FM_TNSSO
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Definitely not bored with Hartlepool fella....just wanted to ensure I was giving you guys what you wanna see
Unbelievable Jeff!! A Hartlepool United Story!!
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Definitely not bored with Hartlepool fella....just wanted to ensure I was giving you guys what you wanna see
FM_TNSSO
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Saturday 6th March 2021
Ben Cottrell
Saturday 6th March 2021
Young right back, Colin Bell, kept his place in the starting lineup after his goal against Bristol Rovers, and this time he went one better with another goal and a man of the match performance!
A massive win for us over one of our playoff/promotion chasing rivals! Eloy Gonzalez is finally looking like the striker I thought he could be when I brought him here on loan in the Summer!
Bolton are seriously underachieving this season and find themselves in the bottom half of the table! So although they are a much bigger club than us, this result wasn't as much of a surprise as it might look on paper! We were ****** brilliant as well and Eloy Gonzalez standing out as he bagged his first ever professional hat trick!
Our first defeat in 12 league games comes at the hands of Lincoln City in an entertaining game for the fans that could have gone either way!
For the second month in a row, 2 of my players make the top 3 in the Young Player of the Month award! This time, it's Xavier Amaechi who lifts the award.
A really good 2nd half performance ensures we get right back to winning ways after the defeat to Lincoln! Eloy Gonzalez scored the best of the 3 with a nice headed effort from 8 yards late on as he took his tally for the season to 12.
Since returning from injury, Nicky Featherstone has struggled to get anywhere near the starting lineup, so I've allowed him to join Chorley on loan for the remainder of the season.
We scraped past Southend who put up a good fight and maybe we were lucky to take the win as they missed glaring opportunity to equalize late on!
It was all about our defenders as we managed to get a massive win over Charlton here! Not only did they do their job at the back brilliantly, but our first three goals also came from the back four! Young Colin Bell continues to impress since his introduction to the side with another man of the match performance here!
Just as we were settling to take a decent point away from home against one of our title rivals, we switched off at the back and a long ball over the top found Kyle Vassell who slotted home in injury time to give them a big, big win!
Luke Molyneux picked up an injury in the Rotherham game that will see him out of action for around a month.
ws
Colin Bell lifts the Young Player of the Month award for February and well deserved for the lad it is too!
Barnsley are another side that are very much in this title race, although we put a big dent in their aspirations with a massive victory here! These are the games that will determine the outcome of the title at the end of the season and we did a thoroughly professional job here!
We're back up into the automatic promotion places after Rotherham have an awful run that not only sees them lose top spot but drop down to 3rd! Fleetwood now top the table, but it's fair to say there are a good 6 teams realistically in this title race with 10 games remaining!
The youth intake again leaves very little to be excited about this season!
Chris Pearce being the only player from the intake who looks to have any potential.
Ben Cottrell
Saturday 6th March 2021
Young right back, Colin Bell, kept his place in the starting lineup after his goal against Bristol Rovers, and this time he went one better with another goal and a man of the match performance!
A massive win for us over one of our playoff/promotion chasing rivals! Eloy Gonzalez is finally looking like the striker I thought he could be when I brought him here on loan in the Summer!
Bolton are seriously underachieving this season and find themselves in the bottom half of the table! So although they are a much bigger club than us, this result wasn't as much of a surprise as it might look on paper! We were ****** brilliant as well and Eloy Gonzalez standing out as he bagged his first ever professional hat trick!
Our first defeat in 12 league games comes at the hands of Lincoln City in an entertaining game for the fans that could have gone either way!
For the second month in a row, 2 of my players make the top 3 in the Young Player of the Month award! This time, it's Xavier Amaechi who lifts the award.
A really good 2nd half performance ensures we get right back to winning ways after the defeat to Lincoln! Eloy Gonzalez scored the best of the 3 with a nice headed effort from 8 yards late on as he took his tally for the season to 12.
Since returning from injury, Nicky Featherstone has struggled to get anywhere near the starting lineup, so I've allowed him to join Chorley on loan for the remainder of the season.
We scraped past Southend who put up a good fight and maybe we were lucky to take the win as they missed glaring opportunity to equalize late on!
It was all about our defenders as we managed to get a massive win over Charlton here! Not only did they do their job at the back brilliantly, but our first three goals also came from the back four! Young Colin Bell continues to impress since his introduction to the side with another man of the match performance here!
Just as we were settling to take a decent point away from home against one of our title rivals, we switched off at the back and a long ball over the top found Kyle Vassell who slotted home in injury time to give them a big, big win!
Luke Molyneux picked up an injury in the Rotherham game that will see him out of action for around a month.
ws
Colin Bell lifts the Young Player of the Month award for February and well deserved for the lad it is too!
Barnsley are another side that are very much in this title race, although we put a big dent in their aspirations with a massive victory here! These are the games that will determine the outcome of the title at the end of the season and we did a thoroughly professional job here!
We're back up into the automatic promotion places after Rotherham have an awful run that not only sees them lose top spot but drop down to 3rd! Fleetwood now top the table, but it's fair to say there are a good 6 teams realistically in this title race with 10 games remaining!
The youth intake again leaves very little to be excited about this season!
Chris Pearce being the only player from the intake who looks to have any potential.
Last edited:
FM_TNSSO
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Friday 9th April 2021
Ryan Blair
Friday 9th April 2021
This was a top of the table clash between 1st and 2nd and it's us who came out on top and leapfrog Fleetwood to the top of the table! Question is with 9 games remaining, can we stay there?
Must do better! Definitely a case of 2 points dropped here against a side we really need to be beating if we're going to lift this title!
Kieron Cadogan has had a decent season for us so far with 8 goals and 5 assists in 31 appearances, but he's now possibly going to miss the rest of the season through injury!
We did everything we could not to win this match! Despite dominating, we didn't take our chances, missed a penalty and had a man sent off as we laboured to another draw! Are we bottling our title challenge late on?
Coventry are another side chasing down an automatic promotion spot, so this was a big defeat for us and might be the result that changes our aspirations for the season from title challengers to trying to secure 2nd place and automatic promotion ourselves!
The bottle job is well and truly on as we lose to bottom of the table Mansfield! Not ****** good enough lads and the title is quickly getting out of reach!
A close game that ends in another defeat as Ipswich nicked the 1 goal of the game to take all 3 points.
Our form has taken a dive at the wrong time of the season and with no win in 5 games, we have dropped into the playoff places and now sit 4 points off the automatic promotion places! With just 4 games remaining, even if we win all of them we may still have to settle for a playoff place now!
As the race for promotion heats up, Barnsley actually look in a very strong position to nick 2nd spot from us and Fleetwood. They have the easiest run in and a game in hand too! Fleetwood do have 3 tough games against Coventry, Ipswich and Portsmouth to play and if Barnsley don't take advantage there is a chance we could if we win our remaining matches.
Ryan Blair
Friday 9th April 2021
This was a top of the table clash between 1st and 2nd and it's us who came out on top and leapfrog Fleetwood to the top of the table! Question is with 9 games remaining, can we stay there?
Must do better! Definitely a case of 2 points dropped here against a side we really need to be beating if we're going to lift this title!
Kieron Cadogan has had a decent season for us so far with 8 goals and 5 assists in 31 appearances, but he's now possibly going to miss the rest of the season through injury!
We did everything we could not to win this match! Despite dominating, we didn't take our chances, missed a penalty and had a man sent off as we laboured to another draw! Are we bottling our title challenge late on?
Coventry are another side chasing down an automatic promotion spot, so this was a big defeat for us and might be the result that changes our aspirations for the season from title challengers to trying to secure 2nd place and automatic promotion ourselves!
The bottle job is well and truly on as we lose to bottom of the table Mansfield! Not ****** good enough lads and the title is quickly getting out of reach!
A close game that ends in another defeat as Ipswich nicked the 1 goal of the game to take all 3 points.
Our form has taken a dive at the wrong time of the season and with no win in 5 games, we have dropped into the playoff places and now sit 4 points off the automatic promotion places! With just 4 games remaining, even if we win all of them we may still have to settle for a playoff place now!
As the race for promotion heats up, Barnsley actually look in a very strong position to nick 2nd spot from us and Fleetwood. They have the easiest run in and a game in hand too! Fleetwood do have 3 tough games against Coventry, Ipswich and Portsmouth to play and if Barnsley don't take advantage there is a chance we could if we win our remaining matches.
Brane_Orsou
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Bit of a wobble but still in there! KIU!!
FM_TNSSO
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Sunday 23rd May 2021
Sunday 23rd May 2021
I haven't had any approaches from bigger clubs for a little while, but Derby did come in and offer me an interview this month...which I rejected.
Back to winning ways in emphatic style as we absolutely batter Doncaster on their own turf! A number of players were simply brilliant today, but it was Luke Williams who really caught my eye as he scored two absolute crackers and bagged an assist as well!
We followed up the big win against Doncaster with another solid result here against Walsall! I had big hopes for Folarin Balogun when he signed on loan from Arsenal at the start of the season, but he has been bitterly disappointing and his opener for us today was actually his first league goal for the club all season despite 16 appearances!
With two games remaining, we have closed the gap and overtaken Fleetwood moving us back into the automatic promotion places! Our destiny was once again in our own hands and two more wins would secure promotion! However, it won't be easy with 6th placed Portsmouth and 7th placed Burton Albion our final couple of games!
Don't get me wrong, this was an amazing game for the fans with both sides having 25+ shots at goal and scoring 7 of them between us! However, I'm ****** that we've lost this one, not only because it was such a massive game for our promotion hopes but also the fact that we should have won with them playing an hour with only 10 men!!
With one game to go Rotherham have won the League One title, whilst we have dropped to 4th in the table and will have to beat Burton on the final day and hope that Fleetwood and Barnsley fail to win....if they both draw it should be enough as we have a superior goal difference.
We dominated the game but just couldn't find the back of the net as our final game of the season fizzled out into a bore draw!
What is absolutely gutting is that both Fleetwood and Barnsley lost on the final day of the season, so if we'd have beaten Burton then we'd have overtaken them both and achieved automatic promotion!! How sick is that!! Instead, we settle for a playoffs, which I would have taken all day long at the start of the season to be fair!!
The Playoffs
A very tight game between two closely matched sides, but we just about edged it to take the advantage into the 2nd leg! Luke Williams notched up his 10th goal of the season with a stunning strike from just outside the box into the top corner of the net!
The second leg was much more one sided and an Eloy Gonzalez hat trick booked our place in the final and a day out for the fans at Wembley! No matter what happens, it's been a fantastic season for us and to finish off the campaign at Wembley will be a fitting end to the year for player, fans and manager alike!
Portsmouth would be our playoff final opponents and we went into the game as massive outsiders at a massive 13-2 to secure promotion!! Pompey came into the game on the back of five straight wins, one of which was a 4-3 win over us (playing with 10 men for most of the game)!
It took less than a minute for Xavier Amaechi to settle our nerves as he put us in front with a powerful low shot after cutting in from the right wing! By the quarter of an hour mark, Charlie Goode's headed effort from a corner saw us 2 in front and we were in dreamland on 20 minutes when Amaechi added his 2nd of the game! 3-0 up in the opening quarter of the game was more than even our most optimistic fans could have predicted!! Now it was just a case of keeping our heads for an hour or so!! At half time, the lads were told not to get complacent but they clearly didn't listen as Portsmouth had pulled it back to 3-2 within 7 minutes of the restart and missed a penalty!!! Things were getting nervey!! Despite Portsmouth piling on the pressure for that last 30 minutes, we held it together and by the skin of our teeth we win the game and secured our third straight promotion and we'll be playing Championship football for the first time in Hartlepool's history next season!! Over the ****** moon!!
Sunday 23rd May 2021
I haven't had any approaches from bigger clubs for a little while, but Derby did come in and offer me an interview this month...which I rejected.
Back to winning ways in emphatic style as we absolutely batter Doncaster on their own turf! A number of players were simply brilliant today, but it was Luke Williams who really caught my eye as he scored two absolute crackers and bagged an assist as well!
We followed up the big win against Doncaster with another solid result here against Walsall! I had big hopes for Folarin Balogun when he signed on loan from Arsenal at the start of the season, but he has been bitterly disappointing and his opener for us today was actually his first league goal for the club all season despite 16 appearances!
With two games remaining, we have closed the gap and overtaken Fleetwood moving us back into the automatic promotion places! Our destiny was once again in our own hands and two more wins would secure promotion! However, it won't be easy with 6th placed Portsmouth and 7th placed Burton Albion our final couple of games!
Don't get me wrong, this was an amazing game for the fans with both sides having 25+ shots at goal and scoring 7 of them between us! However, I'm ****** that we've lost this one, not only because it was such a massive game for our promotion hopes but also the fact that we should have won with them playing an hour with only 10 men!!
With one game to go Rotherham have won the League One title, whilst we have dropped to 4th in the table and will have to beat Burton on the final day and hope that Fleetwood and Barnsley fail to win....if they both draw it should be enough as we have a superior goal difference.
We dominated the game but just couldn't find the back of the net as our final game of the season fizzled out into a bore draw!
What is absolutely gutting is that both Fleetwood and Barnsley lost on the final day of the season, so if we'd have beaten Burton then we'd have overtaken them both and achieved automatic promotion!! How sick is that!! Instead, we settle for a playoffs, which I would have taken all day long at the start of the season to be fair!!
The Playoffs
A very tight game between two closely matched sides, but we just about edged it to take the advantage into the 2nd leg! Luke Williams notched up his 10th goal of the season with a stunning strike from just outside the box into the top corner of the net!
The second leg was much more one sided and an Eloy Gonzalez hat trick booked our place in the final and a day out for the fans at Wembley! No matter what happens, it's been a fantastic season for us and to finish off the campaign at Wembley will be a fitting end to the year for player, fans and manager alike!
Portsmouth would be our playoff final opponents and we went into the game as massive outsiders at a massive 13-2 to secure promotion!! Pompey came into the game on the back of five straight wins, one of which was a 4-3 win over us (playing with 10 men for most of the game)!
It took less than a minute for Xavier Amaechi to settle our nerves as he put us in front with a powerful low shot after cutting in from the right wing! By the quarter of an hour mark, Charlie Goode's headed effort from a corner saw us 2 in front and we were in dreamland on 20 minutes when Amaechi added his 2nd of the game! 3-0 up in the opening quarter of the game was more than even our most optimistic fans could have predicted!! Now it was just a case of keeping our heads for an hour or so!! At half time, the lads were told not to get complacent but they clearly didn't listen as Portsmouth had pulled it back to 3-2 within 7 minutes of the restart and missed a penalty!!! Things were getting nervey!! Despite Portsmouth piling on the pressure for that last 30 minutes, we held it together and by the skin of our teeth we win the game and secured our third straight promotion and we'll be playing Championship football for the first time in Hartlepool's history next season!! Over the ****** moon!!
FM_TNSSO
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End of Season 2020/21
End of Season 2020/21
Arsenal loanee, Xavier Amaechi, has set a new League One record this season for the highest average rating!
So it was no surprise to see the 20 year old winger pick up the League One Player of the Year award!
And for the 3rd season in a row, I pick up the Manager of the Year award!
Incredibly, Xavier Amaechi didn't make the team of the year despite being the player of the year! Charlie Goode, however, was in the team!
Charlie Goode picked up the fan's player of the season award for the 2nd year running, with his centre back partner following him in 2nd! Luke Molyneux picked up the signing of the season after making his loan from Sunderland a permanent move, whilst Amaechi picked up the young player's award!
I'm a little surprised to see Eloy Gonzalez replace Jake Cassidy in the club's best 11 this season and I feel a bit for Jake. Luke Williams, Luke Molyneux and Kenton Richardson have all passed the 100 games mark under my management!
No issues on the squad dynamics front! I'd be very disappointed if there was to be honest!
Despite the team seemingly struggling for goals at times this season, we end the campaign with 4 players still making it to double figures, with Eloy Gonzalez finishing up as top scorer with 17! Xavier Amaechi was our best all rounder, but Luke Williams needs a special mention who has been with me all the way from the National League and continues to impress as he bagged 10 goals and 9 assists this year! My defence were great and most of them recorded impressive average ratings and it's been a pleasure to bring through the likes of Christopher Lynch and Colin Bell in the full back positions who have both impressed for such young players!
My Player of the Year: Luke Williams
My Young Player of the Year: Colin Bell
Surprise Package: Kieron Cadogan
Must Do Better: Folarin Balogun
Most Disappointing: Andrija Novakovich
The media love us off again after another incredible season! And the league positions show our promotion was well deserved as we were in and around the top of the table all season!
With Championship football ahead of us and a bit more money expected to be generated off the back of it, the board have handed me £1 million to spend in the Summer improving the squad! Considering I am yet to pay a fee for any player in 3 years, that's massive!!
Plans For The Summer; Well, after three straight promotions, it's fair to say that some of these players that were playing National League football for us 3 years ago might not be able to cut it in the Championship next season! So we could be looking at a complete squad overhaul in the Summer with quite a few players joining the club as I look to stretch my £1 million transfer budget as far as I possibly can! No doubt I'll be looking to the affiliation with Arsenal to bring some youngsters in on loan again, although the only one I would be keen to renew from this season is Xavier Amaechi! We'll need some stronger wingers for the Championship next year and a goalscorer who can bang them in at that level so they will be the priorities for me!
End of Season 2020/21
Arsenal loanee, Xavier Amaechi, has set a new League One record this season for the highest average rating!
So it was no surprise to see the 20 year old winger pick up the League One Player of the Year award!
And for the 3rd season in a row, I pick up the Manager of the Year award!
Incredibly, Xavier Amaechi didn't make the team of the year despite being the player of the year! Charlie Goode, however, was in the team!
Charlie Goode picked up the fan's player of the season award for the 2nd year running, with his centre back partner following him in 2nd! Luke Molyneux picked up the signing of the season after making his loan from Sunderland a permanent move, whilst Amaechi picked up the young player's award!
I'm a little surprised to see Eloy Gonzalez replace Jake Cassidy in the club's best 11 this season and I feel a bit for Jake. Luke Williams, Luke Molyneux and Kenton Richardson have all passed the 100 games mark under my management!
No issues on the squad dynamics front! I'd be very disappointed if there was to be honest!
Despite the team seemingly struggling for goals at times this season, we end the campaign with 4 players still making it to double figures, with Eloy Gonzalez finishing up as top scorer with 17! Xavier Amaechi was our best all rounder, but Luke Williams needs a special mention who has been with me all the way from the National League and continues to impress as he bagged 10 goals and 9 assists this year! My defence were great and most of them recorded impressive average ratings and it's been a pleasure to bring through the likes of Christopher Lynch and Colin Bell in the full back positions who have both impressed for such young players!
My Player of the Year: Luke Williams
My Young Player of the Year: Colin Bell
Surprise Package: Kieron Cadogan
Must Do Better: Folarin Balogun
Most Disappointing: Andrija Novakovich
The media love us off again after another incredible season! And the league positions show our promotion was well deserved as we were in and around the top of the table all season!
With Championship football ahead of us and a bit more money expected to be generated off the back of it, the board have handed me £1 million to spend in the Summer improving the squad! Considering I am yet to pay a fee for any player in 3 years, that's massive!!
Plans For The Summer; Well, after three straight promotions, it's fair to say that some of these players that were playing National League football for us 3 years ago might not be able to cut it in the Championship next season! So we could be looking at a complete squad overhaul in the Summer with quite a few players joining the club as I look to stretch my £1 million transfer budget as far as I possibly can! No doubt I'll be looking to the affiliation with Arsenal to bring some youngsters in on loan again, although the only one I would be keen to renew from this season is Xavier Amaechi! We'll need some stronger wingers for the Championship next year and a goalscorer who can bang them in at that level so they will be the priorities for me!
FM_TNSSO
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Charlie Goode
Sunday 4th July 2021
The commercial summary, as expected, makes for good reading again! Everything is on the up other than prize money after we crashed out of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup at the 1st round stages last season. However, we do have a new kit sponsor with 6x our previous deal!
Scott Parker has joined the coaching staff and is a great addition to my backroom team!
Newcastle were the latest club to make an approach, inviting me in for an interview. However, after coming this far with Hartlepool and now only being 1 division away from the promised land of the Premier League, I'm not going anywhere!
Before we get on to the incoming players, let's have a look at those that have been released from the club! It was with a heavy heart that I allowed Jake Cassidy, Kieron Cadogan, Nicky Featherstone and Bevis Mugabi leave at the end of the contracts, but they simply are not good enough to play at this level! However, I'm so grateful to these 4 as they were a massive part of my first 3 years in the club and all massive contributors to our first two titles in the club's history!
Ryan Ledson was my first addition of the Summer as he joined on a season long loan from Preston! He was transfer listed but I couldn't afford Preston's £1.8 million asking price, so instead his loan deal is worth £29k per month plus we will pay 50% of his wages (£6k p/w). It means that we have a very good player for the season in the middle of the park without breaking into my transfer budget too much! Ledson will likely be a first team regular as he is probably better than any of my other centre mids.
My second signing was another season long loan, but for different reasons. I could have afforded the £400k asking price that Nottingham Forest wanted for Lewis Grabban, but I didn't want to pay that money for a 33 year old. However, I do think the striker can do a job for us this season, so I brought him in on loan instead. We are not paying a monthly fee for him, but are paying 30% of his wages for the year (£7.5k p/w)...seems like a low budget deal though for a proven player! I have also agreed a future fee of £450k in case he sets the world alight and I want to make his deal permanent at the end of the season!
Another season long loan signing was Manchester United's 20 year old midfielder, Aliou Traore! The youngster has some great stats and will certainly have plenty of involvement in and around our first 11 this year! He's also costing us nothing for the whole season which is a bonus!
Nathan Dyer became my first permanent signing of the Summer and joins on a free transfer. Although he is 33 years old and not quite the player he was, he has a bucket load of experience at this level and that could be invaluable to us as we look to consolidate our position in the Championship this year!
We have been drawn away at Morecambe in the first round of the Carabao Cup and I'm keen to go a bit further than the 1st round where we were knocked out last season!
The fixtures for our first ever venture into the Championship are released and we have a tough start as we will take on 3 recent Premier League teams in our opening 5 games, in Fulham, Huddersfield and West Brom!
£3 million is a small fortune to us!
Before the league campaign gets underway, we have the matter of 5 friendlies to prepare!
FM_TNSSO
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Friday 30th July 2021
New Loan Signing; Ryan Ledson
Friday 30th July 2021
The captaincy posed a real problem for me this year! Carl Magnay has had the armband for my 3 years in charge, but is likely to get a lot less football this season and will primarily be a backup player. That's when I realised I am seriously lacking leadership on the pitch and the only other two players with good leadership attributes were Connor O'Grady and on loan Ryan Ledson! These are the two I've gone with but I'm not entirely happy with having an on loan player as my vice captain and O'Grady is only a squad rotation player and won't play week in, week out! I might need to address this next Summer and buy in a player that I plan to be captain at the club!
Marcus Harness becomes the very first player I have ever paid a fee for despite now entering my 4th season as Hartlepool manager. And he is a bit of a risk as I've brought him up 2 divisions from League Two Salford City! Still, at £105k he is a relatively cheap purchase and has good enough stats to compete out for a place in the team! I signed him as a squad player because he can provide cover down either wing and he has a good season for Salford last year scoring 7 goals and bagging 11 assists.
After forking out my first transfer fee, my next signing came in for nothing. Kieron Harrold was transfer listed by Arsenal, but with an asking price of £0, so I quickly took the opportunity to snap him up! The 18 year old is very versatile and can play up front or attacking midfield roles through the middle or on the right wing! He has some good stats and is a great young player to add to the squad even if he doesn't look quite like a future 'star'!
Probably my most important signing of the Summer was the renewal of Xavier Amaechi's loan deal from Arsenal! He'll be here for another season to continue his development and could have a massive impact on our survival hopes!
My final season long loan signing of the Summer was 18 year old centre mid, Matias Baldo, who comes in from Manchester United. The 18 year old is already valued at over £5 million and looks to have a bright future ahead of him! He's got some great stats and will bolster our midfield options and push my current crop of players for a place in the starting lineup! There's no doubt about it that I now feel our strongest area of the team is in those central midfield positions and hopefully that's where we are going to win games this season by controlling the centre of the park!
It's no surprise to see that we are predicted to finish bottom of the table this season. However, we have defied the odds ever since I took over at Hartlepool and the question on everyone's lips now is 'is this a step too far?'!
Fair to say that Watford should be ******* this league this season as 10 of their players make up the media dream 11! I've never seen such dominance in a season preview media 11 before!
Pre season went OK with the only defeat being to Chelsea's first team! Good draws against Arsenal's reserves and Middlesbrough rounded off the friendlies after a couple of expected wins against Aldershot and Elgin.
New Loan Signing; Ryan Ledson
Friday 30th July 2021
The captaincy posed a real problem for me this year! Carl Magnay has had the armband for my 3 years in charge, but is likely to get a lot less football this season and will primarily be a backup player. That's when I realised I am seriously lacking leadership on the pitch and the only other two players with good leadership attributes were Connor O'Grady and on loan Ryan Ledson! These are the two I've gone with but I'm not entirely happy with having an on loan player as my vice captain and O'Grady is only a squad rotation player and won't play week in, week out! I might need to address this next Summer and buy in a player that I plan to be captain at the club!
Marcus Harness becomes the very first player I have ever paid a fee for despite now entering my 4th season as Hartlepool manager. And he is a bit of a risk as I've brought him up 2 divisions from League Two Salford City! Still, at £105k he is a relatively cheap purchase and has good enough stats to compete out for a place in the team! I signed him as a squad player because he can provide cover down either wing and he has a good season for Salford last year scoring 7 goals and bagging 11 assists.
After forking out my first transfer fee, my next signing came in for nothing. Kieron Harrold was transfer listed by Arsenal, but with an asking price of £0, so I quickly took the opportunity to snap him up! The 18 year old is very versatile and can play up front or attacking midfield roles through the middle or on the right wing! He has some good stats and is a great young player to add to the squad even if he doesn't look quite like a future 'star'!
Probably my most important signing of the Summer was the renewal of Xavier Amaechi's loan deal from Arsenal! He'll be here for another season to continue his development and could have a massive impact on our survival hopes!
My final season long loan signing of the Summer was 18 year old centre mid, Matias Baldo, who comes in from Manchester United. The 18 year old is already valued at over £5 million and looks to have a bright future ahead of him! He's got some great stats and will bolster our midfield options and push my current crop of players for a place in the starting lineup! There's no doubt about it that I now feel our strongest area of the team is in those central midfield positions and hopefully that's where we are going to win games this season by controlling the centre of the park!
It's no surprise to see that we are predicted to finish bottom of the table this season. However, we have defied the odds ever since I took over at Hartlepool and the question on everyone's lips now is 'is this a step too far?'!
Fair to say that Watford should be ******* this league this season as 10 of their players make up the media dream 11! I've never seen such dominance in a season preview media 11 before!
Pre season went OK with the only defeat being to Chelsea's first team! Good draws against Arsenal's reserves and Middlesbrough rounded off the friendlies after a couple of expected wins against Aldershot and Elgin.
FM_TNSSO
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Friday 3rd September 2021
New signing, Marcus Harness
Friday 3rd September 2021
Before the competitive stuff kicked off, the board reminded me of their expectations. I think they're realistic for the upcoming season and I'm confident we can achieve on all fronts!
Season ticket sales continue to rise and we're up by another 1,000 this year!
Young prospect Christopher Lynch has joined Sutton Utd on loan for the season so he can get a good year of first team football under his belt and hopefully come back and much better player!
Just in case anyone didn't appreciate the magnitude of our task to stay in the Championship this year, the wage expenditure shows just how far behind every other club we are! Even Barnsley who are 23rd in the wages table are spending nearly double what we are!
Luck just wasn't on our side in the opening game of the season here. Just before Brentford scored their winning goal, Luke Molyneux had fired against the post with a great effort and shortly after that, Matias Baldo had a goal ruled out for handball. We can take some encouragement from this game though in the fact we wasn't battered by Brentford and were actually the better side for long periods of the game.
It was great to see Lewis Grabban scoring on his debut against Brentford, but he limped off late on in the game and will now miss up to 7 weeks through injury!
Carl Magnay then picked up an injury in training which will see him out for up to 3 months!
Our first away game of the season ends in defeat at Fulham! To be fair, it looked like it was going to be a silly scoreline when they were 3-0 up inside 35 minutes, but we seemed to compose ourselves and at least defend well in the 2nd half even though we couldn't find a goal of our own!
Our first point of the season is a good one at home to one of the strongest sides in the league! However, I can't help but feel we should have won the game with the amount of chances we created!
We played well here so it stinks that we have to come away with nothing from the game! Still, on paper West Brom are contenders to win the league this year so is one of them games we were expected to lose!
This was the result of our opening 5 games that convinced me we really are going to struggle to survive in the Championship this season! If we want to stay up, then we have to be beating the weaker sides and after Rotherham came up with us last year this was an opportunity to chalk up our first win....however, we were soundly beaten by them and things look pretty grim at this point!
A wonderful second half comeback gives us our first league win of the season and every one of these this year will be crucial! Marcus Harness came on at the break and within a minute of the restart he had his first goal for the club!
That win against Millwall might have been our only victory of the season so far, but it was enough to move us out of the bottom 3! One thing's for sure, we know we're in for a dogfight to stay up this year already!
Well we've already managed to go one step further than last year as we record a comfortable 2-0 victory over Morecambe to advance to the 2nd round! First goals of the season up for Novakovic and Harrold!
Premier League Cardiff were up next for us and we were the much better team here throughout the 90 minutes, but our inability to score goals was again a problem! Luckily, we seem to be pretty good at penalty shootouts and 5 perfect pens was enough to see us into the 3rd round!
We'll go away to Rotherham in the 3rd round! A club we have lost 3 of our last 4 games against!
New signing, Marcus Harness
Friday 3rd September 2021
Before the competitive stuff kicked off, the board reminded me of their expectations. I think they're realistic for the upcoming season and I'm confident we can achieve on all fronts!
Season ticket sales continue to rise and we're up by another 1,000 this year!
Young prospect Christopher Lynch has joined Sutton Utd on loan for the season so he can get a good year of first team football under his belt and hopefully come back and much better player!
Just in case anyone didn't appreciate the magnitude of our task to stay in the Championship this year, the wage expenditure shows just how far behind every other club we are! Even Barnsley who are 23rd in the wages table are spending nearly double what we are!
Luck just wasn't on our side in the opening game of the season here. Just before Brentford scored their winning goal, Luke Molyneux had fired against the post with a great effort and shortly after that, Matias Baldo had a goal ruled out for handball. We can take some encouragement from this game though in the fact we wasn't battered by Brentford and were actually the better side for long periods of the game.
It was great to see Lewis Grabban scoring on his debut against Brentford, but he limped off late on in the game and will now miss up to 7 weeks through injury!
Carl Magnay then picked up an injury in training which will see him out for up to 3 months!
Our first away game of the season ends in defeat at Fulham! To be fair, it looked like it was going to be a silly scoreline when they were 3-0 up inside 35 minutes, but we seemed to compose ourselves and at least defend well in the 2nd half even though we couldn't find a goal of our own!
Our first point of the season is a good one at home to one of the strongest sides in the league! However, I can't help but feel we should have won the game with the amount of chances we created!
We played well here so it stinks that we have to come away with nothing from the game! Still, on paper West Brom are contenders to win the league this year so is one of them games we were expected to lose!
This was the result of our opening 5 games that convinced me we really are going to struggle to survive in the Championship this season! If we want to stay up, then we have to be beating the weaker sides and after Rotherham came up with us last year this was an opportunity to chalk up our first win....however, we were soundly beaten by them and things look pretty grim at this point!
A wonderful second half comeback gives us our first league win of the season and every one of these this year will be crucial! Marcus Harness came on at the break and within a minute of the restart he had his first goal for the club!
That win against Millwall might have been our only victory of the season so far, but it was enough to move us out of the bottom 3! One thing's for sure, we know we're in for a dogfight to stay up this year already!
Well we've already managed to go one step further than last year as we record a comfortable 2-0 victory over Morecambe to advance to the 2nd round! First goals of the season up for Novakovic and Harrold!
Premier League Cardiff were up next for us and we were the much better team here throughout the 90 minutes, but our inability to score goals was again a problem! Luckily, we seem to be pretty good at penalty shootouts and 5 perfect pens was enough to see us into the 3rd round!
We'll go away to Rotherham in the 3rd round! A club we have lost 3 of our last 4 games against!
Brane_Orsou
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Gona be tough this year but looking forward to seeing how you get on!!
FM_TNSSO
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Thursday 21st October 2021
Cameron Humphreys
Thursday 21st October 2021
I was handed a new 3 year contract with the club, which included a pay rise of £1,400 p/w!
We kick off this update with some bad news. Xavier Amaechi will miss a few weeks through injury!
Our most dominant performance of the season so far results in back to back victories! Young right back Colin Bell was the man who got us on our way today with a nice strike from just inside the box!
Charlie Goode picked up an injury in the Blackburn game that will see him out of action for up to 4 weeks.
This was a valiant effort from my team, but everything just stacked against us during the game and it seems we were destined not to get a result here! First the sending off, which I personally thought looked harsh, followed by the injury of Cameron Humphreys for which I had no other centre backs on the bench (due to injuries), so had to move centre mid Traore into the back line! After that, it was only ever going to be a case of trying to hold on to a point but it wasn't to be!
We came into this game with a bit of a defensive crisis and due to injuries to Cameron Humphreys, Carl Magnay and Charlie Goode, I had to give a debut to 18 year old John Brown! Not ideal when you're playing the best team in the division! Despite that though, we weren't trounced by Watford and gave them a game...yes we lost but under these circumstances we could have been on the end of a much bigger scoreline than this!
A good point at home to the Swans! It's lucky my midfielders can score goals as my strikers are f*cking pony so far this season!
Another good point against a side in the top half of the table and another goal coming from midfield!
What a second half comeback that was!! At 2-0 down and down to 10 men, we looked dead and buried against bottom side Barnsley! But once they'd had one of their own players also sent off by the break, it gave hope we might be able to turn things around in the second half. However, the best I'd have hoped for was to claw back a draw so to get the win is awesome!! In the grand scheme of things, it's a massive 3 points against another side battling the drop as well!
On paper it might look like a good point, but considering some of the good chances we had and missed, it's actually a pretty disappointing one as we should have won the game! On the plus side, we are now on a 4 game unbeaten run!
Kieron Harrold's opener was a gift from the Wednesday keeper who kicked the ball against Harrold and the ball rebounded off him into the back of an open net! We went on to dominate the rest of the 1st half but couldn't add a second goal. However, Luke Molyneux had us 2 in front early after the break with a nice placed effort from about 8 yards out and from then we never looked like losing this game! A big 3 points that saw us leapfrog Sheffield Wednesday in the table too!
We're up to 17th in the table after picking up a few points and stringing together a 5 games unbeaten streak! However, we are still only 3 points clear of the drop zone and there's plenty more work ahead of us if we are going to survive in this division this year!
We really do have a **** poor record against Rotherham and this result made it 4 defeats in 5 games against them as we crash out of the Carabao Cup!
Cameron Humphreys
Thursday 21st October 2021
I was handed a new 3 year contract with the club, which included a pay rise of £1,400 p/w!
We kick off this update with some bad news. Xavier Amaechi will miss a few weeks through injury!
Our most dominant performance of the season so far results in back to back victories! Young right back Colin Bell was the man who got us on our way today with a nice strike from just inside the box!
Charlie Goode picked up an injury in the Blackburn game that will see him out of action for up to 4 weeks.
This was a valiant effort from my team, but everything just stacked against us during the game and it seems we were destined not to get a result here! First the sending off, which I personally thought looked harsh, followed by the injury of Cameron Humphreys for which I had no other centre backs on the bench (due to injuries), so had to move centre mid Traore into the back line! After that, it was only ever going to be a case of trying to hold on to a point but it wasn't to be!
We came into this game with a bit of a defensive crisis and due to injuries to Cameron Humphreys, Carl Magnay and Charlie Goode, I had to give a debut to 18 year old John Brown! Not ideal when you're playing the best team in the division! Despite that though, we weren't trounced by Watford and gave them a game...yes we lost but under these circumstances we could have been on the end of a much bigger scoreline than this!
A good point at home to the Swans! It's lucky my midfielders can score goals as my strikers are f*cking pony so far this season!
Another good point against a side in the top half of the table and another goal coming from midfield!
What a second half comeback that was!! At 2-0 down and down to 10 men, we looked dead and buried against bottom side Barnsley! But once they'd had one of their own players also sent off by the break, it gave hope we might be able to turn things around in the second half. However, the best I'd have hoped for was to claw back a draw so to get the win is awesome!! In the grand scheme of things, it's a massive 3 points against another side battling the drop as well!
On paper it might look like a good point, but considering some of the good chances we had and missed, it's actually a pretty disappointing one as we should have won the game! On the plus side, we are now on a 4 game unbeaten run!
Kieron Harrold's opener was a gift from the Wednesday keeper who kicked the ball against Harrold and the ball rebounded off him into the back of an open net! We went on to dominate the rest of the 1st half but couldn't add a second goal. However, Luke Molyneux had us 2 in front early after the break with a nice placed effort from about 8 yards out and from then we never looked like losing this game! A big 3 points that saw us leapfrog Sheffield Wednesday in the table too!
We're up to 17th in the table after picking up a few points and stringing together a 5 games unbeaten streak! However, we are still only 3 points clear of the drop zone and there's plenty more work ahead of us if we are going to survive in this division this year!
We really do have a **** poor record against Rotherham and this result made it 4 defeats in 5 games against them as we crash out of the Carabao Cup!
FM_TNSSO
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Wednesday 22nd December 2021
Wednesday 22nd December 2021
Going away to Palace and getting a win is by far our most impressive result of the season so far!
Still on a high from the Palace win, we came into this one in good spirits and it showed as we put in a wonderful performance against another big side in this division! A convincing win with a hat trick from Kieron Harrold who could be starting to find some form for us up top!
Kieron Harrold picks up the Player of the Month award for October!
It's a clean swoop for us as we take all 3 spots in the Young Player of the Month, with Harrold again scooping top prize!
And it's a first Manager of the Month award in the Championship for me!
Another win and that's now 8 games unbeaten as we move into the top half of the table! We seem to be settling down well into the division now and finding our feet, leaving relegation worries far behind us for now!
Wigan are having a decent campaign and sat 7th at kick off, so this has to be considered a good point, although it is frustrating that we handed them their equalizing goal with a soft penalty!
QPR are absolutely flying and occupied a playoff spot at kick off, which shows just how good a result this was for us! Not only did we win, but we won by a big margin inflicting an embarassing defeat on Rangers!
Derby are massively underachieving this season and look set to struggle in the relegation battle! So with us coming into this game on an unbeaten run and with some big wins behind us recently, I felt quietly confident we'd get one over on the Rams here...and we did exactly that with relative ease in all honesty! They were **** poor and it'll be no surprise to see them go down this year if they don't improve quickly! Lewis Grabban scored the pick of our goals today with a nice volleyed effort from about 10 yards out!
A massive blow as we lose Traore for 3 months! He's been instrumental in our success so far this season and will be sorely missed!
Matias Baldo absolutely bossed the midfield here and was sensational as he bagged a goal and an assist! The loanee from Man Utd is quickly becoming a firm fan favourite here and one of the manager's favourites too!!
We very nearly recorded a very impressive win after playing most of the game with 10 men! That was, until O'Hare scored for them with one of the last kicks of the game to share the spoils!
Our first defeat in 14 games comes at the hands of Stoke, but there is no shame in this defeat as we lost to one of the favourites to win the league and they do have a superior side to ours and a much bigger budget to match!
At the half way stage of the season, an incredible run of 13 games without defeat has moved us right up into the top half of the table and we've left the relegation battle well behind us! It's probably too early to wonder if we can challenge for playoffs yet, but that would be an incredibly big ask and I'd happily settle for a safe mid table position!
West Brom will be our first opponents in the FA Cup this season as we enjoy the perk of entering the competition at the 3rd round stage due to our now Championship status!
Wednesday 22nd December 2021
Going away to Palace and getting a win is by far our most impressive result of the season so far!
Still on a high from the Palace win, we came into this one in good spirits and it showed as we put in a wonderful performance against another big side in this division! A convincing win with a hat trick from Kieron Harrold who could be starting to find some form for us up top!
Kieron Harrold picks up the Player of the Month award for October!
It's a clean swoop for us as we take all 3 spots in the Young Player of the Month, with Harrold again scooping top prize!
And it's a first Manager of the Month award in the Championship for me!
Another win and that's now 8 games unbeaten as we move into the top half of the table! We seem to be settling down well into the division now and finding our feet, leaving relegation worries far behind us for now!
Wigan are having a decent campaign and sat 7th at kick off, so this has to be considered a good point, although it is frustrating that we handed them their equalizing goal with a soft penalty!
QPR are absolutely flying and occupied a playoff spot at kick off, which shows just how good a result this was for us! Not only did we win, but we won by a big margin inflicting an embarassing defeat on Rangers!
Derby are massively underachieving this season and look set to struggle in the relegation battle! So with us coming into this game on an unbeaten run and with some big wins behind us recently, I felt quietly confident we'd get one over on the Rams here...and we did exactly that with relative ease in all honesty! They were **** poor and it'll be no surprise to see them go down this year if they don't improve quickly! Lewis Grabban scored the pick of our goals today with a nice volleyed effort from about 10 yards out!
A massive blow as we lose Traore for 3 months! He's been instrumental in our success so far this season and will be sorely missed!
Matias Baldo absolutely bossed the midfield here and was sensational as he bagged a goal and an assist! The loanee from Man Utd is quickly becoming a firm fan favourite here and one of the manager's favourites too!!
We very nearly recorded a very impressive win after playing most of the game with 10 men! That was, until O'Hare scored for them with one of the last kicks of the game to share the spoils!
Our first defeat in 14 games comes at the hands of Stoke, but there is no shame in this defeat as we lost to one of the favourites to win the league and they do have a superior side to ours and a much bigger budget to match!
At the half way stage of the season, an incredible run of 13 games without defeat has moved us right up into the top half of the table and we've left the relegation battle well behind us! It's probably too early to wonder if we can challenge for playoffs yet, but that would be an incredibly big ask and I'd happily settle for a safe mid table position!
West Brom will be our first opponents in the FA Cup this season as we enjoy the perk of entering the competition at the 3rd round stage due to our now Championship status!
FM_TNSSO
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Tuesday 1st February 2022
Tuesday 1st February 2022
Well if you're ever looking for a perfect example of throwing a game away then this has to be it! We were 3-0 up against the league leaders with only 6 minutes remaining and managed to lose the game 4-3!! Possibly the worst collapse I've ever experienced in all my time of playing FM! To say I was livid when that 4th goal went in would be an understatement and the lads were given a kick in at full time!
With only 2 days between games, I was unable to field a full strength team here and rotation was a must! However, we still managed to bounce back from the defeat against Brentford with a very good home win over West Brom here! Both Novakovich and Williams who had come into the starting lineup got themselves on the scoresheet!
A bore draw but a decent point against a leading side in the division!
The upcoming game against Huddersfield will be my 200th in charge of Hartlepool United! A proud day for me as I become the first manager to reach 200 games managing the club since Billy Horner all the way back in 1983 who reached 307! In fact, I become only the 3rd manager in the club's history to reach the 200 game milestone!
We very nearly picked up a point against another big side and probably should have with Liam Noble missing a late penalty for us! Still, a decent effort from my lads again and I can't be too hard on them for the result!
**** sake, these bastards really are my bogey team! Even when we go 2-0 up against them, we can't ******* win! Yea, if you hadn't already noticed, I'm pretty ****** with this result!
My only signing of the January window came in at this point as I signed Glen Kamara from Rangers for a fee of £110,000! The Finnish midfielder will come in a bolster a central midfield that is lacking in quality at the moment, especially with the injury to Aliou Traore! He is more defensive minded than most of my other centre mids and with the DM role becoming much more essential for us this season, he will hopefully slot into that position perfectly!
Millwall are having a good season and challenging for the playoffs, so we'll take this as a decent point. Bit of a ******* that Glen Kamara gave away the penalty on his debut, but I can forgive him as he is a little rusty of competitive football having only played about 10 games over the past 2 seasons for Rangers.
There's no denying we've been on a bit of a bad run lately, but we finally managed to chalk up our first win of the new calendar year here and hopefully that could spark us back into life and send us back on a good run of games again...hopefully!
Matias Baldo picked up the Young Player of the Month award for January, which shows just how good he has been seeing as our results as a team have been pretty mediocre!
Well the fact that we've already nearly reached the magical 50 point mark means that we can say we won't be relegated this year with some confidence! So the question now is can we do the unthinkable and push on for a playoff place...we might as well aim high as we have nothing to lose with this season being classed as a success no matter what happens now!
New Year's Day was FA Cup 3rd round day this year and we kicked off 2022 with a draw! Liam Noble came off the bench and clinched a late equalizer to earn us a replay with a stunning goal from about 25 yards, a nicely placed effort that he curled into the top corner!
Our play in the final third let us down in the replay as we lacked composure to create decent chances and instead decided to mostly take long hopeful shots at goal which never troubled them! So we're out, but it's not the end of the world as it gives us full focus on finishing as high up the Championship table as possible which is the priority this season anyway!
Tuesday 1st February 2022
Well if you're ever looking for a perfect example of throwing a game away then this has to be it! We were 3-0 up against the league leaders with only 6 minutes remaining and managed to lose the game 4-3!! Possibly the worst collapse I've ever experienced in all my time of playing FM! To say I was livid when that 4th goal went in would be an understatement and the lads were given a kick in at full time!
With only 2 days between games, I was unable to field a full strength team here and rotation was a must! However, we still managed to bounce back from the defeat against Brentford with a very good home win over West Brom here! Both Novakovich and Williams who had come into the starting lineup got themselves on the scoresheet!
A bore draw but a decent point against a leading side in the division!
The upcoming game against Huddersfield will be my 200th in charge of Hartlepool United! A proud day for me as I become the first manager to reach 200 games managing the club since Billy Horner all the way back in 1983 who reached 307! In fact, I become only the 3rd manager in the club's history to reach the 200 game milestone!
We very nearly picked up a point against another big side and probably should have with Liam Noble missing a late penalty for us! Still, a decent effort from my lads again and I can't be too hard on them for the result!
**** sake, these bastards really are my bogey team! Even when we go 2-0 up against them, we can't ******* win! Yea, if you hadn't already noticed, I'm pretty ****** with this result!
My only signing of the January window came in at this point as I signed Glen Kamara from Rangers for a fee of £110,000! The Finnish midfielder will come in a bolster a central midfield that is lacking in quality at the moment, especially with the injury to Aliou Traore! He is more defensive minded than most of my other centre mids and with the DM role becoming much more essential for us this season, he will hopefully slot into that position perfectly!
Millwall are having a good season and challenging for the playoffs, so we'll take this as a decent point. Bit of a ******* that Glen Kamara gave away the penalty on his debut, but I can forgive him as he is a little rusty of competitive football having only played about 10 games over the past 2 seasons for Rangers.
There's no denying we've been on a bit of a bad run lately, but we finally managed to chalk up our first win of the new calendar year here and hopefully that could spark us back into life and send us back on a good run of games again...hopefully!
Matias Baldo picked up the Young Player of the Month award for January, which shows just how good he has been seeing as our results as a team have been pretty mediocre!
Well the fact that we've already nearly reached the magical 50 point mark means that we can say we won't be relegated this year with some confidence! So the question now is can we do the unthinkable and push on for a playoff place...we might as well aim high as we have nothing to lose with this season being classed as a success no matter what happens now!
New Year's Day was FA Cup 3rd round day this year and we kicked off 2022 with a draw! Liam Noble came off the bench and clinched a late equalizer to earn us a replay with a stunning goal from about 25 yards, a nicely placed effort that he curled into the top corner!
Our play in the final third let us down in the replay as we lacked composure to create decent chances and instead decided to mostly take long hopeful shots at goal which never troubled them! So we're out, but it's not the end of the world as it gives us full focus on finishing as high up the Championship table as possible which is the priority this season anyway!
W
WeArePalace
Guest
Amazing story so far mate! Doing amazingly well throughout this whole time...Glen Kamara looks like a great signing too. Shame about losing the leads twice, that loss to Brentford must’ve really hurt as did losing to Rotherham yet again.
FM_TNSSO
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****** Rotherham are the thorn in my side lol! As for that Brentford result, I've never seen anything like it...losing a the game after holding a 3 goal lead with 6 minutes remaining!!!
FM_TNSSO
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Thursday 24th March 2022
Thursday 24th March 2022
Disappointed to only get a draw here as we were all over Reading for the entire game, but couldn't find the 2nd goal to kill the game off!
We were simply undone by a much better side. No complaints!
I suppose going away to The Liberty Stadium and picking up a point is a decent achievement, but our lack of wins since the turn of the year is becoming slightly worrying and it's looking more and more likely that we may now just be seeing this season out with safety all but guaranteed!
Luke Molyneux was sidelined for up to 4 weeks!
Back to winning ways here against a Bristol City side that will be disappointed with their current position of 15th in the table! Kieron Harrold was excellent in front of goal here as he notched up his 15th and 16th goals of the season as he makes his way toward the 20 goals benchmark that I expect from my main striker!
Barnsley are bottom of the table and 11 points adrift of safety, so I'd have been disappointed not to beat them here! In the end, it was comfortable and nothing to worry about!
Hull are another side that are struggling down in the relegation places at the moment, so again I was expecting a win, and again my boys delivered! That's 3 wins in a row and we are picking up a nice run of form as we enter the back straight of the league campaign!
Two wonder goals from Matias Baldo saw us make it 4 wins in a row with victory over Sheffield Wednesday. A good solid win over another side in the top 10!
Palace are right up there and challenging for automatic promotion, so I can't be too upset with this result. They're simply a much better side than us at the moment!
With 8 games remaining, we are in with an outside shot at making the playoffs with 6 points separating us and Fulham in 6th! We'll need to string together probably 6 or 7 wins and hope for some luck along the way, but it's a chance I never thought we'd be anywhere near at the start of the season so we have nothing to lose really!
Possibly our worst youth intake yet since I've been at the club!
Thursday 24th March 2022
Disappointed to only get a draw here as we were all over Reading for the entire game, but couldn't find the 2nd goal to kill the game off!
We were simply undone by a much better side. No complaints!
I suppose going away to The Liberty Stadium and picking up a point is a decent achievement, but our lack of wins since the turn of the year is becoming slightly worrying and it's looking more and more likely that we may now just be seeing this season out with safety all but guaranteed!
Luke Molyneux was sidelined for up to 4 weeks!
Back to winning ways here against a Bristol City side that will be disappointed with their current position of 15th in the table! Kieron Harrold was excellent in front of goal here as he notched up his 15th and 16th goals of the season as he makes his way toward the 20 goals benchmark that I expect from my main striker!
Barnsley are bottom of the table and 11 points adrift of safety, so I'd have been disappointed not to beat them here! In the end, it was comfortable and nothing to worry about!
Hull are another side that are struggling down in the relegation places at the moment, so again I was expecting a win, and again my boys delivered! That's 3 wins in a row and we are picking up a nice run of form as we enter the back straight of the league campaign!
Two wonder goals from Matias Baldo saw us make it 4 wins in a row with victory over Sheffield Wednesday. A good solid win over another side in the top 10!
Palace are right up there and challenging for automatic promotion, so I can't be too upset with this result. They're simply a much better side than us at the moment!
With 8 games remaining, we are in with an outside shot at making the playoffs with 6 points separating us and Fulham in 6th! We'll need to string together probably 6 or 7 wins and hope for some luck along the way, but it's a chance I never thought we'd be anywhere near at the start of the season so we have nothing to lose really!
Possibly our worst youth intake yet since I've been at the club!
FM_TNSSO
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Monday 2nd May 2022
Ted Smith
Monday 2nd May 2022
Oh dear, the Sunderland fans won't be happy with this one. Getting trounced by little old Hartlepool on their home turf! We were simply brilliant here and it was good to see Marcus Harness grab only his 2nd goal of the season in what has been a challenging campaign for the winger.
Matias Baldo picked up both the Player and Young Player of the Month awards for March!
We followed up the Sunderland win with another big victory over Birmingham here! We were relentless in attack creating more than 30 chances and converting 4 of them into goals! Marcus Harness had another great game, contributing with a goal and an assist which earned him the match ball!
For the 3rd game in a row, we score 4 goals and it's fair to say our attackers are enjoying themselves at the minute! Kieron Harrold's penalty brought up his 20th goal of the season and the 18 year old has proved to be a brilliant piece of business for the club this season!
Another one of them games where we threw away a lead and never should have lost this game! There's never an excuse for going 2-0 up in a game and going on to lose it, but it's happened to us a few times this year and is definitely an area of improvement for us!
Kieron Harrold bagged another 2 goals here to put him in with a real shout of winning the Championship Golden Boot this season, which would be an amazing achievement for the lad! This was a big win for us and kept our hopes of making the playoffs alive!
Just as we were starting to close in on the top 6, this was a massive setback for us losing to a struggling Forest side who are battling relegation!
We have 2 games remaining and with a bit of luck, we were in a position where we could still nick a playoff spot!
Our final home game of the season ends in defeat to Villa and is another blow in our hopes for making the playoffs!
With only 1 game remaining, there's still a chance we could creep into the top 6, but we are relying on Fulham failing to win their final match against relegated Hull!
A good point away at Stoke, but not the win that we needed to make the playoff places!
That draw against Stoke on the final day was enough for us to leapfrog Fulham, who failed to win their final game as well, but it's my old enemy Rotherham who jump above both of us to steal that final playoff place! To be honest, I hope they ****** go up so we don't have to play them next season!
Ted Smith
Monday 2nd May 2022
Oh dear, the Sunderland fans won't be happy with this one. Getting trounced by little old Hartlepool on their home turf! We were simply brilliant here and it was good to see Marcus Harness grab only his 2nd goal of the season in what has been a challenging campaign for the winger.
Matias Baldo picked up both the Player and Young Player of the Month awards for March!
We followed up the Sunderland win with another big victory over Birmingham here! We were relentless in attack creating more than 30 chances and converting 4 of them into goals! Marcus Harness had another great game, contributing with a goal and an assist which earned him the match ball!
For the 3rd game in a row, we score 4 goals and it's fair to say our attackers are enjoying themselves at the minute! Kieron Harrold's penalty brought up his 20th goal of the season and the 18 year old has proved to be a brilliant piece of business for the club this season!
Another one of them games where we threw away a lead and never should have lost this game! There's never an excuse for going 2-0 up in a game and going on to lose it, but it's happened to us a few times this year and is definitely an area of improvement for us!
Kieron Harrold bagged another 2 goals here to put him in with a real shout of winning the Championship Golden Boot this season, which would be an amazing achievement for the lad! This was a big win for us and kept our hopes of making the playoffs alive!
Just as we were starting to close in on the top 6, this was a massive setback for us losing to a struggling Forest side who are battling relegation!
We have 2 games remaining and with a bit of luck, we were in a position where we could still nick a playoff spot!
Our final home game of the season ends in defeat to Villa and is another blow in our hopes for making the playoffs!
With only 1 game remaining, there's still a chance we could creep into the top 6, but we are relying on Fulham failing to win their final match against relegated Hull!
A good point away at Stoke, but not the win that we needed to make the playoff places!
That draw against Stoke on the final day was enough for us to leapfrog Fulham, who failed to win their final game as well, but it's my old enemy Rotherham who jump above both of us to steal that final playoff place! To be honest, I hope they ****** go up so we don't have to play them next season!
FM_TNSSO
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End of 2021/22 Season
Huddersfield won the playoffs and will go up with Crystal Palace and Stoke! ******, that means we'll have to play Rotherham again next year!
The near £5 million we received at the end of the season is another small fortune for our little club!
Matias Baldo set a new average rating record for the Championship this season, was named as the Player of the Year and as the Young Player of the Year! What a future this lad has ahead of him!
Kieron Harrold, the Arsenal reject, caps off a fantastic first season with us by winning the Championship Golden Boot!
Baldo and Harrold also made the Championship Team of the Year!
After a slow start in the league, we were in and around that 6th-10th spots all season, massively overachiving for another year! Cup performances were a little disappointing, but our main focus this year was always going to be to stay in the division!
I pretty much agree with everything here on awards night! The fans are spot on to give their award to Baldo who has been immense all season! Baldo also takes the young player of the season, whilst Harrold deserves the signing of the season award after finishing the season with 20+ goals after Arsenal turned their back on him!
The overall best eleven is a strange one for me year on year. How the f*ck Ryan Donaldson makes my team after 4 completed seasons I don't know! Kieron Harrold goes straight in up front, although I still think Jake Cassidy deserves to be holding this spot for now after his first two years under my management here!
The squad dynamics look good, with support of my management still excellent and no players currently unhappy!
Despite the step up to Championship football, a few of my players still managed to make that step up and finished the season with decent average ratings! Kieron Harrold led the way up top and finished up with 24 goals...a very good return for the 18 year old in his first season at the club! Matias Baldo was the only other player to reach double figures on the goals front with 14, and the central midfielder also chipped in with 11 assists as he had a great season! Luke Molyneux and Luke Williams deserve a special mention as they contributed 15 assists and 10 goals between them which is brilliant considering they have come up all the way from the National League with me! Colin Bell, a product of my youth system and still only 18 years old, stepped up to Championship football very well and looks to have a big future ahead of him!
My Player of the Year: Matias Baldo
My Young Player of the Year: Kieron Harrold
Surprise Package: Colin Bell
Must Do Better: Marcus Harness
Most Disappointing: Lewis Grabban
It's still early days but the club are looking for investors to help us build a new stadium! Potentially, exciting times ahead!
The commercial summary showed the biggest rise to be in broadcast revenues now we are playing Championship football. Sponsorship is also on the up, but it is disappointing to see match day commercial/retail revenue down significantly.
The board have made a minimal transfer budget available for next season and improving the squad over the Summer may prove tough!
Plans For The Summer; With very little funds available, it's going to be tough to improve the team and I'm going to have to be very shrewd in the transfer market! I'll be keeping an eye out for any players available on a free and will again look to take advantage of the loan system! If I can keep Matias Baldo here for another year then it will be huge for us and that will be my priority! I think we are strongest still in defence and it's likely to be attacking players I'll be looking for....a striker that can compete with Kieron Harrold is essential and a couple of a decent wingers wouldn't go a miss!
Brane_Orsou
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Congrats mate! Cracking season!
JamesScott2908
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Havent commented on the site for a long long time and became more of a silent reader however after reading this thought it was worth of a comment!
Really good read and you have made amazing progress with such a small team!
Interested to see what you manage to do with those huge budgets!
Really good read and you have made amazing progress with such a small team!
Interested to see what you manage to do with those huge budgets!