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Before we begin, a few confessions: as this was never intended to be a story, just a bit of fun, I did a few things in the editor before I started; firstly, bumping Prescot Cables up a division into the Conference North, secondly, giving them a sugar daddy owner, and thirdly editing myself into the game as a young right winger with high potential (explained in-story as the manager's son). Because of this, I obviously can't take full credit for the achievements of the game, but it made such a good story that I had to post it. This is only my second attempt at an FM story, and the first didn't last very long so hopefully this one will be better. Also, it won't take a usual format because I'm writing the story after the fact, having just retired from Prescot Cables after 17 years as manager, so it's all in hindsight and details of the early stages are hazy at best in my memory.
I walked into Valery Park, home of Prescot Cables on the 5th of June, 2005 to take the next step in my career. After over two decades as an uncompromising centre half in the upper-reaches of English non-league football, my legs had finally given way and, approaching my 40th birthday, I'd had to give up playing, and had been looking to move into management. Prescot Cables had been steadily rising through the non-leaguye pyramid for some years, and with their new chairman a bit of a buzz had been created about them in the national media. The chairman - Prescotian multi-milionaire businessman Jim Graham, had bought his local club and was willing to fund the club to achieve his dream of owning a football league club, and he wanted me to manage them.
5 days after the interview, the call cae from Graham - I'd got the job, and my journey into the World of football management was about to begin. Jim had released the entire squad from the contracts upon buying the club, but was giving me an almost unprecedented budget at this level, £1,000,000 to build my own squad with which to win promotion in my first season in charge.
My managerial duties began with a meeting between myself, Jim, the chairman, and the assistant manager, two coaches and scout he had hired to work alongside me to discuss potential signings. With the buget available to us, wecould afford to sign the targets I identified from the players I had come up against in my playing days, plus some suggestions from the coaches and players picked up by our scout while scouring the youth and reserve teams of Premiershp clubs for players who might become available to us. Three weeks, untold train journeys around the country and a number of heated phonecalls to other clubs later, we had assembled our squad for the promotion push.
Goalkeepers: David Martin - First Choice goalkeeper signed from Wimbledon. Had been strongly linked with Liverpool in the press so convincing him to come to us was a major coup. Has youth on his side so could establish himself as number one for many years to come.
David Godfrey - Solid back-up for Martin brought in from Wealdstone.
Gary Maguire - Third choice goalkeeper for use in emergency signed from Burscough.
Defenders: Sam Oji - strong young Ghanaian centre back and product of the Birmingham youth system.
Marcus Williams - Decent young left back who can also play in midfield bought from S****horpe
Lee Grant - Quality centre-back from Aston Villa's reserves.
Mark Ricketts - Another centre back, brought in from Charlton.
Mike Edwards - Can play in both defence and midfield, so a useful squad player, signed from Notts County.
David Morley - Talented right back brought in from Macclesfield.
Damien Batt - Back up for Morley at right-back, can also play in the midfield. Signed from Barnet.
Midfielders: Craig Lovatt - A real favourite of mine from the times I played against him while he was at Stafford. Breaks up play well in the middle of the park.
Jonathan D'Laryea - Initially we tried to sign his brother Nathan as a full-back, but instead came away from negotiations with bright prospect Jonathan from Manchester City, a central midfielder who can spray the ball around well an isnt afraid to get stuck in.
Cleveland Taylor - Exotic right winger from Jamaica signed from S****horpe to bring some flair and unpredictability into the side.
Matthew Collins - Competitive young central midfielder from Fulham.
Jack Howarth - My son, and also my first signing. Released from a youth deal with Liverpool, was highly rated by some clubs higher up the pyramid, but I used family sway to convince him to join us. A pacy right winger who can really run at defenders and could have a great future ahead of him.
Martyn Burke - Cover for the centra midfield positions, signed from Hucknall.
Aaron Webster - Versatile left-footer from Burton.
Jamie Jackson - Plays in the hole behind the strikers and can cause havoc with defenders.
Michael Fox - Can play on either wing or up front, so a useful attacker to have in reserve.
Strikers: Neil Grayson - A real veteran at the age of 40, but still has a lot to give. A legend of the non-league game in the autumn of his long and illustrious career, signed from Stafford
Andrew Barrowman - Potentially lethal goalscorer fro Birmingham's reserve set-up.
Alex Varney - Outstanding prospect from Charlton.
John Miles - Decent striker bought from Macclesfield.
First Season: 05/06 - Conference North
I was more than confident that this squad of 23 would guide us to automatic promotion into the Conference at the begining of the season and they didn't let me down. We went unbeaten in the league right through to the end of November and jained a formidable lead at the top of the table. With the veteran Grayson playing the hero, scoring the winning goal in seemingly every match over the course of several months we were flying in the league. We were also unlucky to be beaten by League 2 Port Vale having reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup. Valerie Park became our fortress, we only lost once there all season in the League, and although the small stands were usually empty, I still had the feeling something specialw as happening every time I stepped out onto the pitch before a match. Although we suffered a few losses on our travels in the second half of the season, we still finished top, and I had taken prescot Cables into the Nationwide Conference for the first time in their long history. The Chairman was delighted with me, but the real credit should have gone to the playrs who worked their socks off all season: Neil Grayson who remained prolific despite his age, Craig Lovatt and Jonathan D'Laryea who bossed the midfield, Sam Oji, the rock at the heart of the Prescot defence and my own son Jack Howarth who shone on the wing.
Second Season: 06/07 - Conference National
Once he celebrations were over from our succesful first season, the task which lay ahead of me was an even tougher one - guiding the club to a second consecutive promotion and taking them into the Football League. The good news was that the Chairman had his heart set on this goal and was willing to fund it out of his own pocket - doubling the funds available to me for transfers, and I wasted no time in spending it. I decided to stick with the tus-far succesful policy of blending young talents who had not quite made the grade in the Premiership with the best i could get from elsewhere. Some key signings this season were Phil and James Younghusband from Chelsea, a striker and winger respectively, the colossal young defender Jack Hobbs along with forward Michael Nardiello from Liverpool and tricky French wingback Sekou Baradji from West Ham. The clubs scout also took a tour of Scandanavia in the pre-season and came back raving about a number of Sweedish players, which resulted in the signings of young goalkeeper Nicklas Hammer and centre back Niklas Bengtsson. However the real coups I managed to pull off in the transfer market were the signings of the fantastic looking youth Lee Martin from Manchester United to patrol the left wing and mountainous young Finnish striker Njazi Kuqi, younger brother of Blackburn striker Shefki. Outgoing were Batt, Maguire, Fox, Collins, Jackson, Burke, Miles and Grant, who had failed to prove themselves in the first season and had to go to make room for the new arrivals.
The season started slowly, with a succession of draws, and by November we were struggling to remain in the top 6 and out of the FA Cup at the hands of Barnett in the final qualifying round, hardly great for a team who had just spent over £2,000,000 rebuilding their squad. That said, the new arrivals were earning their pay: Kuqi quickly established himself as the first choice striker ahead of Barrowman, Varney and the ageing Grayson, Lee Martin impressed on the wing and Hobbs and Baradji settled well into the back four. The Younhusband boys had a elss good time of it, with James kept out of the starting line-up by the presence of Jack Howarth and Cleveland Taylor ahead of him and Phil not taking his chances.
We began to pick up more wins as the season went on, and at some point the machine just clicked into place and we began to churn out the kind of consistent and dominant wins expected of champions as we ascended to the top of the table: 6-0 at Aldershot, 5-1 at Burton and again at Accrington Stanley.
The conference title wasn't the only silverware we were competing for either. Victories over Bideford, North Ferriby, Crawley, Carshalton, Shrewsbury and Bradford park Avenue took us into the FA Trophy semi-final, and we had only to overcome York over two legs to reach the final at West Ham's Upson Park. Last year's goalscoring hero Neil Grayson had, understandably at 41, lost some of his edge in the league but in the FA Trophy he was without doubt the player of the torunament, netting in every round, and he again scored the winning goal in the first leg against York, followed by a terrific defensive display at home in the return fixture to retain our one-nil lead and fire us into the final against Exeter.
Meanwhile we had begun to cruise towards the Conference National title, which we eventually won with a superb tally of 102 points which could have been even more but for the early season draws (15 in totla, more than any other club in the division bar one). This was followed up by an eventually comfortable 2-0 FA Trophy final win in front of the biggest crowd we'd ever played for, with Kuqi and Grayson on target as we completed a great double.
The whole team was magnificent this season, but the player of the season was Kuqi with 33 gaols in all competitions, making a mockery of defences all season, and, even more impressively, breaking into the Finnish national squad. Lee Martin, Hobbs, D'Laryea, David Martin and my boy Jack also all desrve special mention for their contributions this season.
The low point of the season for me was the media criticism I recieved in a poorly researched article in The Liverpool Echo for making my son the club captain. The article said he was too young and only got the position because he was related to the manager, and that it had caused unrest amongst players who felt they were more qualified. It was nonsense, the whole squad was young, he got the position on merit and led the team well, leading by example with 9 goals and 10 assists and ending the season lifting two trophies, and the boys were pleased to have him as skipper.
However, this could not ruin the magnificent achievements of the team - back to back promotions and ascending to the highest level in the clubs history, achieving the dreams of both myself and the chairman in the process. I hadn never managed to make the football league as a player, but ehre I was just two years ino my managerial career and I was managing a league 2 club. The biggest challenge was yet to come though - taking a bunch of semi-professional kids and turning them into a force to be reckoned with in the professional game.
Third Season: 07/08 - League 2
The celebrations following our second succesful season went on for some time. We had caused something of a media stir with our rapid rise - capturing the National imagination, and I found myself interviewed more than once on Sky Sports. Just two years into my managerial career and I'd achieved greater fame than I'd ever managed as a player.
Eventually though, we had to knuckle down for the difficult task ahead of us - achieving respectability in League 2. I started by overhauling training - if we were going to be playing against full-time professional teams we had to be full-time professionals ourselves, and those who were still on part-time semi-pro contracts were switched over during that summer.
A chat with the chairman outlined our aims for the season - improvement, and a respectable league position. Now we had reached his initial goal so quickly, he had a new goal - "Let's see just how far we can take this thing" were his final words to me once we had agreed the budget for the season.
Speaking of the budget, it had doubled again - I had over £4million to spend this year, and I certainly felt I could build a strong League 2 team with that. The priority was strengthening the attack - our conference North strikers were no longer good enough and had to be let go and Neil Grayson as some way past his peak. Phil Younghusband had been a major disappointment and was sold on, leaving only Njazi Kuqi and Michael Nardiello. We strengthened this with our two biggest signings, £2million Mark Yeates, a hungry striker who had played and scored at Premiership level the previous season from Tottenham and the veteran Robbie Fowler from Liverpool - perhaps long past his best, but at his best he was one of the best in the world, so I was convinced he could still offer us something and his experience was invaluable for our young squad. The Liverpool connection at the club continued, with Darren Potter and Adam Hammill also signed from the reserves at the nearby Premiership giants. Other signings this season included goalkeeper Artur Kotenko to challenge David Martin and Nicklas Hammer, quality defenders Liam Atkin and Ronal Rothenbuhler, the versatile right-sided Ryan France from Hull, attacking midfielder Colin Marrison and Wigan midfielder Luke Joyce. Both Younghusbands, Alex Varney, Davids Morley and Godfrey, Aaron Webster, Marcus Williams, Andrew Barrowman, Sam Oji, Mike Edwards and Craig Lovatt left the club. It was with a heavy heart that favourites like Lovatt and Oji were let go, but I just didn't feel they could make the next step up.
We had a mixed start to the season - some huge wins such as a 5-0 at Carlisle offset by home losses to the likes of Walsall and Plymouth. We suffered the worst defeat of my time here so far in November, losing 6-0 to Grimsby. We also went out of the FA Cup at the first hurde, along with the LDV Vans Trophy and the League cup, which we entered for the first time.
We sat in mid-table for most of the season, with every encouraging win followed by another disappointing defeat. Our big-spending had failed to build a cohesive team, with new players failing to settle in. Yeates did not have the impact I had hoped for, and Fowler picked up a career threatening injury early on, so Kuqi continued to lead the line up-front. Ryan France was another who disappointed, as did Hammill and Potter. The best players were the usual suspects - D'Laryea, Kuqi, Howarth, Martin. Of the new boys, Kotenko established himself in goal whil Colin Marrison ebcame somethign of a cult hero with the fans for coming off the bench and scoring crucial goals.
The season had a happy ending - we finally began to settle into some cnsistency in march and a series of wins took us into the play off places on the last game of the season. The mood around the camp was buzzing after our late charge up the table and we began to believe that, against all the odds we could win a third promotion through the play-offs.
We played Colchester, drawing 1-1 at their place before smashing them 4-0 on the return, setting up a date with destiny against Rushden and Diamonds. On the 25 May 2008 we lined up to take the biggest step yet in our incredible journey, but after just 12 minutes it was all going wrong - we conceded the early goal, and by half time we were facing an onslaught. We regrouped at half time and I sent them back out there to take the game to the opposition. And they did. Just 10 minutes after the restart Yeates scored a cracking equaliser. Then, on 76 minutes, the substitute Marison, super-sub, on for the injured Kuqi, nodded home from a free kick to give us an unlikely lead. We held on for dear life, and 16 minutes later we were a League 1 club - I had led my team to promotions in each of my first three seasons as a manager!
The other positive about all this promotion was that the club was now making money. People were cramming in to our tiny stadium to see the club which had risen from nowhere, easing the strain on the Chairman's pocket somewhat. However it was still a surprise when he called me into his office to announce we were building a new stadium. He had bought the park adjacent to the stadium and was planning to have a much larger stadium built on the site. In addition, he had financed the opening of a youth accademy nearby so we could start to produce our own young talent.
With all this spending, he still managed to provide a hefty £5million for transfers, money I was determined not tow aste in a bid to make our mark on the league. The first signing of the summer was the Italian Massimo Donati, who a few years ago had been considered one of the brightest prospects in World football and was now rebuilding his shattered career in the English Football League. he was followed by a number of other signings - Scotland keeper Paul Gallacher, veteran midfielder Mehdi Nafti and young Newcastle defender Paul Huntington, recent youth accademy graduate who had narrowly missd out on the first team.
The bulk of the transfer budget however was taken up by the one signing I worked all summer to secure - what I saw as one of the outstanding strikers around - Leicester's Matty Fryatt, purchased for almost £3million.
Outgoing were Liam Atkins, who had failed to impress me, and Cleveland Taylor who had by now become a rather peripheral figure in the squad. Also outgoing, unfortunately, was the Swede Nicklas Bengtsson, who had been a key part of our defence last term, but when an offer came in for him from Championship side Hull, he told me he wanted to move on and try a different club and I didn't want to hold him back.
Robbie Fowler also finished his playing career with the club, but agreed to stay on as a coach, one of a number of new staffing appointments made to bring up the standard of the club. The only disappointment was the attitude of one player - my own son and captain, Jack Howarth Jr. Over the summer there had been renewed speculation linking him with Arsenal and Blackburn, and it seems to have gone to his head. He lacks the discipline and work ethic I have come to rely on from him and it will need to be reinstilled.
Once all business had been concluded, pre-season began in earnest, with the new boyd settling in fantastically, and Fryatt showing signs of a promising partnership with Kuqi. We won all of our pre-season friendlies and went in to the season proper brimming with confidence. ANd it showed. We lost just once in our first ten games, and again we were exceding expectations, hovering near the top of the table. The run included a 5-0 thrashing of Blackpool on the road and a number of impressive wins at the rebuilt Valry Park, cheered on by by far the biggest home crowds the club had ever seen.
During our impressive league run we also made a start to our outstanding league cup campaign we were given difficult draws and showed real class in overcoming Championship sides Doncaster and Shef Wed, and not just ins craped 1-0s, but 2-1 and 5-3 respectively. This set up a dream third round tie with Premisership West Ham at Valery Park on October 22nd. We lined up for one of our biggest matces yet, if not our biggest, and we almost came away with something. Yeates fired us ahead after just 5 minutes, in keeping with our strategy of hitting them early and trying to gain a lead to defend. We held out for almost an hour before they equalised and another 10 minutes before they took the lead, and were valiant in our efforts to find a late equaliser but ultimatey it wasn't to be. My boys still had plenty to be proud of though, having gone toe to toe with Premiership giants and not being outclassed.
We had contrasting fortunes in the other domestic cups. We were knocked out in the first round of the FA Cup by Oldham in a lacklustre display, but in the LDV Vans Trophy we reached the semi-final before being eliminated by Notts Forest.
Meanwhile in the league we continued to do well. We dropped away from our early frontrunner position, but a play-off place remained a distinct possibility, where before the season respectaibilty had been the most we hoped to aim for. This was largely due to some sterling performances by the core of my team - Kuqi, D'Laryea, Hobbs, Baradji, along with a much improved Mark Yeates, who competed with Matty Fryatt to partner the Finn up front, and other newboys Donati and Nafti who brought an extra element of class to the midfield. However it was Lee Martin who clearly outshone them all, darting down the left wing, cutting inside, terrorising defences up and down the country and providing both goals and assists in great numbers - ending the season with 13 goals and 17 assists to his name and League One Player of the Year to boot. The only disappointing player was the skipper, who waslacklustre and disinterested for much of the season. Towards the end of the season I stripped him of his captaincy and dropped him from the starting 11 for a few games, hoping this would give him the required kick up the backside. The captaincy passed to D'Laryea, who by now is the heartbeat of the team and truly deserved it for his dominating midfield displays and his energy and enthusiasm, plus he has the respect of the dressing room.
Under D'Laryea's captaincy we managed 7 straight wins and crept into the play-off places and were faced with the almost unthinkable possibility of yet another promotion. Standing in our way were West Brom, looking to bounce back after their relegation last season. We played them first at valery Park and won easily, a 3-1 victory with goals from Martin and Kuqi (2). We went to the Hawthorns three days later brimming with confidence, and it proved to be our undoing. We didn't take the opposition seriously and they had scored 3 within the first 20 minutes. We regrouped and reorgainsed in the second half - and managed to get a goal back through Fryatt. The game looked like going to extra time when, in the dying seconds, West Brom scored the winning goal from a free kick.
The players were utterly deflated. The fans equally so. However I couldn't help but be philosophical about the defeat. We weren't yet ready for the second tier of English football - not so long ago we had been in the Conference North. Another season in League One would do us good. Give us more time to build a team capable of surviving in the Championship. Still, it was disheartening and draining to lose in such a fashion and we would have to bounce back and learn our lesson in time for next season.
After the playoff disappointment, I took two weeks off, went abroad and got away from the game for a couple of weeks with no contact with anyone from the club to refresh. So it was that on the 1st of June 2009 I rolled back into the office to find a stack of paperwork. While I was away my new assistant had kept it in order for me, so sitting at the top were the most urgent pieces for my attention. I sat down, read the fax on top of the pile and my heart sank. I put it aside and read what was next and my heart sank still further. They were transfer offers, one for Lee Martin, one for Sekou Baradji. They met the minimum release clauses I'd had built into the players contracts when they first signed, so i was powerless to hold on to them. My plans to build an even stronger team for the coming season lay in tatters. Some of our best play over the past couple of seasons had come from the two of them linking up on the left hand side - with Baradji playing as a left wing-back and Martin on the left of a 3 man midfield. Obviously I wasn't the only one to have noticed their abilities - Cardiff's Kevin Blackwell (Martin) and Millwall's Colin Lee (Baradji) wanted to take them up a division.
Sorting through the paperwork brought some positives though - the new stadiumw as having an extra 3000 seats added, we had a group of youngsters promoted from the accademy for the first time, we'd had sizable offers for some players I was looking to sell: Adam Hammil, Michael Nardiello and Luke Joyce, and the budget for the new season was £3 million plus transfer revenues, which were looking to be a big chunk. This at least meant I had a chance to rebuild.
As training got underway a few weeks later I got my first chance to look at the new kids. Two of them stood out in the sessions I saw: Daniel Richards a tough tackling defender and a lightning quick left winger by the name of Danie Blackwell. Blackwell I was particularly interested as a potential future solution to our current left wing crisis.
For now, however, I filled it adequately with [Richemond Rak[/B] from Burnley, who had been arguably the player of the season for them in the Chamionship last term. He was expensive at £2.2million, but I needed someone with real class to replace Martin. I also signed two new defenders: Matthew Russel from Manchester City and [B}Pascal Bieler[/B] from Everton, to add depth to our rather threadbare backline.
The last signing of the preseason with arguably the biggest though: Alvaro Campos. A Spaniard who had played twice for Real madrid before being released and spending a season on the fringes of Bolton's Premiership squad, Campos is a player with immense class and flair. he is an attacking player who seems to be at his best in the hole just behind the main strekrs, though he is also adept on either wing or up front.
He was signed on the 8th of July, trained on the 9th and on the 10th was thrust into action in our first friendly of the pre-season against non-leage Workington. We won 3-0, and Campos came of the bench to score the third. The rest of our pre-season went well, culminating in a home victory against a Fulham side recently relegated from the Premiership.
As the season proper got under way, we carried that form on into League One. Despite losing our first match of the season, at home to brentford, we soon got into a run of good results. We played open attacking football, scoring freely with Kuqi and Fryatt leading the line. Yeates too chipped in with some useful goals along the way, but by and large was unable to displace Fryatt and Kuqi. Colin Marrison remains a cult hero amongst the fans. He's not the most gifted of our attacking players but he has a knack for scoring goals and is versatile. He's never going to be a regular starter, but he seems to relish his supersub role.
The best result of the early season was undoubtedly the 8-0 thrashing of Swindon in early Spetember at The County Ground. Fryatt got a hattrick that day, with the others coming from Kuqi (2), a rejuvenated Howarth, Marrison and Campos, with his fist competitive goal for the club.
One of the biggest delights this season had been the form of my boy Jack. After a poor season last time round as he got a bit too big for his boots, and a family falling out which was a bit too public for my liking, our relationship is back on track and he's playing with hnger again. Maybe its being relieved of the pressure of the captaincy, who knows.
Talking of the captaincy, Johnathon D'Laryea has grown into the role magnificently. He's still only 22 and eh seems to get better every week. Perhaps the proudest achievement of my managerial career so far is uenarthing him as a 17 year old at Conference North level. There are a number of my players who i firmly believe could succeed at a higher level, but of all of them Johnny is the player I can most envisage in the Premiership. You might think it ludicrous to compare a young player in a League One side to someone of the stature of Roy Keane, but that's who he reminds me of, sitting there in the midfield, breaking down attacks, picking up the ball and moving it on. He also lifts those around him. He truly is an exceptional young player.
We had some good cup runs this season too. We got to the semi-final of he LDV Vans Trophy again, but our bigegst cup success came in the FA Cup. It started brilliantly with a 10-0 victory over Yate. They were a team of part-timers and even with a weakened team our we ran rings around them. One of their players comented me afterwards that they were just honoured to have played against a player who had played for Madrid. Our enxt two games were more difficult, as both the second round against Brighton, and the third against Hartlepool went to replays, but we triumphed eventuall both times. In the fourth round we were praying for Premiership opposition to test oruselves against, and we weren't disappointed, as we drew Wigan. Obviously we would have preferred an Arsenal or a Chelsea, but Wigan are a solid Premiership side. They came down to Valery Park in January to a sell out crowd and they were treated to an exceptional game. D'Laryea and Jack Hobbs were immense for us, as they always are, as we kept them out and held them to a 0-0 draw and earned a replay at the JJB. We lost the replay, but I'm still proud of holding them here.
January also brought the transfer window. For the third time in sixth months I recieved an unpleasant fax containing an offer for a player which met his minimum release clause. This time it was the Italian club Sampdoria for Massimo Donati. However I wasn' as disappointed as with Martin and Baradji. For one thing, he had been a victim of a change in formation. This season we've switched from our tradtional 3-5-2 to 4-4-2, and with the sacrafice of the third central midfielder, and the arrival of Campos, Donati hasn't been starting every game any more. Plus, the £2.2 million transfer fee came in handy. Rak had not been doing as well as I had hoped on the left, so i spent the bulk of the money on Northern Irish winger Kieran McKenna to provide competition.
I was satisfied that this was my business for the window, but on the 23rd, i got a phonecall from an old friend.
"Boss?" came the French voice down the line.
"Is that you Sekou?" I replied, rather startled.
"Boss, you have to get me out of here. I hate the training regime, I hate the manager, I'm not playing, I miss Cables. Please, try to bring me back" He pleaded. "I should have listened to you. I should never have left"
As soon as I was off the phone I called the chairman and asked if I could have an extra bit of money to bring Baradji back. We hadn't been able to replace him, and left back had been our achiles heel. He agreed straight away, and we set up the deal with Milwall. Within two days he was back in Prescot. With Baradji back, I felt I could ship out the useless left back pairing of [b]Tillen[B] and Ainsley, so I sold them off at cut price deals.
After bringing in McKenna and Baradji, our left hand side was significantly better than in the first half of the season and we went from play-off candidates to genuine challengers. We lost just thrice in the leage in the rest of the season, won promotion in mid-May and found ourselves locked in a title battle with Sheffield Wednesday. It went right down to the wire. To clinch the title, we needed to beat mid-table Scunthorpe at home and play-off chasing Blackpool has to take something away from Shef Wed. We knew Blackpool would be up for it, sincea win would see them in the play-offs, while Scunthorpe had nothing left to play for, so we wet into the game brimming with optimism, which showed in our play, as we went 1-0 up after 15 minutes through Kuqi. The crowd were elated unil news filtered in from Hilsborough: Shef Wed one, Blsckpool nil. I relayed this to the players at half time, but told them not to let it affect them. It appeared they didn't, and Mckenna doubled our lead with 20 minutes to go. I was nervously checking on the other match every few seconds, via a coach who had it on a radio. W had already achieved promotion of course, but I was desparate for silverare. The crowd found out before me, as the coach's yells were drowned out by a roar from the crowd. With just 7 minutes to go, Blackpool had equalised! We were within minutes of clinching the League One title on our way to the Championship. The players had heard the crod reaction and played the remainder of the game with an extra spring in their step. As the clock wore don they started to showboat, turning on the style, particularly Campos and Howarth. D'Laryea of course prevented them going too far, but our game seemed almost irrelevant. We'd secured the three points and Scunthorpe looked disinclined to mount any comebacks, and indeed didn't. Shortly after the final whistle at Valery Park, with the players still on the pitch huddled around a tiny radio, the final whistle finally went at Hilsbrough, and Blackpool has held on. The crowd went wild and so did the players, the staff and myself. We did a lap of honour round the ptich as the crowd cheered us on. It was perhaps the best feeling of my life, bar maybe when Jack jr. was born, to have my ahcievements recognised by legions of adoring fans. We had a medal presentation there and then, though we had to wait until the next day to recieve our trophy.
We had alrwady come much further than i ever dreamed possible. The Chairman and I had taken a tiny, non-leage side to the second level of English football in just a few short years. Over the coming weeks I was interviewed tme after time for local and national TV and newspapers, and recieving praise throughout the media. I kept telling them, though, that at least half their praise should be directed towards my boss, since it was his money and support that had made my job possible. Our achievements were immense, but I couldn't help but wonder: We've come so far, what if we can go just one step further, the big leage: The Premiership. That's my ultimate goal, and one day, be it in one year, two years, 10 years or twenty, i vw to take Prescot Cables to Premiership success.
If anybody is following this story, I would appreciate some feedback. I'm pretty new to this (only one abortive attempt at an FM story under my belt before) and would like to know what people think of my writing. I know the seasons are dealt with in not a lot of depth, as explained at the top of the page, but I'm doing what i can to overcome the gaps in my knowledge and I think I'm getting better at it as I go along. If you don't like it, or you think there's ways it could be better, let me know in a constructive way, and if you are enjoying it, please let me know too. Thanks.
After last season's success, I was determined to go one step further and succeed in the Championship, and what's more I felt confident that witht he ability of my players and the financial backing of my chairman, we could achieve anything with this club. The facilities just kept getting better - this summer the stadium was expanded again and the youth accademy was compeltely refurbished and overhauled. Not that it wasn't already succesful, our pair of starlets Richards and Blackwell seem to get better every time I wander over to the reserves during training to see them in the pre-season.
As usual I'd been busy in the transfer market over the summer. My first decision was whether to renew Matty Fryatt's contract. He had been outstanding last season and looked like a player with a huge future at the club, but he had come to see me after the thrilling conclusion to last season and told me he wanted to play in the Premiership. His contract was almost up and I had been planning tow ait a couple of weeks before opening negotiations, but it seemed I'd already waited too long. I told him we could offer him more money and a secure job. He said he'd stay only if we gave him exactly what he wanted. He quoted a figure. i won't repeat it, but it was more than we could afford, and yet, we needed him. I told him I'd think about it.
I discussed it with the Chairman, and agonised over it all summer. Eventually though, it just seemed impossible to hold on to him. He spoke to other clubs, and Ipswich, who had had a good run in the Premiership last season and were playing in Europe, offered him what he wanted. He told me he wished it had worked out here, but he owed it to himself to take the extra cash and the opportunity to play for a bigger club. So it was with heavy hearts all round that I had to let my star striker leave.
Obviously, that made replacing him the biggest priority of my summer. No Championship or Premiership level strikers seemed interested in joining a small, newly promoted side. After several aborted attempts, I turned my attention to the league we'd left behind. Since Fryatt himself had been that divisions top marksman last season, I considered who had been next best and came up with only one answer: Stefan Moore. The fomer Aston Villa man had hit 25 in the league for Swansea last season and had impressed me whenever I saw him. He was tough to prise away from Swansea, but eventually we got him for £2million.
The other area in which we needed major improvements was the defence. Hobbs was still a colosus for us, but alongside him we had a problem. Huntington and Russell, i think, doesn't have what it takes to take the step up to the Championship as a regular, though he is a useful squad player. Bieler I had been unimpressed with, and so jumped at the opportunity to sell him to Leeds for a profit. This left a gaping hole in our defence. I fileld this hole with veteran Spurs defender Anthony Gardner.
Goalkeeper Artur Kotenko was out to be replaced by Jan Habr - a similar player, but younger and more talented. I also brought in right-back Zesh Rehman, Everton winger Scott Phelan as competition for my son and Morocan international Jamal Alioui.
As seems to be becoming a habit however, I left my best bit of business for last. I had finished building the team I wanted, but there was some cash left in the coffers. Looking at the team, the elft wing seemed weakest, with neither Rak nor McKenna setting the world on fire there. As I sat in my office pondering this, a thought struck me, and a broad grin spread across my face. I dialed the phone.
"Hello? Is that Kevin Blackwell? Listen, It's Jack Howarth here. Yeah, from Prescot Cables. How much do you want for Lee Martin? We're willing to pay more than you gave us for him. Yeah. 3?? You know he's not worth that. 2.3 No, 2.3. I'm not going above 2.3! Good. Excellent, we'll set up a meeting with the lad and his agent."
The phone clicked and went dead. But within a week the deal was done and the second of our left-sided prodigals was back at valery Park.
Just thought I'd give you, my nonexistant a rundown of my squad at this point since I was starting to confuse myself as to who was playing. As I've said previously, I don't know all the details due in no small part to my own stupidity, but I'll have a go. This is for the fothcoming 2010/11 season.
First XI
Goalkeeper: Nicklass Hammer - Young goakeeper from Sweeden, discovered by scouts. Now on the fringes of the Sweedish international squad. Can be excellent but also prone to abberations at times. Previously competed with Kotenko, Habr fills that role this season.
Right Back: Ronald Rothenuhler - Solid but unspectacular first choice right back.
Left Back: Sekou Baradji - Attacking left-back with buckets of skill. Good defensively too, but his past as a wing-back shows.
Center Back: Jack Hobbs - Giant of aman, been with the club since his teenage years and just gets better as he becomes more mature. Would have been considered for the captaincy but for his occasionally volatile temper.
Center Back: Anthony Gardner - New signing, but with plenty of Premiership experience. Should complement Hobbs well. Spent some time at left-back for previous club so if Baradji were injured he would fill in.
Right Wing: Jack Howarth - My own flesh and blood, very, very fast. Former teenage prodigy. Unpredictable and moody, but also very talented. Former captain. Excellent season last time out. Has interest from premiership clubs.
Left Wing: Lee Martin - Legend amongst the fans. Superb attacking player, leaves defenders in his wake. Retuns to club after a succesful season at Cardiff.
Defensive Midfielder: Jonathan D'Layrea - Player I discovered myself at the age of 17 at Man City. One of only two players still in the first team squad from our Conference North days (along with howarth). Current captain of the team, outstanding defensive midfielder, reminiscent of Roy Keane, and, at only 22 could become as good in time.
Attacking Midfielder: Alvaro Campos - Came through the youth ranks at Real Madrid and is infused with the spirit of that side. Full of flair and skill. You can tell he played under Raul. Settled in well in the second half of last season, and I think he has a big future at the club.
Striker: Stefan Moore - New signing, goal poacher. Unknown quantity but hopefully can settle in in place of Matty Fryatt.
Striker: Njazi Kuqi - Another legend at the club. Finnish international and man-mountain. It was his goals that were instrumental in our early promotions. Now no longer the primary goal getter (though he still contributes a fair few), his role is more that of a target man. He also passes well and holds up play, as well as worrying defenders.
First Team Squad
Scott Phelan - Right winger signed as competition for Howarth.
Richemond Rak - Big money left winger who hasn't really settled and will be second choice to Martin this season.
Jan Habr - New goalkeeper, will start on the bench but should be able to step into Hammer's boots.
Ryan France - More adventurous right back than Rothenbuhler. Will get his share of games.
Zesh Rehman - Versatile defender, can play at right back or centre back.
Paul Huntington - Decent League One centre-back but not good enough to be first choice at this level. Good cover though.
Matthew Russell - Similar to Huntington but can also cover in midfeld.
Mehdi Nafti - Vetern anchorman. Usually only used as cover for D'Laryea these days but on occasion the two have played together when we've needed to defend.
Mark Yeates - Former Spurs striker. Competed with Fryatt to partner Kuqi over last couple of seasons but Fryatt tended to come out on top. Still contributed his fair share of goals and put in some good performances, so I have no hesitation putting him in if Moore doesn't pull his weight.
Colin Marrison - Versatile attacking player. Technically limited, but well liked by players and fans. Often used on right wing in absence of Howarth but also decent up front. Known for his knack of coming off the bench to score important goals.
Reserves
David Martin - Former first choice goalkeeper, long since pushed down the pecking order.
Kieran McKenna - Another big-money winger who hasn't really worked out. Played ahead of Rak for most of the second half of last season but I'm notimpressed with his attitude and He'll be third choice this season.
Mark Ricketts - Defender who seems to stick around despite extremely limited opportunities. Not really good enough for the first team at this level.
Darren Potter - midfield player who has disappointed for us. Will only play in emergency.
Daniel Richards - Youth right back who could break into first team one day.
Daniel Blackwell - Talented youth left winger who is probably the highest rated youngser at the club.
Steve Harper - The third best of the youngsters to come out of our accademy. Plays anywhere down the right hand side
Ammendments: Alioui should have been included in first team squad as a defender, though he was a very forgettable part of my team. Also, while researching my players to write this list (a diffiult task when in the only save game you have of the game most of them are retired) I found that McKenna is aright winger, not left. So either my memory is playing tricks on me and I signed him s a right winger to challenge Howarth and continued to play Rak on the left, or he had been retrained as a left winger by a previous manager. I think the latter though i can't be sure.
And again, please, if yu're reading this let me know. I don't like to think I'm writing for nobody. I beg your comments and crave your attention, even if its just to say "I read it" or "it's not very good", please leave a comment if you follow this story.
The Resistable Rise of Prescot Cables 
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