Season Five: January - May
Transfers
We made no transfers during this half of the season. Our only weakness was a true depth in midfield and I did bring former Newcastle midfielder Dan Gosling in on trial, but he suffered a long-term knee injury days before I could offer him a contract. In a way, we were unlucky, but this provided the current squad players with even more game time, which kept them happy.
Sky Bet League One
Walter called for my team to be even more consistent in this second half of the season, and I think our run of form from January to April will have pleased him! We started 2019 with a bang, tormenting Southend at their place in a dominant 4-1 victory. In the eighteen league games of 2019 before our first defeat to Portsmouth, we recorded some outstanding victories, including a 4-0 victory over Portsmouth and a 6-0 rout of Peterborough. Sadly, the former ended our nineteen league game unbeaten run by capitalising on our injury-stricken squad and knocking us off our perch. However, in the 23 games we played, we had a record of 12-9-2, which is absolutely remarkable! Our highlight of the second half of the season certainly came against Peterborough, when a Kevin Griffiths first-half hat trick helped us on our way to a memorable 6-0 victory.
League Table
Big injuries to our two top goalscorers Danny Mills and Kevin Griffiths at the start of April saw them miss the rest of the season, which lead to our downfall. We finished in an outstanding second position, just five points behind Huddersfield, and earned automatic promotion to the Championship! However, we were topping the league table come April and missing our two best attackers proved to be our downfall as our form dropped dramatically and we fell to Huddersfield in the standings. While there was always be a slight disappointment that we weren't able to hold on to our lead, we can be very proud of recording a fourth promotion in five seasons. The Hawks are soaring high in the Football League now!
FA Cup
We continued to progress in the FA Cup up until the fifth round, where we were faced with Championship side Nottingham Forest. Despite our best efforts, Forest had too much quality in their squad to overcome and they knocked us out. We can be very proud of what was a sensational cup run and hopefully we can reach these heights in the coming seasons.
Capital One Cup
As we had left you before, the London giants Arsenal knocked us out in a tie which we were unlucky to lose. Hopefully we can progress further next year. (Check out the score in the final!!!)
Johnstone's Paint Trophy
Our form in this competition continued and we dispatched Coventry 5-2 on aggregate in the regional finals after suffering a 2-1 defeat in the first leg. This set us up for a Wembley show-down with League 2 side Crewe in the proper final, where we were favourites. We took the lead through left winger Kyel Reid but Crewe proved to be too hot to handle and they equalised in style from a well-worked set-piece goal. It only took five seasons for Nigel Seidu, our right back, to score his first goal for the club, and what a goal it was! With seconds remaining in added time and the game set to go extra time, the African defender makes a forward charge and connects with a cross via a spectacular diving header which bounced in off the far post from all of twenty yards! Now that is how you win a cup final at Wembley! I may not have cared much for this competition in the past but nothing beats winning a cup final at Wembley!
Whitehawk's Star Performer
Captain Danny Mills netted 28 times this term and Kevin Griffiths has 25 goals to his name, but it was central defender
Billy Roast who, in my opinion, was our most consistent and most important player this season. The young English central defender was key to us having the best defensive record in the league and was a key part of how we played. I play with Ball Playing Defenders, and this shows with his three assists this season! He has an eye for goal too, which showed in his 7 goals this season. He is a crucial player and will hopefully become even better in the Championship.
Whitehawk News
With our promotion to the Championship, we regulated to have a full-seater stadium and so 2,000 seats are being added to The Enclosed Ground. After completion of work in October, we will have a 5,000 all-seater stadium, which is very impressive for us indeed! In other news, our Training & Youth Facilities are also being upgraded and are also due for completion in October while we have a new Feeder Club in Hyde.
Other News
It was celebration time for
FC Bayern München who recorded their seventh ever UEFA Champions League title by beating Inter Milan 6-0 in the final at Old Trafford! This is their second UEFA Champions League title in a row and they will be looking to make it three in a row next season. In other news,
Chelsea won the Barclays Premier League on goal difference, with
West Ham placing fourth and earning Champions League football (courtesy of a 90th minute winner from Diaffra Sakho on the final day).
Real Madrid stormed to a comfortable Liga BBVA title, while
Freiburg won the Bundesliga in a season where
FC Bayern München only finished fifth! Needless to say, Europe's top leagues and premier competition had what was a tremendously exciting season!
So the season is finished and we progress to the Championship. Hopefully we can survive our first season there and then begin to build an assault on the Premier League promotion places.
Previous Update: Season Five: August - December
Next Update: Season Six: Pre-Season