So I have started as F.C. Utd as decided by those of ye on the SI community, I holidayed a whole year in order for them to gain promotion into the Blue Square North, thus making them playable.
On the 25th June 2011, El Specia was appointed the manager of newly promoted F.C. Utd, at the tender age of 25 there were those amongst the fans who were unsure of his ability and experience. The first thing El Specia did was bring in some experience in his backroom team with Graham Rodger as his assistant manager. On top of adding to his backroom staff. The current crop of players at the club were deemed not to be good enough so a massive recruitment drive began with no less than 100 players being offered trials at the club with 80 players accepting trials. Next up, weeding out the rubbish to build a team to compete in the BSN. There were 8 friendlies arranged in order to assess the quality of trialist's and get the squad ready for the clubs first season in the English 6th tier.
Pre Season:
Pre season went well with 8 games being played,and 6 wins and 2 draws so a pre season in which we went undefeated while keeping 4 clean sheets and scoring 21 goals conceding only 4. So a very positive pre season, which did include victories over AFC Liverpool and Bury Town. The major highlights of the pre season would have to be the great performances from Rodney McDonald, Matt McClure and Saido Berahino. As well as performing very well Berahino also chipped in with 5 goals and 2 man of the match awards.
Blue Square North:
Board Expectations: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
Media Prediction 20th
First Season Milestone: 9 Game Point
After the first 9 or 10 games of the season is a vital point on the calender and the first real point at which to evaluate how the season has started and for F.C Utd it started very well indeed. F.C Utd who were predicted to finish bottom of the league at seasons start where now occupying 3th spot on the league table. Sitting third and exceeding all expectations there were obviously a number of players who were playing very well, such as Connor French, Jamie Griffiths & Matt McClure. But where there is good there is also poor, and the experienced Lee Collins really disappointed with a number of mistakes and inconsistency. Also Saido Berahino who enjoyed scoring freely during pre season but only managed to score once after 9 league games.
Second Season Milestone: 22 Game Point
At just after the half point stage of the season F.C Utd stood in 2nd place just behind Histon on goal difference, with 45 points which meant that F.C Utd would now be playing in BSN next season (according to the final league table of the 2010/2011 season) unless there was going to be a massive collapse coupled with administration. There were a number of particular highlights of this second section of the season mainly the performances of Rodney McDonald and the goalscoring of Saido Berahino with 6 goals in this period. Jack Ward also weighted by keeping 7 clean sheets.
Third Season Milestone: 30 Game Point
With just 12 games left in the season F.C Utd found themselves in 3rd place, with the help of some great performances from Matt McClure, Jamie Griffiths, and Connor French. Also the emergents of Ivaylo Dimitrov, with 5 goals all from the bench, who has proved to be the second coming of Ole Gunnar Solskjær maybe. This run only included 3 wins, but they were important wins against title contenders.
Final stage of the Season: 42 Game Point
With 2 games left in the season, F.C Utd needed 4 points in order to win the league, the last game of the season was against the title contender Histon. So Solihull Moors were up first, and it ended in a draw, so it all came down to the final game of the season against Histon. Histon were the hone team and they were massive favourites, the game ended 2 nil to Histon and thus it was the playoffs for F.C Utd. It was a deserved victory and league title for Histon in the end. So now onto the playoff picture.
Tamworth were the opponents for the playoff semi finals, with the first league to be played at "The lamb Ground", so with the first leg over Tamworth had a 3 nil lead on aggregate, so it was now all to do for F.C Utd. With the 2nd leg being played at home F.C Utd were favourites to win the game and at least give themselves a chance of levelling it up on aggregate. The game finish 2 nil to F.C Utd and it was the end of the season and F.C Utd had defied the odds and finished second and were very close to winning the league title.
So with such a great season despite it ending in heartbreak F.C Utd boss won the "Manager of the Year Award".
Final League Standings
F.C Utd Team of the Season
Fans Player of the Year: Rodney McDonald
Number of players used over the course of the league campaign: 28 Players (just thought it was interesting ha ha)
FA Cup & FA Trophy
In both cup competitions F.C Utd failed to impress only reaching the 3rd qualifying round of both cup, even been brought to a replay by Hyde in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Cup.
