Going into my eighth season with Chesterfield now with multiple trophy victories and multiple league titles I felt this season really had to be the one where we finally conquer Europe! The team was in a decent place, with a couple of additions it could be even stronger and after evaluating my options I decided to make a few new signings in the form of a new Striker in 21 year old Guy Phelan from Preston North End for £450k. Preston have just earned promotion to the Premier League after last season and Phelan managed to bag 24 goals in 50 games for them so he knows how to find the back of the net. And to strengthen my Midfield options I brought in 26 year old Julian Joachim for £750k from Leicester who will likely rotate in and out around Narbett and Woan.
The start to the season was bolstered by good news as Junior Bent finally decided to stop dicking around after his big money move to Europe never really materialized and he signed a new 1 year deal to stay in Derbyshire for at least another season. He's arguably the best player in the game at the moment so even if it's just for this season I'll take it! And I dutifuly gave him exactly everything he wanted and said yes please.
Although it didn't work any magic in our opening game, the Charity Shield fixture with Sheffield Wednesday, as we went on to lose 2-1 meaning we couldn't make it a fourth consecutive Charity Shield win, slightly disappointing, but I won't worry about it too much if it's the only trophy hiccup this season...
Putting that swiftly behind us... we opened our 5th consecutive season in the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackburn before immediately stumbling to a 2-2 draw with newly promoted Preston... although we recovered quickly with wins against Newcastle, away at Chelsea, and at home to Crystal Palace before our first loss of the season away at Man Utd. Back at home to Man City though we demolished them 4-0 before a 1-1 draw away at Leeds to give 17 points from our opening 8 games leaving us just 1 point behind Liverpool in 2nd. Looking ahead to the European Cup, our first opponents in the prelim stage this year would be Portuguese giants; Porto... so uhh no pressure then...
But before we get to that we first had to take care of Sunderland in the League Cup, and take care of them we did, annihilating them 7-0 in the home leg, and losing to them 2-1 in the away fixture but without starting goalkeeper Stuart Ford in nets owing to a knock, but 8-2 on aggregate saw us move into the next round. We also beat The Black Cats 3-2 at home in the league, and picked up a win in the West Midlands against Aston Villa in between cup fixtures before travelling to Sheffield and coming home with a narrow 3-2 victory over The Blades. Then it was time to welcome Porto to the Recreation Ground where, in the home leg we picked up a numerically close but otherwise fairly safe 1-0 win followed by a much tougher 1-1 draw over in Portugal, but with a 2-1 win on aggregate secured we moved on to the next round where we were drawn against French giants; Marseille... NO PRESSURE THEN.
This years European Cup draw was not being kind to us... in between European fixtures, we smashed Portsmouth 6-1, sent Man Utd packing from the League Cup with a 3-0 win, before losing ground in the title race to Liverpool after a 2-1 loss. Although by this point we had inched ahead of them slightly, we still sat on equal points. However we soon began to pull away from the rest of the chasing pack: we welcomed Coventry to Derbyshire before promptly thrashing them 5-1 in one of the about, five fixtures (minor spoilers) that we would end up playing against them this season. We picked up wins against Everton, Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton and a great 5-0 win at home to Arsenal to sit top of the Premier League by 9 points after 19 games.
Back in the League Cup we went to London and knocked Spurs out, who at this point are playing First Division football, with a 5-0 win, and then welcomed another London club, Arsenal, in the league before teaching them a lesson with a 5-0 victory, putting us in a really strong position going into our European ties with French side Marseille. However after losing 2-1 in the home leg in a poor performance really where Marseille were much the better side. We then traveled to France and put up a fight but came away on the other end of a 3-2 defeat meaning a 5-3 aggregate loss ejected us from the European Cup once again at the fourth time of asking.
Despite dominating in the Premier League we just can't bring that same level of quality into European fixtures. And / or the European teams on this game are just so overpowered that it's a real test?We didn't get an easy draw to be fair and it transpires Marseille would make it all the way to the final, losing to Barcelona 1-0 but we once again couldn't even make the group stage. Just so frustrating! In between European fixtures we drew 1-1 with Blackburn, beat Preston and beat Newcastle before going into our first FA Cup game of the season against Third Division Walsall where my backups and a handful of players from the Reserves / Youth team still picked up a solid 3-1 win over The uhh... The Saddlers... apparently. Quick league game segway to beat Chelsea 2-0 then we went off to County Durham to destroy Hartlepool in the League Cup.
It should be said that Hartlepool are a First Division team at this point in my in-game world, they're in the same league as Tottenham Hotspur, but the gulf in talent here was just enormous and that's arguably the worst performance from any team I've seen on a Championship Manager game yet, versus one of our best performances yet, Narbett only scoring an 8 because I subbed him at half time for Ceri Hughes. Back in the League though we picked up the win away at Crystal Palace, paid Man Utd back for that early season defeat with a 5-0 drubbing at home, then succumbed to a late goal to lose 1-0 to Man City in the league, who were having a good season and currently trading places with Liverpool for 2nd and 3rd spot. Speaking of Liverpool, they held us to a 0-0 draw in our first FA Cup fixture together, but in the return replay fixture we managed to get the better of them 2-1 before going into the first leg of our League Cup Quarter Final fixture with West Brom Albion.
Across two legs we ended up racking up a 7-1 win on aggregate to earn our spot in the League Cup final again this season, with Coventry picking up the win against Man City to complete the fixture. Meanwhile after beating Barnsley in the FA Cup, we setup a Quarter Final fixture in that tournament with guess who? That's right: Coventry City. Feel like were playing a lot of Midlands teams this season?
Circling back to the Premier League though, and we beat Leeds at home and Sunderland away in and around cup fixtures before sending Coventry packing from the FA Cup with another 5-0 demolition, setting up a tie with Norwich in the Semi Final. We went back to West Midlands to batter Aston Villa, again 5-0... Bent and Brightwell are just having really good seasons... we beat Sheffield United and Portsmouth before being held to a 1-1 draw with Liverpool, at this point 12 points clear of them in 2nd. And then went to Wembley for our FA Cup Semi Final fixture where we easily bested The Canaries to earn a spot against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup final.
At least it wasn't Coventry City again... speaking of which in a weird turn of events we ended up playing them first in the league; a 2-1 win away for us before meeting them in the League Cup final straight after. A much more closer affair where The Sky Blues actually turned up to play football this time! We both had a player sent off each before half time! And after 13 attempts on goal versus Coventry's 11 the game ended 1-1 setting up a Final Replay to be played the following week after. The replay was almost equally as close as an affair, although Coventry this time had to defend for their lives! However with the scores tied again at 1-1 by full time it went to extra time and then penalties! But we kept our nerve when Coventry didn't and we had the best Goalkeeper in England between our posts, meaning that after 4 penalties we won the shootout 3-1 and picked up our first trophy of the season, and regained the League Cup after losing out on the opportunity last season.
Back in the Premier League, with cup success being a nice distraction, I'd been doing the math and tracking the results and I knew that a win over Everton in our next game would make our 15 point lead insurmountable across the following x4 games left to play. So we welcomed The Toffees to the Recreation Ground and it was a slightly more closer game than I would have liked... but a 3-2 victory over Everton was enough to put us beyond catchable and see us crowned Premier League champions for the 5th season in a row.
Usually I take my foot off the gas a little bit in the closing handful of games before season end, giving some of the fringe players a bit of an opportunity but we still kept it tight, picking up 2 wins against Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday and 2 draws, against Charlton and Arsenal, to maintain an unbeaten record at home and suffer only 3 defeats away all season, but not our highest points tally, 4 points short of our 97 point season in 1997... Ironically!
And not as straightforward this season either with Liverpool again having a strong season, but Man City this time beginning to step up and stake a claim in the upper tiers of the Premier League. With the League now done there was only one fixture left to play and another opportunity at a domestic treble; the FA Cup final against Blackburn Rovers.
Yeah truth be told I went into this one with all the confidence, sure the League Cup final had been a bit of a shaky affair but I felt confident we would beat Blackburn and we did easily with a 2-0 win, Julian Joachim there picking up Man of the Match and now a fairly established first team starter as he's had a really good season. But we had once again bagged a domestic treble and had a strong season dominating English football albeit offset by suffering defeat in the early stages of the European Cup.
Junior Bent was once again Player of the Season. Best Player in the Premier League at the moment, an English International and a cornerstone around which the rest of the team operates. 34 goals in 48 games he sits in the middle of our strike trio and has been one of the Chesterfield legends in this save (shout out to Paul Lemon! Gone but not forgotten). I'd wanted to keep him which is why he kept playing and stayed in the team even after declaring he was going to move abroad. But also, when you have a player this good, he commands a place in the starting 11 whether he wants to stay or not! So I was pleased when he was prepared to sign a new deal and he's paid back his wage bill with a quality performance this season.
However, as good as Junior Bent is, Scott Brightwell is the goalscoring machine behind Chesterfields success. 39 goals in 57 appearances this season, after a bit of a shaky start at the beginning of the league campaign he soon found his feet and had his best season ever since his debut campaign in 1994. At 23 years old, he came from the Reserves and fought his way into starting for the first team in almost every game ever since his debut season. Another Chesterfield legend. And he was finally granted his first England cap as this season drew to a close, rightfully so after 152 goals in 249 games!
And although not earning himself a record this season, a special mention also to Lee Kerslake who continued to hold down a spot in the starting 11 with 26 goals from 49 games and a 8.20 average rating. Not a bad strike trio to have to be fair! A little bit of personal success to recognize now as well as, thanks to a domestic double I sat top of the manager points again with 198500, although not topping my 1997 score of 218100, that's still pretty good going!
And finally at the Annual Awards we went back to sweeping all the categories with me picking up Premier League Manager of the Year, Junior Bent picking up Player of the Year, and Guy Phelan picking up Young Player of the Year which, was interesting, as he hadn't featured loads, but had done a decent job when he had.
And I think I may just step away from this save there. Or I might have one final crack at trying to win the European Cup. Or at least at making it to the Final! I haven't completely decided yet at time of writing. There are other things I'd like to have a go at, and I also may take a bit of a break from Championship Manager games for a little while cos I wanna put some attention into other games, so this might be the last post on this era, it might not. If it is then that's; One Third Division Title, One Second Division Title, One, First Division Title, One Anglo-Italian Cup Runner's Up Medal, Five Premier League Titles, Five League Cup Trophies, and Four FA Cup Trophies. In Eight Years. That's not bad going I don't think.