Kents Finest

I figured the best way to start off this story is with a brief Introduction to myself, the club and my ambitions/goals. I'm a 23 year old Gillingham fan from Kent, i work full time as a fuel inspector but find myself with plenty of time on my hands whilst waiting for call outs etc... so figured i could write up my career on football manager for the good people of Susie. I've been on Susie although not a regular poster for about 7 years in different names as i've grown up playing football manager. I have previously written stories my most sucessful was with Gillingham on FM 13(?).

So Gillingham.. as i've mentioned i'm from Kent, Gravesend to be exact and if anybody knows much about Kent as a county you'll know that Gillingham, aka The Gills are the only football league side in the county, the most highly populated county in the country and it only has one football league side. In the clubs 100 year history they have never had a higher league finish than 11th in the Championship back in the 00/01 season under manager and club legend Andy Hessenthaler. Since then the club has been relegated three times and promoted twice. Becoming Champions of League 2 in 12/13 season with Martin Allen was the most recent historic moment in the clubs history. So for the beginning of the 2014/2015 season Gillingham are set to play in League One.

My goal in this career is to see how far i can take the club i support and attempt to stay as manager for as long a time as possible. To make it a bit more interesting for myself i have decided that i am going to attempt to avoid making any signings at all. I will rely soley on my youth setup to produce my future players and hopefully will remain capable of challenging in the leagues. At the beginning of my career i will already have Max Ehmer and John Marquis on loan i shall be terminating there loan deals immediatley and then shall continue with the squad as it is. Also i will be using true to life details for myself so i will be starting the game with Sunday League Experience and No Coaching Badges.

Pre-season is an important time at any football club its a time to prepare tactics, sign and sell players, change the coaching staff and prepare for the long season ahead with friendlies and specific training schedules. So with all that in mind i figured that preseason required its own post and here it is;

The squad itself is looking okay no major injuries to be concerned about and the squad morale is high which is always a good starting point. i like to use preseason to set up a number of relatively challenging friendlies and a few local ones inorder to gain needed match fitness and gather some momentum to take into the opening game of the season. The Preseason Fixture list i have created mixes a good standard of footballing side with a few local easier games, i decided to play all the friendlies away from home this preseason for no specific reason just the way it happened;



The main point of this career is that i wont be making any signings so i had to have a look around my youth sides to see what quality i had to bring into the senior squad to add depth and perhaps add quality to the first team. I certainly dont have a great deal of quality within my under 21s or under 18s sides' but i have promoted Jack Sellens and Charlie Webster (strikers) and Mahlon Romeo (right back) to the senior squad to add a bit of depth to my senior squad.



The Friendlies didn't go too badly overall and youngster Jack Sellens managed to pop up with a couple goals which is promising especially as he isn't highly rated by my coaching staff, my biggest worry this season is key players picking up injuries namely striker Cody Mcdonald, Midfielder Bradley Dack and Centre Back John Egan, if the three of them can stay fit then i should be capable of steering well clear of relegation and finishing comfortably around mid table.

Another person from Kent on the site Decent pre-season there

One Month into the season and things are looking about what we'd expect for a relegation candidate really. We've struggled defensively conceding quite a few but that's being countered with scoring quite a few as well. Cody McDonald and Luke Norris have started the season with 2 goals each which is always good to see when your two strikers are scoring. Are biggest problem this month has been discipline, we're picking up multiple bookings a game and its putting us under unnecessary pressure.




Losing against MK Dons is something i expected but I was actually quite pleased with the performance and good to see we managed to get on the score sheet. This wasn't the worst way to start the league as MK Dons will be up the top of the table come the end of the season and we certainly didn't embarrass ourselves.




Losing to Charlton was a bit of a heart breaker as there's a bit of rivalry there and to be 3 - 0 down and bring it back to 3 - 2 i really thought we might of stolen an equaliser unfortunately it wasn't to be against a higher league opposition.




The Draw with Yeovil was exciting after going 1-0 up i thought we were going to control the game but a quick fire double just before half time meant we went in 1-2 down. Cody McDonald gets injured on 50 minutes and the bad news is he is ruled out for 3 months now. Luke Norris Scoring in the 80th minute to equalise meaning we notch are first point on the league table.
The Big game of the month comes against Swindon, the biggest rival Gillingham have and it was a scrappy game at best, both sides picking up a couple bookings and chances were few and far between, mostly down to my tactics being quite robust and stifling for the opposition.




Our first win of the season comes up next as we gain a 1-0 victory over Barnsley Luke Norris scoring just after half time and we manage to hold and to the final whistle. With Cody McDonald out injured for the first half of the season I'm hoping Norris can come up with a few goals as i haven't got any proven strikers in my squad other than McDonald.




The final game of the month against Crewe came as a bit of a disappointment losing 2-1, conceding within 2 minutes is away frustrating and then losing Josh Pritchard to a second yellow card just added to the frustration.

Using some of the youth players isn't harming the results to much, I'll be interested to see how quickly and how well they develop. Formation wise I've not quite found the one I'm happiest with. We're Currently sitting in 17th in the league so if we were to finish there I'd take it at the moment.

We've made it to the 1st of January, the transfer window is now open, not that, that is going to affect me at all unless someone comes in with money to try and sign any of my players. Things have gone from one extreme to another since the first month of the season. We went through a spell where we were undefeated for 6 games and looked like we were going strong to finish a comfortable mid table then injuries struck.

We suffered injuries to Cody McDonald, Bradley Dack and a few short term injuries too with Pritchard, Norris, Loft, Egan all missing games. As well as the injuries we've had Linganzi and Hoyte out for International Matches on the odd occasions. We've had to look to the youth sides to supply depth and even fill in within the first side, handing out debut to Dan Bent, Ross Ibertson and Danny Leonard.

The biggest issue I've had is that operating with a director of football has meant that I've lost youth players on loan when I was short in depth and could of done with them to fill in from the bench. Fortunatley Dack and Mcdonald are coming back from injury for the new year and the squad has regathered fitness.



The most disappointing result of the period came against Doncaster from 3-1 down we dragged it back to 3-3 only to throw it away with 5 minutes left. The best thing I can take away from the first half of the season is that Luke Norris has picked up the goals that I'd been hoping McDonald was going to get before his long term injury struck him down.



Hoping to see a much better improvement in January need to stop the rot and put together some better results. I'm just conceding to many goals and I need to stop that or things just will go from bad to worse.

The league table is looking okay although i'd hope to finish a little higher than this;