Championship Manager 93 - Taking the Spireites to new heights! - Part 4

Starting off this save with Chesterfield on CM93, my soft goal was to take them all the way to the Premier League and, somehow, remarkably, we've managed to achieve back-to-back-to-back promotions to parachute to the promised land inside 3 seasons! Whereas other clubs might suffer from ascending through the leagues so quickly, I felt like we were in quite a good spot. And as good as, if not better, than a good half the teams in the top division. That being said though, there were obvious key areas that would need improvement for the coming league campaign. I brought in a new Centre Back in Shaun Teale from Norwich. A new Centre Forward in Junior Bent from Bristol City who had scored 22 goals in 46 games last season, anticipating that Paul Lemon may struggle with the step up in competition. And a new Midfielder in Keith Downing from Wolverhampton although anticipate he will likely be more for coverage than a first team start.

Also joining the squad was a fresh intake of youth players; Lee Atkinson, Barry Dickinson, Lee Kerslake, David Sharpe and Stuart Walsh although my initial plan will be to loan most of them out for experience. Our introduction to the Premier League started with a baptism of fire, welcoming Manchester United to the Recreation Ground, but we made a promising start besting them 2-1. We picked up wins at Coventry and then Norwich before suffering defeat against Sheffield United. We then beat Everton, drew with Liverpool, beat Arsenal but lost to Southampton to make a slightly mixed but solid start to our league campaign and slot in at 2nd in the league after 8 games, just behind Blackburn Rovers in 1st. We then picked up a great win at last seasons Premier League Champions; Sheffield Wednesday, beating them at home 3-1 with 2 goals from Jon Narbett and a goal for new signing Junior Bent.

We then travelled to Newcastle and came away with a 2-1 win, we smashed Man City 4-0 at home, we lost to fellow promotees Tottenham 1-0 in a game where we had 10 attempts on goal and really should have won... but responded with a solid 3-0 win over Q.P.R. to move top of the Premier League after 13 games!

Moving away from the Premier League briefly, we drew Brentford in the League Cup and bested them by 5 goals to 1 across both ties, before being drawn against Sheffield Wednesday... We just managed to get ahead of them by a goal to make it 3-2 by full time in a very close game! But enough to get us through to the next stage where we faced off against First Division Wolves. Back in the league we were held 1-1 by Peterborough in a poor game really, and despite having 19 attempts on goal we couldn't find a way to score at home against Blackburn to strengthen our position above them in the league, and it finished 0-0. We did pick up a win against Middlesborough away, before losing away at Grimsby 2-1 which was a bit of an odd one as the team played well but just couldn't find the goal! We then lost to Chelsea at home 1-0 in a very mediocre performance but responded by travelling to Wolves and smashing them for 6 in the League Cup!

To be fair, we should be beating First Division teams, but an emphatic win was just the kind of confidence boost we needed right now! League form had faltered slightly and Blackburn had leapfrogged us into 1st place, but I was largely pleased that we were struggling at the right end of the table! Off the back of our League Cup win we picked up 3 wins in a row against Nottingham Forest, Man United and Coventry before losing 1-0 to Norwich of all teams... We repaid Sheffield United for our earlier defeat, beating them at home 3-1, and then lost to Everton 1-0! Then we travelled to Liverpool and smashed them 4-1 before beating Arsenal back at home 2-1 to finally leapfrog Blackburn ourselves and move back into top spot. Meanwhile in the League Cup, after getting past Peterborough 1-0 in the Quarter Final, we were drawn against Division 1 Leeds in the Semi Finals as we chased after retaining the trophy following last years success.

In between Premier League and FA Cup fixtures we managed to pick up two 2-0 wins against The Whites, whilst in the aforementioned FA Cup we had picked up wins against Derby, Bristol City and non-league Mansfield Town to setup a Quarter Final against Charlton. Whilst contesting cup games, the team picked up a win at Southampton, and an excellent 3-0 win away at Sheffield Wednesday, which also saw the debut of new signing; Henning Berg (yes that one) from Blackburn slotting in at left back for us. Going into the cup game against Charlton with momentum on our side we picked up the win there, 2-0, to set up a Semi Final against Premier League Middlesborough...

So if you're not following, that's a Semi Final spot in the FA Cup and a Final spot in the League Cup! And were currently sat top of the Premier League. Things were going pretty well! We won 2-1 at Newcastle. Crushed Man City again this season, 4-1, got revenge on Tottenham at home, 3-1, and beat Q.P.R. again, 3-0. I knew things were going well, and coming up to the closing stages of the season we had opened up a FOURTEEN point gap on Liverpool in 2nd place. I felt like a win in our next 2 games would confirm it. And after we cruised past Peterborough 4-2, I checked the results...

Liverpool had lost 1-0 to Norwich. Meaning with 5 games left to play and a maximum of 15 points they mathematically couldn't catch us now! We had done it. Chesterfield had won the Premier League as a newly promoted team in their first season inside the top flight of English football!

Whatever happened in the rest of the season now I was really happy. I had taken Division Three Chesterfield to Premier League champions across 4 seasons. No broken tactics, or secret wonder kids (exception being John Ashdjian cos some guy on YouTube said he was great but he turned out to be dog turds), just signing players that I thought looked decent, having a good defensive offensive balanced starting 11 split 5/5 and by playing a attacking 4-3-3 Direct Football formation. Sure it helped that along the way Paul Lemon, Dave Lancaster, Dele Adebola, Scott Brightwell and spoilers; Junior Bent were banging goals in like no tomorrow but you still need the rest of the team to play well to hold on to a lead!

23 wins in 33 games for a newly promoted side is not to be sniffed at! And there was still work to be done! We had to contend with Southampton in the League Cup final. Pick up a win and we will retain the trophy, mirroring Derby who achieved the same before us in 93/94 and 94/95. Southampton were languishing near the foot of the table so I felt like we had a chance, and at Wembley Stadium, after 16 attempts on goal, we came away as 3-1 winners and League Cup champions for the second time in a row!

In the FA Cup Semi we waltzed past Middlesborough 3-0 to set up a FA Cup Final at the end of the season, but before I get to that... in our last 5 Premier League games we lost 1-0 to Blackburn and 2-1 to Middlesborough, and I thought my team might be 'on the beach'... however they woke up to win against Grimsby 2-1 in our last home game of the season, 2-0 away at Chelsea, and then we finished the League Campaign with a 3-0 win away at Nottingham Forest. 26 wins, 3 draws and 9 losses across 38 games with a final points tally of 81 points, 18 points ahead of Liverpool in second place.

There was just one final thing left for us to play for in the closing game of the season. After beating Middlesborough in the FA Cup Semi Final, we would face off against either Manchester United or Peterborough United. The Posh having joined us in promotion to the Premier League this season, finishing 2nd in Division One, had had a very different season unfortunately though, only picking up 8 wins in 38 games and suffering relegation straight back down. They had, however, got the best of Man Utd away though, 2-1 to book their place in the Final with us. And in a way it felt oddly poetic! I thought we were going into what should be an easy win... We'd drew 1-1 in the league, we'd beaten them 4-2 in the league, we knocked them out the League Cup 1-0. I fancied our chances! However...

I'm just joking. We beat them easily despite having 19 attempts and only managing to score a single goal, they never looked like threatening the whole game. I did get a bit nervous but Junior Bent slotted a goal home late in the second half to earn us the win, our 3rd trophy this season, and our first FA Cup!

Player of the season was new signing Junior Bent. He had rotated around left side, central and right side forward depending on the fitness of Dele Adebola, Scott Brightwell and Paul Lemon but had played almost every game for us, earning a 8.56 average rating and scoring 25 goals in 48 games. Scott Brightwell was a close second with 21 goals in 41 games and an average rating 8.05, however Junior Bent was just that slightly bit better and edged his way ahead of Brightwell to top goalscorer.

Thanks to a Domestic Cup double and a Premier League title, I topped the Manager Points leaderboard just ahead of Ian Branfoot at Southampton in 2nd Place, who had put together a good cup run this season, making it to the Semi Final of the UEFA Cup - losing to Juventus - and to the final of the League Cup - losing to us. Soz Ian.

And just finally at the Annual Awards we once again swept all three categories with me picking up Manager of the Year, Junior Bent picking up Senior Player of the Year and Scott Brightwell picking up Young Player of the Year.

I feel like I could end it here, and draw a line under the journey having accomplished a Premier League title win with a team starting in the Third Division, but there is - as is the modus operandi on this blog - one final accomplishment: European Champions. A Premier League title win guarantees us European Cup competition next season and having previously experienced a taste with the Anglo Italian Cup, I am fully aware that it will be a different test entirely! There are a few improvements that need to be made, Henning Berg came in mid way through the season as both Cliff Carr and Wayne Hackett proved to be sub standard for the Premier League. Paul Lemon and Dele Adebola struggled slightly with their form this season so a new Forward might be on the agenda? And whilst my starting 3 midfielders are all quality, Narbett and Porter are not getting any younger, so it may be time for a youthful injection. There will be a Part 5; I've got a Premier League title to defend, an FA Cup to retain and can I go for three time successive League Cup champions? There's a lot of a potential success to play for...