2015 Wealdstone career - 'Ya want some, I'll give it to ya'

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2017/18 season update (Vanarama Conference)

 

Despite the bitter farewell to Lewis Nuttall we started out the season with great success. Young Nana Boakye-Yiadom proved to everyone that he was competent enough to play on this level with this fine hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Grimsby

 

 

Our performances in August and September were great. 13 league matches - 8 wins and 5 draws put us on top of the league  Only Dorchester (with our van den Berg doing great in goal) had more points.

 

 

One of the wins was this crazy match away against Bradford Park Avenue. We were pressed in most of the match and with 13 minutes left of the match winger Adam Mekki was shown a red card and two minutes later Bradford PA missed a penalty kick. In the injury time - 92th minute - Vences Bola scored to 1-0 on our only shot on target in the whole match  We sure had all the luck we could get in this period !

 

 

 

In our 14th league match of the season we finally lost (1-2 at home to small Whitehawk) but a couple of weeks later we took the leading position in the league after Dorchester had lost some points.

 

In FA Cup we managed to qualify for 1st Round - the best result ever in the club's history - and gave Mansfield from League 2 a good match. We were ín the lead but Mansfield managed to pull home a replay match with a late 1-1 equalizer. In the replay match in Mansfield we did not stand many chances and Mansfield deserved their 1-0 win. But still our performances had been quite honorable.

 

 

At New Year we were placed comfortably on top the league with an 8-point lead to Bristol Rovers and Hereford in the following places (Hereford with a match in hand)

 

 

Actually, Wealdstone players were dominating the player ranks. Jadan Hall (right winger), Anthony Straker (left back) and our three strikers Danny Elliott, Vences Bola and Nana Boakye-Yiadom all took place in the top 10 amongst all Vanarama Conference players - very impressive

 

 

The Winter transfer window ended up with a few transfers for our part. We signed another Belgian player - this time a 26 year old left back, Tom van Leeuwen in a £3K transfer from Lommel United (Belgian Second League) as a very competent alternative to Anthony Straker and a young talented Swedish midfielder, Frederik Pettersson (18 years) from Norrby (Swedish third tier club) in midfield. Instead I sold our 24 year old Moroccan wing back Samir Bihmoutine to Solihull Moors in a £2K transfer.

 

Unfortunately once again bigger clubs were interested in our profiles. This time it was Nana Boakye-Yiadom who left us (after 10 goals in 20 matches) in favour of Northampton in a £40K transfer due to his (once again) Big Club Release clause in his contract :mad: Instead I pulled young George Maris back from his loan spell at Histon as a backup player to our strikers Danny Elliott and Vences Bola.

 

 

Perhaps the transfers and squad changes stirred up things a little too much as we had some quite difficult months in January and February. 9 league matches were played with only 11 points gained in this period and we lost our comfortable lead to Accrington and Hereford who had a good run in this period.

 

In the FA Trophy tournament I had hoped that we could get far but we lost 0-1 at home to Braintree in 4th round in a match we honestly should have won :wacko: 

 

 

Lewis Nuttall who had left the club in August did not get many chances at Coventry so in February he was fed up with his situation so I took the chance and gave Coventry a £120K offer for Nuttall which they accepted  However, Lewis Nuttall didn't want to rejoin Wealdstone...  

 

 

I tried again later in the season but ended in a bidding war with Hamilton who received his signature on a 5 year contract worth £800K in a £140K transfer - not something little Wealdstone could compete against :ph34r: 

 

One of the finest matches in the second half of the season was this fine 4-0 win at home against Exeter - a match we totally dominated  

 

 

With 3 matches left of the season the standings were very close in the top of Vanarama Conference. Hereford and us shared first place with 84 points but with 6 clubs still with chances of winning the league.

 

 

We had the chance of coming back on first place in our next match - a thrilling home match at Grosvenor Vale against leading team Hereford. We had an awful beginning being two goals down after only 18 minutes but Vences Bola brought us back with two goals and with a red card to Hereford in first half we came out after tea time with great confidence. Just a goal in second half and we were back in the lead  But we did not score. Instead Alex Peterson scored on a counter attack 8 minutes before the final whistle   Sometimes, football can be such a cruel game :angry: 

 

 

We managed to win our next match and before the last match we still had a small chance of winning the league title. Hereford was in the lead two points ahead of Accrington, Wealdstone and Exeter.

 

 

Our final match was away against Eastleigh (10th placed). If we could win this match, Hereford could lose their match away against Forest Green (9th placed) and if Accrington did not win against relegated Woking we would win the title  

 

With two minutes before the end of the match we were in the lead 2-1 against Eastleigh, Hereford was about to lose their match but Accrington had a 3-1 lead away against Woking. Accrington was about to win the league and when Eastleigh scored a late 2-2 equalizer it really didn't matter that much. We finished in 4th place and was about to face Hereford (who else) in the playoff semi finals. If we had managed to score once in the match against Hereford we would have won the league instead of Accrington :ph34r: 

 

 

The first playoff semi final was at home at Grosvenor Vale. After only 11 minutes our striker Danny Elliott was shown the red card despite not doing anything wrong (the ban was lifted upon our appeal after the match) so we had to play very defensively and we managed to hold a 0-0 draw - until the 95th minute (Herefords only shot on target)    Once again: football can be so cruel !

 

 

In the away match all odds were on Hereford's side. Going into the match with a 1-0 lead and at home. Definitely not an easy match for us.

 

But finally luck seemed to go our way after Jake Ellam scored to 1-0 in first half making it 1-1 on aggregate. And in second half the subbed striker Rhys Oates scored a very important goal to 2-0 and we managed to pull home the 2-1 aggregate win - Wealdstone were ready for the playoff final  

 

 

The playoff final was played on Wembley Stadium in front of 75,000 people against Luton (who had surprisingly beaten Exeter 4-2 on aggregate in their semi finals). Definitely the most important match in Wealdstone FC's history. Never before had so many people watches the "Stones".

 

We had a very nervous start of the match and Luton dominated us and they deserved the lead gained by a 1-0 goal by Leon Clarke after 29 minutes. In second half we pushed Luton back more and more as the match progressed but without getting any clear cut chances. The promotion was going Luton's way until Rhys Oates (substitute in second half just as in the semi final) scored the most important goal in his career by scoring in the 92nd minute to 1-1. The extra time ended goalless. A thrilling penalty shootout was waiting for the 22 players :ph34r: 

 

We had 26-year old Adam Davies in goal. Adam Davies has a history in Everton's youth setup until 2012 and has been reserve keeper for 2 seasons with Sheffield Wednesday and 3 years at Barnsley. He has never played a first team match before joining Wealdstone. He was playing his 48th match of the season in the playoff final. Luton had Elliott Justham on goal (also their captain). Elliott Justham is a very experienced with 273 first team matches and had been Luton's regular first team keeper for 4 seasons.

 

However, Adam Davies managed to win this battle. He saved Luton's first and third penalty shoot and with our players Rhys Oates (once again  ), Fredrik Pettersson, Ryan Charnley and finally central defender Daniel Pappoe scored on their penalties we were promoted to League Two   :D As the review stated - we had been incredibly lucky this time !

 

 

 

A long season with 57 matches had ended. A season with incredibly many ups and downs. The sales of Lewis Nuttall and Nana Boakye-Yiadom had provided us with some funds but had weakened the squad twice. Instead of those players others had stepped up their level.

 

Vences Bola finished on top of the league player rankings with an 7.86 average rating ahead of many of his teammates and was elected Player of the Match 10 times this season.

 

 

Our preferred starting lineup had changed a lot since last season. Strong performances from many of the new players had given us the necessary lift in quality to be a part of the top battle all season. Vences Bola and the other strikers had been very strong through the season. Young Ryan Charnley had also turned into a quality striker for us so we were doing well on this position despite the players who had left us to higher ranked clubs.

 

The promotion battle almost went wrong for us in the end but thanks to Rhys Oates' 6th season goal and a good keeper we got promoted !

 

 

Top goal scorer of the season: Vences Bola - 23 goals

 

 

Top assist maker of the season: Jadan Hall - 16 assists

 

 

Best average ranking: Ryan Charnley - 7.90

 

 

Ready for League Two ?

 

Thanks for reading  Please leave a comment if you like

[BigBash2014]

Great stuff! It seems that this year more big clubs are interested in your players. But you did well to still get promoted despite selling two of the best in the squad. KIU

[BatiGoal]

Congrats on the promotion and best of luck in league Two.

 

Good story so far.

[JustM1kePlays]

Amazing write up! Good luck in League 2. Looking forward to seeing how you do.

[catalin070697]

Great layout mate , KIU

[jakebanno]

Told you

[OHP]

Great stuff! It seems that this year more big clubs are interested in your players. But you did well to still get promoted despite selling two of the best in the squad. KIU

 

 

Congrats on the promotion and best of luck in league Two.

 

Good story so far.

 

 

Amazing write up! Good luck in League 2. Looking forward to seeing how you do.

 

 

Great layout mate , KIU

 

 

Told you

 

Thanks all of your for your positive comments    

 

@jakebanno: just keep predicting

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2018/19 pre-season update

 

Wealdstone FC - a member of The Football League ? If anyone had predicted this four years earlier they'd might have thought of this as a insane thought. But now we were here

 

The board backed up regarding the plans by giving me a £230K transfer budget and a weekly wage budget of £15K - a total budget of £1.0M which gave me some funds to strengthen the squad. This was with the ambition to stay clear of relegation - an ambition I thought was reachable for our side.

 

 

The board were also very delighted about our success with the promotions. I was privately told by an influential board member that the board feel they "owe me one" for the hard work and that any requests to the board from my side would be viewed extremely favourably at present. I decided to ask for better training facilities and they accepted to improve the training facilities to "Average" ^_^ I think this brings us on level with many of our opponents in League 2 but our stadium facilities are far from League 2 level - we'll have to look into that at a later stage :huh:

 

 

Once again clubs with higher reputation were interested in many of the Wealdstone players. Unfortunately this meant that two of our best players last season - Vences Bola and Ryan Charnley left the club due to Big Club Release clauses in their contracts :mad:  The total transfer sum were only £90K

 

 

I turned down offers for other players if possible. One of the offers I rejected was for winger Jadan Hall. He was very frustrated about this and went to the medias to inform them about this unfair doing :mad:  This has made him "persona non grata" among many of his teammates, but at the moment I am not ready to let him go and will see how this develops in time.

 

We have lost 4 quality strikers in teh last three transfer windows but I had managed to sign a 24-year old striker from Waitakere in New Zealand with nice stats and due to the sales of Bola and Charnley he could probably go straight into our regular starting lineup together with Danny Elliott.

 

 

Once again a very talented keeper popped up as a transfer target. This time it was an 18-year old Northern Irish keeper who had been in the reserves/youth team at Leicester for two seasons. He was transfer listed by Leicester and moved to Wealdstone on a free transfer. Still, he is quite long so a loan spell at Crawley (League 1) could give him some necessary first team action before becoming ready for our side.

 

 

Luke Molyneux, a talented winger from Sunderland's youth setup for many season, but with no first team matches was relased by Sunderland and we picked him up. Yet another lethal winger to Wealdstone

 

 

We signed some talented defenders which could strengthen our solid defence even more. Hans de Groot (our 4th Belgian player) was brought in for the future on right back being only 18 years. Godwin Williams has been capped for Nigeria but would need some time after moving from Nigeria to England to become part of our starting lineup

 

In midfield we signed Northern Irish Justin Bradley from Bournemouth in a record £30K transfer. He is only 18 but with potential to become a class player

 

 

Transfers In:

James Dawson (GK), 18 years, free transfer from Leicester - sent on loan at Crawley

Richard van den Berg (GK), 25 years, returned from loan at Dorchester

Harry Lennon (DC), 23 years, free transfer from Charlton

Godwin Williams (DC), 21 years, free transfer from Sunshine Stars (Nigeria)

Peter de Groot (DC), 24 years, free transfer from NEC Nijmegen

Hans de Groot, (D/DM RC), 18 years, free transfer from Kapellen (Belgian 3rd Division)

Tyler Forbes (MRL), 22 years, free transfer from Fleetwood

Harley Willis (MRL), 20 years, returned from loan at Whitehawk

Mark Waddington (MC), 21 years, free transfer from Blackpool

Samir Nabi (MC), 21 years, free transfer from West Bromwich

Justin Bradley (DMRC), 18 years, £30K transfer from Bournemouth

Luke Molyneux (AM RL), 20 years, free transfer from Sunderland

Thomas Poole (SC), 24 years, free transfer from Waitakere, New Zealand

 

Transfers Out:

Jonathan Miles (GK), 25 years, on loan at Marine

Tom Anderson (D/DM C), 24 years, £2K transfer to Havant & Waterlooville

Lance McGlen (DR), 23 years, £2K transfer to Bromley

Calaum Jahraldo-Martin (MRL), 25 years, £2K transfer to AFC Telford

Luke Pigden (MLC), 28 years, £1K transfer to Boston United

Harry Middleton (MC), 23 years, £2K transfer to Macclesfield

Vences Bola (SC), 24 years, £60K transfer to Oldham

Ryan Charnley (SC), 21 years, £30K transfer to Stevenage

 

After signing 12 new players and only selling 8 players the squad had become too large, but for the first time it turned out to be a little difficult to sell my players. I wanted to sell a defender and a winger but was unable to. However, we could do with an extra quality striker due to the many matches but was unable to find suitable players.

 

All in all: we are ready for Sky Bet League Two

[Callum98]

Another good read, can't wait to see how the season unwinds.

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2018/19 season update (Sky Bet League Two)

 

Our debut in League Two was an away match against Southend and it provided us with our first League Two win after a 1-0 win. The goal scored by substitute striker George Maris after 68 minutes

 

The next match was our debut in another tournament we had never competed in; Capital One Cup. Away against Crystal Palace from Championship would be an impossible match to win in most situations and we went down 2-0 after only 13 minutes but we managed to score to 2-1 in second half (debut goal from Thomas Poole after being injured in the first match). Even though we may have lost the match our performance had been superb and one we could be proud of

 

 

Our debut in Johnstone's Paint Trophy was also a difficult task - away against Birmingham from League One. Birmingham was dominating the match but we held them at a 0-0 result until the 90th minute but conceded two goals in the end and lost 2-0. Still a result we could accept against a bigger club than Wealdstone FC.

 

 

After a pre-season with key players leaving Wealdstone it was not good to read in the papers that youn Josh Sampson - who had been playing regularly in central defence last season - wanted to move to a larger club. A bit annoying as I helped his career back on track after he had played for the Preston reserve team in four seasons. But I gave him a small raise and that made him happy - for the time being :huh: (!)

 

Despite the scepticism in the pre-season after losing two of the best strikers Thomas Poole turned out to be a real hit for us. He was scoring regularly and won the Sky Bet League 2 Player of the month award for September (ahead of teammate Danny Elliott). He managed to score 15 goals for Wealdstone in his first 13 first team matches  We started forgetting about the lost strikers

 

 

The awards was after a very promising start for us with 7 wins in 10 matches and a very surprising third place in the league. The season had started with results beyond any expectations  

 

 

The success also gave young Justin Bradley a place in the Northern Ireland national squad and debut  

 

 

Our run in FA Cup ended in 2nd round after beating Stockport from Vanarama Conference 2-1 in first round we were defeated 0-1 by Colchester in second round (just a week before we had lost 1-3 to Colchester in the league)   No more cup matches for us this season !

 

 

At New Year we were placed as 6th in League Two in the playoff zone in a very close battle between the 11 highest placed teams. We were only 4 points from first place - but also only 5 points ahead of Bury in 11th place.

 

 

Thomas Poole had been absolutely fantastic and was ahead of the league top goal scorer competition with 22 goals and was best in the average rating ranking with a average 8.47 rating. He had been a real class signing for us so far  

 

 

Once again we had trouble regarding players wanting to step up in their career with a move to better clubs. This time it was Justin Bradley who stated that he views Wealdstone as a stepping stone in his career. Annoying but I managed to keep him happy with a couple of contract adjustments :angry: 

 

 

We made a little adjustment to the squad in the transfer window. French striker Achille Campion (28 years) was signed on a £10K transfer from Norrby in Sweden and Wayne Riley (29 years) was sold to Maidstone in a £2K transfer. A small adjustment bringing better quality in width among the strikers in squad. However, he turned out to be quite injury prone so with only 6 first team matches he did not contribute a lot to the squad (1 goal)

 

 

I was trying to sell other players to reduce the squad but with no success. I had to play the season to the end with a too big squad. From time to time players were unhappy because they felt they should be playing more regularly but so far I managed to make them happy again

 

However, the second half of the season turned very unsuccessful for Wealdstone. I do not know if the other teams had figured out how our tactics work or the players just did not play up to their best but the final 24 league matches only provided us with 6 wins, 8 draws and 10 defeats and that made us fall down in the table. The final 8 matches only gave us four points :mad: 

 

 

Our final position in Sky Bet League Two was a 12th place - a respectable league position for us as it was our debut season

 

 

Even though our performances worsened as the season progressed it could not remove the picture of a fantastic season from Thomas Poole and he managed to win the Sky Bet League 2 Player of the Year award after finishing as top goal scorer of the league and with the best average rating (note that our wingers Luke Molyneux and Tyler Forbes finished 2nd and 3rd in the rating mentioned last).

 

 

Through the season we had played 50 matches and experienced left back Anthony Straker (30 years) played them all despite tough competition from the other left backs in squad; Tom van Leeuwen and Brad Bailey. Thomas Poole did not play the first match due to an injury but played all the rest - perhaps I should have rotated more ?

 

 

The season had provided us with many good performances. The signing of Harry Lennon for central midfield gave us the opportunity to move Sylvain Traoré up to midfield as BWM and he did well (provided us with the "steel" we had been missing for some seasons ago. I usually played with Traoré and young Mark Waddington (22 years) in central midfield but Waddington did not prove to be the future solution. Perhaps the weakest position in the starting lineup.

 

Experienced Carl Martin (32) managed to maintain his position as right back (and do very well) despite the competition from young Jack Alexander and Hans de Groot. Impressive in one hand but not a long-term solution for our side.

 

Top goal scorer (34 goals) and best average rating (7.95): Thomas Poole

 

 

Top assist maker (12 assists): Luke Molyneux

 

 

A thrilling and despite the negatives a very good performance by our side. Finishing 12th in League 2 was a fine result and yet another improvement compared to the previous season.  

 

I hope we can continue the development next year and be a part of the battle for promotion all season and not only 3/4 of the season. Still it would require that we could keep our top players in the squad (!)

 

Thanks for viewing - feel free to comment on the post   :D  

[BigBash2014]

Good update once again. Just a question, do you play all the individual matches or do you use the go on holiday option and sim all the results?

[OHP]

Good update once again. Just a question, do you play all the individual matches or do you use the go on holiday option and sim all the results?

Hi BigBash

I play all the matches

[Jason Cooper]

Hi what team instructions do you use thanks

[Jason Cooper]

Hi what team instructions do you use thanks

[OHP]

Hi what team instructions do you use thanks

Hi Jason. It varies a lot. I change in FMH 2015 from match to match compared to previously on FMH 2014 and earlier. In most home matches it is balanced - committed tackling - pressing. If we're defending a one goal lead I change to defending and with either counter attacks or men behind ball "on"

In away matches I mostly play with defending instead of balanced and often with counter attacking "on"

But it varies a lot in the game and from match to match. Lately I have had a positive effect from starting the match on "defending" and changing to "balanced" after 20-30 minutes.

This is the major reason why the game is taking more time for me this year not the new ME.

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2019/20 pre-season update

Grosvenor Vale with a stadium capacity of 2,000 people had been our home stadium through many seasons but needed to be upgraded in my opinion.

I sent the board a formal request regarding an upgrade and the board accepted my request and with an upgrade to 5,000 seats Grosvenor Vale was on the same level as a few other League 2 teams but still among the smallest. But a large improvement for our club and a way to improve future budgets




For the present season the board offered me a £325K transfer budget and a weekly wage budget of £19K - a total budget of £1.3M for the year - a nice improvement compared to last year's £1.0M budget. The board did only expect a respectable league position in return.



There was still quite some interest for our players.

Central defender Josh Sampson left us in favour of Oxford in a £70K transfer deal due to his Big Club Release clause. Actually I didn't see this happen but suddenly we were short of a player and had £70K more in the bank Also young midfielder Samir Nadi (backup in central midfield last season) went to Birmingham in a £35K transfer and a talented left back to Fleetwood in a £20K transfer to Fleetwood due to identical clauses but these were transfers I could live with.

Newspaper reports also suggested that Crawley would give an £800K offer for the young keeper Jason Dawson who had been away on loan for the season and aged 19 still seemed a bit too young for the first team but he is definitely a big talent. I was however keen to keep him in squad as our future man in goal. A £800K transfer sum would increase my budget with 60 % so it was interesting for Wealdstone FC. However, Crawley did not bid on him for this transfer window which I was happy about ^_^ Jason Dawson had a new loan spell in the season this time at Yeovil in League One



The funds made it possible to sign good players for the team. In central midfield we were able to sign an experienced midfielder, Emmanuel Oyeleke, a 26 year old midfielder from Brentford on a Bosman transfer i also signed a qualified attacker from Holland, Wim Schaap, to form a good attackers duo with Thomas Poole and a young Serbian right back, Filip Stevanovic as perhaps a future replacement for Carl Martin in the right back position.





Transfers in:
Alex Whitmore (DC), 23 years, free transfer from Burnley
Filip Stevanovic (D/DM R), 18 years, free transfer from Jagodina, Serbia
Bobby Dunk (DMC), 19 years, returned from loan (£4K transfer from St. Albans in 2017)
Emmanuel Oyeleke (MRC), 26 years, free transfer from Brentford
Alban Bunjaku (AMLC), 25 years, free transfer from Oldham
Wim Schaap (SC), 24 years, £10K transfer from Rupel Boom, Belgium (3rd Division)
James Caton (SC), 25 years, free transfer from Shrewsbury

Transfers out:
Jonathan Mitchell (GK), 24 years, £16K transfer to Stalybridge
Jonathan Miles (GK), 26 years, £2K transfer to Stalybridge
Shaun Taylor (DL), 20 years, £20K transfer to Fleetwood
Josh Sampson (DC), 22 years, £70K transfer to Oxford
Daniel Pappoe (DC), 25 years, £2K transfer to Cambridge
Nathan Luscombe (AMLC), 29 years, £2K transfer to Macclesfield
Samir Nabi (MC), 21 years, £35K transfer to Birmingham
Charlie Harris (MC), 24 years, £1K transfer to Farnborough
Jadan Hall (AMR), 25 years, £1K transfer to Margate
Adam Mekki (AMRL), 27 years, £1K transfer to Southport
George Maris (SC), 23 years, sent on loan to Canvey Island

The squad was diminished compared to last year and had a more normal size now. The weak spot is in central defence after Josh Sampson left the club. Alex Whitmore who was brought in from Burnley was a qualified player but I had hoped for Sampson to lead our defence this season. We were stronger in midfield and attack than last season.

How far could this get Wealdstone FC this season ?

Thanks for viewing :)

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2019/20 season update - part 1

The league 2 season started with a 0-1 defeat to Stevenage which was our 9th league game without a win

Next match was away against Swindon from League One in Capital One Cup. We had never so far had any success in the cup tournaments and had never beaten a Club from a higher level but now we finally did it Despite being reduced to 10 due to an injury to Danny Elliott we scored to 1-0 (winger Luke Molyneaux scored for us) in extra time and managed to defend the lead in the final 15 minutes.




The win made a difference to our side. We won the following two League Two matches before the next Capital One match. This time an even tougher opponent than last time - Wolverhampton from Championship on their ground - Molyneux Stadium !

But once again we made a fantastic performance and once again won 1-0 after a goal in first half by Thomas Poole The best cup result in the club's history! The two cup wins made the Board add £54K to the budget too



Following the Wolves victory we won two of the following three league matches before our Third Round match in Capital One Cup - once again away and this time against Blackburn from Premier League - our first match ever against an English top level team.

Once again we made a fantastic performance of which we could be very proud. We held Blackburn away from goals in 120 minutes before losing clearly in a penalty shootout. The players' nerves were not strong enough - or perhaps Jake Kean in the Blackburn goal was simply too strong for our players. Too bad but still a very promising cup rum against three far better teams (at least better on paper)



Our performance in League Two was also going very well. The medias started getting interested whether we could keep this going. And yes - I believe we can






As you can see we had started our participation in Johnstone's Paint Trophy with a 3-1 win over the league rivals from Northampton (despite being down with a goal at half time) and we went on to beat another League Two side (Dagenham & Redbridge) 2-0 at home at Grosvenor Vale. Our opponent in the Semi final in JPT South was Swindon with whom we had good memories after beating them in Capital One Cup in August.

However this time Swindon did not underestimate us and beat us 2-1 but still this had been another good cup run for Wealdstone FC.



Before the Swindon defeat we had started our FA Cup participation with a home match against Rochdale from League One. And once again we managed to get a win against a better ranked team. We won the match 1-0 after a goal from Belgian striker Wim Schaap on our only shot on target in the match. The Board reacted by increased my budget with £12K....

After a difficult start Schaap had proven himself as being a top player and was actually scoring a lot more than last year's star striker Thomas Poole



After these fine cup results it was disappointing that we couldn't beat Stalybridge from Vanarama North with our ex-keeper Jonathan Mitchell in goal at home - 0-0 in a quite boring match.

A week later we got proof in the replay match that we had developed since our days in Vanarama South. Stalybridge - and Jonathan Mitchell - got humiliated 7-2 in a cracking match after 4 goals from Wim Schaap and 2 goals from Thomas Poole.



We had qualified to third round in FA Cup - the best result in the club's history. We picked Middlesbrough from Championship as our opponents but more about this in the next update

I was trying to get Jason Dawson and Justin Bradley to sign longer contracts. Both had become Northern Irish national players and had become ver valuable. I could not agree on a longer contract with Justin Bradley (present contract ends in June 2021) but I had more success with Jason Dawson. A very expensive contract compared to our total budget (£2,100 per week) but He was doing very well at Yeovil in League One and could be our first team keeper next season so it was important to get this signature !



The last player at Wealdstone FC from before I joined the club as manager was Carl Martin, now 33 years and no longer first choice as right back (young Filip Stevanovic had passed him) and in December he suffered a critical injury and was away for 3-4 months. As his contract was ending after this season this actually meant his farewell to first team as he played with the reserves in the last period of the season. Carl Martin achieved 280 first team matches for Wealdstone FC (only 4 goals) after his debut in 2006 and had been remarkable as right back in the 5-6 years he played for me



At New Year we were ranked in 6th position in the league - like last season but this time I felt the team played better than last year. Chesterfield and Bradford had been magnificent by losing only one match each so far but we were only two points behind Tranmere in third position. I believe we could have a fair chance for promotion or playoff matches this season



I will be back with second part of the season tomorrow. Until then - thanks for viewing :)

[BatiGoal]

Great job on securing Jason Dawson's services. He looks a fantastic GK already.

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2019/20 season update - part 2

The opening of the winter transfer window of 2020 meant signing a couple of new players. Most interesting transfer would be Vincent Diallo, a 19 year old French midfielder from Orléans in Ligue 2 (£30K transfer). A fast, creative midfielder with good prospects for the future. I was in doubt whether I should send him on loan for more experience or give him a chance in first team. I chose the latter and instead Bobby Dunk (19 years too) was sent on loan at Boston United.

A young Montenegrin defender, Nemanja Radovic (19), joined Wealdstone from Celik Niksic, Montenegro (£3K transfer) and left back Martin Griffin was bought in Hereford in a £30K transfer. All three players were players for the future and Radovic and Griffin were sent on loan at Solihull Moors and Guiseley in Vanarama North.





With these adjustments we were ready for our debut in Third Round of FA Cup at home against Middlesbrough, one of the best teams in this season in Championship - an almost impossible task for our side. Our expanded home stadium, Grosvenor Vale, was packed with almost 5,000 fans for the match.

The "almost" impossible task became even harder for us due to a silly red card to attacker Wim Schaap after only a half hour. :angry: We spent the next 60 minutes defending like ever before, but due to a great match by our defence (central defender Sylvain Traoré was man of the match) we managed to hold Middlesbrough to a 0-0 draw and a replay match next week



The replay match at Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough became a just as thrilling match with us in the defending role and Middlesbrough in the attacking role (and this time 11 against 11). We managed to survive their attacks in 90 minutes but in the extra time Jake Reeves scored a decisive goal and we could not strike back against them but we had definitely put up a good battle against a far bigger club than Wealdstone. We could be proud of our cup results this season.



After this we could concentrate fully on improving our position in League Two. In the middle of February we had moved up to second position in the league (Bradford was still leading - only one loss in 32 league matches!) but Chesterfield had lost pace after New Year and had dropped to 5th place.



Our ambitions regarding promotion got a punch when Thomas Poole (who now was our captain) got injured and was away from the team in more than 2 months. Thomas Poole still scored frequently but also made many assists to his colleague in attack Wim Schaap so it was not good news !



Especially as this was just before the top match between our side (we had moved further up to second place) and Bradford who still was leading the league. A win in this match could give us a real boost regarding our promotion chances.



In the beginning of the match Bradford proved that they belonged in the top. After 35 minutes we were behind 0-2 without doing much right in this period. Wim Schaap gave us new hope with a 1-2 goal before half time and in the start of second half a real game changer happened. Bradford's midfielder Billy Knott received the red card and we pushed on in the rest of the match. The pressure on Bradford paid off after 83 minutes when Luke Molyneux scored an equalizer - 2-2. And Fredrik Pettersson became our hero of the day with his 3-2 goal only two minutes before the final whistle A really important result for our side and we could begin thinking about promotion as more than a vague hope !



However, it did not seem as if this pressure was something the players could handle. We had big problems and only gained 5 points in the following 4 matches and it got even worse as we lost 0-3 away to Hartlepool and at home to Cambridge. The latter being a real humiliation at home - no shots at all in 90 minutes :mad:



In the next match we got behind 0-1 in first half against Chesterfield and we were about to loose it all but Wim Schaap with two goals and Danny Elliott secured a very, very important 3-1 win and with two matches left in the season we were still 3 points ahead of Southend in 4th place. We still had the chance of getting promoted.



We lost the following match 0-1 away to Wycombe on a penalty goal and before the final round the situation was like this: We needed to win our last match home against Oxford if we should not be depending on other results. A draw could still give us the promotion if only Chesterfield did not win their home match against Wycombe. If we lost the Oxford match our promotion would depend on both Chesterfield and Southend not winning their matches.




But we failed our part of the plan. Oxford took an early lead and despite increasing the pressure on Oxford we did not score the equalizer. Thomas Poole had a goal canceled in first half and midfielder Mark Waddington received a red card with two minutes left and in the injury time Oxford pushed the knife deep and scored to 2-0. Now we had to wait for the other results.



Chesterfield - Wycombe 3-3
Southend - Tranmere 1-3

meaning that:





Wim Schaap became goal top scorer in his first season in England and was also best in the Average rankings rating (with two teammates in the following places ). Naturally Wim Schaap was honoured as Player of the Year in Sky Bet League Two






The squad had changed a bit since last season. Wim Schaap had been our best attacker (great buy for only £10K), Emmanuel Oyeleke had been good in midfield and in defence young Filip Stevanovic had been great and looking good for the future . Sylvsin Traore moved from midfield back to defence after Josh Sampson left us before the season.

Up to now central midfield had been og weak spot but it had worked fine this season with Oyeleke and Pettersson/Waddington. Instead central defence now was the part of team that needed to be strengthened before next season. Also Anthony Straker in left back (now 31) was not having as good a season as in previous seasons.





Best goal scorer (40 goals) and best average rating (7.91): Wim Schaap





Best assist maker (16 assists): Luke Molyneux




Another good season with improvents had come to an end. Small Wealdstone FC had achieved promotion to Sky Bet League One despite a bad season ending. We needed improvements in defence but in the other parts of the team I believe we are capable enough to survive the coming season. Follow our efforts within short time

Thanks for viewing Please leave a comment to keep my motivation up Edited January 1, 2015 by OHP

[Jason Cooper]

Hi what training do you use,,, it's brilliant what you are doing I would love to do what you are doing. But I struggle

[BigBash2014]

Absolutely brilliant, your players look like great prospects! Is your serbian right back ivanovic's regen?

[OHP]

Hi what training do you use,,, it's brilliant what you are doing I would love to do what you are doing. But I struggle

Jason: the training regimes are inspired by Dec's recommendations

http://fmhvibe.co.uk/community/topic/23287-intensive-training-2015-released-15122014/?hl=%20intensive%20%20training

But with lower intensity due to worse training facilities. The intensity will become higher as the training facilities improves. The wingbacks are training "General" and the wingers are training "Attacking"

I hope this could be useful for you - good luck

[OHP]

Absolutely brilliant, your players look like great prospects! Is your serbian right back ivanovic's regen?

Thanks for the nice words

I tried looking at the saves from 2017 and 2018. Filip Stevanovic can't be Ivanovic's regen as he is in FMH from 2017/18 and Ivanovic retires the season after. Actually three Serbian right backs retires in 2017/18 - Antonio Rukavina (Villarreal), Dusan Basta (Lazio) and Pavle Ninkov (Toulouse) - he must be the regen of one of them !

My best guess is that he is the regen of Dusan Basta:

Btw. I believe Thomas Poole is the regen of Rory Fallon (many seasons in English and Scottish leagues (Swindon, Plymouth, Swansea, Aberdeen) and Wim Schaap is probably the regen of Benji de Ceulaer so it is definitely not the regens of superstars I'm dealing with

[BigBash2014]

I look forward to seeing how Wealdstone will do as they move up the leagues, that is if Wealdstone can keep up with the increasing demands of english football

[BigBash2014]

Next update coming out soon?

[Callum98]

Yeah I'd like to see some more of this, very interesting career and amazing write ups.

[J-savage]

Read through all this here, really interesting story! Would love to see it still run!

[Funkee]

This is a great read, I managed to get Sutton Utd into the PL and won the PL and Champions League in my fourth season in the top division, but when I got promoted 'sugar daddy' gave me loads of money which made it easier. 

 

I have turned that off now and have just started managing Boston Utd and want to win the CL by wheeling and dealing. I had forgotten how hard the lower division are though and it is a real struggle at the moment. After looking at your results I am wondering whether I am trying to be too clever with my formation and should go for the 4-4-2.

 

What engine is this on?

[BigBash2014]

New update? Would love to see more of this, makes for a very interesting read