vs Chard (20th)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Jim Williams/Sam Higgins
AMC: Billy Frost
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
Trying something a little different, since
Adam Page is out with injury.
Jenas goes in for sucky
Burrows;
Gibson for
Sheppard. We're stinking out there, and I tell them off.
51 -
Graham is first to a loose ball and hammers it all the way down the right flank into space.
Gibson beats out everyone and dribbles before crossing to an open
Frost for Billy Boy's first cheesy goal!
1-0
74 -
Frost has been everywhere this second half, and on this one, he intercepts and starts a move that has
Leek getting the ball from
Higgins, but the left wing cross misses everyone. No problem, as
Frost races his ass off to get it and near post pass to
Friend for the insurance goal!
2-0
A bunch of 7+ by the end, with
Billy Frost having a breakthrough 8.4 PotM outing, the next highest
Lee Brindley with 7.3. That win moves us up to 4th, 4 points out of 2nd place with 5 games to go.
Transfer In - MR Nathan Haynes (21)
Transfer pickup. Very raw right now, but does have 15 Teamwork and 11 Work Rate. My staff bags on him, but the fans are absolutely thrilled with him. I'll throw him in the starting lineup and see how he does.
@ Chipping Sodbury (13th)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Sam Higgins/Nathan Haynes
AMC: Billy Frost
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
48 -
Gibson is on for
Friend;
Jenas for
Burrows
58 -
Brindley intercepts and gets the ball to
Gibson, who quickly lays off to
Sheppard. I'm thinking he'll go right wing, but he confuses everyone by going left out to
Leek instead - dangerous, given the defenders. Fortunately, no one is there, and the far post right cross is to completely alone
Haynes for the debut goal! No offsides called!!!
1-0
70 -
Leek chases down a longball on the left touchline, and once again,
Haynes is isolated on the right wing (You think they'd learn to watch the back door). This time, the shot is deflected, but
Sheppard is just fast enough to get there first to sink the rebound and end his scoring drought.
2-0
84 -
Higgins takes down a clearance and passes to
Frost, who shorts it to
Sheppard. With a bubble of three defenders, none getting close or challenging, he dribbles into the box and calmly slots away his second goal.
3-0
We were ass in the first half, but came alive in the second. So much so that
Tate Sheppard (8.8 and PotM),
Billy Frost (8.2), and
Nathan Haynes (8.7) all broke the 8 barrier and
all full-time starters bar the keeper put up at least a 7.2. The fans even gave us a standing ovation.
Still 4 points out of 2nd, but just 1 point behind 3rd.
Chippenham Palace has all but secured promotion at this point, with a healthy 10 point lead on 3rd with 3-4 games to go. It's just a question of who joins them -
Cribbs (65 points),
Oldland Abbotonians (62 points) or us (61 points).
The bad news is we can't directly affect our chances in the remaining 4 games. The good news is, all our remaining matches are against teams below us in the table.
vs Bishop Sutton (7th)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Sam Higgins/Nathan Haynes
AMC: Billy Frost
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
13 - Ugh.
0-1
36 -
Frost on a cleared corner shoots it across the pitch to
Leek for the pass inbox to
Higgins. Pass forward to
Friend bounces off the striker, but he gets it back and fires it in.
1-1
58 -
Page for
Haynes;
Jenas for
Burrows as we continue to struggle finding decent play out of DR.
77 - YOU FUCKING COCKNOBBLER
JENAS!!!! DON'T FUCKING GIVE UP A FUCKING PK!!!
1-2
That's it. Our season is over.
7 points out with 3 games left
We need to sweep and
Cribbs to lose along the way.
Chippenham Park officially clinches promotion.
Some bright news amidst the gloom, however: I officially sign a one year contract extension, raising my pay another $1k to $9k. Job security and a little more money FTW. I also get a 15% pay increase if we promote.
@ Devizes (21st)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Sam Higgins/Nathan Haynes
AMC: Billy Frost
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
4 -
Higgins with the clearance pickup and into the box to
Leek. Pressure from defenders, so he outlets to
Brindley for the express delivery to the six yard box, where
Friend puts it away.
1-0
8 - Well fucking deserved red card on that dude for spiking
Friend from behind!
9 -
Frost to
Higgins just outside the box, and a pop pass by the latter to
Haynes, whose experimental long box shot falls in.
2-0
13 - Giving up a shorthand goal is stupid.
2-1
18 - WTF IS THIS BULLSHIT?!
2-2
49 -
Gibson replaces
Tate; the usual
Jenas for
Burrows merry-go-round.
perjgyiopegipnopidfnhosenioe54kln 54olhtoerthy348909oreihgodfghoefho9aryhg90aergy90arye9gywrother90y9retywoht0ogy90gye90ghgy90
FUCK THIS GAME AND FUCK ALLOWING TWO FUCKIGN SHORTHANDED GAOLS!!!!!!
Nathan Haynes is lost for 3 months to a groin muscle tear. Fitting for how we fucking collapsed at the end of the season.
vs Welton Rovers (9th)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Luke Jenas
WBR: Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Billy Frost/Sam Higgins
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
49 -
Sheppard is haunted by two defenders on the right wing, so valve pass to
Burrows for the near post hit to
Friend's head for the score.
1-0
61 -
Williams supplants
Higgins;
Page turns over
Leek
We eke out a win behind
Burrows' 8.3 PotM. Not that it matters.
Cribbs wins and gains automatic promotion. They've been on fire to close the season out.
@ Caine (13th)
G: Gareth Rees
D: Lee Brindley/Lee Craig/Josh Graham/Luke Jenas
WBR: Curtis Burrows
M: Connor Leek/Billy Frost/Sam Higgins
ST: Cameron Friend/Tate Sheppard
1 - WTFE.
0-1
52 -
Williams for
Craig;
Gibson for
Sheppard
56 -
Friend gets a longball and shorts it to
Leek. Feed to
Gibson and our youth pull's first ever goal, as the keeper just stands there like he's given up on the season too.
1-1
And so we finish 4th. Lack of consistency was a problem all half long.
Burgess Hills Rhinos won the league by 3 points, by the way, as
Montpelier Villa III collapsed down the stretch.
Our backline was maddeningly inconsistent, and we never could stabilize a good DR at all.
Gareth Rees was a bit of an ass to deal with as a keeper, too.
Our strikers were wayyy inconsistent as well. In short, there's nobody on this team I wouldn't mind seeing leave in the offseason.
Aaron Gibson will get a shot to start next year.
Cut
Paul Ward - Disappointing
Lee Gough - Sucked
Luke Jenas - Sucked
Archie Gritt - Sucked
Cameron Friend - Inconsistent
Lee Brindley - Inconsistent
Josh Graham - Highest paid player on the team didn't deliver
Adam Page - Not worth it
Lee Craig - Old and doesn't fit in our tactical setup
I'm also getting to let the entire staff's contracts expire, so I can usher in some decent evaluators and coaches.
Tate Sheppard is Fans Player of the Year with 44% of the vote, followed by [b]Connor Leek[/b (24%) and
Sam Higgins20%. Sheppard is Young Player of the Season, Higgins the Signing of the Season.
Connor Leek is named Captain after
Paul Ward is cut,
Gareth Rees the new Vice-Captain.
The board was very pleased with my performance, and raved about
Sam Higgins. Top trainees were
Connor Leek,
Gareth Rees, and
Sam Higgins.
Code:
Club Value: $18k
Average Ticket Price: $8
Season Ticket Price: $128
Season Ticket Holders: 7
Average Attendance: 70 (Went up after I came on board)
Loss: $20k
After those cuts, we have about $57k in the wage budget - plenty of room with which to make a splash.
Transfer In - MR/AMR Roy Horgan (22)
Could end up a starter on the right side - is more technically polished than
Nathan Haynes, although needs to work on his Teamwork and Work Rate. It'll be an interesting battle between the two.
Transfer In - WBL/ML/AML Omarr Austin (17)
One very strong possibility - he starts at ML and we move
Connor Leek to DL. Has Flair for days (17), and could suit in very well there. An experiment worth considering. Was a player we nabbed from
Tooting & Mitcham and Ithsmian D1 team.
Transfer In - ST Carl Harris (17) - From Maidenhead
Huge name steal from a Vanarama North/South squad. Scored 3 goals and had a PotM award in 9 games with
Melksham on loan in the
Western Premier last season. Really excited - physical attributes aren't much to write home about, but he's got strong technical and mentals for this level, including 16 Bravery and 14 Teamwork.
I'm linked to the job at
Tamworth, which is dropping down to
Vanarama North/South after relegating. Nice to be mentioned, but I want to keep building what I'm working on here. Board wasn't pleased that I didn't outright reject the job.
Transfer In - DR Emmanuel Mensah (18)
Was on the street and his Physicals are off the chain - Lots of 12+ there, including 12 Stamina and 13 Pace. I feel like we got a steal here, and can now move
Curtis Burrows to a 4 position backup role.
I'm briefly tempted by a retirement to move up, but I just can't pull the trigger.
Transfer In - DR/WBR Chris Ross (17)
An intriguing, high mentals player. Strictly a depth backup at the moment, however. Bath was quite happy to get rid of him.
Promotion Odds
Cheddar: 1-5
Wells: 1-2 (Relegation)
Welton Rovers: 4-6 (Relegation)
Almondsbury UWE: 25-1
Gee, nothing like pressure, folks. We still don't have a second DC and no one will sign with us. On top of it, in our second friendly,
Mark Reynolds, who has been playing DM in our weird setup, is out 4-5 weeks with a foot injury.
Blargh.