Season 5 – Northampton Town, League Two
Board Expectations: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
Players In: 11 for 200k
Players Out: 23 for 20k
The board were expecting promotion, so I put my scouts to good use looking for youth as I was determined to stick around in this job for a good while.
Jumping ship at Stalybridge had clearly been rash so I decided that if luck was with me I would look to build Northampton up with a good core of youth.
I felt we had a great chance of promotion with the first team players we had and offloaded 23 players from the grossly bloated squad, luckily most of the weaker ones were out of contract.
We steamrollered through the season and with 10 games left were top, we faltered a little from then on and dropped down to 3rd but we were still promoted.
Giddy heights for me indeed, the last time I’d been this high up the pyramid was a good few editions of FM ago.
The scouts had also been busy and I had a good few young transfer targets in mind so the future looked bright, again though as always the question is how much of a step up will League One be?
If the board were generous I could take relegation on the chin if it meant that youngsters could get extra game time to develop but we will see.
Pos | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
3rd | P46 | 46 | 22 | 14 | 49 | 35 | 14 | 80 |
Cups – No Cigar
Previous clubs:
Stalybridge
14th Blue square Premier – sliding back to mid-table.
Boreham Wood
Bottom National League South – way off the pace and back to the unplayable leagues.
Rotherham United
4th League Two – Promoted via the playoffs. Not missing old Benny then.
Season 6 – Northampton Town, League One
Board Expectations: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
Players In – 7 for 200k
Players Out – 4 for 100k
Fantastic performance from the boys despite a good few obstacles being thrown in my way.
My transfer budget that I had saved from the previous season had mysteriously mostly evaporated, frustrating to say the least but what little money I did have I spent on more young reinforcements. The under 19’s are starting to look really good and went nearly the entire season without a loss.
As I hoped a good few of these younger players got game time after some injuries and were thrown into first team action, the star performers being Dreadlocked ST (5 goals in 8, 5 as sub) and comb-over RB who will probably keep his place next season despite his age (and hair cut).
Towards the end of the season I signed a new 3 year contract, determined to build on the consolidation in League One.
I’m in this one for the long haul, they’ll have to drag me out kicking and screaming.
Pos | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
14th | P46 | 17 | 10 | 19 | 55 | 52 | 3 | 61 |
Cups – nice run to the 3rd round of the FA cup but lost disappointingly to my previous club Rotherham and missing out on a big pay day as they drew Liverpool in the next round.
The last laugh was mine however as they were relegated back to League One.
Previous Clubs
Stalybridge
14th Blue square Premier – same again.
Boreham Wood
Gone. But not forgotten.
Rotherham United
21st League One – That’ll teach em’ to beat me in the cup.
Season 7 & 8 – Northampton Town, League One
I’ve compressed these two seasons into one update due to each season being broadly similar and not an awful lot happening. Although that’s not strictly true, as I did manage to bring through 6 youngsters and brought the average age of my side down to 21.
The team was now completely my own but we had made no progress, I had been tempted to leave on a couple of occasions with a few clubs in the league above taking an interest but I didn’t feel like I’d earned that yet and had a job to do here.
Another reason for staying put was that my kids were yet to reach their potential, so it was a case of “always next year” and the board had shown faith in me despite the lack of progress which I wanted to repay.
Dreadlock ST had become a goal scoring monster, year on year, getting an average of 20 – 30 goals a season, but interest in him from other clubs was high.
The major plus point was my faith in youth and it’s a pretty rewarding thing to see your name under favoured personnel for half your squad.
With a nice amount of money in the bank and a good feeling around the club, the next coming season could be our year.
Season 8 – Finished 9th in League One
Season 9 – Finished 10th in League One
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