Hello and welcome back to Doncaster. In the last episode we managed to sneak an automatic promotion spot to Division 2 with a game to spare. Once again the big club release clause looked to be our undoing but luckily the clubs trying to raid us couldn’t stump up the cash. This season we get a crack at Division 2. Let’s dive in.
August
August starts with us losing John Ritchie to Blackburn for £3 million. Jason White comes in from Rotherham for £250k. Peter Beardsley’s regen comes in on a free and our Welshman this year is Vinny Jones’s regen. Losing the first 2 games in the league had me worried but a 4-0 and a 5-0 win plus a win in the League Cup 1st round ends the month on a high.
September
September is super inconsistent. We are struggling for goals so Mark Rivers is signed from Division 3 Crewe. We keep swapping round strike partners to find some goals. Losing against Chorley who came up with us was really disappointing. Getting beat by Hull was standard. We are in the top half of the table though so that’s encouraging.
October
What a month!! 7 out of 7 in the league is unbelievable form! 5 clean sheets as well. We push Arsenal close too, they have slipped in to Division 1. Rivers has helped up front. We signed Hay last season but he wasn’t great. This season though he is flying!
He has the big club release clause so no doubt he will be on the move soon.
November
We come back down to earth with a bump. Ipswich & Watford are 1st & 2nd and they both beat us in close games. We progress to the 3rd round of the FA Cup as well.
December
December is grim with only 1 win from 4. Those last 2 games in particular were really poor performances especially from our strikers. Hay & Rivers missed a host of chances against Oxford.
January
Wow! What a turn around in January. 16 scored and only 1 conceded and that was in the FA Cup. We currently sit comfortably in the Playoff places and we are hunting down Gillingham & Watford who are the top 2. Watford haven’t lost a game so far. We finally beat Hull as well! Only took us 6 games against them!
We get a great result in the FA Cup 4th round thanks to 3 first half goals which sends Premier League Leicester crashing out. Another Premier League team awaits in the form of Fulham who have risen from Division 2 quickly.
February
Another great month for us. Outside this screenshot we had two 3-1 wins against Preston and Carlisle. We should have done better in the FA Cup against Fulham. We wasted too many chances early on and got punished. This game is so infuriating though. We hit 2nd place and in the very next game we lose 1 nil and have 2 goals disallowed and the opposing keeper is man of the match. Back into the playoffs for now.
March
March is perfect. 4 wins from 4 and the clean sheets keep rolling in. We’ve hit top spot, level on points with Gillingham.
I wasn’t happy with how our DMC was playing so signed Corey Whitehead on a free transfer and since he’s come in the clean sheets have racked up and he’s chipped in with some important goals as well.
April/May
Once again the big club release clause has ripped the team apart. Both strikers are lost and our left back and best centre half. We get a combined £13.5 million but no one wants to sign for us for 2 free transfer strikers come in. I’ve got enough defenders to cover us until the summer.
We get hammered 5-0 by Peterborough in the game after losing all those players. Then lose to Watford. 2 wins take us top of the table by 3 points. Last game of the season is against 2nd place Gillingham who need to win. They take the lead…
But Proctor equalises and we hang on for a draw which means we win Division 2!!! At the first time of asking we go straight up to Division 1 as champions! Over the moon doesn’t come close. All you could hear when Proctor scored was this…
What a season! We started slow but rose to the occasion after Xmas. Even when the big clubs ripped away our star players we will still kicked on. Join me next week for Division 1. I hate Division 1. I always struggle in Division 1, even with the bigger teams.
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I\’m not sure if you\’ll get this but just wanted to send a quick message to say I\’m very much enjoying your blogs. I spent my youth playing this game, didn\’t think it was possible anyone could have played more but you guys seem to have taken it to another level! I haven\’t played for a few years as I\’ve banned myself as every time it takes over, true addiction! 😂
I was glad to find the original version on your site which I struggled to find when I last looked, the patched version, although good, has no Bakayoko, Tommy, Bos, Carel Van De Velden et al so it\’s just not the same! Also, your blogs talk of the big club release clause a lot, a Bain of many years! But if you list them for loan no one approaches them? (obviously if your aloud and they\’re not too expensive when you buy them) does feel a but like a cheat though!
It baffles me that my memory is terrible but ask me a stat from Nicola Berti and I\’ll know it 😂
I\’m glad to see Bjorn was your number one pick recently, a few years ago we had Bjorn\’s face printed on our Xmas jumpers, a true legend! 😂
Also, good to see you different variations of the game, I\’ve been enjoying nowhere I\’d Radebe / Wolves Portugal etc, not sure how you fixed how you can have so many foreigners on the African one as I was never into the editing side but it makes it interesting, good you found a good gk as that will have been the hardest part! I thought I was along taking Crewe and only buying British players to Euro glory!
I would like to see more player stats on your blogs though rather than results as I\’m not really interested in each result but players doing well etc would take me back a bit more!
Keep them coming and keep up the good work!
Lee
Thanks for reading and getting in touch Lee! I’ve fed back to the bloggers to try and get some stats in for you. We’ll keep writing if you keep reading 🙂