The world works in mysterious ways

[issteo]

As the saying goes the world does work in mysterious ways and maybe this will pay dividends for myself as we begin a journey through football from the lowest to hopefully the higher echelons.

So a little bit about myself after sitting in a call centre 4 days a week listening to people complain about the weather and what not I thought I'd make a change to my life and throw myself into football again. I was an avid footballer as a youngest but never made the grade having spent 2 years as a youngest at Liverpool before being released and playing the next 3 years plying my trade in the Sunday leagues before injury made me retire at the tender age of 21.

Immediately after the retirement I threw myself into the only thing I could think of and that was work eventually getting stuck in the daily struggle of working 5 days a week earning a wage and doing nothing with my life until I turned 24 and I decided enough was enough and I would throw myself back into it.

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I will of course be starting unemployed with no badges and will have to go for every interview I have been offered.

 

[issteo]

Going into the summer and looking at the jobs that were available there wasn't much to choose from with any available jobs quickly taken by I suppose more experienced managers. With this I spent a little bit of time working on my CV to *** myself up when any jobs did come available and it wasn't long before it did as Bala Town of the Welsh Premier League offered me an interview and after some waffling and fluffing I was offered the job which I accepted and now start a hopefully long and prosperous career in management.
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A bit of history on the club itself is below and the they have had spells of success but have recently been playing second fiddle to TNS dominate the Welsh league for the last 5 years with the club runners up in the last 2.
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The board itself don't seem to be expecting much in terms of my first season as this seems to be the bare basics in terms of what they want me to achieve.
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Moving onto the players itself the club as a majority aging squad which will take time to rectify and with little to no depth in the reserves or u19s it will take some potential wheeling and dealing if needs be to improve it.
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[Shippers77]

Good luck with this, I used to live in wales and watch a lot of welsh prem football ( my local club was Llandudno) ive also gave it a crack on FM and TNS have, to me atleast, proved to be impossible to crack, I got second place pretty much cemented within two seasons as Llandudno.

From the outset id say Bala is the best play to be to try and take on TNS

 

[issteo]

Good luck with this, I used to live in wales and watch a lot of welsh prem football ( my local club was Llandudno) ive also gave it a crack on FM and TNS have, to me atleast, proved to be impossible to crack, I got second place pretty much cemented within two seasons as Llandudno.

From the outset id say Bala is the best play to be to try and take on TNS

Cheers ShikariFC! I did also have an interview with TNS but didn't make an impression before Bala came in for me couple weeks later

 

[issteo]

So I was hoping my next update for my career would be a better one but it isn't has I have been given the boot from Bala Town, the reason behind it was because of an interview I did and expressed interest in taking over a new club. Up to that point I was doing well after a rocky start leaving Bala Town in 2nd place in the league and in the final of the NMG Cup along with a 4th round appearance in the Welsh Cup.
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No point me going into much detail with it in turns of games played since I wanted to wait until the mid season break and when the Welsh league splits up. However, my favourite games were the 7-1 win over Ross County u20s when I was predicted to get hammered and the same with the 1-0 win over TNS.
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As I was saying it was a bit of a rollercoaster when I initially took over but things eventually evened out as the club reached 2nd place before I was given the boot.
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Next update will be my journey to find a new job.

 

[issteo]

So after being sacked by Bala it was back on the job centre and it was a long period of time before I even got a sniff of a new job.

I had several interviews that were unsuccessful including Linfield in N.Ireland, Chiasso in Switzerland and Santa Clara in Portugal. I did think that I did enough to get a crack at each of the jobs but it wasn't to be unfortunately.

Being sacked on Boxing Day was hard and with the lack of interviews being offered I was losing hope until April came around and a job came up in Denmark and I was invited to attend an interview and low and behold I was successful and gained employment as manager of HB Koge in the Danish First Division.

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The club itself is in the back end of their season fighting off relegation, they have 6 games to save their status with the remaining games mostly coming against teams fighting for promotion so it will be a battle!

 

[issteo]

So here we go new club, joining slap bang in the middle of business end of the Danish First Division. KB Koge are a new club formed only in 2009 and operating in a semi professional basis, having spent 6 years in the First Division after being relegated back in 2012 in which they finished 12th.

As I said before I was appointed with the intentions of saving the club from relegation and have 6 games to do that in as the club currently sit 10th in the league level on points with Nykobing FC and 5 clear of Naestved.


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Squad wise the club have a decent bunch of players available to them in the first team and hopefully I'll be able to get more out of them and work out a way of staving off relegation.


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Depth wise there isn't much there in the 2nd team and u19s so again like with Bala Town we'll have to be coy in the transfer market when it opens at the end of the season providing I still have a job that is.


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[issteo]

So here we go 6 games to save the club and prove that I can do it with no experience of a relegation dogfight as of it, can it be done we'll see.


April
Beginning my reign I face off against FC Helsingor two days after taking over with little time to prepare we fall to a 2-1 defeat as Helsingor went 2-0 up before Nicklas Rojkjaer pulled one back but it was too late as we couldn't grab another to draw the game.
Tweaking the formation a little bit more to try and get a positive result, we visited FC Roskilde and went on to draw 3-3 as we fell 2-0 behind again before Marc Rochester and Henrik Madsen leveled it up before we fell behind again to leave it 3-2 with 10 minutes to go. Lee Rochester saved the day however as he found the net to level it up but we couldn't find the winner as the game ended in a draw.
April ended with another draw this time 0-0 as we stuck with same formation but couldn't find a way through as we ended the game and the month still in 10th now 1 point clear of the relegation places.


May
With only 3 games left and 1 point clear of the relegation spots we still had it all to do to secure our place for next season. We began the month again Nykobing FC and again drew 1-1 as Nicklas Rojkjaer gave us the lead but we couldn't hold out as we conceded late on as the result saw us drop into the relegation spots.
The penultimate game of the season saw us face off against Naestved and it started brightly as Daniel Stuckler gave us the lead but we couldn't make it count again as we conceded a penalty with 20 minutes to go but couldn't find a winner as the game finished in a 1-1 draw.
Going into the last game of the season we needed a positive result to have any chance of surviving and hoping AB lost as well to make sure of our survival. It rained goals in the finally game again Fremad Amager as we won 5-2 to leave us in 9th place as both Skive IK and AB both lost. Henrik Madsen and Daniel Stuckler gave us the perfect start as we lead 2-0 before Amager got a goal back as we lead 2-1 at half time The second half started perfectly as well as Marc Rochester netted a double with 4 minutes to give us a 4-1 lead after 60 minutes. Kristian Andersen made sure of the win as he netted in the 72nd minute to give us a 5-1 lead before Amager pulled another goal back.
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End of season awards
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[issteo]

Preseaon to Winter Break 2017

So after managing to survive the drop at the end of the last season we move swiftly into a new season at KB Hoge in the Danish First Division.

First up we have the transfers and after losing first choice keeper Andreas Hansen to OB we signed Casper Radza from Middlefart as an abled replacement. We also brought in defender Andreas Friis, midfielder Valon Ljuti and striker Abdul Kadir on frees whilst midfielder Casper Tengstedt came in on load from FC Midtjylland.

Preseason
Preseason itself was more about experimenting more with formations and line ups as we started off with 3 defeats including losing 1-0 to AGF, 4-2 to Lyngby and 4-1 to RBL before defeating Rostock 2-1. We followed this up with a 2-1 win over FC Svendborg, a 5-0 win over Rishoj. Ending preseason we ended up 9-1 winners over Bronshoj and a 5-0 win over Holstebro.

First Phase
July
The first game of a new season saw us face off against Nykobing FC which saw us draw 2-2 as Daniel Stuckler gave us a perfect start before Henrik Madsen was sent off minutes later, Marc Rochester made it 2-1 with 4 minutes to go but we couldn't hold on as Nykobing FC got the equaliser in the 90th minute. Next up we faced off against Middlefart and again drew but this time 3-3 as Mikkel Wohlgemuth gave us the lead before we fell 3-1 down but a late double from Rafael Per Mortensen save us a point.

August
August started off with a 2-1 defeat to FC Helsingor as Mikkel Wohlgemuth did at one point draw us level but it wasn't to be. Next up we won our first game of the season as Daniel Stuckler netted a double in a 2-0 win over Karlslunde in the Danish Cup as we progressed to the 2nd round, we followed that up with a 2-1 win over Skive IK as Henrik Madsen and Nicklas Rojkjaer won us the game after going 1-0 down. We faced off against Fremad Amager next and won 4-3 as Daniel Stuckler netted another double whilst Kristian Andersen and Mikkel Wohlgemuth also got on the scoresheet before losing 1-0 against Thisted FC. August ended with a 5-0 win over Hillerod in the Danish Cup 2nd round as Kristian Andersen, Marc Rochester and Henrik Madsen all scored before Daniel Stuckler again netted a double to see us move to the 3rd round.

September
We began September with a 2-0 defeat to Vejie before winning 3-1 against Hobro IK as Kristian Andersen, Nicklas Rojkjaer and Daniel Stuckler all scored to give us the win after falling behind in the 3rd minute. September saw us end with a run of 3 straight draws beginning 1-1 against Silkeborg IF were Alexander Ludwig got himself on the scoresheet before drawing 0-0 with FC Roskilde and finishing it off with a 3-3 draw against FC Fredericia as Daniel Stuckler scored two and Mikkel Wohlgemuth saved us a point at the death.

This saw the first phase as they call it in Denmark end leaving us in 8th place in the league on 14 points and in the 3rd round of the Danish Cup were we will be welcoming AC Horsens for a place in the 4th round.

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Second phase part one
October
We faced off against Nykobing FC again at the start of the second phase and won 3-0 as Daniel Arrocha scored and Daniel Stuckler netted yet another double and we followed it up with a 1-0 defeat to Middlefart before drawing 1-1 against FC Helsingor with Daniel Stuckler giving us the lead before Helsingor grabbed a late equaliser. Next up we faced AC Horsens and won 2-0 thanks to goals from Marc Rochester and Mikkel Wohlgemuth putting us into the 4th round. We ended October with a boring very boring 0-0 draw against Skive IK.

November
Going into the last couple games of the year we're well set in the league to push on and challenging in the Danish Cup with a 4th round tie against Lyngby to come in the new year. We began with a 2-2 draw against Thisted FC as Marc Rochester scored before Kevin Mendoza netted an OG to give us a 2 goal advantage before Christian Gytkjaer saw red and we threw away the league as Thisted FC netted 2 in the last twenty minutes as we dropped 2 points. We did get back to winning ways as we beat Fremad Amager 1-0 thanks to an own goal from Moren Rasmussen before beating Vejie 3-2 thanks to a double from Mikkel Wohlgemuth and Rafael Per Mortensen also getting on the score sheet. We ended the month with a 2-0 defeat to Hobro IK which left us in 6th place on 26 points and welcoming Lyngby in the 4th round of the Danish Cup.

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[issteo]

Second half of 2017/18 season

So after what seemed like a lifetime we're back in action again after a 3 month Winter break. The transfer window came and gone in January with no action what so ever as we keep who we needed and didn't need any incomings not that I could afford them.

Phase 2 part 2
February - Winter friendlies
Welcoming the players back we set up a few friendlies to bed them in as we prepare for the second half of the season. We began with a 3-0 defeat to AaB before following up with a 2-0 defeat to FC Kobenhavn and then losing out 4-1 to Brondby IF. We followed these defeats up with a 1-0 win over AB before drawing 1-1 against Esbjerg fB and then beating Avarta 2-0 and Vanlose IF 3-1 finishing off our Winter spell.

March
We opened up the new year in the league with a 2-0 victory over Silkeborg IF thanks to a double from Marc Rochester, following it up with a 2-1 defeat against FC Roskilde as Daniel Stuckler got a consolation goal. Next up we faced off against FC Fredericia and lost 2-0 in a dire game for us. We then had our 4th round tie against Lyngby and lost out 1-0 to see us crash out of the Danish Cup, things didn't improve much as we drew 1-1 with Nykobing FC as Henrik Madsen netted from the spot to get us a point. The last two games of the 2nd phase saw us win 2-0 against Middlefart thanks to a double from Marc Rochester before losing 2-0 to FC Helsingor. This left us in 6th place in the league with 33 points after 25 games with 8 games left in the league.

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Other Announcements
In February the club moved into the new Kobe stadium a brand new swanky 10 thousand seater which was in the process of being built when I took over. In March we also had my very first youth intake as manager and it was a half decent intake in itself.
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Phase 3
April
We began with aa 1-0 defeat to Skive IK before drawing 1-1 with Thisted FC as Daniel Stuckler got us a late equaliser. Aprils poor form continued as we were defeated 1-0 by Vejie as we ended the game with 10 men as Valon Ljuti saw red as Vejie took advantage and stole the victory late one. We did manage to pick up a 1-0 win over Fremad Amager as Alexander Ludwig netted at the depth to give us the win and get us back in form. The month ended with a 1-1 draw against Hobro IK as Marc Rochester got us the equaliser in the first half after falling behind but we couldn't push on for the win.

May
May began with back to back defeats first up against FC Roskilde as we lost out 2-1 despite Mikkel Wohlgemuth getting us level before Roskilde took the lead again and held on. We followed this up with a 1-0 defeat to FC Fredericia as we couldn't get anything from the game. The season ended with a 3-1 win over Silkeborg IF as Valon Ljuti got himself on the score sheet twice before Marc Rochester sealed the win in the 90th minute. This left us finishing the season in 6th place on 41 points.

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[issteo]

So with my first full season in charge the club did well enough in the league and challenged in the Danish Cup. Below is the end of season review for the club including the awards and commercial summary.

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The new stadium has helped the finances quite a bit and has allowed me to now move on and attempt to gain the next rung in the ladder as I go for my National B License.

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There has also been a development in the 2022 World Cup which after protests world wide has now been moved to Morocco as well.

 

[issteo]

So after a good first full season in charge we move into another season this time though in a brand new stadium and with the news that with immediate effect the club will be going professional full time. This is great news but it does have its consequences as it means the squad now move to full time contracts but the clubs do not have the resources to maintain a surplus at the moment. This has resulted in some wheeling and dealing in the transfer market during the summer as we try to build on last season.

Transfer Activity
Beginning with incomings we made moves early in the market with Lorenzo Gonzalez coming in before the season before had finished joining on a free after being released from Man City. Next up Vito Hammershoy-Mistrati joined on a free from FC Helsingor and Enock Mawete also came in on a free joining from FC Midtjylland. Finally we welcomed Jacob Rasmussen also came in on a free after his Arendal contract had expired.
Outgoings wise 4 first team players left the club as youngster Jens Bach left to join Levante in a 20 thousand euro deal with Hoge getting 30% of any future transfer fee. Next up first team goalkeeper Casper Radza left on a free to join Viborg FF and Kristian Andersen left on a free to join Mansfield as well. Last of the first teamers to leave was Mark Gundelach who left to join FC Roskilde in a 36 thousand euro deal with the club getting 20% of any future fees. Alexander Laustrap and Michael Schmidt Romer also left the club on loan deals as well.

Preseason
We played a total of 9 friendlies over the course of July as we bedded the players back into action as we started off with a 2-2 draw over Anderlecht, before defeating Skive IK 1-0 and then losing 1-0 to FC Roskilde. We followed this up with a 2-0 win over Ishoj BK and then losing 3-0 to Stuttgart but getting back to winning ways as we won 5-0 against Bronshoj. The last 3 goals of preseason saw us defeat Verona 2-1, Hellas 3-0 and finally SB 50 Ishoj 3-1.

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Phase 1
July
So we began the new season by facing FC Helsingor in our first game and we lost out 2-1 as Vito Hammershoy-Mistrati got a goal on his debut but it wasn't enough as FC Helsingor came back in the second half and won the game.

August
We followed this defeat up with a 4-1 victory over Vendsyssel FF as Mikkel Wohlgemuth and Lee Rochester got on the score sheet before Nicklas Rojkkjaer made sure of the win netting a double, we followed this up with a 1-0 win over FC Fredericia as Alexander Ludwig got a well deserved goal as we made it two wins from three in the league. Next up came the first round of the Danish Cup and we were paired with GVI and won 4-2 as Nicklas Rojkjaer netted a double and while Vito Hammershoy-Mistrati and Daniel Stuckler also got in on the goals to give us the win. After our win in the cup we faced off against Silkeborg IF and lost out 1-0 in a dull affair before ending the month with a 2-0 victory over Hobro IK as Daniel Stuckler and Henrik Madsen got on the score sheet to give us the win.

September
We began the month with a 1-0 win over Vejle as Mikkel Wohlgemuth gave us the victory before we faced off against Naesby and won 3-0 thanks to goals from Marc Rochester, Mikkel Wohlgemuth and Alexander Ludwig to see us safely into the next round. Returning to league action we defeated Nykobing FC 2-1 as Rochester brothers Lee and Marc both got on the score sheet as we then lost 3-1 to Skive IK as Lorenzo Gonzalez got nothing more than an equaliser. We bounced back from that defeat to win 3-1 at Thisted FC as Marc Rochester netted a double and Mikkel Wohlgemuth also scored. We finished the month with a 1-1 draw against Kjellerup as Lorenzo Gonzalez netted an equaliser after we had went 1-0 down in the opening minute.

October
During phase one we only played one game in October and it was a stinker as we lost 2-1 to Aarhus Fremad as we took the lead through Marc Rochester but threw it away in the second have to lose the game. This meant that after the first phase of the season we were in 4th place in the league on 19 points after 11 games and into the 3rd round of the Danish Cup were we will face B 93.

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