Clevedon Town Career - Post/Pre-Season Update

[treva]

I'm going to join in the FM10 Tier Division challenge and post up my career as I go along. Like Hedger and Matt, this isn't really a story more of an informational thread if you are interested. I fully expect no replies, and the posts won't be that in-depth anyway. So, if you do read, please give your comments, opinions, criticisms or anything to do with my running of the club.

Clevedon Town FC Factfile

Name | Clevedon Town Football Club

Nickname | The Seasiders

Founded | 1880

Ground | Hand Stadium (300 capacity)

Chairman | Pat O'Brien

Manager | Jack Teague

League | Southern Premier Division

Honours
Best league performance: 8th in Southern League Premier Division, 1999/2000
Best FA Cup performance: 1st Round Proper, 2006/2007
Best FA Trophy performance: 2nd round,, 1998/99, 2000/01
Best FA Vase performance: Quarter-finals, 1987/88
Southern League Division One West Champions 2005/06
Southern League Midland Division Champions 1998/99
Southern League Cup Runners-up 2007/2008
Western League Champions 1992/93
Somerset Premier Cup Winners 1986/87, 1998/99, 2000/01, 2001/02
Somerset Senior League Champions 1936/37
Somerset Senior Cup Winners 1901/02, 1904/05, 1928/29
Somerset Junior Cup Winners 1897/98
Weston & District League Champions 1939/40, 1943/44, 1944/45
Bristol & Suburban League Champions 1925/26, 1927/28, 1928/29
Bristol Charity League Champions 1937/38, 1940/41
Somerset Medal Competition Winners 1887/88
Clevedon Charity Cup Winners 1926/27, 1930/31

​

Pre-Season

Results

Transfers

August Fixtures

Comments

We had an awful pre-season without a sniff of a victory against some poor sides. Got rid some of the 'high earners' and replaced them with some cheaper alternatives. More players to be switched, as I go in search of another striker, central midfielder, defender and goalkeeper before the season starts.

 

[mattfb]

Ouch, not a great start in the pre season. But you appear to have the defence sorted out fairly well. Just need to score some goals. How many shots were you guys taking in those games?

 

[treva]

Not that many. Fairly even compared with our opponents. I decided to let the Asst. Manager take charge of the rest of pre-season after our 3-1 loss to Bromsgrove.

Bought a striker, but need another one to partner him, although he didn't have a great pre-season once he arrived.

I have played with my assistants supposed 'best formation', but I don't think it's working that well (4-1-3-2). Going to have to find a style that suits the club.

 

[blake]

Top stuff Treva. Great to see someone else down in the lower leagues of England.. good luck working your way up, mate. Not going to be easy - that's for sure!

 

[treva]

It's certainly not. Clevedon are a fairly good side in real life, considering they made it to the FA Cup first round despite their low standard of football.

Biggest challenge I'll have is keeping players fit and scoring goals. Physiotherapy at these clubs is woeful and every injury leaves a player out for weeks. Maybe worth selling enough players to bring in a few new players as well as a good physio.

Going to try and play all of August now, so look out for an update in the next hour or so.

 

[treva]

August 2009​

Results

Transfers

League Table

September Fixtures

Comments

An extremely mixed month. Started well with a solid draw on the opening day and then we nicked a nice win against Oxford. Our defence was uncharacteristicly sloppy against Leamington but returned to form with a 3rd clean sheet in a game we should've won against Didcot.

Transfer wise we picked up a brilliant attacking midfielder in Nando Perna and an explosive striker Stephen Horsley, who, with his electrfying 18 pace, has scored our only goal of the season so far (As well as a disallowed goal against Oxford City)

To bring down the wage bill we got rid of our highest paid player, Lee Molyneaux.

Our biggest problem is squad depth. With little interest in our young back-ups we cannot afford to bring in anyone else, although I may dip in for another defender before the end of September.

As a last point, our U18s have done extremely well so far, having won 2 and drawn 1 of their 3 league games and having beaten Tottenham's U18s 3-0 in the Youth Cup.

 

[mattfb]

Not too bad of a month. Gotta love your only shot on target going in to win you the match, aye (Not counting the disallowed one haha) But yeah, pretty solid. Nice work on TM strengthening the squad. After the window closes, things might get a bit better.

 

[treva]

Finishing is going to be a real problem. Out of all our games so far we've not had more than 3 shots on target! We come close with a lot of long range efforts but I'd like to test the keeper a lot more.

Next month we have 3 good teams and 3 not so good teams. I'm hoping for 9 points from the 6 games.

 

[hedger_14]

A few draws there and a win. Which Tier are they in anyway. Hopefully you can clinch promotion. The team I'm managing (East Manchester) are predicted 5th but I hope a few new signings can do the job.

 

[treva]

Southern Premier, not sure which tier it is but it's just below Blue Square South, so promotion will take us there. Thing is we are predicted to finish 15th, which is why I am looking for promotion after a couple of seasons. Would be pleasantly surprised if it was this season, but who knows.

September has started well with two of my signings scoring.

 

[hedger_14]

It won't take as many seasons then to get up to the top. That is Tier 7 as well

Tier 1: Premier League
Tier 2: Championship
Tier 3: CC League 1
Tier 4: CC League 2
Tier 5: Blue Square Premier
Tier 6: Blue Square North/South
Tier 7: Regional Premier Divisions (What your in)
Tier 8: Regional First Divisions
Tier 9: Level 9 Divisions
Tier 10: Level 10 Divisions
Tier 11: Level 11 Divisions (What I'm in )

 

[mattfb]

He's expected to finish near the bottom though. To establish himself in Tier 7 alone may take some time. It's hard to make it from BSP, so it's still gonna be bloody hard from tier 7.

 

[hedger_14]

Yeah. Of course it will be hard. I never said it was easy. I just said it would take quicker than me considering I was in Tier 11.

 

[treva]

I would've taken a team lower down but my Dad lives in Clevedon, so I just had to be them

Played September, it'll be up later today.

 

[treva]

September 2009​

Results

Transfers

League Table

October Fixtures

Comments

Yet another mixed month. It started brilliantly with a confident win against Farnborough. We managed to scrape three points thanks to a late goal from Horsey and we progressed past Evesham easily in the Fa Cup.

Truro were always going to be tough to stop but we had them pegged back from open play, just two corners cost us the draw.

The Cambridge game was the most exciting so far. Horsey scored twice, including a second from 40 yards (View below). Unfortunately we gave away two penalties and despite having a man advantage for the last 20 minutes we couldn't bag the win.

Then came the 'Accidental Screamer' against Evesham followed by the sequel in the next round of the FA Cup (View Below). First a volleh from what must have been 50 yards flies into the net to hand Evesham the lead, and the very next game a cross from deep goes in for Maldon. Very disappointed to be knocked out of the cup in a game we should've won comfortably.

We released our physio and replaced him with someone much better (Physiotherapy attribute of 17, former physio had 4) but it cost us ?6k in compensation. In the long run it should pay off because we have missed key players for months this season.

Best player by far has been Steven Horsey who has scored 5 goals in 11 games.

Please watch these videos at full screen and highest resolution possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRINCtXiOxI

NOTE: Yes, it takes a deflection, but I didn't know that until I did the view from behind the goal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxFGM1fyo7g