The Darts - A Dartford Story

[FM_TNSSO]

Football Manager 22 is officially downloaded and although only on the BETA at the moment, I intend to carry this save into the full version of the game in the next couple of weeks, so thought I'd waste no time in beginning my story.

I have taken over as Dartford manager for a couple of reasons. First, my aim is to do a one club save from the lower leagues of English football hopefully to the very top. Second, Dartford is the closest team to where I live and their home ground is literally a stones throw away from where I play 8 a side on a Tuesday evening.

Princes Park is 4,040 capacity stadium with room to seat 640 fans. There's plenty of room for growth within the club with the facilities all round being adequate enough for this level, but certainly not good enough for us to compete as we (hopefully) rise through the divisions.

The pressure will be on me to perform from the off, as the board are looking to playoffs this season as a minimum requirement with guaranteed promotion within 2-3 seasons. I'll have a £10k transfer budget to utilise to strengthen my squad in order to achieve the club's ambition.

And as we take a quick look at the current squad, we notice that I'll definitely be looking to strengthen the central defence and midfield areas as, although we have a lot of players who can play these positions, they are without a doubt our weakest players in the team.

In our next post, we will take a look at some of the strongest players in the team and get down to business creating a tactic.


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[FM_TNSSO]

So let's have a look at the top 3 players in the squad that I've inherited then....well best 3 on paper anyway.

Ade Azeez has just joined the club after a couple of seasons playing in the National League for Torquay and Dover. He comes with a point to prove after featuring only 16 times across the last 2 campaigns and only bagging 2 goals in the process. The striker has plenty of pace though and down at this lower level, he should be able to tear it up.

The main provider for Azeez may prove to be winger, Deshane Dalling. Also a newbie to the club, the 22 year old brings some excitement to the attack with his pacey dribbling skills. A determined and brave individual, I expect to see him bombing down the wing and creating problems for our opposition in the away box.

That left side of the pitch could be dangerous for us as left wing back Jernade Meade also makes the top 3 players in the squad. He is a good all round wing back who can be a threat going forward whilst also possessing decent defensive skills to hold his own at the back as well.

So with the players I have available, I've decided to go with a 5-2-3 formation to start with. We don't have very quick defenders, so having 3 at the back should help us out with this. Our strength is 100% in our wide areas, both with the wing backs who will be a threat going forward and with our wide midfielders too, so we will focus our play out wide. We will regroup when out of possession in an attempt to frustrate our opposition, with the aim to be to get the ball back and shift out wide to our attacking pacey players to catch them on the counter attack. In theory, it sounds great, but only time will tell if my vision will actually work.

Off the pitch, we added a famous face to the backroom staff as Joe Cole becomes my new Assistant Manager.​

 

[leckuno]

Good to see you getting stuck in mate. I'm still trying to decide on who to go for a hopeful long term save/story as always got the ambition of matching @Hampus Silverholt

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good to see you getting stuck in mate. I'm still trying to decide on who to go for a hopeful long term save/story as always got the ambition of matching @Hampus Silverholt

I'm not even joking when I say it took me over 2 hours to decide who to be. Contemplated Sampdoria, St Pauli, Werder Bremen, a Norway save, Ipswich.....LOL!! Hampus is king and I think we all aspire to stick with a save for as long as the legend himself!

 

[leckuno]

I'm not even joking when I say it took me over 2 hours to decide who to be. Contemplated Sampdoria, St Pauli, Werder Bremen, a Norway save, Ipswich.....LOL!! Hampus is king and I think we all aspire to stick with a save for as long as the legend himself!

Haha very true. It looks like we have similar thoughts on teams as a few of those have crossed my mind as well. Just need to decide on a country first and then the team which is the part I'm finding difficult

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Haha very true. It looks like we have similar thoughts on teams as a few of those have crossed my mind as well. Just need to decide on a country first and then the team which is the part I'm finding difficult

Ha you know me, love a save building a club from scratch so will be interesting to see if you can do it with Dartford! Not got the BETA but I'm the same with being unsure on who to start a save as - need to balance wanting to do a save with more than one club in more than one country with having a laptop that probably can only manage 4-5 leagues being loaded...

 

[Klippybo]

Good luck. I am resisting the beta and will delve into fm when it comes out. Got nhl and fifa 22 to play until then lol

As a Newcastle fan I am tempted to start a save with them as how often do you get a chance to manage your favourite team with a tycoon in charge straight away? I expect someone else will jump onto that though.

Will probably just go somewhere random though. Like Athletic Bilbao

 

[JamesScott2908]

I haven't been on here in a couple of years, Nice to see you are still going, Always enjoyed your stories!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

My first ever FM22 signing is centre back Ethan Wassall who joins the club after being released by Derby County. He is a much welcome boost to a pretty weak defence and instantly becomes my best option in the centre back role.

Danny Coogan quickly followed and will likely be my first choice right back this season. The 19 year old was released by Walsall without making an appearance for them in 3 years and will have a point to prove.

It's fair to say that we met expectations through pre season beating all of the lower league opposition in front of us. A solid 2-0 victory over National League side King's Lynn was the highlight.

Central midfielder Keiran Murtagh was our most impressive player throughout the pre season campaign, turning in 2 goals and 3 assists from his advanced playmaker role.

With the season about to kick off and plenty of transfer business done, the bookies have us down as second favourites to take the title, with local rivals Ebbsfleet as the odds on favourites. Disappointing though that none of my players made the dream eleven.

And we lived up to our expectations as one of the title favourites as we kicked off the season with a solid away win at Billericay.

We followed that up with another win against fierce rivals Maidstone United. A late winner from Adebayo Azeez secured all 3 points for us.

But it was our keeper that was the star of the show as he made 11 saves to ensure we kept the clean sheet!

Our perfect start to the season continued with victory over Bath as we smashed 4 goals past them to give our home fans a treat early in the campaign.

Not sure how some teams have fitted in 5 games already, but even though we're two games behind, we're still in the top 6. Long way to go yet though, but a good start nonetheless.

​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Despite being predicted to finish 8th in the league this season, Slough had made a pretty poor start to their campaign, having lost 3 of their opening 4 games. And we added to their misery as we recorded victory over them as well. Jake Robinson came into the starting lineup for the first time this season and his first half double was enough to secure all 3 points!

Our first defeat came at the hands of Dorking as they scored with the last kick of the game to nick the points against us. We were poor throughout and didn't really deserve anything from the game and I can't have too many complaints with the scoreline.

My first taste of cup action resulted in a win, but I would have expected it against lower league Harrow Borough. We did make bl**dy hard work of it though, struggling in front of goal all afternoon.

Back to league action and another defeat for us. It was incredibly difficult to take as we had 17 shots on goal to Hampton's 4!!

In the FA Cup, we were drawn against a side called Hashtag United. Now with a name like that, I was intrigued enough for a quick Wikipedia search. The Essex club were only formed in 2016 by YouTube personality, Spencer Owen, mainly to play exhibition games that would be filmed and broadcast on his online channel. After gaining a significant online following, the club turned to the FA and became a semi pro side in the Eastern Counties League in 2018. In just 3 seasons, they've been promoted twice already and are making a name for themselves in the lower leagues of English football.

We made light work of them though.

Sticking with the FA Cup and unfortunately we're out! We always knew that Dulwich away was going to present a tough task, but it's another one of them games that is extremely disappointing for us to lose as we had the better of the possession and 26 shots on goal, but couldn't find the back of the net!

So our attention was firmly back on the league and we took 13 points from the next available 15! That's title winning form right there!

Ade Azeez has been having a good time of it in front of goal lately and his form was enough to take the player of the month award for October.

We're up to 3rd in the table, but a win in our game in hand could see us top of the league. So far, so good, and in the early stages of the campaign, we're very much in the mix.

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[Sam91]

Good start mate and nice to see you starting so low in the pyramid!!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Three more wins chalked up in the league and it's fair to say we're flying at the moment. Not only did we gain a nice bit of revenge over Dulwich for knocking us out of the FA Cup, but we also thrashed an Oxford City side who'd had an impressive start to the season and were 3rd at the time of kick off.

And despite rotating the squad, we made light work of lower league Heybridge in the FA Trophy too.

That's now 5 wins on the bounce in all competitions and no defeat in 9, which is enough for me to grab my first manager of the month award.

Two more league wins followed and that is now 16 victories in my opening 20 games in charge. Fair to say that the Darts fans are happy to have me at their club!

I like this new view to the youth intake preview, with the A-F grading system about what to expect. It remains to be seen how accurate it is, but by all accounts we could be recruiting a very talented young keeper.

In the FA Trophy, we were drawn against National League side, Weymouth. A game I didn't honestly expect us to win against higher league opposition, but with a draw in the first game we took the tie to a replay and were able to record an excellent victory away from home to progress in the competition.

A draw away from home at 5th placed Havant & Waterlooville is a decent result which extends our unbeaten run in all competitions to 14 games!

And that set up a top of the table clash between the two title favourites! Ebbsfleet have only lost once this season (away at Welling) and we were expecting a very tough fixture.

And a tough game it proved to be! A very tight one, but we just lose out to a 6th minute penalty...bit of a soft one if I'm honest, but we'll take it on the chin and try to bounce back as quickly as possible.

For now though, we're top of the table, level on points with our fiercest rivals.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Following the defeat to Ebbsfleet, we went on a bit of a mixed run, winning only 4 of our next 9 games, and crashing out of the FA Trophy at the hands of Alfreton Town in the process.

Our previous run of good form meant that we were still very much in the mix at the top of the league though, with an opportunity to leapfrog Oxford City with our game in hand to potentially head the table.

Despite our indifferent form as a team, one individual that is still performing week in week out is Ade Azeez. He now has an incredible 19 goals in 24 league appearances, with 22 in all competitions this season!

And on the assists front, we have our first player to hit double figures for the season. Kieran Murtagh is my playmaker in the centre of the park and he is living up to the role at present, reaching 11 assists in all competitions so far.

Now, back to that game in hand and things didn't exactly go to plan!

And it didn't get much better against Hampton & Richmind either.

So I decided to have a little tinker with the formation and tactical approach before we took on Concord Rangers, who were coming into our match on top of the form table, with 4 wins and a draw in their last 5 games!

And the change of tactic seemed to work a treat as we record a good win. I was hoping that result was going to get us back on track with our title challenge again!

But it didn't as we went on to lose 2 of our next 3, getting absolutely battered by St Albans in our most recent game! Our form is worrying at the moment and we need to sort it out quickly if we want to be promoted this season!

And if we can sort our form out pretty sharpish, we can still move to the top of the division with a win in our game in hand! I'm not quite sure how we haven't dropped away over the past 7 or 8 games. Now we have to capitilise on our situation!

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[FM_TNSSO]

This is a nice little news article which is new for FM22. A big thumbs up from me on this one. Although it'll be a long time until we have someone on this list!

Two more games down in the league and our indifferent form continues as we record 1 draw and 1 win! We desperately need to string together 3 or 4 wins on the bounce on the run in!

And hopefully, centre back Udoka Chima can help us do just that! We haven't been the greatest defensively of late so on transfer deadline day, I added the 6ft 4" Italian centre back to the squad on loan for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, none of the youth intake are likely to have any impact. The best of a bad bunch is Callum Glover who is still only predicted to reach a 2 1/2 star rating at full potential.

Chima went straight into the starting lineup and he was given a pretty easy debut thanks to the 10th minute sending off of Andre Blackman for Dulwich. We capitalised on the advantage of the extra man and absolutely trounced the Hamlet!

It was the second time this season we had won 5-1, having beaten promotion rivals Oxford City by the same scoreline earlier in the season. And guess who our next opponents were...could we replicate such a dominant performance?

The answer was no. However, a point away from home against the side that is 4th in the league is not the worst result at this stage of the season!

Two more draws followed and although we were now unbeaten in 6 games, if we keep drawing games rather than winning them, there will be no title at the end of the campaign!

Our hopes were kept alive though after a 4-0 thrashing of Havant & Waterlooville.

So with just 3 games remaining, the title will be lifted by either ourselves, Ebbsfleet or Bath City.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Without a doubt, our next game is the biggest single fixture of our season. 1st vs 2nd in the league with just 2 games remaining after this one! A defeat pretty much puts the title in Ebbsfleet's hands, but a win puts us in the driving seat! Weirdly though, the media seem to be focusing on the game between 3rd and 4th as the most important of the weekend!

Not only did we beat our biggest rivals, we absolutely humiliated them in front of their own fans! It would be a massive shame if we don't go on the win the league after such an immense performance!

Dan Roberts turned in an incredible showing as he bagged two goals and two assists!

We win our last 2 games and the league title is ours....simple right?

Before we get to that though, there's some more awards for us, including my 2nd manager of the month of the season.

And Luke Wanadio lifts the Player of the Month for April.

Wanadio wasn't a first team starter for me at the start of the campaign, but his form has seen him force his way in and he's now one of the first names on the teamsheet.

It's amazing how quickly everything can change with just one game of football. Two sending offs ultimately cost us against Hemel Hempstead and as we fell to defeat, both Ebbsfleet and Bath pick up points to leapfrog us in the table. How big could that 92nd minute goal for Bath City be?!

We got our job done in the final game, winning away at Eastbourne Borough who were relegated with the defeat. Bath City dropped points, but Ebbsfleet picked up a win against Maidstone that would see them lift the title ahead of us by a single point! Gutting!

Finishing 2nd in the table meant we would have to play 1 less playoff game and would also have home advantage. Oxford City overcame Havant & Waterlooville in their first playoff match, so that's who we were to face! We've not lost to them in either league game this season, so had every right to go into the game feeling confident.

We definitlely should have had the game wrapped up in normal time with the chances we created, but we'll take a penalty shootout win to see us into the playoff final. What a shootout it was as well, going as far as the 14th penalty to settle it!! Hampton & Richmond Borough would now await us in the final, a team we haven't managed to beat yet this season!

And we didn't beat them again...well not in normal time anyway! Those 14 penalties we took against Oxford City proved to be great practice as my lads stepped up to take 5 perfect spot kicks in another nervous shootout here to secure promotion to the National League!!

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[leckuno]

you never like doing anything the easy way but great to get promoted at the first time of asking

 

[FM_TNSSO]

you never like doing anything the easy way but great to get promoted at the first time of asking

Hahaha tell me about it!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season Review 2021/22

Vanarama National League South; 2nd Place (Playoff Winners)
Emirates FA Cup; Fourth Qualifying Round (knocked out by Dulwich Hamlet)
Buildbase FA Trophy; Fifth Round (knocked out by Alfreton Town)

The bookies were spot on with their pre season predictions as both Ebbsfleet and us filled the top two positions in the league table, with us going up via the playoffs. Bath City were the unlucky losers but could have a good showing in this division next year, whilst Eastbourne Borough drop into the lower divisions.

Our biggest source of revenue this season was the match day commercial and retail as expected, which brought in over £160k throughout the season.

I would agree with the best eleven for this season. We did switch to a 4-4-2 for the last third of the season, but as majority was played with 5 at the back, I'm not surprised to see this setup in the best eleven side.

There were two manager of the month awards for me throughout the campaign this year. I was surprised to see Keiran Murtagh beat Ade Azeez to the fan's player of the year award. Dan Roberts took the young player despite being 24 years old and right back, Danny Coogan was the signing of the season.

Here's the stats for the entire squad for the past year, sorted by amount of appearances. Ade Azeez was my star man as the consistent striker banged home 29 goals this year. He doesn't contribute with many assists, but as the main front man, he certainly doesn't have any problems finding the back of the net! Noor Husin was our surprise 2nd top goalscorer as he plays a defensive minded central midfield role, but our captain popped up with some great strikes this year from outside the box and bagged himself the goal of the season award too. Keiran Murtagh led the way with assists which is no surprise as he played more key passes (128) than anyone else throughout the season. Majority of our assists did come from the wide positions though with Meade and Porter also reaching double figures, whilst Wanadio chipped in with 9.

With us earning promotion a little earlier than expected, the new vision has been released to me by the board. They are looking for us to be defensively solid whilst we battle bravely against relegation next season. There's not much beyound the next year as it turns out my chairman is looking to sell the club.

A takeover that happened pretty quickly and we're now owned by the club's fans.

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So under new ownership, let's get to work with preparing for the season ahead!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

With so many changes in personnel over the Summer break, most of this update will be to introduce our new signings.

We started the Summer with a bit of a clearout, with no less than 9 first team players being released from the squad. All of these had featured in some form or another for us last year but were deemed not good enough for the higher level we'll now be playing at.

The rebuild of a new look squad began with the signing of big centre back, Michael Chambers, who comes in on a free from Billericay Town where he made 59 appearances. He was a first team regular for them last season, playing 38 league games and recording an average rating of 7.26.

Another centre back standing at 6ft 5" who joins the club is Manny Adebowale. He was also on a free from Havant & Waterlooville where he played 16 times last season with an average rating of 7.07.

Keziah Martin was next through the door and will bolster the central midfield. Most likely to act as a squad player rather than a first team regular, he joins on a free from Kidderminster Harriers.

After Craig King was released from the club, it only left me one recognised keeper in my first team squad. This was rectified with the signing of Isak Solberg on a free. He joins from Tottenham and is yet to make his competitive debut. At 19 years old, he has the potential to improve a lot and could maybe become our first choice keeper for years to come.

My favourite signing of the Summer so far is Solomon Nwabuokei. The central midfielder has some excellent mental and physical all round stats for this level and with decent passing and tackling ability too, he could become a key figure for us in the centre of the park.

A new right back/right wing back up next as Dylan Crowe comes in on a freebie from Ipswich. After 5 years with The Tractor Boys without making a single appearance, it was time for Crowe to move down the football ladder to get some first team football and I reckon he'll be getting plenty for us this season!

Harry Taylor has been playing for Barnet in the National League for the past 4 seasons and so will bring some much needed experience as we step up to this level. The central midfielder has the attributes to become one of my key players from the off and I'm hoping he'll live up to my expectations.

A link between us and Millwall has been set up by the board and we may have the opportunity to get some youngsters in on loan from the Championship club over the next few seasons.

Jayden Reid didn't come from The Lions though. Instead, he joins on a free from Dorking. Although predominantly a wide player, I'll be looking to play him as a deep lying striker to link the play between the midfield and the front line.

I made sure we got plenty of friendlies under our belt to give all the new signings a decent amount of playing time together and it's fair to say that they seem to be gelling pretty well with 6 wins in 7 games.

Dan Roberts was the shining star of the pre season campaign with the striker netting 6 times in 5 games, bagging 2 assists as well. Roberts scored 9 goals in 27 games last season, with a lot of his appearances coming from the bench, and he is certainly putting his name in the frame for a starting berth at the start of the upcoming season.

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[FM_TNSSO]

With the league campaign about to get underway, the bookies actually fancy us to stay up this year with a predicted finish of 19th. Chorley, Guiseley and Wealdstone are the hot favourites to go down and are clearly rated some way behind the rest of the teams in this league. Swindon have dropped into non league football for the first time in over 60 years so it's no surprise to see them as favourites to finish as champions. Not many people will know that Gillingham's main rivals are Swindon, so being a Gills fan, I will be looking forward to that fixture!

Some of you may have noticed a severe lack of wide midfielders coming in over the Summer. I can assure you now that this was deliberate. I wanted to play 3 centre backs as I know we will be up against it this season at the higher level, so I focused on bringing in players who could play a formation and philosophy to the way I wanted us to set up, rather than sign players and then build a formation around them. This is how we will set up to at least start this season. It focuses on building our play through the middle of the park with quick, direct passing. The central midfielders will support the attacking play, with some wide outlets through the wing backs to stretch the play when required.

It wasn't long before I got my shot at Swindon and we held our own against the title favourites on the opening day of the season. In fact, we were actually the better side for large periods and created some excellent chances but just couldn't find the back of the net to seal the win. If we play like that all season, we'll do just fine.

Our first away game in the National League wouldn't be the easiest either as we went away to Southend, another side that had only recently dropped into non league football. However, again we can hold our heads high as we earn another point, even if it hurts a little after taking a 2-0 lead into half time.

I hadn't yet taken advantage of our newly formed link with Millwall, so it was time for that to change. 19 year old Abdul Abdulmalik joins us on loan for the season from The Lions and will act as cover for the first team.

And another new permanent signing quickly followed him into the club in the form of left back Tommy Smith. Another player who hadn't really been given a shot at Ipswich and has dropped down the leagues in the hope of making a name for himself. He'll push Jernade Meade for his spot in the starting 11.

My 3rd signing in a matter of two days is possibly the most exciting of the whole Summer as Romaine Mundle joins the club on a free. He was released by Tottenham and looks like a very exciting prospect for this level. With us playing 3 central midfielders, he'll get plenty of playing time and has the potential to become a star player for us.

Our first win of the season came at home to Notts County with a really solid 1-0! The defence has made a good start to the season and we are yet to concede a goal from open play in 270 minutes of football.

Right after our first win, came our first defeat, at the hands of Torquay. In a game that swung both ways at different times, Torquay just came out on top, but we didn't play badly here and can take some positives from the game.

However, it's fair to say that we recovered well from our first defeat of the season as we went on to win 5 of our next 6 league games!

Which sees us sitting pretty in the playoff spots after the opening 10 games. Ebbsfleet have also made a decent start and we'll play our rivals next!

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