Bath City > Football League

[The Grass Is Greener.]

This is a cracking read, incredibly detailed.

[CGR]

This is a cracking read, incredibly detailed.

Phil Airey

[The Grass Is Greener.]

Phil Airey

One appearance for the mighty Hibees

[Kris.]

I am currently 21 seasons into a save with a Conference South team and I still have my first player of the year on my coaching staff.

Superb.

This is a cracking read, incredibly detailed.

Cheers.

[Kris.]

August 2016

Vanarama Conference:

So, we kick off our season in the Conference with 7 (!) matches this month. The first 5 were posted above, the following two were away to Alfreton Town and at home to Woking. So with those two matches now included, I'd be looking for/happy with about 12 points, anything more would be a massive bonus...

6 wins out of 7, meaning 18 points from the opening 21 available, what a start! We definitely surpassed my expectations with those results, although another fucking defeat to Wealdstone! Clearly they're going to be my bogey team in this save. Maybe the players are just a little intimidated with having this ferocious specimen on the sidelines offering them square goes and putting them off their game:

The most impressive result of the lot is probably the victory over Braintree Town. It was 4-1 at HT! Although them having a boy sent off after 12 minutes might have helped us a little. It's impressive though, because it was the only game they didn't win in their opening 9 or 10 matches. We seem to be scoring plenty of goals though, which was a concern after promotion as we were relying heavily on George Bowerman and the two wingers to get the goals for us. In fact, Bowerman was ruled out for 5 weeks after the Welling match, yet we still scored 8 in our next two games! The goals conceded was a bit ridiculous though, we'll need to work on getting that down! The table after those 7 matches looked as follows:

Top of the league! Scoring on average 3 goals a game and already a nice little gap between ourselves and Eastleigh sitting just outside the play-off places. Maybe I had no reason to be concerned pre-season about the step up, we're doing fantastically well so far. Hopefully we can keep it up though.

September 2016

Vanarama Conference:

The transfer window is now closed, with no players coming in and none leaving outside of those posted in the pre-season update. So we move in to September top of the league and absolutely flying, with 6 more games ahead of us, 4 of them away from home. From the league table you can see above, from the rest of the teams shown we face 4 of them. We have to travel to 4th place Cambridge, whilst also having away matches at Lincoln and Dag & Redbridge. The other match against a top 12 side is Ebbsfleet at home, who you may recall pipped us to the Conference South title in our first season. Some huge games in there that will give us a real test in seeing how well we can do this season. A good set of results from these will put us in a strong position with what would then be a quarter of the league season out of the way. We would be without top scorer George Bowerman who had notched up 6 goals in just over 2 and a half matches (v Kidderminster where he went off after 86 minutes injured, missing the next game. But returned for a hat trick against Braintree, before scoring 2 in game at Welling before going off injured at HT) until at least the game versus Dag & Red.

Well, it's safe to say we struggled! Without Bowerman we really struggled for goals this month, scoring just 4 in 5 games before he did return versus Dag & Red, although the goal in that game didn't come from him. I wasn't too concerned about his loss as we'd scored 11 in 4 games without him in August, but the lack of a decent finisher as a his replacement took its toll. Ashley Yeoman took his place and had actually done really well when he'd stepped in in August, scoring against Halifax, Alfreton and Woking, but only managed 2 goals in these fixtures. The two defeats came against sides relatively close to ourselves in the table, so naturally they gained some ground on us. Some of the draws were disappointing, too, Chester for example were 17th when he faced them, whilst we were top of the league. We didn't finish September at the top, though...

The 4 point gap we had between ourselves and the side in 6th at the end of August had been reversed and we were now in 6th, 4 points off the top! I suppose when you see the table there, it just highlights how tough some of those fixtures were in September. Cambridge and Ebbsfleet who beat us are now joint top of the division, along with 2 other sides! With 1 point separating the top 5 at this stage, we could be in for a tight battle at the top. Hopefully October brings better results and we can drag ourselves back in to contention for promotion.

October 2016

FA Cup:

Our first foray in to the cup competitions for the season, and as there's not much to say I'll get this out of the way first before I get on to the league. So we were drawn in the 4th Qualifying Round at home to Bromley. Facing a lower league side where we'll be favourites to win could give the players a bit of a boost after a poor run of results, plus it give us an excellent chance of getting to the next round and getting a league side.

So, we made it through, although not as comfortably as I'd like and we face Yeovil who are in the lower half of League Two currently in the next round. It's a decent tie as it's against a higher division side, it's at home, and it's on TV, which means a bit of extra money. There's a good chance of progression and my aim of reaching the 2nd round would be met.

Vanarama Conference:

The final month of this update then and we were looking to bounce back after an awful September where we managed a paltry 4 points from a possible 18. Less games this month with just the 5 due to that FA Cup tie, with the first 3 games of the month being at home, so a great opportunity to get back to winning ways. The three home games were against Altrincham, Forest Green and Barnet. That game against Barnet being the most difficult of the 3 (and of the 5 games overall). The two away matches were against North Ferriby and AFC Fylde. There was good news in Bowerman was now 100% both in fitness and match fitness, with no other real injury concerns to worry about so we could go in to the month in good shape.

Oh. Well, we got a couple of wins which is definitely good, but a couple of poor results in there for good measure. Plenty to say about these games (unfortunately in some cases). Altrincham was a poor result as they were sitting 5th from bottom with just 2 wins all season so far. I'd like to say we battered them and were just unlucky, but we only had 6 shots the entire game. Forest Green was an excellent result, Bowerman and Lawless had us 2-0 up inside 4 minutes! We got a 3rd just before HT, before we had Garcia Rey sent off. As wins were at bit thin on the ground as of late, I parked the bus to ensure we still took the 3 points.

You might think blowing a 3 goal lead would be nigh on impossible in the space of a single half, but that's exactly what we done against Barnet. Except they didn't need an entire half, as we turned a 3-0 lead in to a 4-3 loss in the space of 15 minutes. 3-0 up, cruising, the crowd were given it the "Olé's" with every touch from a player in Black & White, as we were about to creep in to the 70th minute, when Charlie Ward put the ball in to his own net in the 69th minute. A minute later, it was 3-2. Our arse had collapsed, it was just a matter of time. We made it a further 10 minutes without conceding again, I was starting to think we might actually just hold on here. No. 83 minutes on the clock and it was 3-3. My clipboard had been launched in to the dugout, my Assistant struggling to contain me from running on to the park and throttling the two CB's. The brown brogues (worn as a wee tribute to Mr Pressley, who was watching from the main stand) were soon to follow the clipboard, as just like their first two goals, these two goals would also be separated by just a single minute, as Barnet went 4-3 in front. 15 minutes. 4 goals. 0 points.

Our next match saw us then on the right end of a 4-3 victory, against North Ferriby United. It wasn't all plain sailing though, as it never is with this side this season. Two penalties from Sam Gainford and a header from Charlie Ward (scoring at the right end this time) had us 3-1 up at HT. Two minutes in to the second half Charlie Ward now understanding that for us to win football matches he has to score for us, rather than against us, getting his second. 3 goals ahead but still pretty much an entire half to go. My arse was twitching in the dugout. Not helped when they got a goal back just 5 minutes later. I'm now curled in the foetal position, being urged to get to my feet by the 4th official. My Assistant ushered him away. 25 minutes had passed by without incident, I got to my feet to enjoy the final 15 minutes or so. I enjoyed all but 2 minutes of it, as they scored with 11 minutes to go. f**k. I switched to a back 5 in a desperate attempt to hold on. North Ferriby were 3rd bottom before the game and here we are, the Conference South Champions, playing a back 5 (plus two DM's) to try and take 3 points. They had a goal disallowed in the 93rd minute, I almost suffered cardiac arrest. But we held on.

So our final game of the month was away to AFC Fylde who were sitting just a few points outside the relegation places. When you factor in the cup game, we'd won 2 on the bounce, or 3 in 4. I was confident. 1-0 up after 23 seconds, we were going to cruise this. The second came in the 26 minute, before a little set back right on HT when they pulled one back. But not to worry, we'd been excellent and I was sure we'd score more goals. We did, but we had to wait until the 83rd minute. That was it, 3 points in the bag, the pressure was off. Although, it was back on 30 seconds later when they made it 3-2. I won't drag this part out any further, but they equalised in the 93rd minute with the last kick of the game.

So, in three games I'd turned a 3-0 win in to a 4-3 defeat. Almost turned a 4-1 in to a 4-4 draw. And DID manage to turn a comfortable 3-1 win to a 3-3 draw. 5 points dropped, which is massive when you see the table for the end of October.

Had we held on in those two games, we'd have been top of the table on GD. But despite another average month and a defeat to Barnet who were top, we'd only slipped 2 points further behind the leaders. Not great, but it could have been much worse.

That's it for this update. The next one will maybe be later on today at the end of January if I can play up until that point, got to do some work at some point today! Apologies for really dragging out that last section. I felt some of my updates were getting a little samey when it came to describing results, so decided to tart it up a wee bit. Enjoy.

[Kris.]

November 2016

FA Cup:

I'll start this update off with our FA Cup tie against Yeovil Town. So as I mentioned in the last update, we're at home, it's live on TV and Yeovil aren't doing very well in League Two at the time of the game. Our form at the time wasn't too bad with just two defeats in ten matches, one of which was that game versus Barnet. We had a few key players missing from the tie, Ross Stearn was missing from the right wing and would be replace by Sam Gainford who normally plays on the left - taking his position there would be Javi Rodriquez. Charlie Ward was also missing so he was replaced by our only backup CB Anthony Acheampong. Finally, Alex Lawless was out with an injury and was replaced in midfield by Connor McManus, who'd only featured in 3 games prior to this tie. It's not a massive game so I'm not going to bother with spoiler tags for this one. (And yeah, I've change the colour of the interface)

So the tie would go to a replay. I was quite disappointed with the result, actually. They had a boy sent off about 10 minutes in to the second half, so I fancied our chances, even more so when we went in front on 75 minutes. However, they equalised a couple of minutes later. They also had a goal disallowed with a few minutes left, but thankfully we at least got a replay out of it. Our formation was slightly different for the replay. Charlie Ward returned from suspension so we decided to drop our AM (Stewart Mansell) and play a DM instead, the reasons for which I'll outline when I get to the League section of the update. So Ward would partner Acheampong in the center of defence, whilst Ruben Garcia Rey would move forward in to that holding midfield role...

Out on penalties. We played exceptionally well to be honest. We finished the match with 19 shots to their 9, with 59% possession as well. They took the lead just after the half hour mark against the run of play. We battered them up until the 93rd minute when George Bowerman finally got us our breakthrough which would take the game to ET. Just before HT, they went back in front, before Bowerman equalised in the second half to take it to penalties. We scored our first 7 penalties as did Yeovil, who then took their 8th and scored. It was down to Wesley Atkinson who'd barely kicked a ball all season, who had to replace Dan Woodards at HT due to injury, who then stepped up and...missed. 8-7 we lost. I had a feeling we might as none of my players really have great penalty stats, Bowerman included. So that's the end of our FA Cup run for this season.

Vanarama Conference:

Up until this point we'd been very inconsistent in the league. August was superb, September awful and October was fairly decent. In November I was hoping for things to improve further and we had 5 games ahead of us, with two of them being difficult ties. Bristol Rovers at home as they were only a point adrift of us and Eastleigh away who were 4th. I didn't see much trouble being had with matches against Torquay, Macclesfield and Hednesford - who were sitting bottom of the league.

Mixed results yet again! We started the month with the excellent result against Bristol Rovers, then we had that FA Cup tie versus Yeovil, so it was a good start, with bottom place Hednesford to come at home. I was confident of victory, but when I've been confident of winning games this season - we haven't, and of course, the same happened here. Not only did we lose 3-0 at home to the side bottom of the table, but they'd only won one game in the league all season and scored 8 goals - in 19 matches. Yet they came to our place and scored 3! Charlie Ward was back to scoring at the wrong end as well. It was this result that prompted me to go back to having someone sitting in front of the back four who'd been pretty hopeless all season. It seemed to work too, as apart from the Yeovil Replay, we didn't concede again all month and got a decent point at Eastleigh whilst also thumping Torquay. The Macclesfield result was a little disappointing but at the time it meant 2 clean sheets in a row, so I was pleased I guess with that. We're now exactly half way through the league fixtures! The league table looked like this for the end of the month:

We ended October in 7th a point off the play-offs, but ended this month a place further up the table and only being kept out the play-offs by a single goal. We had however slipped a further 3 points off the top spot. Hopes of two consecutive championships were fading pretty quickly.

December 2016

Vanarama Conference:

The final month of the year and we wanted to end on a high. We had our FA Trophy 1st Round tie to play this month as well, but I'll leave that until the end. With the team looking a lot more solid now with 3 consecutive clean sheets, we moved in to December pretty optimistic about being in the play-off spots by the end of the month. Another 5 fixtures were ahead of us, including an away tie at our bogey team Wealdstone. I was writing that game off as a loss already! It was a kind looking month in terms of the rest of the fixtures, the only real test would come away to Braintree on New Years Eve. A good month leading up to that fixture might see us overtake them with a win.

Another bang average month. We started off well with the victory over Kidderminster, before typically losing to Wealdstone who we had now faced 6 times without a single victory. The Halifax result was poor but we bounced back against Welling, before coming from 2 down to get a point at Braintree. It was a quick turnaround in that game with Acheampong scoring with 20 minutes left and Ross Stearn equalising a minute later, but unfortunately we couldn't find a winner. Would those 7 points be enough to lift us in to the play-off positions?

No. Again, we're only outside them on GD, but this time by two goals, rather than just the one. We're now 13 points off 1st place, so the play-offs look to be our best shot of a possible promotion.

FA Trophy:

This'll be the last part of this post from this update, I'll do January separately as with transfers etc I might not be allowed all the images in here.

We were now in the proper rounds of the FA Trophy, a competition which I've said many times I don't care about. We were drawn to face Ebbsfleet away from home, this tie would be sandwiched between the league matches versus Kidderminster and Wealdstone.

We managed a reasonable draw at their place and the tie went to extra time. However, despite no one finding a winner, in the FA Trophy it doesn't go to penalties at this stage, instead it goes to a replay which is pretty fucking stupid. So we went to a replay and pumped them 3-0. Easy.

Other News:

After months without a single interview offer, I got two on the same day at the end of the month from Shrewsbury Town and Doncaster Rovers. Also, I'd been looking to loan out Stewart Mansell to get him some regular game time as I hadn't been playing him as much as I intended to and with our switch in formation to remove an AM from the lineup, he didn't really fit in to that, so we offered to loan him out a couple of times firstly for a month, then for a full season but no one wanted to take him. He can play wide right/left, but not as effectively, so I pretty much resigned myself to having to keep him in the squad, even though he wasn't going to be playing.

So January and the start of a new year will follow this post pretty shortly.

[Kris.]

January 2017

Transfers:

One of my favourites months of the season and it's the time when we can sign some new players! With still a considerable portion of last seasons squad making up our starting 11, I felt it needed a bit of freshening up. Ideally I wanted to bring in a new striker, central midfielder and another winger. I'd let Ashley Yeoman return to Torquay so I had no back up striker except from Rodriguez who is more of an attacking midfielder. I also sent Jake Andrews back to Bristol City as I wasn't playing him. So I had intended on bringing in 3 players max, but managed just the 2. (Transfers IN on the left, OUT on the right)

Good business from us IMO. Jonathan Franks was in League One with Tranmere and had played in 14 league matches but had found himself out of favour and wanted to leave. £4k to bring him in is an absolute bargain. We wanted another wide man and we got one. Ross Stearn had been having a reasonable season, but Franks has played pretty much his whole career at Championship and League One level, is rated a whole 1 and a half stars greater than Ross Stearn by the scouts (who had reached his max potential) and turning 27 just at the end of the season, still has room to improve. In short, he's too good to be playing at this level, so it would have been stupid to pass up on signing him for such a low fee. He is now our highest earner on £1k a week.

Our only other IN came in the shape of Mathieu Manset, a left winger from Cheltenham. He'd been playing the last few seasons in League Two, so I figured taking a step down where he would be a 'leading player for most Vanarama Conference sides' would be a good move for us. Again he was rated considerably higher than Sam Gainford who he'd be replacing and again is only 27 so can improve. He is also our highest earner, joint with Jonathan Franks on £1k a week. Whilst Franks is a long term replacement for Stearn, that's not the case here. Sam Gainford only turned 22 at the end of November and has the potential to improve a lot in the next few years, so this signing will improve our starting 11, and will give Gainford a bit of a rest as he is playing a lot of football and has done since we signed him. He's had a really good season as well, much better than Stearn who looks likely to move on at the end of the season. Gainford looks like he'll be challenging Bowerman for that player that I take up through the leagues with me, regardless of the level.

FA Trophy:

I'll get this competition out of the way first of all and I'm not going to say too much about it.

We were 2-0 down, we got it back to 2-2 before losing to a late penalty. Gutted..

Vanarama Conference:

Just the four league fixtures to get in to this month. Two difficult home matches versus Alfreton Town who were just ahead of us on GD and top of the table Cambridge who'd inflicted out worst away defeat of the season and in fact our joint worst defeat overall when they beat us 3-0 at their place in September. Woking and Chester would be our away fixtures.

!! Our best run of results since August, as we picked up 9 points from 12! We started off by dicking Alfreton at home, Jonathan Franks made his debut and scored our second to put us in control early in the second half. George Bowerman scored twice in what would be his best month for us to date, which is really saying something considering the amount of goals he's scored in a season and a half. We then got a little ahead of ourselves and bottomed out against Woking who were way down in 18th. Now the next fixture was against Cambridge, who at the time of the game I didn't realise were top of the league, for some reason I thought it was Barnet. I for some reason decided to return to our previous formation of having an AM in the lineup rather than a DM. Going baws oot against the league leaders probably wasn't the best of decisions. However...we came from a goal down to absolutely shaft them 6-2! Our biggest and also best result of the season. Jonathan Franks got an assist, Stewart Mansell who came back in to the side due to the formation change, provided two other assists whilst scoring as well, and George Bowerman notched 5(!!) in the game, 4 of which came in the second half alone. Definitely didn't see that coming. I thought for sure we'd go to Chester in our next game and end the month on a sour note, but no! A George Bowerman hat-trick saw us see them off comfortably by 3 goals to nil. At the end of the month, Bowermans record stood at 11 goals in 5 matches, if we include the Eastleigh FA Trophy match. Mathieu Manset didn't sign until the final day, so he didn't feature at all in any of these games. The league table at the end of the month, with 14 games to go, looked like this:

We're in to the play-offs! The first time we've ended a month in there since August when we had that great start to the season. Since falling out of them, it's been our goal to drag ourselves back in there and whilst it's taken time, we've finally made it. It is worth pointing out though, that we are only in there on GD, despite such a good month, and are only 3 points ahead of 8th place. But, we're there and that's what matters.

Key Players:

As I like to do at this point, is highlight our key players in the season so far. You can pretty much guess who one of the three players is...aye, George Bowerman our goal machine.

At the end of January he's sitting on 22 league goals from 23 games, and 26 in all competitions. Not much more has to be said than that! A significant portion of those goals came in this month alone, but he'd still managed 15 in 24 appearances before that.

Alex Lawless:

Our playmaker in the middle of the park. Building on an excellent first season last year, he's gone on to be a key player for us in this Division. 10 league goals and 5 assists show just how important it is to have him fit. We missed him big time in those FA Cup games versus Yeovil. He'll be 32 by the start of next season and should we win promotion, I don't think I'd be taking him with us. This is probably his level now, and within a year he'll probably have to drop further down to the North/South.

Sam Gainford:

Now I know it seems weird including Gainford since I've gone and signed someone who will likely be playing ahead of him for the rest of the season, barring the occasional rotation, but his form so far makes it difficult to not include him - plus from the rest, they've been solid if unspectacular, so no one else really stood out. He's contributed directly to 18 league goals in just 25 matches. One guy who won't be left behind if we are promoted.

Other News:

Not much else to say, but our improvement in form saw the interview offers flooding back in. Leyton Orient, Southend United, Barnsley, Chesterfield, Crawley and Eastleigh (for the 2nd time, and they approached me just after they beat us for some reason) were the unlucky sides to get knocked back.

I was going to just do another update at the seasons end, but with it being so tight in the play-off race, I'll update again at the end of March, leaving just the final month of fixtures to go after that.

[The Grass Is Greener.]

The play-offs would be a successful season, even if you didn't get promoted. Bowerman is a fucking goal machine

[Kris.]

The play-offs would be a successful season, even if you didn't get promoted. Bowerman is a fucking goal machine

Aye I'd definitely accept play-offs regardless of the result. Think we'd win them though, GB to batter those Barnet b*****ds in the final.

Just had my PC restart itself as I was saving the game...save file could not be loaded. Thankfully I have a save that takes me back just a couple of weeks in which I only have to replay one game that I drew. I'll be honest, I was shitting it as I was waiting for the save file to load.

[Kris.]

February 2017

Vanarama Conference:

3 months and 14 games to go. We sit 4th in the table at the end of January, in the play-offs by no more than GD and 10 points adrift of Cambridge at the top of the table, who also have a game in hand. I think the title is out of our reach now, but there's still 42 points to play for, so a good run in and the top side dropping points and you just never know! The month of February could have been easier. We would have to face Lincoln who were only 3 points behind us, Gateshead who were a point and a place above us and also Ebbsfleet who were 7 points adrift of us, but had also played a game less, too. Out of those three matches, the Lincoln and Gateshead games were at home with Ebbsfleet away, the other match was an away game at Altrincham. I'd be hoping for 9 points minimum here as we were in decent form having won 3 of our 4 games last month, plus having two games at home an also a match against a side in the lower half of the table.

Well, we got 10 points! Now I mentioned above that my PC reset itself during a save and I had to go back and replay a game, it was the Altrincham one which I initially drew 1-1. So I got quite lucky as I ended up with an extra couple of points for the month. The Lincoln game was far more comfortable than it seems, we just gave away two cheap goals but dominated throughout and should have scored more. Ebbsfleet was a decent point considering they were actually the better side and it was good to beat Gateshead as it meant moving above them in the table. But, had we strengthened our position in the play-offs, or even moved closer to the top?

Sort of! We were now 5 points clear of 6th place, but Gateshead do have a game in hand. Should they even win that though, we'd still be 4 clear of Alfreton, our play-off position looking pretty good at this point. We also gained 3 points on Cambridge at the top. They still had a game in hand, but if they were to win it, we'd be 10 behind, where as at the start of the month we were 10 behind including them still having the game to play. The table highlights as well how important that Gateshead victory was. Bristol Rovers had an impressive month as they moved from 6th to 2nd, picking up 13 points! 10 matches to go now...

March 2017

Vanarama Conference:

So things are looking quite good for a play-off place now and I'm actually casting one eye towards the top of the table too. Cambridge dropped points last month, so they're capable of dropping more. We just have to keep this good run going, now stretching to 6 wins from 8, with just the one defeat. We have 5 games to play this month, but no cup distractions or anything, so the players should be fully fit without suffering from tiredness. We would face one of our toughest matches in this run in, Barnet away from home. Not only are they above us, where a win could put us in front of them, but it would be nice to avenge that 4-3 loss a few months back. Apart from that match, Dag & Red at home was our only other game this month that you could call remotely difficult, and that's only on account of them being the only other side in the top half. For the other games we would start the month away to Forest Green, before hosting North Ferriby in the 3rd match and we would finish the month at home to AFC Fylde, so a great opportunity to rack up some points. I was looking for 10-12 points from these games.

We got 12! I thought it was going to be a shitter of a month when we lost that opening game at Forest Green, but we really pulled it together. Dag & Red and North Ferriby victories were as comfortable as we've had all season, it put us in a great position going in to the match at Barnet. I won't go in to too much detail here, but we won it in the 93rd minute when our only two signings in January combined, with Jonathan Franks setting up Mathieu Manset to score the winner. Couldn't have imagined a better way to beat those fuckers. Then we ended the month with another fairly routine win over AFC Fylde. We would only have 5 games remaining after this, so would we be going in to the final month in a decent position?

Oh aye! We're now 8 points clear in the play-offs ahead of 6th place Gateshead - effectively 9 if you factor in goal difference and we had also gained significantly on Cambridge! 10 points behind at the end of January having played a game more, 7 points behind at the end of February having played a game more, 1 point behind at the end of March, having played the same amount of fixtures. Couldn't ask to be in a better position ahead of the final month of fixtures. We were bang in form. Unfortunately so were Bristol Rovers, who again picked up 13 points in that month. They would take some stopping. However, our next league fixture? Bristol Rovers away from home. If we win that, we could be just a point off the top of the table, lose it and we'll be 7 behind and probably the title challenge is over for the reason and we can look forward to the play-offs. For the final 5 games, I'll take them game by game in my updates. I'll include my matches, plus those of Bristol Rovers and Cambridge each week, perhaps even Barnet as well. In 5 matches time, we could be crowned Vanarama Conference Champions and have reached our first goal of taking Bath City to the Football League for the first time in their history. I'd be quite confident if Bristol Rovers weren't in such great form themselves, but we'll take it game by game and see what happens. Time to plan out the tactics for that big game then...

[Kris.]

The season has finished, the play-off places and more importantly the champions have been decided. Screenshots are all taken, although I missed a league table screenshot with 3 matches left, which is a bit irritating as I got the rest, but anyway, I won't get an update done until tomorrow morning.

Where did we finish? Are Bath City now in the Football League? Do we have to work our way through the play-offs to get there? Did we even make the play-offs?

All shall be revealed tomorrow.

[perthsaint1977]

Oh the suspense......

[Kris.]

April 2017

Vanarama Conference:

So we come down to the final month of the season, with just 5 matches to go. As a reminder, the league table looks like this at the start of the month:

We're 8 points in the play-offs, 9 if including GD, with just the 15 points to play for. I'd be pretty confident of staying within those positions. However, more interestingly we're only the 4 points off the top of the league due to Cambridge collapsing, although they've been replaced at the top by a Bristol Rovers side whose last league defeat was on the 28th of December and they've just flown up the table. Our next match is away to the league leaders with the opportunity of pulling ourselves within a point of top spot. So this update will include game by game updates and league tables from the top 4 sides as they all have a chance of winning the league.

Matchday 42

The fixtures for this round of games are as such:

Barnet v Braintree

Barnet had a relatively tough game against 7th place Braintree who were only being kept out of the play-offs on GD. Where a win, or even a draw could put them in to the top 5 if other results went their way. Barnet could move as high as 2nd with a win and if other results went their way.

Well, not even their result went their way as they lost 2-0.

Dag & Red v Cambridge

Cambridge would have a match away to Dag & Red to start the month. A lower half side with nothing to play for, you'd expect Cambridge to see this out and get the 3 points.

Again. A 2-0 defeat for one of the sides I'm competing with. Which was good news considering our opponents...

Bristol Rovers v Bath City

Bristol Rovers top of the table, 4 points clear of ourselves. With the form they were in, and whilst we were in good form ourselves, we were still susceptible to dropping points. I decided to change from our normally attacking formation, to try and hit them on the counter, what with the quality we have in the attacking areas. The defence would be a concern, as to whether they could survive constant pressure, but we gave it a a go.

And we came out on top thanks to a goal from Jonathan Franks. George Bowerman had a goal disallowed just after the hour which would have calmed the nerves somewhat, but it didn't matter in the end as we held on for a superb win. Rovers first league defeat in over 3 months.

The league table at the end of matchday 42:

Matchday 43

4 games to go now and we'd closed the gap at the top to a point, whilst we still remained 8 points clear of 6th place. Play-offs were nailed on now IMO, but we were looking higher than that.

Cambridge v Forest Green

Cambridge had slipped down to 3rd as a result of our victory, but remained just 3 points from the top of the league as result of Bristol Rovers defeat. They had a chance to bounce back against Forest Green who were just inside the top half of the table.

Another defeat! Continuing the form that saw them blow a 10 point lead at the top of the table, they lose their 2nd game from 2 in this final month.

Alfreton v Barnet

Barnet had a really tricky tie against Alfreton who were still hanging on to that play-off place on GD. A win for Alfreton could actually put them above Barnet. With Cambridge losing, a Barnet win would put them up to 3rd.

Unlike Cambridge they do bounce back from a defeat in their last game to record a great victory.

Welling v Bristol Rovers

Unfortunately Bristol Rovers had a seemingly easy match here against Welling who were only a couple of places above the relegation places. Bristol Rovers lost their first league game in 3 months at home to ourselves last time out, could they do what Barnet done and bounce back by picking up 3 points?

No! A dull 0-0 draw handed us the advantage and the incentive to go a point clear at the top if we could win our match versus Eastleigh.

Bath City v Eastleigh

So, 3 points puts us top with 3 games to go and the first time we'll have been top since the end of August. No injury concerns, no suspensions to worry about, we had the whole squad available.

We drop points as well! We were a goal down but although we got the equaliser we just couldn't find another. Would that be our best chance of winning the league...and we'd blown it?

Now I mentioned before that I actually forgot to get a screenshot of the table at this point, but I did, it was actually after the next round of matches that I forgot. So, after 43 matches, the table looked like this.

We were still a point behind Bristol Rovers, we were now 3 clear of 3rd place, although that spot had been taken by Barnet who moved above the imploding Cambridge on GD. Still all to play for though, with 9 points remaining. We were still not completely confirmed in the play-offs either, although a 9 points gap and our GD, meant it was just a matter of time.

[Kris.]

Matchday 44

Just the three games to go now and things had just gotten tighter at the top the further in to the month we'd gotten. I had a good feeling about this round of fixtures.

Alfreton v Bristol Rovers

A really tough fixture for Rovers away to 6th place Alfreton. Given they hadn't won now in 2 games, I was confident they might be dropping some points.

Which they did! Even a draw in our game would mean ending the day top of the table!

Cambridge v Barnet

Another reason I liked this round of fixtures. With it looking like Bristol Rovers could drop points, which they did, the other 2 sides were playing one another, which meant one must drop points, if not both!

But Cambridge came out narrowly on top, their first victory in April and in fact their first goal of the month, too.

Bath City v Macclesfield

It all came down to this. The final reason I liked this round of fixtures - our opponents. Lower half of the table, nothing to play for, so I was expecting a comfortable win which after the Bristol Rovers result, would put us top of the table, although as it turns out a point could have been enough as well.

f**k sake! So Bristol Rovers lose, but so do we. Nightmare. Only 1 win in 3 this month, and I'm starting to wonder if the players have the bottle to go on and win the league.

So I did actually forgot to get a screenshot for this matchday, but the table was a follows:

1st - Bristol Rovers - 81pts

2nd - Bath City - 80pts

3rd - Cambridge - 80pts

4th - Barnet - 77pts

Still a point from top spot, but Cambridge had pulled back 3 points on us, thankfully our GD is far superior than everyone else's in the division, so that kept us 2nd. 2 games to go. It felt like we'd blown it, would we get another chance?

Matchday 45

2 games to go, with still everything to play for. Bristol Rovers had the toughest game against 5th place Braintree, whilst ourselves and Cambridge were facing sides who had been relegated weeks ago.

Bristol Rovers v Braintree

As I said, this was a match between the league leaders and the team sitting in 5th position. Rovers hadn't won any of their matches this month, losing 2, whilst Braintree had pulled themselves in to the final play-off spot.

Scenes! Rovers fail to win again, their bad run just keeps on going! With us facing relegated Hednesford, surely we were heading to the summit?

Barnet v Woking

With Barnet's loss to Cambridge the week before, they were just hanging in there in terms of winning the title. 4 points adrift with 6 points remaining, but with Rovers dropping points there was an opportunity to close the gap.

Which they did. A comfortable win for them against Woking, who had survived relegation and had nothing left to play for. Routine victory, unfortunately.

North Ferriby v Cambridge

Cambridge were level on points with us only as a result of GD. With the Rovers result, and if we dropped points, they could move top of the table going in to the final weekend...

A narrow win, but it means back to back victories for them, having failed to win any of their previous 2 this month. It was all down to our game.

Hednesford v Bath City

With the Cambridge result, a draw wouldn't be enough to put us top. We needed to win. For those that have read the recent updates, you'll be aware that Hednesford absolutely dicked us 3-0 at our place, despite them being bottom of the table with a solitary win to their name. Due to that, I couldn't be overly confident. In fact, I was a bit worried.

But we got the three points! It wasn't pretty by any means, but the result did mean...

Top of the table!!! 1 game to go, could we finish the job?!

[Kris.]

Matchday 46

It all comes down to this, the final fixtures of the season. There was no particularly difficult game for any side, so it would come down to who had the biggest bottle on the day. I don't think I've been involved in a situation like this in all the years I've been playing FM/CM.

Torquay v Bath City

Bristol Rovers v Woking

Barnet v Chester

AFC Fylde v Cambridge

3 points would separate the top 4. Who would come out on top?

During the First Half, the table had changed umpteen times. Ourselves, Bristol Rovers and Cambridge had all been top of the table at some point during the first half. The Half Time results looked like this:

A lot happened during the 7th and 8th minutes. Barnet went in front just before Torquay and that put them level on points with Cambridge and Bristol Rovers. When we fell behind about 2 seconds later, at that point we had slipped to 2nd a point behind Cambridge, but ahead of Barnet and Rovers on account of having that better GD. When Cambridge fell behind a minute later, they slipped to 4th, we went top, Rovers went in to 2nd and Barnet up to 4th. As of the 9th minute, all 4 teams were tied on 83 points!

It didn't last long though as Rovers went ahead a few minutes later to move above us in to top spot. At this stage, a draw wouldn't even be enough for us to win the league, we would need to come from behind and win. We couldn't find a breakthrough during the rest of the half, Cambridge fell further behind and Barnet and Rovers remained in front.

At HT, the table was like this: 1st: Bristol Rovers - 85pts, 2nd: Bath City - 83pts, 3rd: Barnet - 83pts, 4th: Cambridge - 83pts.

It doesn't get much tighter than that! I wasn't confident at HT, we weren't in the game and we needed to get in front to go back to the top. Either that or hope the Cambridge result stays the same, but Woking get an equaliser against Bristol Rovers and hang on.

The Full Time results were in. I didn't pay attention to any of the other sides results during the 2nd half, just ours.

Barnet were the outsiders from the start as even if every other side lost, they would need to win about 8-0 whilst hoping we lost by 8. It wasn't going to happen. Anyway, they blew it.

As in the end they could only draw with Chester. One less team to worry about anyway. Barnet would finish 4th on 81pts, regardless of the other results

Cambridge were facing a side who couldn't finish any higher than 5th bottom, so they were shite enough to allow Cambridge a chance to get something from the game. But they weren't quite shite enough..

Cambridge got a goal back, but couldn't manage any more. At best, they would finish 3rd, but could make 2nd if Woking could come from behind to beat Bristol Rovers.

I debated whether to use spoilers for our game or Rovers', but since they were top at HT, I figured we'd go with them. We improved in the second half, but we would still fail to take something from the game. We were trailing by 2-0 at one point, but despite getting one goal, we couldn't get another.

As far as I was aware at FT, we'd finished 2nd. I had noticed at some point during the second half that Rovers had went 3-1 up, so I kind of knew to expect that we would be sitting 2nd in the table.

So, Bristol Rovers started the day in 3rd, but were top just 12 minutes in to the matches and as far as I was aware, were still top around the hour mark or so when they went 3-1 up. It looked bleak. Whilst the play-offs were beyond what I thought we could achieve this season and would still count as a huge success, I would be disappointed at missing out on the title given we were top going in to the final day.

AND WE FINISHED THE FINAL DAY ON TOP!! Woking got a second with 20 minutes left, before equalising 10 minutes later.

BATH CITY - Vanarama Conference CHAMPIONS for the first time in their history, where they will compete in the Football League for the first time ever.

The table finished like this:

2 points separated the top 4, GD separating the top 3, of which we came out on top! The Rovers result was all the more amusing when you consider where Woking actually finished this season.

I'll do another little update at some point tonight rounding up the end of the season, then it's on to pre season.

[perthsaint1977]

Tremendous stuff. Really enjoying your story and style of writing.

[Kris.]

Tremendous stuff. Really enjoying your story and style of writing.

Cheers, glad you're enjoying it! Plan on getting a couple of updates done later tonight, not had much time the last couple of days, only just completed pre-season earlier today.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Oof. What a finish.

[Kris.]

Oof. What a finish.

Aye, it wasn't half. During the last 5 games it didn't seem like any side wanted to win it. Still can't believe we won it, I thought it would take 4/5 years to make the Football League, so to do it in 3 is pretty pleasing.

[Adam]

Outstanding stuff Kris, what a brilliant read.