After a strong second season in the Premier League, winning our second league title by 17 points with 5 games left to play, but ultimately a very disappointing, immediate exit from the European Cup, I wanted to be in a much better spot and make a better go of it on second time of asking. The season started with the news that Paul Lemon was retiring at age 31 or, as the game put it; going into Non League Soccer. He had been instrumental in taking us to the Premier League but hadn't played much after we got there and it was clear he just wasn't at that level. But still, he was a club legend for us and it was sad to see him go!
Also retiring at the end of the season was John Dreyer. Another player who had done well for us in the lower leagues but not so much in the Premiership. With a bit of room in the squad for some new additions and with a focus on replacing some of the under performers last season, I brought in a new Centre Back in Shane Nicholson for £650k from Sheffield Wednesday. A new left sided Central Midfielder in Ian Woan from Chelsea for £1 Million. A supporting Left Back / Centre Back in Steve Harkness from Newcastle for £300k and a supporting Right Back in Alan McLaren for £150k from a 'Scotland club' - Foreign signings on this game are not listed as playing for any particular club.
Compounding the news of Paul Lemon departing the club, Junior Bent - arguably our best player, and maybe the best player in all of English football for the last two seasons, made the decision not to sign a new contract insisting that he expects to move abroad at the end of the season. Whilst massively disappointing, there's little I can do! But we at least have a whole year to plan for his replacement and in his final season at the club I hope he will still put in the performances to push for success again in our third year of top flight football. First test for the slightly improved team was the Charity Shield against last years FA Cup winners Sheffield United. And Bent clearly had no plans to take his foot off the gas in his last season for Chesterfield! Scoring 2 of the goals in a 3-0 win over The Blades to take home our second Charity Shield!
Lee Kerslake joining Bent with the 3rd goal of the game, just remember that name for later... The Premier League campaign kicked off for us with our first game away at Chelsea which we won 4-2, Kerslake again getting on the score sheet... we picked up wins at Barnsley, Wimbledon, Southampton, Everton, Man City and Middlesborough to go unbeaten in our first 7 games before pivoting to the opening fixture of the League Cup where we smashed Hartlepool 4-2 to send them packing before learning that our first European Cup fixtures would be against Polish side; Legia Warsaw.
No disrespect to Legia Warsaw, but I fancied this one a bit more than Galatasaray! I felt like we at least had a decent chance of getting passed them. In the interim, we beat Charlton 2-1 before our home leg against Legia Warsaw where, in front of 15,423 we made our European debut this season with an incredible 5-0 win over the Polish visitors!
Incredible win with Bent, Brightwell and Adebola all on top, top form. In between the return fixture we stumbled to a 2-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace... somehow... not entirely sure what happened... and we just managed to squeeze passed Sheffield United 4-3 in the League Cup before being held to a 3-3 draw at Coventry. A scoreline that flattered to deceive really as Coventry scored right at the end to pull level. The return fixture in Poland was a much more closer affair, with the final result being a 1-1 draw but with 5 goals in the bank on aggregate we moved on to the next round to face off against Luxembourg's Progres.
Once again, no disrespect to Progres, but I was barely vaguely aware of who they even were before we drew them in the cup. However a quick Google tells me their full name is: FC Progrès Niederkorn and take a look; they have a very cool badge! Before the Progres tie though we have a few more league games to contend with, and after a slight wobble we got back on track with a 5-0 drubbing of Aston Villa, only to then concede a 1-0 loss to Leeds... a tough team on this save but we just didn't even turn up. However the team responded with a 3-2 win over Sheffield United, another tricky team on this save, a 5-0 quashing of Q.P.R, and a 2-1 err... nuking? Of Newcastle. Wins over Arsenal - who are having a dire season, and Chelsea meant that after 20 games, 1 game after halfway, we maintained a lead at the top of the table by 16 points.
In cup competitions, we sent Premier League Charlton packing from the League Cup with an incredible 6-0 win to set up a Quarter Final fixture with some old friends in Division 1; Peterborough, whilst in Europe, we picked up a 3-0 and 1-0 win respectfully to progress over Progres... see what I did there... to the group stage of the European Cup. Picking up wins at Barnsley and Wimbledon in the league between ties. Joining us in Group A are... possibly some of the biggest teams in Europe... with then Yugoslavia, now Serbia's Red Star, Italy's Inter Milan and Spain's Real Madrid completing the group. No pressure then.
I mean, there are no 'weak' clubs in the European Cup group stages, but Group B features PSV, Spartak Moscow, Bayern Munich and Besiktas, so to be honest I feel like we got the tougher group! But that's fine, we'll give it a go. First fixture was against Red Star, but first; we made a debut in the FA Cup this season, dispatching Portsmouth 2-0. We lost to Southampton in the league, but sent Peterborough packing from the League Cup with a 2-0 win, then bested Everton 4-0 in the league. A club who we would play again shortly in the next round of the FA Cup. Before we welcomed Red Star from Yugoslavia for the first Group A group game of the European Cup where we totally controlled the match from start to finish but could only manage a 1-0 win over the then Yugoslav giants to notch up our first 2 points in the group stage.
European football is a bit different at this point in time in game, and you only get 2 points for a win as opposed to 3 in the Premier League. But in any event a good start with potentially much tougher challenges to come! In the FA Cup Everton held us to a 0-0 draw but in the return fixture at home we beat them easily 3-0. We invited Man City to the Recreation Ground and smashed them 5-0, and that was without current top scorer Scott Brightwell playing! And then we traveled to Italy to face Inter Milan where, in a close game we eventually conceded a goal towards the end of the second half gifting Inter a 2-1 win. Disappointing but still plenty of games to go to push for top spot and qualification to the final. Back in England we beat Middlesborough 4-3 away in a bonkers game, and inched passed Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 to cement our position comfortably at the top of the league after 27 games with only 11 to go before the end of the season. In cup competition we beat First Division Bristol Rovers easily, 4-0, to setup a quarter final with Sheffield United.
And in the League Cup, across two legs we beat Aston Villa 4-3 on aggregate, having lost the first leg 3-1, to progress to a League Cup final against Liverpool, a team we then played next in the Premier League, where we beat them 2-1, with the opportunity for a 4th consecutive League Trophy on the horizon.
But before we get to that, there is still work to do! We welcomed Real Madrid to England and to Chesterfield in the European Cup and despite us playing a whole lot better than them, registering 12 attempts on goal to their 2, they still beat us 1-0. And I started to feel that our chances of making the European Cup final looked slim... We drew 2-2 with Sheffield United in the FA Cup Quarter Final. And in the replay at home we also drew 2-2 with nothing to separate the teams after extra time, so it went to penalties. But Stuart Ford put on a goalkeeping masterclass, saving 2 of Sheffield United's attempts, whilst we netted all 5 to progress to a Semi Final fixture against Coventry.
We beat Blackburn in the league 3-0 and I started to do the math. We were TWENTY SEVEN points clear of Crystal Palace in second and a win in our next league game against Charlton would mathematically be enough to see us crowned champions. However first we traveled to Yugoslavia where we once again played well and registered 12 shots on goal but couldn't get passed Red Star with the game finishing 2-1 to the Yugoslavians and all but guaranteeing we couldn't progress to the final now with Red Star top. Back in the league though we absolutely trounced Charlton 4-0 only to discover that Crystal Palace had lost 1-0 to Sheffield United widening the gap to 30 points and crowning us as Premier League champions for the 3rd consecutive year.
Without wanting to sound like I was taking it for granted, we had absolutely walked it this season, only losing 3 times and drawing once in 30 games and Palace were nowhere near us with a 30 point gap in second. But yet, in Europe, we just weren't maintaining the same form. Not even in home games. We then went to Palace and beat them 1-0 before suffering our 4th defeat of the season at Coventry, our FA Cup Semi Finalists, 3-1 although it wasn't our strongest team thanks to fixture congestion and a few suspensions. In Europe, we lost 1-0 to Inter at home, but I'd pretty much written off the European Cup by this point, so I rested a few first team squad members as, immediately afterwards, we faced Coventry in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and, picking up a magnificent 4-0 win there, we set up an FA Cup Final with Blackburn at the end of the season.
Quick trip to Birmingham for a 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the league. Quick flight to Spain for our last European fixture however, again, I rested key players to maintain fitness as the game was essentially a glorified friendly at this point, and Real Madrid beat us 1-0. Then back to England and straight to Wembley for our 4th consecutive League Cup final and 4th consecutive chance to pick up the League Cup trophy!
0-0 at half time, but goals from Junior Bent, Jon Narbett and an own goal from Dean Blackwell, against Liverpool's consolation goal from Jamie Redknapp, earned us a 3-1 win and our 4th consecutive League Cup trophy. No I never get tired of saying that! I think that means we get to take it home now? The remaining Premier League fixtures were a little bit of a formality really. We beat Leeds 5-1 in a great win, still on a high from a League Cup triumph I presume. We lost to Sheffield United 3-1, who would eventually leap frog Crystal Palace to finish 2nd. We destroyed Q.P.R 5-0, Newcastle 3-1 and rounded off the season with a 1-0 win over bottom of the league Arsenal to make it 32 wins from 38 games and finish with 97 points, THIRTY FOUR points clear of Sheffield United in 2nd.
Just bonkers. But one more win would have made it a 100 point season! Something to aim for next year maybe! Now there was just the final small matter of fixing our sights on trophy number 3: the Football Association Cup. Having crashed out in the 3rd round last season, having won it the season prior to that, we had knocked out Portsmouth, Everton, Bristol Rovers, Sheffield United and Coventry on route to the final. Against a Premier League team who only narrowly avoided relegation this season. And a team we had 5-0 and 3-0 wins over respectfully...
Well it was a much more closer affair than maybe some would have predicted! But a solitary goal from Scott Brightwell was enough to separate us, and a 1-0 win enough to secure the FA Cup for the second time in 6 seasons. Champions of the Premier League by 34 points. League Cup Champions. And FA Cup Champions. And our second Treble in 3 years of Premier League Football.
In what will likely be his last year with the club, unless something dramatically changes, Junior Bent was once again our player of the season. Not as prolific in front of goal as last season; 28 goals against 30 last season, he finished with an average rating of 8.88 from 56 games. Top of the table across the Premier League as well. The best player in the English league right now, but not the top goalscorer...
No, that honour goes to Scott Brightwell with an incredible 42 goals from 54 games, and at only 21 years old. Brightwell may very well be one of the top goalscorers I've ever had in any Championship Manager team on any game ever period! He has been outstanding on the left hand side of our front three and I hope to hang on to him as he surely develops from an England Under 21 International to an England International.
And finally, a little bit of personal success, but I topped the Manager Points table with 218100 points this season, thanks to our triumphs in taking home three trophies, and I will have to check but I'm fairly sure is my highest score yet on this save? Chesterfield once again swept the Annual Awards, with myself named Manager of the Year, Junior Bent picking Senior Player of the Year and Scott Brightwell picking up Young Player of the year.
With Junior Bent likely departing, you would think losing a player who scored 28 goals and averaged 8.88 / 10 across 56 games might be quite difficult to replace... however the third man in our attacking trio, in a return to form; Dele Adebola, scored 25 goals in 49 games this season and averaged 8.49 / 10. Joining him is one of our own; Lee Kerslake who also scored 20 goals in 37 appearances this season, averaging 8.05 / 10. And I am fairly confident Kerslake will step up and join Brightwell and likely Adebola up front next season, should Bent decide to go. With more consistent game time he might just go on to be as good as, if not better than the other 2 players next to him. He certainly shown the promise this season, and I think he will deliver next season. Reflecting on our performances in Europe (it transpired Red Star went on to win the European Cup, meaning we technically hold a win over the champions of Europe...) and reviewing the team performance as a whole I feel I need to invest in a new Left Back as both Henning Berg and Steve Harkness struggled in that position. And thanks to shipping out some excess players not good enough to stay at the club, I now have to do some strengthening in central midfield and central defense. So lots to consider going into the next pre-season transfer window. However with European football now secured again; our 3rd opportunity at the European Cup, with some tweaks, and providing that the players who really excelled this season stay good, I feel the team is really starting to develop into something quite special.