Northampton - The Climb

Firstly, this is my first post on this forum, and my first delve into the realm of Football Manager story telling, as such please give me some room to learn the tools of the trade and eradicate expected scruffiness from early posts.

My career revolves around Northampton Town, I am currently in September 2014.

2012-13
The wage budget needed trimming, and a side with increasingly shaky finances needed stability and direction.

Step in Mr Travis.

The first 6 months was spent wheeling and dealing in the free transfer market, whilst releasing players on obsessively large wages (Adebayo Akinfenwa alone was on near 3k). By January, we were top of the league and looking good for an unlikely promotion. A cup run went hand in hand, and we begun 2013 at home to Norwich, suffering a narrow 1-0 loss. Cheap signings such as Kal Naismith, Craig Sutherland, Stephen McGinn and Dale Bennett saw us becoming hard to beat, whilst the power and pace of Clive Platt gave us a constant outlet. By March promotion was all but assured.

Or was it? Disaster struck, 6 straight losses saw Bradford overtake Northampton on the final day to claim 3rd and condemn the cobblers to the play-offs. This, coupled with two humiliating defeats to York, saw the play-off dream come crashing down around Sixfields. After the initial heartbreak, the board were ecstatic with the teams performance overall. Financially now a stable club, having made a profit of over 1 million in the first season of my tenure.

Season 2- 2013/14
This season saw promotion required, and expected. A new target man was needed, as Clive Platt's 2.5k a week had been deemed an unworthy expenditure, as had the wages of David Artell, Kelvin Langmead and other first team players.

Rebuilding took place, Ishmel Demontognac was sold to the tune of 350k. Adam McGurk, Nigel Hasselbaink and Kevin Kyle offered more firepower. Jon Ashton, Ashley Eastham and Matthew Urwin offered a solidity at the back we hadn't seen before. Ross Forbes joined to add further creativity in midfield.

The first 6 months were a breeze, another trip to the FA Cup third round, this time ending in Huddersfield. 12 points clear of 4th in January, and the future was looking bright. Stephen McGinn was sold for 450k, Nigel Hasselbaink followed for a similar fee (with add-ons).

The March collapse came once more, players got tired. I take blame for this, having solds 3/4 faces in January and not adequately restrengthened. However, at home to Oldham, infront of a sell-out crowd, Northampton secured promotion to the third tier of English football, eventually finishing second behind AFC Wimbledon.

Season 3 - 2014-2015

the transfer budget was 800k, with a 36k wage budget being more than double the clubs current wage expenditure. This gave me the opportunity to strengthen, but for the third season in a row a mager squad overhaul has taken place. 9 first team faces were despatched, and then the rebuilding begun again.

The free transfer market was exploited. Nicky Wroe, Jose Baxter, Matt Ritchie and David Albelda amongst others were brought in, the transfer budget was entirely shifted to the wage budget, meaning I have no transfer money left but do have 23k for wages. In order to recoup some transfer money I sold the clauses on McGinn and Hasselbaink, recouping 200k further.

The season has begun well, picking up 9 points from my first 6 games, mainly due to the goalscoring prowess of Jose Baxter, and the defensive resilience of Jon Ashton and new goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis.

(Screenshots of season 3 to be uploaded when January hits.)

Good start to your first story, and good luck in the future for Northampton

Cheers buddy, looking like mid-table security at the minute, barring a wonder run/dramatic collapse.

Nicky wroe was a good player for me in league one. What tactics are you using?

A direct 4-4-2 with a target man and advanced forward up top. Usually these two being Kevin Kyle and Jose Baxter respectively.

The Midfield is two wingers set to attack with a ball winning midfielder set to defend alongside an advanced playmaker away from home, but at home the ball winner is instead a box to box midfielder. Away Albelda takes the spot alongside Forbes (Playmaker) but at home Wroe gets it, with Montano/McGurk wide left and Naismith/Ritchie wide right

September/October

Npower League 1
Northampton 2-0 Coventry
MK Dons 1-1 Northampton
Scunthorpe 1-1 Northampton
Northampton 1-1 Brentford
Northampton 2-1 Gillingham
Northampton 0-0 AFC Wimbledon
Hartlepool 1-1 Northampton
Crewe 1-0 Northampton
Northampton 2-1 Preston
Northampton 4-1 Notts County

Very pleased, one league loss in 2 months has propelled us into the top ten and we're in touch with the playoff pack (2 points adrift in 8th). We aren't conceding many goals and considering the defence is largely similar to last season, especially the core centre-backs, I'm optimistic.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Got a bye to the second round where I lost on penalties at the Ricoh Arena to Coventry

Player of the Month(s): Jose Baxter
The lad has carried us on his own at times, as much as the defence have been tremendous, the goals need to be found from somewhere, and with 12 league goals already, Jose tops the scorers charts.

November 2014

Barnsley 1-0 Northampton
Northampton 3-0 Bury
Northampton 2-0 Swindon
Wallsall 2-3 Northampton
Crystal Palace 2-1 Northampton
Northampton 2-0 Tranmere

An excellent month again. The major result was being 2-0 down at Wallsall and coming back to win 3-2, a real dance around the bedroom moment. The defence's performances are the key factor in our great progress in the last two years. After the Wallsall game, I did leapfrog them into the playoff places, but only for 3 days as Palace subsequently leapfrogged me. I currently sit 7th, 2 points adrift of the Playoff pack.

FA Cup
1st round: Wrexham (A) 1-1
replay: Wrexham (H) 2-0
2nd round: Gillingham (A) 2-0

really thought Wrexham were going to do me in the replay, I had 31 shots to their 3 but at 0-0 they hit the post twice. Thankfully I brought Baxter and McGurk off the bench and they did the trick.

SIGNING!: Aaron Muirhead oins from Motherwell from 40k, I know another defender but just adds a strength that Lee Vaughan hasn't got

Player of the Month: Adam McGurk
Npower League 1 agree with me. An excellent month, contributing goals to get us out of tricky situations and is more than happy to play wide left in order to compliment Kyle and Baxter up top.

FA Cup Third Round Draw: Northampton vs. Walsall

December 2014

Northampton 1-2 Plymouth
Northampton 3-1 Leyton Orient
Peterborough 3-0 Northampton
Crawley 1-2 Northampton
Northampton 2-0 Carlisle
Coventry 0-0 Northampton
Rochdale 3-1 Northampton

Average month, plodding along at pace with the rest of the play-off chasers, still sitting 8th, still 2 points adrift.

The January transfer window holds big things, as previously mentioned, my wage budget is close to 20k, thanks to transfer funds raised over the previous 2 seasons, and a budget adjustment. However, due to my performance n the league the board have offered me a further 300k, perhaps a reward for the balance passing over £3 million.

Aaron Muirhead has just joined up with the side, even more competition to a backline that lookd noticeably shakier last month, shipping 10 goals in 7.

January 2015

FA Cup 3rd Round: Northampton 5-1 Walsall This being by far the best performance in my 2 and a half years at the club, we were magical. Adam McGurk in particular. The draw for round 4 was the draw we'd been dreaming of, the money spinner... Chelsea at the bridge

FA Cup 4th Round: Chelsea 3-0 Northampton As expected just a step too far, but we didn't embarrass ourselves, whilst still being soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country.

Npower League 1
Northampton 0-0 MK Dons
Gillingham 1-2 Northampton
Brentford 3-0 Northampton
Northampton 4-1 Scunthorpe.

Obviously the 2 important games came back to back, the crushing defeat at Brentford, who lie just above me in the table really dented the teams confidence. However, they couldn't have responded in a better manner, comprehensively taking Scunthorpe apart, and despite having Neal Trotman dismissed at 2-0, still finding the energy and determination to find 2 more goals.

Player of the Month: Adam McGurk

TRANSFER WINDOW UPDATE

Aaron Muirhead had signed pre deadline and he joined up on January 1st as mentioned in the previous update. However the big issue, was to find a target man. Kevin Kyle, now aged 34, was beginning to dip and having been given funds and wages to spare following the monumental profits last season, I felt a new guy was needed.

My initial targets were John Sutton (Hearts) who had scored 15 SPL goals so far this term, or young Mark Beck (Carlisle) who had the attributes I required. I was put off Sutton by his age (31) and the realisation that in 2 year this pattern would repeat itself. Beck simply put, was not interested.

My next target was Nick Proschwitz (Hull). The guy is perfect, he's 6 ft 4, he's got great physical stats, he can head a ball. He can finish. He is also on 10k a week wages, and no matter how much I offered agents, he would not sway.

Deadline day arrived, what to do? Deserately scowering the loan markets, where I did pick up Andy Wilkinson from parent club Stoke, and Diego Rosado (for his second spell here) from Blackburn. With 2 hours left of the transfer window, I found my target, Ronald Bergkamp, 15goals in league 2 for Dagenham playing as a poacher, a physical towering demon, and only 23, after haggled negotiations, a bid of 575k was accepted (more than I've spent in all 3 transfer summers and January's put together thus far.) and half an hour before the deadline Ronald was rushed out of Sixfields and back into the night. Deal done.

As promised, I give you my first official screenshot, a picture of the league table as of February 2015



As you can see we're right in the thick of thinks and thankfully everyone else seems to be as topsy turvy as us at the minute. Next league table will be up at the end of March

February 2015

Northampton 0-3 Hartlepool
AFC Wimbledon 1-1 Northampton
Preston 0-2 Northampton

Only 3 games this month. Infuriated with the loss at home to Hartlepool, I had 24 shots to their 9 and 57% possession and somehow came away losing 3-0. On the other hand, I was battered at Deepdale and thanks to a Beavon og and Magic McGurk we came away with a jammy 2-0 win. I'm now dead level on points with 6th Place Hartlepool (a draw with them would have had me 2 clear of the pack for the playoffs.) with just 9 games to go.

I'm panicking right now because the last two seasons the squad has tire away in March and we have collapsed. Hopefully Wilko, Rosado and Bergkamp (no goals in first 3) will give me the variety to ensure a hattrick of March-time capitulatings won't occur

March 2015

Northampton 1-0 Doncaster
Notts County 0-2 Northampton
Northampton 0-0 Crewe
Bury 1-2 Northampton

A fantastic month! No 'inevitable' March collapse, and my game in hand (at home to second placed Crewe) we more than held our own and could have won with the chances we had.



Right now down to the serious stuff, there are 5 games left, which consist of promotion bound Barnsley at Home, Relegation threatened Swindon Away, and three MASSIVE games, against playoff rivals Walsall, Palace, and on the last day of the season, a trip to Tranmere. Those three games will define my season

Signing - Noel Makombo-Eboma(Alloa) 16k, an Rory Mackenzie (Killy) free, both to join in the summer.

April 2015

Northampton 1-3 Barnsley
Northampton 1-0 Walsall
Swindon 0-2 Northampton
Northampton 3-2 Crystal Palace

Still Tranmere to play, I lie in 6th three above Rochdale, who have a 5 greater goal difference, a win at Tranmere would put me 5th.

The reason I decided to jump the last game and report anyway was for, what at this point was the game of my season. Palace at home.


The win was superb, Palace were 2 up with foot on the gas and looking comfortable, Introduce Roland Bergkamp. He trotted on the pitch and within 15 seconds had a goal, Ritchie's free-kick meeting his head, then he teed up Baxter for the equaliser with 3 to play. Ross Forbes' free-kick came off the woodwork and off the back of Shwan Jalal to give us a historic comeback which has so nearly got us to the play-offs.

Tranmere 3-1 Northampton.

However Rochdale lost 3-1 at Plymouth, so we finish 6th! Bring on the play-offs!

nPower League one Play-off Semi-Final: Northampton Town vs Doncaster Rovers

I hate the Play-offs on this game, they're horrific and I always have a tendency to become rather more alcoholic after them. Nevertheless, we had a chance against a Doncaster side who had slipped from top at Christmas. However, taking lessons from York in 2013, we knew we had to score quickly and make sure we were 2 goals up before the second leg.



Perfect. a dominant performance (22 shots to their 6) but I couldn't help but feel that we perhaps had not taken enough chances. With the amount of chances we created we could have, and probably should have, put the game to bed.

Before the second leg there was disaster. Adam McGurk, who had pretty much carried the team single handedly in the second half of the season, got injured and would miss the battle at Keepmoat.

It took just 5 minutes at Keepmoat for Billy Paynter to pounce on a Bouzanis spill. It was going o be a long evening. Or was it, 4 minutes later and Jon Ashton, the best captain/signing I have made, boomed an equaliser in. On 41 minutes, calamity from Gary Wood, as he came out of his area, only to find his clearance meet Matt Ritche's volley, to give Northampton a 2-1 lead! At half-time it was a tall ask for Doncaster, needing 3 goals in the second half to even get an extra half hour from proceedings.

They got an equaliser on 61 minutes, a Michael Woods free-kick. Nerves begin to set it. 90 seconds later DJ Campbell scores to make it 3-2. Madness. Ludacrous defending and panicky passing were leading to our downfall. And in the 91st minue, Billy Paynter steered in an equaliser on aggregate FT 4-2, Extra-time awaited. And we scored promptly, Jose Baxter 7 minutes in, the pressure was now all back on the hosts. I think having comeback, the stuffing w well nd truly knocked out of them, Kyle hit the post twice before the final whistle.



Wemberllleeeeeeeeey!!!