Decisions, decisions .
Gateshead. Conf North. All players grey :thup:. Semi-pro. In the process of a board takeover:eek:. Estimated value £325K. 11795 all seater stadium. Fairly basic training facilities. minimal youth facilities. In the process of a board takeover :eek:. Media prediction 2nd :eek:.
AFC Wimbledon. Conf South. 35 white players on the books :eek:. Semi-pro. Estimated value £275K. 4500 (1100 seated) stadium. Basic training facilities. Minimal youth facilities. Media prediction 13th.
Bath. Conf South. Only 2 white players. Semi-pro. Estimated value £30K. 8840 (1017 seated) stadium. Basic training facilities. Minimal youth facilities. In the process of a board takeover :eek:. Media prediction 17th.
Carshalton. Conf South. All players grey :thup:. Semi-pro. Estimated value £300K. 8000 (240 seated) stadium. Fairly basic training facilities. Minimal youth facilities. In the process of a board takeover :eek:. Media 2nd.
Hitchen. Conf South. All players grey. Semi-pro. Estimated £130K. 3800 (500 seated) stadium. Fairly basic training facilities. Minimal youth facilities. In the process of a board takeover :eek:. Media prediction 19th.
Staines. Conf South. All players grey. Semi-pro. Estimated £90K. 2500 (250 seated) stadium. Basic training facilities. Minimal youth facilities. Media prediction 22nd.
My first impressions are to discount Gateshead because their HUGE stadium gives them an unfair advantage, and also because as they are the only newly promoted team to be plying their trade in the North, it should be a harder league than the South, (despite the media prediction of 2nd).
AFC Wimbledon are also being discarded because of the HUGE number of player already on their books. I think I remember reading a thread about this. They have supposedly got a far higher reputation in the game than other clubs at a similar level.
As regards all the clubs (bar AFC Wimbledon), being in the process of a board takeover, I sippose that it's because they didn't have board members set so in fact rather than a takeover, it's just the game creating a board for the first time.
I'm not going to choose Batch simply because they have 2 white players, no I'm not racist).. So I am down to Carshalton, Hitchen & Staines. Carshalton can be added to the pile of discards as the media prediction of 2nd seems somewhat hopeful, and the estimated value of the club is a whopping £300K. How can it be when they don't have any players. I wonder how the estimated value is calculated.
Last on the discard pile is Staines, for no other reason than that I used to play against them at rugby and they were a particularly nasty bunch.
So it's..........
Hitchin 
After a month in the job, I feel like I'm running in treacle. I've managed to sort my backroom staff out, but I've only managed to sign 8 players. Granted, two of them look pretty good, and I have brought in a couple of decent keepers, but it's just been knock back after knock back.
Defeats in all 3 of our warm up games has not helped my mood either.
As we approach our first league game, there is much speculation with regards to the rumoured board takeovers of the newly promoted clubs. There is a new board in place at Staines, but all the others, (including mine), have fallen through. AFC Wimbledon, (in particular), seem to be permanently in the news with the talk of one takover bid or another.
I played 6 pre-season friendlies, drawing 1 and losing the others. I conceded 16 goals and the only 1 that we managed to score was an own goal scored by the opposition. In an effort to boost morale, I arranged a couple of games against our Reserves and we ran out comfortable, (ish) winners.
I now have 19 non grey players on the books. One of these is injured, another is suspended and two are keepers, so it doesn;t leave me much room for rotation.
Not surprisingly, I am on the back foot for long periods of the game, but my tactics were employed with this sort of game in mind and sure enough, Big Man scored with a header against the run of play. He added a 2nd after half time before Birch kiled the game off. All round an excellent performance.
Our first home game didn't start as planned as we scored an own goal within 20 seconds and had gone 2-0 down within 20 minutes. I threw a wobbly at half time and took of Birch and threw on 17 year old Allen. 19 minutes later he had a hat-trick and we were running riot. Final score 5-2. What a come-back.
Linear Mode
