I know, I know, two posts in under 24 hours. I apologize for the quickfire double, but I was too excited/eager/antsy to wait to post this up. I hope my fellow writers can forgive me the transgression. :( There’s a ton to go over in this post, so I’m going to skip a few things and save them for later (mainly going over all the individual fixtures). We’ll go ahead and get started with some January transfer business, and move from there.
Transfers:
For what it’s worth, the BSN/S don’t have formal January transfer windows, and in fact the transfer window is open almost the entire season. Still, January is a mental thing for me, and that’s where the bulk of the activity took place. First, the outbounds:
Carlos Roca was a terrible player that I’d be holding onto simply in case I was desperate for a winger. Ultimately though, my needs never became great enough to justify his continued presence, and he was promptly released. Danny Ball was a player I’d inherited, and was the deposed manager’s last signing before his sacking. Ball was on an extraordinarily ridiculous wage (something like 600 a week), and had vastly under-performed as wingback all year long. I was quite glad to be rid of him, as BSP side Alfreton took him off my hands.
Lastly, Frankie Raymond was a player I really would like to have kept, but I simply couldn’t meet his wage demands. With him on a pay-as-you-play non-contract, it was only a matter of time before someone sniped him out from under me. Fellow BSN side Solihull Moors were able to afford him, and signed him up.
As for the intakes, I was looking for a striker to replace the underwhelming Asante, and a wingback to replace the equally underwhelming Danny Ball. I’d say both efforts were successful:
Alex Jones was an absolute monster following this signing, and went on to score 18 goals in 20 appearances. He’s probably the best player to ever wear Rebel Red, and might be my best bit of business ever.
Not quite the revelation that Alex Jones was, but he ended up being far superior to anything Ball accomplished. I was quite pleased with his performances on the whole.
Brought in to replace Frankie Raymond, more on him later.
Run to the end:
You’ll have to forgive me, but I’ve lapsed in my journalistic responsibility and forgot to take a screenshot of our fixtures before heading off to work. In light of that, I can give you a brief rundown: Our form took a bit of a dip, and we lost a few winnable games before picking back up at the end. We were very briefly involved in the title hunt, but any remote hopes were quickly squashed when we blew a 1-0 lead against leaders Southport, and lost 1-2. However, with three games left to play, I received this:
The playoff picture at that moment looked as thus:
A few games later, and things looked largely the same. Southport managed to claim the title, despite Stalybridge leading almost the entire way. On the other end, Guisley snuck into the playoffs on the last day:
Given our number two seed, we were expectantly drawn against Northwich Victoria for the right to compete in the title. Unfortunately, and by some absolutely ludicrous scheduling, we ended up playing them AWAY on a single day’s rest. This could get ugly…
Brilliant, utterly brilliant. Despite most of the players being only in the 80% range (or less), and playing away in a very hostile Victoria Stadium, we somehow managed to put up one of our best performances of the year. While this may prove the scheduling wasn’t an issue, I still plan on writing a very angry letter to the FA.
Mercifully, we had a full week to prepare (and recuperate) for the critical second leg. Given our positive performance away, I was hopeful we’d do even better at home:
Eh, not great, but it was enough to see us through. Thanks to a Ben Sayer penalty, we jumped out to a 1-0 (4-0) lead before giving up two rather soft goals, and allowing Northwich to save a little bit of face. Still, we were through to the final on a 4-2 aggregate win!
At this point, I was daring to believe. I know I rambled and raved about not being ready for promotion, but when you find yourself in the playoff final, you can’t help but dream of victory. When I learned that Guisley had knocked out Stalybridge (completing their shocking collapse), I was even more excited. This was a team that barely even made it into the playoffs, this was a team I could actually beat. When game day game, I was giddy with nervous excitement.
Things began smoothly enough, some nice defensive stops followed by some slick attacking play. We finally got our chance with a corner:
Brilliant! Alex Jones heads in a Sayer corner, to give us a 1-0 advantage! We’re a fairly attacking team, but our defense had been in fine form, and I had faith we might be able to hold onto this slim margin. That is until Dave Evans revealed he had other plans. In the most boneheaded tackle I’ve ever seen, he gave Guisley a penalty right before halftime:
Needless to say, they converted with ease. We went into the locker room disappointed, but eager. Evans was promptly benched, and the team was given a «Keep it up» pep talk. We took to the second half with a vengeance, and were easily the more attacking of the two teams. We had Guisley on the back foot, but just weren’t able to make the shots count. Despite our best efforts, we were heading into extra time.
Another sub (Ben Sayer was thoroughly exhausted), and we went back to it. This time the exhaustion became evident, and neither team was able to generate much of anything the entirety of extra time. A lot of drab midfield play, and a few half-hearted attacks meant we were heading to penalty kicks. Things progressed smoothly enough, as we traded goals back in forth. Finally, with Guisley up 5-4, Stuart Ashton stepped up to try and convert our 5th attempt and extend the PKs.
vaibhavc
22 ноября, 2011 at 16:24
Oh no! Damn that sucks. The bear is so disappointed, unlucky. But if you look at it another way, it is good that he missed it. It gives you another season to prepare.
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:27
Sad bear is very sad. :( True though, that this gives us a chance to rebuild and move forward.
Alex
22 ноября, 2011 at 16:51
Noooo, I have to say though, looking at the attributes of your players how you got that far is beyond me. What you did this season was incredible, you single-handedly dragged this team to far beyond their capabilities. I’m confident that with some strengthening in the summer you’ll get promoted next season. I am relishing the day when you slay the dragon (on FM, not the other game you’ve been playing)… Manchester United, the most hated team ever. Yeeeaaahhhhhhhh, the rebellious force.
Alex
22 ноября, 2011 at 22:36
Also, please don’t apologise for posting twice in 24 hours, the more the merrier.
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:28
Truthfully, I have no idea how we did it. We ran a fairly average tactic (more or less a default 4-2-3-1 with inside forwards split out wide), with exceedingly average players, so I’m going to have to chalk this one to straight up Bear Fear (patent pending). I mostly apologized to my fellow writers on this site, as I feel bad taking too much screen real estate too quickly. They deserve their spot in the limelight!
Laxeyman
22 ноября, 2011 at 17:44
Aaaahhhh, how frustrating that must be Stromson! You did fantastically well to get as far as the play off finals, despite your rather weak squad. Alex Jones was absolutely amazing and hopefully he can keep it going next season :)
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:29
I was, as some would say, going «full homo» for Alex Jones and his clinical, clinical finishing. Interestingly enough, he would often be sitting on a 5.something rating for the early going before exploding for 1-50 goals.
Darren Smith
22 ноября, 2011 at 18:10
oh dear, that is an awful way to miss out on promotion. Unlucky mate but lets hope to see you back fighting next season.
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:30
Thanks Darren, it was disappointing, but I plan implementing a few of your tips that I hope will help push us over that edge.
Ana Garcia
22 ноября, 2011 at 19:12
Playoffs……..
You can now join me in hating them! Last year was ridicules how many I lost but you were very unlucky.
But take the plus points you recruited some really good players that will stand you well for next season and possibly challenge for top spot missing them them out completely.
So good luck! :)
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:32
Soooooooooooo frustrating to lose on PKs in the playoffs…so yes, I’m now completely onboard with the «anti-playoff club». Still, I agree that we have a solid foundation upon which to build. :) Thanks!
Johnny Karp
22 ноября, 2011 at 19:49
Oh nooo… I know how much this hurts mate but you have to look at the bright side: you’ll surely be prepared for promotion next season ;)
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:33
I really, really hope so!
Kevin
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:30
Hey Stromson
1. Totally gutted — I was convinced during that day I would see you posting about promotion
2. That bear looks like he’s had one too many Molson Canadian
3. Come out of «hibernation» stronger next season
4. It feels like -4C with freezing rain in Toronto so things could be worse!
Stromson
23 ноября, 2011 at 00:35
1) I wish I had been, alas, it wasn’t to be. :(
2) Indeed, he is a very sad bear. :(
3) That’s the plan! A summer recuperating and munching on berries should see us ready to roll come August!
4) DC didn’t feel much better the other night when the Maple Leafs blew up on the Caps 7-1. >.<
Lye
23 ноября, 2011 at 09:29
So close. You have done well to reach the play-offs and it has to be decided by penalty. Bad luck. When it comes to that, you only wish for better luck. I hope next season will be better and you will go straight up. Good luck.
CsAtlantis
23 ноября, 2011 at 14:35
Now now here, once you get out of your sad state, please don’t maul poor Ashton (though it was hilarious with the keeper standing there watching the pen all the way :P)
One more season and you will do it, and maybe even get promoted as champions! (it’s best to avoid the lottery of the playoffs)
Good luck for next season Stromson
Sears
23 ноября, 2011 at 16:46
Aw jeez, what a kick in the teeth that was. Really sorry you lost Stromo, though you should be right in the mix for promotion again next season. Good luck!
TheZiggy
24 ноября, 2011 at 14:36
As I scrolled down the picks with that final penalty, I just knew the dreadful reality all too soon, and going NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I have never ever won a penalty shoot-out in any version of Football Manager. Somehow, even if I have the better penalty takers, we always have someone who wants to try and drill the ball through the net and blasts it wide, or fluffs the kick straight at the keeper. I hope you don’t have the same curse as I do, which I must surely one day, finally have lifted from me.
A few additions for next season, maybe you can grab the title, and claim promotion the easy route.
To get just one day of rest is nasty, but the worst I’ve ever seen, which I think happened to Tottenham at one point in FM10 during my QPR story, was then getting two matches on consecutive days, due to matches being moved, and then just a single day after that before a 3rd match.
Chris @ Chester
25 ноября, 2011 at 11:12
What a horrible end to the season mate. Playoffs are amongst the worst things in football. Better luck with promotion next year