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Leagues loaded: South Africa (Top division only) Mexico (Top Division Only), USA, England (full leagues), France (full), Germany (full), Greece (full), Italy (full), Holland (full), Spain (full), Australia (top division), Argentina (top division), Brazil (top division)
“July 2nd 2006 saw the surprise appointment of an unknown Greek manager, Giannis Mavrogiorgos, at the helm at Basingstoke Town, whose only claim to fame is that they have won nothing in their 110 year history. Mavrogiorgos’s semi professional side will surely have a difficult season, being predicted to finish 21st in the 22 horse race that is the English Conference South”.
Pre season friendlies confirm that survival should indeed be the club’s target, with three defeats and a couple of hard – won victories against non-league opponents. Seeing that the level of available players is pathetic at best, I visited the job center, in hopes of recruiting some coaching staff, and hopefully a scout who understands the difference between football and curling.
By December the backroom staff is complete, with the appointment of two coaches, a fitness coach, a goalkeeping coach and two semi-decent scouts.
I decided against signing any players, because, frankly, my scouts’ recommendations were no better than my current players, hard as that may seem.
League form was surprisingly good. After a patchy start, a two month unbeaten run saw us lead the pack at the start of January, 3 points clear of Fisher Athletic who also defied pre-season odds to climb to the top of the table. Despite excellent league form, we didn’t do as well in the Cups, losing against Burgess Hill at the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and against Stalybridge at the 1st round of the FA Trophy.
A couple of injuries to key players during January meant that our form petered out, but we still managed to never drop out of the playoff spots. Five straight wins at the end of the season saw Basingstoke claim the 3rd position. Playoff semifinal was against Lewes. Beating the odds, we managed to pull of two wins, to advance to the playoff final, to play against Salisbury. We completely dominated this game, winning 2-0 and not conceding a single shot. High scoring striker duo scored one each to send the team into the Conference National and the city of Basingstoke into rapture.
Playoff Semi against Lewes: 2-1 victory at home, 1-0 victory away
Playoff Final against Salisbury: 2-0
Top Goalscorer and Fans Player Of the Year: 27 year old English striker with 30 goals, 23 of which in the league
Season 2007/8
The new season saw Basingstoke participate for the first ever time in the Conference National. The season ahead looked to be very difficult indeed with the pundits seeing us ending in the 23rd position. After hours of scouring my scouts reports, i signed a couple of keepers, a couple of defenders, a couple of midfielders, and (surprise) a couple of attackers, as i had no confidence that my old guard had what it took to keep us up. Most of them (the old guard that is) got released during the year anyway.
Conference National turned out hard as expected. Took 9 games for us to manage to pull a win off and about half a season to manage to win away from The Camrose. The second half of the season saw a definite improvement, as the team kind of gelled together to string together some (admittedly quite lucky) results and propel Basingstoke to the heady heights of the 17th position. We only got out of the relegation 3 matches before the end, so it was pretty close. Still, i was delighted to avoid an almost certain relegation, even though the board thought our league form was disappointing. Just a touch ungrateful, if you ask me.
High scoring striker duo managed to keep delivering, aided by a couple of the new signings. Cup competitions saw us go better than last year, although we still got disqualified in the 1st round of the FA Cup and the 2nd round of the FA Trophy.
Stats
English Conference National 2007/8
Played: 46 Won: 13 Drawn: 13 Lost: 20 Goals For: 51 Goals Against: 63 Points:52 Final Position: 17th
Top Goalscorer and Fans Player Of the Year: 28 year old English striker with 19 goals, 15 of which in the league
Season 2008/9
Despite signing some very good prospects, at least according to my new competent scout, and the club turning professional, Basingstoke were predicted to finish 24th this season. I was pretty confident that this was not to be the case though, as i was pretty sure the squad was much better than last year's.
Indeed, we did a lot better than last year, finishing 9th and losing the last playoff spot for only 2 points. The league was pretty tight, but our young squad managed to cope. Having a 20 year old goalkeeper and a mostly young squad didnt help our consistency, but we managed to improve in every field, scoring more, conceding less, winning more etc. If we had managed to keep some clean sheets at home, we would have done much, much better, but still 9th place was very satisfying.
Highlight of the season was a 2-1 away victory over League 2 outfit Boston Utd in the 1st round of the FA Cup. We tried hard to emulate that triumph in the next round away at Rotherham, but we lost 1-0. FA Trophy sucked.
Hopefully, we ll manage to build on this season to start a tentative push for a playoff spot. But i ll be very happy with consolidating this season's form, as im quite sure we re not ready yet for League 2 football.
Stats
English Conference National 2008/9
Played: 46 Won: 20 Drawn: 10 Lost: 16 Goals For: 63 Goals Against: 53 Points:70 Final Position: 9th
Top Goalscorer: 22 year old English striker with 19 goals
Fans Player Of The Year: 20 year old Irish striker (new signing)
A Greek in Basingstoke 
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