25 and Still Jobless – 2019-20 Season – Special Edition - A Look at Birmingham City: Defenders (Central) - Page 5

quote Patrick

quote Pro King

You're clearly here to try and degrade everybody elses' stories

Would just like to point out he's giving everyone rave reviews in the SF blog.

James Young I'm really enjoying this, there's so many good stories out there atm lol I can't even bother saying 'serious contender for SotF'

Everyone who he knows will vote for him if he gets nominated for the SOTF again. I'm glad he slated y story really at least people know what he's like know. Obviously it won't change anything. Half the people in here are too *bleep*ing retarded to notice anyway..

Levante - FM13 SOMS

quote James Young

However, I made some changes for the starting line-up, Steven Howarth would replace Sam Whittall as Cook’s partner, as Phillips was left out of the side altogether, while McQueen was put into the side to start the match alongside the veteran Alex Russell.

Sorry, I don't get this part, you're writing in the past tense, as I indicate with the bolded "was"es, but the "would" seems to me to be part of the future tense? Or am I reading it wrong through half closed eyes?

Happy to help

Cant even be arsed to read your moaning rant. Want to carry it on send me a PM, but in all honesty, you're boring me.

Oh, and I think you're missing my point. Not once have I slated your story, just remember that each and every time you do it to mine. Good luck keeping up your nice guy attitude.

Levante - FM13 SOMS

August was the month that the league started and our first game of the season was against Kettering, a team that I have had great memories against. Unfortunately before the game even started, Alexander McQueen got himself injured, so was unavailable for selection, much to my annoyance. We were considered the favourites for the match by Sky Bet, so I had every reason to feel confident. However, it was Kettering that took the lead, thanks to Strevens, who only needed a tap-in to score. It was one of my new signings, Whittall that got the equalizer for us with a wonderful goal to make it 1-1. In the second half, Kettering hit the bar, causing us a scare. Near the end of the game, Murray missed what I would consider a sitter, since numerous players had scored from the position before. The result was a draw, but Watkins got injured for 3 weeks, not helping my disappointment with the result. This result left us in 13th.



Our next opponents were promotion favourites Aldershot, who were top of the table after beating fellow promotion candidate Grimsby, 3-0 just three days before. This made me feel even more nervous than I always was, meaning that I was not feeling too confident about the result of this match. However, for reasons that I’m still lost at, Aldershot were only considered slight favourites, not clear ones. I had made some small changes due to how little time there was between the two fixtures. Bubb put Aldershot into the lead from a corner due to a tap-in. Darren Jones made it 2-0 just before halftime from a corner, due to another tap-in. Nothing really happened in the second half, so the result ended up being 2-0, still, I wasn’t expecting to win, even though we dropped down to ... 21st ... the relegation zones ... AGAIN!?



Going up against Alfreton for our next game, especially when they were bottom of the table made it that much more important for me to win this match, not because of the fact that my very first ever game in charge and victory came against Alfreton, but because of the fact we were both in the bottom 4 places. There was also the fact that the media had made us the favourites for the game as well, but most of all, I wanted revenge for our 2-0 home defeat near the end of last season. I wanted to make them pay for beating us at our ground last season. Call me what you like, I was more focused on getting us a win than listening to comments of belittlement about my personality, or my desire for payback. I wasn’t doing this for me, or for you, I was going to make sure we got a win for the fans.

I made some changes before the match, to replace some tired faces (already), but we were ready to get ourselves going. The first half of the game was pretty poor, even by my standards. Early in the second half, Murray hit the crossbar when he should have scored, much to my disbelief. However, Cook finally gave us the lead with a great strike. One of the substitutes hit Phillips then hit the crossbar in an attempt to make it 2-0 to us. Gethin Jones did make it 2-0 when he headed in Alexander McQueen’s corner, who was making his debut as the youngest ever player for Bath. The result ended up being 2-0 and we moved up to 13th because of our first victory of the season.



Before the game even started, we had ended up signing a brand new player, in the form or Steven Howarth on a free transfer. The young striker, who was on 20, was better than any of our current strikers, so to sign the young boy who had just left Motherwell, made it that much more impressive for us to do so. Something that Bath City favourite, Jason Dodd agreed with me on, announcing that he was relishing the chance to see Howarth in action.

For the match itself, Darlington were made the clear favourites by the media, despite the fact that we beat Darlington quite comfortable last time and were currently above them in points. However, I wasn’t going to make the mistake of getting too cocky about getting the result, due to what had happened the season before with Forest Green Rovers, I knew that I had to make sure that nothing too stupid happened, especially since we weren’t even playing at home to begin with, we were playing at the 25033 all-seater stadium of the Darlington Arena. I admit it, I would love to manage a club that had such a big stadium, and today would be the very first time that I would be managing a game at such a big stadium in my entire managerial career.

However, I made some changes for the starting line-up, Steven Howarth ended up replacing Sam Whittall as Cook’s partner, as Phillips was left out of the side altogether, while McQueen was put into the side to start the match alongside the veteran Alex Russell. Howarth made an impact straight away as he started the counter that allowed Stonehouse to score to make it 1-0, before Cook made it 2-0 after McQueen played him in beautifully, however, before the half ended Gethin Jones got his second of the season after scoring from a Scott Murray corner. 3-0 at half by using the Counter strategy, what else could go right? My answer was almost answer when Stonehouse hit the bar barely a minute within the second half. With the amount of chances at goal, we should have made it 4-0 at some point. We then won a penalty when Joe McCann fouled Gethin Jones in another corner. Alex Russell had the chance to score from the spot and took it to make it 4-0 at long last. Howarth missed a great chance to make it 5-0 near the end, only for Mangan to make it 4-1. The match ended up with us winning 4-1 against a team that was expected to beat us, and with this result, we moved up to 7th, my highest position as the Bath City manager. It felt great to win 2 in a row once again and to just be 1 point off of the playoff places.



Either way, this has been a successful month for me, one of my best so far as Bath manager and a great start to the season for the team as well. Hopefully the fans will have something to cheer about by the end of the season, like I hope that I will.

Bath – 7th |4|2|1|1|7|4|+3|7|

My record with Bath so far: 34 Games, 19 Wins, 4 Draws, 11 Defeats, 51 Goals Scored, 38 Goals Conceded, 13 Goal Difference, 55% Win Ratio

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After a successful first month of the season, I couldn’t help but feel like I could go on and attempt to challenge for the playoffs, yes I knew of the dangers of thinking too far ahead, but I really couldn’t help but want to attempt to go forward and charge onwards. Our next opponents were the team that were the playoff finalists last season and currently in 14th with just 4 points this season, Newport County. This was a home game and I couldn’t help but want to get payback on them for defeating us last season as well. With Gethin Jones being the best performer in the league so far this season, we had a good chance of seeing our form ending up with a third straight win. We were considered the favourites for the game, and I truly believed that we could make it 3 wins in 3.

For the match, we had to make a couple of changes, one of them due to the fact that Australian goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis was on international duty ... with Greece. Yes, he was part Australian and part Greek, who knew? However, this gave Welshman Glyn Garner a chance to start for the first time this season. Also, there was a start for Marley Watkins for the first time since his injury against Kettering, so we had a strong looking side for the match, apart from our missing star goalkeeper.

In the first half, Cook missed a great chance as he hit the post after being set up beautifully by Howarth, much to my surprise, as I had seen Cook scoring chances like those before. Unfortunately for us, despite all our chances, the first half remained goalless. In the second half, we didn’t get a goal, until a freekick from substitute Scott Murray found its way to Gethin Jones, who was tackled by Lee Baker which accidentally put the ball into the back of his own net. In what I felt was a painful turn of events, was the fact that Glyn Garner ended up injured when we had used all three of our substitutes, resulting in Steven Howarth, having to go in goal for injury time, and he only had to worry about one shot, which went wide of the post. With our 3rd win of the season and 3rd in a row, we moved up to 6th and were now only goal difference off the playoffs and 3 points off top of the table, times were good at Bath City.

Blue Square Premier – 01/09/12
Bath 1 – 0 Newport
Baker og (76) |
15 Shots 3
6 On Target 0
44% Possession 56%
0 Yellow Cards 1
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – Christopher Jones (Bath)

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The next game was against newly promoted Hinckley, who has yet to pick up a win in their 5 games so far this season and currently in a poor looking 22nd position. However, Jason Dodd told us that we must respect Horne to the best of our abilities, or we could find ourselves paying the price later. I took note of his concerns. The media saw our good form or 3 straight wins and decided that we would end up being in a really good position to get a 4th straight win. Who am I to deny this chance?

For the match I made 3 chances, Josh Swann would replace Glyn Garner in goal for his first ever professional appearance at the age of 20 after Glyn’s injury, even though he was fit enough to play again, I wasn’t taking any chances. While 18 year old Jamie Lyden would replace 19 year old Christopher Jones in right-back, Scott Murray would end up replaced Marley Watkins at right-midfield and Sam Whittall ended up replacing Steven Howarth.

In the first half, there really wasn’t much to be excited about if I had to be perfectly honest with you. It was looking pretty dull, again and in the end ended up being goalless. In the second half, things seemed to be dull until Cook hit a challenging effort which forced the keeper to make a fantastic save. We finally took the lead thanks to a goal from Whittall after he had been set up by Alexander McQueen. I jumped in joy as it went in, as we were heading to a 4th straight victory. However things looked a bit troubling when Whittall had to be taken off injured, and we had once again had used all 3 subs by this time. We were going to have to go 14 minutes plus stoppage time with just 10 men, and we paid the price as Kerry equalized with just 4 minutes to go. It ended up being 1-1 and because of an injury we ended up losing our lead that would have taken us into the playoffs. The players could not be blamed for a lack of fortune. However, we remained in 6th, only goal difference off 5th and 3 points off 1st. I still believed that this was good, despite the disappointment of how we lost 2 points.

Blue Square Premier – 04/09/12
Hinckley 1 – 1 Bath
Kerry (86) | Whittall (67)
10 Shots 9
5 On Target 2
49% Possession 51%
1 Yellow Cards 1
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – Gethin Jones (c) (Bath)

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There was a game on after our latest match, Newport County at home against Forest Green Rovers, with Forest Green being able to go up to 5th if they won the match. Newport won the match, 2-0, making sure that both our main rivals stayed in below us in the league (Salisbury and Forest Green). Our next game was against Braintree, a side I fondly remember beating 3-0 in our last encounter in the second to last game of last season, at their ground. We were hoping to once again cause them to feel uncomfortable, since they were in 17th and we were in 6th, and also as the media had made us the favourites for the match.

For the match I made I made 5 chances, Dean Bouzanis had returned from international duty, where he annoyingly didn’t even play a single day, while Josh Swann was dropped altogether. Christopher Jones replaced Jamie Lyden, who was dropped to allow Colin Stevenson to take his place on the bench. Marley Watkins returned to take Scott Murray’s place, while Steven Howarth replaced Sam Whittall, who was dropped to allow Lee Phillips to take his place on the bench. Paul Stonehouse was also set to make his 50th career league appearance for Bath.

In the first half, nothing much really happened, except for some efforts from Braintree, one that they should have scored, however just before half time, Marks gave Braintree the lead. In the second half, Marley Watkins scored to make it 1-1 with his 1st goal of the season and we still had time to get a winner, we could do this! After Cook won a free kick by diving, Russell ended up scoring from it with a great strike from 35 yards to make it 2-1. Watkins in the end made it 3-1 with his second of the game on a rebound, after having hit the post with his first effort. It could have been 3-2, had their player taken the chance well enough. Cook made sure of the points when he made it 4-1 near the end of the match. The match ended up being 4-1 and because of this, we moved up to 4th place in league and two points off of 1st place, on the same day that England destroyed Moldova 7-0 in the World Cup Qualifiers. Colin Stevenson also made his debut from the bench today, while Gethin Jones praised my words that got us to score 4 goals in the second half. Who would have thought it?

Blue Square Premier – 08/09/12
Bath 4 – 1 Braintree
Watkins (63, 82), Russell (68), Cook (90+1) | Marks (45)
8 Shots 5
5 On Target 3
51% Possession 49%
2 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – Marley Watkins (Bath)

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Before the next game against newly promoted Nuneaton, Fleetood were at home against Barrow, this was important, for Fleetwood could go top with a win, which would demote us to 5th place and be 3 points off 1st position. Fleetwood did end up winning and we dropped to 5th as they climbed back up to 1st, oh well. Before our next game, which was against newly promoted Nuneaton, we managed to sign 19 year old Alex Pritchard on a free transfer, who was available after leaving Tottenham, he has potential to be a decent signing for a Championship side, can’t blame me for signing him now, especially since he was already better than our best centre midfield, Alexander McQueen, who also came from Tottenham. Now, Nuneaton has had a good run of 3 straight victories and they include 3 clean sheets. There was no doubt that their confidence is going to be high, however, we’re on a run of 5 games without defeat and the media made us the favourites for the match for a reason. At least, that’s how I feel anyway.

For the changes that I have made for the game, there were really only 3, and that was putting Alex Pritchard in the team to replace Alex Russell, who dropped to the bench, while Marc Canham was dropped from the squad altogether, while Sam Whittall made his return to the bench replacing Lee Phillips. Alex Pritchard was prepared to make his first professional appearance of his career.

In the first half there were some chances, but not enough to make it an interesting game though. In the second half, we were rewarded a penalty when Simon Grand fouled Steven Howarth in the box, giving Cook the chance to score from the spot, which he took. Whittall had a chance to score, but put it over. Glover had a chance to equalize, only to put it over when presented with the great chance. Unfortunately Russell got injured in stoppage time, but we still got the 1-0 win, which moved us up to 3rd, and we moved above Fleetwood as they lost to Kidderminster, who moved up to 2nd, with Aldershot in 1st. We were now 2 points clear of 6th place and 2 points off 1st position. This was quickly turning into a season that we could feel like loving.

Blue Square Premier – 15/09/12
Nuneaton 0 – 1 Bath
| Cook (pen 52)
4 Shots 12
1 On Target 4
44% Possession 56%
1 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – John Young (Bath)

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As the side that is currently in 3rd place, I couldn’t help but feel like something’s missing, even though that this is the best I have ever done and potentially the best that Bath have done in years, there was a slight worry for us. We were at least £300K in debt and at times, I had the right to feel worried, especially now that we are seeing loses every month now. However, we couldn’t allow doubt to dig its way into our minds, especially now. The club’s highest ever position was 4th in the Blue Square Premier in the 1984/85 season. We are currently 3rd and 2 points off Aldershot and Kidderminster, the top 2, if we do well enough, we could end up being the team to beat, by getting to the top of the table. For our match against York City, the media made the home side the slight favourites, but we weren’t going to let that stop us.

There were no chances that had been made for this game.

In the first half at Bootham Crecent Blair gave York the lead early on, due to some bad defending from a long pass. Gethin Jones had a great chance to make it 1-1, but missed it, as did Cook with several chances. It ended up being 1-0 at half time, even after a lot of pressing from us. In the second half, we seemed to be stopping attacking as much, until I demanded some more attacking from them. Cook ended up winning us a penalty after he was fouled my Rory McKeown, this gave Russell who had come on from the bench the chance to score from the spot, a chance which he took. John Young could have made it 2-1 had he directed his header into the clear space that he had access to heading his header into. Christopher Jones got injured near the end, but we still had a 1-1 score line. This result meant that we would drop into 5th place, 4 points away from top of the table Kidderminster and only 1 point clear of 6th place newly promoted Eastleigh.

Blue Square Premier – 22/09/12
York 1 – 1 Bath
Blair (15) | Russell (pen 74)
12 Shots 12
5 On Target 2
54% Possession 46%
2 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – Matty Blair (York)

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After avoiding defeat at the hands of York and taking 4 points from a possible 6 in the 2 games away from home, we were finally back at home facing off against Telford, who is currently sitting in 18th of the table. The media rightfully in my eyes declared that we were the comfortable favourites for the game and we were looking for our 6th win of the season to get us onto 21 points in just 10 games and to potentially sneak into 2nd place. Especially when 3rd placed Aldershot was hosting 1st placed Kidderminster and 6th placed Eastleigh was hosting 2nd placed Fleetwood. A perfect chance to cause a few people to be upset, even if 4th placed Shrewsbury was going up against 21st placed Hinckley.

We made a few changes going into this match, with Scott Murray replacing Samir Bihmoutine as Marley Watkins moved to the left and Stonehouse moved back into the left back position that Bihmoutine normally occupied. Jamie Lyden replaced Christopher Jones, who was dropped altogether to let Colin Stevenson to come onto the bench, Alex Russell replaced Alex Pritchard and finally Sam Whittall replaced Steven Howarth.

In the first half Whittall had a great chance to score, only to put it just wide of the post when he probably should have scored. However, Whittall made up for his earlier miss by giving us the lead with a good effort at the near post. At halftime it finished 1-0. In the second half Telford had a penalty appeal turned down. After coming on from the bench, Howarth almost made it 2-0 but was just wide. John Young headed just over as well, only inches away from making it 2-0. The match ended up finishing 1-0, but it was a poor match in the end. That result allowed us to go up 4th, after Aldershot were beaten 2-0 by Kidderminster.

Blue Square Premier – 25/09/12
Bath 1 – 0 Telford
Whittall (34) |
10 Shots 7
2 On Target 1
45% Possession 55%
1 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
MoM – John Young (Bath)

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Going into the next game as the side with the joint best defence, a title that we hold along with our rivals Forest Green Rovers, I could quite honestly say that I was proud to be the Bath City manager at the moment. Our next game was against Lincoln City, the first ever club that I had been linked with the managerial role for. However, I was once again looking for revenge against the side that had beaten us twice last year, once when I was in charge and once before I was even in charge. Victory against Lincoln will feel really, really sweet.

There had been changes, but it was changed back to the side that drew at York, my strongest side if I must say.

In the first half we hit the crossbar, while Christopher Jones had to clear the ball off the line to keep it at 0-0. However, Lincoln to my horror took the lead when the ball hit the back of Christopher Jones, who clearly didn’t know anything about it. Then Steven Howarth was injured and had to be taken off by a stretcher with what appeared to be a serious looking injury. It was suddenly made 2-0 by Fuseni, before Cook made it 2-1 with an amazing goal moments later. The first half unfortunately ended 2-1 to Lincoln. In the second half, Gethin Jones gave away a penalty and was sent off for being the last man back and denying a goal scoring opportunity. Christophe had the chance to score from the spot and blasted it into the top corner, making it 3-1. However, we weren’t going to give up and Whittall hit the post, and if Cook had been slightly quicker, would have scored the rebound. In the end, it finished 3-1 to Lincoln, meaning that I had suffered 2 defeats in a row against Lincoln, and had lost for the first time in 9 games. However, despite this result, we remained in 4th place and were still only 4 points off top of the table Kidderminster, who had lost to Alfreton. This just upset me more, as I realized that we could have been just 1 point off top and in 3rd place. Alexander McQueen had also ended up becoming injured during the match with a damaged elbow, meaning that he was to be out for 2-3 weeks.

What a disappointing end to what had otherwise been a great month.

Blue Square Premier – 29/09/12
Bath 1 – 3 Lincoln
Cook (40), G.Jones s/o (53) | C. Jones og (16), Fuseni (39), Christophe (pen 54)
8 Shots 6
5 On Target 2
42% Possession 58%
1 Yellow Cards 1
1 Red Cards 0
MoM – Jamie Cook (Bath)

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My record so far: P41 W23 D6 L12 GF61 GA44 GD+17 WR56%
My record with Bath so far: P41 W23 D6 L12 GF61 GA44 GD+17 WR56%

justplayingitcool, Alcatraz, The Rock 13, jackknife, YidArmy617, ho1mesy2011, Burton Boy, CatchFire, tangofanta, J_ames, Jakeyd, Chin2112, BH88, Patrick

Like I said before if you don't want me to link your name, just say.

Also, I hope you like the newly improved chapter for 25 and Still Jobless, it's now got a lot of comments (even through a flame war which I may have accidentally caused), but still, I am really happy that it's become somewhat noticed now.