Woking my way up to the Prem...

[SuperMikey]

I've had a few games playing in the lower leagues, most notably taking Basingstoke up to the Prem in 8 seasons on FM05, and decided to give it a go this time with Woking.

Patch 9.3
Loaded: England (all leagues), Scotland (all leagues)
Players: England, Scotland + Reunion (decision made after reading this forum!)

Character: Michael Macdonald, 36 y/o, Scottish, Sunday League Footballer.

I set my expectations relatively low, hoping for a nice surprise. I told the board I would achieve a Top Half Position, but I think I may be able to gain promotion, perhaps even win the league with the team I have. I also got Reading as a parent club, and signed Julian Kelly (D/WBRL), Simon Church (ST) and Hal Robson-Kanu (AMRL/ST) on loan. I also signed a bunch of Reunionese players on free transfers, and they make up the bulk of my team.

I find pre-season friendlies a bit boring, so I asked my assistant to oversee them, and we performed quite well.

Hyde (A) 3-0
Stenhousemuir (H) 3-0
Newtown (A) 4-0
Bolton Reserves (H) 5-0
Wigan (H) 1-1
Stafford (A) 1-0

After quite a few good results there (Wigan sticks out predominantly in my mind) I had a good feeling about the way we would start the season, but we didn't start the way I wanted to.

AUGUST

9th August - Altrincham (H) 2-0 - Roger, Church
12th August - Torquay (A) 3-1 - Marum, Caro, Gangate
16th August - Burton (A) 2-3 - Farro, Pattison
23rd August - Forest Green (H) 4-1 - Roger, Farro x2, Kelly
25th August - Oxford (A) 1-3 - Roger
30th August - Kettering (A) 1-1 - Hutchinson

Not a bad month in all, and that left us in the top half of the table and in a good position.

SEPTEMBER

2nd September - Lewes (H) 4-2 - Pattison x2, Roger, Akbar (og)
6th September - York (A) 2-3 - Robson-Kanu, Kelly
13th September - Grays (H) 0-0
20th September - Ebbsfleet (A) 0-1
23rd September - Salisbury (H) 2-0 - Roger, Ablancourt
27th September - Histon (H) 4-0 - Church x2, Roger, Sangoro

Again, another okay month. At the end of the month we were sitting comfortably in the play-off places and starting to pick up some form. We were unlucky to lose against Ebbsfleet who had a clearly offside goal allowed and York who fought back from 2-0 down in the last 15 minutes due to both of my central defenders getting injured and me not having any subs on the bench...oops!

OCTOBER

4th October - Mansfield (A) 2-1 - Hutchinson (og), Farro
7th October - Weymouth (H) 2-0 - Church, Pattison
11th October - York (H) 4-1 - Marum, Chaul, Farro, Songoro
18th October - Grays (A) 0-3
25th October - Canvey Island (A) 3-0 - Javary, Church x2 (FA CUP)
30th October - Stevenage (H) 1-1 - Miles

Quite a good month for the team, although the Grays result I was not happy with at all! Shocking performance, although they are higher than us in the league. We drew MK Dons in the 1st Round of the FA Cup at Home, so that should be a good test of the strength of the squad. And we finally got revenge over York for the beating they gave us last month. I came third in the Manager of the Month competition and my winger Jonathon Chaul (AMR/ST) won the Young Player of the Month award.



More updates when I play the game again, and I just realised that there are a lot of smiley faces in my post where the locations should be.... so (H) is Home and (A) is Away!
I'll edit those out when I can be bothered

 

[SuperMikey]

Well, things have been going quite well since I last posted. We were hovering just outside the play-offs in October, and now at the end of December we're sitting quite comfortably in the play-off places. Some good results and good performances have lifted morale at the club and we're starting to pick up some momentum. I also signed Seyfo Soley on a free transfer just before the free transfer window ended, which was good because I tried to get him before the season started but he wasn't interested. His versatility has been very useful and he's chipped in with a few goals too which has been nice!

NOVEMBER

4th November - Welling (Home) 1-0 - Robson-Kanu
8th November - MK Dons (Home) 4-3 - Church x3, Chaul (FA CUP 1st RND)
15th November - Eastbourne Boro (Away) 0-2
18th November - Weymouth (Away) 3-0 - Javary x2, Soley
22nd November - Torquay (Home) 1-0 - Church
29th November - Burton (Home) 3-0 - Gangate, Farro, Roger (FA CUP 2nd RND)

All in all, a great month for the team except for the one slip up against 'Boro, which was down to getting a man sent off, two injuries and conceding two goals within the first 10 minutes! Also our great performances in the FA Cup have been pleasing, especially coming from 2-0 down against MK Dons to beat them 4-3 (with a last minute winner from Chaul in stoppage time!) and thrashing Burton 3-0, who didn't even seem to turn up to the game.

DECEMBER

2nd December - Weymouth (Away) 1-0 - Marum (CONFERENCE CUP S 4th RND)
6th December - Histon (Away) 0-2
9th December - Rushden (Home) 2-1 - Songoro, Church
13th December - Kidderminster (Away) 1-3 - Church (FA TROPHY 1st RND)
17th December - Kidderminster (Home) 3-1 - Church x3
20th December - Lewes (Away) 0-1
26th December - Crawley (Home) 3-1 - Soley, Vernazza, Roger
28th December - Wrexham (Away) 2-0 - Kelly, Marum

Quite an odd month for us, I think the word to describe it is inconsistent. Still, some results I was pleased with in there such as the win against Rushden (the league leaders at the time) and Kidderminster, but some poor results at the same time, such as the defeat to 24th Lewes and Kidderminster, where the team didn't even seem to turn up. At the end of the month we're still sitting quite comfortably in the play-off places in 4th position, hoping that we can maybe start putting a good run together and push for automatic promotion.

League table as of 29th December 2008:

1) York - 54pts +23
2) Rushden - 53pts +29
3) Histon - 53pts +25
4) WOKING - 48pts +19
5) Kettering - 48pts +11
6) Oxford - 43pts +15

January transfer window is just around the corner too, so might look to bring in some new faces to boost the team. Will keep you updated about transfers (my goalkeeper Thierry Goree has been attracting interest from AJ Auxerre!).

EDIT: Thierry Goree won Player of the Month for December, and I came second in Manager of the Month. Not bad

 

[TheHig]

use a different shade of green for you winning font, and keep it up

 

[SuperMikey]

Font colour changed TheHig, hope that one is more bearable for you!

Things have been going well since I last posted. The January transfer window was relatively uneventful for us, only a few signings. I sold Ludovic Grondin to AC Ajaccio for 100k, which was quite a good deal as he was my back-up keeper and hasn't played a game for me so far this season as Thierry Goree has been great in goal so far. I signed David Button on loan from Tottenham until the end of the season to cover for goalkeeper, and that is a position I will strengthen at the end of the season, as Goree is 33 now and only has a few years left. As well as signing Seyfo Soley on a free transfer, I signed Grant Smith from Carlisle and Kristian O'Leary from Swansea City to strengthen my midfield. Unfortunately, Smith hasn't featured very much due to some particularly nasty (and annoying) injuries, and O'Leary has been mainly coming on as a sub due to good form from other players in the team. So hopefully these new signings could help us move up the league table and towards glory.

JANUARY

3rd January - Hartlepool (Home) 2-2 - Church x2 (FA CUP 3rd RND)
7th January - Crawley (Away) 4-0 - Church, Roger, Ablancourt, Gangate
13th January - Ebbsfleet (Away) 2-0 - Roger, Robson-Kanu (CONFERENCE CUP QTR FINAL)
17th January - Hartlepool (Away) 0-3 (FA CUP 3rd RND REPLAY)
21st January - Northwich (Home) 4-2 - Smith x2, Church, Songoro
24th January - Ebbsfleet (Home) 1-3 - Marum
27th January - Eastbourne Boro (Home) 2-0 - Pattison, Church

All in all, an odd month for us. We managed to grab quite a good result against Hartlepool at home, only to get royally trounced in the replay leg. In some ways this was a good thing, as many players were starting to become very tired due to fixture congestion from all the different cups, and that isn't something you need when you're heading into the final few months of the season. Also losing against Ebbsfleet was quite a shock, because we beat them rather resoundingly in the Conference Cup only 11 days before. Apart from those things, a good month.

FEBRUARY
3rd February - Forest Green (Away) 3-1 - McDonald (og), Church x2 (CONFERENCE CUP SEMI FINAL)
7th February - Salisbury (Away) 1-3 - Songoro
11th February - Northwich (Away) 4-1 - Chaul, Church, Songoro, Vernazza
14th February - Kettering (Home) 2-1 - Church, Geohaghan (og)
18th February - Cambridge (Away) 3-0 - Church, Chaul, Soley
21st February - Altrincham (Away) 2-2 - Church, Chaul
24th February - Stevenage (Away) 0-2
28th February - Burton (Home) 4-2 - Roger, Ablancourt, Church, Songoro

Again, another odd month. Mostly good results from us, including progressing to the final of the Conference Cup after beating Forest Green, and beating promotion rivals Kettering and Cambridge in successive games. However, we lost to two inferior teams in the shape of Salisbury and Stevenage, and I would put that down to complacency. Sloppy defending and poor finishing cost us dear, and both of those teams snapped those points up greedily. Even so, a good month for the team, as Simon Church won Young Player of the Month and Jonathan Chaul came third in the Player of the Month, while I came second in the Manager of the Month competition.

MARCH

3rd March - Wrexham (Away) 2-0 - Chaul, Robson-Kanu (CONFERENCE CUP FINAL)
7th March - Barrow (Home) 3-1 - Roger, Church x2
14th March - Wrexham (Home) 4-0 - Roger x2, Chaul, Robson-Kanu
25th March - Kidderminster (Away) 4-3 - Robson-Kanu x2, Church x2
28th March - Cambridge (Home) 6-3 - Roger x3, Chaul x2, Robson-Kanu

A great month for us, fantastic to get a whole month with just wins. Our good results were mainly down to some fantastic individual performances and scoring 17 goals in our 4 league games, as well as winning the Conference Cup, something that the board were extremely happy with. Charles Roger impressed me this month, having not scored for a while it was pretty good that he scored 6 goals in 4 games! Also Hal Robson-Kanu chipped in with 5 goals in 5 games, not bad for a winger! Hopefully we can carry some of this form through to next month because a few more good results and we can be top of the league.

1) Histon - 83pts - +44
-------------------------
2) WOKING - 82pts - +40
3) York - 80pts - +32
4) Rushden - 79pts - +36
5) Kettering - 74pts - +18
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6) Torquay - 67pts - +13
7) Salisbury - 65pts - +14

As you can see, it's still really tight at the top of the table, realistically any of the teams in the top 5 could be champions, so the fight for points is really on with only 5 games left to go. And it's up to the minnows at Woking to upset the odds and become champions! Will post another update soon, probably when the season is finished, and it will include my player of the season and maybe some screenshots if I can work out how to do them.

 

[SuperMikey]

APRIL

4th April - Barrow (Away) 0-1
11th April - Forest Green (Away) 0-2
13th April - Oxford (Home) 3-1 - Church x2, Foster (og)
18th April - Mansfield (Home) 3-1 - Church x2, Javary
25th April - Rushden (Away) 2-0 - Church, Ablancourt

The two defeats at the start of the month meant that we unfortunately finished just behind league champions Histon, but still qualified for the play-offs which wasn't a bad thing. We drew Kettering in the Play-off Semi Final, and we were hoping to beat them to get through to the final and promotion!

MAY

7th May - Kettering (Away) 1-0 - Church (PLAY-OFF SEMI FINAL 1st LEG)
11th May - Kettering (Home) 3-0 - Gangate, Caro, Robson-Kanu (PLAY-OFF SEMI FINAL 2nd LEG)

Beating Kettering 4-0 on aggregate meant we had advanced through to the final to play York, who had beaten Rushden in their semi final. Come on you Cardinals!

17th May - York (Wembley!) 4-0 - Javary, Farro, Roger x2

Yes! We'd done it and trounced York in the final thanks to goals from substitutes Javary, Farro and Roger! I hadn't expected the season to turn out so well, as I only set expectations for a mid-table finish. Hopefully we can keep some of this form going into next year in League 2.

Any requests for screenshots, I am willing to take. League tables, etc. I've attached a screenshot of my squad too, so you can see how everyone performed.