Pub Team to Manager’s Dream Part 16 – Season 2 Begins

After all the chaos of the summer transfer window, we did manage to still have a squad even though there are only a few players who will be remembered from last season. Despite this, the board have still been very down to Earth with their expectations for the coming season…

…or not.

So the board are demanding a lot this season and seemingly not allowing any room for slip ups which is certainly a lot of pressure for this level. But on the plus side, with the final prize money for these cup competitions at £10k each, if we succeed, it will do the finances the world of good and certainly keep us in a strong financial position.

Onto the matches

Again for the friendlies the team was missing players in a few positions for most of the fixtures due to the fast becoming irritating amateur contracts. This is meaning that the friendlies aren’t particularly useful for fully assessing tactics and how players are fitting into them. Buts as I’ve mentioned before I’m holding off applying for semi-professional status for as long as possible in order to get a substantial financial base to set us up for the higher reaches of the game.
But nevertheless the friendlies were successful enough and the team went into the new season with good morale.

Not a bad start to the season at all thankfully with the board breathing down our necks.

A few matches in focus

vs. Cuckfield Rangers Development: Even game in terms of possession but we created far more chances. The modification of the crossing tactic to low crosses seems to be working to good effect and Jack Cook starts to show his suitability as a permanent replacement for Elliot Hogan as he scores a hat-trick.

vs. Lindfield IV: Still showing dominance in terms of chances created although are inconsistent in our ability to finish off enough chances as we had 20 shots in this match but only 2 goals. Back up striker Chris Benjamin has also found scoring form using his blistering pace.

vs. Scaynes Hill: The scoring was opened with a great goal from outside the box by new found attacking talisman Jack Cook. Their equalizer was one of the rare goals against us that was actually a well created and well taken goal instead of a defensive balls up. Left winger Ollie Haynes prevented the toils of penalties and put us in the hat for the next round by reacting fastest to knock in a rebound goal towards the end of extra time.

Next time we will see the second half of the season and the run into crunch time with final matches in the league and cup. Although, if there are any interesting club developments or news there will be updates on these in the meantime.