Glory Hunter - A Journeyman adventure

Franchise FC... Not a fan of the club, but good luck.

My first month at MK Dons or Franchise FC as some might say has seen us take on a number of the Big Hitters of League 1. By big hitters i mean former Premiership sides Portsmouth, Bradford City, Coventry and Charlton as we aim to fight out way back up the table. We also had the chance to test ourselves in the Leasing.com group stages against a Reading U23. Things went fairly well


Midfield duo Savvas Mourgos and Jordan Houghton both got on the scoresheet in the first half to the joy of the home fans as we beat Bradford 2-0. That was followed up with another 2-0 victory against Reading U23's to effectively put us through to the 2nd round of the Leasing.com cup. We failed to make it 3 wins from my first 3 games though as we our lacklustre performance against Rotherham saw us pick up just a 1-1 draw in a game we were lucky to get anything from.

It was probably a warning sign for the next game as at Fratton Park we were destroyed by Portsmouth 4-2 with both our goals late consolations in a game where we looked amateur. It was back to the drawing board for the game against struggling Chesterfield and the tweaks to player roles seemed to do the trick as we came out 3-1 winners. Next up against Coventry we went 1-0 down before firing back with Davidson and Ogbonna scoring in quick succession in the first half. We then had Lee Nicholls to thank for keeping us in the game as he pulled off save after save but eventually in the 93rd minute, he couldnt keep out another Coventry shot as they tied the game up at 2-2.

In our final game of my inaugural month we ground out a 1-0 victory over Charlton with Paolo Fernandes scoring the only goal of the game to leave the table like this.


We have started climbing up the table and right now we stand at an important junction as we are roughly equal distance points wise from the play-offs as we are from the relegation spots and we need a couple more months of positive results to get us back to where we belong. Things are looking up but we are far from perfect right not. The front 3 look good and it shows with their average ratings as Davidson seems to be getting in the goals, whilst Fernandes seems a dual threat getting Assists and Goals galore whilst Matt West has the ability to turn games as evidenced by his 5 man of the matches so far in the League.

Defensively we are Ok with Ogbonna doing fairly well as a ball playing defender but we are lacking at left back and that will be an area we look at in January. I am also conscious my best players are all here on loan and somewhere down the line we need to start having our best players be MK dons players.

Early signs though are the Franchise could be turning a corner. Let the good times roll

A good start to life at the Stadium MK. The league is extremely close at the moment so a good run of form will allow the table to make for much better reading. Alternatively...

Great start here at a club not many, outside of their fanbase, like very much! But a step up and a better chance of achieving your goals! Good luck!

A special two month update as i forget to take screenshots after the month of November, mainly because i was enjoying myself far too much as the save gets a new lease of life. One reason i am enjoying it has to be the table


Just 5 points off the top of the table and right in the hunt for Promotion as we go undefeated in the league picking up 6 victories and 1 draw in a run that has seen concede just once as we really get in our groove. This is despite facing a small injury crisis with us not having a proper left back for much of this run. It was this exact possibility of getting into this position that led me here to Milton Keynes as the way the League was shaping up before i joined i knew we could rocket up the league. Hopefully this run continues and this gamble continues as promotion would mean we would have gone from the 7th tier to the 2nd tier in just 4 Seasons.

For those of you who are following Dr Benjy FM and his glory hunter save, i could be just a few seasons behind him and not that far off his trophy count. Maybe... just maybe i can do this in the 20 years he has set himself and he started at Inter Milan!

It hasn't just been the League where we have excelled either as we beat Wycombe in the final group game of the Leasing.com trophy to set up a 2nd round tie against Tottenham U23's. A 2-0 win there with a rotated side has seen us get to the 3rd round where we will take on League 2 side Exeter. Meanwhile in the FA Cup we beat fellow League 1 side Doncaster in the 1st round before easily getting past Non-league Hungerford to set up a 3rd round tie against Championship Middlesbrough. Unlike last year where i upset the odds with Notts Couty against Boro, we just didnt have enough as we finished 2022 with a 3-1 defeat as we exit the FA Cup.

The Transfer window is now open and we have the chance to bolster the squad. A left back is a must as we have been playing with a makeshift left back whilst we could do with a few more options in pretty much every position other than the central midfield where we have plenty of options.

Let's go shopping

Terrific form!

Excellent form going into the new year and promotion isn't an impossible goal! Good work!

Transfers

The transfer window opened and it was the case of getting a few deals done in order to try and improve the squad enough to give us that final push for a promotion spot. In terms of outgoings we shifted on Tom Eaves and Louis Moult for a combined £60k with both players sitting in the U23's since my arrival. We also sold youth player Simon Davis for £30k with some add ons to Hull who must see a lot more potential than i did in the kid. We also cut short the loan of right back Darnell Fisher after a broken leg effectively ended his season and i needed the wages for some new players.

There was a real possibility of me selling star player Paolo Fernandes as Elche came in with a £3.8m bid for the winger and i was tempted for sure. However, we didnt need the money and losing our star creative outlet and 2nd top scorer just didnt make sense at this stage especially as replacements looked thin on the ground.

So from an incoming perspective, after a short hiatus i managed to get Matt West and Tom Dele-Bashiru back on loan at the club after their initial loan spells finished and they went back to Liverpool and Watford. Both were some of our better players in the first half and although i dont want to rely on loans they were too important not to bring back.

We did though add some new faces, mainly in the full back solutions. Harry Pickering joined from Championship side Hull for £325k and will be our first choice left back for the rest of the season. We raided the Championship again for a right back with Sam Byram joining for just £70k from Leeds. The last man through the door is a loan signing as Everyon agreed to loan out Anthony Gordon to us for the rest of the season having been at fellow League 1 side Portsmouth for the first half of the season. Nice and pacy he has versatility in the forward positions and gives me another option in what is a fairly thin area of the squad


Is it enough? Probably not to be honest as i really struggled to find the right level of player that wouldn't break the bank. Once again, a bit like when i joined Notts County, at first i thought the squad was decent but having had a little bit of time to play with it, it needs a bigger revamp than i initially expected and i suspect the Summer will be busy whether we are in the Championship or League 1 next season. Talking of which

On the Pitch

It has been a little rocky in January if i am honest, still veering towards more positive than negative but we lost a couple of games and we looked a little patchy. Injuries to our best two players Dan Davison and Paolo Fernandes have not helped as we have had to make do with some substandard back ups who to be fair have performed OK when called upon but i just dont have that trust that they are going to win us games from nothing.

Still we picked up a nice victory against Portsmouth (1-0) avenging my first defeat a few months back and we managed to get past Exeter in the EFL Trophy to set up a quarter final tie against Charlton and perhaps give us a route to silverware this season.


So we are just outside the Play-offs as it stands but the incredibly tight nature of the season means we could either go on and win the league or sit very much in mid table should things go horribly wrong in the final few months of the season. With Fernandes and Davison nearing a return from injury we hopefully can start kicking into the form from a few months ago and get ourselves towards the top and back into a play-off position because as we know... I love a playoff spot

On the Pitch


I can not call this season at all as we pick up 10 points from 15 and climb into the play-off spots. The league leader seems to switch from game week to game week and everyone is just picking up points from each other. 3 Points seperating the top 9 spots and i wouldn't be surprised if the gap is only a little bit bigger come the last day of the season.

In a month where I picked up Manager of the month despite a thumping from fellow Promotion hopefuls Wigan (5-2), we did start to pick up some impressive performances as we started to dismantle a few teams with our Tiki-Taka football. Goals and impact performances from our substitutes has been another highlight as i seem to be able to change the game by bringing the right man on.

We are certainly on the Up... now we just need to keep it going for a little bit longer

On the Pitch

A quiet month with just 3 league games but it has been an important three games when it comes to the fate of this football club.


A perfect month with 3 wins from 3 games as we suddenly find ourselves top of the table with 7 games to go. An unlikely title might just be on the cards and i could find myself in the Championship after just 4 seasons having started in the Vanarama South. The performances have also been pretty good with a grittier edge to the team, a team that is able to be much more clinical and also importantly we seem to have found quite a few impact players to come off of the bench which is always a good feeling.

Promotion rivals Coventry were up first and we were unplayable in the first half with Matt West and Dan Davison scoring before half time. Davison has come back from injury just at the right time and is starting to look really dangerous whilst Matt West is discovering the form from the early part of the season having struggled a little since resigning on loan in January. The game was wrapped up with supersub Conor McAleney scoring a 3rd in what was a comfortable 3-0 rout and put us right in contention for automatic promotion.

Against Charlton we struggled a little, going a goal behind but we showed real fight to bundle a goal in from back up centre half Charlie Oliver, a penalty from Fernandes before supersup McAleny scored a 3rd to give us a 3-1 victory. It was a little easier against Colchester as Davison scored at the back post from a corner to give us an early lead. The struggling Colchester side then went down to 10 men and it was another late goal with Oliver scoring for the 2nd game on the trot having found himself in the side due to fatigue from Walsh and Ogbonna.

So crazily we are top of the league but it has been all change every week as the past league position graph shows you


To think i took over after 11 games and we were in 21st position. 28 games later and we are top of the table and looking ready to get ourselves for an unlikely place in the Championship. Things are tight at the top and we cant afford to slip up but we have a very kind run in with pretty much all of the sides we are playing in 11th or lower. Our final game against Rotherham is the only real tough one on paper but hopefully we can have it all sewed up by then. The only other real worry is we have 7 games in the space of April so the games will come thick and fast. Can we keep it up?

A nervy first two games for the run in as we have to come back from two goals to draw 2-2 with Forest Green Rovers before an own goal secured a tough 1-0 win over Oxford.

Both sides are struggling in the league so hasnt filled me with too much confidence plus we no longer have our game in hand. Still 2 points ahead...

Another 3 games to go and it really is anyones title as it looks like it is going to be one of the lowest point totals to win the league for a long time. Nerves have certainly started to show as we struggle to a 1-1 draw with almost relegated Grimsby after conceding a penalty.

Salford came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 in a game where we threw away points before a tired and battered side managed to pull off a decent performance against mid table Bolton with a 3-0 victory. They missed a penalty early on and i fear that if we had let that one in we could have had a very different results.

Mid table Mansfield and fellow Promotion hopefuls Rotherham to go. Both games at home. Now is the time to find the performances we need

EDIT

I totally didnt register that Bristol Rovers had a game in hand and so they quickly leapfrogged us to go top of the table with two games to go. So in come 16th placed Mansfield and somehow we won 1-0 with another scrappy own goal giving us the victory. They even had the ball in the back of the net in the 92nd minute but it was ruled out for offside. Luckily none of the top 5 won that week leaving the table like this


It is going to be a great final game of the season as we take on 5th place Rotherham whilst Bristol Rovers take on Walsall in a promotion final header. If my maths is correct, we are now guaranteed Championship football as i cant see how Bristol Rovers and Walsall are going to get to a result where they leapfrog me in the table. A draw there or a Walsall win (and i dont lose by enough to swing the goal difference) and we are going up as Champions.

What a season... Just need to finish it off the right way

Best of luck to you. It's been a great turnaround to witness. The team has dramatically improved in terms of performances and results.

On the Pitch


So despite a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Rotherham we are crowned the League 1 Winners and it is now confirmed we will be playing in the Championship next season. On a personal note i feel completly vindicated in making the move after just one year at Notts County as we now face the 2nd flight of English football. It has been a fast move up the leagues and i am not entirely convinced we have the squad or the resources to compete next season but hopefully i can do a little more so i can earn another move sooner or later.

It was a great season and underpinned by some great performances. Lee Nicholls in goal kept clean sheet after clean sheet and quite often kept us in games. Dan Davison was a good goalscorer and with 17 goals had a fairly good season despite missing a number of games through injury. I will certainly look at trying to resign him on loan. Paolo Fernandes was a double threat, scoring goals but also being a creative force with 18 assists to his name. The signings of Pickering and Byram really improved our full back play and both were getting assists at crucial times.

It was a year where i was crowned Manager of the year, Paolo Fernandes was voted the fans player of the year and 7 of our players were nominated in the Leagues team of the year.

So where do go from here?

Budgets and next seasons plans


The plan is always to stay but as you have seen in the last two seasons, i have often left around the October period as a better job comes up that i can see taking me further. Personally after receiving this budget i think there is a very high chance of it happening. That budget will not get us very far, an extra £50k per week on what we are spending (and i imagine a lot of the players have promotion wage clauses in their deals) and just £250k to spend on players. It will have to be loan deals and bargain frees and although i can do that i dont really want to be scrapping around for players in a league that will have some teams a lot stronger than myself. Ipswich and Sunderland have been relegated to League 1 so there might be a couple of options there for looting.

A rebuild is what we are going to need. We have a lot of players on loan and we have a lot of League 1 grade players who had key roles this season. I estimate we probably need a back up keeper, two centre halves, at least two central midfielders, two wingers and two strikers. That is just the minimum required. We could need up to 4 central midfielders and we might even need 3 or 4 defenders.

We are now 4 seasons down and so far there seem to be very little in the way of surprises across the top leagues. Man Utd are proving to be a very strong team in this save picking up their 3rd consecutive Premierleague title, with Man City finishing a lowly 5th whilst Tottenham didnt even make it into the European places. Chelsea meanwhile destroyed Everton in the FA Cup final 4-1.

Real Madrid were finally back on top in Spain winning the league but it was their cross city rivals Atletico that picked up the Copa del ray beating Barcelona 4-1 in the final. Bayern were back in top in Germany for the first time since the save started winning the league whilst Bayer Leverkusen the champions for the last two seasons had to make do with the German Cup beating Frankfurt 2-1.

AC Milan ruled the roost in Italy picking up a league title for the first time in ages with Juventus down in 4th. The Old lady though did win the Coppa Italia beating Roma 2-0. Meanwhile in France, PSG carried on their dominence with a league and Cup double.

In Europe it was the English sides dominating as they got a clean sweep across all 3 of the trophies. Liverpool beat Atletico in the champions League Final, Arsenal beat PSG in the Europa League final whilst Everton remain the only winners of the European Conference winning it for the 2nd year in a row having beaten Sparta Prague in the final

Our Progress


Career

2019/20: Oxford City, 6th Vanarama South, 4th Qualifying Round FA Cup, 3rd Qualifying Round FA Trophy
2020/21: Oxford City, 3rd Vanarama South, 2nd Round FA Cup, 1st Round FA Trophy, Vanarama South Manager of the year
2021/22: Notts County, 3rd Vanarama National (Promoted via Play-offs), 3rd Round FA Cup, Semi Final FA Trophy
2022/23 MK Dons 1st League One, 3rd Round FA Cup, Quarter Finals EFL Trophy

Past Clubs Performance

Oxford City: Finished in the play-offs once again finishing in 6th but were in the end knocked out in the Semi Finals by Dartford
Notts County Couldn't keep my good run of form together but did finish a very respectable 11th in their first season back in the Football League