After an incredible first season in the Premier League where, not only did Chesterfield win the title, but also the FA Cup and League Cup, completing a Domestic Treble, it was time to face up to the challenge of European Football. Something I was quite excited about. But first, after getting over a momentary bout of panic when, after an issue with my PC I thought I'd lost this save... it was time to make a couple of tweaks to the team! I brought in a new striker; Andy Liddell for £250k after he netted 35 goals for Barnsley in the First Division, and feeling that Adebola and Lemon had both struggled last season, I thought he might be the man to complete my attacking trio. I signed Central Midfielder Paul Groves from recently relegated Grimsby for £100k to serve as a bit more quality on the bench to cover my current Midfield trio. I also brought in Goalkeeper Jon Hallworth on loan again for cover although he was recalled by Aston Villa before making an appearance for us.
For the first time since starting this save, I got to compete in the Charity Shield! Something which, wasn't totally on my list of priorities, but would be nice to add to the trophy cabinet! And owing to the fact we were both FA Cup holders and league champions, we faced off against last year's second placed team; Liverpool. It was a fairly close game but thanks to a Junior Bent goal in the first half, and an Edwards own goal in the second half, we edged past Liverpool 2-0 to pick up the first piece of silverware this season!
However more important matters were on my radar; we had been drawn against Turkish team; Galatasaray in the Preliminary round of the European Cup. Definitely one of the stronger teams to be drawn against, but so be it. But before we look ahead to Europe, there was a league campaign to kick off. And we started it with a bang, completely demolishing Southampton SIX NIL. Not our record highest scoring game yet (7-2 v Preston in Division 3), but a record since promotion to the Premier League.
We followed that up with a great 3-0 win away at Chelsea, 3-0 win at home to Coventry, and a 2-1 win away at Leeds - one of the in form teams of this save. We then picked up wins at Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace and Tottenham to make it 7 wins from 7 games and slot straight in at the top of the Premier League inside the opening few games of the season. We drew 1-1 with Newcastle, but then went on to beat Man Utd, Q.P.R, Norwich and Blackburn to hold down top spot inside the first third of the season. Meanwhile, after knocking out Luton in the second round of the League Cup, we then welcomed Tottenham Hotspur to the Recreation Ground and soundly destroyed them 6-0 in what might be the best performance I've ever had from any of my teams in any Championship Manager game ever, period!
That is alot of 10's! In our first European fixture, we took home a narrow 1-0 lead away at Galatasaray in a very close game, and one I thought was a decent result. On the return fixture 2 weeks later I fancied our chances, but despite registering 14 attempts on goal, we couldn't put another one passed their Goalkeeper and after Galatasaray eventually took the lead, it went to Extra Time and then Penalties where we only managed to convert 1 of our 5 pens against Galatasaray's 3 and that was the end of our European campaign... over before it had even really got started.
Really disappointing when we had worked so hard to get there, but the team had just not been good enough. Food for thought at the end of the season if we want to have a chance of competing in Europe again next season. Back in the league, between European fixtures we picked up a win against Middlesborough. We beat Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. All very good wins to pick up as we strengthened our lead at the top of the table. We drew 2-2 at Man City before picking up our first loss of the season against in form Sheffield United after they beat us 2-1. We responded with a 3-2 win over Charlton though to continue to hold down top spot with a 14 point lead over Sheffield United in 2nd.
Back in the League Cup, we had been drawn against another Premier League team; Southampton, after dispatching Tottenham Hotspur from the competition. And after suffering our first Premier League loss of the season prior to the game, Scott Brightwell obviously took it personally. Smashing no more than FIVE goals passed Tim Flowers to carry Chesterfield on his back to a 5-0 win over the Saints and take us to a Quarter Final tie against First Division Watford.
Something that I haven't mentioned yet, but since dropping out of European competition, I'd occasionally get a message from the Board: "The Board feel that the signing of a big-name player could be beneficial." And I wasn't completely sure what that meant! Besides the obvious... They seemed to be happy with me as a manager. And we had sat ontop of the Premier League all season so it's not like we were under-performing. But I wasn't sure what they meant by Big Name signing? Having been disappointed with John Dreyer's very average season so far in our league campaign though, I brought in new, younger, Right Back Aiden Newhouse for £800k from Wimbledon, our highest transfer fee yet, for the rest of the season. Pipping Newcastle and Leeds to his signature which I hoped might keep the board happy, but it err... didn't. They continued to periodically send me the message throughout the rest of the season!
Back to football games though, and after ejecting them from cup competition, we traveled to The Dell and beat Southamption 3-1 in the league. We beat Chelsea, but then lost against Coventry in a bizarre game where we just didn't feel like playing football that day for some reason! We drew with Leeds 2-2, then lost to Crystal Palace 2-1, two frustrating games where we were the better team but a few individual performances let us down. However we picked up against Sheffield Wednesday, beating them 3-0 to maintain momentum going into the final third of the league campaign. Unfortunately though, at the expense of the FA Cup where we lost 4-3 in a crazy game against Crystal Palace where we were by far the better team but for some reason Palace managed to score 2 goals in the closing 10 minutes. Really frustrating, but we did cruise passed Watford 3-0 in the League Cup to set up a Semi Final against First Division Barnsley.
It was developing into something of a mixed season, but we kept up with tradition and thrashed Spurs 4-0 in a second Premier League meeting. Then welcomed Newcastle to the Recreation Ground and let them beat us easily 3-0... then we went to Old Trafford to lose 3-1 to Manchester United... With 10 games to go we still held a comfortable lead at the top of the table, but couldn't afford to get complacent, with Everton and Liverpool both picking up momentum below us. In the League Cup we initially lost to Barnsley 4-3 away in the first tie sandwiched between the Man Utd and Newcastle games, but responded with a 3-1 win at home to square off against Leeds in another League Cup final at Wembley.
Bit of a scare but we made it through! We picked up wins at Q.P.R and Norwich in the league, then lost to Blackburn 2-1 but with Liverpool and Everton both also losing it wasn't too disastrous. We were in a very strong position having only lost 6 times all season, and drawn only 3 games, and after picking up a win at Middlesborough, a win at Arsenal before the League Cup Final would be enough mathematically to see us crowned champions...
A very routine 3-1 win at Arsenal with 2 goals from Junior Bent and 1 goal from Scott Brightwell took us to a 17 point lead over Liverpool in second, and enough to retain the Premier League in only our second ever season competing in the top flight. From Game 1 to Game 33, we had never been any lower than 1st ALL SEASON. An absolute incredible achievement.
Despite a mixed campaign with disappointing FA Cup and European Cup exits, the league campaign had gone very well and with 5 games left to play after the League Cup final, the hard work had now all mostly been done! Just another League Cup Final to contend with! It ended up being a fairly one sided affair. I had, at one point, wanted to bring Martyn Margetson to Chesterfield but he ended up picking Leeds ahead of us. We stuck 3 passed him in the Cup Final, 2 from Brightwell and 1 from Bent to make it 3-0 and take home our third League Cup since starting the save.
Our last 5 games of the season, ironically were against 3 of the Top 5 league teams! But I took the opportunity to rotate the squad slightly and give a couple of fringe players a chance. We beat Everton 4-0 with one of those fringe players; Lee Kerslake scoring. We went to Liverpool but lost 2-0 with, concerningly, our strongest line-up... We beat Man City 3-0 with Scott Brightwell getting all three. And Kerslake, despite not scoring, ending the game on a 9\10... Hello?!... We beat Sheffield United 3-2 with another fringe player; Kevin Walker scoring. And in our last game of the season, we lost to Charlton 2-1 but in our defense we did have Dele Adebola sent off in what, potentially, might be his last game for us... watch this space... But to be honest, I didn't dwell too much on the last few games. We ended the season Premier League Champions by 14 points, and League Cup champions for the third time.
Commiserations to Tottenham Hotspur, thanks for the 6 points lads, and incredible to see it but Manchester United relegated to the First Division! Back in Chesterfield though, Junior Bent has been the star man all season. Finishing with 30 goals from 45 appearances and an average rating of 8.67.
Just behind Lee Kerslake in top spot with 9.00 from 2 games! If there is some weird quirk in the game and he takes home Supporters Player of the Year, I'll let you know! Top Goalscorer though goes to one of our own; Scott Brightwell with an outstanding 34 goals in 39 games! A big improvement on his 21 from 41 last season.
Lastly, to celebrate a little bit of personal success, thanks to a League Cup and Premier League double, I topped the manager scores for Premier League managers this season, although not bettering last years points total, but still enough to fend off Bobby Duxbury in second.
And once again at the Yearly Awards we swept the board with Junior Bent taking Senior Player of the year, Scott Brightwell taking Young Player of the Year and myself taking Manager of the Year.
So something of a mixed season in the end. A dominating Premier League campaign and a third consecutive League Cup trophy, but a poor exit from the FA Cup and a narrow exit from the European Cup in our first time competing there together with some questionable performances in the league means there is reflection and improvements to make in the team. Hackett and Jones have both been poor when they have featured and are not good enough to stay with the club. Teale at Centre Back and Dreyer formerly Right Back now defensive cover, had distinctly below average campaigns, and Porter in Midfield was a times just average and anonymous. Lemon didn't really feature and Adebola registered 13 goals from 31 appearances but had mixed form with Andy Liddell playing ok but not quite at Premier League level yet. I feel there are wholesale changes and improvements to make if the team want a chance at competing in the European Cup next season and that will certainly be my focus as we go into Season number 6 with The Spireites!