Championship Manager 93 - Taking the Spireites to new heights! - Part 7

Fully expecting Junior Bent - our best player, England's best player, and the Premier League's best player... to end up joining a Spanish or Italian side in the post season, I was surprised when I got through the update to find he was still a Chesterfield player! So after fully preparing, and expecting he would depart, it turns out we have him for a least a little bit more time yet! That being said, there were still improvements and strengthenings to be made in order to bolster the squad. I brought in a new Left Back; Mike Whitlow from Liverpool for £400k, a new / cover Centre Back; John Polston from Sheffield Wednesday for £600k and a new / cover left sided Central Midfielder in Ceri Hughes from Southampton for £750k. Opting to stick with the existing strike options in Bent, Brightwell, Adebola and Kerslake. I left my transfer business in the pre season at that, or at least, temporarily...

As was becoming customary, our first test was the Charity Shield, this year against Sheffield United who finished runners up to us in the league, and deciding to continue with my contingency plan I put together expecting Junior Bent's departure I went with a forward three of Brightwell, Kerslake and Adebola. And in a fairly routine win, we got the better of The Blades 3-1 to add our third Charity Shield to the trophy cabinet.

Although, thanks to injuries and fitness, Bent did end up working his way back into the squad, and kicking off the beginning of a new Premier League season we made a statement of intent with a 4-0 win over Norwich at home initially staking us at the top of the table. Followed by wins at Southampton, against Blackburn, at Man City, and a great 5-0 win at home against Coventry, to make it 5 wins from 5 before we came slightly unglued against Sheffield Wednesday, drawing 1-1 with The Owls. A draw at Chelsea followed before we were back to winning ways against Portsmouth, and then against West Brom Albion in our first League Cup tie, however our Goalkeeper Stuart Ford picked up an injury meaning we would have to rely on backup Lee Atkinson, a product of our youth team, for support over the next 7 games. One of those games being our First Round Tie against Dynamo Moscow in the European Cup.

Things started safely enough, we picked up wins away at Newcastle and Q.P.R, to go unbeaten in our first 10 games in the league, we drew 2-2 with West Brom in the return fixture but an aggregate score of 5-2 was enough to see us into a next round tie with Everton. However we picked up our first loss of the season in the league against Leeds, 2-1, then against Dynamo Moscow at home in a poor 2-0 defeat. We responded with a positive 4-1 win over Aston Villa though, only to then struggle against Everton in the League Cup, eventually being knocked out in Extra Time 2-1. Really disappointing as the League Cup had become something of our competition. We bounced back in the league with a strong home performance against Sheffield United, beating them 3-1. To then travel to Russia in the return leg and, despite playing well, ended up being unable to take anything from the game, losing 2-1, 4-1 on aggregate and bringing our European run to an end just as quickly as it had started again.

In the space of 3 games, not having our first choice keeper had cost us x2 cup competitions. It wasn't entirely Atkinson's fault, not scoring enough goals in response was also to blame, a situation about to be compounded as Adebola was out for at least a third of the season, although he hadn't been playing great so far to begin with anyway! But I can't help but feel having Ford in the team might have meant things would be different. We still had a shot at the FA Cup with our first fixture being against Third Division Wrexham later in the season, but for now our sole focus was on Premier League football. Despite the little hiccups against Leeds, Everton and Dynamo Moscow, our league form stayed strong. We won against Everton, Charlton, Middlesborough, Man United, Liverpool, and Crystal Palace to go 6 for 6, before we got some news that forced me back to the transfer market:

Shane Nicholson, one of our starting Centre Backs was out for 24 weeks! With only Derek Allan, our other starting Centre Back and John Polston for cover, together with injuries to both my Right Backs; Newhouse and McLaren. I dipped into the transfer market and brought in Defender Midfielder Right & Centre; Bradley Sandeman for £1.6 million. Our most expensive signing yet! But he will be more than just cover and I expect him to push my existing crop of defenders for a place in the team.

His debut was a 2-2 draw away against Norwich in the league where he got an 8/10 but also picked up a booking. Not exactly ground breaking, but so long as he stays consistent with the rest of the team I'm happy! Things went slightly better against Southampton where we won 4-0, and against Blackburn away where we also won 4-0. I rested a handful of players but our mix of cover players and first team starters was enough to see off Wrexham in the FA Cup to earn us a shot against Norwich in the next round. We beat Man City 2-0, but then lost to Coventry away 3-1 which was poor but only our second loss all season so far. We couldn't manage anything more than a 1-1 draw with Norwich in the FA Cup, but a 4-0 win in the replay set up a next round tie against Oxford United. We picked up a 3-1 win away at Sheffield Wednesday, a good result as The Owls sat in third place at the time and are having a strong season. We won 4-0 at home to Chelsea before travelling to Oxford and dispatching them out the cup 4-0 to move on to the Quarter Final.

Lee Kerslake is currently enjoying a very good season, with Adebola out for most of it, he slotted in alongside Bent and Brightwell (although Bent wasn't fit for this game so Liddell started) and in his first full season playing for the club he is really shining, banging in goals regularly and surpassing even Scott Brightwell! Continuing the League campaign, we beat Portsmouth away but lost to Newcastle 2-1. In the FA Cup Quarter Final we couldn't do better than a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield, however back home in the Recreation Ground, we destroyed them 4-1 to set up a Semi Final tie with Manchester City.

Not to underestimate either Bristol City or Preston, Preston coincidentally would be playing Premier League football next season after winning Division 1 this season, but I kinda fancied that whoever would win out of us and Man City would likely go on to lift the trophy. But first, the Premier League title was within clutching distance. 9 games left to go and we were 17 points clear of Liverpool, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday who traded places for 2nd below us. We picked up back to back 4-0 wins at Q.P.R and Leeds. We beat Aston Villa 2-0 and I knew so long as we didn't lose against Sheffield United we were likely champions. We didn't win, but we also didn't lose. A 1-1 draw was enough to take the gap to 20 points over 2nd and enough to achieve our fourth Premier League title!

Despite our performance being not quite as strong as last season we had once again comfortably held on to a lead at the top of the table, literally, from Game number 1. And with a 20 point gap in second place, and only 4 loses in 32 games all season, this team genuinely was operating at the next level now. If only we could take some of that into European competition! We did take some of that momentum into our FA Cup Semi Final tie though, and in a deceptively close game, beat Man City easily really 3-2 to progress to a FA Cup final against Division 1 champions; Preston North End.

The remaining League games felt fairly inconsequential really, but I wanted us to finish strong. We lost to Everton, before winning at Charlton, Middlesborough and Man Utd. We drew with Liverpool but finished the season with an away win at Crystal Palace to make it 28 wins from 38 Premier League games, and only 5 defeats in 38 games, before heading to London for our 3rd FA Cup final and 3rd chance at winning the trophy.

I didn't go into this game with any concerns really, I felt like the hard work had been done, and not to underestimate Preston by any means - they had got to a final just like us - but we should be beating a First Division team.

Yeah... no... it wasn't even close this one. 5-0 at Half Time and a second half goal from Steve Harkness before the final whistle and we picked up our 3rd FA Cup trophy and first back-to-back consecutive FA Cup win. A hat-trick from Junior Bent in what could be his last game for us, I have no idea if he will depart end of this season, again refusing to sign a new deal and "expecting" to move abroad at the end of the season still, but let's see what happens! Anyway, we have a new Premier League starlet!

I'd already decided Lee Kerslake would feature more this season, and whilst a long term injury to Dele Adebola certainly helped, with 28 goals from 47 games and an 8.79 average he was both our Player of the Season (Junior Bent a close second with 8.76) and our Top Goalscorer (again Junior Bent in second with 23 from 41, Scott Brightwell with 22 from 41), commanding a place in the starting 11 now. But I was really happy to see him grow from a fringe player coming from the Reserves to first team starter ahead of Adebola who coincidentally had a poor season; 16 games, no goals and could likely be on the way out before the new season kicks off.

Thanks to a League and FA Cup double, I had inched ahead of Dave Bassett in second to top the Manager Points board for the Premier League and although not on par with my score last season, was still another little bit of personal success! And on the subject of personal success, I was awarded Premier League Manager of the Year in the Annual Awards, with Lee Kerslake rightly picking up Premier League Senior Player of the Year.

It's crazy how a League and FA Cup double winning season could be feel like a disappointing season. And although I'm kinda willing myself to feel otherwise, the wobble around the time we lost Ford for a few weeks cost us a spot in the European Cup group stage, and an opportunity at another League Cup win. And European success was the direction I wanted to travel in. Compounding that, whilst we continued to play well and our strikers all scored 20+ goals between them this season, I had felt like we weren't quite at the same level we were last season. And I'm intrigued, or concerned, to see how it goes next season. Bent may or may not be with the club next season. Adebola may likely go, and both Liddell and Walker are not at the required level to step in as a third strike option. So I may likely go to the Transfer Market if Bent, Adebola or both end up going. I'm toying with whether or not I need a stronger cover option for Goalkeeper if Ford suffers any long term injury next season. But otherwise, I don't feel I need to shop for options in Defense and Midfield as fairly happy with where that's at. Unless any better options should present themselves. I'm going to try and put the disappointments of this season behind me and focus on where the team can go next after achieving 4 back-to-back Premier League Title Wins, back-to-back FA Cup Wins, and 4 League Cup wins in 7 seasons. Surely it's only a matter of time before we finally conquer Europe right? Right??