Aldershot Town F.C. - Application

Dear Mr Machala,

I'd like to offer my application for the currently vacant managerial position at Aldershot Town F.C.

Experience

Currently have no actual managerial experience outside of the realm of Championship Manager 01-02. But am confident that the skills I have acquired from this computer game will translate into the real world.

As a demonstration of my skills I have played the entire 2010-11 season with Aldershot Town F.C. and following is the detail of how I got on:

Board Expectations:

So basically, stay in the division.

Backroom staff:

I arrived with only the Assistant Manager (Martin Kuhl) and one first team coach (John Nicholson) at the club. I soon appointed 4 quality coaches to work alongside John. Namely Gary Himsworth, Arthur Brown, David Fox & Neil Richardson.

Assistant Manager Martin Kuhl was relieved of his duties as Kit Symons was available and I was keen to have him at the club as my right hand man.

Other staff appointments were a chief scout (Dai Nelmes) and 2 new physios (Roger Cleary & Jim Walter).

Mid-season, new coach David Fox was offered the chance to join Nottingham Forest & we could not match their offer so he departed & Mike Ellis from the Welsh Premier League’s Haverfordwest (coincidentally my home town) was appointed in his place.

Similarly at the end of the season, chief scout Dai Nelmes joined Swansea. A replacement will be sought during the summer.

Transfers:

The playing squad I inherited was of high quality and reasonably large for a League 2 club.

None of the current players were transfer listed as they were all good enough for the club.

I did feel we were short one central defender, a left winger & two strikers.

However, there were no funds for transfers. I would have to look for players out of contract or available for loan. All I could find was Morcambe’s Chris McCready to fill the defensive slot on a three month loan. Once this was over I tried to arrange another loan deal, but Morcambe weren’t interested. Luckily some transfer funds were found and so Colchester’s Lee Beevers was bought for £50K.

Around the same time Luton’s Kenyan international striker Taiwo Atieno was also brought in for 16K.

The only other signings were two wingers in the shape of Chris Whelpdale & Ishmel Demontagnac from Peterborough and Blackpool respectively. Both were brought in on loan for the season run-in to cover any potential injuries.

The Season:

Cup runs

League Cup

1^st round – beat Lincoln at home 2-0.

2^nd round – lost to Newcastle 5-2 away. Incidentally we were 2-0 up after 18 minutes, but the Premier League side’s quality shone through.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy

1^st round – a disappointing 3-1 away loss to Leyton Orient.

FA Cup

1^st round – beat Luton at home 2-0.

2^nd round – drew 0-0 with Oldham at home, and then beat them 3-1 away in the replay.

3^rd round – lost 2-1 away to Championship Scunthorpe, again we led the game, but could not hold on.

The League

We started off slowly hovering above the relegation zone, but never quite in it for all of 2010. The squad were getting used to the tactics I employ & the coaches’ hard work was starting to show.

League table as at 11^th January 2011 (the day after the club parted with Kevin Dillon in the real world):

7 places higher than an in the real world.

7 points above the relegation zone and only 4 points off the playoffs.

Note that 4 fore fixtures have been played – the weather in Championship Manager has been quite mild.

For the run-in the team went on a great run, losing only 4 times in 20 games. We burst into the playoffs with four games left & won the last three games to finish the season 4^th. This was a great achievement & I fancied our chances as we were the form team of League 2.

In the semi-final we faced Chesterfield, drawing 1-1 at home and edging a nervy encounter 1-0 away.

The players were thrilled to play at Wembley. Unfortunately a glitch in Championship Manager means that the play-off final was played at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium instead.

The 2010/11 League 2 Playoff Final:

As you can see we won and gained promotion on penalties! We dominated the game so it was the correct result. Fittingly, Darren Jones scored the winning penalty; he was our best player throughout the season.

It was good to see over 20,000 Aldershot fans cheering us on, hopefully some of these will become regular spectators for our League 1 campaign next season.

Finances

Aldershot Town know better than most that finances must be kept under control.

Little was spent on transfer fees, and wages were kept within the club’s wage structure.

The club’s final league position, reasonable cup runs & ultimately the playoff final meant that a large amount of prize money and gate receipts.

This lead to an overall profit of £500K, almost unheard of for a League 2 club. This will stand the club in good stead for the coming seasons.

Future

In the summer I will attempt to strengthen the squad for a step up in division.

I’m happy with my current backroom staff, but changes may occur if stand-out coaching talent becomes available.

A replacement for chief scout Dai Nelmes will be sought.

Jamie Vincent is surplus to requirements, so will be allowed to pursue his career elsewhere.

The positions I will attempt to sign will be a left winger and a striker.

I will also press the board to improve the training facilities, which are in need of some improvement.

Summary

An entirely successful season, born from little financial resource.

Promotion gained.

A large financial profit made.

I doubt the board could have expected more.