The Mountain Climber - A Journey Through Europe

[fmamerican]

I enjoy a good journeyman save.  My natural tendency is that I get bored if I stick around a club for too long.  In my opinion, the save gets stale.  Typically, I don't have those problems with a journeyman save.  Like all good journeyman save, we start at the bottom and I think we are at the very base of the mountain.




Last place in the Irish First Division is about as far down as I can go to start this save with the following leagues loaded.





Given my awesome stature in the game, I can see why clubs were knocking down my door to interview me.  I took over the club before their match against Limerick and came out of there with a 1-0 victory, the club's second win of the season.  Finished the last six games of the season with a 2-2-2 record and goal difference of -1 which isn't too bad all things considered.



The seven points over the last six matches was enough to lift us above Athlone Town for 9th place in the league but both clubs are a distance away from the rest of the league.  At present, I'm studying for my National C License and on a month-to-month contract to give me some flexibility if the right job in another league or within the Irish First Division opens up.

[fmamerican]

Finding a New Mountain

Well.....the second season at Wexford didn't go as well as the first and I got sacked and couldn't find a second job. Meaning I had to find a different mountain to climb. I cut some the league fat (goodbye Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, and Turkey). I wanted to have a bit more speed in the save so some nations had to go. I also changed the nationality of my manager from American to English in hopes of getting more job offers.

The beginning of this save looked like it was going to be a carbon copy of jt's save so I turned down the Oxford City job and plowed into the season without a job. I had two offers by the end of the October/beginning of November: AFC Telford and Maidstone. I chose Maidstone, primarily, because they are a professional club compared to AFC Telford's semi-pro outfit.

The club has the goal of reaching the playoffs this season and promotion to the National League by the end of the 2021-22 season.

The club was predicted by the media to finish in 4th place.  They currently sit in 10th place.  This tells me that the board is not the most patient and I'll need to hit the ground running with some wins to move us up the table.

Not much separation between the last playoff place and the first relegation slot.  So win early and win often to keep the board happy.  Hopefully, I can start a climb up the mountain instead of getting stranded at the base by my Sherpa.

[fmamerican]

Maidstone November/December Update

I got thrown into the deep end right away with a 1st Round FA Cup game against League Two Mansfield, who completely pulled out back line apart.  I tried to tighten things up defensively in our first league match six days against Chippenham and came home with 2-1 loss.  We turned things with an offensive breakout against Basingstoke and then came out on top of a defensive battle with 2nd place Braintree.  We dipped again using the 4-1-4-1 DM against Hemel Hempstead and saw our form carry over into a poor showing against Eastleigh.  We closed the month with a series of 1-0 wins which helped improve our position on the table.

The three-game winning streak saw us solidify our 10th place standing.  Relegation is not a consideration with this team.  We need to continue to pile up the wins to get into the playoff places like the board demands.  I think the title is a bit out of our reach but we can easily make the playoffs.  Don't know if we will get promoted but we can certainly do some damage if we make it.

[fmamerican]

Maidstone January/February 2020 Update

This part of the update is pretty easy to write.  10 matches - 10 wins.  We only allowed two goals over the two months of play.  Needless to say, I was named Manager of the Month for both January and February.  How did this winning streak impact the table?

We have moved all the way up to 2nd place and lead the league in goal difference at +29.  There is a decent chance that we can push Dulwich Hamlet for the league title.  We have a big road match against them in early April which will likely decide the title.

[fmramble]

Good lord that's some form!

[fmamerican]

Maidstone End of Season Report

What happens when you go 22-1-1 in your 24 league matches in charge?



You win the league title, of course!



Dulwich Hamlet felt apart at the end and when they lost to us, they were resigned to second place and the lottery of the playoff.  They should be odds-on favorites to win the playoff but their form is crap so I would not be surprised if they lost.  Nobody enters the playoffs on a high so the playoffs could be a grade A crapshow as teams try to suck the least and claim the playoff victory.



The offense was lead by Jonathan Edwards and his league-high 26 goals and Steven Kinsella and his league-high 17 assists.  We will lose Matt McClure and his 12 goals to Crusaders next season but with the right signings we should have no problem avoiding relegation next season.

[fmamerican]

Jan 12, 2020 17:09:50 GMT fmramble said:

Good lord that's some form!

We dipped a little in March and April and by dipped, we allowed five goals over the two months instead of two!

[fmamerican]

Maidstone 2020-21 Midseason Report

Here we are on January 1, 2021 and we are decidely a mid-table side.  Not really worried about relegation and not really pushing for a promotion place either.  We are just plugging along.  Going through streaks where we can be beat followed by a streak where it looks like we can't put two passes together.  Just average.




We put together a nice little Cup run where we reached the 2nd round of the FA Cup and earned a nice pay day when we hosted Peterborough in the 2nd round and lost 1-0.



An average team producing just average stats.

[fmamerican]

Maidstone 2020-21 End of Season Review

And almost perfectly average season.  Exact same number of goals scored as goals allowed.  One fewer win than losses.  Just a perfectly average and forgettable season.  It was a very productive season for me.  I received my England B badge in May, my England A badge in November and my UEFA C badge in March.  So, I've gotten quite the reputation boost even if the club has not.




A rainy January and February led to zero momentum for the end of the season.  We had some false hope with a three-game winning streak at the end of the February and a 5-1 win over Solihull Moors which I thought would boost us into an end of season winning streak and playoff push.  But, our form fell off the table and we finished with one win in our last seven games.



Austin Samuels was our signing of the season with 16 goals.  Liam Waldock provided us with a creative midfield spark with eight assists.  Steven Kinsella's form really dropped off from last season.  He had 17 assists, last season.  This year, he provided just five.  Really disappointing.




I end my Maidstone career with 80 games managed where I won 46 matches while only losing 25 and winning the 2020 MANarama National League South title.