FM Veteran

March

Against Huddersfield we had to rotate a bit due to suspensions, and the only aim for the game was to get a away with a good performance. Unfortunately we didn’t. Huddersfield outclassed us in every aspect of the game, and should probalby won by a bigger margin.
When AFC Wimbledon came to visit we were back to our attacking and dominating selves. Edwin Andersson scored the first in the 41st minute, before Leo Castledine scored a braces with goals in the 43rd and 44th minute. Charlie McNeill increased the tally in the second half. It alwasy a good feeling to win big at home.
Three days later we played Coventry at home and Andersson gaves us the lead after only five minutes. Right before the break Brandon Fleming made it 2-0. In the second half Daniel Gore, once again, came from the bench and contributed with a goal.
Against Crewe both our main strikers was missing, so the youngster Jeff Edwards got a rare chance in the starting eleven. He needed 11 minutes to score the winning goal and win us three important points.
The two last games before the international break didn’t go very well, but at least we gave Reading a good fight for the points with McNeill scoring our goal. Against Shrewsbury we were up for the task and they continue to overachieve this season. Predicted 19th, but fighting for a spot in the play offs.

On a more positive note Leo Castledine was voted both player and young player of the month for March. The loanee is definitely destined for bigger things.

April/May

We have nothing to play for with four games left, other than our honor and maybe a slighlty better position on the table. First off we got smashed by Forest Green, but we outscored them on xG. I know goals win games, but the it’s good to see the underlying stats going in our favour despite losing the game.
Against Sheff Wed we scored on 50% of our shots on target. McNeill scored a hattrick in 18 minutes and killed the game off early. 20 minutes later he scored his fourth and the second half was mostly about keeping our cool and don’t fuck up.
Castledine scored the opener away to Morecambe before the equalized right before half time, after also missing a penalty. The second half was a stalemate, before McNeill found the net in the 90th minute.
The lat game of the season was a draw to Colchester that we should’ve won. With 17 shots we created enough chances to win it, but only three of them was on target. Anyway we had a good finish to the season and something to build upon throughtout the summer

Season Review

We didn’t take League One by storm like we did previous season, and in a way it’s good that we don’t go back to back promotions forever. We’ve found the level of the team and we had our ups and downs this season. We played some good games that we can build on, and we had some bad games we already learned from. A top half finish in our first season is exceed every expectations before the season started. However, I’m very oriented on how we can improve and always looking forward to get better.
We didn’t score enough goals this season to compete for the playoffs, as you can see from the analysts.

The datahub also confirm that our stats are by far the best in the league when it comes to passing. One thing I need to think about are the directness. It may be beneficial to be more direct in periods, to create more chances and increase the goals.

The player of the season this year, for me(and the fans), is Dominic Rogerson. He’s been with us since the first season and best in training week in week out. He’s now played 144 league games and 163 games in total for the club. This season is his best so far, with 21 clean sheets in the league and several great performances in the cups. Without him we would’ve gone out earlier in both cups this season.

As you can see his develop into a good shotstopper and the stats from the datahub shows that he got the best stats in the league.
He’s now wanted by Blackburn, but hopefully we can keep him for anothers season.

Academy

It’s been a good season for the players from the academy with four new academy players making their senior debut. We also got our first international call up from the academy and have seen both Eric Vogel and Jeff Edwards getting capped at U19 level for their countries.
With money coming in this season we’ve invested in improving the youth facilities, and that work will be completed late August this year. We’ve also improved the youth coaching and recruitment. The recruitment is now average, with coaching beeing excellent. A big step in the right direction for the academy. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of those investments yet, but we’ve got some exciting player through this years youth intake:

At the end of this season we now see one academy graduate with over 100 apps for the club. Two others now has double digits as well, and I reckon that by this time next year more will have over ten games for the first team.

I’ll also add in the player profiles of the most exciting graduates and the ones that are with the first team now.