Hello friends and welcome back to the final episode in Season 2 of my Plymouth story.We left off last time with The Pilgrims lying in second place with just a few games remaining os lets see if we could hang onto that spot and earn automatic promotion.
April 2013
We began the month with a relatively easy 2-1 win over Walsall which saw a vicious strike by Vellios to oepn the scoring after 22 minutes. The second coming midway through the second half was squeezed in between the goalkeeper and post by shory term loan signing Zac Aley from Blackburn.
We remained at home to take on Sheffield Wednesday which saw Nathan Eccleston opening the scoring after just six minutes. Wednesday though had given us a thumping earlier in the season weren’t about to roll over and created an equalizer just before half time. The second period saw end to end action but no further goals.
Our next three games would all be on the road and began with a scrappy 1-0 over Chesterfield. Kudus Oyenuga who hadn’t started for ages got the only goal from the penalty spot after 48 minutes. The win was enough to at least secure a play-off spot.
The following game was West Country derby away to Exeter but with so much at stake neither team gave an inch and this one fizzled out to a goalless draw.
Our final road game of this series took us to the County Ground, Swindon and that turned out to be a replica of our game against Exeter but with one vital difference. Luke Daley scored the only goal of the game off a rebounded shot by Oyenugu in the 68th minute for a vital three points.
With Colchester losing at home to Huddersfield also by a single goal that meant we had won promotion to The Championship!
The final home game of the season got off to a thrilling start as Eccleston produced a brilliant individual goal after just 11 minutes. Again, despite good possession we failed to capitalize offensively and our early lead turned out to be the only goal of the game.
The final game of the season although meaningless almost turned out to be a dreadful embarrassment as we came from behind to secure a draw in injury time to save our blushes away to MK Dons.
Final Table:
In fact I felt we were very lucky to end up in second place as our form had been pretty lousy offensively and other results had gone in our favor.
As for coming in second our reward was a measly 10 grand!
Super Sevens:
I’m just delighted to see that Ekong is the best player of the season as he’s been solid at the back whilst having contributing 10 goals up front with headers from set pieces. Eccleston’s 25 goals was of course a major factor in our promotion success.
Our finances were given a further boost in receiving the leagues solidarity payment at the end of the season.
Finances:
As of May 31st 2013 our bank balance was looking very respectable after two seasons in charge. I’m hoping to keep things on track over the summer months as well.
I was actually quite shocked with this piece of news as I was expecting Huddersfield’s Lee Clark to win this award but I’ll take it of course!
Before things wrapped up for the summer break I received this very tempting offer from Leicester who had just been relegated back to The Championship from the EPL and whom I’d be facing next season. The thing is there would be no way Plymouth would ever hand me £22 million and I like Leicester because of some old favorite players such as Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton and Gary Lineker. So….
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your comments.
CsAtlantis
8 декабря, 2011 at 09:32
Congratulations Kevin on getting promoted, I think you should stick to plymouth for the challenge, 22.5 million is just too much money ;)
You seemed to have repeated the April section at the bottom………
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 12:50
22M is a ridiculous amount of money…but tempting. not sure what i’ll do yet. Thanks for letting me know about the post though I can’t see anything? Weird eh?
CsAtlantis
8 декабря, 2011 at 23:18
Odd, must have been double vision or something ;)
nielsneutron
8 декабря, 2011 at 09:33
Can Mayo be bought with money or will he stick with Plymouth?
Btw there is something wrong with your post. April 2013 is in start and in the ending.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 12:54
I’m not sure if I can be bought :) I’ll spend my subway ride thinking about it!
Johnny Karp
8 декабря, 2011 at 10:40
Congratulations Kevin, I knew you could pull this off! You know that my advice would be to remain at Plymouth but I can understand the temptation :)
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 12:55
Thanks Johnny — I’ll probably stay at Plymouth though I’ve left my game saved on that day :)
Darren Smith
8 декабря, 2011 at 12:14
Congrats mate, brilliant season and a fantastic achievement. I believe that while playing FM you should judge your achievements on what fans would think if it were real life…Plymouth fans would worship you as a god if this had happened in RL so I think that says a lot. Well done.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 12:57
Cheers Darren — it was n’t the best of endings to the season but we made it and that’s the main thing. I’m not sure what I’ll do yet, just stew it over on the subway ride.
Stromson
8 декабря, 2011 at 14:02
Kevin!
1) Back-to-back promotions, congratulations!
2) Finances are looking significantly better, which is no small achievement.
3) As for the Leicester vs Plymouth debate, I’d say go with whichever one you feel most connected with! I’ve made the mistake of passing up an extremely tempting offer in the past, and hated myself for it. I’ll echo what Darren said:
If you were the Plymouth manager in real life, and had just secured promotion to the Championship, and Leicester came calling, would you take the offer?
Whichever is your first instinctual answer, that’s the one to go with! I’ll of course be supporting you either way.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:24
Stromson!
1) Thanks, I was actually expecting it.
2) Finances, really happy with those.
3) If I go with my gut then it’s Plymouth, though….
Marcko
8 декабря, 2011 at 14:54
haha my suggestion is that you have a look at leicester’s squad and decide from there! it also depends whether you’ve been building plymouth up for the future and if there are many players you want to see develop into established stars, so its all a balance(:
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:26
Hi Marko
Greetings from Canada and thanks for the tip and advice, that helps with the decision.
Martin - F.M.J.S
8 декабря, 2011 at 14:57
Congrats Kevin getting promotion is a great achievement. As for the Leicester job I think its up to you. If you feel like you want to move, then go for it but if you are happy with Plymouth and want to achieve more with them then stay. Whatever you do I’m sure you will make the right choice and you will write a great post.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:28
Thanks Martin,
A difficult decision for sure and thanks for your support
Laxeyman
8 декабря, 2011 at 16:46
Great season Kevin, congrats on the promotion! You’ve done a fabulous job with Plymouth, but if the Leicester offer seems better then I’d say go for it! However, go for your gut instinct, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you do :)
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:30
Cheers Laxeyman!
I hate these quandries but that’s part of life I guess. My gut instinct is Plymouth.
TheZiggy
8 декабря, 2011 at 17:28
Congratulations on the promotion after a great season. The reason you won the manager of the year award rather than the Huddersfield boss, is because promotion was probably expected from them.
Good luck with whatever decision you make over the Leicester City job offer.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:31
Hey Ziggy
Good point about that award. Never thought of that just like the PPM :) Appreciate your support.
erbsademon
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:03
Congratulations on the promotion! Don’t over think the job offer, just go with your first instincts.
Kevin
8 декабря, 2011 at 18:32
Hey erbsademon
Greetings from Canada and thanks for your comment. Good advice..cheers!
Alex
8 декабря, 2011 at 19:45
Well done on the promotion, Championship football is on the way! It would be fun to blow that £20+ million on players for the championship, were you not tempted to take the Swansea job as well?
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 00:42
Thanks Alex
20M is a lot and I’m not use to it :) Swansea just never appealed to me.
Sears
8 декабря, 2011 at 20:57
Well firstly, congrats on securing promotion pal. Another great achievement! Secondly — I think you should take the Leicester managerial’s position. It’s a opportunity to tempting to refuse, and I’m sure if this were real life — most would take it. Even though I’d also like you to remain at Plymouth. Good luck making a decision!
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 00:44
Hey Sears
Thanks a lot mate and I appreciate your input and advice. It’s a real hard to decide what to do. Real life, I’d already have gone there :)
MRDNRA
8 декабря, 2011 at 22:59
Well coming from a Leicester fan, who would very much like to see someone do a Leicester story, I obviously say go for it.
You’ve done an excellent job to get Plymouth back to the Championship, where they were not many seasons ago, and you seem to have secured their finances too.
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 00:46
Hey MRDNRA
Thanks very much for your comment and I appreciate your acknowlegement of my success so far. Though what to do next???
Ana Garcia
8 декабря, 2011 at 23:29
Well done! :)
Back to back promotions is fantastic I like the way they give the manager of the season award not always to who ever wins the league but the person who does the best with the resources available.
Tempting offer, if it was me I would probably accept! But it depends on what you want and how much you enjoy where you are. No infact I would stay, there is more to life than money and more to football than buying success!
Stay Kevin! Dont give into temptation, love of money is the root of all evil after all so stay and keep bringing success. You have done so well so far it would nice to see you take them to the premier league.
Good luck!! :)
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 09:33
Ola Ana,
Well, how could I possibly leave Plymouth now after such a passionate plea – full of Spanish emotion!
Lye
9 декабря, 2011 at 00:37
Hi Kevin,
Congratulations on the promotion. It was a job well done. Next season will be more challenging. I understand the offer from Leicester looks tempting. The money looks good but the challenge is even greater than in Plymouth. You are already familiar with the set-up and the players in Plymouth. If you go to Leicester, you need time to know the players and buy new players, blend them together. Not forgetting the expectations will be extremely high(Guess that would be straight promotion). I love to see you stay in Plymouth and build your way up.
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 09:37
Thanks Lye,
You make some really good pints there especially about being familiar with players etc. It would be a whole new learning experience. Also you make a good point about expectations. With the board having that kind of money they would require immediate success on their investment.
vaibhavc
9 декабря, 2011 at 06:41
Beating Huddersfield was too hard for you, but you still achieved promotion. There were some draws that you could have won, but what happened happened. I would say stay with Plymouth, You have already done so much work getting them up, there is no point in losing it all.
Kevin
9 декабря, 2011 at 09:39
Hi vaibhavc,
Huddersfield were indeed too tough and we did throw away some games. Thanks for your advice about my pending decision.
qwerty
10 декабря, 2011 at 19:59
Seen as you have saved your game go both ways and see which you find more fun then carry it on from there :)