At the end of the previous episode we left the season finely poised at the half way stage. It had been a strong start to the season as we sat very comfortably in 10th place.
If you would like to catch up fully on the first half of the season you can do so here.
Here is a reminder of a few rules and aims of the save that we have in place.
Save Aims and Rules
To make it more interesting lets introduce a few Aims and rules for the save.
Aims
To become a professional football team for the first time in the clubs history.
Become a League Club.
Win some major silverware.
Rules
Only Sign English Players
This may sound like an easier save rule, however I like the idea of limiting the scope of our signings.
Promote 3 Players a season from the youth intake into the first team squad.
This will focus the save upon developing the local lads to become the future of the club.
Fill the backroom staff with former players and legends along the way.
This will add a different twist when trying to improve the clubs standing. Developing staff as well as players.
We pick up the season in the January Transfer window.
January Transfer Window
The budget wasn't looking that healthy after the strong moves we made during pre season so I was mainly looking to add some depth with some promising youngsters on loan.
We managed to secure two loans for troublesome positions.
Zac Ashworth was brought in on a fee loan from West Brom. Offering cover at left back after our regular starter George Wells picked up a few injuries through the season.
Harley Curtis also joins us on loan, this time from Ipswich. He will again offer rest and injury cover for our starting right midfielder, Aaron Eyoma.
Both of these youngsters may prove handy in a pinch on the run in and as we are not contributing anything to their wages its a clear win win.
January 2022
We restart the action in January with 5 league games ahead of us. So lets dive straight in.
On the surface it looks a poor month but games against Stockport and Wrexham are as tough as they come at this level and Aldershot are always up there chasing the promotion.
Victories against Wealdstone and FC Halifax were welcomed.
Youth Intake Preview
The end of January marks an exciting time as we get a small insight to to the Youth Intake later on in the season.
This is always an important time for any club, however it signals the start of one of our own personal challenges during this journey as we are required to promote 3 players from the youth academies to the first team.
Looks promising indeed. Strong prediction down the whole spine of the team. Will be very interesting to see if this preview gets anywhere near a reality.
February 2022
We power through to another busy month. With the fixtures looking a lot more favourable I am hoping for a good run of results.
Well it wasn't perfect but the wins were very welcome, all coming alongside a clean sheets.
The Defeats were poor results however and we had plenty of chances to win both games. Bit of tiredness creeping into the squad.
March 2022
The games come think and fast at the business end of a season like this as we again have 5 games in front of us.
Its another decent run of results which incredibly keeps us in with a really long shot of reaching the playoffs. We will need to be almost perfect over the last two months.
Youth Intake
The beginning of April saw us welcome our newest recruits into the youth system.
Lets meet the lads.
So the intake preview was pretty accurate when it highlighted the spine of the team as where the potential was going to be.
There were the only 5 players who we decided to keep hold of.
I'm excited to see how these lads develop and I have very high hopes for Smith and Sparrow
April 2022
April is the last full month of the season and if we have any chance of sneaking into the play offs we need almost all victories and for some results to go our way.
Oh how close can you get! 4 wins out of 5 with some brilliant performances. Sadly the loss came early on and all but ended our thin hopes. Still a wonderful run of results.
May 2022
We enter the last month of the season knowing that it will be the highest up the leagues that the club has ever finished.
This confirms what a successful season it has been, and a great foundation for the rest of the journey.
Result bingo in the last month of the season. Not much to play for at this point.
Final League Table
10th place for us in our first season is a fantastic effort, well clear of our predicted position of 19th.
Very happy with our league performances.
Cup Competitions
Lets start our cup competition round up with the FA Cup.
A fantastic chance to fill the bank account.
We had a really good run into the third round as we saw off lower opposition twice as well as our league rivals Yeovil.
Millwall wasn't the glamourous Third round tie we were all hoping for, but we gave them a great game only to be overpowered towards the final stages.
Now for the FA Trophy.
Not as entertaining as the FA Cup run this year as we are knocked out in the fourth round after making wholesale changes.
These competitions will add the illusive opportunity to hit the jack pot and score that glamour tie and I am looking forward to having another crack at the Fa Cup third round.
Season Review
Next time around we will be covering pre season as well as any club improvements and changes we have been making.
Cheers
Panda
If you want to check out our other FM22 Save The Darmstadt Dream why not start from the beginning right here?
Or our most recent series, Growing up in Guernsey which you can start from the beginning here
