Career Kettering Town FC: Let’s see where this takes us

[Jurgenklopp]

For someone who grew up with limited footballing background and someone who’s had no experience in the footballing industry, not many clubs out there are going to give you an opportunity based on your sheer passion for football management, so when Kettering Town came knocking at my door, I jumped at the opportunity...

To be honest, I had no idea a club called Kettering Town FC even existed before 2008. Established in 1872 as Kettering FC, the club spent its early years in the local leagues while trying to gain membership into the Football League, they never got elected unfortunately (if I’m not wrong). The club gained notable attention during the 2008/2009 season when they made it into the 4th round of the FA Cup for only the second time in the club’s history, defeating the likes of Lincoln City and Notts County along the way. Financial Turnoil during the early 2010s saw the club entering administration in 2012 and back to back relegations saw them plying their trade in the 8th tier of the English football league system. The club have since experienced a bit of a renaissance and are now back in the National League North after winning the 2018-2019 Premier Division Central, the board now believes that I’m the guy to take the club forward. My task will be to build on the the good work done at the club by Marcus Law and try to guide Kettering Town FC into the Football League within the next 4 years, then we shall see where it takes us.

My appointment saw some raised eyebrows right off the bat so it’ll be up to me to prove the doubters wrong. 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Jurgenklopp

[Jurgenklopp]

 

It was a pretty fruitful pre-season for us as nearly every player clocked some valuable game time and the team gave a good account of themselves by playing, at times, attractive football and winning (deservedly) 3 of our 4 pre-season games, coming from behind against both Gloucester and Billericay. It was important that we did well against these teams because these are sides that are of the same level as us and it gave us a good gauge as to where we stand in the league.

In terms of transfers, we managed to bring in 4 new players on loan. As tempting as it’ll get at times, I’ll try my best not to make any permanent signings so as to make the game more fun and challenging, I’ll only bring in someone new as replacement when a player from the club is retiring or being sold. I’m particularly pleased with the signing of young Swedish forward Joel Mumbongo from Burnley’s reserve team, he’s already bagged 4 goals in pre-season and he looks to be striking a nice partnership with Alex Nimly, the club’s main striker. I’m hopeful that he can carry his great pre-season form into the season proper.

This is what I believe is my best 11, I find that the front 3 were linking up well under this system so I’ll be sticking to this 4-3-3 for now. I shall revert back to my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation if this isn’t working out. it’s a long season ahead with lots of Football to be played so everyone will play his part at some point. 

Lastly, the board’s expects me to steer the club clear of relegation this season, something which I believe is very much achievable with the squad I’ve got, but I’ll only know how good we really are once we’ve got a couple of games under our belt.

With pre-season out of the way, me and the team can’t wait to finally get the season started!

[BatiGoal]

Interesting tactic. Curious to see how it works out for you. I had a 3-4-3 formation working very well in FMM19 but the three up front (AF - TM - P) aren't the force they once were. Hopefully I make it work at some point. 

Goodluck! 

[kaka8330]

I'd like to recommend some North South leagues to you,

Phillip Brazil

Charlie Ferguson England

Onoabhagbe England

It's all players in the free market with no more than 300 new players per week. You can think about it

[Jurgenklopp]

On 21/11/2019 at 21:19, BatiGoal said:

Interesting tactic. Curious to see how it works out for you. I had a 3-4-3 formation working very well in FMM19 but the three up front (AF - TM - P) aren't the force they once were. Hopefully I make it work at some point. 

Goodluck! 

Thanks! I’ve only got 2 wingers at the club and they’re not as good as my strikers, that’s why I’ll probably be playing 3 centre forwards up front for the majority of this season, hopefully that’ll translate to a higher chance of scoring goals. I’ll switch it up as I go along and I might even try the 3-4-3 formation at some point since I like my team to be playing attacking football:)

On 21/11/2019 at 22:24, kaka8330 said:

I'd like to recommend some North South leagues to you,

Phillip Brazil

Charlie Ferguson England

Onoabhagbe England

It's all players in the free market with no more than 300 new players per week. You can think about it

Thanks for the recommendations! I can’t seem to find a Brazilian Phillip in the transfer market and Charlie Ferguson has already been signed by Harrogate Town, Onoabhagbe is definitely worth considering for just 60 quid per week. I did made 2 new additions to my squad and I shall be unveiling them in the August update:)

Edited November 24, 2019 by Jurgenklopp

[kaka8330]

7 minutes ago, Jurgenklopp said:

Thanks! I’ve only got 2 wingers at the club and they’re not as good as my strikers, that’s why I’ll probably be playing 3 centre forwards up front for the majority of this season, hopefully that’ll translate to a higher chance of scoring goals. I’ll switch it up as I go along and I might even try the 3-4-3 formation at some point since I like my team to be playing attacking football:)

Thanks for the recommendations! I can’t seem to find a Brazilian Phillip in the transfer market and Charlie Ferguson has already been signed by Harrogate Town, Onoabhagbe is definitely worth considering for just 60 quid per week. I did made 2 new additions to my squad and I shall be unveiling them in the August update:)

Philippe Brazil needs the English league as the first league. I use England, Germany, Spain and Italy as the main four leagues. He needs to sign when he starts, or he will retire when he has no ball to play in a season

[Jurgenklopp]

It was an hectic August (as usual) for us as we had to play 7 games in the space of 28 days, let’s see how we fared...

Spoiler

 

 

Our life in the National League North began with a rather impressive 2-0 win away at Guiseley. Late equalisers denied us victories against Alfreton and fellow promotees Farsley Celtic while strikers Alex Nimley and Joel Mumbongo each missed a golden opportunity to put us ahead against Gateshead as we went on to draw our next 3 matches. We were able to stop the ‘rot’, narrowly winning 1-0 at Chester thanks to a defensive error from their captain Simon Grand. A 6-0 demolition of Gloucester on matchday 6 saw us briefly go top of the league on goal difference but we ended the month in 4th after drawing 1-1 against Altrincham.

Joel Mumbongo has been the difference maker so far. Already the league’s current top scorer, he has scored nearly 65% of our goals, how we’ve been playing in our first 7 matches, he is definitely going to be a very important player for us this season.

It’s always nice to see good work being recognised as 2 of our loanees (Joel Mumbongo and Simon Paulet) have impressed enough to earn a call-up to their respective u21 national teams, we’ll have to cope without them for our next 2 matches but it’ll be a great opportunity for them to gain some exposure and experience.

Kettering Town transfer news:

Spoiler

In terms of players leaving the club, we did receive a transfer offer from Wealdstone of National South for our midfielder Michael Richens. I wasn’t keen on letting him leave this early into the season as he was very much part of my first team plans but he seemed interested in the move so I’ve decided not to hold him back, let’s wish him all the best and hope that his time at his new club will be a fruitful and successful one!

On the other hand, we’ve brought in 2 exciting young talents to our squad, one on a free transfer and the other on a season-long loan from Forest Green Rovers, meet Aaron Nemane and former amatuer boxer Marty Stevens!

A former graduate at Man City’s youth academy, Aaron Nemane was playing for Scottish giant Rangers (on loan) as recently as 2017. Possessing good pace and versatility, he can play on the right wing and as a number 10, positions in which we are lacking in depth. I have plans to convert him into a accomplished or even natural centre forward in the near future.

Coincidentally, he’s already had a successful loan spell with the club back in 2017/2018, scoring 25 goals in 44 appearances. With 3 goals and 1 assist in just 2 appearances this season (and being the club’s top scorer), I’m surprised that he was even allowed to go out on loan, he’s definitely an upgrade to what we’ve already got and I’ll be looking at him to shoulder some of the workload and goal scoring responsibilities from Joel Mumbongo. Looking at his goal scoring record, he’s definitely got the killer instinct in front of goal.

All in all, I’m really pleased with how well we’ve managed to settle into the new league and I’ll be hoping for more of the same in the coming months performance wise, we’ve still a long way to go!

Edited November 24, 2019 by Jurgenklopp

[Jurgenklopp]

7 hours ago, kaka8330 said:

Philippe Brazil needs the English league as the first league. I use England, Germany, Spain and Italy as the main four leagues. He needs to sign when he starts, or he will retire when he has no ball to play in a season

Oh yes, I did find him eventually but he’s at Tudelano now. It’s a shame that I missed out on him as I weren’t planning on making any permanent signings at the start of the season, looks like he could be a great player at non-league level.

[kaka8330]

7 minutes ago, Jurgenklopp said:

Oh yes, I did find him eventually but he’s at Tudelano now. It’s a shame that I missed out on him as I weren’t planning on making any permanent signings at the start of the season, looks like he could be a great player at non-league level.

Oh, in fact, his fixed PA value is not high, it should not exceed 85. I just see that his weekly salary is cheap, and his key attribute is strong, that is, he starts even at the peak.

[Jurgenklopp]

On 25/11/2019 at 00:02, kaka8330 said:

Oh, in fact, his fixed PA value is not high, it should not exceed 85. I just see that his weekly salary is cheap, and his key attribute is strong, that is, he starts even at the peak.

Even with a low PA, he would probably still be a really good player at non-league level, and yes, he’s expected salary isn’t a lot so he’s definitely still worth signing if you get the chance to do so:)

[Jurgenklopp]

September began with our in-form striker Joel Mumbongo being awarded the league’s Player of the Month. I guess him winning POTM was pretty much expected since he had scored 3 more goals than any other player in August. The club congratulated him on his achievement and hopefully this will spur him on to want to win more POTM awards in the future.

At the same time, our loanee Tolaji Bola have been ruled out till November having suffered a broken collarbone during training, that’s quite a massive blow for us as he’s enjoyed such a great start to life at the club, hopefully he’ll have a speedy recovery and we can’t wait to have him playing for us again.

In the meantime, James Brighton will be expected to fill in for the vacant left-back position.

Spoiler

We were somewhat fortunate to get wins against Telford and Darlington while a 5-0 lead at halftime was enough to secure all 3 points for us at King’s Lynn. Our 3-game winning streak came to a halt as Boston united handed us our first defeat of the season heading into a 2 week break. Tolaji Bola’s absence at the back was always going to be felt as we conceded nearly twice as many goals this month than we did in August. We did bounced back from our first defeat of the season with a 1-0 win over local rivals Brackly Town courtesy of a Aaron Nemane winner 3 minutes from time, Southport’s 3-0 defeat at Bradford PA on the same matchday meant that we were able to head back to the top of the league on goal difference.

This is my updated best 11, our new signing Aaron Nemane has sloted nicely in the number 10 position, scoring thrice and assisting twice in 4 matches while Joel Mumbongo continued his good goal scoring form, with another 4 more goals to his name. Our other loanee striker Marty Steven have yet to really make an impact.

Upcoming Fixtures:

Spoiler

We’ve got a couple of huge tests awaiting us next month, 3 of our next 4 league matches will be against teams that are currently in the top 5, our trip to Merseyside to face Southport 15 October could well be a clash for top spot.

Our final game of October at struggling Blyth Spartans is the longest away trip we’ll have to make this season so we’ll be sure to want to come away with all 3 points. 

There’ll also be a FA Cup Third Qualifying Round tie against Aston Utd of the Nothern Premier League to look forward to amongst all that.

We’ll probably have a clearer picture of whether or not we truly belong near the top this time next month!

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Jurgenklopp
Typo error

[Jurgenklopp]

October:

Spoiler

It was a near perfect month for us as far as the league is concerned. We began the month with a pulsating 3-3 draw at home to Kidderminster, either team could have won it at the end. Losing our key players Joel Mumbongo and Simon Paulet due to international commitments, We then went on to scrape crucial away wins over Leamington and Southport (who were 1 point behind us in 3rd place before kickoff), we weren’t brilliant in those games but it’s wins like these that I find most satisfying to be honest. Despite having to play with 10 man for 75 minutes, we found a way to overcome Hereford with a pretty convincing 5-2 victory, we were clinical in that game, scoring with nearly every promising attack while Hereford were made to rue their missed chances to make it a closer game. Our busy October concluded with a long trip up north to face Blyth Spartans but we showed no signs of fatigue as a Joel Mumbongo hat-trick sealed all 3 points for us.

With the likes of Southport, Hereford and York all struggling with form, we were able to put some daylight between us and our closest rival Guisley, whom we beat 2-0 back on matchday 1. Being 5 points clear at the top after matchday 17 is unprecedented but if we can keep working hard and putting in good performances like how we’ve been doing all season, we might just be in with a shot at promotion come May.

FA Cup:

Spoiler

I gave some of my fringe players a run out for our FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round tie against Ashton United but it was still a routine victory for us in the end, Joel Carta sure did took his opportunity to impress, scoring a hat-trick on his first start this season, he’s since scored another 2 goals for us in the league. We then faced Nationals league’s Harrogate Town in the 4th Qualifying round causing a bit of an upset by beating them 3-1, we were clinical and we defended astutely at the back to keep their star striker Sam Jones quite for majority of the game.

Our reward for making it into the 1st round of the FA Cup is a home tie against Scunthorpe of League 2 on 9th November. Being the team to have scored the most goals in the history of the competition, i was hoping that we could go on another cup run to recapture the magic of the FA Cup, but that seems unlikely to happen after getting a strong team this early into the competition. Nevertheless, It’ll still be a special occasion for both the club and fans to savour, hopefully the players can rise up to the challenge and have a good go at it.

Tolaji Bola’s injury update:

It looks like our physiotherapist have done a great job with our left-back Tolaji Bola’s rehabilitation from a broken collarbone, he is now just days away from being able to return to full training, that’s nearly a month ahead of schedule. I shall be looking to ease him back into first team action by the second week of November. Having him fit again is a huge boost for us.

November fixtures:

Spoiler

Even though we’ve got a much lighter schedule for November, with just 3 rounds of league fixtures to be played, these are very much 3 massive games for us, facing teams that are in or around the playoff spots, it’s good that we’re going into these games in good form as we’ll need to be at our best to get a result against these quality sides. A FA Cup First round tie against Scunthorpe and a FA Trophy Qualifying tie are sandwiched in between our league games.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Jurgenklopp

[BatiGoal]

Things seem to be improving per game. At least stats wise looking at your CCC. Did you make any adjustments or was it a case of weaker opponents? 

Going good. 

[Jurgenklopp]

On 02/12/2019 at 16:37, BatiGoal said:

Things seem to be improving per game. At least stats wise looking at your CCC. Did you make any adjustments or was it a case of weaker opponents? 

Going good. 

Sorry but what does CCC stand for? I didn’t really make any adjustments to my tactics but I do rotate players every now and then so it could be the change in personnel. Most of these opponents that I’ve faced in October are pretty strong but they aren’t in the best of form, perhaps that’s why they didn’t play as well as they could. And yes, We’ve also been lucky in a couple of these matches.

[BatiGoal]

2 minutes ago, Jurgenklopp said:

Sorry but what does CCC stand for?

Clear Cut Chances. 

Ah ok, if no tweaks, looks like your team as a whole is gradually improving then. 

[Jurgenklopp]

November:

Spoiler

After a rather straightforward win at home against Bradford Park Avenue (albeit an uncomfortable final 10 minutes), our 5 match winning run in the league was snapped by an York City ravaged by injuries. Despite having 15 shots in that game, we weren’t able to create many meaningful attacks or good goal-scoring opportunities, Joel Mumbongo’s absence (due to international commitment) was felt as our back up forwards simply didn’t have his pace to make defence splitting runs in behind their backline. In the end, 2 goals from debutant Dan Maguire made sure that we left Bootham Cresent empty-handed, Guisley failed to take full advantage of us slipping up as they could only manage a 3-3 draw away to Bradford PA. We responded really well to losing as we gave arguably our best performance all season in the following match, trashing 4th placed Spennymoore Town 4-0, there was only going to be one winner the moment Marty Stevens scored the opening goal.

We remain top of the league 6 points clear of our closest rivals, Guisley can cut the gap back down to 4 points if they win their game in hand against a resurgent York City. If we weren’t being considered as contenders for promotion before, we’re definitely part of the conversation now as the National league North approaches it’s halfway point.

Let’s see how we did in cup competitions:

Spoiler

FA Trophy:

It was as boring a 1-0 you’ll ever see as we beat Alfreton Town with our only shot of the game in The FA Trophy’s final qalifying round. With Alfreton Town providing little threat (if any) going forward, we were happy to just sit back and see the game out, there’ll be sterner tests awaiting us as we now face a tricky tie away to fellow National League North side Southport in the next round.

FA Cup 2nd round:

It’s amazing what confidence (or lack of confidence) can do to a team, despite being 2 divisions above us, Scunthorpe had won just once in their previous 8 league games, and they certainly played like a team that’s struggling for form.

But It was us that had the shakier of starts though as we nearly conceded a goal within 2 minutes, centre-back Luke Graham gave the ball away at the edge of his own penalty box and sent Scunthorpe United’s Jamie Proctor clean through on goal, it took a fantastic Joe Fryer perry and a potentially goal-saving clearance from Ben milnes to spare his blushes, that was as good as it got for Scunthorpe United...

We soon got into our rhythm and started stringing passes together as we saw more and more of the ball. Our pressure finally paid off in the 26th minute when Aaron Nemane’s shot from outside the box flew over Jake Eastwood and into the back of the net. Forest Green Rovers loanee Matty Stevens doubled the lead just before halftime after finding himself on the receiving end of a defence-splitting through ball from Aaron Nemane, the tie could have been over in first-half stoppage time when Aaron Nemane broke free of the Scunthorpe defence but could only direct his shot straight into the Sheffield United loanee’s gloves. 

It was pretty much the same story in the second-half as we continued to pile on the pressure in search of that decisive third goal while Scunthorpe United appeared to have ran out of ideas going forward. Tolaji Bola came on for the final 15 minutes to mark his first appearance in over 2 months after suffering a broken collarbone back in September and got himself an assist as Matty Steven headed in his second goal of the game in the 83rd minute to well and truly put the tie beyond Scunthorpe United. George Kelbel did eventually score a consolation goal for The Iron in what was literally the last kick of the game as we march on into the 2nd round of the FA Cup. 

It’ll be a long trip up north to face Barrow of the National League as a spot in the 3rd round of the FA Cup beckons. Barrow did some giant killing of their own after trashing Cheltenham Town of League Two 5-1 in the previous round. It’ll be a massive occasion for both clubs and we’ll once again be underdogs heading into this tie. Having done so well against Harrogate Town and Scunthorpe United, I’m secretly confident that we can pull off yet another upset!

to be continued...

 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Jurgenklopp

[Jurgenklopp]

On 12/12/2019 at 16:26, BatiGoal said:

Clear Cut Chances. 

Ah ok, if no tweaks, looks like your team as a whole is gradually improving then. 

Yes, we’ve generally been playing better now than we were at the start of the season, and most of the players are improving game by game so that’s great I guess:)