Welcome back to Mousehole AFC, If this is your first visit to this series you can catch up here.
We covered our build up to the season previously and were are raring to get stuck into the season.
We will be starting with the Domestic Cups, which at this level will be a real source of income if progressing far enough.
FA trophy
The FA trophy is the non league version of the League Cup. We will be taking it as seriously for now.
We do well to progress through the first two rounds of qualifying, The home tie against Barton Rovers was as easy as it seems. After this, our reward was a long old trip to Merseyside to face the little know City of Liverpool.
We sneak through on penalties but the next round was one step too far, losing away to Enfield Town.
The FA Cup
Lets be honest, this is the glamorous knockout competition for us and could see us play against some massive clubs in comparison to our weekly opponents.
I would love to enjoy a run in the Cup as we progress through this Journey.
We started our adventure with a visit from Virginia Water, who are dispatched comfortably. We were rewarded with a trip to a fallen giant of sorts as we travel all the way up to Bury.
Bury were a league club as recently as 2019 but appalling management from their owner and previous financial trouble has sadly caused them to be expelled from the league and start from the ground up.
As you can see they are still a MASSIVE club as over 4 and a half thousand people turn out to see this FA Cup Preliminary Round. The hordes of people were treated to a tense 1-1 draw and we will do it all again back at the more modest Trungle Parc and the rest is history as we sneak a 1-0 victory to progress into the qualifying rounds.
We came up against a solid Helston Athletic side an our Journey in the Fa Cup ends.
£7,000 may not sound a lot in the grand scheme of things but its over 6 weeks player wages covered.
The League
Our bread and butter and the absolute priority. We need to clamber up the leagues fast and these lower leagues need to put behind us ASAP.
August, September and October
Its a very positive start as we only those three times across the three months. We have clearly recruited well defensively (If you ignore the result away at Yate). This has allowed us to pick up some important points in tight encounters.
As for our attacking threat, Josh Grant is proving very prolific up front and others are chipping in to, including young attacking midfielder Francis Agyapong who was in the youth team until it was clear he could be of assistance to the first team.
At 17 his key attributes are outstanding and I can see him being a mainstay in the first team for a while.
November and December
After the positive start we needed November and December to continue in that vein of form. We have some big games coming up too with a trip to Runaway leaders Frome Town.
We suffer back to back defeats for the first time this season as we lose to Bemerton Heath and Frome Town in November. Bemerton Heath were the first team to deny us a goal also.
We end the year with a few too many draws and defeats and not enough wins.
Half Way Table
Lets see how we are getting on at the half way stage of the season.
We sit in 6th place, just one spot outside of the playoffs with a game in hand over the teams above us. We are well within the reach of the playoffs but Frome are riding off into the distance with the only automatic promotion spot.
Youth Intake Preview
Its time for the Intake preview and I will be honest, no matter what this says I have a feeling we will be a tad disappointed with the outcome in March.
Seems we have a perfect intake coming. Lets not count our chickens shall we?
January, February and March
I am hoping that November and December was one of those classic "Sticky Patches" we sometimes get.
Anyway its anew year, we have made no new signings and wont due to the financial perils that come with Part Time football.
Its another really strong run of results as we find ourselves on the losing side just three time through the three months. those three defeats coming against Bemerton Heath and Frome who do the double over us and one of our direct rivals for the last play off place Wimbourne.
Even with these defeats it puts us right in the picture for that elusive play off spot
Youth Intake
Lets see the latest group of recruits to come through the doors of Trungle Parc.
And remember, we were promised A ratings everywhere!!
It is not looking like it has come to fruition. But you never know, there may be a diamond in the rough.
The one to Jump out at me was Joe Howard-Cherry. His physicals are very solid and has fantastic workrate and team work which will help him on that left had side.
We are light on Left Backs and only really have our starting left back in the squad so he may be a useful back up if needed.
April
This is it, the "Business end of the season" We need to be almost perfect and hope that teams around us drop a point or two along the way.
We are perfect! What a time to put our first perfect month together. We've done all we can, lets see where we have finished.
Final League Table.
We have snuck into the last playoff place! Melksham Town dropped some serious points in the last month of the season to allow us to steal that final spot!!!
The Playoffs
Its a fantastic effort to get into the top 6 in our first season not only of his journey but in this league. We have ben drawn against Evesham, who finished second in the league. We are yet to beat them this season in 2 attempts.
We still haven't technically beaten Evesham, but we have made the playoff final!!
An 81st minute equaliser from substitute Theo Simpson clinched us a draw forcing penalties!
As you can see from the results above 2nd place Evesham lost and so did 3rd place Bremerton Heath leaving the 4th and 5th placed teams in the final. The playoffs can be cruel sometimes.
Playoff Final
So here we are, the Final. Sadly there is no expense spent at this level and because we are the lower seeded team the game will be played at Wimbourne's Stadium.
To Make matters even worse we are missing some key players through injury and suspension. Our starting right midfielder, Stephen Ogundare and remember I said we were light at left back? well our left back Joe Stanley was out also. Hell of a debut in store for youngster Howard-Cherry.
WHAT A DEBUT IT WAS!! Howard- Cherry scores on his professional debut to set us on our way for Promotion at the first time of asking!
The win was sealed by back up right midfielder, Sam Roberts with his first league goal of the season.
A brilliant brilliant Season.
Well, that is season 1 complete. Its been a fantastic start! We have hired well defensively and found a sneaky Goal scorer in Josh Grant who bagged 27 goals in 37 league games.
Next episode we will be building up to the start of Season 2, this time in the Southern League Premier Central!
Thank you so much for reading, I know its been a longer episode than normal but I was so enthralled with the season I could not stop playing!
Cheers All
Panda
If you are new to the page then please feel free to check out our previous save.
A Stade Rennais-sance was our Beta save that we extended. Taking control of Stade Rennes, we attempted to overthrow PSG. You can start the Journey from Here.
