It’s no Kingsmeadow but the grass is still green at King George’s Field. And at least it has the word “King” in it. Kingstonian enters the 2020-2021 season having been promoted to the 6th tier of English football in the National League South. Despite this, the team is in a bit of a disarray as Dan Derbyshire, the team’s star striker, has already decided to move across town to the ever-progressive and popular Dulwich Hamlet. Also, the club does not have a goalkeeper. This will be our first priority.
Transfers
The first transfer in the midst of preseason fixtures is to sign Joshua Bradley-Hurst. Bradley-Hurst has mediocre goalkeeper reflexes at a mere 9 rating (out of 20), but his good aerial ability and command of the box rate in the 11-12 range as does his ability to handle one-on-ones (rated 12 out of 20).
The next signings are wing-backs Reece Hannam and Ethen Vaughan, who, along with defensive midfielders Zach Dronfield and TJ Bramble, shore up the defense. Dronfield is the key signing here as he has strong leadership, teamwork, and passing skills, which complement his playmaker role in front of the defensive line. He is immediately appointed as the team’s vice captain.
The end of the preseason sees strikers Josh Andrews, a Birmingham City youth, and Enock Asante, from Ghana and a Tottenham academy player, join the team. Both have good speed and decent finishing ability (think 10’s and 11’s for all of these players) and are strong, fairly tall players.
All of the additions above are under 20 years old and slot into the first team around remaining veteran and key player, Fábio Saraiva, a 25 year old pacey Portuguese left winger with good crossing ability.
Season Results
Day one was encouraging as Kingstonian raced out to a 2-0 lead within the first half hour of play with goals from central defender Ollie Cook and Bramble. A late Hendon goal in the first half changed the mood of the locker room at halftime but my fear we were going to waver was relieved when new right-winger Jayden Reid slotted his first goal into the net. A penalty strike by the new leader Dronfield seemed sure to send us flying to our first win but two quick goals from Herndon in the 71st and 74th minute brought them closer, 4 to 3. Eventually, the final whistle mercifully came and we could finally catch their breath.
Another match filled with goals followed in game two at home against Hemel Hempstead, but we ultimately drew.
Three straight away defeats after this were a concern but the month ended strong with an away victory at well-financed Billericay Town. By the end of the first month, it was clear that Asante would be a force to reckon with for us all season, becoming the primary goal scorer with 7 of the last 8 goals of the month.
During a run of poor form, Asante is the only Kingstonian player to score during the first two weeks of September. We hit the reset button during the team’s FA Cup match against regional side, Faversham. Dronfield used the occasion to add three goals to his tally of six goals total, which is pretty dang impressive for a defensive midfielder. That will happen when you a free kick savant and quality rebounder crashing towards the net at the crack of an Asante or Andrews shot. We finished the month with some back-and-forth games, struggling to find some consistency.
October saw a rough middle patch with a tense two games against Maidstone United. My tactic thus far included a holding defensive midfielder, two central midfielders, and a single forward served by wingers racing down each side of the pitch. I moved one of the middle midfielders back to a second DM role and moved the other one forward, replacing them with a second striker. The tactic was nearly identical to a 4-2-2-2 DM tactic created by a renowned Football Manager tactician.
The tactical change helped us keep more clean sheets and led to more long balls over the top of the defense. Classic LLM style. But the results speak for themselves.
There’s not really much to analyze here. You know the drill if you’ve played LLM football. Dink the ball over the top, score your 1-2 goals and hold firm in the defense.
Also, everyone in the FM community complains about the winter malaise that seems to come over every team. Tactics that worked in the early months suddenly get sorted out by the AI and managers who fail to adapt find themselves on a rough run of fixtures. But here, because the shift in tactics occurred in late October, we seemed to lift ourselves out of the nosedive right when we started to lose control.
FM is all about their stories, too, right? I was convinced when we were matched with Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Trophy that Derbyshire, who left our club in the preseason, would now get one over us. However, the storybook did not go according to plan. But no matter – with Derbyshire quiet, a man named Gregor Ashbee stole the show with a goal. Ashbee would play in the Championship just two years later, scoring 9 goals, so it wasn’t like we lost to a bunch of chumps. But I think the real story is that my tactical plan for this match was wrong. Like the past couple of months, I decided to switch from a positive to a defensive mentality during the latter stages of the match when it felt like we would get a result, be it a win or draw. But as soon as I did this here, it seemed like we opened the doors for the Hamlet to attack, attack, attack. And well, sure enough, we gave up the goal and lost.
I have now vowed to stick to my high-octane, high-pressure mentality and not get on our heels. Looks like this was a good move.
A remarkable 8-3 win was certainly the highlight of this group of fixtures. Like I said, we were not going to let our foot off the gas pedal in the back half of matches anymore. Braintree scored in the 2nd minute and then we scored 8 unanswered, including a hat-trick by Asante and a brace by Andrews. Braintree would score meaningless goals in the 88th and 89th minutes to bring the massacre to a more respectable scoreline, but the result gave us some strong morale that did not let up for another month and a half. A lot more goals scored too! Well – until the last two games. But that was probably because our place in the playoffs had already been secured.
Despite our incredible second half, we still ended up in second place, 7 points behind the title winners, Merthyr. Merthyr was a really good side, as evidenced by the fact that they were the only team to put 3 goals in our net since October.
The playoffs came . . . and were over quite quickly. Despite playing at home against Havant & Waterloo, a side we had earlier defeated twice, we were lifeless on the pitch. This may have been caused, in part, by a training injury to Saraiva a few days before the match. An injection for Saraiva did nothing to provide any quality and the team struggled to create an offense after going down by a goal a minute into the second half.
While our tactics weren’t always reflective of a proper attacking intent, the results showed our approach of hard-fought battles in the air in the midfield and pressure on attackers leading to quick counters and plenty of goals, especially once I stopped packing it in once we took a one goal lead. However, I question whether we became too complacent against the better sides with quick defenders. Maybe we just need faster players? Both Merthyr and Wealdstone advanced with the best defensive records in the league so maybe I just need better central defenders first.
Best XI
Asante was our goal leader, with 27, and Saraiva provided a stellar 16 goals and 12 assists. Most of our starting XI had to play a LOT as there was not a lot of depth in the side.
The hope is that as our reputation rises, better players will want to join. This will lead to this year’s starters going on to the bench. I’m a little nervous because there aren’t a lot of options in the transfer market now that the season has ended. But we’ll see next time who has joined the Kings of London . . .
Title Image Credit: Jon Hayes
The Kings of London 