed to play in the cup matches so he won't be of much help in the big match against Bromley.


Boreham Wood - Bromley​

The match began with a really high tempo. We were using our same formation with a different tactic. Already reaching fluid with my possession tactic, I decided that this would be a good time to try a different approach. This time we were dropping deeper and trying to punish with high tempo counter-attacks. And it worked! We got a one-on-one against the keeper at 8th minute and we were awarded a penalty kick... which Austin Lipman converted into a goal with ease.

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Lipman, the young AM from Arsenal, is having a terrific season with The Wood.

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We weren't happy for long though, Bromley answered just 1 minute later. Jordan Robertson scored a ridicilous goal from almost 30 meters. The goalkeeper could do nothing and there went our momentum. 1-1. The game was quiet for a while, and we were still keeping a %55 possession even with the counter-attacking strategy.

It was once again Lee Angol that changed the scoreline at 30th minute. In positions most people would pass the ball back to a midfielder, he somehow finds an opening and scores! The whole team went through the roof when Lee scored once more at 38th, making it 3-1. We knew that with some care, the game was ours. Second half Bromley came attacking but our counter-attacks proved to be lethal as Junior Morias scored the 4th goal at 59th minute. With their spirit broken, the rest of the game became uneventful and we ended up crushing our biggest opponent.. 4-1!

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And with that, we reached our goal for FA Cup this season. Time to see if we can make more out of it. Our next opponent was.. Brackley Town! A weaker opponent than Bromley, as far as the critics could tell. Because my starter fullback decided to go on a vacation out of nowhere until March 2015, I found a replacement for now. My scout believes the 22-yo from Boston Utd might even become a full-time starter soon. Meet Conor Marshall!

And.. that's the end of this update. Brackley Town match and league update coming soon!
 
We are still keeping our grip on 1st place, though it is still relatively close. I had to mention Lee's amazing performance with 24 goals in 20 matches. I simply must have him here next year. Ebbsfleet and Maidenhead crawled right back up into the league race but luckily for us Bromley had a big losestreak. We also managed to reach our goals in FA Cup and FA Trophy, reaching round 1 in both of them but we got eliminated immediately after losses to better teams: Oldham FC and Barnet. I'm sorry to say the matches weren't even close.

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Boreham Wood was eliminated from both cups after terrible losses.
Barnet 4-0 Boreham Wood, Boreham Wood 2-5 Oldham FC
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Boreham Wood signs another young defender

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"Ever since I brought Colin in, he has been having a hard time competing at our level. I waited enough.", said John Sixkiller in the press conference as he unveiled a new player. 21 yo Ben Glasgow, another talent from Arsenal's youth system, has signed with Boreham Wood after an unsuccessful season playing for Oxford City.

Glasgow said "Boreham Wood has been doing amazing in the league, I'm looking forward to contribute to the team." Despite Sixkiller's harsh comments, Colin Marshall stated he is just happy to be part of the team and is willing to play as a sub until he proves himself. The Wood is currently in 1st place of Vanarama South after 28 games played.

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I'm following, let's hope you can get them promoted just like in real life!
 
END OF SEASON 1​

We secured the win 36 games into the league! I didn't give updates too often because 2nd half of the league went so smooth. Our striker Lee Angol was awarded Player of the Season after breaking the record for goals scored in Vanarama South, scoring 37 goals in 40 matches. Here is the final table!


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Vanarama Conference, here we come!
(How can I edit the title of first post? I want to switch it to S2 Vanarama Conference now. 8-|)
 
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