Chester FC - Rising from the Ashes

I'm sorry that there hasn't been an update in so long, my laptop just seems to be giving up on me right now and I've been forced to replay some matches after my games have crashed before I could save them. I probably won't be able to get a new computer though at least until my birthday in June so for now I hope you'll understand that it is a struggle for me to keep posting regular updates to the career. Anyway, technical issues aside, it was a big month as we entered 2018. The transfer window did of course open but we also faced off against Manchester United in the EFL Cup semi-final and Middlesbrough in the FA Cup all whilst trying to cement our position at the top of League Two.

Transfers








Lots of business being done as you can see, bringing in four new faces as well as sending yet more fringe players out on loan to National League teams. First up the transfers in, and as you can see our right-back crisis is well and truly solved! For possibly the first time in this save, we've got not just one quality right-sided defender but three! Tobi Adebayo-Rowling is the first of those, he joins us for free from Irish side Sligo Rovers and I'm definitely hoping he can follow in the footsteps of former Sligo right-back Seamus Coleman. He's got the potential to be a great player but I'll be looking to loan him out for the time being since otherwise his development would probably be stalled serving as our third choice. Adam Chicksen becomes our new backup left-back, Evan Horwood has been on the transfer list for a while now and isn't really good enough to be playing at League Two level so we needed somebody to adequately fill in for Matty Waters. He isn't the oldest but has experience playing at a professional level having formerly been a regular for MK Dons in League One, and as such is valued pretty highly. Sean Clohessy becomes our record signing for £22,000 from Sutton and brings yet more league experience to this team - at 31 he is the second oldest player at the club but I reckon he could still do a job for a few years, having previously starred for the likes of Southend and Colchester. He'll be used in rotation with Richard Brindley who we signed for £14k from the aforementioned Colchester and has already proven he can be a good player at our level. Onto the outs now, and as you can see the exodus continues with five more players leaving on loan. Elliott Durrell has been getting very little game time even with the departure of Chappell, so he joins Dagenham and Redbridge who are mid table in the Vanarama National. He won't be feeling completely alienated though as Callum Driver goes to the same destination - he's been playing a lot since arriving from Maidstone but with our new signings he effectively becomes fourth choice for us and would probably struggle to even get on the bench. Alex O'Hanlon performed well for us last season but just doesn't seem to be cut out for playing at a higher level, and two straight red cards in his last two starts may have ended his career with us. He'll have a chance to prove himself again at high-flying Eastleigh. Blaine Hudson struggled to get into our team even last season so I was understandably surprised when Lincoln said he'd be a key player for them, his contract expires in a few months and won't be getting a new one so his loan is just a way of putting himself in the shop window more than anything else. Finally Billy Simpson goes to Torquay, his development is going well having been a star player for two National North sides previously so he now has the chance to prove he can do well in a better league. We've also sent Richard Nartey back to Chelsea since he's barely been getting into the team, and that will only get worse with our new defenders.

Matches



More red dots than you're used to seeing, but look closer and you'll notice they're all in cups against big opponents. In the league it's still fairly plain sailing and a great way to demonstrate that was on New Year's Day against Morecambe. I told you to remember the name Brian Kelly after his man-of-the-match debut, well the one star rated youth academy graduate has been in red-hot form ever since and scored an incredible hat-trick in this game. I can't find anything online but he may well be the youngest ever Chester player to perform that feat. I was so amazed by his performance, in fact, that I didn't even pay much attention to the fact we nearly blew a three-goal lead with the away team netting twice in the last fifteen minutes. We've already beaten Middlesbrough once this season, in the game which started off our EFL Cup journey, but our journey in the FA Cup would come to an end against them. They fielded pretty much a full-strength lineup, having clearly learnt their lessons from last time out, and unfortunately it proved too much for us but we still weren't outclassed. Against Manchester United it would be two cup defeats in a row though, again they put out a very strong team and we couldn't cope. Aaron Wildig gave us a shock lead at Old Trafford on four minutes but they equalised straight away and went on to score four in the first leg including a Rooney brace. I wouldn't let it get us down though and called a team meeting to improve morale and sure enough, we were back to winning ways in the league against Blackpool. We enjoyed nearly 60% possession but could only find the one goal, a stunner from Sam Hughes. Cheltenham are knocking on the door for automatic promotion and gave us a tough time at home, we'd have to rely on a 90th minute winner from Bobby-Joe Taylor to ensure all three points - amazingly that was his first goal for the club since signing in September 2016! Neither team could find the net though against Bristol Rovers, our goalkeeper Skrzyniarz was man of the match as he produced some superb saves to deny the Rovers attackers. For the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final it was more or less mission impossible and unfortunately we couldn't defy the odds. Morgan Schneiderlin was sent off just before half-time and we went more attacking but we still couldn't find a way through and Pogba and Rashford proved too much for us. Still, a 6-1 aggregate defeat to the dominant force in English football right now is by no means bad considering we are a whopping 68 league positions below them on the ladder. Pride, just pride! Finally, we ended the month as we started it with a narrow win over lowly Grimsby - this was another case of dominating possession but not being clinical in front of goal. Waters had been in awful form but he was man-of-the-match in that game, his penalty being the decisive strike.



We're out of all cups but we've made progression in the league, we might just have the title in the bag now as Crawley's terrible slip up has left them 12 points adrift of us with sixteen matches to play. The table has become a lot more structured over the last couple of months and most of the important positions seem to be nearly set in stone - we're running away with the title, the other teams in the top three are looking pretty safe there and Grimsby and Newport look doomed down at the bottom. The only real fight going on right now seems to be for seventh place! Hopefully we can avoid a late struggle and achieve back-to-back promotions to League One!

Other news





Playing in the professional leagues and with great progression in the cups, our bank balance is looking healthier than ever and sits and nearly £2million. We're going to be pumping some of our newfound money into our youth facilities - I'd asked for an improvement in the past but the board had rejected it, now though they've suddenly had a change of heart and announced the news without even consulting me. And there's also a couple of personal accolades - the match against Grimsby was my 100th in management, so it was good to be able to celebrate it with a victory. I've also won manager of the month as we won four and drew one of our five league games.

Next update: February 2018

Just a few more months to go for the league, and with a hefty lead at the top we're looking destined to achieve back-to-back titles and promotion to League One. We could at least secure a playoff spot with good results this month, but with some big matches we'd also have to make sure we didn't slip up...




Wow, wow, wow! What a youth intake! The star of the show has to be fifteen-year-old Jake Ainge, with some lovely potential on him he could follow in Brian Kelly's footsteps and even begin to trouble the first team soon enough! Brett Wright and Ritchie Peacock also look like good prospects - the former natural playing at both left and right-back and the latter a no-nonsense defender who despite his age towers above the rest of the squad at 6'5"!



And great stuff as far as the league's concerned as well with another unbeaten month - okay, none of our victories have been particularly spectacular but five clean sheets is really good stuff especially when you consider Skrzyniarz has been out injured since the Exeter match. We'd start the month though with the only game we failed to win. We were the better team against a good Notts County side but unfortunately our strikers weren't at the races and the opposition defended well. We went away to Wimbledon and battled to win 2-0, thanks to an own goal as well as someone you haven't seen on the scorecards for a while - Lateef finally ended a goal drought of over ten hours of competitive football! But as you can see, he couldn't stop scoring after that since back at home against Exeter it was the same scenario - a 2-0 win thanks to an own goal and our beloved poacher. And we recorded our third successive 2-0 victory against Plymouth with Lateef netting the second yet again, after our youngster Kelly opened the scoring after just a couple of minutes. Special credit must also go to Matthew Yates, the backup stopper put in a superb performance on his debut covering for the injured Skrzyniarz. The only goal we conceded in all of February was in perhaps our toughest match - on the road at Chesterfield. We were 3-0 up after half an hour after Babos' brace and yes, you guessed it, Lateef again. We conceded just before half time, a bit of a bummer really but nonetheless we held out to avoid a collapse. And finally we took another big three points in a Cheshire derby against Crewe, and boy did this game have it all! We had about five or six clear cut chances but could only find the one goal from Quade Taylor due to some poor finishing and I was worried that we'd let our lead slip. My fears were made even worse on the hour mark with Beckles' straight red, but just five minutes later Emmanuel for Crewe received a second yellow - 10 vs 10! And the referee wasn't done there - as we pushed for a second in injury time, Crewe's Danny Hollands saw red as well!!



22 points clear with ten games to go, surely it's our title to lose now. We can potentially secure the title in March, so maybe bring a bottle of champagne to the next update? Elsewhere, Wimbledon have been in great form and have climbed into the automatic promotion places. Neither Crawley nor Wimbledon are safe though in the top three, so maybe we can capitalise on another drop-off of theirs and go on to lift the trophy?

Next update: March 2018

If you'd have told me last August that in seven months we would have the chance to clinch back-to-back titles and promotion to the third tier, I simply wouldn't have believed you - but that's the situation we're facing. With ten games left and a 22-point cushion on second-placed Crawley, it seems to be a case of not if but when - with some favourable fixtures, could we do it now?



The form of champions is what you're looking at. Three wins, two draws, no losses - is that good enough? First of all though was perhaps the most disappointing result of the month - we only managed a draw with bottom-half Mansfield despite enjoying most of the possession and more chances. Our wonderkid Kelly opened the scoring just after half-time but they equalised with 12 minutes to play in a match with very few clear-cut opportunities for either side. Lateef has been our most in-form player by a mile since ending his goal drought and he netted a superb hat-trick against promotion pushers Leyton Orient. We were 3-0 up at half time after his first two goals either side of a Waters penalty. Our lead was briefly reduced but just a couple of minutes later we were awarded our second spot-kick of the match and up stepped the man himself to grab his third of the afternoon and send the Deva Stadium into raptures. We failed to win away again though, this time against Yeovil. Ryan Lloyd was the one to get our goal early on but we threw our lead away before full-time. For whatever reason the Oldham game had one of our lowest home attendances all year, which is a real shame considering I think it was one of the best games of the season. We went 2-0 up and looked pretty good value for it, Alabi finally managed to break his unbelievable scoring duck of over 16 hours (!!!) and Muller also got on the scoresheet. However, the away team pulled one back before the interval and in the second half it was all them, they looked like equalising or even going on to winning it with some great counter-attacking and we had to defend superbly. But the three points were confirmed ten minutes from time when the god that is Lateef scored two goals in the space of less than a minute! Annoyingly we couldn't keep a single clean sheet this month after conceding only a single goal in the whole of February but at least our strikers are back in form now - hopefully Alabi will do the same as Lateef has been doing after ending his goalless run and both the strikers mentioned again found the net in our final match against rock-bottom Newport. The latter grabbed another brace and the former also scored, despite us conceding in the second half. Lateef now has got eleven in his last nine and has restored his position as the league's top scorer with 25. Right now he's in even better form than he was in last season!



CHAMPIONS!! BACK-TO-BACK TITLES!! BACK-TO-BACK PROMOTIONS!! It's been an incredible journey since I took over at the club but we're only just getting started, we've already clinched three trophies in two years and will be playing our trade in the Sky Bet League One next season for the first time since 1995! It was confirmed after our result against Orient, as I said a question of not if but when since we've been truly unbeatable all season. We first topped the tree on the 16th of August on just the third matchday and have stayed there ever since, if you count the games we haven't played then that's over eight months and 45 matches being untouchable as league leaders! There's going to be a very big party and since we're out of all the cups there is technically nothing to play for until the start of next season - but I still want to remain focused and keep this form of ours in order to keep morale as high as possible.



I don't know how many of you will actually care about the league table at this point but here it is anyway. As you can see, a 23-point cushion over Crawley means we can't be overtaken - the second-placed side have regained their form themselves and look set for automatic promotion. The fight for third though is tighter than ever as Chesterfield are only hanging in there by three goals and Aldershot have found some incredible end-of-season form, a lot like in the last campaign when they surged up the table towards the end. Personally I'd love to see them go up since then there'll be two teams to have gained back-to-back promotions - perhaps a bit of a competitive rivalry is forming here? At the foot of the table sit Newport who have been there pretty much all the time but they may well be joined in the National League next year by Blackpool - what a fall from grace! Oldham and Grimsby, who both looked doomed at one point or another, are now comfortably out of trouble - the latter are managed by former Blues boss Steve Burr and feature 40-year-old Emile Heskey, and have been in a rich vein of form but the former are only so far away from danger thanks to the teams below them continuing to struggle since they've only won one of their last twelve.

Next update: April 2018

Our name's already been engraved onto the League Two trophy, so technically there was nothing to play for in the last five games. However, it was important for us to continue winning and keep morale high as we prepare for life in League One. Just like last time, I've included May in this update as well since there was only one game played in the month - plus we've got the end-of-season awards.

Matches



We've most certainly carried on our winning ways and our form is probably the best it's ever been - we've won all of our last seven matches including every one in April and May! First off was a 2-0 home win against Cambridge, they had way more shots than us but our defence did their bit and we profited from their wastefulness in front of goal with Alabi and Grant both netting. We came from behind at Carlisle to record another victory, this time thanks to a brace from Lateef - again, they enjoyed more shots but we defended well and enjoyed more of the actual ball. It was a first vs second clash at the Deva against Crawley, a match that probably meant more to them than to us but we managed to win 2-0 again despite being under heavy pressure. They had more possession and over twice as many shots as us but quite simply we were clinical and they weren't, this time it was Alabi's turn to bag himself a double. Back on the road against Barnet, it looked as though we were going to cruise to victory being 3-0 up with ten minutes to play, after another Alabi brace and a beautiful free-kick from our set-piece specialist Waters. However, they scored two in two after 83 and 85 minutes and suddenly we were in danger of throwing it all away but we managed to hold firm. Finally, our only game in May was perhaps our best performance of the career so far! Stevenage needed to win to have any chance of making the playoffs but we absolutely destroyed them 5-0 - Alabi got his third brace in as many games, Waters scored another penalty, Lloyd hit an absolute banger and Taylor netted with a perfectly-placed header. If you couldn't tell from my superlatives there, it was a complete team performance from everyone involved and what may be most amazing is that the away side had loads more possession and more shots! It was the perfect way to end an almost perfect season for the club. League One here we come!



111 points, a new record for the division and a whopping 32 above the next best side in Crawley. Rounding off the top three is Luton and it is indeed Aldershot who are the fourth team to go up - that's two clubs gaining back-to-back promotions! As you can probably tell from looking at the top seven, it was a very intense final day for everyone there other than us. Meanwhile, Newport and Blackpool (#oystonout) will be playing in the National League next campaign but Grimsby and Oldham are both safe for another season, along with Carlisle who had a late scare. In case you're wondering, Hartlepool and Forest Green were both promoted from that division while Scunthorpe, Fleetwood, Walsall and one of our rivals Shrewsbury are going down from League One.

Awards





Finally Lateef has got the recognition he so deserves, he somehow missed out on National League Player of the Year but it doesn't matter since he's gone one better! He also claims the golden boot again, albeit only thanks to having played less games than runner-up Jay Simpson. I'm surprised only two of our players got into the team of the season since in my opinion we've had a lot of great performers - the man, the myth, the Lateef plus goalkeeper Skrzyniarz are the two that have made the cut.



No surprise here though, if I dare say so myself



And to finish things off, the internal club awards. Lateef was voted Player of the Season again by the fans, claiming well over half of the votes, and he also got goal of the season for his stunner against Bristol Rovers. Ryan Lloyd claimed the other two awards and was also runner-up in the best player overall, he won signing of the season when we made his loan move permanent and young player of the season. I'm baffled by the inclusion of Nartey since he only started seven games and averaged a 6.85 before being sent back to Chelsea in January - I guess he was just the best of a bad bunch of right-backs. There's no real shocks anywhere else though and I probably agree with the rest of the team.

Next update: Pre-season review 2018

After incredible back-to-back promotions, we find ourselves playing our third season in League One for the first time in over twenty years. It won't be easy to stay in this division, especially when you see some of the teams in it, but I have faith in the boys to keep us up. Of course, the foundation of a good season is a good pre-season and we've been busy making signings to strengthen the squad further and playing friendlies to get our players fit for the coming campaign. How would we get on?

Transfers








We've brought in five new faces, that number could rise before the transfer window closes but for now here's what we've got. Overall all the signings cost us £130k, over double the cost of all our transfers from the last two seasons combined, but it's now getting to the point where you've got to pay decent money to bring in players that have what it takes at this level. We still have plenty of budget left though so don't worry about our finances! We acquired three players before the end of last season who all joined us on the 9th of June, the first one being Dominic Vose. As you can see by his value he was something of a coup at just £20k and I don't know why he was rejected by Scunthorpe especially since they ended up being relegated. Despite previously playing for our arch-rivals Wrexham I'm confident he'll be a success with us and will be used either alongside or in rotation with Joel Grant on the wing - I have questions over whether or not Tollitt will be able to cut it in this division. Even more of a coup though was Will Boyle, he's valued at £88k but we managed to pick him up for less than five times less than his market value! His career hasn't really kickstarted just yet, having semi-successful loan spells at York and Kilmarnock before eventually being transfer-listed by his parent club Huddersfield, but I reckon he's actually the best defender we have at the club. He comes in as our 'rock at the back' as the centre-back we currently have would be very good rotational options but might not be good enough to start for us any more. And Joe Davis is another central defender, joining for the fairly cheap fee of £5k from Fleetwood who inexplicably never played him even during their relegation campaign! While I don't expect him to be a regular starter like Boyle, he seems to be another very good squad player. Our 'marquee signing' of the window, at least so far, has to be Matty Pearson. We were linked with him like crazy by the media even before I'd finished scouting him and initially Accrington wanted too much money for him but we eventually managed to land him for a club-record ninety thousand pounds. He was one of his former club's only decent players when they went down from League Two and was quite frankly wasted in the National League - my assistant rates him as a decent player for most clubs in our league. He's a very talented defender natural at playing anywhere across the back four and will probably be used in all three positions throughout the season but the main position I signed him to play in is at right-back. I still think Brindley is a good option off the bench but previous record signing Sean Clohessy really disappointed and doesn't seem to have what it takes in League One. Finally Josh Barnes signs for free as a backup 'keeper to Skrzyniarz - I wanted to get Yates back in but he refused so I instead got his former Derby team-mate in permanently. Onto the outs, and boy have we released a lot of players. I won't go through them all but some notable names you might recognise from the past are Horwood, Driver, Hudson, Joyce, Durrell, Bell, Lynch, Akintunde and Richards. All of them have featured at least at some point in the first team under my reign but are no longer good enough and towards the end of last season couldn't even get on the bench, with some having unspectacular loan spells in the National League. It's also the first batch of players I released that includes some of my signings, who might have been good enough once upon a time but aren't particularly any more. Meanwhile, youngsters Simpson and Adebayo-Rowling both leave on loan until January with the former going to Halifax and the latter going to Fylde.

Matches



As per usual, lots of friendlies in order to get our players as fit as possible with ten overall, and also as per usual I don't really care too much about the results. Still, it wasn't an ideal start when we were beaten 1-0 at home by Torquay, the sort of match we need to win pre-season or not. It was a more pleasing performance against Lincoln, I'm not expecting any cricket scores with all the players on 60% sharpness so 2-0 against one of the National League's better sides was perfectly satisfactory. Boyle and last year's breakout star Kelly were on target in that one. Tom 'Barn Door' Youngs proved that he actually could hit the target against Stranraer of Scottish League One, getting both our goals in another efficient 2-0 win. Our only away friendly against Macclesfield was a goal fest with Lateef, Waters, Alabi and Davis all netting in a 4-2 victory. A less pleasing performance though followe with another narrow defeat, this time by Carlisle who just escaped relegation from League Two when we were in it. We never stood much of a chance against parent club Derby, especially considering they fielded a strong XI, so a 3-1 loss was nothing to make a fuss about. Following this we played four reserve teams of big European clubs and beat them all, conceding only a single goal in that time. Youngs, Alabi and Hughes scored against Jong Ajax who we drew with this time last season, Lateef got the only goal against Lille's reserves, the familiar Alabi-Lateef partnership was at work again vs Jong PSV and finally our main man and club captain Lateef as well as Wildig found the back of the net against the PSG reserves.

Season Preview




The good old 4-4-2 continues to serve us well, I might try to mix it up a bit with some other formations this time round but for the most part it's staying the same and in fact this particular tactic has not undergone a single change (aside from maybe a couple of player instructions) since our non-league days. For the third successive season we'll be relying on our superstar strikers Alabi and Lateef, the former is in his fourth season with us but still only 23 while the latter has already managed to score 84 goals in two years! Ryan Lloyd on the left wing is another player who's been with us for every step of the journey so far and is still our best left-winger while on the other flank our best current option is new signing Vose. Sam Hughes was a product of the club's youth system and has since become one of the stars of the team, it's been a great story for him so far and he'll be looking to continue his rise up the divisions with us - he is equally good in defence and in midfield but will probably play more in the centre of the park. Alongside him is Carroll who is thankfully back for the start of the season after being out of action for almost six months with a broken ankle - when we signed him he'd never played a game of professional football before and had been without a club for four years but his development has been very encouraging and the fact he is still able to start for us in League One is a testament to that. The second youth academy graduate able to get in our best starting XI is our 'little Leighton Baines' Matty Waters, a quick, technically gifted set-piece specialist who was given his competitive debut as a teenager under myself and things have skyrocketed ever since for the 20-year-old. The other three defenders are all new signings, I've already talked about Boyle, Davis and Pearson who should become great players for our team. Finally, Polish stopper Skrzyniarz keeps his place between the posts after being voted the best goalkeeper in League Two last season - it's hard to believe that we got him from a club in the ninth division!



We've got the best staff in the league for everything other than physiotherapy and that's very impressive considering the core of the backroom team were brought in by me at the start when we were in the National League. I'm still trying to strengthen even further so perhaps the likes of Darren Huckerby and Patrik Andersson will stick with us right through to the Premier League! The only staff departure was our head of youth development, who was poached by recently-promoted Championship team Northampton. My assistant was actually linked with the manager's role at Macclesfield but nothing ever came of that.



Somewhat unsurprisingly, the four promoted teams are the four favourites to go down but I'm pretty peeved that we're predicted to finish second from bottom considering how dominant we were in the previous campaign. The goal again is to avoid relegation and I'm confident of doing that, while it'd of course be nice to have another promotion I'm not sure we're quite ready for it so a mid-table finish would be more than satisfactory. As you can see there are some massive clubs in this division like Bristol City, Cardiff, Rotherham and Bolton to name just a few and they're all expected to be fighting for promotion.



Our remaining games of 2018 are all here. It'll be a baptism of fire on the opening day in front of our own fans against recently-relegated Rotherham before we start hopefully another successful EFL Cup run against Preston of the Championship. Yet again the board don't care much about the cups and that thankfully includes the Mickey Mouse Trophy for which we'll be in a group with the Wolves youth team plus Morecambe and Port Vale. Our first FA Cup game will be on the 10th of November and we'll face the only real local rival in this league, Rochdale, for the first time on Boxing Day away from home.

Next update: August 2018

After a short break from FM, we're back with the Deva for the beginning of our third season. Two years ago we were expected to be fighting relegation into the National League North, now though we proudly occupy a place in the third tier of English football for the first time in over twenty years, with several relegations, promotions, a winding-up order and a reformation in between all of that. We completely exceeded everyone's expectations to achieve not only back-to-back promotions but back-to-back titles, but we know it's not going to be easy in League One and with a squad many would say not particularly suited to this level, we would need to make some improvements to try and again exceed our preseason predictions of a 23rd-place finish. A good start is always vital for building up both form and morale, could we get some wins on the board to mark our first appearance in this division as a phoenix club?

Transfers







I told you we weren't done with signings and we managed to bring in four more players before the deadline, three of those arriving in the last two days of the window! Jordan Bowery joins us for free as a much-needed third choice striker, he has experience of playing in not just this league but even in the Premier League, albeit never having a particularly brilliant strike rate for any club, but should hopefully be a solid choice as backup to Lateef and Alabi or coming off the bench. Anthony Grant is one of our older players and becomes the highest-paid member of the squad, but his experience in League One should be vital as he's spent the majority of his career in the third division. While I do expect him to decline somewhat over the next couple of years, for now he's our best midfielder and he's only on a one year contract in case he does end up falling off the mark more dramatically than I'd ideally want. Our only monetary signing is quite a big one, DR Congo international Efete is now our second most expensive signing ever (behind only fellow new signing Pearson) but I expect him to be a good central defender for some years to come. He's already got a couple of Championship appearances under his belt and a move down a division to secure regular football will give him a chance to prove he can make the step up when the time comes. Finally, the second deadline day signing we made was Chris Stokes, he's nothing more than a second-choice to Waters since I don't think Chicksen can cut it at this level - but I'm confident our new man will be able to come up big if and when he is called upon.

Matches



Holy moley, we can't stop scoring and one person in particular is chipping in with most of those goals! Our lazy-eyed captain, do I even need to tell you his name any more, is quickly becoming a club legend and may well be the standout player this career is remembered for. He's taken to League One football like a duck to water and then some, and in every start he's made in that competition he's scored at least twice! We had a tough opening day fixture against recently-relegated Rotherham but managed to come out on top in a 3-2 thriller at the Deva, our new man Davis managing to score on his debut in addition to a brace from you-know-who. The actual scoreline is pretty flattering to the away side, we were definitely the better team and they managed to get a couple of honestly lucky goals. There were no goals, lucky or not, though in 120 minutes against Preston of the Championship in the first round of the EFL Cup. We managed to get incredibly all the way to the semi-finals in our first season participating in it and we advanced a round here, providing a small upset as we won 4-3 on penalties - Skrzyniarz was the hero as he saved two of the Lancashire club's spot kicks. Don't worry though, we were back to crazy scores and thrilling matches at the Ricoh Arena in an unbelievable seven-goal game which we fortunately came out on top in. Lateef, playing against the club who released him before we picked him up, made his old team realise what a massive mistake they made in letting him go as he netted ALL FOUR OF OUR GOALS, including an incredible 87th-minute winner! We finally remembered how to defend properly at home against Burton, recording a thorough 3-0 victory courtesy of yet another Lateef brace as well as youngster Brian Kelly getting his first goal of the season. And he was on target again in a 3-1 win at Doncaster despite us fielding a fairly weaker set of players, our other scorers in that one were Bobby-Joe Taylor and big man Alabi. To end the month we faced our toughest game of them all though, and it did unfortunately end in a loss. We were drawn against Watford of the Premier League and managed to take them all the way to penalties, the man in form got another goal and the away team went down to ten men, unfortunately though we were eliminated on spot-kicks with Oyeleke missing our deciding one.



Top of the league! We've only played four games but we've managed to record all three points in every single one, and we're also the only team with a 100% record so far. Of course we're not going to carry on in this vein barring a miracle - in my eyes even making the playoffs will be virtually impossible given that there are so many big teams now in this division, all of whom have squads much better than ours. Still, morale is high right now and there's absolutely no reason why we can't keep this run going a little while longer! Remember that we were expecting to be near the relegation zone in both the National League and League Two so the media can't really be trusted with these things, and we've already beaten a couple of sides predicted to be pushing for promotion so who knows?

Other news




Just a couple of personal accolades to finish the month off with. The first of these things actually happened towards the tail-end of last season but I didn't feel it was fitting to include it with the previous updates - I've finally bagged a coaching licence and now hold a Continental C, the fourth highest level of qualification, and I've immediately started studying for my Continental B as well now that the board are actually allowing me to do so. And of course the obligatory manager of the month award, I really wouldn't expect anything less after our amazing start. Interestingly enough though, Lateef who has averaged a rating of over 9 didn't even get in the top three players of the month!

Next update: September 2018

Well well well, look who's back on the forums. It's been a month since the last update and no doubt you've all probably forgotten about this career, but now I've finally found the time to sit down and continue this save. I'm currently studying for end of year exams at school and virtually straight after I go away for a week so unfortunately I will still be relatively inactive for a month or so - whenever I am able to though I'll try and play some more with Chester and keep you all updated. Anyway, back to footballing matters and after a little bit of re-familiarising myself with a team I haven't played with in four weeks we were soon ready to get the ball rolling again. We had another tough set of matches, but would we be able to build on our brilliant start to the campaign?

Transfers



The window is of course closed so we can't sign any more players from other clubs until January, but we did manage to pick up this absolute gem of a free agent! Frank Nouble has been a stalwart of League One and the Championship for a number of years, with the exception of a short stint in China, and was dubiously released by Gillingham last season despite it being his most prolific in his career as he netted ten goals. My assistant rates him as our best striker now, although I doubt he'll quite measure up to that while Lateef is at the club . What he does give us though is even more depth in the squad, something important when you're playing two or sometimes more games in a week - we now have two fantastic target men which allows him and Alabi to rotate and cover for one another freely while we have Bowery and Kelly as backup for Lateef in the poacher role.

Matches



We're not quite playing with as much freedom in attack as we were last month - perhaps best demonstrated by the fact Lateef has only got two goals in September despite scoring for fun previously - but most importantly we're getting points on the board and at the end of the day that's what matters. We began with a great win over recently-relegated MK Dons at home - despite being second best statistically we managed to rob them of all three points thanks to a rare goal from Max Muller. I've made my views clear about the Checkatrade 'Mickey Mouse' Trophy and as per usual we fielded what was basically our reserves against the Wolves youth team, however surprisingly enough we actually came away with a victory albeit on penalties. Ideally I'd like to just get out of the competition as early as possible and focus on more pressing matters - last time out we failed to get a single point and the two points we gained from this match are completely meaningless to me. Back to the league and for the umpteenth time we nearly blew a three-goal lead, this time against Southend. Yet again we had to do it the hard way, despite being 3-0 up at half time via Lloyd, Lateef and an own goal we let in two sloppy goals late on and it certainly made for a nervy finish! Honestly though, if the away side did complete the comeback we wouldn't really have much ground for complaint - the three goals were our only shots on target in 90 minutes. Unfortunately though, we did finally record our first defeat of the season in the next game. Looking on the bright side it was one of the toughest matches we'd face this campaign, away at the favourites for the league Bristol City, but nonetheless it was somewhat disappointing considering how good we've been previously against the big teams. We didn't even play badly either - they just slightly outclassed us on the day and as is becoming the trend for us the outcome was decided by very narrow margins. Our second successive away day was also our second successive instance of dropped points - Bolton completely outplayed us at the Macron but we salvaged a point thanks to another beauty of a free-kick from man of the moment Waters. We did end the month as we began it fortunately, it was nice to get back to winning ways albeit against rock-bottom Bradford. Despite being in pretty poor form recently Lateef was back to his best when we needed him, netting our only goal early on. It wouldn't be plain sailing for very long though as Anthony Grant was sent off after just half an hour but we managed to hold on for a precious three points.



We're still top of the league but certainly not with the kind of cushion we're used to having, we did in fact drop down to second after the Bolton result but we managed to return to first following Oxford's recent dropped points. It's early in the season but thankfully we're already starting to look safe in the playoffs at least, seven points clear of Gillingham, but it looks like the fight for automatic promotion will be more competitive than we're used to with only four points separating us and Port Vale. League One is proving tougher than what we're used to, that's for sure, but as long as we keep grinding out results and getting points on the board who knows how far we can go?

Next update: October 2018

Good to see you haven't lost motivation for this. Always have a soft spot for Chester after having an enjoyable career with them a few FMs ago.

Keep at it!

Cheers @Suffolk Seasider hopefully I'll be able to stick with this career until the end of FM, or at least until we achieve what I want to!





It's been a dream start to life in League One and after a couple of months we proudly sit top of the division. Getting all three points from games hasn't been the easiest task, though, and this league seems to be more competitive than the two we've played in below it - a few slip ups and we could easily lose our position at the peak of the standings. Could we continue to get wins on the board to maintain our lead?

Transfers





I know, the transfer window's closed and you could argue that we've started so well we don't need any more improvement to the squad for the time being - but all of a sudden my scouts seem to have stumbled upon a heap of amazing free agents and we've managed to secure the services of three here. Firstly we have Sam McQueen, an exciting left winger who arrives after being released by Southampton. Although Lloyd has been fantastic for us, I don't think Compton is on the same level and as I said last time out, it's important to have good squad depth and players who can easily rotate in and out of the side. This guy has experience in our division, last season he was on loan at Coventry and hopefully the Deva can work out to be his first permanent home where he will be able to get regular football. In a similar situation is our second arrival this month, and another player I'm very excited about in Hiram Boateng (who as far as I know is of no relation to Jerome or Kevin-Prince!). He's previously had loan spells at Plymouth and Bristol Rovers but was deemed surplus to requirements by Crystal Palace, I'm hoping though that we can help him to realise his potential and give him guaranteed first-team football. He also comes in as a much-needed rock in midfield - so far we've looked somewhat anonymous in the middle of the park and this guy is not only a brilliant playmaker but also a leader who can hold the team together. And finally, we have another centre-mid going by the name of Ben Thompson. Just like the others, he not only has bags of potential but also plenty of experience in League One as he previously played for Millwall. Like Boateng, hopefully he will sure up the team in the central areas - but just as with everyone else, he'll be subject to some squad rotation.

Matches



What's that about slipping up again? We're still showing no signs of slowing down, unbeaten again in the league and with our only defeat coming in the joke of a competition that is the EFL Trophy. We started things off with a fantastic 3-0 away win over Swindon - we made perhaps the biggest tweak yet to our counter-attacking system and boy did it show. While we previously relied on getting the ball into the box to our two forwards, that doesn't seem to be quite as effective nowadays so instead I decided to shift the focus on playing the ball out onto the wings and working the ball into the box, and the result was some of the nicest football I've seen us play whilst not using our preferred 'home' tactic which is more possession-based. A brace from Alabi as well as a goal from Kelly made us run away winners - special credit must also be reserved for Lloyd who got all three assists! Don't worry though, we were back to nearly bottling three goal leads against Aldershot. Yet again we were playing some beautiful stuff, and after Compton netted and Lateef bagged a brace I thought it'd be another easy victory. But of course we had to let the away side back into it and despite some late pressure we did hold on in the end. Another noteworthy point of that game is that I gave a first league start to Richie Peacock, one of the regens that came through last year. Despite conceding two he not only looked at home in our back four but excelled there, earning the highest rating of all our defenders. I'm desperate to get out of the Checkatrade Trophy ASAP and as per usual I basically put the youth team out there, which resulted in us losing to League Two Morecambe - nothing else really needs reporting there. The sooner I'm able to stop talking about that cup the better! It didn't affect our league form though as we followed it up by beating one of the better sides in the division, Cardiff, on the road. All three goals came inside the opening 21 minutes and both of ours were really down to an utterly dreadful performance from their keeper! Nouble pounced on a horrendous mix-up between the goalie and defender to get his first goal and what will probably prove to be his easiest for the club, and Joe Davis who is turning out to be quite the goalscoring defender headed in to an open net following a throw in to get the the eventual winner. Oh, and their goalkeeper? He got a 4.6 rating. We weren't quite blessed with the same luck against Luton, who are turning out to be a bit of a bogey team for us. Again Nouble got an early opener but that was cancelled out by a penalty. They dominated the stats though and had they finished more of their chances we would have easily lost the game. We were back to winning ways again though in another big game at Oxford, our opponents went down to ten men early in the second half and we capitalised on it as Alabi and Lateef did the business. Finally, we could only manage a draw against Crawley but for once it's a draw I'm satisfied with - why? Well, we were 2-0 down at half time and I gave the players the hairdryer treatment in the dressing room. It clearly motivated them and our talismanic skipper Lateef rose to the big occasion, netting straight after kick-off as well as just after an hour. He had a couple of chances to complete his hat-trick and the comeback but unfortunately missed them, the team should still be given a lot of credit though for managing to salvage a point from two down.



Everyone's beginning to beat everyone and just like in the last campaign we've been able to capitalise on that. It's really tight in the spots below us, perhaps best evidenced by the fact that Oxford who just a month ago were our big title challengers have now dropped all the way to eleventh! Pretty much every side in the top half that we play is a big game for both teams, and if we continue to win the big ones as we are currently doing, we'll have a great chance for yet another title as we'll simply fight off the chasing pack. Exciting times right now in Chester, that's for certain!



And keep your eyes peeled for this in the next update! For the first time since season one we'll be facing our fierce rivals Wrexham - this time it's in the first round of the FA Cup at home. We should be really up for this one as the two sides have had contrasting fortunes since we last met - we're sitting top of League One whilst our cross border neighbours are in the National League relegation zone!

Next update: November 2018

Good to see you back @lolmappo absolutely smashed it last season and strong start to this year

Nice kick off to your season

Thanks @Dan I'll be delighted if our season is anything like the last couple
Hopefully we can keep it up @Fatal Error but it'll take a lot of hard work!





We're edging closer to the halfway point of our third season at the Deva, and boy has nobody expected us to be where we are. We start the month six points clear of second-place Coventry, but with several teams below us in good form themselves we'd need to be careful not to slip up. Could we handle the pressure?

Transfers



We're continuing the trend of signing young, high-potential first-team quality free agents - although we haven't gone as mad this time as we only bring in one more player. The free transfer window is now shut so you can have at least a month of no signings until the January window opens! The player in question is Ryan Hedges, a very good right winger previously on the books at Swansea. He doesn't have as much League One experience as some of our recent signings although he has spent a couple of years on loan in this division with Leyton Orient and Scunthorpe, but he'll immediately slot into the number one starting spot on the right flank as Vose has disappointed since his move in the summer and Joel Grant is beginning to show his age a little.

Matches



We're still not slipping up! Yet another unbeaten month in the league and only one instance of dropped points in that run. That one draw was our first game of this six-match block, and it was a pretty uneventful goalless draw with Peterborough. Both sides had some attacks and the visitors had the better of the chances, thankfully though we defended really well and a point was probably a fair outcome. Next up though was the big one, our first game in nearly a year and a half against our fierce rivals, the Welsh sh*te that is Wrexham. We beat them every time we played them under my management down in the National League and we kept the perfect record in the FA Cup first round. Boateng opened the scoring with a screamer, his first goal for the club, before red-hot Frank Nouble added another straight after the restart. Lateef, who loves scoring against these guys, bagged a second half brace and despite two goals after the hour mark from the opposition we ended up winning fairly comfortably in this six-goal thriller. Even better than us beating our cross-border rivals though is the fact that we're finally out of the god-forsaken Checkatrade Trophy! We had one utterly flukey brilliant win on penalties in the first game of the group stage but our youth team just wasn't up to the job against giants of the game like Morecambe and Port Vale. This one was a 2-0 defeat on the road, and fingers crossed it'll be our final ever match in the worst competition known to mankind. Back to where it really matters, though - we went back to winning ways in the league at Wycombe. It was another woeful game really and thankfully the only real chance fell to us, Nouble finished it off beautifully and in the form he's in right now I wouldn't expect him to miss any opportunities like the one he was presented with then. We left it very late against Gillingham at the Deva, we dominated the game but I was convinced it would be another goalless draw. Lateef though grabbed what I thought was the winner with a minute left on the clock, straight afterwards though Nouble managed to bag a goal against his former club to secure the victory. In the final match of the month things were very different, Colchester dominated and deservedly went ahead just after half an hour. Lateef though equalised right before half-time and although it looked like we'd fall behind again we somehow managed to score twice - one of them was probably own goal of the season, an absolutely preposterous mistake from the home team's defender and with a few minutes remaining Sam Hughes made it 3-1 to wrap up our third consecutive win in League One.



We've only extended our lead at the top by a further point, proving just how well Coventry are playing as well - in fact our lead was actually reduced at one stage to just a few points before they were defeated in the game before last. There's still some competition for playoff places but we seem to have automatic promotion almost in the bag as we lead Bristol City by ten points. A thought should also be spared for rock-bottom Aldershot who picked up only their second win of the season recently - I guess it shows how much we've strengthened compared to them since we both gained back-to-back promotions to this division at the same time.

Other news





Elections have been and old Ken Hodcroft has won a third term at our helm, we haven't always seen eye-to-eye but overall we have a good working relationship. There's a slightly different board in place though and what majorly peeves me off is the fact that I'm now being asked to sign high-profile players as well as young players for the first team. It'd be great if he'd have told me this a month earlier - some of if not all of the players I've recently brought in would fit that criteria but there probably won't be many more signings for now. The most annoying part though, is after this happened I asked the chairman for more transfer budget and he refused because he says we already have a good enough squad! Oh, and I've won the manager of the month thing again. I don't think I've showed that in a little while even though I must surely be the best gaffer in the league...

Next update: December 2018

As you can tell, I haven't updated this career or even browsed these forums for over two months now and undoubtedly you've all probably forgotten about this save. With school exams and trips away I haven't had much chance to play FM up until recently and I've been taking a break from my Chester save as I began to lose motivation and enjoyment for it. Since the summer holidays have been going on for a few weeks now I am beginning to get back into the swing of things but unfortunately yet more time away from home combined with having a laptop that seems to be on its last legs and is now struggling to run even fairly 'lightweight' games means even now I'll be struggling to provide regular updates at least until the release of FM18 by which time I will hopefully have got a better computer but will also be back at school. Right now though I'm going to continue trying to update this career when possible and hopefully regain interest in it - so watch this space...

You've all probably forgotten about me and this career, and with good reason. I'm typing this from my brand new gaming PC - my old laptop pretty much died and while I was still able to play FM on it, all the time out from this save meant I completely lost motivation for it. I'll be buying FM18 in the coming days and starting a new journeyman save which'll hopefully last me the majority of the game's lifespan. I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to upload the save on this forum or not, so all I can really say is keep your eyes peeled. I hope you enjoyed my little escapade here with Chester, it didn't run for as long as I hoped but I still got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it and hopefully you lot did too!