After the promotion to League One £350.000 was invested to improve the youth facilities, a huge investment yet again for the club, but nevertheless something that hopefully will take the academy to the next level. There where some transfers this season as well, with several players leaving on a free and a new club record transfer fee received. Transfers out: Slav Huk – Povazska Bystrica – £12,5K James Dickson – Free Transfer Nicky Wheeler – Free Transfer Josh Wilson – Free Transfer Transfers in: Dom Plank – Wolves – Free Transfer Dom Plank returns to the club after his scholarship at Wol ..read more

After turning it around when it looked over and out against Leyton Orient, we now find ourselves in the playoff final. Our opponents in the final are Chesterfield, who also got promoted from National League last season through the playoffs. No matter the outcome, the winner will get back-to-back promotions and go from the National League to League One in two seasons. A possible fairytale ending for both teams. Chesterfield often plays in a 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot in front of the defence and a vicious front four led by top scorer and striker Kabongo Thsimanga. This season, he scored 29 goal ..read more

Welcome back to the second half of season two with Dorking Wanderers. Even though we were predicted to finish last in the league, we were top of the table going into the new year. That changed quickly in January when the players looked like they still were on vacation. The first game of the new year started great, with a goal from Ryan Seager giving us the lead against Bradford City after three minutes of play. In the second half, we tasted our own medicine when Bradford equalised four minutes into injury time. A horrible feeling to give the win away so late in the game, but I guess you win ..read more

With the surprising promotion last season, several significant changes occurred before the players returned for pre-season. First, the club is now professional, and every player and staff member needs to be handed new contracts to get the most out of a professional setup. That affects the financial side of things with a much higher wage budget than ever before. No matter how you look at it, that’s the price to pay when you want to have a professional club and climb the leagues. The expansion of Meadowbank was finished in March, and only two months later, another expansion started to meet the r ..read more

As you can see below the my first youth intake was far better than I could’ve expected and simply exceptional. With five elite talents and three top talents the future looks bright. While there are several players with high potential here, the one that stands out and everyone are talking about is Alex Chudy. The young attacking midfielder shows real potential, and is already close to the first team. He’s already our best penalty taker, got good technique and what I like most of all is his determination and off the ball attribute. Without a doubt a player who’s mature above his age, a ..read more

With the project I’ve set out for being an academy challenge, the first season won’t be the most important one when it comes to involving youth in the first team. Therefore, I decided to play through it without going into too much debt on the blog. However, many things happen during the season, and I will give you an update. When the season started in August, we won our first-ever games in the National League by beating Chesterfield 2-1 and Oldham 2-0. The first one after a brace from Alfie Rutherford and a goal each for Rutherford and Ryan Seager against Oldham, an excellent start for the st ..read more

Welcome back to the third post in this blog series. If you missed the introduction posts you can find them here. As described in the opening post, the aim of this save is a Youth Academy Challenge. Unfortunately, with a club at this level, there is a lack of youth and reserve players in the game, so in a desperate try to fill the waiting time for FM23 with some FM-related things to do, I decided to research the youth and reserves players on my own. I tried contacting various people around the club to get hold of information. However, I’m still waiting for someone to answer my enquiries. Howev ..read more

Why Dorking, you ask? My love for this beautiful football club started in FM20 when I did a challenge with a friend during a lockdown. We picked a club each in the National League South, and the race to the Premier League was on. While I didn’t quite make it that time, and my friend made it all the way with his Dulwich Hamlet side, a seed was sawn, and the fascination for the club started to grow. Fast forward to last summer when I had started blogging my saves, and the decision for last year’s save fell on Dorking again. I wanted to do something great with this club that I couldn’t do the las ..read more

After falling in love with this beautiful club through FM22 and Bunch Of Amateurs on YouTube, I enjoyed blogging and playing with them last year. If you want to read the blog, you can find it here. I had decided on doing a Youth Academy save for FM23 and set some strict criteria before I found the right club. When I ordered plain tickets to visit Dorking and see them live in March last week, the club for the save was pretty much decided. It might not be the variety in clubs regular FM bloggers have, but in the end, it’s how I want to play the game that matters. The blog last year was unfortun ..read more