With survival in the first season of asking, it was time for Burton’s side to actually stamp their mark on this league and push for another promotion. They obviously have the resources to do so and Burton has done well so far in his transfer market. Not many players left from previous season, but why would they? All the players had only just settled into the squad after only spending a year at the club, out mostly were the guys who were pushing over the age of 35 Trevor Sinclair left, so did Colin Cameroon many in search for coaching jobs or just a quiet life with the missus. Instead Terry Burton decided to strengthen the squad and add more depth to the Blue Square Premier side. The first signing of the summer was Thomas Butler, arriving for next to nothing from Wycombe and adding some punch to the midfield. A decent dribbler and crosser and can play both sides of the pitch, should be an interesting buy for this season. Next in was old boy Leon Constantine who has dropped down the leagues after failing to break into the Leeds United side. The final buy before the season started was another striker to add to the huge collection that The Rovers seem to be stacking up, Gary Alexander another ageing player from League One side Millwall came and signed for Ramesses Rovers. The two latter strikers who have come in look in a far better shape then Facey and Dean and should go into the first team straight away as improvements to the side to look for League Two football. In September Terry continued to add to the squad with free transfer signings, 20 year old Nigerian Danny Uchechi arrived as decent backup for the side and one for the future. Terry used his links with Manchester United to find some young players and in comes James Derbyshire, not one of the best young players the Manchester United have produced but will act as squad fodder supporting the midfield. More fodder came in the shape of Welsh keeper Glyn Garner and youngster Oliver Hewitt-Fisher.
Unfortunately The Pharaohs have lost their a few affiliated teams and it was probably my mistake as I check over the squad and who is actually the parent team? Non other then Ramesses Rovers who are seemingly looking after Inter, Barcelona and Ajax. I am sure that they won’t want to lose any of their players to send off to another country and get a taste of the higher leagues, many of the players may come back with nosebleeds the leagues are so high. Maybe that might be one for the future to put back the affiliation for the squad and see if Ramesses can grab some decent young regens.
The season started slowly and as Rovers didn’t look like they had come back of their holidays, two draws at Abu Simbel against Rushden, then at Dagenham and Redbridge and losing to Accrington, but it wasn’t until Ramesses met a familiar club in Kettering that they recorded their first win of the season and that came away from home sparking a win at home to Boston United 3-0 giving the team momentum to start climbing the table once again, playing attacking football there was no shortage of goals beating Southport 4-0 and rarely coming out of a game with less then two, Terry Burton’s playing style really coming through with his side and scoring a 106 goals for the season in total. In first half of the season although Ramesses were able to come out with alot of wins and definitely a looking good for the season improving on the last, Ramesses were hovering around the play offs because even though they were scoring goal, they were also slipping them and coming away with too many drawn games on the record to put up any real challenge. But come the second half of the season the side got a real kick up the backside and putting together a string of wins to push up the league again putting 4 goals past Southport who have come The Egyptians whipping boys and with the final games of the season Ramesses went on an attack putting together 13 wins in a row and scoring 4 goals for 4 consecutive games, with the help mostly of Alexander and Constantine. That was a real boost for the team and fired the club into 2nd place finishing 7 points behind the automatic promotion place which went to Morcambe the only club to score more goal then Ramesses, the season was definitely helped by a fantastic away form finishing 6 points clear at the top if you just took road trips into account, but the side couldn’t finish teams off at Abu Simbel, maybe the side are still trying to make it their home, even when they are playing against 25,156 fans?
But with the league stage over it was down it was down to the lottery of the play offs. First off was an away tie to Accrington a side that had caused problems for Rovers all year and already played 4 games before this one and still yet to win. At The Crown Ground the game was hard, Accrington dominating the play, with good chances they only thing they lacked was the goals. Gary Alexander hit early in a good team move as the midfield moved forward Uchechi who was in for a recovering Constantine, tried popping the ball into the box before it was deflected and was picked up luckily by Butler who hit it onto Gary’s head for the first goal. Lee Grant scored his second goal of the season heading the ball in from a corner to double the lead, John Miles did score in the second half but it wasn’t enough and Alexander scored late as Redmond who was caught out of position, as he pushed himself forward for a late corner the counter attack was quickly on and Gary struck the ball into a open net from 45 yards out. At home Constantine hit two early goals in another close game and John Miles 64th minute goal wasn’t enough in the 5-2 aggregated win. The final was against a side the Rovers had an easier time with this season Dagenham and Redbridge, again on paper Rovers where the worse side, but made the difference when the ball was in the back of the net. Poor positioning by Chris Coyne let Chris Moore take an early lead before Alexander scored late on in the half to equalise and was enough for extra time. As the 2nd 15 minute kicked off some misplaced passes from the Redbridge side proved fatal and from outside the box Gavin Grant struck the ball into the back of the net and securing a move into the professional leagues, The fans sung the name of Terry Burton for sending them up so quickly in this experimental venture.
In the cups first came up was Ramesses first ever entry to the FA cup and it was one to forget, till the next season. Vauxhall Rovers fired 3 past Steven Drench to kick Ramesses Rovers out of the cup before they had even began, maybe this won’t go into the history books that are written on the official basis. The FA Trophy first round placed The Pharaohs up against myfootballclub.net team Ebbsfleet, who recently won this trophy at Wembley in the real world. But against Rovers it wasn’t to be and the side went down 3-0. SI games favourite AFC Wimbledon was next to be disposed of in the January the excellent away form and attacking football transferring into the cups and winning 4-0. Stafford and Dorchester where then easily disposed of before a semi final clash against Accrington and as I have said before, Accrington had come something of a bogey side for The Rovers and a 2-1 result over two legs sent them through to the final only to lose it to super Blue Square side Morecambe. The Satanta shield ended again in the first round of asking, Stevenage squeezed through 1-0 to leave the club with no cup success this season.
The two signings made in the summer were definitely the difference, coming out as the best players of the season, Constantine topping the goal scoring charts with 48 goals and 21 behind him was Alexander who hit 27. The other signing Butler was also a key part of the season and showing as he finished 3rd from the top players and setting up 23 of the goals scored through the season. Terry Burton definitely showed this season he has what it takes to pick the players to succeed and at the back Lee Grant, captain Chris Coyne and Julian Kelly showing not only are they great players now but that they have a great future ahead of them if the club can keep hold of them and them. In only the third season of the game the Rovers have already started reaping the benefits of a great youth system and Neil Simpson a player with the greatest potential in the side broke into the first team playing all season and using his pace and creativity in the middle of the field to assist with 15 goals having a tremendous debut season, the 18 year old is already indispensable to the club signing a new full time contract to keep him at the club till 2012.
But even though success was at the club and the players are looking good for the future, one thing that might force the sale of many of the players is the inevitable bankruptcy of the club. The people in charge of the money again failed to keep the wages bill down and the two new signings Butler and Constantine were earning £102,000 per week between them. Delroy Facey who has now become something of suprless to requirements at the club himself earning still £62,000. Investment did come into the club and in total they earned a good £33 million, but the players are taking the majority of the money out of the club before the Chairmen even sees it. Who makes the decision to pay these players this type of Premiership wage?
The former players continue to perform Sultan Wilson at Aresnal being the cheapest of all the players showing himself worth only £19.25 million, the strikers claiming the most value at £35.5 million. The young players even going as far as changing the look of the Premiership, Tottenham who have three of the players goalkeeper Alya, defender Merill and left winger Conor have helped Ramos’ side to break the the top 4 and finishe 2nd behind Liverpool. But things look very different as Arsenal yet again fail to claim a top four finish and yet again only qualify for Europe through a cup competition. Chelsea will join them in the UEFA cup finishing behind Manchester City in 5th. But overall the players show no sign of being stopped and have totally took over the England side which is due to play in the World Cup in the summer. With only 6 real players still in the squad, Carson, Ferdinand, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney it will be interesting to see if the young side has the mental strength to perform on the biggest stage of all. The CA of a couple of players though has began to fall, Wilson the only 19 year old from the squad to lose a point off his CA, where as age looks to start to have affects on Shafaqut who is down two.
Season Best Eleven
