Well, we’re there, finally. We were a bit unlucky to finish 3rd in Coca-Cola Championship after a long difficult season. We played very well lately but it wasn’t enough, we had to fight for promotion in the playoff. The first step was the semifinal against Southampton, the team that finished 6th. I was happy to play the first leg away from home, I think that’s always an advantage.
I was hoping for at least a draw since the last away game against them finished 1-1 back in October. And we played …

Here we go, our long difficult season in Coca-Cola Championship is down to the last six games, six matches that can make or break our season. We were in 3rd place at the end of March, only two points behind the second placed team, Stoke. We had a chance to fight for that second place but it was going to be very tough because Portsmouth were in with a good chance too. Let’s see how the battle went.
Our first game was a less difficult one, away at 17th placed Bristol …

Hello my friends, we’re getting closer and closer to the conclusion of this fantastic season with my Blyth Spartans in Coca-Cola Championship. Instead of battling bravely against relegation as everybody predicted at the start of the season we were in 4th place at the end of February! We had a good chance to get a playoff place at the end of it, but the six games that we had to play in March were going to be decisive.
First we had to play away from home at 23rd placed Sheffield Wednesday. …

Here we go again, the toughest month of the season was about to begin. We were in 5th place in Coca-Cola Championship at the end of January and three of the next five games were going to be against our main contenders for a playoff place.
But before that we had to play a less difficult home game, against 19th placed Huddersfield. We drew 1-1 when we played against them away from home in September, so I was expecting a less problematic home game. In fact, we didn’t have too many …

Hello my friends and welcome back to my Football Manager 2009 story. The year 2012 ended quite nicely for my Blyth Spartans, we were in 5th place after 25 games played in Coca-Cola Championship. Our main weakness so far have been the away games, we only managed to win twice away from home in the first half of the season.
But we had a chance to improve that record right on the 1st of January 2013, we had to play away at Blackpool, a team that we defeated 3-0 in August. …