Season 4 2014/2015 IFA Championship One

Transfers

This season I was able to bring in a greater quality of players even though I had only gained an extra £200 of wages. In December I managed to bring some loan signings in December again from Glentoran and Crusaders ( no other clubs seem willing to loan to me.)

You may notice Paedar Toal joined and left within a month, this was my mistake. I had tried to sign Toal a season or 2 ago i thought he was quality. However he had got old and was basically useless now. I looked at an old scout report thought he was still class snapped him up only to realise my mistake and he was quickly released.

League
With the new signings I felt we had a good squad depth, our league form reflected this and coming into the last few games again I was in a duel with Carrick this time it was for 1st place and the championship. With just over 7 games left, we lost 4-2 away to Carrick. This saw them leapfrog us into 1st. With one point between us, we matched each others results and for the 2nd season running it would go down to the last game of the season. We had to play Ards away, Carrick were playing Donegal Celtic at home. ( DC were the team I had to play last game of last season.)

Ards V Chimney Corner

Carrick V Donegal Celtic

Thus with a last day thriller we had won the Championship and gained promotion to the Premiership! (Carrick won the playoff and will join me in the Premiership.)

Season 3 2013/2014 IFA Championship

A tiny wage budget for this season I had real doubts about whether we could challenge and finish higher than the 8th we achieved last year. I spent alot of time going through trying to find bargains but it just wasn't possible to improve my squad when I could only offer a maximum of £50 a week!

In the Co. Antrim shield we gained our biggest scalp of the season, with a Penalty Shootout over Champions Linfield.

In total I brought in 3 players on free transfers, more squad players than really improving the team, however in January I took 3 players on loan from Glentoran and Crusaders.
Our league form was full of ups and downs. We could win a good number of games in a row and then lose 4 in a row. But yet with just 4 games left I was left 3 points off Carrick who were in the promotion playoff place. For the next 3 games we matched each for every result. This meant it came down to the last game of the season to decide who would take the playoff place. I had to beat Donegal Celtic a tricky side who you could never be sure of a result. Carrick took on Tobermore United who were rock bottom and relegated. As predicted Carrick stuffed Utd. We beat Donegal Celtic 1-0 but it just wasn't enough and Carrick gained the playoff place. (Which they went on to lose)

A 3rd place finish and great strides forward for Chimney Corner and an all time high league position.

Season 2- 2012/2013 IFA Championship

Again in my season expectations were to avoid relegation. With my wage budget increased from £210 to £1,400 this meant I had more freedom in the transfer market, however not as much as the teams I was competing with had to spend. With no transfer budget it was going to be another season relying on free transfers. In June I spent time going through recently relegated and top 4 teams in the division and approached players to sign for me in July.

All of my signings proved to be essential to my team this year bar one. Gleen Dougherty, a 36 year old with a lot of experience, I checked his history, my scout felt he was 4 star ability. I felt his experience could be crucial at points in the season I signed him without looking at his attributes. Needless to say it was a big mistake I believe over the season he played 2 games, fortunately enough he is retiring at the end of the season!
Nathan Morley-Hillen was outstanding in between the posts for CCFC this season, so good infact I couldn't persuade him to stay on and he agreed a move to Monaghan Utd in the summer.
My player of the season had to be James Brannif, signed from Carrick on a free, he was a rock at the centre of our defence. And at the other end put his head on everything. Although he only finished with 4 goals he could have had double figures.
But when you have a striker banging them in for fun, for the 2nd year in a row it was going to be difficult for Brannif to get fans player of the year.

League
An excellent start to the season saw us unbeaten heading into November, however at Christmas things took a turn for the worse and we couldn't buy a win this saw us drop to mid-table. Although a change in formation back to our 4-5-1 of the first season, saw us climb back up to within 4 points of 2nd. But it just wasn't to be and our failure to turn 0-0's into 1-0 victories meant we fell short. Once I knew we were not going to be promoted and were also safe from relegation i decided to change my tactics up and experiment, realistically planning for next season. Overall this lead to us finishing 8th mostly due to 3 defeats in our last 3 games.

The Cups
We had a number of good results in the cup this year. This saw us reach the semi final of the Steel & Sons cup before losing out to Bangor.
The Co. Antrim Shield was our best run reaching the final before losing 3-0 to Donegal Celtic.

A promising start to division 1, however just received my budgets for the next season, which sees my wage budget cut from £1,400 to £900! Could be an interesting summer.

Season 1- 2011/2012, IFA Championship 2

Quick End of season 1 update


With the team built around Adam upfront it was only time before it clicked. Adam finished top goalscorer with 27 goals in the league. However our form throughout the season wasn't great, we could win one match 6-1 the next be completely outplayed. However in these games we were outplayed we managed to sneak a good few draws out of them. Coming into the last 5 games I felt we had a real chance of winning the title, however in the 27th league game and 2-1 loss away to Sport and Leisure and realistically that was the title race over with Sport and Leisure winning their remaining games. However 2nd place was good enough and the board were delighted along with our supporters at our surprise promotion to the IFA Championship!

Season 1- 2011/2012, IFA Championship 2

A Background to Chimney Corner FC

The Beginnings
My first season in charge and my expectations were to avoid relegation, on bare minimum finances.

Without touching my squad I am already £1 over the wage budget. I had 2 choices: Keep my current squad and hope I could work wonders with a side predicted relegation.
Or sign one or two players without breaking the budget.
In the end I managed 5 signings, none of which were overly breaking the bank to the point where I was concerned about the clubs financial future.

However one player stood out, Jamil Adam had been at Barnsley for 4 years making 4 appearances, had been released on and free and strangely was willing to talk to me! So with some neogiating I tied him to CCFC on a 4 year deal without a release clause that he was insistent on.

With the signings complete and the board unhappy with the wage budget, one thing was for certain Promotion was going to be the only way to increases the finances to a level I desired.