Darren: FM 2011 Brighton up for a quadruple? End of season report — 2014/15

Hey guys and welcome to my 2014/15 season finale. During the last post I showed off some massive signings and our magnificent League Cup triumph, but left you hanging on the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League results…but don’t fear as we’ll correct that now. Today I will reveal how Brighton finished the season both domestically and in Europe. We will begin with my Premier League results before moving forward to the FA Cup and eventually the Champions League. Today’s post is more than one page long, so don’t think all is over at the bottom of the page as you’ll need to turn the page in order to see the whole story.

Premier League results — January to March

Come the end of December Brighton found themselves 8 points clear of Chelsea in first place. With half a season to go I wasn’t getting carried away but our title chances did look rather favourable. That was until the start of January when Chelsea won all three games after the new year, but Brighton could only draw to Arsenal, beat Birmingham and lose to Liverpool. Those two away matches had wounded us and left Chelsea to get within four points of 1st.

I needed my team to react and send the London club a message…so what did they do? They went on to win their next 7 games scoring no fewer than 21 goals. The best of this run came against Manchester United who thought scoring first would quieten my side, but instead we went on to smash 4 past them as Wilshere scored a hat trick.

Premier League results — April to May

Our new found form was nothing short of spectacular and kept going bar a few minor blips. From April till May we won five games, drew two and lost just once away to Everton. 4-1 seemed to be our favourite scoreline and late goals to rescue one or even three points were all too regular. While most would find this unnerving I saw it as a strength in character.

Premier League table

With the domestic season almost over, the league table was complete and I don’t think many will need my position confirming. But for those that do, Brighton won the league by 7 points. We scored an incredible 105 goals which just goes to show how attacking we are.

FA Cup results

After winning this competition last season I have some niggling expectations. We may have won the Premier League and League Cup, but a domestic treble would be the cherry for sure. We started the competition with a 6-0 thrashing of Port Vale, then travelled to the KC Stadium and beat Hull City 4-0. The fifth round handed us Premier League opposition in Fulham. The London based club held their own but couldn’t stop my mixed starting XI as we rose 3-2 victors. Aston Villa were next up as Alan Patrick scored a nice goal to help us win 3-0 and progress to the semi-final. My boggy side, Everton, awaited and despite giving us a tough time couldn’t stop my progression as we won 2-1. Chelsea await Brighton in the FA Cup final but you’ll have to go to the second page for that one. First lets see how I progressed in the Champions League knockout stages.

Champions League results

OK so we know the League and League Cup have been wrapped up. We also know that Brighton will play Chelsea in the FA Cup final which leaves us with the Champions League. My boys waltzed through the first knockout round thrashing Shakhtar 8-0 on aggregate. Germany’s top asset was drawn for the quarter-final and Bayern had an excellent squad. However, they seemed a little cocky during the first leg and lost 3-2 at home. The second leg was very drab and despite the Germans scoring once I always felt in control of Brighton’s European destiny. We’d made our way through to the semi-final and luck seemed to favour the Seasider’s one last time as Sevilla popped out the hat. The first leg was held in Spain and I felt well in control yet again. The match finished 0-0 and we won the second leg with ease, 2-0. Through to the final of the Champions League and Barcelona await.

To read all about the FA Cup and Champions League finals you must turn over to the next page. This can be done by clicking the number 2 below and believe me you don’t want to miss Brighton’s first ever appearance in a European final. ;)

Go to the next page for cup final results

FA Cup final — Brighton vs Chelsea

Venue: Wembley, London

Attendance: 90,000

Team formations:

Brighton won their first FA Cup last season and find themselves with the opportunity to double up just a year later. I decided to go for it and field my strongest XI. Chelsea seemed to have the same idea opting for the likes of Fernando Torres, Terry, Luiz, Hamsik and Pjanic. We certainly had a match on our hands but to see the goals and what happened watch my match highlights below. Brighton are in the blue kit and Chelsea are in black.

Match highlights: Click here to watch FA Cup final match highlights

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Match stats:

While the scoreline may not look overly one sided I think the match stats show a clearer picture. Brighton held 57% possession and had 15 shots to Chelsea’s 8. The end result seemed fair though as Chelsea defended quite well . All in all the perfect day out and a great way to warm up for my Champions League final.

Champions League final — Barcelona vs Brighton

Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona!!!

Attendance: 98,000

Team formations:

Let me start by saying Barcelona have the home advantage!!! Now I didn’t see that coming and it completely threw me off guard. Then I looked at the team sheet and started to feel a little pale. Barcelona’s defence looks solid, then they have the creativity of Iniesta, Paulo Henrique, Messi and David Villa. Not to mention I am missing Alan Patrick, Jack Wilshere and Charlie Adam. I won’t go into any detail and instead will just let you watch the match highlights by clicking below. Brighton are wearing blue while Barcelona are in their traditional home kit.

Match highlights: Click here to watch the Champions League match highlights

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Match stats:

Brighton may have lost but our performance was a pleasant surprise. We took the lead early on and looked rather threatening in parts. In fact we fired off almost double the amount of shots to Barca and hit the target 4 more times. The big difference was Messi though, my inexperienced defence just couldn’t cope as the Argentine twisted his way through on more than three occasions.

Squad stats and finances

That was certainly a succesful season, despite the rocky start my boys proved their worth and a proactive January saw some much needed quality join the club. From my three new signings Wilshere looked dangerous with 6 goals and 3 assists from the right wing, while Neymar managed 7 goals and 5 assists upfront. Verkhovtsov may leave this summer due to age, but he was our best performer with 17 goals and 8 assists from set pieces. While my best two attacking threats were Charlie Adam assisting 27 and scoring 7 followed by Torres scoring 26.

Off the pitch things look pretty damn good also. After winning the domestic treble and making the Champions League final my board decided to make a decent investment and increase the stadiums capacity from 27,000 to 33,500.

The proposed extension will cost a fair chunk of cash but I am still left with £27.5 million in the bank. This is more than 10 times the amount I’ve ever had and I will be interested to see what the board offer in terms of a transfer budget come the summer.

Well that is all for Brighton, thank you for reading and following this story. I have decided to end the story there and my decision will make more sense within the next few days as I make an announcement. Until then please feel free to ask any questions below and I look forward to reading your comments as always.