Division 1!
We’re up to Division 1 now after back to back promotions, and due to a few shock relegations, we’ll be welcoming some of the big teams and names to little Sandy Lane, capacity currently 6000 (1000 seated)!
First up, start of the season fun! Unsurprisingly everyone in the squad wants a pay rise. And it’s a massive one! the jump from D3 to D2 means about 100/150pw rise for most players to 450/500pw. But the jump to D1 more than DOUBLES EVERYONES WAGES!! Good job we’ve been saving up and the 2 cup runs last year brought in a lot of cash!
Club Captain Danny Carter is now worth £1.1m, after his meteoric impact in his debut season Kenny Betts is £400k at 20, and we’re joined by 4 graduates from the reserves – 3 MC’s and 1 AC. Two of the midfielders we’re going to let go – Tony Mills and Mark Prior – but the other 2 we’re going to try and bring on during the season – decent looking midfielder Brian McPherson, and £200k rated already Lee Small.
Found a few decent names to play against in preseason friendlies – Pecs, Slobodia and SPARTA! We’re also in the Anglo-Italian cup now, one of the strangest, short lived minor competitions ever, Woo! And Northampton are the team to replace relegated Exeter in D3.
There’s a couple of big transfers as West Ham and Arsenal offload arguably their best players after being relegated to Division 1. Good news for us as I wont have to face Merson and Hutchison this season! Our own N.I. International Paul Williams is 31 now so we draft in a future replacement found whilst trawling through the teams to see who else got promoted from the reserves – Junior Hunter! What a great name!
Preseason doesn’t get off to a good start with Carter breaking his arm after the first game and is out for 7 weeks! We’ve got enough cover up front with Betts, Connolly, Hancox and the new lad Small so we kick off our first match in the second tier against Milwall away, throwing in Small up front after he did alright in the rest of the preseason friendlies.
It’s a cagey affair with chances going begging, before we get the breakthrough, Betts opening his account for the season with a good finish, but we can’t hold on to it and after sub Chris Myers gets sent off in the second half, Millwall equalise and we start off the season with a point, which the board is happy with!
Before the second match we get another injury, Karl Connolly breaking his arm too! It’s one of the big teams and names at Sandy Lane next as Southampton visit, with Matthew Le’Tissier! We just about see them off too with Betts playing out of his skin to overshadow Le’Tiss and get our first 3 points.
Then in the third game against Brighton, who have followed us up the divisions, star player Betts gets injured as well after a nasty challenge by Steve Swales which sees him get a red!! Steve Mulrain, who has installed himself as our workhorse midfielder nicks us a goal towards the end for the win, but we’ve got one of those situations you never want, our 3 main strikers all out of action – it’s an Injury Crisis!!
We draft in journeyman Ian Benjamin on a free to help cover, and go with him, Hancox and graduate Small up front for a few games whilst the main three rehab back to full fitness. We draw 0-0 with Tranmere, last seasons A.I. Cup winners, and sneak 2 narrow victories over Peterborough and West Ham, with Andy Howard stepping up from midfield to score and take home 2 more MoM awards.
We may not be scoring many with the injuries hampering our attack, but we’re keeping clean sheets thanks to our young back line of Craddock, Collins, Limbert and Buxton in goal, and they’re ALL rewarded with call ups to the England U21 squad!
Then we visit Highbury again. After losing out to them last season over 2 legs in the League Cup Semi Finals they’ve dropped a division and haven’t replaced Merson. Kenny Betts returns to our starting line up and shows us what we’ve been missing, bagging one just before the break! Arsenal are nowhere near the team they were last season and we slowly take control, first Hancox, then Myers scoring to give us a great 3-0 win and a small bit of revenge for last seasons defeat, and leaving the Gunners languishing mid-table!
It’s not the final straw, but it comes soon after in a defeat to Peterborough, and George Graham is out of there! And so begins the manager go round as Buxton at Sunderland has had enough, as have Hull as Allardyce goes, Bryan Robson moves takes over at Arsenal and we go again!
We’ve got Portsmouth in the League cup first this year, and get off to a bad start losing the first leg 2-0. The next game against Norwich at home is a turning point, we’re nearly back to full strength with Carter back, and it’s you score, we score as we edge out the Canaries 3-2. It’s a confidence boosting win as we go on to brush aside Hull 3-0 then in the second leg against Portsmouth it takes us 10 minutes to level the tie before running out 4-0 winners. We’re rewarded with a big game against last seasons F.A. Cup winners Oldham! So much for not having to face Hutchison this season!
We beat Portsmouth again in the league as well as Wimbledon and then host Oldham. They’re pushing for a European spot and doing well in the Cup Winners Cup, seeing off Legia Warsaw, so it’s a shock when we outplay them and go in 1-0 up at the break! Maybe this tournament is their lowest priority this season as they offer little more in the second half and Betts bags a brace as we comfortably win 3-0 and we get to go to the City Ground in Nottingham to play Forest!
Betts’ performances and recovery from injury means he joins our defenders in the England U21 squad as we continue unbeaten in the league, winning six on the bounce to put us 6 points clear at the top over Southampton, as well as seeing off Millwall and Notts County to qualify for the next stage of the Anglo-Italian!
Just before the halfway point in the season we head to Nottingham Forest’s City Ground for what turns out to be an epic cup tie. Forest are struggling in the Premier, rock bottom, and we’re at full strength again with Connolly back, and it’s an even game to start. Forest have an early goal disallowed before Betts slides one in! The lead is short lived as 2 minutes later Steve Stone equalises. 1-1 at the break. After 60 minutes Carter gets away and slides another one past the keeper to give us back the lead, but we can’t hold on again as 3 minutes later Colin Cooper heads home. It’s all square at full-time so we play an extra 30 minutes. It’s end to end but with few clear chances it remains 2-2, so we go to penalties!
Betts scores our first spot kick, and our stand in keeper Beasley, in for injured Buxton, SAVES the first attempt from Collymore. We find the net with each of our next 3 penalties as Joachim scores, but both Steve Stone’s and Dean Holdsworth’s shots are brilliantly saved by Beasley and we go through 5-3 on pens to get to the quarter finals again, Division 2 Birmingham our opponents this time!
Our last game before the halfway point is Leicester away, and it results in our first league defeat of the season. A full strength Rochdale team are outplayed and look a bit lacklustre as the Foxes come from a goal down at half time to win 2-1!
At the halfway point then we’re top. Betts is the top scorer, with Carter, Betts and Howard the best rated players so far. Teddy Sheringham leads the scorers list in the Premier as Spurs and Man Utd battle for the title, Gary Speed the best rated player for the 3rd season running. At the other end new boys Northampton are struggling, but Wrexham look like they’re heading out of the league unless they can turn things around.
So in the second half of the season we have the international part of the AI cup to come, first up the mighty Bari, a league cup quarter final versus Division 2 toppers Birmingham, and can we stay ahead of the pack in the race for promotion to the Premier League after our first slip up? We’re 8 points ahead of Sothampton with Norwich and Leicester 12 and 13 points behind respectively. The draw for the 3rd round of the FA Cup also pairs us up again with Nottingham Forest, another epic cup tie on the cards against the Prems basement team?
Find out next week!
I4NI 
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