Blyth Spartans — First Season Part One

Hello folks and welcome to my first season as manager of Blyth Spartans, the pride of Northumberland! You already know that in pre season I took some radical decisions regarding the squad, I brought in several new players and I hope they will repay the confidence that I have in their ability.

Judging by the first month of the season things were not going too well. In 5 games we only managed to get one win and two draws…

But one game in particular made me hope for a better future. Although we dominated the home game against Stafford they were leading 1-0 until the last minute of the match…

But our equalizer was the kind of goal that I hope my team could produce more often, a fabulous goal. Take a look at it and tell me what you think about it!

In September we qualified for the second round of the Conference League Cup on penalties but what we did in the league game was absolutely stunning: 5 wins in a row and we were in 4th place!

After those extraordinary results I was elected September Manager of the Month! Do you like my profile picture? :)

Unfortunately things were getting more and more difficult. At the beginning of October I had nothing less than eight first team players injured, and a couple of them were supposed to be away for a few months :( The team was struggling and we couldn’t produce the type of performances that I know we were able to do. We didn’t win any matches in October but still we fought on and we snatched a few draws.

As some of the injured players were beginning to return on the pitch we played better in November but with only one league win we were slipping towards the middle of the table.

In December we were knocked out of the last Cup competition, the FA Trophy, but we managed to win 2 out of the 3 league games.

At the end of 2008 we were in 9th place with 30 points from 20 games, 5 points away from the last promotion play off place. I have to find a solution to bring in more players because if I’ll have another injury crisis it could all go very wrong for us this season. Our fans are not hoping to get promotion but I certainly do!

The best player in this first part of the season wes centre back Adam Wilson, with an average rating of 6.98. He scored 2 goals, made 4 assists and looked good in the heart of our defence. I signed him on a free transfer this summer and it seems that I made a good deal.

Our best scorer is striker Robert Dale, on of the Blyth players that I decided to keep after signing the manager contract. He scored 10 goals in 16 games and I really hope that he won’t miss so many chances from now on. He’s a very good team player too, he provided 5 assists for his teammates.

My strategy for the second part of the season features two important points. First I want to find a parent club from where I could loan good player to boost the quality of my squad. And secondly I just remembered that when I started the game I chose a huge database and to load all players from my country, Romania. So I’ll go bargain hunting in the Romanian lower leagues to find a few solid players, mainly a goalkeeper, a centre back and a couple of central midfielders. It will be difficult because my board doesn’t allow the scout to travel abroad so I’ll have to rely on my flair and knowledge of the Romanian football players. That’s about it, see you after I’ll complete the second part of this season!