We garnered quite a lot of points during the previous campaign – and I felt our quality was enough to see us do well higher up the football pyramid. But a disaster of a beginning to the season left the team in disarray, especially after all of the new faces we brought in. Check it out below and see if we could recover.

Transfers

As you can see, I may have gotten carried away with the new Consortium’s bounty of money they provided me. But I figure – I’ve got a transfer budget, might as well spend it!

Sefa Akgün is actually a good midfielder with 13 passing, and 15 teamwork and vision. Tackling and positioning are only at 11, which is okay for this level.

Jack Cole is a good defender on the right and the best player available. Leon Davies is not too thrilled about Cole’s arrival and I should have foreseen the drama and passed on Cole, even though he is very good. Just look at him.

Sure, his dribbling isn’t great but he’s excellent for a League One side and probably will still be with me as a backup in the Premier League.

Kwame Poku is one of those players who is scouted and looks great but not enough to go all in. Then you keep scouting and keep scouting and you’ve seen his name for so long, you feel like you should just get him. I think I scouted him for three seasons, and I certainly knew of his presence when he was playing for Colchester.

Tom Roberts brings passing, teamwork, and vision to the midfield, similar to Akgün; Kyle Allison will be a good backup to Andrea Falzon and plays better in a three man midfield if we don’t use an attacking central midfielder; Patrick Dawkins is in to backup Curtis McGuire; and, Dion Briggs would help out in the central defense to cover Mungo Bridge and Liam McCorkell when they were fatigued. Whew – a lot going on!

I actually felt pretty good about where the team was. The only hole was the attacking left wing. Alfie Matthews‘ time with QPR had ended and unbelievably he chose to sign with Cheltenham, a League Two side, rather than with us in League One. Talk about a lack of ambition! I signed Phoenix Patterson, a fast winger but with not so great mental attributes. I didn’t have a lot of options and I didn’t trust Dominic Birch so Phoenix is going to get a shot.

Season Results

Thankfully, we defeated Matthews’ Cheltenham in the first round of the Carabao Cup to end a string of three losses to begin the season. But it was 4 wins, 3 draws, and 6 losses in our first 13 league games. Coupled with the two cup losses, and our team morale was abysmal. It didn’t help that captain Bridge, Poku, Cole, Roberts, and Preston all picked up injuries and Patterson was an absolute disaster on the wing. With an average rating around 6.6, I had to find anyone else to be take that role. I signed Jayden Fevrier, a West Ham product who had played for five League Two sides the past five seasons with a horrible average around 6.7. It really was desperate times.

Especially frustrating was our 3-3 loss to Crawley Town. We were up 3-1 after 10 minutes (yes, you read that right), and gave up a penalty just before halftime. The second half as a ping-pong affair but I truly thought we had sealed the deal when Crawley Town went down to 10 men in the 85th minute. Instead, a 93rd winner drew us even and I nearly broke my laptop in two.

I suppose we returned the favor the following match when McGuire finished a 91st minute strike to gain a draw away at Rotherham.

Draws are better than losing, right? I don’t really know how to process these two months. If you remove the cup games, we only won once in the league. A total of 5 wins, 10 draws, and 6 losses for the year; 25 points and we’re nearly halfway through the season. Kinda dreadful.

Another frustrating loss was the 3-3 draw away at Leyton Orient. Like the match against Crawley Town, Leyton Orient was down to 10 men but still came back from 3-1, including a 95th minute goal, to draw. I think it was at this point that I just wanted to see how truly horrifically this season would go and sort of went into a daze, going through the motions into November, pressing the space bar as quickly as I could . . . not really caring . . .

I haven’t even mentioned the lifeless draw against AFC Wimbledon at home yet. Which, funnily enough, was actually a successful result! By the end of November, AFC Wimbledon was flying with 42 points and had been in the top 4 the entire season. Gabrielle Cioffe, the AFC Wimbledon head coach, had not taken too kindly to some of the words I said about him and his team to the media during the stretch run last season. Cioffe was constantly smearing me during the start of this season, saying Kingstonian was a favorite to be relegated. He was also quite pompous about his stellar start. Which ultimately was unfortunate for AFC Wimbledon as he left them at the end of November for the Championship side, Bristol City. The team crumbled without Cioffe, accumulating only 24 points the rest of the season, finishing 11th.

While our league form was in shambles, we did manage to progress in the Leasing.com cup competition no one cares about. Notably, we thwarted our memorable League Two opponent from the last game last season, Colchester, on penalties. We also progressed in the FA Cup, winning a replay on the road at League Two challenger, Oldham. Our next opponent in the FA Cup? Ah, our good rivals at AFC Wimbledon!

Well, we beat them for the title last year and could pile on the misery after losing their head coach this season. Poku scored a goal just after halftime but we gave up a reply in the 75th minute. The scenes turned to away at AFC Wimbledon, where we beat them, surviving injuries during the game to Dave Burke and Falzon. Louis Dunne, our penalty taker, scored in the 49th minute and Ciaren Jones headed in a set piece goal in the 84th minute to secure victory over our rivals.

By the end of January, we had exited both cup competitions but the games against AFC Wimbledon drew back my interest and frankly, our players’ interest in the season too. Now we could focus on digging ourselves out of the hole we dug in the league.

Or not.

I mean, where to begin? Okay, let’s start with the new addition you see there, Elisio Luis, a loanee from Tottenham and a Mozambican with 14 acceleration and pace, average technicals and mentals, but good determination, technique, and balance (12-14 ratings). He took over for Fevrier on the left wing, who was actually playing better than at any point in his career but was still in the 6.7 rating range.

I also had brought in another left winger, Chris Moffat on a $14,750 transfer fee from St. Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership. His first game in the first team ended in a lengthy injury that would keep him out for most of the season. This left attacking midfielder position was a curse!

There was another late goal allowed against Hull City, who scored in the 91st minute.

And then, finally, the disaster against AFC Wimbledon. Our first ever defeat against them. We were down 3-0 after 33 minutes until Dawkins scored two before halftime. It had been a cracking first 45 minutes. However, McCorkell was sent off late in the game for a reckless challenge and AFC Wimbledon scored the very next minute. A disappointing end to what would possibly have been a valiant draw.

We needed to pick ourselves up after this match and finish strong.

Whew. I’ve avoided talking about relegation because the bottom four were truly bad but it certainly felt like had been battling against that battle up until the last two or so months of the season.

We never actually were threatened with relegation but a few more draws like earlier in the season could have easily seen us in the 17/18th range. Instead, a mid-table finish was a nice reward to a frustrating season. That said, I was upset we didn’t manage to climb over AFC Wimbledon by the end, especially when you see our goal differential compared to theirs.

Best XI

It’s pretty clear we had a problem at the left wing position. Luis only managed 2 goals and a 6.68 rating so it’s not like he deserved a place ahead of Fevrier and Patterson.

You can also see a lot of our players struggled at the higher level. I feel like in previous Football Manager games, the jump from the National League to League Two was the most drastic until you get to the Premier League. But our defenders really stepped back in League One compared to League Two and I wasn’t quite expecting it to be so difficult.

Honestly, I’ve got to hand it to the new club president, Craig Jones. Akgün was a brilliant signing and played consistently well. He was the fans’ player of the year and probably mine as well. Speaking of fans, we averaged 2,800 this year but are still renting The Breyer Group Stadium from Leyton Orient. I have been badgering Mr. Jones for new grounds every opportunity I get but he won’t budge. We may have to rent our home field until the Championship, I guess. And that was our goal now. We finished strong, but we needed to find some better players. Just a few more wins than draws next year and we’ll be in the playoffs.

Enzo Cantú wins the ball back at the halfway line and lumps the ball up to Curtis McGuire. McGuire, knowing this is the reason he was brought here, ignores the jeers of the home-side crowd whose grounds he’s invaded and kicks it into high gear, outracing the defense right up the middle. His pace is furious and he’s running right at the keeper! Like a game of chicken, Wimbledon’s keeper doesn’t know whether to stand ground and move to the side – and still McGuire races on. Then, at the last second, McGuire jukes to the right and lightly taps the goal beyond the bewildering keeper. 1-0 Kingstonian.

The goal would be the difference. Kingstonian had defeated AFC Wimbledon 1-0. Not only that, but Kingstonian was three points closer to the first-place club. The race for the League 2 Title was on!

Also, some other big news. Another takeover bid was submitted – this time, a consortium group led by Steve Barton. Barton and the takeover are successful and he immediately puts in for two transfers in March: Sefa Akgün, a Turkish deep lying midfielder and a Swiss striker who ultimately does not sign. I have no idea what Akgün will bring as his attributes are not visible and Turkey is outside my scouting scope. I suppose we’ll have to wait until the summer to see if our new Club President is out of his mind or not.

Roco Rees with three shutouts. McGuire with five goals. A good month with the win over Wimbledon but our loss to Bradford City meant we were still down two points with five games to go. It pains me to say this but the Bradford City game was decided on a late 92nd minute goal – and it was my fault. I really wanted to get another win rather than draw and so I went attacking. This left us exposed in the back on a counter and Bradford took advantage. Luckily, my frustration was eased by the subsequent two clean sheets.

April continued the good vibes, with three more clean sheets from Rees. McGuire also made it 13 goals in 11 matches since the winter skid. What a duo.

But AFC Wimbledon was equally on fire, mirroring our results and leaving us two points behind going into the final day. Not only that, but AFC Wimbledon had the goal differential advantage as well, one goal ahead of us. A draw from AFC Wimbledon could still see us win the title with a victory but things like this are often too difficult to overcome in Football Manager.

Final match day

Kingstonian on the road against middling club Colchester and AFC Wimbledon at home against mid-table Wycombe.

5th minute. Wimbledon give up a penalty and Wycombe score! We might have a chance.

6th minute. A Kingstonian corner is cleared and Colchester is on the break. A shot directly at Rees is parried away. Jason Sraha, our central defender who had been racing back on defense, grabs hold of the ball before it goes beyond the touchline and immediately lumps it back into the middle of the pitch just above our box. The K’s take it forward on their own counter but the ball is put out for a throw. The throw is received and beautifully crossed into the box for a wide-open Alfie Matthews, who slots the header into the left corner of the goal. Kingstonian 1-0.

18th minute. Andrea Falzon drives the ball up the middle of the pitch and finds Danny Preston on the left wing, cutting inside. Preston passes the ball to Matthews who hits the side netting. Shortly after the goal kick, we win the ball back and Falzon crosses to Matthews who unleashes a wicked volley at the keeper. Three successive corners follow with great chances by Matthews and Dilan Markandy but the Colchester keeper is on his game today. Maybe the boys heard about the score in Wimbledon? They look really up for this.

34th minute. A Falzon corner is cleared but only to Sraha near midfield. Sraha passes back to Falzon who crosses it to Markandy in the box for another goal. Kingstonian 2-0. Nearly simultaneously, the score changes in Wimbledon. Wycombe is up 2-0!

43rd minute. A breakdown in defense as a Colchester attacker zips past Sraha and cracks the woodwork. The rebound ricochets to another Colchester player who slots the ball cooly in the net. Kingstonian 2 – Colchester 1.

46th minute. AFC Wimbledon takes a goal back. The pressure is on but if the results at halftime hold, we would have the title.

62nd minute. A Falzon corner goes directly to McGuire who hits it home. Surely, we are good in our game now, right? Kingstonian 3 – Colchester 1.

64th minute. A goalkeeper error on the edge of the pitch lets Falzon steal the ball from him and lashes it into the net. Now we’ve won and just have to focus on the scoreline in Wimbledon. Still no update there but here, K’s up 4-1.

74th minute. A glimmer of hope for the home side as Colchester pounce on another rebound and claw a goal back. 4-2 to Kingstonian.

89th minute. Leon Davies is booked and the highlights show shot after shot from both teams. Honestly, it’s amazing this game isn’t 4-4. Just take a look at the final tally.

The time ticks away. Still no update in Wimbledon.

Still no change.

Still –

We’ve done it! I can’t believe it but we’ve won League 2! Take a look at how close this table was at the top between us and Wimbledon.

I’m sure AFC Wimbledon fans were rankled by the final standings but it probably meant more to our club than theirs. In my mind, we now had a proper rivalry because both of us would be promoted together to League One.

Best XI

You can see that Dylan Ruffles was dropped for Davies and Louis Dunne for Dave Burke midway through the year. I was honestly surprised about Dunne making this Best XI but he really took off in the last two months despite not being as good attribute-wise as Burke or Dominic Birch. He also spelled Falzon somewhat too.

I mentioned it earlier but Markanday’s rating is misleading as many of his goals and good performances were from the first two months of the season. Matthews made up for it in the second half so I’m surprised to see his overall rating did not look good by the end of the year. Also, remember Birch and his five goal game? Yeah, he only had two other goals all season so I’m pretty disappointed in him.

But the superstar here really was McGuire. 31 goals, 14 of which were in our last 16 games. McGuire really shows that acceleration and pace are key for strikers in the lower leagues. I have my doubts about him and his 10 rating in finishing as we move up the football pyramid. Speaking of which, it is time to kick on to League One!

To survive in the Football League, Kingstonian needs a quality keeper. After Joshua Bradley-Hurst left before last year’s title and trophy-winning season, a lackluster Sam Howes took over. Let’s just say it was a good thing Mungo Bridge was often stopping the ball before it was shot at Howes.

After searching through transfer options, I grew frustrated with what I was seeing. None of these keepers had the handling I wanted, especially since I like the sweeper keeper role best. I then switched to looking at possible loan targets and saw a man with some stand-out attributes.

Ignoring the arrows, which would eventually go up, you can see from the above just how great Brighton loanee, Roco Rees, is. His Brighton teammate, Dave Burke, must have said something nice about his time at Kingstonian, because Rees was more than happy to work for us despite our status as a League Two side. Speaking of Burke . . .

Transfers

Burke’s contract with Brighton had run out so we were able to snap him up on a free. Along with another great midfielder, Tom Dinsmore, from Bournemouth, we had two solid League 2 performers with League 1 upside in the midfield, ready to feed Alfie Matthews and Aaron Pressley, along with the promoted youth intake star, Dominic Birch.

Feeling good about my defense developing while training full-time as our team had turned professional, I looked for another option at striker. I found another loanee, Enzo Cantu, a Mexican international. He wasn’t quite as speedy as my other strikers but his finishing was a sparkling 15 along with some good technical attributes.

Results

The season started well with a 3-0 victory against Cheltenham and goals from Burke, Cantu, and Matthews. But we would soon go on a terrible league form, losing 7 and drawing 2 out of 11 games from August 24th to October 12th. This included a frustrating 2 goal loss against Aldershot Town, the team we’ve been chasing up the tiers of English football.

However, our fortunes changed after a dominating performance by Cantu against Bradford City. He scored four goals, which included a hat trick before halftime.

Not to be outdone, Pressley smacked four into the net against Boston United, including three in the second half. Cantu and Pressley then both went quiet after these signature games. Thankfully, Matthews stepped up and was the primary scorer during these two months. Unfortunately, this was the last big influence Matthews would have on the year as he declined massively in form from this point on.

It should be noted that the Boston result was the fourth straight shutout by Rees.

Rees would repeat the four shutout in a row feat in January. We were really firing on all cylinders this month. I had changed our training schedule to include more regular training on set pieces and the K’s were rewarded with three Bridge goals off headers from corner crosses. Especially sweet was finally defeating Aldershot Town for the first time.

After our wonderful January, we stayed in neutral for two months, allowing Northampton, Salford, and Southend to pass us for the three automatic promotion spots. The loss to Salford especially hurt and demonstrated to us that we were not as good as those teams passing us.

We had a good April – but that was not enough. We were stuck in the playoffs and would have to win a 2-leg semi-final and a neutral final at Wembley.

The playoffs saw us do well against Oldham, claiming victory on the road and drawing at home. Matthews, showing he is a man for the big moments, claimed the second goal in the 68th minute at home against Oldham. However, he and the rest of the team failed to provide a performance worthy of discussion in the playoff final against Bristol. Matthews may have received too much praise for his goal against Oldham as he seemed preoccupied with the crowd at Wembley rather than playing the match. We would have to give it a go in League 2 again.

Aldershot Town finally had a dud of a season so I ignored them in the latter half of the season. I was a little sad then when I realized they had been relegated.

Based on our goal difference, we really should have been promoted this year.

Best XI

Kingstonian’s solid defense was undone by underwhelming performances further up the pitch. Matthews’ decline mirrored the decline of one-season wonder Jayden Reid.

But this year was all about Rees – he had 19 clean sheets, a tremendous number especially when considering our attacking ineptitude. Looking at his attributes, I think he could be a starter for us for a long time – as long as Brighton allows us to keep loaning him. I reached out to Brighton in early June and secured a renewal of the loan to the end of the following year. With that done – and our defense firm, I felt confident we would take League 2 by storm next season.

Mungo Bridge popped up in the Scouting Center with a sterling recommendation by my scouts. A central defender with a 20 (!) rating in aggression. I initially dismissed him as a red card machine, but then I took a look at his mentals and saw good composure. I decided to take a chance – and Mungo Bridge delivered, becoming one of my favorite players in my many years of playing FM.

A ball over the top? Bridge would race after the attacker and make a daring slide tackle at the last second. A few too many short passes between attackers? Bridge would get pissed off and race in to assert himself with a risky interception. Time after time again, Bridge showed more than what his ratings would give him (7.03 average is still pretty good!). What a guy, what a man – but would his efforts mean promotion this season?

Transfers

Last year’s left fullback, Loic Hernandez, was poached from us in early June. In response, I found Danny Preston, from Nottingham Forest, who had great anticipation, decision-making, positioning, marking, and passing. In fact, I thought Preston looked better than Hernandez.

Dave Burke was brought in on loan as physical defensive midfielder to spell Zach Dronfield and replace the lackluster Lucas Defise. Alfie Matthews joined Burke as QPR loanee, with Matthews a left winger replacement for Fabio Saraiva. Mathews looks especially good, with crossing and dribbling at 12, strong determination at 16, and acceleration at 14. These are pretty solid ratings for this level and the scouts say he has some room to grow, too. Saraiva, meanwhile, decided to leave the club. Happy trails.

Season Results

I could post pictures of our fixtures like I have been but they would show only mostly green circles. Yes, we were gangbusters this season and really never let up. The expanded use of 4312 and 4231 tactics got us moving forward on attack much more consistently.

We only lost five times in five months. The highlight of the season was this game against Torquay United.

Bridge, Preston, Burke, and Matthews all took key roles in our squad and were splendid. For the Kingstonian veterans, Aaron Pressley was the most impressive of the bunch, knocking in 18 goals by the time the calendar flipped to January.

After struggling with finances for three seasons, we finally played our first Premier League side in the FA Cup Third Round, Tottenham. By playing away, we were able to share in the gate receipts, which gave us about a million pounds. Losing has never felt sweeter.

The Board agreed to upgrade the training facilities for the first time in the save and I felt like there was a weight lifted off my shoulders. The Tottenham game had completely changed our fortunes and, coupled with our super form this season, I became optimistic for a promotion, a jump to professionalism, and our summer transfer window.

While I put less emphasis on the FA Trophy this season, we kept succeeding – but it wasn’t easy. Our 3-2 win at York City was a nervy affair, especially since Ben Morris missed a penalty when the score was 2-1 in our favor in the first half. York City drilled a 58th minute penalty kick after an unfortunate challenge by Mungo Bridge, to level the match. But a relatively quick reply from Pressley a few minutes later put us back ahead for good.

We similarly escaped our FA Trophy replay match with Chester, taking a 4-1 lead before 77th and 84th minute Chester goals threatened to ruin our day. A flurry of chances for Chester went unfulfilled in the final ten minutes and we advanced.

Following a 3-0 defeat against Carlisle in the league after the FA Trophy draw announced we would face Carlisle again, I was very concerned about the rematch. Instead, it was a resounding thumping, 4-0, led by Alfie Matthews’ brace. Matthews played excellently this season – a consistent threat who loved to get forward and knock the ball past these slower non-league defenders. He gave the team a 7.16 rating during the year and I was grateful we wouldn’t need to worry about the left wing for a couple seasons.

We then went into leg 2 of the FA Trophy semifinals against Chelmsford City down a goal. But a simple and dominant showing by the K’s, with goals from Dylan Ruffles and Morris, punched our tickets to the final. Notably, though, our FA Trophy run meant a lot of games had been postponed, which were now scheduled for April. April typically has only 4 games in the National League, but this total had ballooned to 7 now, making us rotate the squad at the critical stage of contending for a league title.

Champions of the National League!

I figured we needed to get to 80+ goals as a team this year to win the title and we hit this target well. We also showed some defensive mettle, tying the other top two teams in the league, only giving up 44 goals all season long. Dulwich Hamlet, a fellow London team, failed to advance, which thankfully meant I would not have to fight them for London-based League 2-quality players during the summer.

With a league title under our belts, this meant that our by-the-skin-of-our-teeth FA Trophy run would also be our last. I honestly had expected our April to be miserable and we’d fall into third place or something like that as a result. But we instead won the league and now we had plenty of opportunity to prepare for the final.

Our opponent for the FA Trophy was Cambridge United. You’ll see them 4th on the table up above, which meant this was not going to be an easy match. It certainly didn’t help when Cambridge scored a goal 3 minutes in.

Alfie Matthews, on the counter in the 16th minute, outraced the right fullback defender and smashed a shot directly at the keeper. The keeper couldn’t handle the ball and Matthews tipped in the rebound. 1-1.

Pressley then gave Kingstonian the lead off a short corner and cross by Ruffles. 2-1 K’s.

The second half started with some back-and-forth until an equalizer finally arrived in the 63rd minute from Cambridge. 2-2.

I kept the faith with my Matthews/Pressley combination and thankfully, they connected again in the 77th minute. 3-2 K’s.

The celebrations didn’t truly start, though, until the 91st minute when Liam Shaw‘s foot was on the end of another masterful cross by Matthews. With two crucial assists and a goal in the biggest game of the season, Matthews had put on a performance to remember.

4-2, Kingstonian! The FA Trophy? Ours! What – a – season!

Best XI

Our new additions have become very important starters. Bridge, Preston, Burke, and Matthews are all quality players. Dronfield really should have been placed in the top XI ahead of Defise and I have no idea how Shaw or Enock Asante were passed up too.

This Kingstonian team was fantastic all season long. I thoroughly enjoyed getting a league title and the FA Trophy, especially the latter since I had kind of taken it off my radar this season. Sometimes, the less you pay attention, the less pressure there is to perform, and the better the result will be. I may have to remember this when we are later dealing with higher competition.

The K’s have also made the full transition to an attacking, counter-pressing team. The risk-taking efforts of the team all year made matches much more watchable and fun. The result was an incredible campaign and one we will fondly look back on when we become Kings of London . . .

After a very strange season, it was time to reassess our squad. Everyone was on the chopping block and no position was safe. Zach Dronfield, our star defensive midfielder? He would have to fight for the starting role against Lucas Defise who was poached on our way across London from Dulwich Hamlet. Defise was my revenge for the Hamlet taking Derbyshire my first days at Kingstonian.

Transfers

In addition to Defise, I took three players from Ipswich Town, who failed to advance in the League One playoffs last season and apparently led to an exodus of players. The Ipswich refugees: strikers Ben Morris and Tyreece Simpson, and right wing back Dylan Ruffles. Ruffles is the most exciting of the three, with crossing and dribbling over 10, good mental attributes, and the acceleration/pace needed to generate offense and get back on defense. On the other side, we added left fullback Loic Hernandez – a more defensive-minded player that I’ll have to hope has enough sense to pass the ball up the pitch every once and a while.

Liam Shaw joins the central midfield, Ciaren Jones will challenge the Arsenal boys for a central defender role, and yet another striker, Aaron Pressley joins the force. Yes, I’m serious about finding an attacker with some consistency.

Goal Review

Let’s recap my goals:

1. Get a permanent home grounds. Moved to a bigger stadium but still renting.
2. Raise attendance. Promotion will help but the stadium two hours away from our fans hurts. The previous season saw attendance stagnate at an average of 422.
3. Play attacking football. We went with a double DM system because of our poor defense; we are pressing a lot, though, which should generate more offense.
4. Win the FA Trophy. We have a better chance now that we’re in the National League.
5. Win a league title. We were close in season one but failed last season when I really thought we had the team to do it. We’ll have to try again on our way up the pyramid.
6. Defeat and surpass AFC Wimbledon. We’ll meet them one day!

Season Results

A higher division, better competition, and a lot of new faces – let’s see how Kingstonian did!

Not the greatest start, but after a gutty draw against Bromley, Pressley scored a 91st minute winner against Ebbsfleet United and we started to roll. The Ebbsfleet victory started a run of 7 wins in 8 games, including six shutouts. A demolition job against Sutton United was broadcast on TV and I was hopeful this would lead to some more faces through the turnstiles (spoiler: it didn’t!).

Now that we were a few months in, I tried experimenting with our tactics. I ended up moving back to a one DM system, and focused play down the right where Ruffles and our right wingers were racing forward. My hope was that when Fabio Saraiva happened to have the ball on the left wing, he could then cross balls over to those players overloading on the right side.

The results were okay, with a 2-2 draw against Stevenage despite having a man advantage for most of the match, a 3-0 victory over our National League South foes, Havant & Waterlooville, and a 3-0 defeat at York City. I then went back and forth between the new and old tactics during the game, using the more attacking 4-1-3-2 when we needed another goal. This worked decently well but was not great – especially when we played on the road.

A fun game against Harrogate Town in our first match in December – we were down 2-0 until a Saraiva goal was scored off a Kai Corbett (the blonde winger) cross in the 60th minute. Morris scored 15 minutes later with a one-time shot in front of goal directly after another blondie pass. Then, after a reply by Harrogate, Morris again took a pass from Corbett and hit a sizzling strike from just outside the box. The comeback was complete and gave us good vibes to score quite a bit against Dag & Red in the FA Trophy. Enock Asante, our on-and-off striker, was again lighting up the scoreboard, this time with a hat trick. Morris, Pressley, and Asante became Kingstonian’s primary scorers this season while Jayden Reid took a step backwards, failing to find the form in the striker role that he had enjoyed the previous season.

After being drawn against the minnows of Biggleswade Town, I became very optimistic that we would win the FA Trophy. Realizing that this was probably my best shot ever at winning this elusive trophy in this game, I began researching and planning my game against Aldershot Town. You may recall that Aldershot Town had been promoted as champions of the National League South the previous season. This season, they had continued their excellence and were fighting for a playoff spot against the likes of Dulwich Hamlet and Notts County. I tweaked some of our team instructions to account for Aldershot Town’s strong defense and told the boys to try to work the ball into the box to break them down and focus play on the left side of the pitch to take advantage of the slower defender Aldershot had on that side.

An impressive 41 shots were taken by the Kingstonian men and yet, our quality was abysmal, with only 10 on target. We seemed destined for a loss when a careless foul in the box in the first half of extra time gave us the lead on a Saraiva penalty kick. We kept the pressure going and ultimately held on for a 2-1 victory.

The draw for the FA Trophy semi-final would either be against fellow National League side, Notts County, or one of the remaining NL South teams, Maidenhead United or Blyth Spartans. After a lot of praying, I was pleased to see us drawn against Blyth. We were going to do make the final!

My overconfidence got the best of me. We were prepared to dominate at home, but our finishing was poor, with only 3 of 14 shots hitting the target and none going in. Not to worry, we still had a second leg! Heh heh, yikes. I was so confident we’d get a result. And it looked good early on too, with an Asante goal four minutes in. However, we failed to capitalize on any other chances and lost on the shootout, 4-2, with missed goals from Morris and Saraiva. Thankfully, Notts County went ahead and won the damn thing so I felt some solace in pretending that had we advanced, they would have defeated us too.

This focus on the FA Trophy left us playing rotated sides in the league games, and we began to drop points left and right. It would take a perfect April to regain the playoff spot we had held for most of the season.

April was not perfect. But neither was this whole second half of the season – we didn’t score more than 2 goals in a match for the final two and a half months of the season. Not a recipe for success.

We ended up four points behind a playoff spot. Despite this, I was actually quite satisfied as I felt like there wasn’t a playoff team (including us) who would overcome the strong defensive teams like York City or Dulwich Hamlet. This defeatism turned out to be a blessing as our final three games allowed me to test a new tactic of dropping back one of our strikers to an attacking midfielder role. This was mainly done because I wanted to see how Dominic Birch, an attacking central midfielder from our first intake, would do and also because Reid and Simpson had been so poor this season. Birch oozed potential with great off the ball skills, good balance and agility, and could serve as a backup striker. His only issue was that he was downright awful at anticipating situations. Birch played decently well in his audition and the final three victories of the season were the proof that I needed to focus on this 4-2-3-1 tactic going forward, once and for all abandoning the 2 DM system.

My prediction that York City or Dulwich Hamlet would advance did not come true. Instead, Aldershot Town secured back-to-back promotions. What a performance by the AI and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that happen before.

Best XI

You can see that Jones played really well and took over for Laing in the central defense this season. My two wing/full-back signings, Ruffles and Hernandez, also played better than those positions had provided in the past. With Dronfield in front of this four, my defense is looking pretty good for next season. Defise was a disappointment and I may look to offload him to another club next season; so much for revenge. I’m sure TJ Bramble is upset he started less games after his heroics last season but he is just kinda average.

Due to the logjam at striker, I bumped Morris to a right-wing role by the end of the season and he performed very well, stopping the carousel of players on that side. Asante did well too, but his goals primarily came in bunches and he was prone to disappear completely for weeks at a time. Pressley was our most consistent goal-scoring threat and helped to cover the concerning decline of Reid.

Saraiva is getting older and his attributes are dropping; I probably need to find my left winger for the future. I also feel like I need a better goalkeeper and maybe even a replacement for Laing. But, overall, I feel like we are in good shape if we focus on the league better next season. I know the FA Trophy win is one of my goals but after seeing what Aldershot Town did, I’m jealous we didn’t match their ambition on our way to becoming Kings of London . . .

After a promising first year, I felt we only needed a few additions to the defense and some sustained development from our young first team players. Surely the league would be easier without the Merthyr juggernaut this year, right? Let’s kick on.

Transfers

After noticing that the best defenses in the National League South had central defenders with good pace/acceleration and tackling/marking skills, I sought out the best at this position with these qualities. I know I haven’t linked any player profiles yet – the main reason is that I’m writing these recaps while I’m managing a few years ahead in time and the other reason is that every starting player at these lower league levels looks pretty much the same. They are all pacey with strong physicals like natural fitness, good work rate, passing and teamwork, and decent technicals to match their position. The goal is to find players with attributes over 10 and any with a 13 or 14 is a star.

As for my central defender search, early results were lacking because none of the best wanted to join my club. However, on a random day in June, I suddenly noticed two names added to the list of players interested in a transfer to our club: Jason Sraha and Levi Laing. Sraha and Laing were two Arsenal academy drop-outs and miraculously signed for Kingstonian on free transfers. Sraha and Laing have acceleration/pace at 15/16 and 14/13, respectively, and both have 13 tackling. Also, both are 6 feet, 2 inches, providing some needed height to the defense. These guys are perfect fits and I entered the preseason with a team I thought had no holes.

That said, I did add a backup goalkeeper, Joe Young from Wolves, so we wouldn’t have to play Joshua Bradley-Hurst every single match. And finally, considering that Fábio Saraiva did so well on the left wing, I wanted to try to find a better option on the right to balance our attack and also serve as a sub for our Enock Asante–Josh Andrews combination up front. I came up with Kai Corbett, a blonde-haired teenager from West Ham, who had good speed but not enough finishing to serve as a striker sub. Corbett’s signing stretched my wages past my budget so signing another striker would not be a good idea. Regardless, I couldn’t find another striker on the same level as Asante or Andrews so I decided to drop the idea and carry on with the season.

Results

I think I made a mistake. My players were still asleep following the dreadful playoff exit from last year and maybe the lack of a new striker made Asante and Andrews complacent. A meager two goals were scored in our first six games, both in the same game. Although the results above show we had improved our defense, our attacking shape failed miserably to connect. Also, Saraiva suddenly looked old and slow on the pitch.

An attempt to inspire passion in the players with a team meeting before the match against Poole Town backfired and I was left pondering how to fix this lackluster spell. A tactic change? Bring in an inferior striker on a free transfer and go over budget on wages, hoping for a different result?

Sometimes, the best strategy is just to make due with what you’ve got. I moved right winger Jayden Reid, who was in a time-share role with Corbett the blondie, to take over as an advanced forward up front to receive passes from balls headed down by one of our target men, Asante or Andrews. Reid wasn’t a great finisher but he was fast and had good dribbling and teamwork. We saw immediate dividends as Asante scored 10 goals from September 1 to October 2, and Josh Andrews had 4 goals in a match at home against Dover. That same match with Dover saw Reid also complete a hat-trick. Then, to seal the new Reid-Asante and Reid-Andrews partnerships, Reid led the team in goals for the month of October. It seemed like whenever one of Asante, Andrews, or Reid would struggle, I could sub in the one from the bench and get the winning goal.

A pretty easy cup run in the FA Cup brought us to the second round in a match away at League 1 side, Peterborough. After a long match of good defensive interceptions by Sraha and Laing, Reid remarkably slotted home the winner in the 87th minute. Now we were off to the third round of the FA Cup in just my second year on the job, where we could potentially play one of the Premier League sides like Arsenal or Chelsea and really change our financial fortunes. Instead, we were drawn away against another League One side, Coventry City.

Okay, so the match against Coventry City went about as well as matches against League One sides should go. But I was also convinced that this poor result was merely the result of a string of poor performances leading up to the match. Andrews had completely disappeared by this point and I could only trust Asante and Reid to have good days. Unfortunately, they both struggled in December.

Desperate to get the team back on track after the FA Cup loss, I called another team meeting to refocus the boys. They responded well but my desire for a straightforward win would prove foolish as a heart-attack-inducing game against Dorking ignited. Five of the goals scored were in the second half, including a late game and hat-trick clinching goal for Asante. We then won three of the next four games, relying on our defense.

And then suddenly our form dropped completely. Every single Kingstonian goal scored in February and March was by Reid, all six of them. Asante and Andrews were now both completely ineffective. A mad search through free agents provided no hope of finding another striker so I had to simply rely on Reid, who single-handedly pulled us out of the Winter doldrums.

You’ll notice the Aldershot Town result. A 0-4 defeat. We were 8 points behind them before that game and Aldershot Town was on a two-game losing streak. Had we won that game, we would have been 5 points away from the lead with 8 matches to go and Aldershot Town on a 3-game losing streak. Instead, we ended up down 11 points and the lost confidence surely impacted the draws that followed.

By the start of April, there were several teams hovering around the same point total fighting for playoff seeding. We were comfortably in the playoffs thanks to our midseason form but our race for the league title had dwindled into a futile effort to hold onto home-field advantage.

An underwhelming end to our season and a surprising loss of composure from our defense led to a thud against Billericay Town. Our two wingbacks, Reece Hannam and Ethen Vaughan struggled in this second half of the season, to the point that it was better to sit Vaughan and play a clearly inferior player who would put in a decent shift. Even Zach Dronfield, our captain for this season and a rock in the defensive midfield, began to struggle. It seemed like our poor form would lead to disaster in the playoffs as we now would probably have to win two games on the road to advance to the final.

For whatever reason, my team shook themselves awake for the playoffs and had a tremendous performance against Dorking. Dronfield, TJ Bramble, Saraiva, Reid, Asante, and Hannam all had several key plays and the collective team effort rose their match ratings above a 7.0 even though the game was tied 1-1 going into the 60th minute. Normally, you only see these ratings for the whole team rise to this level after a series of goals are scored! An own goal by Dorking after a nicely worked team attack by the K’s in the 61st minute gave us confidence and we sealed the game with a Dronfield strike in the 90th minute.

As for the Woking game, well . . . it was the Enock Asante show. Four goals for the lad and we were soaring to the playoff final 5-0 by the 70th minute. However, just a few minutes later, Saraiva fell to the pitch with a serious thigh injury. I now was in a panic. Saraiva had not performed as well as he had last season but he was still a dynamic force and could change the game with his crosses and swift dribbling skills on the left wing. Plus, we didn’t really have a replacement for him. The game ended and luckily, the thigh injury would be healed a day or two before the playoff final. A sigh of relief!

Our focus turned to our final opponent: Hungerford Town.

Hungerford Town had finished second in the league, with 89 points – just one point behind the winners, Aldershot Town. But Hungerford was another one of those solid defensive lower league teams like the two promoted clubs last season. Aldershot had allowed only 37 goals all season and Hungerford, with the best defensive record in the league, allowed only 35. My earlier matches against Hungerford were a 1-0 victory and a 1-1 draw. So I planned for this to be a low-scoring affair and focused training on set pieces to get that one goal.

The final started and I was surprised I didn’t remember that the NLS does not play their playoff finals at Wembley Stadium. Apparently, this only happens for playoff finals in tier 5 and above. So it would be another road game, our third in a row.

It was admittedly an underwhelming final until the 67th minute, when Jayden Reid, our hero of the season, broke his foot. He had given so much – and now he could only watch from the bench. Josh Andrews stepped in to the advanced forward role but couldn’t connect with Asante, who was quiet after his 4-goal performance the game before.

The teams stayed deadlocked at nil-nil and honestly, there wasn’t much action on the pitch to write about, with our first yellow card coming in the 116th minute. Both teams seemed resigned to taking penalties.

As soon as we got there, I was convinced we were going to lose. If there’s one thing about Football Manager I know, it’s that penalties are a crapshoot – and you usually lose them. After two successful strikes for both sides, the keepers played big and saved two shots in a row each. A surprising third save in a row for Bradley-Hurst who, remember, was our first signing, seemed to write the headlines before our fifth attempt. TJ Bramble, the diligent and less heralded defensive midfielder next to the star Dronfield, stepped up to the mark and saw an opportunity. And he nailed it, coolly placing the shot in the top left corner and sending Kingstonian to the National League.

Best XI

Despite the promotion, I saw the season overall as a disappointment. Primarily, this was due to our lackluster attack as our total goals dropped from 80 to 67. Sure, we had a better central defense, but our wingbacks went way backwards this year. Until TJ’s penalty, I was convinced we were going to be stuck in the NLS for another season. Had we done so, I may have changing gears and focused on building up our youth academy instead of relying on transfers. That would have probably meant 1 to 2 more years of mid-table finishes. But that’s all in the past now, and it was time to figure out how much money I could spend after barely surviving the season with overdrawn wage expenses.

Well, shortly after the season ended, it was announced that we’d be moving . . . a nearly two hour drive or metro trip away northeast across London to Brisbane Road. I can’t imagine any fans making that trip on a regular basis, which meant that we would not be getting an increase in fans anytime soon and this would further hamstring us financially for the foreseeable future. This challenge was only going to get harder to become the Kings of London . . .

Title Image Credit: Jon Hayes

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