Good luck with getting that keeper!

Tick that one off. Now just need to overcome my own incompetence.....

Just over the halfway point seems a good time to reflect on the season so far.

League - despite our own inconsistency we're still in the promotion mix, although that could be said about pretty much every other side in D3. Only Dorchester seem capable of stringing together more than one good performance a session, although even they've stuttered in recent weeks and Wycombe seem to have become the form side. Midtable still feels like the most likely outcome.

Cups - whipping boys in the FA Cup, AP Cup and Youth Cup, but seem to have found some form from somewhere for the Shield. A semi-final in my first year exceeds expectations. I'm not expecting to go any further given Weston's quality but who knows in a one-off? But even if I manage to fluke that one, there's little chance of winning Bristol's first ever major trophy given the two top sides in the other semi.

Team - securing Luke Reynolds was the strategic objective for the year. His inconsistency hasn't endeared him to the Ashton Gate faithful yet, but the manager insists he's one for the future and will be a cornerstone of next year's title challenge. The fans don't look convinced...

I am almost tempted to swap Dominic Hall for Reynolds to ensure you lose to me in the Shield. I don´t know what has befallen my keeper this year. too many pies, drugs and bribes - take your pick. Your fans will l,love him.

It's going to be quite a match up - your GK can't save anything, and my strikers can't hit a barn door from 6 yards out!

So the end of my first year and I think I can safely say I exceeded my expectations both in the knock out competitions and the league.

The Shield run came to an end in the Semis despite home advantage and the liberal use of GPPs. Luck wasn't on my side but I can't really complain because I should really have lost to Crewe in the QFs. It was good to see Vick go on and win the competition but it did leave me with a feeling of what might have been. I think it might be a long time before I get another opportunity as a good as this one to win the Robins first ever silverware.

Second place and promotion from D3 would have been beyond my wildest dreams at the start of the season, but by the end I was disappointed not to snatch the title from under Andy's nose. Early season form cost me - particularly being the only team to drop points at home to Wycombe. However, the back nine games with Luke Reynolds in goal was pretty impressive. A very unlucky loss to Derby apart, six wins and two draws was an excellent return for the second half of the season.

I definitely learned a few things on the way too. First, read the rules properly. It was a few sessions in before I realised I could play my top GK in three games per session without losing FIT. Second, playing a SW is not the necessity it is in most United games. I still haven't got my head round the implications of this yet, but it adds an amazing tactical complexity I have only just scratched the surface of. Finally, the percentage based approach to turning attacks into shots and then goals means that no result is a given and freak outomes seem to happen quite regularly. I had some incredibly good luck in games I wasn't trying to get a result from aswell as the reverse. In future I will not be writing off any games completely.

Oh, and I followed Al's advice of looking at hiw members of the Evil Empire play the game. I definitely noticed a couple of things that they do - one strategic and one tactical - that very few other teams appear to do. I shall give both ideas a whirl next year...