Bath City > Football League

[Kris.]

So, I was going to do a quick end of season update with player stats etc etc, but it's been days since the season finished and I've already completed pre-season so I think that'll be where I'll start.

Season 2017/2018: June 2017 - August 2017

Transfers:

I normally do a little pre-season round-up with random news etc that happened over the summer, but very little did! So might as well crack on with the transfers. It was a busy couple of months. I actually really struggled until towards the end of July to get people in, no one seemed to be interested! The frustrating thing was I had looked a few young players from PL sides who were up for loan and according to the scout reports would be happy to join the club, only for me to make the approach, their club accepting it, and then they turn it down! Must have happened 5 or 6 times before I signed a single player. A lot of players out of contract and very few retained.

10 players in, 25 out. The vast majority were poor youth players, but 9 from the First Team all left at the end of their contracts, plus a couple of loan players whose loans had obviously ended. It was tough to let Ross Stearn go. 127 appearances in the 3 seasons I was at the club, assisting 42 goals and scoring a further 26, but he just wasn't going to be capable of making the step up. He wasn't at his best in the Conference, which is why he lost his place towards the end of the season to Jonathan Franks. Charlie Ward was another who I was sad to see go, playing 112 times in the center of defence since I signed him on a free, which was a big gamble at the time as he hadn't had a club in 2 years after leaving Aston Villa. At the point of reaching the start of the new season, neither player had found a new club yet. From the rest, none were good enough for League football, even one of the better players to leave in Alex Lawless, wouldn't be able to cut it on a regular basis and I'd been looking at a successor for him even with a couple months left of the last season.

The transfers in is where it gets interesting with a couple of big signings. I put the agreement with Bristol City to good use again to bring in Alexsandar Gogic, who would fight it out with James Talbot for the No.1 jersey. With Howarth and Atkinson leaving, I was left without a single RB. Dennis Riemer would come in from Ross County to fill that position. He'd had a couple of seasons at County after joining from Bielefeld in Germany. Also with Joe Whight leaving, plus Andy Nugents loan expiring, I had no LB! Ben Barber was on loan in our division last season with Macclesfield and came highly rated by the scouts on the back of that season, so we had the opportunity to bring in him relatively cheaply from Burton on loan. We have left ourselves a little short in the full back positions with just one RB and LB, but we really struggled to get someone else in of decent quality to act as rotation/backup. With Ward and Acheampong leaving, we needed a couple of CB in. Seb Hines was a bit of a coup coming from Middlesbrough, although he'd only played 6 times in 3 years. I don't think that'll be an issue though, as it certainly wasn't with Ward when we signed him. Troy Brown joined on a free after his Cheltenham contract expired. He's probably as good as Garcia Rey in terms of ability so he should have more of a rotation role than just simply backup. Also has plenty of experience of this level.

A few CM's left the club, so we need to boost our options in that area. Craig Eastmond was the player we'd tracked for a while to be the successor to Alex Lawless beside Jack Byrne in the center of the midfield. He became the highest transfer fee we've paid for a player as well as becoming our top earner on £1.9k per week. He's spent the last few years in League One and Two, so will give us experience of the division which not many of our other players have and he can also drop back in to a holding role which might come in handy against the bigger sides. Carl Stewart joins on loan from Udinese, with good potential who should make a decent backup. In all honesty he was the first player who agreed to sign, so it was a bit of a panic buy just to get someone in! We also added a bit of creativity in the wide areas by bringing in Matthew Kennedy who most on the site should be familiar with having been at Killie and Hibs. He'll compete with Franks, Manset and Gainford for the two wide positions. Finally, we brought in two strikers to provide competition for Bowerman. Also, to act as a bit of a safety net in case he struggles with the step up. Ellis Bellamy is the son of Craig Bellamy and came highly recommended by the scouts, he's on loan from Cardiff for the season. Elliot Lee is regarded as our best striker in terms of current ability and will be Bowermans strongest competition.

Frederick Champion and George Bowerman were the only out of contract players who I agreed to keep on at the club. Champion still has plenty of potential so I'm not giving up on him yet. Whilst Bowerman has now played 84 games for the club and scored 77 goals. Step up in opposition or not, it would be stupid to let someone with that record go.

Squad:

Our squad will look like this until the end of December at least. The players selected will be our starting 11 to begin the season.

A decent group overall. If we put out our strongest 11, then it IS a pretty strong 11. Maybe a bit thin in terms on quality in reserve, but keep players fit and free from suspension and we should be able to make a decent fist of the campaign ahead.

Key Players:

As always, a look at our key players for the coming season. With a couple of new faces featuring. First up, Seb Hines:

He will start the season as one of our first choice center backs and he's replacing the fantastic Charlie Ward. Coming down from the Championship, in theory he should stroll the league. With us being the underdogs in most (all?) games this season, he'll be vital in keeping things tight at the back, to give us the opportunity to get things right at the other end.

Craig Eastmond:

Another of our new signings. I already mentioned a little bit about how key he will be this season. One of the few players in the squad with experience at this level and he'll be tasked with replacing the departed Alex Lawless in providing the link between defence and attack.

George Bowerman:

He had to be included, didn't he? Despite no longer being our best striker, he will start as first choice due to his performances for us so far. 77 goals in 84 games is an incredible record and I think anything between 12 and 15 goals for him this season would count as a success, with others chipping in elsewhere. Elliot Lee is his biggest threat, but he'll get the chance to show what he can do in League Two before we consider changing it around.

Expectations & Budgets:

Board Expectations

League Two: Fight bravely against relegation

FA Cup: 1st Round

League Cup: Competitive

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: 2nd Round

Media Prediction

24th

My Expectations

League Two: Survive!

FA Cup: 3rd Round

League Cup: 2nd Round

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: 2nd Round

Transfer Budget

£85k

Wage Budget

£26k

So the board are pretty much expecting relegation, they'd just prefer I didn't roll over and be down by Christmas! They don't expect us to get beyond the 1st Round of the FA Cup or the 2nd Round of the JPT. They don't expect more from us in the League Cup that to be competitive. I would like to see us stay up, whether we finish 10 points clear or manage it only GD, I don't care! It would be some achievement with this squad to stay up. I'd like to see us push for the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, depending on what draw we happen to get before that. The 2nd Round of the other Cup Competitions would suit me just fine, too. The media are predicting us to finish bottom and be relegated, which is fair enough I suppose!

Friendlies:

Not many friendlies to get stuck in to during the pre-season. The win over Northampton, friendly or not, was superb considering they're a League One side. Could have been a lot more than 4, too. A pretty routine victory over Spurs U21 side as well. Can't argue with 2 wins from 2, with the two matches doing a lot for getting our best 11 sorted out, plus getting the players fit for the start of the season.

Opening Fixtures:

4 league games to start the month of August.

Very pleased to start with a home game! Mansfield finished 9th, 2 places and 4 points off the play-offs, so a tough start but not overly difficult. I prefer a harder team to begin with to get an early indication of how we might do over the course of the season. Port Vale are to follow who were relegated from League One last season, but are actually predicted to finish as low as 18th! Quite surprising considering most relegated sides and favourites to go back up. Colchester are our second and final home game of the month, they finished 17th in the league last year so should be weaker opposition than the previous two. Then we end the month away to Morecambe, which will be a really tough match as they finished in 7th in the final play-off spot last season. Definitely the hardest game of the opening 4. So, some good tests in there, and I'd be happy to take 3 or 4 points from those. Most likely a win against Colchester and maybe a point from the opening game against Mansfield.

That's pre-season then! Next update will likely be tomorrow once I've reached the end of October and gotten a few months in to the new season.

[Kris.]

Outstanding stuff Kris, what a brilliant read.

Cheers! Glad you're enjoying it.

[gav-ffc]

Top read, keep it up Kris.

[Anthony Fitzgerald]

Brilliant read, looking forward to the next addition!

[Kris.]

Top read, keep it up Kris.

Brilliant read, looking forward to the next addition!

Cheers!

I'll hopefully get something up in the next couple of days. Been busier than I thought finishing off a project for a client and haven't had a minute to get any game time in.

[Kris.]

It's been nearly 2 weeks since my last update, so this one is more than a little overdue. It will entail updates from the first 2 months of the season...

August 2017

Carling Cup:

I don't really care about this competition, but I would like to make it at least to the 2nd round, the board just want me to be competitive, so I think the 2nd round would just about satisfy them.

So as you can see, we did make it past the 1st round before coming unstuck away to Charlton in round 2. Leyton Orient of League One were our opponents in the 1st round and we battered them 6-3! Superstar George Bowerman notched a hat-trick. This was only our second match of the season, so it was a good confidence booster. It was only 1-1 at HT too, and there were 4 goals between the 70th and 70th minute alone. Away to Championship side Charlton we actually played really well, but they scored all 3 goals after ET when the players were pretty much dying on their arse. So it was a heavy defeat, but the scoreline was definitely harsh.

Sky Bet League Two:

So I posted our first 4 league fixtures in the last update, with home games against Mansfield and Colchester and away ties at Port Vale and Morecambe. I would have been happy with 3 or 4 points from a possible 12...

We got 7! A disappointing, but not surprising defeat to Mansfield on the opening day. What was disappointing was not taking our chances as we had more than double the amount of efforts on goal than the opposition and probably deserved a point. The Leyton Orient cup game was definitely the catalyst for a good month as after that win, we took a great point away to Port Vale, levelling up in injury time, having been reduced to 10 men with 15 minutes left. Again we were the better side but couldn't take our chances, Bowerman missing a few made me doubt whether he should be starting at this level - and it was his replacement that got the equaliser. Two good wins followed against Colchester and Morecambe. Both results quite significant because not only did we get our first ever 3 points in the Football League, but we managed our first clean sheet and away win as well. Bowerman who I'd had a few doubts about scored a last minute winner in that Morecambe game - he did however miss a penalty as well which might have made the result more comfortable. I won't bother showing a league table as we've only played 4 games, but at this point we were 7th in the final play-off spot. A great start!

September 2017

Sky Bet League Two:

Having been put out of the Carling Cup, we would only face league fixtures this month - 6 of them! So plenty of games ahead to give us a chance to build on our good start. Another fair distribution of home/away matches with 3 each. Two particularly difficult games against Exeter and Carlisle - both have won all 4 of their opening games.

Another good month, so our good start continues! The first result of the month at home to Accrington looks pretty grim, but we did have Garcia Rey sent off after 34 seconds! And even after that we could still have scored more than the one goal. Going in to the Exeter game concerned me as we had just conceded 4, albeit with 10 men. In this tie we ended up conceding 3 with 11! We actually came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 but we couldn't hold on. Regardless though, it was an excellent point. We built on that and went on to take 7 points from our next 3 games, including a win against Carlisle who were top of the table. The issue clearly though, is conceding goals. At this point in the month, we'd conceded 10 in 5 games, and there's not much room for movement in defence as we're playing the best back 4 we can right now. We rounded off the month with a defeat to lowly Luton, conceded another 3 goals and this time being on the wrong end of a last minute goal. Prior to the game, we were sitting 4th and a win would have seen us move to 3rd and a point off the top of the table. Instead...

...we're still 7th, the position we started the month in. We are only 4 points off the top of the table and 3 off the automatic promotion places. Frustrating looking at that and seeing where we could have been were it not for that defeat to Luton. That goals conceded tally though, 17 in just 10 matches is ridiculous, although we can counter that with being the leagues joint-top scorers. From our start so far, if we can sort out conceding so many goals then I don't see why we can't at least make the play-offs, we've taken to the step up pretty well so far IMO. George Bowerman only started one game during that month, the first one against Accrington. His replacement Elliot Lee scored 3 in his 5 games and got an assist too. Good competition for places up front though. Ellis Bellamy wanted to terminate his loan by the way - after not featuring in either the first league game against Mansfield, or cup game against Leyton Orient...so 2 games without an appearance and apparently he's not playing enough. What a c**t. I didn't let him leave and now he'll likely be stuck on the bench for the remainder of his time with us.

The month of October sees us with 5 league matches and also our Johnstone's Paint Trophy campaign gets underway and we've been drawn away to Portsmouth in that one. The next update will contain October through to December.

[Kris.]

October 2017

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

I wanted to reach the 2nd round of this cup, but I didn't realise that I actually start in the 2nd round, so I've adjusted my target to reach the 3rd. We were drawn away to Portsmouth who ply their trade in League Two as well, so it's a good opportunity to make it through.

Well, we did it! However, despite leading 2-0 at one stage, we had to settle for scraping by on penalties. Not ideal, but it's all about getting through in the end. We'll be at home to Southend of League One in the next round, which should be a decent test for us.

Sky Bet League Two:

Back to the 'bread and butter' stuff then, our league campaign. A favourable looking month ahead actually, with all but one of our opponents sitting in the bottom half of the table. We'd start the month at home with the hardest match - Burton, and end it at home to the weakest side we'd face this month - Hartlepool. I would be hoping for maybe 8 points here.

Our best month yet! A couple of points extra than a thought we would get, which is pretty good. It wasn't a good start to the month though, as we lost to Burton. We trailed 2-0, fought back to 2-2 then lost it late on. This preceded the cup game at Portsmouth which was a reverse of this one where instead of fighting back from 2-0 down, we blew a 2-0 lead. Anyway, it didn't effect us too much and after that cup game at Portsmouth, we went on to record 3 wins from 4 and concede just 1 goal! I did say in the previous update that if we could cut out conceding the amount of goals we were then we might have a better than expected season and it although it's taken a little while, it seems that the defence might just be sorting itself out.

I should mention as well, since I forgot previously - I'm groundsharing with Yeovil until mid-November as our ground is being upgraded. So, beating them at 'their' place was as good as a home game for us. So those 10 points left the table at the end of October as follows:

4th! It's worth noting though that despite our lofty position, we're only 4 points clear of the side in 14th place! Mental. Which is strangely the same amount of points we are off the top. Very tight to say the least, so a bad run next month could see us plummet down to maybe the bottom half. We only had 3 league games scheduled for next month, due to the FA Cup getting started and our continuation in the JPT.

[Kris.]

November 2017

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

So I beat Portsmouth in the 2nd Round last month and we've been drawn against Southend in this round, which is err, the Quarter Finals. Anyway, Southend are a division above us and sitting mid-table so it's a decent test for the players to see if we can cope.

Another penalty win! And that sees us in to the Semi-Finals, which isn't too shabby. We'll play Luton at home who we faced in the league at the end of September - and lost 3-2. It's definitely a good chance to make a cup final though.

FA Cup:

So, our journey to Wembley starts at home to Hyde of the Conference North. I decided that since we were facing a much lower side than ourselves, that I'd swap the team around. Only 5 of our regular 11 started. Bowerman, Stewart, Gogic, Mansell, Brown and Kennedy were all drafted in. It was a good opportunity for Mansell as he had barely kicked a ball for us all season due to Rodriquez playing well in that position just behind the striker.

A narrow win, but a win all the same! A lot of the players brought in hadn't really played this season, so despite the lowly opposition I wasn't expecting a 4/5/6-0, but would have liked it to a bit more comfortable. Anyway, Mansell took his chance of a rare start and scored the only goal. We'll be away to Oxford in the next round, a League Two side so a good chance of making that lucrative 3rd round and a possible game at a Premier League club.

Sky Bet League Two:

Only three fixtures this month, two of them away from home. Nothing too difficult again this month, as we'll be up against lowly Grimsby and two mid-table sides in Chesterfield and Wrexham. I don't think I'd be too greedy to expect 7 points here, especially since we were now clicking in to gear and becoming a little more consistent.

Meh, 6 points. Not awful, but not great. I was expecting to beat Grimsby and Wrexham but maybe just get a point at Chesterfield. I certainly wasn't expecting our solitary home game to end in defeat, so that was disappointing. In saying that, although Wrexham were in 13th at the beginning of the month, it could be argued that because there was just 4 points between us, that maybe it was a lot tougher a game than I thought it would be, and expecting three points might have been a tad optimistic. But on the other hand, despite the gap between ourselves and Chesterfield in terms of position, the actual small amount of points separating us makes that result look very good indeed. Grimsby was as comfortable as I expected, regardless of the close scoreline.

The Wrexham game was also our first back at our own stadium after the renovation work was completed and just under 3,500 turned up. An increase of around 2,000 on our home attendances whilst at Yeovil. So, the league table at the end of the month was like this:

So that good month sees us move up a place to 3rd and in to the automatic promotion spots! End the season now! Can't quite believe that in our first season in the football league we're sitting 3rd and in with a shot of a 3rd consecutive promotion, if not title. I did say I wanted to establish us as a football league club, but I might have to aim a little higher now. Although, there's still 28 league games to go, plenty of time for it to go wrong yet.

[Kris.]

December 2017

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

We move in to the Semi Final of the South section of the JPT, where we were drawn against Luton of the same division as ourselves. In terms of league positions, at the end of November we were 3rd, and they were 3 places and 2 points behind us, plus they've already beaten us this season, so it's a tough test.

But we won! So we move in to the Final of the South section where we will play Burton, one of the two sides sitting above us in the table, over two legs. IIRC, should we come out on top in those games, we'll play the winners of the North final in a sort of Final Final, which would mean a wee trip to Wembley, not bad. Anyway, the game itself was bit of a non-event, they didn't threaten too much, although neither did we, but we did take a a couple of chances when they came our way. Both legs of the final are in January.

FA Cup:

Another decent draw in the cup, facing another side from our own League, so again, a good chance to progress to that 3rd round. A round which I first reached back in my first season, but haven't made it past the 2nd since then, so I'm hoping we can make it through and get a big draw in the 3rd.

Nope. We go out with a bit of a whimper to be honest. We did have more chances but very few on target and well, just didn't play very well. A really good chance to make the next round and we didn't really give it our best. So with this defeat, we're out of the League and FA Cup now, but we do remain in the JPT.

Sky Bet League Two:

Starting to get a little excited about our league campaign. We were sitting 3rd at the start of the month and were looking up, rather than down. We'd stopped conceding large amounts of goals and were still scoring plenty ourself, so plenty to be confident about. A tough month though, two home games to start against Gateshead and Crewe. Gateshead were near the bottom, with Crewe around mid-table, but due to the tight nature of the league, were only 4 points behind. We then ended the month with 3 away games on the spin. Mansfield who were just in the bottom half, and the other two against Portsmouth and Oxford who both sit in the play-offs. I'd hope to win both home games, then maybe take a couple of points in the away matches. Got to be a little pessimistic given our up and down start, a routine which we could easily slip back in to.

10 points from 15 was excellent. We got those two home wins I expected, struggled to a point at Mansfield and won one/lost one to the two sides in the play-offs. I was a little annoyed that we breezed by Oxford so easily given our average performance in our defeat to them in the FA Cup. Although, if I had to choose between what game I wanted to win more, it would have been the league tie. Promotion would definitely top a cup run for us. The Portsmouth game pretty much mirrored our cup game with Oxford, we were just a bit shit. Didn't take our chances and didn't manage to prevent ourselves from conceding either.

So 2017 would end with the League Two table looking like this:

We end the year in the 3rd place then in that final automatic promotion place, and just a single point off the top! So whilst we haven't moved up the table, we have moved closer to a possible place at the top of the league. Colchester lost their last 3 games of the month, including a 4-1 defeat at home to Portsmouth which certainly helped us both close that gap to them.

So January normally means transfers, and whilst I still have some money left in the transfer and wage budgets, I don't think I'll be bringing anyone in. January, at this level, is usually quite difficult to improve the squad as a lot of the good free transfers have been long snapped up and a lot of players than might be available on loan, are already out at other clubs. So, I don't plan on making any transfers, but I will still keep an eye out just in case. We've been fortunate with injuries and suspensions, so we might just be able to make it to the end of the season, challenging for the league, with the current squad we have. I think at this stage, at exactly the half way point, given our form and our current position, we've got to be looking at the play-offs as an absolute minimum. However, I want that 3rd consecutive league title.

[Kris.]

January 2018

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

Officially at the half way point of my 4th season in charge of Bath City and in the JPT we could be heading for the biggest trophy the club have won in their history so far. I'd argue the JPT is a bigger trophy compared to the Conference title due to the greater standard in the competition.

So, we face Burton Albion over 2 legs in our Final in the South section. We've already faced Burton this season when we were trailing by 2 goals, pulled it back to 2-2 before eventually losing out 3-2. We were in good form so I was confident, especially with the first league being at home, that we would take a victory to hold on to at their place in the 2nd leg.

Well, we didn't get a victory, but a draw is the next best thing. A fairly even game with 10 shots a piece, as well as 5 shots on target each. It's a definite improvement on our league performance against Burton earlier in the season, so that's a positive. Confident we can go to their place and get the win we need.

Sky Bet League Two:

We would start 2018 in a great position in the league. 3rd place and just a single point off the top, so there's plenty to build on and look forward to for the remaining half of the season. One big game this month is an away trip to top of the table Colchester United. We beat them 2-0 earlier in the season, so with the added incentive of possibly going above them in the league, we were looking to do the double over them.

13 points from 15! What a month. It wasn't a particularly good start drawing at home to Stevenage, who were in the lower half of the table, but we did bounce back at home to bottom side Port Vale. 3-0 going on 7. Then the big one at Colchester. I wouldn't have accepted a point here, I wanted all 3. This was a huge chance to get to the top of the league and I didn't want it passing us by. Thankfully, it didn't. An excellent win with George Bowerman getting a rare start, in which he scored 2 in the first half to see us 2-1 up at HT. I'd actually only put him in to face Port Vale to give him a bit of game time since we were playing the bottom side, then forgot to take him out of the starting 11 for this game, although it worked out pretty well in the end! He was replaced earlier in the 2nd half by Elliot Lee, who effectively sealed the game with 15 minutes left giving us our 3rd. We then had back-to-back 3-1 victories against Morecambe and Accrington. This would be Bowerman's first appearance since that win over Colchester. The reason he played was that he was facing his old side, and I wanted to rub it in that since leaving he's scored over 80 goals for us in 2 1/2 seasons. He scored, of course. Greggy's all round.

After that win over Colchester, the table looked like this:

3 vital points that moved us top! Albeit on H2H (I think), as we had identical records at this stage. At the end of the month though, the table was as follows:

The first time we've ended a month top of the table and it comes just as we're moving in to the final few months of the season. We're building up a bit of momentum at just the right time. 5 points clear in the automatic promotion places is pretty good as well, so even if we were to come off the top, there is a little gap to keep us at least in with a shout of being automatically promoted. Colchester have shat it, I think. They've only picked up 13 points since the end of November, compared to our 23. In the same time Portsmouth have picked up 21. So, if things keep going as they are, you might see ourselves and Portsmouth pulling away from the rest a little.

Transfers:

I did end up bringing someone in after all, as my scout came back to me saying Bristol City had a boy available on loan and as it turns out he'd actually be good enough to go straight in to the starting 11. With us not having to pay a penny towards his wages, it wasn't a tough decision. He'll end up replacing Jack Byrne in midfield and slot in alongside Craig Eastmond.

Decent enough stats for this level. Good vision, passing, work rate and composure is something I like in a central midfielder, so he's a perfect signing.

Not quite signing news, but Ruben Garcia Ray is 'homesick' and it was affecting his morale, so he's currently on a leave of absence which has given Troy Brown an opportunity in defence, and he's been playing pretty well.

[Kris.]

February 2018

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

The last cup competition we're in, sees us travel away to Burton Albion for the 2nd leg of our South section Final. A win here and we'll face the winner of the North section in a Final of Finals.

A 2-2 draw actually means we go through on away goals - had no idea away goals counted! It was 1-1 until the 91st minute when they went in front for the second time in the game, only for us to equalise in the 93rd and steal a place in that Final. A trip to Wembley it is then, and we'll face Oldham Athletic of League One.

Sky Bet League Two:

February was a busy month for fixtures. If you include the cup game at Burton, we had 6 in total. Some tough games in here, as we host both Exeter and Luton who currently sit in 2 of the 4 play-off spaces. We'd also have to come up against Carlisle who are just a couple of points outside the play-offs, with the other two fixtures being against bottom half side Fleetwood & Cheltenham.

A little erratic to say the least. We started the month by absolutely dicking Exeter at home 5-0, who at the time were only outside the automatic promotion places on GD and were in fact only 5 points behind ourselves. Then it was a little bit of a shock defeat away to Cheltenham, before we expertly bounced back at home to Fleetwood. I put that Cheltenham result down to just being a one off. But no, we travelled to Carlisle a week later and were battered 4-1, and we were lucky it was only 4! And the bizarre sequence of results continued as we beat play-off side Luton comfortably by 3 goals to 1. A strange month overall then, but 9 points on the board. I'd have liked another 2 or 3 on top of that, but we beat the two sides who were the closest to us in the table out of the 5 sides, so can't complain at that.

With just two months and 13 games to go, would we still be sitting at the top?

Yes we would be! Thankfully other sides around us were dropping points as well, so we maintained our 3 point gap ahead of 2nd place. Got to be thinking we can hold on now and get promotion, if not the championship.

[Kris.]

March 2018

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:

The Final of Finals then, as we travel to Wembley to face Oldham Athletic to win our first major (at this level) cup competition. No injury worries, no suspensions, everyone fully fit and ready to make history.

And history was made! Only 15,319 at the game, was expecting maybe double that. We were 2-0 up going in to the last 11 minutes when Oldham got a goal back. Then Ben Barber was sent off for conceding a penalty kick with 4 minutes left, which was converted, with it now looking like Oldham, now having a man advantage, would complete their comeback and get a third. Thankfully we made it to FT with it still 2-2. 8 minutes in to ET and Elliot Lee, probably our best signing of the season, scored his second to put us back in front. We held on! An incredible result, considering Oldham would go on to finish 3rd in League One and qualify for the play-offs (haven't gotten as far as to see how those games pan out, though).

Sky Bet League Two:

JPT win secured, it was back to the league campaign to try and secure promotion to League One, which would be our 3rd promotion on the bounce. Again, I was hoping for a 3rd title, never mind promotion. 6 league matches this month, a quite busy schedule, but I'd been working on the players fitness since January to try and get them ready for this part of the season and so far it was paying off. We'd kick off the month away to 5th placed Burton before the final 5 games of the month coming against sides who were all in the bottom half. Couldn't have asked for a better month to pick up some points going in to the final 7 games. I wanted at least 12-15 points here.

That wasn't quite how it panned out though! We lost to Burton, meaning we'll have played them 4 times this season and not won any of them. Our bogey team! We bounced back with 3 wins on the spin, building up some momentum before the two away games to finish the month. The momentum was halted drastically away to Hartlepool as we lost 4-1 away for the 2nd time in 3 matches. In fact, that was our 4th defeat in 5 away games in the league, which is a pretty poor record when you're sitting top of the league. It didn't get much better away to Wrexham as again we failed to win, just 1 win in 6 away games now. Woeful. If you include the Burton cup game, then it was 1 win in 7 away games in all competitions. Would those results cost us our place at the top of the table?

Nope! Thankfully the sides around us still enjoy dropping points, so we got quite lucky that month. Luton had pulled themselves up to 2nd and 3 points behind us, although we'd played a game less. So for the 3rd month running, we end it just 3 points clear at the top of the table. We don't seem to be able to pull away at all. 1 month, 7 games left, 21 points to play for.

[Kris.]

April/May 2018

Sky Bet League Two:

Our final 7 games stretch in to the first weekend in May, so I'll cover that in the same section as April. So we were 3 points clear of Luton at the end of March, but with an important game in hand, which if won would see us pull away from them a bit. We started the month with a home game against Chesterfield, which would be our game in hand and an away game at Stevenage.

2 wins from 2, and those wins guaranteed our spot in the play-offs for promotion to League One. An away win, too, ya dancer! We would then face back-to-back home games against Grimsby and Oxford, before an away tie against Gateshead. If we picked up a reasonable amount of points and other results went our way, we could actually guarantee promotion during these run of games.

A shite result at home to Grimsby. Not the best start to these run of games! We bounced back with back-to-back 3-1 wins against Oxford and Gateshead. Which meant...

PROMOTION! It was actually guaranteed after the Oxford game, but I forgot to get a screenshot until after the Gateshead match. So that is our 3rd consecutive promotion, we'll be in League One next season! 2 matches to go 3 points and a better GD clear of Luton to try and seal the title on top of the promotion.

Portsmouth would be our penultimate game of the season. A team who for so long had battled with us for top 3, only now they've slipped down to 4th. Luton would be at home to Bury who were 5th from bottom. I expected both of us to win and take that 3 point gap in to the final day of the season. The GD prior to the game was only +6 in our favour, so if we went in to the final game 3 points clear, a win for Luton and a defeat for us wouldn't exactly require two ridiculous scorelines to see them pip us to the title. Hopefully we could avoid that potentially happening though.

Our result:

Luton's result:

f**k yer promotion. Bath City are champions yet again! Our 3rd consecutive title win to follow on from the Vanarama Conference South and the Vanarama Conference. If you add in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, this is our 4th trophy in my 5 season in charge. What a team. League One football for the first time in Bath's history. Scenes.

One game to go then, and we end our season away to Crewe. George Bowerman had started a lot of games recently as I was trying to get him to reach 100 goals for us before we possibly release him in the summer. Before the game he was sitting on 98.

He did score, but only the one. So his 3 years at Bath City will end with a competitive record of; 115 appearances | 99 goals. An absolute star for us. Elliot Lee hardly got a look in in the last couple of months due to Bowerman's form, although Lee scored a bagful himself, regardless. In fact, since the Fleetwood game in February, Lee only made one start and 4 sub appearances between then and the end of the season.

So, the final league table looked like this:

Premier League in a couple of seasons time? 'Mon the Bath! Never thought we'd get close to the title after our start to the season, but working on the players fitness from the turn of the year seemed to do the job in the final stages as we kept plugging away and getting victories to get that title. Evidenced by just 6 defeats in 26 games from the beginning of January in all competitions, including 16 wins. Deserved champions IMO.

I'll do another quick update either tonight or tomorrow with a bit of a round-up of the season, before getting fired in to my 5th season with Bath City.

[Kris.]

Season 2017/2018 Round-Up

Not an awful lot to say here, just a quick round-up of some little things from the season just passed.

Player of the Season:

I normally list 3 key players at the end of the season, but instead I'm just going to go with one. The rest were all pretty much on par with one another, whilst this player was head and shoulders above the others. So, our player of the season is Javi Rodriguez. He joined the season before when we were in the Conference for a fee of £20k from Oxford City. In his first season he made 45 appearances (40 starts), scored 7 goals and assisted a further 16. He made the step up this season to a level he'd never played at before and he improved on those stats in the Conference and he started 52 games, scored 11 goals and assisted 24. He also ended the season with a far higher average rating than any of our other players, so this was an easy choice.

Signing of the Season:

This was a tougher one, as a lot of our new signings contributed greatly to our success for the season. However, one guy was brought in to effectively replace our top scorer from the previous seasons, which was never going to be an easy job. He made it seem pretty easy though, as Elliot Lee finished the season with 29 goals in 31 starts (plus 9 sub appearances). We'd never have won the league without him.

Promotion/Relegation:

I'll only bother with the promotion and relegations that would directly affect us for the coming season. So coming up from League Two with us would be Luton and Portsmouth via the automatic spots. Colchester, despite dropping down to 6th, beat Crewe in the play-off final to win promotion as well. In League One, the 4 sides we wouldn't be facing due to their relegation from the division, would be: Newport, Northampton, Scunthorpe and...Bolton ( ). 3 more sides we wouldn't be facing would be Millwall, Plymouth and Coventry as all 3 were promoted to the Championship. Finally, coming down from the Championship and in to League One would be: Ipswich, Hull and Middlesbrough. Which is pretty decent as there's a distinct lack of 'big' clubs in League One for this season. Hull have been relegated 3 times now since this save started - twice from the PL and now the Championship.

Next update will be the usual pre-season stuff.

[Kris.]

So I've gotten a little bit lazy with this recently, but as I rarely get by 4 seasons in a FM game, I'm determined to make it at least in to double figures for this save, even if the updates are a little less frequent than they were to begin with. Just as a quick catch up before I do my proper update, we're going to be starting our 5th season with Bath City, where we've just been promoted to League One, the highest the club has even been in the English footballing pyramid.

[Kris.]

Season 2018/2019: June 2018 - August 2018

Transfers:

Not a huge amount of changes to the squad if I'm honest. Last pre-season about 20-25 players left the club, although the majority of those were youths. A lot of players were out of contract again, but I've decided to retain the best of them. This time out, only 5 players would leave, but we've brought in good replacements for them. I did f**k up in one area - loans. I was struggling to find free transfers who were better/on par with what we had, so I was forced in to the loan market where I brought in 6 players - yet you can only have up to 5 in your matchday squad, so one player will always have to miss out. Fanny. Anyway, the transfers looked like this:

A few players in there with connections to Scottish Football, so most reading this will be aware of at least some of these names! As I mentioned, 5 players left the club, 4 due to their contracts expiring and one for a transfer fee. Ruben Garcia Rey had been with us for 3 seasons and last season had to take a leave of absence due to homesickness, so when his contract was up it seemed like the best option to just let him go - clearly his homesickness cleared up as he moved on to Yeovil about 6 weeks later, who are about 40 miles south of Bath. Dick. Hopefully he'll get dogs abuse should we ever face Yeovil during his time there. Frederick Champion and Sam Gainford were hard to let go as they were my 2nd and 3rd signings I made after I took over. Champion was more about potential than current ability, but he'd made around 2 sub appearances for us in 2 seasons, so it was obvious we just were never going to help him reach his potential. Gainford however, was a regular for 3 seasons up until we made it in to the Football League and he only appeared once last season, in fact he rarely even made the squad, never mind the starting 11. In those 3 seasons though, he scored 33 goals and assisted a further 26 goals in 101 appearances from the wing. Troy Brown was a back up CB and won't be missed. Connor McManus was brought in with decent potential, but better players were ahead of him in the squad, so when a bid for £10k came in, I bit their hand off for it. He hadn't appeared for us since our season in the Conference.

As for players in, we brought in 9, but only 3 of those on permanent deals. Aleksandar Tonev, Celtic's well known racist was our first signing from Bristol City. I had thought he might have been out of range, but he was on loan in League Two last season, so whilst Bath is a step down from Bristol City, it's a step up from where he was last season. He'll compete with Jonathan Franks for the right-wing position. Jake Reeves is a massive signing. I've been tracking this boy for about 3 seasons now and we just couldn't afford him - Wimbledon wanted £200k when we were in the Conference, which we obviously couldn't afford. Couldn't believe my luck when I seen he was out of contract! He's a CM who can also drop deeper and is comfortably our best player in both positions. Only just turned 25 at the end of the season so he could well be at the club for years. Paul Quinn is our last permanent transfer, joining for a small fee from Ross County. He will replace Dennis Riemer at RB, who we also signed from Ross County! He turned 33 in July, so this might be his only season with us. From the loans, Kieran Wallace and Christian Burgess are the biggest signings as they'll both be automatic first picks at LB and CB respectively. We didn't have a single LB in the squad, so I spent a while scouting around looking for one who was; a) cheap, b) able to go straight in to the starting 11 and Wallace fits that bill. He played against us last season a couple of times as he was on loan at Crawley. His contract is up at United next summer, so if he impresses we might just get him in permanently. Burgess was bought by Blackburn last season for over £300k, and although he didn't feature an awful lot in the Championship, he played a lot of football in League One before that with Peterborough so will bring league experience to the squad - he can also play LB as well. Admittedly, the other loans as there to pretty much beef up the squad a little. Mark Oxley, formerly of Hibs, is on par with our current number one James Talbot, so should make a good backup and I'd have no issues making him number 1 if Talbot was in poor form/injured/suspended. Tom Anderson is another player signed from Sheffield United who will be this seasons Troy Brown and act as backup to the two first choice CB's. Antonio Cuadrado is a young midfielder with a lot of potential. Unfortunately looking at the squad just now, he's likely to be the unlucky loan player who is left out most weeks. I'd terminate his loan but he's too good a backup to not have there just in case. Finally, Michael Folivi is a ST who will also act as backup this season. He did however score 2 goals in 2 starts (plus 4 sub appearances) last season in the Championship, he scored a fair few goals in League Two before that on loan at Stevenage, so I'm hoping he can combine his experience in both and score goals at the level in between.

Oh and you'll notice George Bowerman's name isn't on the list of outs - he agreed a new one year deal! Just couldn't let him go when he was so close to netting 100 goals for us. His playing time will be limited, but he WILL get game time at some point.

Squad:

This will be our squad until the next transfer window. I don't foresee anyone else joining between now and then.

It's not a great looking squad in terms of ability, but there is still a lot of potential in there and I think it's a squad good enough to compete at this level. I'm not expecting a title win this season, I'd settle for survival and building on that.

Key Players:

A little section I squeeze in to every pre-season update. A little look at 2 key players for the season ahead. I normally do 3, but only 2 really stick out above the rest. First up, will be our main striker - Elliot Lee.

He dislodged club favourite George Bowerman last season and he'll continue to do so this season. 29 goals last season and as you can see from the squad list above, he's got great potential to improve on his current ability, which should hopefully see him make the step up in division relatively easily.

Jake Reeves:

I bigged this guy up in the transfer section above, so I had to include him here. He'll be our ball winner in midfield and after 3/4 seasons of chasing him, I've finally managed to bring him in. He's got great stats for this level in all departments, in particular his mental attributes are impressive. He's already valued at over £200k, so a good season here might see us selling him on for a good profit.

Expectations & Budgets:

Board Expectations

League Two: Fight bravely against relegation

FA Cup: 2nd Round

League Cup: Competitive

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: 2nd Round

Media Prediction

24th

My Expectations

League Two: Bottom half/Survive

FA Cup: 3rd Round

League Cup: 3rd Round

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Don't care

Transfer Budget

£160k

Wage Budget

£35k

Not much change from the boards expectations from last year. In fact, reaching the 2nd round rather than the 1st is the only change. They seem like they'll be pretty happy with us to just battle bravely against relegation, as we're expected to struggle again. The media, again, think we'll finish bottom - how'd that work out last season cuntos?

For my own expectations, I would like to comfortably survive in the bottom half of the table. If we can finish 10-15 points clear of the relegation places it'll be a good season. 3rd round of the two main cup competitions would be pretty good as well. Now that I've won the JPT, I don't care what happens this season. Our backup players will get game time in this one.

Good budgets for this season from the board. An increase of around £10k on the wage budget is pretty good, considering we don't pay more than around £2k p/w to any player and a lot of our loans we have, we're only paying small percentages of wages, if anything at all. So with all that taken in to consideration, we still have around £10k free on the budget after transfers. That might come in handy in January. We've also increased our transfer budget from the original £160k by selling Connor McManus, so after transfers we're £3k up in that respect, with £163k available to spend on players. It's unlikely I'll spend any of that though, I'd rather just adjust the budget to increase wages available instead.

We've got about £4m in the bank due to keeping the wage budget under control, not spending a lot on transfers, and a big amount of tv revenue and prize money received, particularly over the last couple of seasons. We've also brought in around about £1.2m in season ticket money this season as well, more than double from last year. Good amount of interest is also brought in with that kind of bank balance, too. We're projected to finish the season with a balance of around £4.6m, which is pretty good. Although in 2 seasons it's projected to be around the £3.1m mark, due to smaller turnover and higher expenditure from now. But, I'm pretty confident if we keep doing what we're doing - and perhaps get lucky in the cups, or even bag another promotion within those 2 seasons, we'll see the bank balance continue to increase.

Friendlies:

Only a couple of friendlies as a couple of matches against bigger clubs got cancelled at the last minute. Two victories from two is pretty good going though, regardless of the opposition. As I've said before, it's all about fitness at this stage.

Other News:

During the pre-season I was offered my first international managerial position - with the USA! A pretty decent job IMO, but like all the other jobs I'd been offered, I turned it down. It's hard enough at times focussing on 50+ club games with Bath, without dealing with International friendlies and competitions as well. I might consider international management at some point, but not now.

We've sold over 2,600 season tickets, around about double what we did last year. I think if we'd started last season in our own ground we'd have sold more than we did, but doubling it for this season is pretty good going anyway. Those 2,600 supporters plus the rest will turn up on the opening day to see us take on Tranmere Rovers, in our first ever League One match.

Next update will be a couple of months in to the season, and I promise not to leave it another week or so for that one. Should get it up tomorrow.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Some JPT performance there.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Shoulda took the USA job

[Binos123sam]

Next update will be a couple of months in to the season, and I promise not to leave it another week or so for that one. Should get it up tomorrow.

Still waiting...

[Kris.]

Whoops. Been quite busy so haven't had the chance to play. I haven't forgotten about it though!