Unbelievable Jeff!! A Hartlepool United Story!!

[FM_TNSSO]

Saturday 2nd May 2020

Beryly Lubala who has been here on loan all season

Saturday 2nd May 2020

We very nearly threw away a 3 goal lead here and I'd have been livid if we had! Rochdale came and had a go and missed a glorious opportunity to level things up late on as well, so we've probably had a bit of a let off here!

We weren't crowned League Two champions immediately after the Rochdale game, but a couple of days later. And who better than my club, Gillingham, to beat Blackpool and confirm us as champions!! What an amazing achievement by us this season - well done to all my lads!

It's another Manager of the Month award for me as I rack up the personal acolades as well!

Colchester are a big team in this league, so this has to be seen as a decent point at their place.

Luke Molyneux joins the injury list and won't play again this season! It could mean he's played his last game for the club as his loan spell ends at the end of the season.

Pleased to see that just because we have the title won, the lads are not letting up and are maintaining a good level of performance! Grimsby haven't really got anything to play for as they can't make playoffs but won't go down, and they looked like the ones who are just seeing the season out now!

Our penultimate home game of the season ends in victory over bottom side Tranmere and all but consigns them to relegation. I'm extremely pleased with this win as I desperately want to maintain that unbeaten home record for the whole season!

A simple 1-0 win to take us to the 100 point mark for the 2nd season running!

Luke Williams is the latest player to be sidelined and will miss the last couple of games of the season with injury!

We win our final home game of the season to ensure we remain unbeaten at Victoria Park for the entire campaign, an achievement I am extremely proud of!

I handed out another debut to a player from last year's youth intake. 17 year old Colin Bell (RB) gave a good account of himself too scoring a match rating of 7.10!

Beryly Lubala picks up the Player of the Month award for April.

And it's a 5th Manager of the Month award of the season for me!!

There's only one Jake Cassidy!! The main man came off the bench to bag our opening goal and his 22nd of the season, before Danny Redmond added a 2nd in injury time! Worth noting that I started three players who came through last year's youth intake too - Christopher Lynch, Colin Bell and George Armstrong!

There you have it...the final league table which shows that we absolutely ****** it! A massive 27 point gap between us and 2nd placed Blackpool shows that we were absolutely immense this season!! We finish the season with the best attack and 2nd best defence as well! Blackpool and Lincoln also secured automatic promotion and will join us in League One next year!

After winning back to back league titles, I guess it was only a matter of time before other clubs came knocking at my door. Naturally, I rejected Fleetwood's approach as I want to take Hartlepool to the top!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season 2019/20

End of Season 2019/20

Rochdale won the playoffs and will come up to League One with us next season!

Charlie Goode won the League Two Player of the Year!

Jake Cassidy finished runner up in the Top Goalscorer stats!

I added the League Two Manager of the Year award to my Vanarama National League award from last season!

No less than 6 of my players were named in the League Two Team of the Year!

Again it's a defender that the fan's vote for in their player of the season. This time, it's centre back Charlie Goode that takes the prize! He cleaned up as he also took the signing and young player of the season awards as well!

The media review is again full of praise for our overachieving club! And the league positions show that we topped the table for virtually the entire season!

Liam Noble and Jakes Cassidy have joined Carl Magnay as team leaders, whilst Scott Loach and Nicky Featherstone dropped down to highly influential in the squad hierachy. As for managerial support and dressing room atmosphere, it's all gravy baby!

We have a best 11 announced this season at the end of my 2nd year in charge and the one shock for me is that young Christopher Lynch has gone straight in at left back despite only 18 appearances for the club! Also quite surprising to see captain, Carl Magnay, only makes the bench after being such a big part of our title winning team last season, as well as playing his part in this year's success as well.

Looking over the squad stats for the season, again I am pleased to see plenty of players recording average ratings above 7.0! Jake Cassidy is a player I am beginning to love and he topped the goalscoring stats again, bagging 22 this year! Courtney Baker-Richardson, Luke Molyneux and Beryly Lubala were all great loan signings and all chipped in with their fair share of goals and assists! Luke Williams also had a good campaign with 13 goals from midfield, whilst Kieron Cadogan did well when he played considering he was brought in as a backup player for the league below last season! The defence were immense this year and the signings of Charlie Goode and Cameron Humphreys at centre back proved to be an excellent partnership at the back! Ted Smith took over the number 1 jersey from Scott Loach and had a good season between the sticks, and we have every reason to be excited about some of our young prospects coming through, none more so that left back Christopher Lynch who made 18 appearances this year...the key will be keeping hold of him as there is plenty of interest from Championship clubs!

The commercial summary shows big increases in sponsorship and broadcasting money! However, competition prize money and matchday retail took a hit, based on the fact that we only got through one round of the FA Cup this season!

In other news, Ipswich came knocking at my door but I swiftly rejected their appraoch!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Wednesday 1st July 2020

Wednesday 1st July 2020

Peter Kioso was the only player from the first team squad that was released this Summer as I try to hold together most of the team initially.

One area of the squad I didn't really need to improve was the centre back position. However, 22 year old Connor O'Grady became available on a free transfer after Sheffield Wednesday decided to release the player and I just couldn't say no! He has some fantastic stats and will push Goode and Humphreys all the way for their spots in the starting lineup!

Luke Molyneux has had two fantastic seasons with us on loan and has really grown as a player during that time as well! So when Sunderland announced they would be releasing him, it was a no brainer to offer the lad a permanent deal with us!

With our promotion, I wanted the board to find me a better senior affiliate to hopefully get a better quality of loan players here next year! They have come up trumps and we announce a new link with Arsenal! The link with Swansea has now been cancelled.

My Assistant Manager, Ged McNamee decided to move on despite me offering him a new deal.

Leam Richardson joins the club as my new number 2! He has experience in the Assistant Manager role for the likes of Wigan and Portsmouth, so is a good addition to my backroom staff!

I finished my Continental B Licence coaching badge!

Bristol City are the latest club to come calling for my services!

The fixtures for the upcoming League One season are released and we kick off at home to Bradford City, before an away day down in Plymouth! Our home form will likely be crucial again next season if we're going to have a successful campaign!

We'll pick up nearly half a million quid in TV rights this coming season!

The board have announced their expectations for the upcoming season and after two straight promotions, they are expecting a tough season ahead and just want me to keep us in the league if I can! As far as the cups go, they're not expecting any heroics!

BREXIT has happened!

I asked the board to invest in the youth recruitment and they duly obliged!

We'll play 5 pre season friendlies, mostly against higher league opposition! The games against Huddersfield and Arsenal should see good crowds and bring in some dough!

The first round of the Carabao Cup has drawn us at home to Preston North End!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 31st July 2020

Scott Loach

Friday 31st July 2020

Nicky Featherstone picked up an injury in pre season that will see him miss the first half of the season!

Carl Magnay also picked up an injury that will see him miss the start of the season!

Taking advantage of the new affiliation with Arsenal, I brought in 19 year old American striker, Folarin Balogun on a season long loan. The youngster has bundles of pace and can strike fear into opposition defences with his speed and dribbling skills! He'll offer great competition to Jake Cassidy this season!

My second season long loan signing from Arsenal is attacking midfielder, Ben Cottrell. The 18 year old is another player with loads of pace and could combine really well with his club-mate Balogun! He has an eye for a decent pass, a good work rate and good off the ball movement. I'll certainly be expecting goals and assists from the youngster this year!

With the injury to Featherstone, I needed to bring in another defensive minded centre mid and Jacob Davenport is the perfect fit! The 21 year old joins on a season long loan from Blackburn and is good enough to slot straight into our starting lineup as he is a class above! His all round stats are great, but what really stands out is is work rate and determination - two traits that I love in any player!

My only permanent signing of the Summer has been striker Andrija Novakovich! He immediately becomes our highest valued player and the first in our ranks to break the £1 million barrier! So the fact I got him on a free transfer looks like a bargain! His stats speak for themselves and he is a very strong striker for this league, and at 23 he can still improve too! Novakovich was released by Reading, but spent last season on loan playing for Fortuna Sittard in the Eredivisie, scoring 12 goals! The fact he can score 12 in Holland's top league, means he should be scoring for fun in League One!

This affiliation with The Gooners is turning out amazing for us, as I added my 3rd season long loan signing of the Summer from them! 19 year old winger, Xavier Amaechi, is possibly the best of the three as well! A very exciting youngster with great dribbling ability and technique to go with it and with the abundance of pace he offers, he could install fear into opposing full backs all season long! I've managed to add some serious pace to the attacking side of our team this Summer with this youngsters on loan from London and to say I'm excited to see them in action is an understatement!

Ted Smith has got the ump! A bid came in for our number 1 keeper from Oxford United of only £125k...yes that's a lot of money at this level but still well under my valuation! I went back and asked for £400k and they pulled out. Ever since, Ted has been giving me **** saying that I priced him out of a move. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep the disloyal little ***** at the club now!

I managed to add a modern day legend to my backroom staff this Summer as well, as Robbie Fowler joins the coaching team! OK, not a Hartlepool legend, but a legend nonetheless, and I'm sure his arrival will be a massive boost to our players, especially the strikers!

Carl Magnay keeps the captaincy for a 3rd year. It was a tough decision this season as I'm not sure whether Carl will hold down a regular first team place this season, but on paper I couldn't deny he is still the best man for the job! However, I did remove Liam Noble from his vice captain duties and that role now goes to new signing Connor O'Grady! If O'Grady has a good season and holds down a starting 11 spot for most of the campaign, then he'll possibly get the armband next season!

Pre season has gone pretty much as expected! Wins over Barnet and Mansfield were good, if unspectacular, whilst Huddersfield and Arsenal turned us over! The highlight was the win over Bolton!

Despite two straight promotions, we are not predicted by the bookies to finish bottom of the table! Yes they have us going down in the bottom 4, but only just! And they've been very wrong over the last two seasons, so hopefully we can prove them wrong again this year!

One of our new Arsenal loanees, Folarin Balogun, is one of the favourites to be the best player in the league this year! What a coup he could be!
​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Congrats on the back to back titles! Will be interesting to see how you get on this season!

 

[NashBigginss]

Just caught up, quality second season! Really like the look of your new striker, should be 20 odd goals this season if given the right service by Davenport.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Just caught up, quality second season! Really like the look of your new striker, should be 20 odd goals this season if given the right service by Davenport.

We could be electric in attack this year with our arsenal under 21s squad lol! Added a 4th pacey attacker from them on loan as well who will be shown off in the next update

 

[Tekneeks]

Enjoying reading this doing well with back to back promotions i created a new Team from scatch and got them from bottom to top with lots of free and loan signings, keep an eye on Arsenal youngsters as now in Premier League i have Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock from them on Free also had couple loan of them other time which really helped.
Keep up good work want any players to check let me know i can recommend some i had that helped. Interesting season your going have but i'm sure with your signings you can proof everybody wrong again.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Enjoying reading this doing well with back to back promotions i created a new Team from scatch and got them from bottom to top with lots of free and loan signings, keep an eye on Arsenal youngsters as now in Premier League i have Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock from them on Free also had couple loan of them other time which really helped.
Keep up good work want any players to check let me know i can recommend some i had that helped. Interesting season your going have but i'm sure with your signings you can proof everybody wrong again.

Thanks mate, appreciate the comments! I'm really excited about the 4 youngsters I have on loan from Arsenal this season and think they could really tear up League One if I'm honest! No reason why we can't be aiming a lot higher than a relegation battle again!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 21st August 2020

Friday 21st August 2020

What a way to start the season!! We were simply awesome as we romped to a massive opening day victory over Bradford, with 5 goals from 5 different goalscorers! Good to see Jake Cassidy making an early statement showing me he can potentially cut it at this level and he's not ready to be replaced by our new strikers just yet! It was Xavier Amaechi who stole the show though with 3 assists on his debut!

It wasn't all good news during the Bradford game as young Christopher Lynch went off injured and will miss the next few months!

Luke Molyneux also picked up an injury in training that will see him out for a month!

And our new star striker will have to wait up to another 6 weeks to make his debut for the club!

An awful blunder from the Plymouth keeper gifted us victory here, but nobody can say it wasn't deserved as we were totally in control throughout the 90 minutes!

We are being hit hard by injuries early on in this season and Jake Cassidy is the latest to be sidelined for a few weeks.

With all the injuries, I needed to bring in reinfocements and where better to look than our parent club! Eloy Gonzalez is the 4th player to join us on a season long loan from the Gooners this season and guess what....he's got bundles of pace!! How on earth are team's going to cope with the speed of our front line this year?!

And with all these young attackers coming in, it meant there was no room for Luke James in my team so he has gone out to Aldershot on loan for the season!

Back to back 1-0 victories as we make it 3 wins from 3! New loanee Eloy Gonzalez had a good game, getting the assist for the goal and having one of his own disallowed for a very tight offside!

We created some good chances in this game, but struggled to finished them off! Even when we got a late penalty, Kieron Cadogan managed to miss it! Luckily, it rebounded off the keeper's save straight back to his feet and he was able to tap in the rebound to give us another win and keep up our 100% record in the league!

We'll take this point as we had to play the 2nd half with 10 men after Gonzalez was sent off!

A near perfect and unbeaten start to the campaign sees us top the table after the opening 5 games! Already we've sent a statement out to the bookies who expect us to battle relegation this season and I wonder how many people are now lumping on us to win our 3rd straight title. Yes I know it's early days but you've gotta dream big right?!

Absolutely gutted to have been beaten here! We were the better side over the match and with 3 minutes of injury time, they grabbed their winner on 92:57 just as we were readying ourselves for the penalty shootout!

The draw for the group stages of this year's Checkatrade Trophy is made and it will be likely be used the same as last season to rotate the squad and give game time to different players!

Season ticket sales are up by nearly 1,000 this season for League One football! Happy days!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 5th October 2020

Luke Molyneux

Monday 5th October 2020

Not happy with this at all. We missed a few really good chances to put this game to bed and were punished late on by Rovers who levelled the scores with only seconds remaining! Definitely a case of 2 points dropped!

Three draws in a row in the league now and goals are proving a little hard to come by at the moment. Luckily, we are still defending well and grinding out points rather than losing games! We're creating enough chances, the boys just need a bit more confidence in attack.

Stanley are expected to struggle this season and on this performance, I can see why! I don't think we were exceptional, but managed an easy win because they were so poor! Kieron Cadogan continues to impress me and is becoming one of the first names on the team sheet, despite only being brought in as a backup player a couple of seasons ago!

Xavier Amaechi limped off against Stanley and will now miss up to 3 months of action!

Lincoln came up with us last year and the last time we played them, they gave us a 3-0 kick in! But we managed to get our revenge here with a comfortable victory that was never really in any doubt! Ryan Blair scored the pick of the goals with a powerful strike from 10 yards that rattled into the roof of the net!

Our first defeat of the season comes away at Southend and I can't really have too many complaints...they were the better side, created the better chances and managed to put 1 more in the back of the net than we did!

You don't really want to be following up your first league defeat of the season with an away day at one of the biggest and best clubs in the division, but that's the situation we found ourselves in here as we took on Charlton! However, Luke Williams settled our nerves by giving us an early lead with a great left footed effort from inside the box. The confidence boost amongst the lads was obvious to see and Luke Molyneux doubled our lead on 36 minutes with his 3rd goal of the season. Then it all went a bit mad in the second half with the two sides scoring 5 between us, with us coming out eventual winners by a wide margin. Luke Williams was the main man as he completed a hat trick with a late penalty in the final 15 minutes of the game.

Rotherham are another side that are decent in this league, so it's no shame losing to them! It's just a shame that we were battered by them as I felt we held our own, but our defending let us down on the day and we suffer our 2nd defeat of the season!

Luke Williams has been in great form recently, but will now miss around a month of football after coming off injured against Rotherham.

Barnsley came into this game above us in 2nd in the league, so this was a fantastic win for us! We were under the kosh for periods of the game, but weathered the storm well and took our chances when they came our way! Proud of the lads here!

We've dropped some points since the last update with some draws and a couple of defeats, but we still remain high up the league in 2nd place! It's tight with only 9 points separating 1st-11th, so we certainly won't count our chickens just yet! The aim is still to get to 50 points and safety and see what happens from there!

Our first venture into this season's Checkatrade Trophy ends in victory after a pretty solid performance over Scunthorpe. Young George Armstrong came in and bagged himself the winning goal.

I was handed a new 2 year deal, which sees my salary break the £2k per week barrier for the first time.
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 16th November 2020

Kieron Cadogan

Monday 16th November 2020

Rotherham had smashed us in the league already this season, so I didn't feel too confident going into this, especially considering I'd rotated the squad! However, the lads that came in gave me a solid performance and we earn ourselves a good away victory! Folarin Balogun scored his first goal for the club since joining on loan from Arsenal.

That win over Rotherham means we've qualified for the knockout stages with a game to spare.

Our final game against Leicester's youngsters had no real significance for us and the fact we went into the game with absolutely no pressure whatsoever seemed to relax the lads as we ran out 7-0 winners! If anything, it should at least be a confidence boost for Jake Cassidy and Eloy Gonzalez who scored 5 between them!

We'll take on Liverpool's youngsters in the first knockout round and I'll be expecting a tough game!

We had to settle for a draw against Fleetwood as we just couldn't find the back of net despite creating a lot of chances!

Rochdale came up with us last year and have made a decent enough start to their League One campaign as they came into this game in 9th place. However, we beat them twice in the league and knocked them out of the FA Cup last year, so I felt confident going into this game. And we did record our 4th straight win over them, even if it was only a very narrow 1-0!

Another game where we struggled to take our chances and MK Dons punished us for it by taking their only decent chance of the whole game!

I was really excited about some of the strikers that I'd brought in this season, but so far they have been a major disappointment. Only a single goal each for Balogun is simply not good enough and our £1 million valued striker Novakovich is still to find the back of the net! Eloy Gonzalez has also failed to score for us so far! I will be looking for improvement as the season goes on!

Andrija Novakovich finally bagged his first goal for the club and it was the winner as we get a big win at home to a Coventry side sitting in the playoff places.

Absolute *****!! No excuses for this result against bottom of the league Mansfield!!

A fantastic Ryan Blair strike from distance earns us a good point away at Ipswich! They are one of the favourites to go up, so getting anything at their place has to be seen as a bonus!

We sit 3rd in the league as we approach the half way stage of the season and are massively overachieving again! Obviously we are not finding things quite as easy at this level and not running away with the league this year, but to even be in the mix for the title at this stage is massive for the club who have never played Championship football before! We're not scoring as freely as previous seasons, but our defence is the best in the league and that's what's keeping us near the top of the table at the moment!

Our finances are not awful but with only £100k in the bank, we could really do with getting through at least a couple of rounds in the FA Cup this season, so I took no major risks with my lineup! However, despite a strong team, Forest Green held us to a draw and we looked poor for long periods in this game and will now have to do things the hard way at their place.
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Hi everyone, just a quick question - naturally, after winning back to back titles and now overachieving in League One, I am getting quite a lot of interest from a number of significantly bigger clubs. What I want to know from you guys is do you want me to stay with Hartlepool and see just how far I can take them, or would you prefer to see me develop myself as a manager and move on to bigger and better things? Let me know what you all think because I am easy either way - all I know if I am really enjoying this save and it's not going to be ending anytime soon no matter which route I go down!

 

[WeArePalace]

I would stay for at least another season maybe, however, whatever decision you make is a good one, the story will be great wherever you go. Enjoying Hartlepool a lot though.

 

[Yeti01]

I am enjoying seeing the rise of Hartlepool - personally, I would like to see you stick with them but understand if you feel the time is right to try something new

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I'm gonna stick with Hartlepool I think. Loving building them up anyway and moving to another club risks ruining the whole save

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Wednesday 6th January 2021

Xavier Amaechi

Wednesday 6th January 2021

We really have let ourselves down in the cup competitions this season! We already crashed out of the Carabao Cup in the 1st round against Preston and now we fall at the first hurdle in the FA Cup against lower league side Forest Green! Simply not good enough as we could have done with a revenue boost off the back of this competition that we now won't get...the lads were given a bollocking at full time as I made my feelings clear!

Luke Molyneux will be out for a few weeks after coming off injured in the Forest Green game!

We're creating loads of chances in most games, but the quality of those chances is not great with very little being clear cut! It's costing us as it did again here...we dominated most of the game, but a failure to put the ball in the back of the net enabled Doncaster to punish us with 2 late goals and nick the win!

Despite dominating this game, it looked like we were going to lose it for a long time due to our inability to put the ball in the back of the net again. That was until Eloy Gonzalez came off the bench to tap in a rebound from his own headed effort and earn us a point! If we could finish, we'd be ******* these games by 2 or 3 goals.

Do we finally have a striker hitting some form? Are one of the Arsenal loanees finally coming good? I won't get ahead of myself but for today we'll just enjoy the fact that Eloy Gonzalez bagged a double which sees off a title challenging Portsmouth side on their own turf!

We just weren't at the races in the first half of this game and Burton cruised to a 3-0 lead by the break. However, a kick up the **** and a slight change in tactic (losing the DM for an AM) at half time did it's job and inspired the lads to an amazing second half fightback and we walk away with a very good point (in the end)!

Andrija Novakovich picked up his second serious injury of the season against Burton and will now miss another few months of action! The man I brought in and made the club's highest paid player hasn't really had the chance to play a decent run of games and show what he can do yet due to injuries! Because of that, his value has nearly halfed in 6 months and he is now worth less than £500k!

Christopher Lynch scored the pick of the goals with a beautiful curling effort from 25 yards as we record a big win over struggling Bradford! This was our best performance for a while!

We just couldn't find that elusive second goal to take all 3 points here and have to settle for just the 1 against Plymouth!

Another disappointing result as we can only manage a draw with 23rd placed Scunthorpe! We've dropped way too many points this season, drawing games because we couldn't score!

Two of our young Arsenal loanees were featured in the Young Player of the Month award for December, with Ben Cottrell taking the 1st prize!

18 year old Colin Bell, another product of the youth academy, made his first league start of the season for the club and scored an absolute cracker during an excellent performance and a good, solid 2-0 away win in Bristol!

We're back up into the automatic promotion places with 19 games of the season remaining. Still a long way to go but I never expected us to be in this position come January so I'm extremely pleased! Rotherham have opened up a bit of a gap at the top and it's then very close from us in 2nd down to Walsall in 12th, so we'll need to keep up this level of form if we want to finish the season in at least a playoff place!

Liverpool's youngsters came into this game as favourites to win it and with players like Ben Woodburn, Nicolas Lodeiro and Rafael Camacho in their team it was no wonder why! They lived up to their expectations and got the win, with Woodburn scoring the only goal of the game to knock us out of the competition.
​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Loving the story mate, regarding your previous comment about big club attention. I think you've got to do what will keep you interested in the save. I'd love to see how far you can take Hartlepool but if you are getting bored/want a new challenge then go for it!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Loving the story mate, regarding your previous comment about big club attention. I think you've got to do what will keep you interested in the save. I'd love to see how far you can take Hartlepool but if you are getting bored/want a new challenge then go for it!

Definitely not bored with Hartlepool fella....just wanted to ensure I was giving you guys what you wanna see

 

[FM_TNSSO]

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.
​