Step two of the English Hero achievement in Football Manager 2012 was to win promotion from the Blue Square Premier. I kept the majority of my good performers at Stalybridge Celtic from the BSN promotion and signed a few new faces.
Once again I recommend putting all your resources into wages and only sign free transfers or take players on loan when there is no fee involved. You need to negotiate hard and get those wage demands down as low as you can.
These are the players that did the job winning promotion from the Blue Square Premier to the npower League 2 as champions with 93 points from 46 games. It was tough to start with and the winning margin ahead of Luton and Crewe tied for second place was only 4 points in the end. We also won the FA Trophy which was a handy bit of extra cash but our FA Cup run didn’t get past the first round. These are the players who performed well over the season.
- Adam McHugh GK
- Nikki Ahamed DR
- Conrad Balatoni DC
- Billy Tsovolos DC
- Frederic Veseli DC
- Samir Bihmoutine DL
- Rhys Meynell DL
- Charlie Telfer M/AMLC
- Clark Keltie MC
- Joe McKee MC/AMC (loan)
- Kevin McBride DM/MRC
- Godwin Abadaki ST (loan)
- Ryan Smillie ST
- Victor Zapata-Caicedo ST
I thought star striker Pablo Counago, who helped us win the BSN, would be a star again but after a promising start he got a fractured skull and when he came back after a few months out he wasn’t the same player. I suspect if he hadn’t been injured he would have done a good job in the BSP. Just when I thought he’d never regain his form he bagged the winner in the FA Trophy final so I’m going to see if he has one more season in him.
Veseli in defence was probably the best player over the season, he was totally consistent. Smillie up front had an explosive start but then went through a serious goal drought to end the season as top scorer with 21 goals. Unfortunately Abadaki was only a short term loan but he put away 9 goals in 12 appearances and McKee was a major boost as a loan player at the end of the season.
I mostly stuck with 4-1-3-2 and a short passing game but we focussed on defensive positioning and defending set pieces and played counter attack away from home.
Next up we take on the npower League 2.
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