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Chester Season 2011-2012 The Conclusion

We were third in the Coca-Cola Championship at the end of 2011, after 23 league games and with another 23 games to go. We were right on track for a playoff spot, but I was afraid that the upcoming transfer window might bring other offers that my board couldn’t refuse. The best player so far was my young pacey striker Danny Welbeck, he scored 15 goals in 23 games, he was crucial for us. There were a lot of big teams that were enquiring about him, and I kept on refusing the offers. Until Portsmouth made a 2.75 million euro bid. My board accepted the offer and I lost my best player. 

1-welbeck-bid

I was in a tight spot because I had to get another striker, but there were no affordable targets available on the transfer market. I had to go to my parent club, Manchester United, and ask them to send Febian Brandy on loan again. They agreed and Febian returned to play for us again. But bad luck struck again: he suffered a terrible injury that made him unavailable for several months. I had to send him back to his club. And that was after he played in 3 games for us and scored 2 goals!

2-brandy-injury

The transfer window was over, so I had to rely on the players that I had at the club. I promoted some youngsters from the reserve team and hoped that they could cope with the pressure. And the team was holding on quite alright, despite being knocked out in the fourth round of the FA Cup after a disgraceful 2-5 defeat at Swansea. In the league we were still in 3rd place after 33 games.

3-league-table-before-qpr-game

QPR were just in front of us, 8 points ahead with one game in hand, away at Swansea. Our next game was at home against QPR, and I thought that if we could win we might have a chance to hope for the 2nd place. And we won, be we were lucky to get that result.

4-qpr-win

The team was playing well, we were in 3rd place and the 2nd place was getting closer. Norwich were right behind us in 4th place.

5-league-table-before-norwich-game

Of course, our next game was at home against… Norwich. The players were confident of getting a good win, and we did more that that. We demolished Norwich 5-0! Things were looking good, very good!

6-norwich-win

But after this beautiful win we lost again after an eleven games unbeaten run, Watford taught us a lesson with a 3-1 victory. And our young players were losing morale again. Our next game was against last placed Sheffield United, and although we had several chances we couldn’t get that damn ball into their net.

7-draw-against-last-placed-sheff-utd

With ups and downs, luck and bad luck, we remained in the first 6 places. With three games to go we were in 4th place.

8-league-table-with-3-games-to-go

Our next game was away at mid-table side Birmingham. If we won that game we would have secured a playoff place. And we won after a superb counter-attack performance.

9-birmingham-win

The last two games didn’t matter anymore, we had the chance to get to the Premier League, we had to prepare for tha playoff games. We finished in 4th place.

10-final-championship-league-table

We were drawn to play against Nowich in the playoff semi final. Remember, we demolished Norwich 5-0 only a few months ago. I was feeling confident, and the first leg was away from home. If we could get a draw than we would be able to take care of things in front of our own fans. But my players did more than a draw, we won 2-1 and we missed a penalty shot in the last minute of the game!

11-playoff-semifinal-first-leg

We just had to be careful in the second leg and I was certain that we would go through to the final. The second leg started like a fairytale, we scored 3 goals in the first 15 minutes! We just couldn’t lose anymore.

12-playoff-semifinal-second-leg

The other semi final ended with a surprise result: favorites Hull were knocked out by Bristol City. That was good new for us, we won both games against Bristol City this year, 3-2 away and 1-0 at home. Now we had to play them in the football temple, Wembley Stadium. And we had to rise to the occasion. 

13-championship-playoff-final

We gave them no chance, we won and our dream came true: we will play in the Barclays Premier League next season! Our fans were delighted! Although we lost our best players during this season we finally made it! 

2012-championship-fixtures

The young players that I promoted from the reserve squad did their jobs well, along with veteran keeper Jan Lastuvka, he saved our skins in countless occasions.

14-best-players-2012

 

15-best-players-2012-formation

As you might notice I changed the tactic. I already told you about that and I promise I’ll give you a detailed description of the tactic soon.

The best player for us was young Italian regen defender, Ciro Lazzari. I signed him for free from Reggina and he played very well for us scoring 4 goals and keeping our defensive line strong and quick.

16-ciro-lazzari

That was it! After only four seasons I managed to get my Chester from League Two to the Premier League! Now I’m determined to avoid relegation next season, but it will be tough. The club is now 11 million euro in debt, so maybe my board will decide to sell some players again… We’ll see…

8 комментариев

8 Comments

  1. Frank

    26 января, 2009 at 07:12

    Hi Johnny, congrats! I really enjoyed your chester story so far. I’m trying something similar with Farsley Celtic. I also started a blog about it, but in german language. Best wishes for your first premiere league season!

    • JohnnyKarp

      26 января, 2009 at 07:29

      Frank, thanks a lot for reading the story. Good luck with Farsley Celtic, please come back and show us your great results :)

  2. paine

    2 февраля, 2009 at 02:24

    The shape of your tactic is the same of my Razor one.

    Are you using it?

  3. Johnny Karp

    2 февраля, 2009 at 02:37

    Geez, you’re kinda spoiling the surprise. :) Yes, it’s based on your Razor 1.1 tactic, with some tweaks. The Believer tactic looks mighty interesting too, I might try that one too ;)

  4. lucky

    2 февраля, 2009 at 20:58

    err why no new updates i love seeing ur story. update pls

    • JohnnyKarp

      3 февраля, 2009 at 00:03

      Lucky, thanks for following the story. Unfortunately I was very busy last week and I didn’t get the chance to play FM 2009, so there are no updates… Hopefully I’ll get to it this week, stay tuned ;)

  5. adam

    18 апреля, 2010 at 16:19

    well dun,

    i was eastbourne borough and i got to the champions league final 1n 2017/2018 and i won three prems in a row, but well done here its pretty impressive, any new updates

  6. MAR

    7 июня, 2010 at 18:48

    nice story so far!

    congrats for reaching premier league!

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