FM12 Eastwood Town (2012 BSBN Champs)

[Poli]

27 May 2012

The board notifies me that our payroll has been increased significantly to 5.62k a week.

[Poli]

30 May 2012

News travels fast. James Gilpin wants to restructure his deal. With 3k to play with, I am happy to do so.

[Poli]

James would like 240 a week (way up from the 40), 20 bucks an appearance (up from 5), and 70 per shutout (up from 15). He also wants a promotion salary raise and a yearly salary raise.

I tell him the rest of it's fine, but the salary raises got to go. I learned my lesson the last time. Yearly raises and promotional raises can eat you up.

He said he'll consider it. He'll take the deal, I'm certain.

[Poli]

I believe we've come to terms with midfielders Alex West and Danny Elliott as well. Neither are great game changers, but both are relatively cheap and not asking for gross upgrades in salary.

The same cannot be said for Lee Morris. Lee will be leaving after asking for 1k a week. Midfielder and captain Steven Istead will also be departing along with Patrick Montgomery and Paul Riley. Between Morris, Istead, and Riley the club will save over 1k a week from last season's expenses...and if I were to pay them what they wanted, over 1500 this season.

[Poli]

To summarize, the board is delighted with the leadership qualities you are demonstrating.

The team's fantastic overall performance in the Blue Square Bet North has been a particular highlight.

However, they are slightly disappointed with the departure of Francis Green.

The club recorded a loss of $20K last month.

Monthly Turnover: $14.33K
Previous Month: $37.05K
Main Income: Sponsorship $8K

Monthly Expenditure: $34.33K
Previous Month: $53.14K
Main Expenditure: Player Salaries - $10.51K

[Poli]

The balance is at 2.18k. We're getting broke, fast.

[Poli]

2 June 2012

Gilpin, West, and Elliott agree to their deals.

[Poli]

8 June 2012

Transfer window opened. With my new cash I'm interested in adding a midfielder, defender, and striker. I'd prefer to keep a good cushion in the payroll...so if I can pay each of them under 400 a week I think I'd be pretty happy.

[Poli]

9 June 2012

I've either screwed up with some contracts or people really want to play for me.

The following players quickly accepted their contract offers:

Wealdstone's MF Alex Dyer.

Cambrian and Clydach's DC Jamie Rewbury.

Evergreen's MF Niall Andrews.

Kilnamanagh's ST Graham Barrett.

Most came fairly cheap, most were not fully scouted either. I checked their average ratings for the past season, what we knew of them, and how much they were asking for.

Since they were so cheap, we offered a few others as well at the same positions.

[Poli]

11 June 2012

Free agents James Parsonage and Steve Lacey, both strikers, signed a youth contract with us.

Lacey turned down a similar contract with Port Talbot to work with...Lee Morris. Well, Steve's young and doesn't realize that Lee's out the door.

[Poli]

14 June 2012

Free agent DC David Joyce joins the team. He's excited to play with Rewbury, another new guy.

Solihull Moors offers MF Josh Burge from our squad. Josh had a terrible time cracking the lineup with us. I'll wish him the best if he decides to leave.

[Poli]

I believe that's all the contracts I had offered out. I don't plan on signing anyone else in the near future.

[Poli]

Player Name	Average Rating	Appearances	Goals	Assists	MoM	Pass Comp %	Tack pg	Drib pg	Shots on Target %	Yellows	Reds
David Lee	7.46	49(1)	41	8	16	75%	2.17	3.12	45%	4	0
Lee Morris	7.07	21(11)	8	10	2	80%	1.86	0.86	36%	0	0
Gavin Caines	6.97	50(1)	4	4	2	71%	2.1	0.06	40%	3	0
Alex Troke	6.96	31(4)	4	0	2	64%	2.68	0.24	45%	7	2
Kallum Keane	6.96	52	4	2	1	68%	1.47	0.02	47%	2	0
Ross Gardner	6.95	43(2)	5	13	2	77%	2.27	0.37	22%	6	0
Mitchell Hanson	6.95	52	2	1	2	67%	2.81	0.24	35%	3	0
Paul Riley	6.94	19(4)	0	1	0	70%	5.01	0.4	0%	1	0
Danny Elliott	6.88	47	3	7	1	76%	2.05	0.16	17%	3	0
Richard Cooper	6.88	31(6)	1	5	2	74%	4.11	0.26	25%	7	0
Sam Benjamin	6.87	32	0	4	0	70%	3.04	0.17	na	8	1
Steven Istead	6.84	15(22)	5	5	2	80%	2.22	0.71	41%	5	1
James Gilpin	6.8	52	0	0	1	71%	na	na	na	1	0
Jordan Hall	6.73	5(3)	0	1	0	76%	4.57	0.96	14%	2	1
Markel Bailey	6.63	5(16)	0	0	0	68%	4.39	0.21	na	3	0
Luke Edwards	6.62	7(22)	1	5	0	77%	1.33	0.55	42%	0	0
Josh Burge	6.6	2(5)	0	0	0	72%	3.4	0.78	0%	1	0
Laurie Wilson	6.58	1(3)	0	0	0	83%	2.41	0.48	0%	0	0
Alex West	6.55	6(2)	0	0	0	72%	1.86	0.37	0%	0	0
Jervaise Christie	6.54	3(2)	1	0	0	86%	0.96	0.32	33%	0	0
Austin McIntosh	6.54	7(6)	0	0	0	69%	4.5	0.35	na	2	0
Ryan Clarke	6.23	1(2)	0	0	0	48%	1.13	0.57	0%	0	0
Jake Want	6.2	1	0	0	0	37%	na	na	na	0	0
Danny Poole	6.2	1	0	0	0	69%	4	0	100%	0	0
Patrick Montgomery	5.9	2(1)	0	0	0	62%	4.24	0	na	2	1
Jarrod Westcarr	5.7	1	0	0	0	78%	1	0	na	0	0
Others
Francis Green	6.98	21	2	9	0
Emeka Nwadike	6.66	21	0	0	0
Peter Knox	6.7	2	0	0	0
Danny Pitham	6.7	3	0	0	0

[Poli]

I'm open to suggestions on how to format that from excel to here.

[Poli]

16 June 2012

Burge is leaving for Solihull Moors...to team up with Emeka Nwadike. Best of luck.

[Poli]

24 June 2012

David Lee is voted Eastwood Player of the Year by the fans.


Eastwood's given 8k for their portion of the television contract.


The Best Eleven for this season has been announced by the Eastwood supporter spokesperson, Liam Bushell.

David Lee was the pick of the players, the striker having made 50 appearances and scored 41 goals for the team at an average rating of 7.46 this season.

The rest of the Best Eleven squad was: Sam Benjamin, Gavin Caines, Jervaise Christie, Richard Cooper, Luke Edwards, Danny Elliott, Ross Gardner, James Gilpin, Francis Green, Mitchell Hanson, Steven Istead, Kallum Keane, Austin McIntosh, Lee Morris, Paul Riley, Alex Troke and Jake Want.

[Poli]

Altrincham, Eastwood, Salisbury City, and Chelmsford City are all promoting to the Premier. Crewe Alexandra and Accrington Stanley have demoted the Premier.

[Poli]

Eastwood Town have announced the latest figures from ongoing season ticket sales.

As of today, the club has sold 37 season tickets for the upcoming season.

The board expects the club to sell another 100 season tickets in the following weeks, taking the number of season ticket holders for the upcoming season up to around 100 in total.

[Poli]

27 June 2012

We have a problem. Lee's hired an agent, and wants a lot of cash. A lot.
900 a week
750 loyalty
3000 agent fee
10% yearly raise
10% promotion raise
90 appearance fee
75 goal bonus
9500 for 15 goals on the season


He's lost his mind. I love David Lee but I can't afford to keep him. I'll put him on the transfer market.

[Poli]

Valued at 40k, I list him at 16. I still don't have a good feel for this transfer market stuff, but Cork City and Sligo Rovers are immediately interested and offer the same deal.

12k over 2 years. Who am I to argue? I take it from Cork City. I'm presuming they know Lee has lost his mind on how much he should earn.

[Poli]

1 July 2012

The board offers me a new deal. 1200 a week for this season. I tell them to make it 2 years and they have a deal. They're happy to do so...but we'll see how the Premier handles us.

[Poli]

To summarize, the board is pleased with your leading of the team.

This is in no small part down to your extremely tight control of the payroll.

However, they are slightly disappointed with the departure of Emeka Nwadike.

The club recorded a loss of $17.66K last month.

Monthly Turnover: $16.17K
Previous Month: $14.33K
Main Income: Season Tickets $8.93K

Monthly Expenditure: $33.83K
Previous Month: $34.33K
Main Expenditure: Player Salaries - $15.94K

[Poli]

3 July 2012

Chester sign Austin McIntosh. Austin wasn't a huge factor last season. Good luck, kid.

[Poli]

4 July 2012

David Lee agrees to terms with Cork City. My heart hurts.

[Poli]

Cork City have signed Eastwood's David Lee for a fee of $12,000.

Lee was part of the Eastwood team who were crowned Blue Square Bet North champions in 2012.

The Eastwood management are not proving popular figures with the fans at Coronation Park after selling Eastwood favorite David Lee to Cork City.

The 28-year old striker had built up a great rapport with the Eastwood supporters and they are very upset that the head coach has let him leave.

[Poli]

9 July 2012

Gavin Falconer joins the team from the Erie Admirals...a desperation move made to slow the bleed of selling Lee.

[Poli]

10 July 2012

Our new scout suggests a new left wingback, Kadell Daniel. For 80 bucks a week, I'll see if I can bring him in.

[Poli]

15 July 2012

Daniel signs with us and snubs Workington in the process.

[Poli]

We're up to our preseason friendlies. I won't post much about these. Maybe injuries, anything crazy like a hattrick, perhaps. I just want to get the match fitness up for just about everyone and see how their ratings mesh. Best of the best will start the season.

[Poli]

1 Aug 2012

To summarize, the board is pleased with your leading of the team.

This is in no small part down to your extremely tight control of the payroll.

However, your decision to let David Lee leave the club is regarded by the fans to be a poor piece of business.

The club recorded a loss of $11.01K last month.

Monthly Turnover: $57.94K
Previous Month: $16.17K
Main Income: Season Tickets $29.23K

Monthly Expenditure: $68.95K
Previous Month: $33.83K
Main Expenditure: Player Salaries - $16.24K

[Poli]

We're currently 33.53k in debt.

[Poli]

11 Aug 2012

We had one final addition just before the last friendly: Colchester's striker Freddie Ladapo joined the team. We signed him for 450 a week, but he's in shape and has great determination. 95k value and I'm excited to see him on the pitch.

Gavin Falconer, another stud striker I'm excited to see play, was our only injury during the preseason. He's still about 4-5 weeks away from playing.

It's gameday. Time to take a few beat downs.

[Poli]

Eastwood: 11-5 Draw: 11-5 Accrington: Pick 'Em (Fav) (Blue Square Bet Premier)

Newly-promoted Eastwood go into this game as slight underdogs even though they have home advantage over recently relegated Accrington, according to Sky Bet.

Current manager Ian Foster joined Accrington Stanley in April 2012 and has been in charge for 3 months.

The referee for the match will be John Busby from Oxford.

[Poli]

11 AUG 2012

Accrington
@
Eastwood

Drizzle, 73 degrees

Ladapo, Barrett

Andrews, Dyer, Elliott

Daniel, Joyce, Caines, Hanson, Bailey

Gilpin


West, Benjamin, Gardner, Lacey, Troke


Six new starters on the squad from last year's championship team. Two were essential (strikers). Joyce was just a battle for a central defender spot. While I was looking to upgrade the midfield, I was a little surprised to have Elliott beat out Gardner.

[Poli]

David Joyce and Kadell Daniel will play in their first competitive league game.

Graham Barrett, Niall Andrews, Alex Dyer, and Freddie Ladapo are set to make their league debut with Eastwood.

Steve Lacey will play in his first competitive league game if (and when) he comes off the bench and will be the youngest player by 633 days to play for Eastwood. I really like this kid. Showed some spunk in the preseason.

[Poli]

6: Graham Barrett with an excellent challenge on a defender that forces the keeper to focus on him. A quick pass to Ladapo for a one-time shot that rolls wide left. Disappointing to say the least.

28: Barrett suffers an injury but stays in until the half.

31: Barrett gets a one on one with the keeper thanks to Elliott...but the keeper wins the battle.

43: Accrington striker slices the defense and gets Gilpin out of position. One nifty kick later: 0-1

[Poli]

Down 1 at the half, not a bad spot for us. They demoted from Npower 2 or whatever. Worse things have happened.

Lacy makes his debut coming in for Barrett.

[Poli]

46: Acc wastes no time to attack the goal. Gilpin tips it over for a corner.

64: Bailey gets a toss from the sideline to Elliott off the left sideline. Elliott puts a weak shot wide left.

73: Acc puts a laser in from 25. No chance for Gilpin. 0-2
Benjamin comes in for Daniel.

87: Bailey picks up a yellow for a trip.

90: Same deal for Caines.

[Poli]

Overall, hard to be mad. We lost, but to a pretty good team.

[Poli]

Ladapo 5.7, Barrett 6.5

Andrews 6.5, Dyer 5.8, Elliott 5.9

Daniel 6.5, Joyce 6.6, Caines 6.2, Hanson 5.3, Bailey 5.5

Gilpin 6.6


West, Benjamin 6.5, Gardner, Lacey 6, Troke



Ratings wise: Terrible. Five players under 6.0. Ugh.

1,317 watched. Loved that.

[Poli]

Eastwood Town have announced the final sales figures for season tickets.

The ticket office has confirmed that the club has sold 158 season tickets for this season.

The sales figures are encouraging compared to last season, when the club sold 60 season tickets.


Very encouraging.

[Poli]

Mansfield: 1-2 (Fav) Draw: 13-5 Eastwood: 9-2 (Blue Square Bet Premier)

Mansfield are clear favorites in this home encounter but will still have to make sure they do a professional job against newly-promoted Eastwood, according to Sky Bet.

Eastwood can overtake a number of teams including Lincoln and move as high as 1st if they win their next game. Eastwood could drop into the relegation zone if they fail to take points from their upcoming match.

Current manager Paul Cox joined Mansfield Town in June 2011 and has been in charge for 15 months.

The referee for the match will be Paul Melin from Aldershot.

[Poli]

Graham Barrett is out about 2 weeks with bruised ribs.

[Poli]

14 AUG 2012

Eastwood, 0-1 (20th)
@
Macclesfield, 0-1 (23rd)

Strong Wind, 48 degrees


Ladapo, Lacey

Andrews, Gardner, Troke

Benjamin, Rewbury, Caines, Hanson, Cooper

Gilpin


West, Joyce, Edwards, Parsonage, Daniel

[Poli]

Macclesfield lost a few days ago to Fleetwood, 3-0.

Hanson is making his 50th career league appearance.
Rewbury is making his league debut with Eastwood.
Parsonage to enter his first competitive league game if he gets on the field.

[Poli]

6: Ladapo gets another chance in the 6th minute (he had one last game), again sends it wide left...this time from just outside the penalty area.

20: Gilpin with a fine save on a hard close in shot.

23, 26, 29: Gilpin continues to hold off Macclesfield. Impressive game so far.

[Poli]

We're holding for the draw. I hope we can manage. We're not generating much offensively at all.

[Poli]

62: Gardner with the corner. Caines with the header and it's tipped away.

64: West in for Troke. Joyce in for Cooper. Joyce and Hanson exchange spots on defense.

70: Hanson's attempt to clear a ball is stolen, a quick pass into the box for a header...tipped away by Gilpin!

77: Benjamin clears to Ladapo...who finds Lacey racing down the middle. Lacey shows his inexperience...dumping it way wide right.

85: Time for the overload.

89: Rewbury gets a yellow for a trip, though the player may have taken a dive. Later Niall Andrews takes a pass from West and for whatever reason fires off a shot from way downtown.

90+3: A series of fouls by Macclesfield leaves us with the direct kick just outside the left side of the penalty area, about 3 yards from goal line. Gardner quick kicks in to Rewbury, who dumps it into the goal without confrontation. I'm utterly amazed! 1-0

[Poli]

Ladapo 6.8, Lacey 6.8

Andrews 6.9, Gardner 6.9, Troke 6.8

Benjamin 6.2, Rewbury 7.6, Caines 7.9, Hanson 6.8, Cooper 6.8

Gilpin 6.8


West 6.9, Joyce 6.9, Edwards, Parsonage, Daniel


Caines wins MoM with solid defending all game...though Gilpin could have easily taken it in my opinion.

Was content to take the point on the road. I'm giddy to take 3 and drive home safely.

[Poli]

Eastwood: 3-1 Draw: 2-1 Lincoln: 4-5 (Fav) (Blue Square Bet Premier)

Newly-promoted Eastwood are up against it in their home encounter against Lincoln, according to Sky Bet.

Eastwood could drop into the relegation zone if they lose to Lincoln and results elsewhere go against them.

Current manager Phil Robinson joined Lincoln City in December 2011 and has been in charge for 8 months.

The referee for the match will be Ross Joyce from Middlesbrough who has shown 9 yellow cards and no red cards in his two Blue Square Bet Premier games so far this season.