Great Heathen Army part 5 – Strengthening & Indigestion | @Goatnmcl

Posted on January 17, 2023 by gavgreaves1

Velkomin back. Having had a wonderful few months off, I didn’t realise we were coming back until I read Zak’s Warnock post last Monday. Readily armed with my post Christmas Dad Tapas (leftover crackers and 3 tubs of Heroes condensed into 1 once the Mrs and kids had eaten all the good ones) and I’m ready to delve back into 866 AD.

The brief is to do what the Vikings never managed to do and that is to conquer the whole of England in the 13 year time span of the great heathen army. By November 866 I must field a full Scandinavian match day squad to coincide with the capture of York and only sign Scandi players full stop.

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Great Heathen Army pt 4: Now Then, Now Then | @Goatnmcl

Posted on October 26, 2022 by gavgreaves1

Hump day is Viking Day. Over to Gav…

Heil og sæl

Velkomin to the fourth part of our Viking invasion. In the last episode we unfortunately crashed out of the Shield Maiden Trophy and the FA cup leaving us to solely to concentrate on the league.

Without further ado, we start this week with a trip to Fullahamm. It took us half an hour to finally wake up. Sigurd manages to tuck away his first chance and give us the lead at half time. Fulham start the second half brighter and in a repeat of the first half, we don’t do anything of note for 30 mins of it until Halle gets his first since his move from Loidis. Tidy win.

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Great Heathen Army pt3: Axe Wound | @GoatNmcl

Posted on October 19, 2022 by gavgreaves1

Happy hump day! Did anybody order some VIkings?

Heil og sæl

Velkomin back Viking Champ fans. This week we’re looking to progress in the W/Scr Shield Maiden Trophy, the FA Cup and stamp our authority on the league.

First up this week is Gyllingeham (Gillingham). We have a goal disallowed in the 25th minute due to the referee “seeing something”! It’s a pretty stale game until we make a change in the 66th min bringing on a striker for a wing back. We score 2 mins later only to concede 4 mins after!

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Great Heathen Army – Part 2 | @GoatNmcl

Posted on October 12, 2022 by gavgreaves1

Happy hump day. If you didn’t read part 1 last week, this will make little sense to you. So do that first, then carry on…

Heil og sæl

Velkomin to the second part of our dip into the 9th century English Football League. We finished the last episode having signed a couple of Scandinavian players, joining the ranks with our fearsome sons of Ragnar Lothbrok. We played out 3 pre-season friendlies against our Norse brethren running out comfortable winners in each. We lost influential def/mid Tony Barras but manage to bring in Valur Fannar Gislason on loan as cover (although with 8 for tackling, his game time might be limited).

We start our league campaign at home to Ceasterfeld (Chesterfield) and race into a 3 goal lead thanks to 2 goals from Ivar the Boneless either side of a strike by our Icelandic Wonderkid Gislason. We then get Dunn in by conceding to all 3 of their shots on target before Gislason gets the winner in the 77th minute.

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Great Heathen Army – Part 1 | @GoatNmcl

Posted on October 5, 2022 by gavgreaves1

Happy hump day – please welcome the latest member of our writing team Gavin who has done some incredible work…

The year is 865AD (97), the Great Heathen Army has landed on the shores of fair England sending fear throughout the Anglo-Saxon communities. A raiding party led by the sons of the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok has been sent North to scout the city of Eoforwic (York) in readiness for its capture and to act as a base to conquer the whole of England.

The Viking invasion lasted 13 years and they never managed to fully conquer the whole of England, with Wessex standing firm, finally defeating the Viking army at the battle of Edington in 878. This will be the timeline for our blog, 13 years to become champions of England (Prem league, FA Cup & League Cup) and to do what the original army never achieved. We can only sign Scandinavian players and must field a full team of them by November 866 (98) as that is when York was fully taken and renamed Jorvik.