Second Season in League Two Going Strong

Just over halfway through my second season in League Two with Havant & Waterlooville and things are going incredibly well. My team is top, 3 points ahead of second, and 7 points clear of 4th. It looks promising that this season I shall win promotion to League One, and all of the signings that I made at the beginning of the season are doing me proud. I mainly concentrated on defence, and brought in a new goalkeeper also, but it’s actually one of the two forward players that I brought in that has made the most difference to the team.

Dan Crane was a player that scored a lot of goals for the club in the Blue Square South, but when I won promotion to the Blue Square Premier I sold him on as his wages were just getting too high for me to handle. Three years in Wales with Llanelli and Dan Crane has developed to become an even more impressive forward. I bought him back for twice what I sold him on for; he’s definitely been worth the investment though, and has already scored 15 goals in just 23 appearances.

Craig Mackail-Smith was the other forward that I brought to the club at the start of the season, and whilst he started off brightly; he had a 10 game spell where no goals were scored, and his confidence therefore suffered. He’s scored 6 in 22 appearances, Dan Crane has been by far the best summer purchase though, and should continue to be an integral part of the team next season if we are indeed promoted to League One.

It’s probably a little early to be thinking about life in League One just yet; hopefully the team will continue to perform though, and still be in the top 3 come the end of the season. I wouldn’t say no to a place in the play-offs, I’d rather get the job done without having to take part in the play-off lottery though, so here’s to hoping that no major injury issues spoil my ambitions, and that I do indeed get the points required to gain promotion.

End of Season Disappointment

After an excellent first season in League Two; I was hoping to make my way into the Play-Offs and fight for a place in League One. Sadly my Havant & Waterloovile team finished just outside the play-offs in 8th, and we’ll therefore be playing our football in League Two again next season.

A couple of players are set to leave in the summer, most of the squad will be staying though, and hopefully a couple of new players will be brought in to join them. I’m confident that my team can make the play-offs next season, and if I am able to increase the quality a tad with my summer signings then there’s a possibility that we could even achieve automatic promotion next season.

Havant & Waterlooville can be a League One team, and next season I will be looking to take the team up another level.

Life in League Two With Havant & Waterlooville

Life in League Two with Havant & Waterlooville was never likely to be easy; the majority of my players are still part-timers, we were given a transfer budget of just £450, and the wage budget is pretty minimal also. Two thirds of the way through the season and I’m 6th in the table though, and fighting for promotion to League One.

Last season I beat off Rushden & Diamonds and York City to win promotion via the Blue Square Premier play-offs, and it now looks as though I’ll be heading into the League Two play-offs also. Whether or not I’ll make it to Wembley again remains to be seen, it’d be brilliant to take Havant & Waterlooville up another level though, so hopefully I will indeed make it all the way to Wembley.

The players that I have in my squad have mostly travelled up with me from the Blue Square South, and there aren’t any players that look out of their depth either. I’ve got a few loan signings in to provide a little extra in midfield/attack, and the three players that have been brought in are doing a mighty fine job for the club. I’ll be looking to sign them up on a permanent basis come the end of the season, and hopefully I’ll be successful in securing their signatures.

The media prediction was that I’d finish 24th in League Two with Havant & Waterlooville this season; there’s no chance of that happening now though, and I’ll instead to be hoping to finish in the top 7, once again earning a place in the play-offs.

From the Blue Square North to the Blue Square South

Having taken Witton Albion from the Blue Square North to the Blue Square Premier, and then back down again; I decided that it was time to move on in my Football Manager career, and after three years with Witton I resigned from my post and applied for the vacant Havant & Waterlooville position.

I didn’t get the job with the Blue Square South side, so went on holiday indefinitely, issuing an instruction to apply for any and all managerial positions available. Coming back to the game a little later; I found that the Havant manager had been sacked, and I’d now been offered the position in mid-October. The team had just been knocked out of the FA Cup by Lewes in the 3rd Qualifying Round, and was hovering around the relegation zone in the league. I did my best to drag the team as far up the league as possible, and although the staff weren’t too impressed to finish 6th, just outside the play-offs; I was happy to have made progress with Havant, and looked forward to an exciting summer of signing new players.

Several players were brought in, including Sam Deering, John Rooney, and Marvin Brown, as well as a promising young forward from Bromley named Fred James, and a couple of players in on loan from Southampton also. Portsmouth is officially my parent club, no one ever wants to join from Portsmouth though, whilst Southampton youngsters are seemingly much more willing to learn their trade for a team in the non-league.

Fred James was my top scorer for the season with 30 goals in all competitions, Sam Deering also became a first team favourite, and I was also very impressed with the two loan signings from Southampton. John Rooney has become a decent squad player, all of the rest of my new signings were shown the door at the end of the season though, and as I won the play-offs; I was now hoping to sign players of a higher calibre in order to carry my side forward. Both players from Southampton have now been signed on for life in the Blue Square Premier, with Alex Campana joining from Billericay to give me another option on the right, and a promising young left-back has been signed from AFC Wimbledon. I didn’t have much of a wage budget, so those were the only players I was able to bring in; I would like to sign more though, and will be looking to bring a few new players in on loan throughout the season.

Within the game my team is in a huge amount of debt; slowly but surely that debt seems to be disappearing though, and winning the FA Trophy last season certainly helped bring in a bit of profit.

I nearly kept Witton in the Blue Square Premier when I won promotion with them, so having nearly done it with a lesser squad; I now feel that I’m well equipped to avoid relegation with Havant & Waterlooville. It’s not going to be an easy season, I’m definitely up for the challenge though, and hopefully come the end of the season I’ll have accumulated enough points to stay up. A top half finish would be brilliant, anything above the relegation zone will be seen as a bonus though, and so long as I avoid relegation then I’ll be happy with my achievements.

Witton Relegated

After a long, hard season in the Blue Square Premier; I’ve sadly seen my Witton Albion team relegated, and after winning only 1 of the last 17 games of the season; I can hardly be surprised that my team just wasn’t good enough to stay up.

15 games I went without a win, before finally achieving one against relegated Bishop’s Stortford in the penultimate game of the season; my form was far too poor to stop my team from going down though, and after a 1-1 draw with Woking on the final day of the season, I was relegated in 21st, with Worcester one point ahead of me. Quite how I managed to finish the season so badly I’m not too sure; I had looked pretty safe at one stage, you start to slip down the league when you’re not winning games though, and it was slightly upsetting to experience relegation in my first season at that level.

11 players put themselves on the transfer list after I was relegated, and I therefore faced a potential problem of losing the majority of my team. Slowly they’re coming crawling back though, asking to be removed from the transfer list, and as I’ve had no offers; I think I’ll safely be able to keep hold of my squad, as well as hopefully bringing in a few fresh faces.

Hopefully we’ll be able to bounce straight back to the Blue Square Premier, If not I’ll probably be leaving at the end of the season though, and will start looking elsewhere for a fresh new team to manage.

I would like to get back to the league at some point; I might have to do it the hard way though, and although managing a non-league team is fun; I am rather missing the glory of managing a team from the league, and may have to try and get back there sooner rather than later. I want to take Witton as far as possible, I get the feeling that the Blue Square Premier may well be the peak though, and if we’re not in contention to reach the play-offs come Christmas; I might just resign, and move onto pastures new in my quest for football management success.