Bath City > Football League

[Kris.]

I've never done an FM thread on here before, but having just started playing FM15 more regularly, despite having bought the game months ago, I thought I'd give it a go. Anyway, the team I've chosen for this save is:

Name: Bath City

Nickname: City / The Romans

Formed: 1889 (As Bath AFC)

Ground: Twerton Park (8840 capacity)

Division: Vanarama Conference South

So I've decided to take charge of Bath City for a couple of reasons. 1) They're at the bottom of the playable pyramid in English Football, so it's a bit of a challenge straight away as they're a small club with a low reputation, small budget etc. 2) They've never played in the football league in their history. So my aim is to take them there, then establish them as a Football League club, maybe more...

Now, I've actually already rattled through the first season, as I wasn't sure at the time I wanted to dedicate a thread to it until I got about 3/4 of the way through the season, but I've got plenty of screenshots etc I can fire in to this post to get things started, then I'll be doing updates after every couple of months or so. Hopefully some folk will actually read the thread and enjoy it, but we shall see, lets get started!

Season 2014/2015

So, I took over the club in June 2014, with a media prediction of finishing 10th. Which is decent enough as it shouldn't mean the board will expect too much in the first season and give me time to settle in and put my 'stamp' on things. A few decent additions to what is an average squad could see us pushing for a play off place (2nd - 5th), although it could equally go the other way with some poor signings and a slide towards the wrong end of the table.

Board Expectations

League: Mid-table finish

FA Cup: 4th Qualifying Round

FA Trophy: 1st Round

My Expectations

League: 6th-10th

FA Cup: 1st Round

FA Trophy: 1st Round

So the board aren't expecting too much from me for the season, but I'd like to exceed expectations and finish closer to the top end of the table than the lower half, and at least reach the 1st round proper of the FA Cup. A lot will depend on what players I can bring in to the club...and at this level my hopes weren't too high! Wage Budget: £5.5k (This later increases in the window to £8k), Transfer Budget: £1k

The highest paid player at the club was on £400 a week, with the rest around the £200 p/w week mark, so sticking to those figures, it should allow me to bring in a good number of players for the season with the budget I've been given.

Summer Transfers:

So, 7 players in, 0 out, with me spending my entire transfer budget on experienced center back Ryan Green from Non-League Merthyr. Green would make up one half of my center back pairing, with the other half being another new signing - Charlie Ward. Dan Smith was comfortably the best signing of the window. The former Gateshead left-back (As well as Aberdeen where he made a handful of appearances between 2006 and 2008) came highly rated from my scouts, who stated he would be a leading player at this level, and given the quality of my current left back, it wasn't a tough choice in deciding to bring him in. He would also be first choice for the season. From the rest, Striker Phil Airey was brought in as back up as he had good potential, the same goes for winger Sam Gainford who could apparently make it as good League One winger in the future! Reece Ottley would be my No.1 this season and Frederick Champion (Hopefully his surname is an omen for my Bath career...) would be rotated in and out of the starting line up. If I chose to play with a holding midfielder, he was the best at the club in that position. Incidentally, the £1k I spent on Green, was the only transfer fee paid in the Division all season!

Tactics:

I always like to play attacking football, and set up most often with a 4-2-3-1 WIDE formation, with a flat Back Four, two Central Midfielders, two Wingers, an Attacking Midfielder and a solitary Striker up front. For games way from home against the better sides, I would simply turn that Attacking Midfielder in to a Defensive Midfielder and keep everyone else pretty much as they were. Unless things go really tits up, I don't tend to play about with the tactics too much.

Pre-Season:

We had a few friendlies arranged for the summer, which would help me get to know my squad a little better whilst I also bed in some new signings. Not against the greatest of opposition however, but we did manage to win all 4 matches.

So, as I've already finished the first season, I'll just break the results etc down in to each competition as it'll be a little easier. I'll stick the larger screenshots in spoilers.

FA Trophy:

Not a competition I particularly cared about, I seen it as just another lot of fixtures added on top of an already bulky league calendar. Having to go through qualifying rounds as well, just drags out the process further. Anyway, my expectation for the board was to reach the First Round proper...

Which I managed, although I did lose out in the First Round to Gosport. Can't say I was too disappointed!

FA Cup:
Now, this is one competition I did care about as progression can mean picking up a decent bit of cash, particularly if you make it past the Qualifying Rounds. The board didn't expect me to make it in to the First Round proper, however...

I did! Quite impressively, too, as we made it to the First Round by beating two sides from the Conference South and won all 3 games without conceding a goal. Losing out to League One Oldham by a single goal wasn't too bad a result either, considering they went on to finish 8th in their Division.

Vanarama Conference South:

Challenged by the board to finish mid table, I felt with our summer signings we could aim a little higher. Winning the league, I believed would be nothing short of miraculous, but I was confident we could make a push for the play-offs if we could show some consistency. Well, at the beginning of January, the results were as follows:

Which saw us top of the table! Although we were aware that HH had a couple of games in hand. Despite a rather iffy start where we failed to put together a string of victories, we managed to find little bursts where we'd win a few games on the bounce which allowed us to push up the table.

Due to our strong start, I didn't feel the need to sign any players in January, but I did let a few youth players leave on loan, nothing more. I was hoping that deciding not to strengthen the squad wouldn't come back and bite me on the arse at the end of the season. So, things were looking pretty good for us, not only were we on course to exceed the expectations of mid table, but we're in with a real shot of promotion, something I thought might take a couple of seasons at least! Also, at the end of November I was offered a new contract, which I agreed to, so I'm signed up until the end of next season. So, I played out the remainder of the season, with these results:

A rotten end to January, which continued through to the beginning of March threatened to turn the season upside down.

Which it abso-fucking-lutely did. Clear at the top in January, only to finish 8 behind in 2nd, come the end of the season. A positive however, we made the play-offs!

In that final game of the season, my top scorer David Pratt picked up an injury which would see him miss the play-offs and a large chunk of next pre-season. 30 goals for the season, no one else even managed double figures. So, we were now just 3 games away from winning promotion at the first attempt. Havant and Waterlooville who finished 3 places and 8 points behind us, stood in our way of the final against either Boreham Wood or Hemel Hempstead. Our record against H&W was decent, a 2-2 draw at Home, followed up by a 1-0 win Away. We could do this.

So, the first leg came around and Phil Airey was drafted in in place of the injured Pratt.

A fantastic result! A little disappointed we didn't hold on after coming from behind, but going in to the home leg with the tie level, was good enough for me. So, could we go on and clinch a place in the play-off final?!

No, we could not. I honestly thought we would pull through, so bitterly disappointed that we lost and will stay in the Vanarama Conference South for the 2015/2016 season. We did exceed the boards (and my) expectations, but coming so close to promotion and missing out was hard to take! Strengthen well in the summer, and who knows, next season might be our year!

I want to include a screenshot of the final stats for the players for the season, but I've used too many images already in this post apparently. I'll include it in my next post.

[Kris.]

So, the final stats for my squad are as follows:

David Pratt was a stand-out with his 30 goals, but big shout-outs to Chris Allen who chipped in with 4 goals and 13 assists from midfield and Ross Stearn who managed 8 goals and 18 assists from the right wing.

Well, that's as far as I've gotten so far! I'll update again at the end of the first transfer window, then hopefully update every couple of months after that if anyone shows any interest in the thread!

[Kris.]

Ready for my first proper update then as I've made it to the end of pre-season in my second season.

Season 2015/2016: June 2015 - August 2015

Pre-Season Round Up:

First of all, a quick round up of what happened after the previous season finished.

David Pratt won the Vanarama Conference South Player of the Year Award, after scoring 27 goals in 35 matches, he did however miss out on the golden boot by 3 goals. My youth category rating improved, raising itself to category four, although having never seen this in the game before, I'm not entirely sure what it means. Also, surprisingly I was offered two job interviews. One for Peterborough United who had finished 7th in League One, a very good job IMO and Dunfermline Athletic who had finished 5th in League One in Scotland. Obviously, I turned both down to continue with Bath.

Promotion/Relegation:

Quite a few changes to the league for the coming season. As you saw in my first post, Ebbsfleet United won the Conference South, whilst Havant and Waterlooville were promoted after beating Boreham Wood in the play-off final. Farnborough and Weston-Super-Mare were relegated to the lower leagues, whatever they might happen to be, and they were replaced by Tonbridge and Dulwich Hamlet. Dartford, Dover, Telford and Nuneaton were all relegated from the Vanarama Conference, and it was Dover and Dartford who would end up in this division. Oxford City who played in the Conference North last season, were placed in our division and increased the number of teams to 22, meaning there will be two additional league games this season.

Transfers:

A lot of movement over the course of the summer. I had a lot of players leave at the end of their contracts, which freed up wages to spend on better players. Ryan Green and Andy Gallinagh were regulars at CB and RB respectively, but both had declined by the end of the season, so replacements were requried. For those two positions, I brought in two players for each. At CB, probably my biggest signing to date with former Cowdenbeath player Ruben Garcia Rey being brought in as first choice to partner Charlie Ward. Rey had been at Falkirk last season but didn't play a single game, but he was very highly rated by the scouts and although I had to make him a huge offer (£800 p/w!) and make him my highest earner, I managed to get him. The other CB is Anthony Acheampong, who will be used as backup/rotation. At RB, I signed Wesley Atkinson after his release from West Brom, as first choice and Calum Howarth after he was released by Inverness CT as backup. Neither are particularly great, but both have good potential. Ex-Dumbarton 'keeper Stephen Grindlay would be my No.1, with Reece Ottley reverting to a backup role. Having to describe Grindlay to the media as a 'massive coup' for the club was more than a little strange, just goes to highlight exactly what level we're at! Alex Lawless and George Bowerman were both big signings as well, with them becoming my 2nd and 3rd highest earners. Lawless was playing League Two football at Luton Town last season, although didn't receive much game time. Bowerman was also playing in League Two, but with Accrington Stanley, again not playing too much. Both have a terrific rating for this league with the scouting team stating both would actually be good players at the level above ours, expecting big things. Bowerman will contest with Pratt for the sole striking position in the team. Last but not least, Joe Whight was signed as a backup LB, as I didn't have anyone outside of Dan Smith who could play there!

Expectations & Budgets:

Board Expectations

League: Play-Offs

FA Cup: 1st Round

FA Trophy: 2nd Round

Media Prediction

4th

My Expectations

League: Promotion

FA Cup: 1st Round

FA Trophy: 2nd Round

Transfer Budget

£0

Wage Budget

£9.6k p/w

So, the board are expecting us to make the play-offs again having done so last season and they expect us to go one further in each of the cup competitions than they expected last season. For myself, I'd be disappointed to miss out on promotion after finishing 2nd last season and strengthening the squad considerably over the summer. I'd be happy with reaching the First Round of the FA Cup again, but would like to go one Round further in the FA Trophy. The wage budget was increased slightly, but with the large amount of departures which freed up wages, I was able to bring in better players on bigger wages, as mentioned above. No transfer budget though, but don't think it's really required at this level. However, if I was to go and attempt a budget adjustment, I can shave £1.5k off my wage budget, and get £100k to spend on transfers. Don't fancy that though, when there's plenty of good players to pick up on free transfers.

The media are predicting a 4th place finish for myself, which would be behind Whitehawk who are favourites - interestingly, they were favourites last season but finished 13th, so god knows why they're favourites this time around! Then it's the two relegated sides in Dartford and Dover. I do fancy myself to be up there. Winning the league again, I think is beyond me just now, but I can't see us finishing below 5th with the signings we've made. We start the league season away to Dover, which should give us an early indication of how well we can actually expect to do.

Key Players:

I just want to highlight the 3 players who I think will play a big part in whatever success we will have this season.

First of all, George Bowerman:

It was a toss up between Bowerman and last seasons top scorer David Pratt to be mentioned here. As highlighted in my first post Pratt was injured in the final game of last season, and only returned to training a week or so before the pre-season friendlies started and with wanting to bed Bowerman in to the side, Pratt never got a look in during any of the matches, so Bowerman will be starting as first choice to begin with to see what he can do. He showed up very well in those friendly matches as well, so I'm expecting him to kick on and perhaps emulate Pratt's record from last season.

Ruben Garcia Rey:

My biggest signing of the summer and now my highest earner, earning double what last seasons top earner did! He hasn't kick a ball since leaving Cowdenbeath in 2013, but is already showing up to be my best CB by some distance and with our poor defensive record last season, I see him as the man to get the figure in the goals conceded column reduced. He's also very highly rated in the DM position, so if I need to move him a little further forward he's more than capable of doing so.

Last but not least, Ross Stearn:

My right winger, who scored 7 league goals on top of 18 assists last season. By far my most creative player, who will be pivotal in providing the same sort of service to my other forward players to get the goals to hopefully get us promoted. It was close between Stearn and Chris Allen, who also contributed a good amount of goals and assists last season, from a deeper position, which might actually be a little bit more impressive. However, I've gone with Stearn here.

Biggest Prospect:

I got a reasonably large youth intake over the summer to go in to my Under 18 squad, with the majority not looking like they'll ever amount to much. But there's this player who was in the squad last season with massive potential.

He might not look up to much right now, but the scouts believe he can make it as good League One AM in the future. Again, not overly impressive, but when that level is 3 levels above where we are currently, it isn't too bad. He turns 17 mid way through the season, so perhaps I'll try and get him out on loan for the last few months of the season, if not, give him a shot in the last few games if there's not much left to play for.

Friendlies:

Thankfully, the final section of this update, our pre-season friendlies!

Much like last season, not great opposition, but its all about fitness with these games. All fixtures minus the Torquay game, were arranged by myself. New signing George Bowerman scored 4 goals in those 4 games, which isn't a bad start at all. Hopefully he takes that form in to competitive matches! I got through the friendlies unscathed, no injuries at all to worry about and I can look forward to that away game against Dover.

That's pretty much it! I plan on doing another update at the end of October or so. I'm going to be in and out of the house over the course of the next few days, so whilst I should get those two months played in that time, I might not get an update put up until maybe Saturday, which will still be pretty in-depth, but not quite as long as my first two have been. Happy reading.

[Binos123sam]

garcia rey is a beast

[Miguel Sanchez]

In my one attempt at taking a Conference North/South team to eternal glory, Frankie Artus scored a 92nd minute equaliser in the semi-final second leg in my first season. I want you to succeed purely for having him in the team.

[Kris.]

garcia rey is a beast

Certainly has been so far.

In my one attempt at taking a Conference North/South team to eternal glory, Frankie Artus scored a 92nd minute equaliser in the semi-final second leg in my first season. I want you to succeed purely for having him in the team.

Ha, cheers! He's not playing as regularly this season as last, but has still racked up 11 starts and a couple of sub appearances by mid-November.

Anyway, the missus is going out later and I'm waiting on word back from a client about a new project so I've got nothing planned for the rest of the day besides watching some football on the telly, so I might be able to knock out an update or two later on.

[Kris.]

August 2015

Vanarama Conference South:

After a wonderful season last year, finishing 8 places above where we were expected to, the fans got caught up in all the excitement and season ticket numbers have swelled for the coming season:

So, the first game of the season was away to recently relegated Dover Athletic. We went in to the game with no injuries, everyone pretty much fully fit (and more importantly match fit) and morale was high across the board. Dover were predicted to finish once place ahead of us, so it was a good test to start the season. Could we get off to a good start?

We certainly could! A comfortable win as well, George Bowerman scoring on his competitive debut as well. Pleasing.

These were the rest of our league results for August. Couldn't have asked for a better start to the season to be honest. 13 points from 15 available, averaging over 2 goals per game as well, although conceding 4 goals is a little disappointing. George Bowerman got 4 of those goals, which would keep him ahead of David Pratt in the starting 11, although I was giving Pratt some game time off the bench to get his match fitness up.

Other News:

My good start to the season saw me attract the interest of other clubs, and I was offered an interview with Stenhousemuir who'd been relegated from League One and were struggling in the bottom tier. Again though, I turned it down. There would be more offers to follow.

September 2015

Vanarama Conference South:

So we moved in to September, looking to build on our great start to the league campaign. Unfortunately I played up until mid-November without taking a screenshot of the league table, so can't show exactly what the table was like at this stage. I was however sitting second in the league as you might expect with such a start, just behind Sutton United. During the month, we were going to be facing two more of the new sides in the league in Dulwich Hamlet and Oxford City. With Dulwich being promoted from the lower leagues I was expecting us to see them off without much fuss, but Oxford having just been placed in the division from the Northern section, I wasn't too sure on what to expect. Anyway, the results for the month looked like this:

A mixed bag in there, but it kept our unbeaten run going. St Albans was not only the most impressive result, but they were the highest placed team I faced during that run as well in 9th place, the result were in the lower half of the table. Another 5 goals for Bowerman in this time as well, what a signing he's been! 24 points from a possible 30 now and the win over Gosport put us top of the table for the first time and we stayed there for the month.

FA Cup:

September also saw us get our FA Cup campaign under way. Due to the fact you mainly play non-league sides in the Qualifying Rounds and that we've got a pretty good squad together that we can rotate it around a little bit, I decided I'd make some changes to give a little rest to some of the regulars. Bowerman was the main one to drop out, being replace by last seasons top scorer David Pratt. The likes of Alex Lawless who'd had a great start to the season, Dan Smith, Charlie Ward and Stephen Grindlay were also rested. Not that there were any issues at all:

It was still a comfortable win for us, with Pratt scoring 2 of the goals, both in the first 8 minutes, the second of which put us 3-0 up. It was 4 at half time, but we took our foot off the gas a little in the second half and only managed 1 more whilst also conceding. It also meant back to back 5-1 wins for us, too.

Other News:

As I mentioned above, a lot more job offers were going to come my way and in September I was approached...3 times! First of all it was Kidderminster Harriers who were struggling in the conference and on the same day I was also approached by Port Vale, who like Stenhousemuir who'd approach me earlier, had been relegated last season and were now struggling in the league below. The 3rd side were Cambridge United of League Two, who were again struggling near the bottom of the table. Of course, all 3 were turned down. Apart from Peterborough, all my other interview offers have been shit! But regardless of the what job I'm offered, I won't be leaving Bath. Thankfully it doesn't look like I'm in danger of being sacked either.

October 2015

Vanarama Conference South:

Moving in to October then and things are looking good. Top of the league, in to the 3rd QR of the FA Cup and a full compliment of players to call upon if required. Another 5 league matches for month ahead, could we remain unbeaten?

No, we couldn't. First game in to the month and we lost. It was only the second time this season that we had failed to score, as well. Having left out Bowerman, that might have been the reason why! Barring the draw away to 3rd bottom Eastbourne, the rest of the results for the month were pretty good. Thumping title favourites ( ) Whitehawk was definitely the highlight. After drawing a blank against Basingstoke, I had intended on bringing Bowerman back in to the starting 11, only to forget, but...Pratt scored a hat-trick! I eventually subbed him and Bowerman came on and scored as well.

FA Cup:

The final two Qualifying Rounds awaited us this month, providing we got past the first one. If we made it past these two games then we'd be in the First Round proper and would be at the stage we reached last year.

Both tests passed with relative ease. I got fortunate in the sense it was more lower league teams that I had to face and was able to rest some regulars and still win both games comfortably. Also, that win over Burgess Hill meant we got two 5-2 wins back to back, quite similar to earlier in the season when we got two 5-1's back to back. The next round for the cup was also made at the end of the month, and we would be drawn against...

Really pleased with that. Farnborough were relegated last season and we had beaten them 5-0 at home and 1-0 away, so it was a great chance for us to make the Second Round, which we didn't manage last season.

And that's it up until October. I'll finish November and December, then do another update before the transfer window opens.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Kris.

[Kris.]

November 2015

Vanarama Conference South:

We went in to November with a nice little cushion at the top of the league, around about 4 points or so.

Another solid set of results and 3 clean sheets too which is very pleasing. We're absolutely flying just now and still just the one defeat all season so far in all competitions. Not much else to say on the league form just now as it's been a breeze.

FA Cup:

So, to get to the Second Round of the competition, we would have to navigate past recently relegated Farnborough. Again, changes were made as they aren't very good. How did we get on?

Pretty well! My target at the start of the season was to reach the 2nd round of the competition and we've done that. Hoping for a decent draw in the next round and we got:

A decent draw, actually. Blackpool got relegated from the Championship last season and at the time of the draw were 20th in League One, I fancy our chances of an upset.

FA Trophy:

November seen us complete our Qualifying Rounds in this particular competition. I won't bother with spoilers for this one as it's not a competition I have much interest in. However...

We won anyway. It keeps our good run going and in fact after the game it was said we'd set a new record for games unbeaten - 12! Which is very good going. Our next game after this would be in the FA Cup, so our unbeaten run might well be ending there!

Other News:

Not much else to report except another couple of approaches from other clubs, this time Dartford from the same division as myself, and Guiseley from the Conference North. Naturally, both turned down.

December 2015

FA Cup:
I'm going to start with the FA Cup this time as it's probably our biggest game since the play-offs last season, I might even say it's bigger than those matches. Some team news before the game: Bowerman and Champion, two of my regulars were both injured, not only is Bowerman a regular but he's also my top scorer. Dan Smith, my first choice LB was suspended and two others in Diallo and Adelsbury who I rotate in and out of the squad were both missing as well. CB Ward wasn't 100% either, but I had no choice but to start him. So we go in to the game on the back of an unbeaten run of 12 games, which before the injuries and suspensions would have had me relatively confident of maybe sneaking a replay if not a win, but I feared a pumping. The score at HT looked like this:

Scenes! Pratt who started in place of Bowerman put us ahead with our first shot on target. When they equalised I thought that they'd kick on and get the win...I didn't expect to go back in front about 30 seconds later. The condition of some of my players was already around the low 70s and I thought they might tire quite quickly in the second half and Blackpool would get back in the game. Could we hold on?

Oh ya absolute fucker! I didn't even watch the second half, I left the computer for 2 minutes and came back to that! David Pratt was only playing due to injury, but he goes and scores a hat-trick away to a League One side! After the game this happened:

Don't think I've ever had a save before where the opposition manage was punted about an hour after a defeat to one of my sides. Also after the game was the draw for the Third Round, where all the big sides enter. Could we be looking at wee Bath City running out at Stamford Bridge? Anfield? Emirates? Old Trafford?

No. But it's a decent draw and it's at home, too. Middlesbrough were sitting 19th in the Championship when the draw was made, although now I'm up to a few days before the match and they're 11th. Still in with a shout. 6,000+ tickets sold for it as well and it's on TV, so a nice wee earner.

FA Trophy:

As I mentioned above, the competition I care least about. I was drawn against Forest Green of the Conference Premier and with some injuries now mounting, I didn't fancy my chances. And I was right, as we lost.

Our first loss in 13 games. Unfortunately even if we get promoted we're going to have to play in this competition next season. Maybe I'll play the U18's...

Vanarama Conference South:

We started our month of league fixtures after the Blackpool FA Cup tie, which had morale in the squad high although the players were showing a bit of fatigue after 3 games in a short space of time. We were hoping we could build on the FA Cup result and stretch our lead at the top to put us in a good position of winning the league ahead of the start of the new year.

Well, we ended up having our worst run of results in the league so far this season. Straight after the Blackpool game, we went and lost to Concord Rangers which was disappointing as they were 4th bottom before the game. The Forest Green game followed it and during that match we lost Frankie Artus for 3-4 weeks, our longest injury lay off so far, the most we'd had someone out for this season was 7 days and that was just the once! Then the day before the Dartford game we lost Chris Ward for 3 weeks, so we had to bring in backup CB Anthony Acheampong to replace him and parter Ruben Garcia Rey - who was suffering from tiredness. We were lucky against Dartford as we had Chris Allen sent off two minutes in to the second half and we won the game with a late penalty after being battered the whole half. A suspension to go on top of the injuries, great! The win over Dover was important as they were our closest rivals in the league and they'd been in decent form. Then we got ridden rotten by Bromley, only the third time we'd lost by 3 goals during my time in charge. And a poor month ended with a dull draw against Wealdstone. So at the end of December, the league table looks as follows:

Just goes to show how important that win over Dover was, otherwise we'd be down in second. I should probably mention as well, that Bath have never won this division, so if we keep our form consistent (ly good) then it'll be a milestone achieved before even reaching the Football League. Next up for us though: Middlesbrough at home in the FA Cup!

Other News:

More job approaches! Nuneaton and Bromley this time. Interestingly I was approached by Bromley 4 days after they'd humped us 4-1. Clearly they were aware it was just a blip.

Player Stats:

A little look at how the players have done this season so far, with quite a few stand-outs!

Ross Stearn and Sam Gainford, my little wizards on the wing! 18 goals and 25 assists between them so far, and we've only reached January! A superb return from George Bowerman as well, with 25 goals in just 23 appearances. The reason Stearn and Atkinson have played more than anyone else is that Stearn is pretty much undroppable - and I don't have a suitable back up right winger to rotate him with. Atkinson's backup this season is Calum Haworth whose been on loan at Farnborough most of the season - all of his stats are from his loan.

Think that'll do for tonight! Next update will either just be a quick one after the Middlesbrough game, or at the end of February.

EDIT: Oh aye and I meant to mention a ridiculous scoreline in the league: 3rd place Boreham Wood losing 7-0 AT HOME to Eastbourne who were 12th. No red cards, no 5 players going off injured, just a straight forward victory. Hilarious.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Kris.

[Kris.]

Right, last update of the night, just for the FA Cup tie.

Frankie Artus and Charlie Ward were the only injury concerns and a few players suffering from a bit of tiredness. I got caught up doing the last update that I forgot to switch a couple of players around. I wanted to bring Acheampong in at CB to replace Phil Airey who is a ST whose also competent at RB and Alex Lawless in to the AM position ahead of Ashley Kington who'd only featured in 7 games this season, and David Pratt was supposed to drop out for George Bowerman. So the result?

Held our own up until the red card then totally collapsed. 7-0 down at HT is a bit of a beamer. The injuries didn't do us any harm as it meant bringing on Lawless and Bowerman who are better than those they replaced. Not swapping in those players at the start and playing a 4-2-3-1 WIDE formation against a Championship probably wasn't a wise move, either. Doing no more after the red card than switching from attacking to counter and putting Adelsbury in a holding midfield role and going with 3 at the back was stupid as well. What a fanny. But still, we made it a couple of rounds beyond where we did last season, so it's progress.

Cheers to those who've given out some greenies so far, not really about the dots themselves, but at least it means someone is reading all this shite, which makes it a little worthwhile. If no one was bothered I was probably going to chuck it after a couple of posts, but I think I'll stick with it for now.

[RandomGuy.]

Love these careers! Will read the whole thing tomorrow morning.

Dat Middlesbrough result though...

[Bully Wee Villa]

Stick with it, I'm reading! How do you pronounce your team though? If you pronounce the first name like it has an "r" in it I'm calling you a pretentious ponce and giving up on this thread! ;-)

[perthsaint1977]

Excellent read. Keep it up.

[Kris.]

Love these careers! Will read the whole thing tomorrow morning.

Dat Middlesbrough result though...

I know. I'm pretty sure if I'd put out the team I initially intended we'd have kept the scoreline respectable, sending off or not.

Stick with it, I'm reading! How do you pronounce your team though? If you pronounce the first name like it has an "r" in it I'm calling you a pretentious ponce and giving up on this thread! ;-)

Is there another way to pronounce Bath? Or am I being wooshed here?!

Excellent read. Keep it up.

Cheers!

I played until the end of February last night and decided to just finish the season this morning as I only had about 8 games to play. I'll put up a month to month update later on today and that'll probably be it until Monday at least. My client got back to me last night, so I should probably start doing some work. Glad folk are enjoying this though!

[Kris.]

January 2016

Vanarama Conference South:

So, this is the only competition we were left in and we start the month 2 points clear of Dover Athletic and with one game in hand. We were looking to bounce back from that FA Cup tie and secure the clubs first ever Championship win at this level. We had 5 matches this month, with 4 of them being at home so we had a decent opportunity to stretch our advantage at the top of the table.

There was a big moment in the Boreham Wood fixture, as our biggest prospect in the youth sides Stewart Mansell made his first team debut, playing the full 90 minutes! He'd turned 17 less than 2 weeks previously and I managed to get him tied up on a professional deal for a couple of years. I played him in his best position just behind the striker and he done pretty well. I tried loaning him out after the game to get him more first team experience, but no side wanted to take him on. So, after those results, the league table at the end of the month looked like this:

So we've managed to stretch our lead at the top of the table to 9 points, although Dover now have the game in hand. With our much superior GD, it's essentially 10 points. Just 13 games left to go in the season and we're in excellent form and in a great position to keep hold of top spot. Barring an incredible collapse, we are pretty much guaranteed a play off spot by this point. Title favourites Whitehawk a mere 23 points adrift, no doubt they'll be favourites next season as well. Dover were predicted to finish 3rd with Boreham Wood 5th and they're looking pretty good to meet those expectations at least.

Other News:

For the first time in months, I didn't get a single job approach! Not much else happened during the month except playing our league games. I did notice though that now we're in January, a lot of players were going in to the final 6 months of their contracts, in fact 18 players were out of contract, only 4 were signed up for next season! I also only had about £200 left in my wage budget so I wasn't in a position to make any approaches to out of contract players ahead of next season. I've got a pretty large shortlist put together with the majority containing players who would be suitable for us if we were to win promotion to the Conference. A little frustrating. I'm hoping the cup run/tv money will see the budget increased for next year and I can tie up some players and perhaps get most of my squad put together, including players coming in, before the window even opens.

February 2016

Vanarama Conference South:

Just the 13 matches to go with a further 4 this month. A switch around from last month where all but one of our matches is away from home. The biggest test would be away to 4th placed St. Albans mid-way through the month. The other 3 matches I wasn't expecting much difficulty.

10 points from 12, the Championship was in sight! 3 pretty routine victories, with a decent draw at St. Albans. Stewart Mansell featured throughout the month, his first appearances since his debut at Boreham Wood in January. He started every game except the Oxford City match where he was an unused substitute. He got his first assist in the victory over Basingstoke, then added a goal to that in the match at Whitehawk. I'd only intended to give him a couple of starts and maybe a couple of sub appearances, but his form made it difficult to drop him! So after these matches, the league table looked like this:

Now first of all, it shows that there's been 5 games since the last table I posted, that's because I forgot to take a screenshot after the Whitehawk game, so this table includes the first match of March as well. 11 (12) points clear now, I wasn't going to mess this up. I had been heavily rotating the squad towards the end of the month as the gap had me convinced we were going to win the league regardless. When I'd been dropping points, Dover had been as well so they weren't gaining any ground. 8 games left, 4 in March and 4 in April. At this point it's a case of when, not if, we're going to win the league.

Other News:

It seems all of those job approaches I didn't get last month, had been saving themselves for this month! Hartlepool United, Scunthorpe United, Solihull Motors, Woking and Telford all offered me an interview. All politely declined.

March 2016

Vanarama Conference South:

Closing in on the league title now and it could all be wrapped up by the end of March if we have a good month. As I mentioned above, the last table posted included our first game of this month, which we won 3-0 at home to Bishop's Stratford. No real difficult fixtures for the rest of the month up until Sutton United at the end of the month, who are looking to push in to the play-offs, probably ahead of St. Albans.

Not exactly a solid month, to be fair! Stewart Mansell continued to be a regular in the side, didn't see much point dropping him out now with the title all but wrapped up. Sutton United gave us our first defeat in the league since the pumping by Bromley on boxing day, and only our 4th league defeat all season! Hemel was a poor result too considering they were in the bottom two at the time, maybe too much rotation going on. But, those results left the league table, going in to the final month of the season, looking like this:

Play-offs are now guaranteed. But, with GD taken in to the equation, we're 11 points clear with 12 to play for. The league is ours! Not really much else to say about this as the league is effectively wrapped up. Dover and Boreham Wood pretty much confirmed for the play-offs, probably Wealdstone too. St Albans might have a nervy end to the season, though. Final month of the season, plus a little round-up in the last update of the weekend to follow.

Other News:

Another 4 approaches from other clubs this month. I must be close to around 20 interviews that I've been offered. They've all been shite jobs as well except for the Peterborough one. It was Morecambe, Gateshead, Dag & Red and Colchester to try this time. Not much else to report I'm afraid! Our next match could see us wrap up the title...

[Kris.]

April 2016

Vanarama Conference South:

The final month of the season, we're effectively 11 points clear with 12 left to play for and we can wrap up the title with a win in our next game against Tonbridge. Might as well just get in to it then! Tonbridge were 4th bottom, so didn't expect them to cause too many problems on our big day.

And they didn't! BATH HAVE WON THE LEAGUE!! The supporters are on the pitch in celebration! (and yes, that's a genuine pitch invasion at Bath's ground.

A 5 goal blitz in the first half, including a hat-trick from George Bowerman saw the match decided before Half Time.

The final results for the month were as follows then. Saw off Tonbridge with ease, then played a bunch of reserves/players who were leaving for the final three games where we still managed to go without defeat. Stewart Mansell was in fine form as well, playing all 4 matches. My assistant even recommended I take him off the loan list as they believe he should be part of the first team.

The Concord Rangers match saw a crowd just under 1,700 turn up, over 3 times my average over the season! Anyway, the final league table looked like this:

Pleasing to see us promoted after bottling it last season. Top of the table, most goals scored and least goals conceded, can't really complain with that. After the season was done, I had a little look to see how Havent & Waterlooville had gotten on after winning promotion ahead of us last season...

Other News:

So, Bath win their FIRST ever Conference South trophy, which sees us win promotion to the Vanarama Conference and one division away from our goal of taking Bath City to the Football League for the first time in their history. Quite a fair bit to mention now that the season is done. As soon as the league was wrapped up, the board set some initial budgets for next year which I wasn't expecting.

An increase of about £10k on to the wage budget, plus an £80k transfer budget! Obviously once the new season starts those budgets might increase/decrease, but anything close to that would be superb. I'd probably adjust the budget to reduce the transfer money to boost the wages available. At Conference level you don't really need to spend money on players, so more wages to spend on Free Transfers and Loan deals would be decent. Of my 18 players out of contract, I'd ideally sign up no more than half of them, so that could see 9 players leave, freeing up more cash to spend on new players. A lot of my players, as good as they are at this level, would probably struggle in the Conference. I'll go through contracts, transfers, budgets etc during my pre-season update early next week.

After the victory over Dartford in the penultimate game of the season, George Bowerman set a league record!

He even beat David Pratt's total from last season, by 8 league goals!

Player Stats:

Last but not least in this update, a quick look at the final stats for the players for this season.

My two wingers Sam Gainford and Ross Stearn finishing with 28 goals and 30 assists between them! George Bowerman was top scorer naturally with 39 goals in all competitions. I left him out of the final game of the season, perhaps I should have played him to see if he could make the 40. Stewart Mansell finished the season with 13 starts, where he scored 4 goals and assisted 3 more from his position just behind the striker. Also managed 2 MoM awards too. More about him in the next update though. During the final month I also turned down two approaches from Carlisle United and Crawley.

So that's it, the end of season 2 sees us win the Vanarama Conference South, whilst also making it to the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. The least said about the result in that game the better though. To those that do read this, enjoy! Expect the pre-season update at some point on Monday.

[Sweaty Morph]

Just throwing myself out there as another who is reading with interest. Taking over at Conference North/South teams and seeing how far I can get them is my usual career of choice, although you are surpassing anything I have managed so far!

Good read so far, look forward to the updates.

[Kris.]

Season 2016/2017: June 2016 - August 2016

Pre-Season Round Up:

Plenty of things to go over this pre-season! First of all, 5 job approaches from other clubs: Eastleigh, Forfar, Exeter, Stockport and Burton, which I declined as you've come to expect at this stage. The club can now offer Full Time contracts - although this happened after I'd already renewed the contracts of my current players for the season, so it's only new signings that are FT unfortunately. Also in regards to contracts, I signed a new deal taking me through to 2019 which isn't too bad. The other big news is that we got a parent club! The board agreed to pair up with Championship side Bristol City, so there is the possibility of some decent loan deals in the future. We've also sold 452 season tickets, up from 240 last season, which is pretty decent.

Promotion/Relegation

So, obviously we've been promoted to the Vanarama Conference, but we've been joined by Wealdstone from the Conference South as well as North Ferriby United and Hednesford Town from the Conference North. Cambridge and Gateshead were relegated down from League Two - Gateshead had won the Conference the season before. Accrington Stanley and Wrexham were promoted from the division to League Two, whilst Barrow, Aldershot, Southport and Havant & Waterlooville ( ) were all relegated to the North/South Divisions.

Transfers:

Lots to go over. First of all, I'd mentioned in the previous update that I had 18 players out of contract and I wanted to sign up 9 of them. Well, I signed up 10 of them: Anthony Acheampong, Frederick Champion, Stephen Grindlay, Ross Stearn, Sam Gainford, Calum Haworth, Wesley Atkinson, Joe Whight, Charlie Ward and Ben Adelsbury. All of those outs are those that were out of contract that I didn't want to retain. Smith, Allen and Artus were all regulars last season but I felt they would struggle with the step up.

As for our transfers in, we broke our transfer record! I'd been tracking Javi Rodriquez since my first season but there was no way we could afford him either then, or even last season! But thankfully this season we could so I paid £20k to bring him in. He'll compete with Mansell and Lawless for that position just behind the striker, but he's equally capable as an AML, which gives me the option of rotating him in that position with Sam Gainford. The other big transfer of the summer window was Jack Byrne who'd just been released by Manchester City. The scouts had him only behind Alex Lawless in overall ability in terms of our vast amount of CM's. He's now also our joint highest earner alongside Ruben Garcia Rey. Ashley Yeoman was another player I'd been tracking since season 1, but never made a move. He'll be our backup striker behind the excellent George Bowerman. Connor McManus is a player with a lot of potential, who was picked up after his release by Celtic. He'll likely be used mainly as a rotation option to get him used to First Team football before he's given a chance as a regular. Byrne and Lawless will be our likely two in the middle of midfield. With Jake Andrews we took advantage of our arrangement with Bristol City to bring him in. He was a bit of a panic signing, as at the time I was struggling to come across any affordable and decent CM's who could make it as a regular. BC are paying all of his wages, so he's a decent backup to have. Andy Nugent is a left back brought in to compete with Joe Whight for the starting slot at LB. The same goes for Dan Woodards who'll go up against Wesley Atkinson and Calum Haworth to play at RB. His direct competition is likely to be Atkinson as I plan on loaning out Haworth again. James Talbot and Daniel Tobin are both goalkeepers. Tobin was brought in to be no more than backup to Grindlay throughout the season, although his potential outweighs his current ability considerably right now. However, Talbot then became available after being released by Sunderland and his ability was greater than the other two 'keepers and he's fairly inexpensive so we brought him in too. Tobin will be loaned out like Haworth.

Likely Starting X1/Tactics:

I'm being a bit bold in going with the same tactics that have brought us success so far. I'd like to think they'll transfer over to this division as well but that remains to be seen.

Squad:

This is a screenshot of our squad depth in relation to our current formation. The starting 11 should be fine for this level, but the reserves leave a lot to be desired unfortunately.

Key Players:

Again, like my last pre-season update, a look at 3 key players for the season. He featured last time as well, but one of the 3 has to be our top scorer and starting striker - George Bowerman.

Not an awful lot to say about him, really. 39 goals in all competitions last season highlights that he'll be a key to a successful season as he's our greatest hope of scoring goals!

Jack Byrne:

I've already mentioned him a little bit already, but with his current ability coupled with his potential to succeed at a level far higher than the Conference, his performances each week might be the decider in us getting 3 points, 1 point, or even none! He'll be our ball winner in the midfield two, whilst Lawless alongside him will be the playmaker.

Javi Rodriguez:

Again, mentioned already but very excited to see what he can do for us this season. He can play in a variety of positions behind the striker and most importantly this will allow Alex Lawless to move deeper in midfield in to his best position. We've got two fantastic wingers either side of him but it'll be his job to supply a lot of the chances for Bowerman. A front 4 of Rodriguez, Stearn, Gainford and Bowerman could be magic.

Expectations & Budgets:

Board Expectations

League: Mid-Table

FA Cup: 1st Round

FA Trophy: 3rd Round

Media Prediction

14th

My Expectations

League: Mid-Table

FA Cup: 2nd Round

FA Trophy: Don't care!

Transfer Budget

£81k

Wage Budget

£19k p/w

So, despite being relatively new to this level and only having just been promoted, the board are expecting a little more than just staying up, they want us to finish in mid-table! Given how badly Havant and Waterlooville struggled last season after winning promotion, it might be a little more difficult than it sounds. A little encourment however, comes from Ebbsfleet who won the league that season finished 10th, 10 points off the play-offs. The board aren't expecting too much in the FA Cup, as they probably realise last season was a bit of a fluke. In the FA Trophy they want us to reach the 3rd Round .

For myself, mid-table would do! It would give us a good base to then push on for perhaps the play-offs the next season and hopefully promotion. The FA Cup I'd settle for the 2nd Round. We'll likely get lower league sides up until the 1st Round, but then we could face a difficult League side in that Round. Getting through that would do me fine. Hopefully though, we can reach the 3rd again and get a big draw at a Premier League club. Don't care at all about the FA Trophy, so I'll give the backup players a chance in that competition.

Friendlies:

Our friendlies during pre-season went pretty well as you can see.

Only the three matches but we came out of those with 2 wins. The Bristol City game was probably the most impressive performance as we'd played the entire second half with 10 men, managing to equalise before they won it late on. Routine victories in the other games.

Opening Fixtures:

Our first 5 games look like this:

Not a bad bunch actually. 3 home games on the bounce isn't to be sniffed at, as it'll give us a good opportunity to get some early points on the board. Not only that, but we've gotten particularly weak sides. Kidderminster finished 19th last season, Wealdstone were promoted via the play-offs from our division - although we've not beaten them in 4 attempts (2 draws, 2 defeats). Halifax are the best side based on last seasons finishes as they came 8th, with Braintree finishing 16th and Welling finishing 18th. So from those opening fixtures, I'd be looking at 9 points to be honest. Beating Wealdstone and Braintree at home, then picking up a win during one of the away games. Don't expect much from the Halifax match. The game at home to Wealdstone will be my 100th match in charge, too.

That's that then. Next update will be at the end of October.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Kris.

[Marshmallo]

Can't believe you've let Pratt go, he seems like some boy. I do have a tendency to get overly attached to strikers who have served me well in the past though.

[Kris.]

Can't believe you've let Pratt go, he seems like some boy. I do have a tendency to get overly attached to strikers who have served me well in the past though.

To be fair I skip by a lot of the messages and didn't even notice Stockport had offered him a deal until he'd agreed it...might well have kept him. I do the same though, I'll be in the Premier League with Bath and I'll probably still have Bowerman and god knows who else at the club.

Another update coming tomorrow, perhaps two if I have the time!

Edited April 7, 2015 by Kris.

[Miguel Sanchez]

I am currently 21 seasons into a save with a Conference South team and I still have my first player of the year on my coaching staff.