[FM24] [EN] LLM - The Oldest Club in the World - A Carlos Dolbeth Adventure

[Burkina2008]

February 14th, 2025 - Is the worst over?

 

2025 started with some injuries and some bans as well as a new face in the team. As was expected, Dolbeth was not happy with the left and right backs and there was a lack of central midfielders after the Hodgkinson abandoning the club a month ago. At Hyde, Zico Asare the new right back, coming from Maidenhead but without club since the summer, made his premature debut, but Hyde United playing home and with a new coach took home the win mostly due to the inability of the visitors to score. Despite the negotiations in the background the first home game in the Home of Football on a tough fixture against 6^th placed Worksop, there were no new faces…but this time very dramatic win was achieved with Pennant scoring at the 93’ minute. Now there was a bit of a dilemma…the next game was for the local cup and there was this point of discord as Dolbeth clearly did not favor the competition while the board wanted to win the cup.

It was all resolved at a diner table and Sheffield did field the strongest team possible on a frozen pitch against Stamford, but despite the dominance the game went into penalties and Sheffield was out…Dolbeth said leaving the field “Well, it was not meant to be…” with a mixture of a smile and a wink. Back to full focus on the league, the next game against saw the second new face arriving at the club left back Harrison Dunk that left Cambridge United, after 13 seasons at the club, as well as the extension of the loan of our goalkeeper Luke Hewitson. The game itself was a rather dull affair and a lucky win who did not convince Carlos, given the next two fixtures against the 1^st and 2^nd placed teams in the league, with whom Sheffield had lost on both occasions in the first round.

Radcliffe sitting on top of the table and playing home was the most difficult game of the season and in all honesty in the end it came down to conversion of the chances…2-1 for the home team a very unfair result. Sheffield F.C was really struggling with attack and the next game with 2^nd placed Leek Town was a poster for exactly that, our boys were the best team and had two goals disallowed only to concede the last minute. It could only get better but at this point of the season there were too many games against high table opponents, so the win against Farsley and the draw against Basford United, sitting 6^th in the table were not seen as bad results. For the previous two games, Dolbeth also managed to bring the veteran Matty Lund to cover the depth on the midfield area. Still 14 games to go and despite having lost ground to the top, there was a 7-point cushion to the non-playoff spots and the theoretically most complicated games were now behind!

 

Cronica Leonina!

Sempre a mesma coisa...chega o Natal e parece que deixaram de saber jogar a bola! Primeiro jogo do ano e pimba empate em casa com aqueles marroquinos do Farense. Com os morcões tumba derrota por 0-2 em casa e depois de perdermos uma taca das caricas com o Braga, voltamos a perder pontos com eles no jogo a seguir…já vamos em 3º, ainda falta muito campeonato, são apenas 3 pontos e ainda temos a Europa, mas já estamos a patinar! Acordem meninos!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[Banks29]

A equipa perdeu um bocadinho o norte mas continua na luta pela subida, é preciso subir de nível nos próximos jgoos.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de Banks29, Em 18/03/2025 at 03:43:

A equipa perdeu um bocadinho o norte mas continua na luta pela subida, é preciso subir de nível nos próximos jgoos.

Sem duvida!

[Burkina2008]

March 21st, 2025 - Not always fair

 

Since Sheffield was in the top 5 with two thirds of the league games played, the expectation from the fans was more than just getting a mid-table finish and more and more in the tune of achieving a playoff spot. The next few games against some “weaker” opponents would tell how realistic this was. It could not have been better against Bamber Bridge away, without any injuries or suspensions and after the initial 15 minutes, when the home team managed to score, it was all Dolbeth’s team finishing the game with 1-3, which could easily have been 1-4 or 1-5. Next team on their path was relegation battle contenders Ilkeston town and the boys bottled it there, similar to the game at Bamber Bridge, Sheffield started out slow and soon were losing by 2-0…the problem was that this time, despite a good dominance, Dolbeth’s boys only managed to score once, leaving 3 important points on the table, against a weaker opponent.

Dolbeth was furious after that game but 4 days later the team answered very positively with a 0-5 thrashing of Lancaster City in one of the best games of the season. At this point the top 5 seemed more and more certain as the gap to the 6^th place was now a full 9 points…but remembering the end of last season, we really had to wait and see. The beginning of March saw the boys travelling to Whitby for another expected win…and it was a difficult one after starting well and being 0-2 in front, it was only Dawson, making us remember the good old days that from the bench scored the winning strike for a 2-3 win. Unfortunately, in the following game, which should have also resulted in a win, not even Dawson was able to save Sheffield from another unfortunate loss of 2 points.

In a month with 6 games, the team started feeling the long season and some injuries here and there started having some impact in the last 20-15 minutes of the game, that was clearly visible in a slim win against Liversedge by 2-1. After so many games with the bottom half of the table teams and still in 5th place, against Marine sitting second in the league, a better exhibition was needed at the Home of Football if Sheffield wanted to grab the 3 points. And the boys clearly came out to shine on this one, especially in the first half, the dominance was complete to beat a team fighting for the title for an outstanding 5-0. Despite the good run with 7 games for the end of the season, Dolbeth and his boys were still in 5^th place. If the playoffs were almost a certainty, the title seems to be a mirage although looking at the xG and theoretical points table Sheffield would be 2^nd and “only”2 less than 5 points away from Leek Town and two more than the league leaders Radcliff. Who said football was fair?

Cronica Leonina!

Aí estes empates fora. Casa Pia e Rio Ave não pode acontecer! Ainda estamos na corrida e são apenas 3 pontos até aos morcões, mas os próximos 9 jogos são todos finais. Na Europa mantemos o nível e fomos a Espanha comer os caramelos do Osasuna…agora temos uma equipa dos Vikings! Para ganhar!!!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[cadete]

Football can be cruel...mas os playoffs estão à vista. Ai os empates do Sporting.

[LUIZ CESAR]

O Sheffield até que está indo bem e no momento, dentro dos playoffs. Tem que manter.

[jacoslacon]

Nada mau para um radialista de 70 anos. A grande dúvida será até que idade aguentará ele treinar. 😁 

[Banks29]

Diria que a chance do play-off está certa mas ainda faltam jogos e todo o cuidado é pouco.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 19/03/2025 at 13:31:

Football can be cruel...mas os playoffs estão à vista. Ai os empates do Sporting.

Acho que mesmo assim vao existir varias supresas

Citação de LUIZ CESAR, há 20 horas:

O Sheffield até que está indo bem e no momento, dentro dos playoffs. Tem que manter.

Espero que sim

Citação de jacoslacon, há 7 horas:

Nada mau para um radialista de 70 anos. A grande dúvida será até que idade aguentará ele treinar. 😁 

Acho que pelo menos ate aos 100...

Citação de Banks29, há 5 horas:

Diria que a chance do play-off está certa mas ainda faltam jogos e todo o cuidado é pouco.

Sem duvida!

[Burkina2008]

April 27th, 2025 - 7 finals and a thrilling end

 

Dolbeth was very aware of the term that Scolari and then Fernando Santos coined in the long runs of the Portuguese national teams in international competitions…adapted to Sheffield F.C., the team had 7 finals to play and if they were to pull a league win miracle, they would also need support from the other teams to beat Radcliffe. The first game of these “finals” was an easy one, or at least the boys made it look easy. Against 17^th placed Workington it was a one-direction affair and the 5-1 was a fair result. Next at home, the last place and virtually relegated Warrington Rylands should have been a similar result but despite a similar domination as in the last game, the boys were not able to score one single goal and with 5 finals to go, it was now a 6 points difference to the top.

April began with the fifth final was at Nantwich Town, against a team trying to get out of the relegation zone. The home team was out of luck and Sheffield won with ease by 0-4 and with Lund scoring a hattrick. Better than this, the teams at the top had all lost points and now with the playoffs mathematically secure, it was “only” 3 points difference to the top. 3 days later, another final, this time in the Home of Football against 14th place Morpeth Town without much to play for. Sheffield needed the win and again they were the better team but could not score despite a close to 3.0 xG. Basically, this defeat made the dream of direct promotion a lost miracle. Still there were 3 games to be played prior to the playoffs and the morale needed to be kept high.

The last 3 games were supposed to be solely for getting the points, maintaining form and preparing for the playoffs, starting with a result that was better than the exhibition against Matlock Town but that result and the fact that all teams seemed to be losing points, saw Sheffield at half-time while winning in the following match against as virtually second placed, just one point away from the leaders Radcliffe who were having an even worse end of the season than our boys in the previous game. It ended up being a draw and although mathematically possible Sheffield needed to win the last game of the regular season away at Guiseley, which they did in a 3-4 thriller and wait for all 3 teams above on the table to lose their games. It was not meant to be and Bradford Park Avenue ended up stealing the last spot in the last game on a very very tight table.

 

Cronica Leonina!

São sempre as pequenas coisas…no campeonato aqueles empates contra os Casa Pias da vida fazem com que a 4 jornadas do fim e apesar de menos 1 jogo, estejamos praticamente fora do campeonato, já que o Porto tem 8 pontos de avanço. Depois deste último jogo em Portimão, quase que ia partindo o televisor. Va la que na Europa estamos nas meias-finais, vencemos os Vikings sem problemas e agora temos os turcos onde jogava o Quaresma. Outro traidor! Que seja ano de Europa e que pelo menos fiquemos a frente dos lampiões!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[cadete]

Foi mesmo por um danoninho esta, que cena. Fica sempre aquela de "ah se não empatasse este jogo ou o árbitro não roubasse naquele...". Mas bora lá aos playoffs.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 22/03/2025 at 02:06:

Foi mesmo por um danoninho esta, que cena. Fica sempre aquela de "ah se não empatasse este jogo ou o árbitro não roubasse naquele...". Mas bora lá aos playoffs.

Pois fica, mas 'e vida. Venham os playoffs!

[Burkina2008]

May 30th, 2025 - Glorious Playoffs

 

Third place in the table and in this league the playoffs were only played in a single game. The draw saw Sheffield F.C. playing Radcliffe, the team that led the league all the way till the last game and who managed to lose it all after only making 4 points in the last 7 games. This is where Dolbeth, was expecting to hit Radcliffe given that Sheffield was growing in form. With all the players available, our boys also had the home advantage, and they took it, by scoring right in the first minute and continue the pounding on Radcliffe. Unfortunately, and despite the dominance, the half-time result was still 1-0. But then in their first shot at goal, Radcliff drew the game at the beginning of the second half and although the game did not change it was only in the 79^th minute that Mintus scored his second goal to put an end to the match and take our boys to the Playoff final!

In the final and somehow surprisingly Sheffiled F.C. kept the home advantage as favorites Marine had lost in extra time at home against our adversaries tonight, Leek Town. It was team with whom the boys had lost both league games, but this was an all-or-nothing game and again with a full fit team, the words from Dolbeth entering the game were clear “Its not if we want to win or can win. We will win. Period”. It seems that the boys heard it loud and clear and entered the field dominating still if like in the semi-final game, the goals did not seem to fall…until the second half where after 1 minute Sheffield F.C. was leading and they never looked back to make it a very fair 3-0 result in the end and achieve a promotion that 2 months away was completely out of the map! In the end, it was really a truly great display of attack during the season, and this is visible on the individual awards where Mintus and Billam shined above everyone else

No time like now, the day after the final, Dolbeth sat down with the board to negotiate professionalism for the team. It was a “no” for now but a promise for next year if the maintenance was a success! With the objective set for next season, it was back to the drawing board and the announcement of renewals of Mintus, Billam and Lund were all well received by the fans. At the same time, it was also a sad time, to see an historic and important player like David Dowson to retire. It was not forgotten in his last training the importance he had to the team in 2023/24. But of course, besides players leaving, there were announcements of new faces for next season, starting with Jack Barrett, coming out of Canada for the goal to substitute Hewitson who was going back to his club after a successful loan. Also announced already this month were the signings of backup 36-year-old midfielder Sean McConville and left back Reece Devine!

 

Cronica Leonina!

Aquela derrota ainda por cima em casa com os lampiões deitou tudo a perder…pelo menos o campeonato e não fosse a Europa estaria aqui hoje a pedir a cabeça do Amorim e do Varandas, mas enfim…a vitoria na Conference acaba por ser mais importante do que isto tudo e quando vencemos os turcos la, sabia que estávamos na final. A final com o United essa ninguém esperava que conseguíssemos vencer ainda por cima na Polonia. Tivemos algum chouriço, tivemos sim, mas nunca estivemos a perder e no final chega o segundo caneco europeu da nossa história e foi tudo para o Marques!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[jacoslacon]

Parabéns pela promoção. Um degrau já está. Venha a próxima subida! 👏

[cadete]

Aqueles playoffs que tanto adoras. Foram mesmo gloriosos. E grande Sporting a nível europeu.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de jacoslacon, Em 24/03/2025 at 11:07:

Parabéns pela promoção. Um degrau já está. Venha a próxima subida! 👏

Venham elas!

Citação de cadete, Em 24/03/2025 at 14:24:

Aqueles playoffs que tanto adoras. Foram mesmo gloriosos. E grande Sporting a nível europeu.

O Sporting nunca pensei!

[Burkina2008]

August 4th, 2025 - Endless Embargo Summer

 

There were signs still while all the players were on vacations, that something important was about to happen…or Dolbeth would not have interrupted his vacation to come to Sheffield at the beginning of June. One first thing that was announced to the cheer of the supporters was that Dawson, a club symbol, would continue his career at Sheffield F.C. as a scout. But it was with a mixed feeling that Richard Tims announced that the club supporters wanted to take control of the fans, and the negotiation would mean that exactly during the transfer window in the summer, there would be an embargo on the transfer market. Dolbeth initially was “fine” with the situation but when we entered July, and the situation was still a standstill there were rumors that the coach would quit and go back to Portugal.

In the meantime, and with a team composed of only 15 players including a few youth ones, Dolbeth started preparing the boys for an upcoming season in a division where professionalism was already present and where a fight for escaping relegation seemed to be the only path. It was something of a hard and tumultuous pre-season with some inconsistent results and most of all, very unconvincing performances all the way till the last two games against weaker opponents. So it was with a big joy that on the 21^st of July was announced that the club had been sold to the fans and the new chairman Paul Williams quickly lifted the embargo. With less than 3 weeks left to the first league game, the targets had been identified long ago, and soon new faces joined the team…

McGuckin and Phuthi arrived from the parent clubs of Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday, one for the attack and the other for the right back. Soon also from Coventry came another central back, Callum Perry as well as a free transfer Jordan Moore-Taylor to the same position, which was by far the most urgent one to fill. Another free transfer, Tom Leak, again to the central back position but more as a reserve player, making it now a priority to reinforce the wings on the attack. Far from optimal this pre-season in anyone’s opinion, but tomorrow the boys need to out and give their best…another factor this season with Sheffield being surprisingly tipped to get to the middle of the table, is that the Home of Football stadium was now too small for the competition, so the team will play at home this year in another field which was also be renamed as Home of Foottball

 

 

Cronica Leonina!

Estiveram melhor do que o Sheffield F.C. no defeso até agora, já que conseguiram contratar jogadores que parecem bons jovens, especialmente aquele Stanisic que vem do Bayern e apenas venderam um jogador semi-titular que também não estava a fazer nada…o Edwards deve passar a vida na noite! Mas depois também nos amigáveis não mostraram nada…4 jogos apenas e com umas equipas que ninguém conhece…uma que se chama Retro. Enfim fica o bom resultado na Corunha!

 

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[cadete]

The boys are ready and the transfer market was good enough, in my point of view. Love stadiums like that one and have to say that Sporting also did well in the transfer market.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 26/03/2025 at 15:17:

The boys are ready and the transfer market was good enough, in my point of view. Love stadiums like that one and have to say that Sporting also did well in the transfer market.

Ui agora ate temos respostas internacionais!

[Burkina2008]

Septmeber 12th, 2025 - No chemistry

 

On the first official game of the season, Sheffield F.C. team was still waiting for a couple of more new players, but on the starting 11 there were already 7 different new faces, with the goalkeeper and all the back 4 being completely new. Lund was also playing in the right wing which was unusual. Away in Wales at Merthyr Town the most important thing was not to lose and after getting in front Sheffield conceded twice and had to grab the draw from behind on an entertaining but not really well played game. Three days later, Sheffield had their first ever home game in the new stadium and with another new face joining the team, right-wing McFadden on loan from Bolton, entering directly in the starting eleven. Both Dolbeth, the new chairman and the players expected a much bigger crowd than the 520 people that came into the new 4000-seater…it was their first ever game in such a high division for more than 100 years and the boys managed to get a slim win over Oxford City.

Another 4 days later, Sheffield hosted Hereford, with Dolbeth telling the press shortly before the start of the game “this is one which I don’t want to lose…come on, they have a cow on their badge!”. And in all honesty, it was a complete dominance from beginning to the end still with the stadium only at 20% of its capacity. At least defensively Sheffield was doing a much better job than in the past seasons with 2 clean sheets in 3 games…it did not last long, in the 4^th league game, a defensive disaster and a heavy defeat by 5-1 at the hands of the league leader South Shields. Nothing worked well in that game, but the boys needed to keep their heads high! King’s Lynn Town at home was also not the best team to make a recover against as they had 4 wins in 4 games and in the end the result was a 0-2 fair defeat in a game where another 2 new faces played although having joined the team only a few days prior – we are talking about Mazwi a left winger from Birmingham and Ajay Matthews, a stricker from Middlesbrough who is being brought in as Pennant decided to leave for Sutton United for 20k.

 

The team had the players, but the new faces were lacking chemistry…and this was clear in the following games. True that 6 points out of 9 was not bad, but especially on defensive level, the boys seemed lost on the field. The situation can only get better now that Dolbeth said that the squad was “closed” at least until the winter break with the departure of Kamga which was one of the poorer performances last season and Tommy Williams who had not played for the main team for more than a year. It was still a team with too many players on loan (7 when only 5 can be used per game) and in need of better defenders, nevertheless the place in the upper half of the table after being promoted was not a bad result for Sheffield F.C. who was now going to play their first cup game of the season.

 

 

Cronica Leonina!

Pois eu vi logo, tinha de haver mãozinha da mafia dos agentes da FIFA…la se foi o ganha pão do Sporting e ainda por cima por uns míseros 43 Milhões de Euros para o Barcelona. Esses gajos não estavam falidos. Estava tudo tao bem, tínhamos equipa para atacar a liga e a Europa League a agora viu se logo pelo primeiro mês, em 4 jogos já perdemos 3 pontos contra aqueles morcões do Major Valentim…não espero nada de bom para 2026!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[cadete]

Gostei muito da estreia na Liga. Fica o cheirinho a playoffs. O inevitável aconteceu e lá foi o Gyokeres.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 30/03/2025 at 04:41:

Gostei muito da estreia na Liga. Fica o cheirinho a playoffs. O inevitável aconteceu e lá foi o Gyokeres.

Tambem gostei mas ainda estamos no inicio!

[jacoslacon]

Ainda falta muito campeonato, mas o começo pelo menos dá a indicação que podes lutar pelos primeiros lugares.

[Banks29]

Será que temos outra chance de subir pelos play-offs

[Burkina2008]

Citação de jacoslacon, há 3 horas:

Ainda falta muito campeonato, mas o começo pelo menos dá a indicação que podes lutar pelos primeiros lugares.

Vai ser complicado

Citação de Banks29, há 2 horas:

Será que temos outra chance de subir pelos play-offs

Era bom era