Championship Manager 2 96-97 - The Hereford United Rebuild - Season 4

I feel like... as this point... calling it a "Rebuild" is a bit deceptive! With my original plan being to rebuild the squad and avoid relegation from the Third Division 3 seasons ago we, somehow, have managed to end up playing Premier League football?! I kicked off the 99-00 season breaking records all over the place, first of all with notification that the ground capacity was increasing by 5,000 to 13,843 to accommodate Premier League football followed by the half expected departure of the Club Captain, our best player and last years joint top goalscorer; Ben Thornley to Liverpool for a cool £5.5 Million.

Immediately paying for the ground expansion (£1,015,000) and leaving us some transfer budget to spare, I then proceeded to smash our record transfer spend on a £375k signing in the form or left and right Winger Lloyd Penney from Wrexham. Then again on bringing Striker Mark Wilson to Edgar Street from Aberdeen for £425k and, feeling that back to back to back promotions might leave us a bit exposed in defence, and with my faith in Paul Tomlinson a bit shaken, I put down £1,000,000 to bring Goalkeeper Steve Mautone from West Ham to Hereford as our new Number 1 this season. Not my first choice (I couldn't persuade Simon Brown away from Tottenham) but arguably one of the best keepers in the First Division last season. And then in a final bit of business I was finally able to coax Midfielder James Scowcroft away from Hearts for £625k which, potentially was a bit of an overpayment but I have faith he'll do well sat next to Jason Rees in central midfield.

We kicked off the Premier League campaign strong with a 4-3 win over in-game 1998 league champions Leeds, followed by a humbling 4-2 loss to Arsenal, but then a great 4-0 win at Oldham who were promoted with us last season. A 2-1 win at Derby and a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace, also promoted with us, followed before getting stomped 4-1 by Blackburn. Despite the heavy losses though, my ambitions this year were firmly settled on just surviving and adapting to Premier League football and we weren't getting trounced by the teams we should be competing with; Oldham, Palace, so I was happy that things had got off to a positive start. After my backup players only managed to achieve a 1-0 win away to Third Division Barnet in the 2nd Round first leg of the League Cup which, despite a win and a goal was a bit disappointing, we then went on to smash Coventry 5-1! With Mark Wilson getting four of those and breaking another record in the form of most goals in a single match!

It's fair to say he was doing a decent job of filling the Ben Thornley sized hole in my team... We managed to continue stringing along a good run of form, earning wins over Charlton, last year Title Runners-up; Everton, Bradford and QPR before a string of disappointing losses to Man Utd, Newcastle and a 5-0 battering by Stockport, coupled with a 6-1 loss to Arsenal in League Cup 4th round. We bounced back with 3-1 wins over both Middlesborough and Aston Villa and then a great 2-0 win over Chelsea meaning that by January we sat very comfortably in 2nd position just behind Leeds.

In a bonkers match we salvaged a 4-4 draw with Liverpool coming from behind at 3-0 to take a 4-3 lead only for Stan Collymore to peg us back in the 80th minute... and we held on to take a 1-1 draw away at Leeds and remain in, and I can't believe I'm saying this..., remain in contention for the Premier League title!! In a magnificent win, we beat Arsenal 1-0. And I don't care if it was only 1-0, we had just played Liverpool, Leeds and then Arsenal all in the space of 5 days so my squad was exhausted and depleted! A short 3 day rest later and we dumped West Brom out of the FA Cup 3rd Round in a 3-0 win, then picked up a win and draw in the league before knocking Bradford out in the 4th Round before once again falling short at Blackburn in the league who beat us 4-2. It's fair to say that we had a busy January! But Mark Wilson was banging in the goals, and Steve Mautone was doing a good job of keeping them out when it counted most! Meaning we were duking it out with Leeds and Newcastle in the race for the Premier League title! And had far passed our contemporaries like Crystal Palace and Oldham.

We picked up a 3-1 win away at Sunderland in the FA Cup 5th Round before achieving 4 wins on the bounce in the Premier League but then falling short 2-1 away in the FA Cup Quarter Final to last seasons Premier League Champions; Liverpool. A game that if we won, given the strength of the teams left in the competition, I genuinely think we could have gone all the way. But unfortunately we were just edged out by a superior Liverpool side. But they were nowhere near the League title though, and we were! Good results at QPR and Bradford as well as revenge on Stockport in a 6-2 thrashing, followed by a 2-2 draw to hold our position above Newcastle, but then suffering an unlucky 1-0 loss to Man Utd meant that we sat comfortably at the top of the Premier League with 4 games to go. Knowing that a win at Middlesborough would be enough to win the Premier League (and 3 days before my Birthday!) we smashed them 4-2 to be crowned Premier League champions in our first run in the top flight!!

An absolutely incredible achievement and I was over the moon. Back to back to back promotions followed by Premier League champions in Season 4. It had gone about as well as it possibly could have done! We won 2 of our final 3 games but weren't able to get the better of Liverpool in our final game of the season but by that point, we still finished 11 points above Blackburn in 2nd place anyway.

Our player of the season, top goalscorer and star player, was new signing Mark Wilson who hadn't just filled the void left behind by Ben Thornley but had put the whole team on his back and carried us to the next level!

An incredible 36 goals in 34 games, as well as 16 assists and a record high average rating of 8.58, I'd worked out he knew how to find the net when I signed him from Aberdeen but this was something else entirely! And at 21 I fancy him to get better for a couple of years at least yet! Hopefully we are able to hang on to him for the challenge ahead next season...

Jason Rees was once again top provider, with 28 assists in 34 games, although his form has been mixed, and he was left out for a handful of games. He'll likely start next season but I am turning my attention to a potential replacement in the upcoming transfer window as he has often been inconsistent when we've needed it.

And at the End of Season awards both myself and Mark were recognized for our contributions with Mark Wilson getting Player and Young Player of the Year as well as Premier League Top Goalscorer, and me Manager of the Year respectfully which is always nice to add to collection! And well... I could leave it there! The rebuild is complete; I took Hereford United from potential relegation candidates to Premier League Champions in 4 seasons. I want to strengthen left wing back for next season, maybe bring in some more squad players and a new central mid, but the first team is largely complete providing we retain the current starters, so in the fundamental sense; the rebuild is done! Next seasons priorities will be on retaining the league title whilst trying to bring home a second trophy and facing up to the challenge of playing in Europe at the same time and whilst, I expect it might be tough I have confidence that we can balance the extra games and still remain competitive in the league. Maybe one more season with Hereford and then I'll see where my career leads me next?