Roaring with the Dragons

For any of you that have read my previous exploits on FM2009 with Sandhausen you will know that the German leagues are where I usually to go, this time I decided that I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a little. I couldn’t decide on a club to start with so went with the tried and trusted method of starting unemployed.

I had to endure the monotony of applying and being rejected for jobs which were obviously out of my league until the Wrexham job came up at the end of September. Dean Saunders had an absolutely shocking start to the season, in his eleven games in charge Wrexham managed to pick up two wins and two draws before being given the boot. His last game was a 2-1 defeat to rivals Chester City resulting in being sacked straight after the game, I was appointed the next day and the following day took charge of my first game – A goalless draw away to Kidderminster.

In my first four games at the club I won one game and drew three which surprised me as I thought it was going to take longer to turn the team around. Don’t get me wrong this was never going to be an easy task as I spent the next couple of months getting a couple of good results followed by a few dodgy ones. With the help of my backroom staff I picked up a couple of free transfers and a couple of youth players on loan from my new parent club Manchester City helped me start getting some more consistent results. Unfortunately whilst I was turning results around on the pitch I was also watching the bank balance diving well into the red as I decided to cut some dead wood out of the squad especially as a couple of them were well below the ability you’d expect and creating trouble as an unwelcome bonus.

As the season continued, I was feeling more positive that a club that should be at the top of the table had some potential to reach those heights, slowly but surely we climbed up the table picking up some vital wins including a 2-1 win at Chester to ensure that I didn’t go the same way as Deano!

After a run of seven games unbeaten we managed to finish in a respectable ninth place. Fortunately I wasn’t judged on the under performance in the league as the promotion chase had been killed before I took over. We got knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round to Tranmere but had a surprising run in the FA Trophy managing to get to the final at Wembley losing narrowly on penalties to the favourites Oxford.

The second season started off reasonably positive but only winning three of my first eleven games made me understand why Dean Saunders only lasted the same amount of games a year before. Fortunately for me we were still unbeaten as we had drawn the other eight games. In total we were unbeaten for the first 23 games finally succumbing to a 1-0 defeat to League One Southend in the 2nd round of the FA Cup. In the FA Trophy we once again went to Wembley to contest the final, this time against promotion rivals York City. Beforehand I had a feeling we might be able to sneak a narrow win via a late winner. I was more than relieved that we opened the scoring within 5 minutes and doubled our lead just before half time to win the trophy 2-0.

The FA Trophy was my secondary aim behind concentrating on winning promotion from the Blue Square Premier. I’d spent Pre-season bringing in a few new faces to strengthen the squad after having a further clear out of players that were either not good enough or just weren’t fitting into my plans for one reason or another. Because of Wrexham’s preceding reputation and some spare cash in a fairly generous wage budget I was able to bring in players who weren’t getting a look in at some league clubs. After 46 games in the league we’d picked up 14 draws, 32 wins and 0 defeats. Finishing the season with 110 points was quite an achievement and the first time I’ve seen two teams in the same division reach 100 points as Ebbsfleet in 2nd place also dominated the league.

Initially it looks like I cheated my way through the season but with astute signings, an unconventional tactic, always doing press conferences, praising my players and well judged team talks all helped keep my players on top form for the season. Regular squad rotation ensuring that all of my first team were always match fit meant that any injuries or suspensions also had a minimal impact on the next game.

By this stage I had itchy feet due to the media constantly linking me to just about every job that became vacant but I was still living in a dream world that a struggling Premiership was going to take a risk on an as yet unproven League Two manager.

The Third season began after deciding that I was reasonably confident that my conquering BSP side had enough quality to achieve the mid table position that the board would be happy with. Myself I was looking to a possible outside chance of a play off place.

The first game of my league career was away to Grimsby Town, going into the game I was reasonably confident as they had narrowly avoided relegation in both of the previous seasons – We lost 2-1!

I was beginning to question how far this team was actually going to get me especially as our next game was in the league cup against Championship side Scunthorpe. We took the lead mid way through the first half and held on to it until the last 15 minutes when Scunny equalised. Needless to say I was more than happy when my newly signed winger scored an 89th minute winner. Unfortunately our League Cup was to end in the 2nd round as we were soundly beaten 4-0 by the superior Newcastle United.

The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy was another non event of a cup run losing to League One Walsall on penalties in the 2nd round.

Back in the league we went on an unbeaten run after losing the first game to Grimsby, at the half way point of the season we had played 23 games and only lost 1, leading Bristol Rovers by seven points at the top of the table.

Our biggest success in the first half the season was to our FA Cup run. In the first round we were drawn against League One Norwich. I was more than happy to come away from Carrow Road with a 0-0 draw and was more shocked when we won the replay 2-1. League Two strugglers Macclesfield Town were soundly beaten 4-0 in the 2nd round meaning that against everyone’s expectations we were in the 3rd round draw with all the big names. Burton Albion were the big name we managed to draw in the 3rd round.

We went behind three times in the match and it was only thanks to an injury time equaliser from my centre back that we managed to get what was an undeserved replay.

This turned out to be my last match as Wrexham manager the next day I was offered another job. It was a similar predicament I’d found myself in the season before when Hereford offered me the job (Ultimately Wrexham were promoted and Hereford were relegated). This time I didn’t really have anything to lose, if I stayed at Wrexham we were looking odds on to be in League One. I spent much longer that I should have done thinking it over but finally decided that trying to save Charlton Athletic from being relegated from the Championship was worth the risk. Even if I got them relegated to League One and kept my job I wouldn’t be any worse off than staying at Wrexham.

I’m now off to try to save Charlton from relegation in the hope there’s a part two to this ….