FM2005: A Virgin Trip into LLM.

[Eaglesfan27]

This may be a short dynasty if I get fired, but unlike my previous dynasties this will not just fade into oblivion.

I will be using FM2005, with the most recent patch 5.02 at this time.

I will be using LLM rules. That means, I will not use FM Scout or any other program to cheat. I will not go after players that my manager would have no chance of knowing about. That is easy to do, since I know NOTHING about conference players, and I doubt EPL players are going to be knocking down my door to come into the conference..


My objective is simple: Work my way up to managing either Manchester United (top preference), Chelsea (second preference), or Arsenal (I've always wanted to manage Henry, and they seem unwilling to part with him for some reason.)

I will likely continue this dynasty for at least several seasons if I make it to any of the teams listed above. I will not take any other jobs unless it is one of the other premiere teams in the game. If I'm fired and don't get offered a job by a "better" team within 1 year of game time, I will retire.

The Leagues that will be included are: England (from Conference North/South all the way up obviously), Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. Only the top leagues in each of those countries will be included. I will consider an intermediate job at one of those teams in a different country in the unlikely event that I'm offered it. However, the ultimate goal will be to get to one of the three teams on my list.

I'll develop my own tactics (could be my downfall right there.) I will not use any downloaded tactics, nor will I likely use any of the default tactics except as a base for my own plans.

I'll start posting some thoughts about my team once the game is done creating the universe.

I forgot an important piece of information. I used the random LLM team picker which assigned me Harrogate Town in the North Conference.

[condors]

good luck

[Eaglesfan27]

Now that I'm manager of this club, it's time to assess what we have. First of all, we are in a precarious financial position. We currently have a little under 50,000 dollars in the bank. We are currently about 300 dollars under our wage budget which is 4,600 dollars/week.

Both the chairman and the press tell me they are expecting us to finish in the top half of the league. However, due to the limited amount of money in the coffers, we have a whopping transfer budget of 0 dollars. However, in a moment of surprising generosity, my chairman tells me we can spend about 75% of whatever transfer money we raise. Of course, I've heard that he might go back on his word..

Not surprisingly, our staff is rather thin on talent and numbers. We have one coach/player who will likely be one of our best players, but I will get to that in a moment. Mark Atkins has had a prestigous career, with tours at Blackburn and for the Wolves being particularly notable. However, he is now here on our team, and I think he might want to replace me one day. He came here for the opportunity to coach as well as play. Clearly, he is a good player even at the age of 35. However, his coaching skills are thin at best. Unfortunately, he is our only coach, and I doubt I will be able to hire more.

Our Physio, Ian Marshall is a real jerk. I hear the players hate him. However, he is a decent physio and will do his best to keep the players in good shape. However, a ratio of 24 full time players (and countless part time players) to 1 physio is not good. I'll be expecting some unfortunate injuries this year, but I can't afford to hire any more physios at this time.

Our one scout, Stuart Lee, is adequate but certainly won't win any awards for his keen eye. However, he is cheap and that is a great quality right now. We certainly can't afford any more scouts at this time. I will have to use a keen eye to watch the games that I can and certainly will be looking to my opposition to see if there is any talent worth poaching. Then again, I won't have the money to poach with unless I sell some of my talent. I guess I better take a look at what I have to work with....

[MizzouRah]

I'm following along.


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

First I'll look at the keepers and defensive players who are currently assigned to the first team:

Paul Pettinger - 28 year old player whose most glorious career moments came for Rotherham in the past. He doesn't appear to be League 2 quality, but he could do well for us. He clearly is the number 1 guy as he appears much more skilled than our other keeper on the roster (which isn't saying much.)

Nick Buxton - 27 year old keeper who is very brave. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can say many other good things about him. He communicates well with his defender, but he has poor reflexes and relatively poor ability at handling one-on-one situations. That being said, he is clearly my second best keeper.

Defenders:

Lennie Curtis is a 31 year old who appears to have a good mental presence on the field. He seems to fight hard, but he has poor technical skills. Than again, so do almost all of the players on my squad. I like his determination, but I wish he was a better tackler. He will likely be a backup on my squad.

Leigh Wood is a 21 year old sweeper/defender/midfielder. I like his versatility. I also like his gifted technical abilities. He could thrive on this level if he applied himself. However, he is too laid back and doesn't seem to work hard enough in practice. I'm worried about his lack of work ethic. Hopefully, some of the veterans can rub off on him. He is one of my highest paid players and one of my higher valued players. I could have some big name buyers for this player if he develops.

Marc Smith is a 19 year old left defender who is young and raw. He has some good physical attributes, but he needs to develop mentally and from a technique view point. He is asking to go on loan to gain some first team experience, but I'm not sure which club could really use his help as he is so raw. He is showing flashes of being a great passer which could be nice for the future.

Mark Barnard is a 28 year old left/center defender who infuriates me in practice with his lack of effort. He is a gifted tackler, and he has good physical ability, but he often looks like he lacks determination on the pitch. I'm going to need to get through to him if he is going to be useful to the team.

Grant Black is a 20 year old right defender/defensive midfielder who also lacks determination at times, but at other times he works hard on the pitch. He has above average abilities for his age, and could be a very important player for us. Despite his laziness at times, his teammates seem to love him and think he is a great team player.

Paul Shepherd is a 26 year old right/center defender/midfielder who has average abilities in most areas. He seems to lack determination (like most of my team) at times, but he can play very well at other times. He seems like he will be an important first team player if I can motivate him properly. He looks like he might be my best penalty kicker in practice.

Richard Dunning is a 23 year old left defender/midfielder whose greatest attributes are his speed (near the best among defensivemen on the team) and his acceleration. His tackling is average, and I could see him getting some playing time but he needs to develop some more skills to be an everyday player likely.

Those are all of my defenders. I'm going to mix and match in the upcoming friendlies to help me decide who my regular starting defenders will be. I really like the versatility of this group and their ability to also play the midfield.

[jbmagic]

i am following along too...

thanks

[Eaglesfan27]

Now onto the midfielders:

Mark Atkins is a relatively poor coach as I mentioned, but he was a top class player in the past, and he still retains skills that will likely allow him to be a star with this calibre of play. He is a 35 year old defensive center midfielder. He is excellent at taking corners (in comparsion to rest of my team.) He is excellent at taking free kicks. He is an adequate passer and an above average tackler. He has wonderful mental attributes in practice. He is constantly fighting hard for the ball. He shows indomitable spirit, and is an example to the other guys on the team. He almost certainly will be the captain on the field when he isn't resting. He still retains adequate pace, but isn't going to burn anyone on the pitch. He still has good stamina and is a good teammate. I feel very fortunate to have him on the pitch. I just hope he doesn't push management to kick me out if things turn bad..

Simon Sturdy is an 18 year old left winger who is very raw. He has potential and might be a good player for us one day, but he is almost certainly going to be a backup for the immediate future.

Andrew Wright is a 25 year old left winger who originally came up through Leeds youth system. He has gradually worked his way down to our calibre of play. However, I truly believe he has the talent to play in League 2 from looking at him in practice. He is quite talented at crossing the ball. He is a good passer. He is a very good tackler. He is good at dribbling the ball. His mental attributes seem great on the pitch. He works hard almost all of the time. His biggest weakness is his relative lack of pace for the wing but he isn't a complete slouch in this department either.

Dominique Krief is a 20 year old center midfielder who came up through the Leeds system. He is very raw technically, but he is almost certainly the fastest man on our roster (and I'd guess one of the fastest in the North Conference.) He also has wonderful determination. Those two things will likely make me overlook his technical shortcomings and give him a chance to learn on the job.

Christian Fox is a 23 year old attacking right winger. He was not used much by the previous manager and is excited by my arrival. I like his skill set. He lacks speed that I'd like to see in a winger, but he is a gifted passer as well as setting up the cross. He works hard and generally seems to make good decisions in practice. He'll get a chance to show me that he can play.

Colin Hunter is a 28 year old Left/Center Attacking Midfielder/Forward who didn't get along with my predecesor and is transfer listed. He has told me he wants to stay at the club. I'm always fascinated with offenses that use a good attacking midfielder. Colin doesn't have the pace that I like to see in the position, but he does have adequate finishing ability that I at least don't want to sell him before I see what he can do. I assure him that he will not be transferred in the immediate future. I'm particularly impressed with Colin's determination and work ethic in practice.

[Eaglesfan27]

Finally my Forward/Strikers

James Turley is a 23 year old forward with EXCELLENT physical attributes. He has wonderful blazing pace. However, he doesn't really have anything else going for him besides his raw physical ability. He shows good concentration at times, but seems lazy at other times. He shows poor team work on the pitch. I expect he will likely end up a backup.

Clayton Donaldson is our only loan player that was here before I arrived. He is from one of my friend's teams, Hull. Clayton is a decent striker, and may potentially dominate at this level. He has good pace, good acceleration, and a decent finishing touch. The thing that I love about this kid is his determination. He fights for goals. I expect him to work hard to get rebounds, and convert them into goals. I expect to use him quite a lot while he is with us on loan.

Andy Farrell is a 20 year old striker who is determined and aggressive. He is young and raw but shows flashes of being a good goal scorer. He will likely get some playing time throughout the year as I want to help him develop.

Justin Jackson is a 29 year old striker who lacks a good scoring touch in practice. He has good pace, and decent mental attributes. He is one of our best at taking penalty shots in practice. I expect him to rotate onto the pitch at times.

Lee Morris is a 17 year old striker who is quite raw still. However, he shows flashes of potential, and I might play him some. However, I expect most of his game time to come for the U18 team. If he develops over the next few years, he could be a big time star for this team down the future (assuming someone doesn't buy him from us.)

I have a few guys in the reserves and U18 team, but I'm going to hold off evaluating them until I have the chance to give these guys some PT in a few friendlies.

[Eaglesfan27]

Looking over my squad, I feel the major strengths are the versatility among the defenders and Mark Atkins at DMC. I think I will likely be implementing 2 or 3 strategies to rotate depending upon the game situation, but my first strategy that I'm developing will be a 4-1-2-1-2. I'm not sure which 4 defenders will play along the back line of the defense yet. I know that Mark will be the main DMC. I'll have each of my wingers playing in front of Mark working mostly wide. I'm going to give Colin Hunter a chance to be my main AMC. Finally, Donaldson will be one of my main strikers with the other guys rotating in/out.

[Eaglesfan27]

Thanks guys for letting me know someone is reading this. Just ask away if you have questions.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok, I just realized a cold harsh reality of managing this club. I have no assistant! I have to do everything myself. Therefore, no one to arrange friendlies. No one to make suggestions in the form of a team report. It's just me and the one coach to evaluate guys.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok. Finally, time for the first friendly. In most careers, I would have been looking for any free transfers by this time. However, I simply can't afford any of the transfers that MIGHT come to me. Furthermore, I'm going to be relying on what my scouts tell me or guys that I see in action before I'll consider them.


So, my first friendly is against Stockport (League 1) which should be quite the challenge for my team. It is on their pitch. I'll be starting my best 11 that I envision being my primary top 11 against my conference opponents. We'll see how it goes.

The starting 11:

At DL: Mark Barnard - I decided to give him the start due to his excellent tackling ability. I might regret this as he gets lazy in practice, but I'm going to see what he can do.

DR: Grant Black - His potential excites me, and he is about equal in ability to the other options at this position right now. Hopefully, he can overcome his occasional laziness.

DC: Leigh Wood - He has some great technical abilities already, and could be a valuable commodity if he develops. I need to try to play him to develop him.

DC: Paul Shepherd - He gets the edge over a few other candidates because of his penalty taking skills. It will be odd to have a defender as a main penalty shot taker, but he is the best on the team. He is also a decent defender.

DMC: Mark Atkins - Easy choice.

ML: Andrew Wright is an easy choice as well on the left wing. One of my most balanced players I think.

MR: Christian Fox - a tougher choice for the right wing. His decent crossing wins him the job for now.

AMC: I'm fascinated by Colin Hunter the more I look at him. The more I look at him, the more I like his aggressiveness, determination, and dribbling ability..

SC: Clayton Donaldson - easy choice as he is my highest quality striker. Too bad he is only on loan..

SC: Tough choice but I went with Turley due to his blazing pace. None of my other strikers are particularly good passers or possessing the ability to otherwise set up Donaldson, but at least this guy might create something with his speed..

Time to start my first match (always an exciting time even if it is a friendly.)

[MizzouRah]

What is pitch? (home field)

Also, a friendly match is different than what? A team from another league?

Thanks,

Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

All 72 fans (I was mistaken it was a home game - but the fans left early at the 60 minute mark) that showed up this friendly were treated to quite the show! Unfortunately, it was the opposition that was providing the show. Luke Beckett started despite his star status on this team. This scrappy striker, scored two quick goals at the 19 and 22 minute marks. Warren Feeney added a goal at the 45 minute mark for the winning score 3-0 Stockport.

Other negatives include James Turley being injured. Hopefully, it won't be too serious as we are going to verge on being shorthanded all year long and can't really afford any injuries.

On the bright side, Atkins, Fox, Wright, and Donaldson all looked good and they did create a few goal opportunities that their defense barely shut down.

[FrogMan]

What is pitch? (home field)

Also, a friendly match is different than what? A team from another league?

Thanks,

Todd
The pitch is what they called the field :)

A frienldy is just that, a friendly match. It doesn't count and is there only to help whip your players into shape. What we call an exhibition game, or preseason. But you can schedule friendlies during the season too, but it's not recommended, as your players will start getting tired as the season goes on...

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

The pitch is the name for the field (either home or away)

A friendly match is an exhibition match before the regular season (league matches.)

Friendly matches are primarily to get guys into shape (and make money - those 72 fans brought in some big bucks ;) )

Edited again: To be exact they brought in 242 dollars!! What is that? $3.28 per person?

[FrogMan]

btw, I am reading along doc. LLM sure seems challenging, if I compare my woes with my $50k wage budget with your 4k or so :) As a comparison, my team board allows me to pay up to 5200 for a key player :)

Good luck!

FM

[Desnudo]

The pitch is the name for the field (either home or away)

A friendly match is an exhibition match before the regular season (league matches.)

Friendly matches are primarily to get guys into shape (and make money - those 72 fans brought in some big bucks ;) )

Edited again: To be exact they brought in 242 dollars!! What is that? $3.28 per person?

If you schedule your own friendlies, you can usually talk some Champ or Premier teams into playing you at home. That usually sells out the stadium and brings in some good money.

[Eaglesfan27]

As I prepare for my 2nd match and I see some of my conference foes are loaning guys from the higher leagues. I realize I better get moving on this myself. I check the professional rags and find out that quite a few players are available for loan. I forget about the guys with national reputations as I know they aren't likely to work for lowly Harrogate Town. However, I target several guys with lesser reputations whom I've managed to hear about from the national media and offer to loan them from their teams. I offer 3 month deals in which I pay negligible portions of their salary. It be interesting to see if any teams take my bait.

In the meantime, I'm about to host a game against Farnborough Town and this should be a much better gauge of where my guys are at. This is on our pitch and I expect a decent showing. I'm using the same starting 11.

[MizzouRah]

The pitch is what they called the field :)

A frienldy is just that, a friendly match. It doesn't count and is there only to help whip your players into shape. What we call an exhibition game, or preseason. But you can schedule friendlies during the season too, but it's not recommended, as your players will start getting tired as the season goes on...

FM


Thanks!


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

For the first 20 minutes of this game, my offense dominates. Turley (who had just injured a rib for 2 days) is back and he is constantly burning the defense with his speed. Unfortunately, he has the aiming skills of a giant octopus blindly spraying the ball everywhere. However, at the 25 minute mark, Turley plays a decent through ball for Colin Hunter who rewards my faith in him by hitting it to the lower right corner of the net for our first goal with me as manager of the team.

Fast forward to the 35 minute mark where my central defender, Leigh Wood heads away a cross pass up towards Atkins. Atkins feeds a great ball to Colin who passes it quickly to Donaldson who breaks ahead of the defense. Donaldson has the 1-1 with the keeper.. he fakes left.. goes right.. and scores!!!!

42 minute mark.. Atkins sends a deep long ball to the right corner of the pitch. Donaldson races down and centers it.. Colin gets the ball before the defense can react and pounds it into the upper left corner of the net. I'm convinced that I made a good choice of having Colin be my AMC (assuming I can't get anyone better on loan.)

Second half was a snorer as we pulled back on the reins and played more conservatively. We ended the game with a 3-0 win. Colin Hunter won MoM with a 9 for form. Most of the rest of the team got an 8 except for my two DC's who received 7's and my subs who all received 7's.

Positives: Great ball movement. Good finishing by Colin Hunter and Donaldson.

Negatives: It was just a friendly. We need to do this in league games.

[jbmagic]

how many friendly games are you allow to do ? who decides what friendly games you play?


what is loaning guys mean?

can you trade players?

thanks

[Eaglesfan27]

You are allowed to as many friendly games as you want to schedule, but if you schedule too many you could tire guys out. I usually do about 6 to 8 each preseason. This preseason 6 were already scheduled for me.. next preseason I will likely schedule 7 or 8.

You can decide what friendly games to play, or you can let your assistant manager arrange them. That is only an option if you have an assistant manager. My club is too poor, and we can't afford one right now. So, I had the 6 already scheduled for this year, but i will have to schedule my own next year.

Loaning guys is where you can "borrow" guys from a club for a period of time (usually either 3 months of a full season.) The advantage for you is that you can temporarily have a more talented player than you could afford otherwise. Donaldson is a loan player who was already on this team before i took it over, and he is my most talented striker.

I'm trying to borrow a few more guys as well. There is a limit of 4 loan players at one time, and 8 for the season (but this varies in different leagues.)

Yes, you can trade players :)

However, the players have to agree to sign a contract with the new club. They can be obstinate and refuse to go if they want to do so...

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola - Clubs also will sell players for money. It is called "transferring" in the game. Transfers are a big part of player acquisition in European Soccer.

[Eaglesfan27]

Forgot this in the above post. The advantage to the club that is letting you borrow the player is that you will presumably give the player playing time which will help him develop.

[Eaglesfan27]

Our next friendly is hosting St. Johnstone, a professional club from Scotland. They appear to be a good matchup that will be challenging for us. I'm going to stick with the same starting 11 as I really want to develop some more cohesion for this group and get them into great game shape..

[Eaglesfan27]

St. Johnstone takes a 2-0 early lead on two well crafted goals. On both of them, Leigh Wood makes mistakes in playing the ball. Fortunately, they don't appear to be do to laziness but just honest mistakes. Both of them were he missed a key header. I'm realizing DC is actually a weak spot, and I really need one of these loan players to come through..

In the 2nd half, St. Johnstone goes to a 4-5-1 which totally bogs down my offense. I realize I need to develop a variant of the 4-5-1 myself, particularly for when I'm facing superior opposition or perhaps for road games as well. The game ends up as a 2-0 loss for my team.

The positives: Pettinger made some good saves in the 1st half (the first game I've seen him do this.) Without his above average play, this could have been a 4-0 loss easily. The offense kept fighting.

Negatives: As previously mentioned, I'm starting to see some weakness among my center defenders. I need to bolster this line with some guys that can head the ball away more consistently.

[Eaglesfan27]

Interesting news in the media today:

"Runcorn's new signing Graeme Carrick Demands to be the Center of Attention - The 19 year old Carrick says now that Runcorn has a player of his calibre, it would make sense to rebuild the team around him."

The article below that says "Fans uneasy that Carrick's signing could have a negative effect. They are concerned that he could unbalance the chemistry on the club and cause a negative effect in the dressing room of the team."

As far as my own club:

Wigan's David Moore refused to come to Harrogate Town on loan :(

Meanwhile my rival, Kettering, gets Adam Birchell from Arsenal on loan.

Also, my competitor Ashton Utd gets Man Utd's Lee Lawrence on loan.

Then, I get word that Tranmere's Tyrone Loran is refusing to come to Harrogate on loan :(

Then, I get word that Ashton Utd have gotten David Poole on a loan from Man Utd.

Darn, don't any of these players want to come play for a rookie manager full of bright ideas ;)

[jbmagic]

thanks for the explanation

loans are strange to me.....it wil be weird in the NFl , if Mcnabb of the Eagles goes down with an injury and we ask the colts can we loan Manning :)


i am guessing the loan players in soccer are not great players that gets loan out and if in same division that player can haunt you..

[Desnudo]

thanks for the explanation

loans are strange to me.....it wil be weird in the NFl , if Mcnabb of the Eagles goes down with an injury and we ask the colts can we loan Manning :)


i am guessing the loan players in soccer are not great players that gets loan out and if in same division that player can haunt you..

Actually sometimes the players loaned out are very good, they just play for big clubs that have a wealth of talent. Like Real Madrid lost to Monaco (France) last year in the Champions League and a loaned-RM player scored on them. Often times smaller clubs in the same division will take players from big clubs on loan who are still better than anyone else they have.

Edit: You can have loan agreements where the player can't play against his home club or can be recalled. I think that's happened in the English Premier a few times.

[Eaglesfan27]

I *think* that teams usually don't loan players to their rivals in the same league (unless the player is not good.) Usually it is to an inferior league. It would be odd to have loans in the NFL ;)

As far as my team: We are traveling for our first away friendly against Rhayader Town in Wales. They are considered an amateur team, and I expect our team to win by a decent margin. I'm going to mix up my starting 11 to give some other guys starting experience and work on their fitness. (I'm substituting everyone into each game anyway except for my backup keeper.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Well, there aren't that many options on who to really start but mixing things up some:

GK: Buxton
DL: M. Smith
DC: M. Barnard
DC: L. Wood
DR: G. Black
ML: A. Wright
MR: M. Atkins
DMC: P. Shepherd
AMC: C. Fox
SC: J. Turley
SC: A. Farrell

Giving Donaldson and Hunter the night off (or at least most of it.)

Well, this was a rather "blah" game in which neither team had a great offense. However, Buxton made two horrible plays and gave up two really soft goals. We lose 2-0 and I realize that an injury to either Donaldson or Colin will be very damaging to the team. I'm beginning to think that we need to have a loan player to replace Donaldson when he leaves or otherwise find a quality striker to work up front.

[portnoise]

I'm following too, EF. What are you doing for training?

[MizzouRah]

I guess teams also ask for loans from your team? How does that work??


Thanks for the help,

Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

For now, I'm using the preseason schedule since it's still preseason time.

I usually use my own customized schedules (based off of the "GARY" training schedules) for defenders, forwards, and midfielders, as well as a fourth schedule for keepers. However, with only one coach and one physio (and lacking the money to hire more) I suspect I will just create one general schedule for all outfield players and one for all keepers.

[Eaglesfan27]

Teams do ask for your players on loan all the time, particularly if you are controlling a good team. When I was controlling Man Utd, I'd get offers to buy/loan my players all the time. You can tell them to buzz off, you can charge them money to borrow your players, or you can just give them away. The borrowing team can have a wide variety of stipulations attached such as they have to pay 0,10,20, etc % of the salary. There are an amazing number of different options that can be attached to loans. You can make it so you can recall guys from loans if you want. Many options :)

That being said, my lowly team doesn't have anyone wanting my guys to go to their teams on loan at the moment ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

Today was our most important friendly. The 2nd to last friendly is important I think because I don't want to play my starters much in the final friendly game, but I want them to be well conditioned for the first season game which is 2 weeks away.

In this case, it was against Doncester (League 1) at home. I used my top 11 listed for the first game. I'm really enjoying this starting lineup. First 40 minutes are fairly quiet as we play a slow controlled attack, because Doncester is just too good to be our usual attacking self. I'm still using a variation of my 4-1-2-1-2 but I telling the guys to be much more conservative. At the 44 minute mark, Pettinger kicks a long ball and of all the people Atkins races down the pitch, beats the DC! He has a 1-1 with the keeper and he hits it high over the keeper.. goal!!!!

This was nice as it gave me a chance to deploy the defensive 4-1-3-2 that I made for playing to keep a lead or to use at the start against superior teams. I started the 2nd half in this formation, and we played really well staying back in our own half for the most part accept for the occasional foray into enemy turf. Unfortunately, at the 83 minute mark Doncaster scored on a corner kick that was headed in by one of their midfielders. We ended up with a 1-1 tie and I felt good about how our team played.

Positives: Pettinger played well, creating a goal and stopping quite a few others. He won MoM and had a 9 for form. The 4-1-3-2 (with defensive tilt) looks like it will work well for its intended purpose. Of course, more games will prove that (or disprove it.)

Negatives: I'm realizing that depth will be a critical issue here. Injuries to a couple of guys will really cripple this team. In this case, I had to send Donaldson out with a minor injury and it really hampered our attack in the first half.

Next game will be playing mostly backups as I want the starting 11 rested for the regular season which is only 2 weeks away! :)

[Eaglesfan27]

Oh yeah, 3 more guys just turned me down for loan. Their teams are accepting, but the players are refusing to come play for me. Yet, they go to my rivals. No one worth having is going to come to play for me until I establish myself more, and possibly improve the training facilities. I'm fortunate that Donaldson was already here on loan, but it looks like it will be hard to get further loan players for the forseeable future.

[jbmagic]

wow

so players get the final word on loans if they accept to come to another team?

the team cant make them go?

[Eaglesfan27]

Nope. Same with trades. The player can refuse to be traded.

As far as my last friendly. It was away against Billericay. I started backups wherever possible. It was a generally fun game to manage as Andy Farrell my young 20 year old striker who has shown flashes of being a great scorer in practice had his first hat trick! He worked hard to get rebound goals at 23 and 35 minute marks. His final goal came at the 90 minute mark as he blasted a shot from the left side of the 6 yard box into the upper right hand corner of the net.

Also, at the 65 minute mark Shepherd got a chance to show off his penalty taking prowess as Turley beat his defender earning a penalty shot. Shepherd hit it right past the keeper for an easy goal. We won our final friendly 4-1 as Nick Buxton was rarely challenged since our defense played quite nicely in front of him.

[Eaglesfan27]

Looking at the postmatch report, Farrell received MoM and the first 10 for form I've had under my tenure. I'll have to try to get him more time on the pitch as he may be making a bid to be the #2 striker. He certainly is at worst #3 at this time, and will be starting regularly when Donaldson goes if not sooner.

[Eaglesfan27]

Here we go!!!

The first league game.

This game is against Hucknall on their pitch. I'm 6-4 favorites. They are 13:8 odds to win. The Draw is 2:1 odds.

It's a dry 73 degree day.

My starting Lineup:

GK: Paul Pettinger
DL: Mark Barnard
DC: Lennie Curtis
DC: Leigh Wood
DR: Grant Black
DMC: Mark Atkins
ML: Andrew Wright
MR: Paul Shepherd
AMC: Colin Hunter
SC: Clayton Donaldson
SC: Andy Farrell, this is the big change. He scored a hat trick in the last friendly, and I don't like to sit the hot hand.

S1: Nick Buxton
S2: Marc Smith (DL)
S3: Christian Fox
S4: James Turley
S5: Richard Dunning

[Eaglesfan27]

At the beginning of the match, I realize Hucknall is using a 3-2-2-1-2. this should be interesting.

The first 20 minutes are interesting as both teams have a few good scoring opportunities. Only bad (or good) luck prevents a goal for each side. At the 37 minute mark Donaldson goes down with an injury as Allstair Asher tackles him hard. Asher has already caused a minor injury to Farrell and our team is now angry..

Turley has to come on at this point as Donaldson can't play any longer due to the injury.

For the next 8 minutes we press the action and have a few close shots, but none go in. It is tied 0-0 at halftime.

51 minute mark: Farrell has a sure goal as he gets behind the defense. Unfortunately, he gets called for offsides (correctly.)

62 minute mark: Roy Hunter collides with my Colin Hunter. My Hunter is injured requiring him to leave the pitch. Fox comes in the game to play the pivotal AMC position.

Edit: Oops I meant to complete the whole game before posting this..

[Eaglesfan27]

The next 20 minutes are a hard fought battle as the game becomes quite chippy. We return the favor and injury two of their guys. At the 85 minute mark, Wright intercepts a pass and feeds a long pass to Turley that is on the money. Turley has the defense burnt, and he sets up the keeper.. he shoots.. he misses high and wide. His accuracy is truly appaling. The next few minutes neither team has a good opportunity. My opponent gets a good shot off in extra time, but Pettinger stops it.

Final score: 0-0

We outshot them 7-4.

Andrew Wright gets MoM from the left wing with 18 of 22 passes completed. 7 tackles, 6 passes intercepted and 1 opponent hurt ;)

Since this is an away game, I'm satisfied (but not happy) with the result. I kept my aggressive offense in the whole game, as I felt we could win and their offense rarely scared me during the game.

I'm now anxiously awaiting the results from the physio about how bad our guys are hurt..............

Darn that took a while and the news is bad. Donaldson fractured his arm is going to be out for at least 4 weeks. Hunter and Farrell are each going to be out for 5 days which means they will miss my next away game against Gainsborough :(

[Eaglesfan27]

Despite being on Gainsborough's pitch and missing 3 guys we are 6:4 favorites. The odds are exactly the same as my last match with the odds on them winning being 13:8 and 2:1 on the draw.

I'm using the same starting lineup with the exception of Fox being moved into AMC for the injured Hunter. Turley and Jackson are starting up front for the injured Donaldson and Farrell. Dominique Krief and Lee Morris become the 3rd and 4th subs.

The weather is a dry 71 degrees and now it's time to start the match.

[Eaglesfan27]

The first 5 minutes are a nightmare start as they have 2 quick offensive opportunities. On the 2nd opportunity, David Jervis crosses the ball from the left wing to Carl Alford at striker. Alford drives a shot past my keeper and we are suddenly down 1-0.

The next 40 minutes are relatively quite until just before the half, Grant Black lays a nasty hit on the opponent's striker causing him to receive a yellow card.

52 minute mark Pettinger makes a great save on a shot by Gareth Grant, a striker for the opposition, preventing us from going down 2-0.

56 minute mark: Pettinger is beat by a nasty direct kick in which Chris Dickman's shot deflects off of Gareth Grant for the goal. Grant ends up getting credit for Dickman's goal.

Gainsborough dominates us for the remainder of the game.

Final score 2-0

They outshot us 9-1.

Carl Alford wins MoM with a 31 of 38 passes complete, 11 of 14 headers won, and a goal scored.

[Eaglesfan27]

Our first home game has arrived. It's against Bradford PA. We are 5-4 favorites with odds of them winning being 7-4. Odds of a Draw are 2-1.

It's early in the season, but I'm feeling the pressure. I feel this is a must win game for us. Fortunately, Hunter and Farrell are back. I'm starting my usual top 11 with the exception of Farrell starting in Donaldson's position.

It's a warm sunny day with 77 degree temperatures.

[SirFozzie]

Oof rough start, man. Get it sussed out already! :D

[Eaglesfan27]

The first 20 minutes are fairly uneventful until their Right winger, Gareth Thomas starts a fight with Atkins! Gareth is given a red card, ejecting him from the game.

The remainder of the 1st half is chippy, but with very few scoring opportunities for either team.

62 minute mark: Atkins makes a bad error in which he tackles the opposition in our box. Penalty shot is awarded which Mike Flynn converts for the goal. We are now down 1-0.

76 minute mark: Turley burns the defense, running between two defenders. He unleashes a good shot on goal... blocked by the keeper.. he kicks the rebound.. over the bar. Turley blows it again.

No more good scoring opportunities and we lose 1-0. I find myself and the team questioning ourselves..

We outshot our opposition 6-1.

Andrew Wright received his 2nd MoM award despite the loss. He completed 28 of 34 passes, had 1 tackle and 1 intercepted pass.

[Eaglesfan27]

Oof rough start, man. Get it sussed out already! :D
Believe me, we are trying.. ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

After seeing my DC's consistently make bad plays, I continued my search through a variety of DC's who might join me on loan. After being rejected by 14 different players(!) I'm glad to announce the signing of Chris Brown (DC) from Huddersfield for the next 3 months at no cost to the club. I'm continuing to search for more help.

[Eaglesfan27]

Currently in 19th place, we are hosting 4th place Worcester which has had several notable loan players come onto their team this year. These include Jamie Pitman from Hereford, Mark Wright from Walsall, and Michael Townsend from the Wolves.

Not surprisingly, Worcester is even odds favorites while we are 9:4 odds to get a win. Yet we are desperate for a win. I'll be severely modifying this offense if we don't score some goals this game and get at least a tie. Also, I plan on going to my defensive 4-1-3-2 if we get a lead.

It's a dry cool 55 degrees.

My starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger - averaging a 7.00 for form.
DL: Mark Barnard - averaging a 7.00 for form at this position
DC: Chris Brown - my loan player from Huddersfield will start immediately.
DC: Leigh Wood - The 21 year old defender hasn't been the problem. He has been averaging 7.33
DR: Grant Black - A solid 7 avg.
DMC: Mark Atkins - 7.33 playing a variety of positions, but mostly DMC.
MR: Christian Fox - avg 7.0, needs to start as Shepherd is injured.
ML: Andrew Wright - 8.0 avg, my best player by far at this point.
AMC: Colin Hunter - 7.0, hopefully will play better now that injury is healed.
SC: Turley - 7.0 - can't see to find the net.. would be replaced if Donaldson was healed.
SC: Farrell - 7.0 average playing surprisingly solid for young kid.

S1 - Buxton - need a backup keeper in case of disaster.
S2 - Lee Morris - Reserve Striker, hasn't seen the field yet. May this game.
S3 - Justin Jackson - reserve striker, 7.0 avg.
S4 - Lennie Curtis - now a reserve DC, as Brown has replaced him.
S5 - Richard Dunning - versatile player who could play a few spots.

Now onto the game..

[Eaglesfan27]

First 20 minutes are fairly quiet except for one close call by the opposition which barely sailed over the cross bar.

24 minute mark: Fox sends a great ball across the pitch to Turley. Turley as usual creates a breakaway with his speed... he shoots.. it's on goal.. turned away by the keeper. Corner kick which is stopped by the keeper.

44 minute mark: After several close calls our defense another good opportunity happen. Colin Hoyle takes the ball down the length of the pitch and plays a through ball for James Stevenson, the opponent's striker. Stevenson shoots it right past my apparently stunned keeper.

1-0 at the half.

53 minute mark: Farrell makes a brilliant steal from the defender.. he has a point blank shot at goal. He shoots.. straight into the keeper.. Colin Hoyle clears the ball down the pitch.

56 minute mark: Atkins takes a direct kick from just outside the 20 yard box.. it is hit hard off the defender.. deflected towards the goal... just wide right.

The remaining 34 minutes sees us get 2 good scoring opportunities that the defense shut down before a good shot can be made. The opposition played like a turtle totally stifling our offense. Our opponent wins 1-0.

They outshot us 9-6.

Carl Heeley, their DC, won MoM with an 8 for form. He completed 18 of 31 passes, 8 of 9 headers including 6 key headers, and he was a key component in shutting down our defense. He also won 5 of 7 tackles.

[Desnudo]

Have you thought about sacking the manager? Some pretty poor play there. Oh wait, you are the manager. ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

As I approach the end of my first full month of league play, I find myself wondering how close I am to be fired. The chairman told me he wants to meet with me monthly to review my performance, and the first one of those is coming up in 3 short days. I certainly didn't expect my management career to start this way as I dreamed of managing Man Utd, before I took this job. I thought I'd blaze onto the scene.. hopefully, I can turn this around soon. I'm performing some tweaks to my 3 main tactics now.

The primary tactic is a 4-1-2-1-2, my secondary tactic is a 4-1-3-2, and my backup tactic is a plain 4-4-2. I'm tweaking the 4-1-2-1-2 as I think it still has some merit for this team...

[Eaglesfan27]

Have you thought about sacking the manager? Some pretty poor play there. Oh wait, you are the manager. ;)
Too bad I don't have an assistant manager. I could blame him and sack him ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

Well the dreaded meeting happened. The chairman tells me that he still feels I'm the right guy to lead the club. That is reassuring. I just wish I believed it.

I do know that he is still expecting me to finish in the top half of the table, so we better get this thing turned around quickly. This will be my last game with the 4-1-2-1-2, if we don't score some goals it will be scrapped for a while..

[Eaglesfan27]

Well I finally got some good news. Barrow lost their star striker for the season due to injury. This should help us when we play them later in the year.

Also, a team agreed to let me have a player on a free transfer. Of course, he doesn't want to come play here... maybe a bit of a raise can convince him. My scout likes something in this young 17 year old keeper..

[Eaglesfan27]

September 4th, 2004 -

Watched the World Cup qualifying match today between England and Austria. I can only dream to manage such talent one day. England mopped up Austria 4-0 as Michael Owen scored 2 goals, Ledley King and Darius Vassell each added a goal. David Beckham was the best player on the pitch as he set up 3 of the goals and made many great passes in this match.

[Eaglesfan27]

September 8th, 2004 -

England defeated Poland 3-0 as Ledley King set up 2 goals and Beckham set up another. Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen finished the Beckham passes. Emile Heskey scored the 3rd goal as a late sub in the game. According to the TV, England's fans are quite pleased with the national team at this time.

[Eaglesfan27]

YES!!! My persistence pays off as I find another player willing to come play for us. Blackburn's Jemal Johnson is agreeing to come play for us for 3 months as he wants first team football! My scouts believe he will immediately step into the 1st team, and I plan on using him in the pivotal AMC spot to hopefully jump start this offense..

[Eaglesfan27]

Currently in 21st place, we are traveling to 12th place Alfreton. Call me foolish, but I think we have a good chance against this team after perusing their roster.

Not surprisingly, Alfreton is a 6-4 favorite while we are at 13:8 odds to get a win. I have the tweaked 4-1-2-1-2 installed. I now have a potentially better AMC in the pivotal role.

It's a dry cool 53 degrees.

My starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger - averaging a 7.00 for form.
DL: Mark Barnard - averaging a 7.00 for form at this position
DC: Chris Brown - my loan player from Huddersfield will start immediately.
DC: Leigh Wood - The 21 year old defender hasn't been the problem. He has been averaging 7.33
DR: Grant Black - A solid 7 avg.
DMC: Mark Atkins - 7.33 playing a variety of positions, but mostly DMC.
MR: Christian Fox - avg 7.0, needs to start as Shepherd is injured.
ML: Andrew Wright - 8.0 avg, my best player by far at this point.
AMC: Jemal Johnson - this loan player from Blackburn has great potential..
SC: Turley - 7.0 - can't see to find the net.. would be replaced if Donaldson was healed.
SC: Farrell - 7.0 average playing surprisingly solid for young kid.

S1 - Buxton - need a backup keeper in case of disaster.
S2 - Lee Morris - Reserve Striker, hasn't seen the field yet. May this game.
S3 - Justin Jackson - reserve striker, 7.0 avg.
S4 - Lennie Curtis - now a reserve DC, as Brown has replaced him.
S5 - Richard Dunning - versatile player who could play a few spots.

Now onto the game..

[jbmagic]

this is a great dynasty read...


for this league...what place you need to be to make the playoff? how the playoff format works?

[SirFozzie]

jbmagic: Most leagues in Europe do not do playoffs. Instead, they work on a promotion and relegation factor.. where the top teams move up a level and the worst teams move down a level.

But in this case: The top team in each of the regional conference levels automatically move up to the next level (the Conference National), and the 2nd through fifth place team in both the north and the south move in to an 8 team playoff,(usually a home and home series, with most total goals winning) with the winner of the playoff also moving up

[RPI-Fan]

As I approach the end of my first full month of league play, I find myself wondering how close I am to be fired. The chairman told me he wants to meet with me monthly to review my performance, and the first one of those is coming up in 3 short days. I certainly didn't expect my management career to start this way as I dreamed of managing Man Utd, before I took this job. I thought I'd blaze onto the scene.. hopefully, I can turn this around soon. I'm performing some tweaks to my 3 main tactics now.

The primary tactic is a 4-1-2-1-2, my secondary tactic is a 4-1-3-2, and my backup tactic is a plain 4-4-2. I'm tweaking the 4-1-2-1-2 as I think it still has some merit for this team...

Just curious - what kind of tactics "tweaks" do you do? The little dashed arrows? Just asking b/c I always heard a ton of talk on tactics but it seems to me there is certainly a finite number of ways you can position guys on the pitch.

[RPI-Fan]

YES!!! My persistence pays off as I find another player willing to come play for us. Blackburn's Jemal Johnson is agreeing to come play for us for 3 months as he wants first team football! My scouts believe he will immediately step into the 1st team, and I plan on using him in the pivotal AMC spot to hopefully jump start this offense..

I believe Johnson is an American.

Also, did you set your nationality as American or as English? If the former, it's definitely why you're having so much trouble getting anyone who is willing to play for you.

[Desnudo]

I believe Johnson is an American.

Also, did you set your nationality as American or as English? If the former, it's definitely why you're having so much trouble getting anyone who is willing to play for you.

That is a big factor, but it also has to do with team rep and coach rep.

[Eaglesfan27]

11 minutes into the match, my optism is damaged as Chris Bettney feeds a long pass that finds Kevin Rapley just outside the box.. Rapley dribbles twice.. shoots.. he scores low and away to the right corner of the net.

Matt Fisher has to hold Johnson to stop him from getting a breakaway. Fisher gets the yellow card, but it's outside the box and we only get a direct kick... no good.

1-0 at the half and Johnson only has a 6 and is a minor disappointment at this point.

48 minute mark.. Fisher holds Johnson again.. a whistle is called but Fisher gets away with just a warning.

71 minute mark.. Johnson feed a great ball to Turley.. he has the breakaway.. he shoots.. hits the crossbar.. the keeper pounces on it.

82 minute mark: Turley on the breakaway.. he is about to score.. flag for offsides. My keeper argues.. yellow card to the keeper.

90 minute mark: Fisher feeds Holmes.. Holmes takes it into my box. Holmes shoots, he scores. 2-0 for Alfredton.

Game over and the end of the 4-1-2-1-2 is here.

We were outshot 12-1!

Lennie Curtis, my DC won MoM as he had 10 of 10 tackles and 7 of 7 headers..

[Eaglesfan27]

Just curious - what kind of tactics "tweaks" do you do? The little dashed arrows? Just asking b/c I always heard a ton of talk on tactics but it seems to me there is certainly a finite number of ways you can position guys on the pitch.
In my case, I changed how aggressive my guys were being. How creative they were being in their passing. I also changed how wide they were working the ball and which flank they were passing the ball down. There are sliders to control all of these things. That being said, I think this tactic has been a disaster..

[Eaglesfan27]

I set my nationality to English. I think I got Johnson because he might be rubbish in the guise of a relatively high valued player ;)

I think my team rep and my coach's rep as obscure is hurting me from getting most of these guys.. I certainly can't get any of my top choices who might really be very helpful to the team.

[RPI-Fan]

I set my nationality to English. I think I got Johnson because he might be rubbish in the guise of a relatively high valued player ;)

I think my team rep and my coach's rep as obscure is hurting me from getting most of these guys.. I certainly can't get any of my top choices who might really be very helpful to the team.

Well in Johnson's case I don't think anybody has ever even talked about him re: US National team, while there are other teenagers who have been highly hyped (Szetela, Gavin, Adu [of course]). I think the general impression among American soccer fans is that he's like a Mike Magee or Arturo Alvarez - not a bad prospect, but not someone anyone thinks will ever be a USMNT regular.

That is if I am even thinking of the correct player, here.

Also, thanks for the note on tactics - that is one thing that is very nice about FM2005 (and the whole CM4) series - "tweaks" like that never used to be possible.

[Eaglesfan27]

I just checked and Jemal Johnson is a 20 year old American kid, so I think you are thinking of the same guy :)

In the game, he also has English nationality. He has been with Blackburn the last few years. His reputation is only local which probably helped me get him. Also, his personality is now showing up as "unambitious." He is still likely to help my team. I'm tweaking my 4-4-2 now, and am going to try that as my primary tactic for the next few games at least..

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 21st ranked team hosts the 15th ranked Worksop town. Worksop recently add Richard Kell from Scunthorpe on loan, and appears to have a talented squad but the pieces haven't worked too well for them this year. We are actually 6:4 favorites and I'm hoping the oddsmakers finally get this one right.

On a positive note, we have Clayton Donaldson back from his broken arm, and he will start. We are using a 4-4-2 as our new tactic which will be a fairly aggressive attack in a hope to start scoring some goals..

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Chris Brown
DC: Lennie Curtis
DR: Grant Black
ML: Andrew Wright
MC: Mark Atkins
MC: Jemel Johnson
MR: Paul Shepherd (demoting Fox who has been disappointing)
SC: Farrell
SC: Donaldson

S1: Buxton
S2: Morris
S3: Fox
S4: Turley (also been demoted)
S5: Dunning

It is a pleasant dry 57 degrees and the match is about to start..

[Eaglesfan27]

After dominating the time of possession for the first 12 minutes, I'm sure we are about to score when I see Wright send a lofty long pass for Donaldson. Donaldson races past his defender... he chases the ball down, but he can't quite get to it as the keeper races out and grabs it.

16 minute mark: Pettinger makes a great save on a hard shot by Richard Kell that I thought was going to be a goal for sure..

17 minute mark: Donaldson is tackled as he is about to score.. unfortunately, the penalty shot is not awarded, but we do get a direct kick outside the box. The ball deflects off of one of my own guys and goes out of bounds for the goal kick.

25 minute mark: Grant Black comes up from the right full back spot.. he lofts a pass into the box to Donaldson. Donaldson shoots, the keeper deflects it back towards Donaldson.. the keeper races to it.. Donaldson races to it.. Donaldson wins the race.. he taps it in past the keeper...... GOAL!!!!!!!

38 minute mark: Atkins receives the throw in from Black.. Atkins looks around he centers it to a wide open Chris Brown who has drifted forward.. Brown blasts a shot.... it deflects off the defender.. and past the keeper.. GOAL!!!!

39 minute mark: Gavin Smith passes from the middle of the field to the right wing where Richard Peacock takes a look around.. he centers to Kell.. Kell shoots and he scores.

44 minute mark: Pettinger makes a big save of a hard Dene Cropper shot. Pettinger has really been impressing me with some of the saves he has made.

85 minute mark: After a long quiet period, Kell shoots a hard shot on our goal.. Pettinger barely deflects it over the bar. On the ensuing corner, Caudwell heads the corner.. my breath catches as it barely goes wide.

The last 6 minutes seem to drag as Worksop makes several charges at us, but our defenders and midfielders turn each away before they get too close..

Our first win!! 2-1.

We were outshot 11-4.

Mark Atkins won MoM by completing 42 of 50 passes, 5 of 6 tackles, 3 of 3 headers, and he had one key intercepted pass.

[SirFozzie]

Alright Guv! Now let's keep the Momentum!

[Eaglesfan27]

September 20, 2004 -

I've been notified that we will be playing Hucknall on their pitch in the 2nd round of the qualifying phase for the English FA Cup. It will be on their pitch on October 2nd.

[daedalus]

I think your 4-1-2-1-2 leaves you too thin in the middle. With a burner at striker, have you considered tinkering with a variation of 4-5-1 with long ball and counterattacking in mind? I would take the second striker and use that spot for a central midfielder to provide a link between your third and the opposition's.

Good luck with the cup games. Lots of money there! Woohoo!

[MizzouRah]

Nice job on the win!


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

Daedalus - Thanks for the advice. I agree that the 4-1-2-1-2 was leaving us too thin in the middle. It's my favorite formation with top clubs, but this club just couldn't make it work. I've definitely considered a 4-5-1. I guess one of my concerns is my relative lack of depth in the midfield. I don't have that many midfielders that I want to play regularly.. I have 5 that I feel comfortable with on the pitch, but if they get tired or injured that would be a problem. Also, I have 3 strikers that I think have potential at this level. The burner is the 3rd of these at this point as his shooting is so wildly inaccurate (not surprising as his finishing and long shooting are both low.)

Todd - Thanks! :)
I've been thinking about this dynasty btw patients at work. Can't wait til my work day is done (not that I can complain as I will be done early today.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Oh yeah, I might consider switching to the 4-5-1 if I can get another midfielder on loan and I can't get another striker on loan when Donaldson leaves. If he goes, I only have 2 strikers that I really want on the pitch.

[path12]

Great read -- look forward to more! Are you using long passing? I've found at these lower levels that my preferred short and mixed passing are really useless due to the quality of the players.

[Eaglesfan27]

I went out with a buddy after work and just returned home. Thanks for the compliment. Will be writing more in a little while. As far as passing, I know that short/mixed passing rarely works in the lower levels, yet I'm trying it some games as I have two wingers who are really decently rated for this level. Other games I'm sticking to long ball..

[Desnudo]

I used the 4-5-1 with long pass and CA until I got out of the Conference. It works well enough, especially if you're a mediocre team. Definitely won't make you look forward to those 2-D matches though.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 21st ranked team travels to 19th ranked Droylsden. Droylsdan recently added Benjamin Collett from Man Utd on loan, and appears to have a talented squad, particularly Left winger Andy Lee and their two strikers Steve Brodie and Jody Banim but the pieces haven't worked too well for them this year. We are actually 6:4 favorites and I'm hoping the oddsmakers have this one right.

We are using the same lineup as last game since it got us a win..

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Chris Brown
DC: Lennie Curtis
DR: Grant Black
ML: Andrew Wright
MC: Mark Atkins
MC: Jemel Johnson
MR: Paul Shepherd (demoting Fox who has been disappointing)
SC: Farrell
SC: Donaldson

S1: Buxton
S2: Morris
S3: Fox
S4: Turley (also been demoted)
S5: Dunning

It is a cool 48 degrees and the match is about to start..
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[Eaglesfan27]

6 minutes into the match, Chris Brown sacrifices his body to stop a likely goal from Steve Brodie inside the box, but Droylsdan gets the corner..

8 minute mark: Atkins feed the ball up ahead to Donaldson on the counter attack.. Donaldson is outracing the defense.. he is about to enter the box, and is tackled from behind.. Gary Burke gets the yellow card for Droylsdan.. direct kick just outside the box. Atkins takes the free kick and just misses the upper left corner of the goal as he hits it just a little high and wide.

11 minute mark: On the counter attack, Burke feeds it into the middle of the field where Collett quickly feeds it to Brodie, Brodie plays a perfect ball btw my two central defenders for Jody Banim.. Banim shoots from just inside the box.. past the keeper.. hits the left goal post.. into the goal. 1-0

23 minute mark: Wright feeds a good ball to Johnson who takes it past the defender.. he shoots from just outside the center of the box... keeper tips it over the bar.. corner kick.

34 minute mark: Collett makes a great move on Johnson, dribbles past mid field.. past another defender.. he passes to Banim who is just inside the box.. my DC makes Banim go wide.. the keeper comes out to cut down the angle.. Banim shoots.. the keeper controls the shot.

39 minute mark: Johnson beats Collett with a great speed move.. he draws out the DC.. passes around him to Atkins.. Atkins shoots... the keeper deflects it over the bar.

39 minute mark: Carl Regan controls heads the corner shot away to Lee on the left wing.. Lee sends a long pass to Collett.. Collett dribbles past Lennie Curtis.. he shoots from just outside the box.. wide left..

1-0 at halftime.

47 minute mark: Atkins gets a yellow card for obstructing Collett.

57 minute mark: Farrell gets called for a BS offside. I'm pissed and so is Barnard. Barnard argues with the ref and gets a yellow card..

65 minute mark: Brown makes a key intervetion on a pass from Banim to Brodie.. he heads it up to Atkins who sends it wide to Wright.. Wright dribbles a few steps and sends it long to Farrell.. Farrell beats the lone defender.. he has the keeper right in front of him.. he shoots from the center of the box.. around the keeper.. just wide left of the goal post.

67 minute mark: Wright steals it from the midfielder, he hits a pass from midfield right to Farrell.. the keeper comes out to intercept the pass.. Farrell controls it.. shoots.. right into the keeper who has come out to get the pass.. the keeper deflects it.. Farrell shoots it again.. wide left on the rebound attempt.

69 minute mark: Atkins trips Collett in the open midfield.. whistle.. the ref comes and talks to Atkins.. Atkins gets away with a warning and I let out a gasp of relief.

71 minute mark: Atkins steals a pass from Collett, Atkins passes it long to Donaldson who races past the defenders.. Donaldson is challenged by the keeper who comes out to cut off the angle.. Donaldson shoots.. the keeper deflects it.. it's dribbling towards the goal line.. Carl Regan races back and clears the ball.

72 minute mark: Donaldson picks up a minor injury, but he is clearly limping out there and isn't even at 50%. I sub in Turley. I also sub in Fox for Atkins who is getting tired and already has a yellow card. Finally, I sub in Dunning for Barnard who also has a yellow card.

75 minute mark: Dunning makes a big steal from Brodie.. passes it up the left wing to Wright.. Wright sends a long pass to Johnson who is racing up the middle of the field.. Johnson shoots from just outside the box.. it is just a little high and grazes over the bar.

84 minute mark: Johnson steals the ball from Collett.. he passes it down the center of the pitch to Farrell.. Farrell looks around and sends it out wide to left winger Wright.. Wright holds the ball for a second drawing a defender towards him and then lofts the ball towards goal.. Turley races past his defender and beats him to the ball just inside the box... he controls it.. the keeper comes out to challenge him.. he makes a move to the left.. the keeper is out of position.. Turley taps it... into the goal!!! Finally he scores his first goal!!! 1-1 tie game.

90 minute mark: Collett takes the ball up the middle of the field.. he dribbles past Fox.. he passes it to Banim.. Banim shoots.. just whistles over the bar..

92 minute mark: Johnson feeds ball from midfield to Turley who is just outside the box. Turley puts a move on the defender.. he shoots from outside the box.. back to his wild shooting ways.. wide and high to the right.

94 minute mark: Dunning steals it from Banim.. dribbles up the left side of the pitch.. sends it forward to Wright.. Wright centers it to Fox.. Fox dribbles up the pitch.. he passes it to Farrell.. Farrell shoots.. the keeper stops the shot relatively easily.

Game over 1-1 tie on the road. Least it is better than a loss, but still disappointing against one of our fellow bottom dwellers.

Each team had 10 shots.

Andrew Wright won his 3 MoM with an 8 for form. He completed 31 of 34 passes, won 3 of 3 tackles, 3 of 3 headers, and 2 passes intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

My team is ranked at the bottom of the barrel. We are 22nd and hosting 17th place Altrincham. Altrincham is surprisingly not winning as they have 4 relatively impressive loan players in their starting lineup. These include Steven Breckenridge from Macclesfield who looks like a dangerous right winger, Aaron Hardy from Huddersfield who looks like a young promising midfielder, David Beharall a steady central defender from Oldham, and Tim Deasy who is actually going to be the backup keeper for this game. Colin Little appears to be their key striker, and he is a 31 year old veteran with some dangerous shooting skills and is known to be a determined player. Altrincham is a 5-4 favorite to win this match.

I'm using the same lineup for a 3rd straight match. We considered switching our lineup in part because in 4 days we have the cup qualifying game, but our guys will potentially have a 2 week rest after the cup game, and we need to win every league game at this point.

It's a cold dry 37 degree day here at the stadium.

Edited to correct: Farrell is injured.. so Turley is moved into the starting lineup and Justin Jackson becomes a sub on the bench.

[Eaglesfan27]

5 minutes into the match.. Wright steals the ball from his man.. he passes it to the left corner of the opposition's side. Turley uses his speed to track the ball down.. he looks energized to be back in the starting lineup.. he centers it.. Donaldson heads it.. just wide left of the goal post.

13 minute mark: Colin Little steals it from Atkins.. he fires the ball up to his fellow striker Peter Wright.. Wright shoots.. Pettinger controls it calmly with a good save.

18 minute mark: Atkins feeds it past the defender to Turley who beats his man yet again. Turley centers for Donaldson but the keeper rushes out and intercepts the pass inside the box.

22 minute mark: Robert Matthews, their midfielder takes the ball after a keeper kick at midfield.. he makes a crisp pass to Hardy, Hardy sends a nice ball long to Wright.. Wright has it at the left side of the box.. Pettinger comes out to challenge him some.. Wright shoots.. Pettinger stops the shot.

24 minute mark: Paul Shepherd finally makes a nice play stealing the ball from his man.. he runs up the right side of the pitch.. he crosses it beautifully to Turley who has a point blank shot from 6 yards out at an angle just left of the goal.. Turley shoots.. Stuart Coburn barely tips it over the bar.

38 minute mark: Wright steals the ball from his defender with a spot tackle.. he gets up races down the left wing.. he centers for Shepherd who has the keeper out of position.. shepherd is just outside the box right of the center.. Shepherd shoots.. wide right!

39 minute mark: On the ensuing goal kick, Hardy takes it in the middle of the pitch.. he passes wide right to Little.. Little runs out to the right corner of the pitch.. my defender approaches.. Little centers the ball.. Hardy jumps with Lennie Curtis. Hardy wins the aerial battle.. he heads it.. it's high.. but it hits the crossbar and bounces downward.. and in.. goal. 1-0.

1-0 at the half and Altrincham is now playing a 4-5-1 turtle defense. (they were in a 4-4-2 attacking at the beginning of the match)

47 minute mark: Wright takes it up the left side of the pitch and crosses it for Donaldson.. Beharall wins the battle and heads it away.. Atkins controls the deflection around midfield and sends a long pass to Donaldson.. Donaldson controls it.. shoots quickly.. right into the keeper's arms.

54 minute mark: Johnson steals a pass in enemy turf.. he passes it to Atkins who takes a step to the edge of the box.. he shoots but Beharall gets in the way and deflects it away.

58 minute mark: A wide flurry of attempts by Johnson, Atkins, and Donaldson that never reach the mark as 9 defenders are fighting hard and sacrficing themselves to deflect each shot before it even gets truly close to the goal..

70 minute mark: Turley receives a good pass from Atkins.. he takes it wide left.. around the defender.. he centers for Donaldson who is at the near post.. Donaldson heads it.. just wide of the goal.

79 minute mark: Another flurry of attempts that never reach the goal because the defenders are blocking the shots.. until Johnson gets a rebound and blasts a shot.. that hits the crossbar and bounces back.. Beharall clears it.

79 minute mark: Donaldson is looking winded: I sub in Morris for him. Also, Shepherd is really winded. I sub in Fox for him. I consider subbing out Wright who has been so key for us but is now winded, but decide we need this game too much and his sub Dunning is just not good enough to put in at this point..

88 minute mark: Atkins plays a nice through ball for Turley who turns on the speed.. he is inside the box.. he shoots.. the keeper deflects it just wide of the goal. On the ensuing corner.. Curtis receives a nice kick from Fox.. Curtis has an opportunity.. point blank range.. and he fumbles with the ball tapping it out of bounds..

91 minute mark: Brown intercepts a long pass and heads it towards wright.. Wright passes it long to Turley who gets behind the defense.. Turley races towards the left corner of the box.. he shoots.. just high over the goal.

1-0 final.. The 311 fans who showed up are dejected. The team is dejected. I need to find a way to lift their spirits..

We actually outshot them 10-6.

David Beharall won MoM with 27 of 35 passes completed, 11 of 12 headers won, 8 of 9 tackles won, and 8 intercepted passes.

[Eaglesfan27]

September 29th, 2004 -

Boston Utd becomes the first team to offer me a deal on one of my players. They want one of my few U18 players. 16 year old Josh Bowker who plays the right wing. Bowker has limited technical talents at the moment, but fair physical talents. He is a remarkably determined young man who shows great dedication to practice. His wonderful mental attributes make me excited about the prospects for this kid.

Boston Utd is offering 0 dollars and 10% of his next sales price. I respectfully decline.

[Eaglesfan27]

October 1st, 2004 -

Despite my pathetic showing so far, the board let me know that they are still sure they made the right choice in hiring me.

I'm anxiously tweaking my 4-4-2 as I prepare to face Hucknall in the qualifying game for the cup..

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 22nd ranked team travels to 18th ranked Hucknall for the English FA cup 2nd round qualifying match. Hucknall has Shaun Harrad on loan from Notts Co as one of their top strikers. Paul Mitchell and Roy Hunter are their key midfielders and are really the driving force for this team. David Artell anchors their defense. We are actually 6:4 favorites and I'm hoping the oddsmakers have this one right.

We are using the same lineup as last game since it got us a win..

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Chris Brown
DC: Leigh Wood (I've demoted Curtis who has disappointed me)
DR: Grant Black
ML: Andrew Wright
MC: Mark Atkins
MC: Jemel Johnson
MR: Paul Shepherd (demoting Fox who has been disappointing)
SC: Turley
SC: Donaldson

S1: Buxton
S2: Morris
S3: Fox
S4: Farrell (back from injury - but Turley's speed continues to tantalize.)
S5: Dunning

It is a sunny day and 57 degrees and the match is about to start..

[Eaglesfan27]

At the beginning of the match, I note the opposition is in a 3-2-2-1-2 with an emphasis on the attack.. I'm telling my defenders to hang back and going with a more defensive posture than usual to start the match, but keeping a 4-4-2 formation.

8 minutes into the match: Barnard makes a key header on a cross pass saving a likely goal as my keeper was out of position..

15 minute mark: Harrad receives a long pass from Artell, Harrad has a clear shot at goal.. Pettinger does a nice job to not only stop the shot but control the rebound.

28 minute mark: Black tackles Harrad in the box after Harrad receives a great pass from Roy Hunter. Penalty called.. Penalty shot awarded! Hunter takes the penalty shot.. low and to the left.. Pettinger dives.. and saves it!!

Lots of hard fighting with no scoring opportunities for the next 17 minutes.

At the 45 minute mark, Chris Brown plays a long ball for Turley.. Turley races ahead of the defense.. he is tackled from behind in the box.. he is called for diving!!! (Btw, this is the first time I've seen this so I think the patch fixed this issue) Yellow card for Turley.

0-0 at the half.

49 minute mark: Johnson is called for a trip on Hunter.. Johnson becomes angry and argues with the ref. Yellow card. Then, Turley becomes angry with the ref and argues.. Yellow card for him too.. his second... he is ejected!

We switch to a 4-4-1 as start going for the long ball to Donaldson...

65 minute mark: Shepherd is injured and has to come off the pitch. This is a hard fought battle with plenty of hard tackling..

I sub in Fox for Shepherd on the right wing. Also, Farrell comes in for Donaldson who is clearly becoming winded.

75 minute mark: Hunter gets called for a hard tackle on Atkins at midfield. Yellow card for Hunter.

On the ensuing direct kick, Atkins is elbowed hard by Mark Ward just outside the box. Yellow card for Mark Ward. We now have a free kick from just outside the box.

77 minute mark: After the defenders deflected the free kick away they mounted a counter attack that our defense stopped. Chris Brown fed a long ball to Farrell who races past the defense. However, he looks like he was a little offsides and gets called for it.

92 minute mark: Danny Holland takes the ball partially down the left side of the pitch. He sends a long pass into the box where Paul Mitchell has moved into position from the midfield. Mitchell heads the ball.. into the upper left corner of the net.. goal.

92 minute mark: Atkins plays the ball off of the tap down the pitch to Farrell.. Farrell makes a move on the defender. He shoots.. the keeper tips it over the bar.

93 minute mark: Wright feeds the ball to Farrell. Farrell gets off a last second shot from outside the box. The keeper deflects it. Artell clears the ball and the whistle sounds. Another disappointing loss, 1-0.


We are outshot 12-4. Grant Black wins MoM with 14 of 27 passes complete, 11 of 12 tackles won, 1 of 2 headers won, and 9 passes intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

Paul Shepherd has a strained groin (ouch!) and will be out for a few weeks. This will likely move Fox back into the starting 11.

[Eaglesfan27]

As I wait for the next match and tweak my tactics some more, I realize I have another problem. Our finances are a mess. We aren't even halfway through the season and our 50,000 dollar balance is used up. We have a wage budget of 4,600 per week and we have only been spending 4,300 per week. However, we are getting killed ground maintenance and "other" misc. fees. We are now 20,000 dollars in debt. I'm still not sure how that happened, but we need to find a way to draw more money into the club. We are averaging about 7,000 dollars a month in gate receipts.

[Eaglesfan27]

October 9th, 2004 -

As I watch England play Wales, I find myself wondering if my dream of managing that calibre of talent will ever be realized.

The Welsh keeper plays an incredible game and wins MoM but England's superior firepower finally breaks through in the 79th minute as Beckham sets up Michael Owen's game winning goal.

[Eaglesfan27]

October 13th, 2004 -

Watching England decimate Azerbaijan 3-0, I found myself day dreaming that I hate Rio Ferdinand to shore up my defense. He was spectacular, and he even scored a goal on a corner kick to make it 3-0. Joe Cole and Frank Lampard scored the other 2 goals. Steven Gerrard assisted on 2 of the goals with Owen Hargreaves assisting on the other.

Our next game is against Redditch and we are favored. I find myself dreaming up new tactics in case we don't win our next match...

[Eaglesfan27]

October 17th 2004,

Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell is the first big name to be fired. Javier Clemente is expected to take over the club according to most experts.

Also of note, another slew of players have refused to come join me as loan players despite their home clubs wanting them to come and get first team experience..

[Eaglesfan27]

October 19th, 2004 -

We are currently 22nd in the league and we are traveling to play Redditch today. Redditch is one of the few competitors who seem to be having trouble getting loan players. Simon Hollis their left winger has been their most consistent player. Matt Clarke their right full back has been anchoring the defense. Norman Sylia has been their top scorer and their most dangerous forward. We are 6-4 favorites, not that the oddsmakers have been doing much right when they pick us to win.

A few tweaks to the lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard (consistent at left full back)
DC: Chris Brown (loan player living up to my expectations)
DC: Leigh Wood (I haven't been happy with any of the options at this position, but he has been the best of the lot)
DR: Grant Black (Despite consistent ratings, he has disappointed, but I lack better options.)

ML: Wright (by far my most consistent guy IMO)
MC: Atkins (solid but not great like I expected.)
MC: Johnson (ditto - solid but not great like I expected.)
MR: Fox (poor production here all year.. Shepherd is onto the bench.)

FC: Farrell (Turley is suspended a game for his 2 yellow cards last game.)
FC: Donaldson (He hasn't really produced as much as I want, but he is my best forward even if he is a loaner. 7.12 avg is not as high as I'd like.)

S1: Buxton
S2: Colin Hunter (really only has skills for AMC IMO, but I want to see if I can work him in at some other spots, might even try him at forward.)
S3: Shepherd (will play only if injury to other midfielders)
S4: Justin Jackson (backup forward)
S5: Richard Dunning (want to get him more time)

It's a wet, muddy, 45 degrees today. Will be interesting to see how the team does on the slop.

[Eaglesfan27]

5 minutes in: My team is relying on the long ball more due to the wet conditions. Wood sends a long long pass to Donaldson who outjumps the defender. Donaldson heads it up the field.. he races to the ball.. the keeper races to the ball.. the keeper barely wins the race as he dives on it.

17 minute mark: Atkins plays a great long ball to Donaldson who beats his defender.. he runs into the box and is about to shoot when Nick Williams makes a crucial tackle stopping Donaldson from getting off a shot.

19 minute mark: Atkins plays a long ball right into the box and Farrell chases it down.. he is about to shoot when is tackled from behind by Williams.. Penalty shot awarded! Without Shepherd on the pitch, Barnard is the best penalty kicker. He takes it and drills it into the right lower corner. Goal!!!!

30 minute mark: Nick Williams floats a long pass from the right wing to Jordan King who heads it (despite being bracketed by both of my DC's) and Pettinger stares in shock as the ball floats past his left hand.

1-1 at the half as lots of hard tackling occurs but no more scoring opportunities materialize.

52 minute mark Brown gets a yellow card as he lays a hard tackle on Norman Sylia.

58 minute mark: Asa Charlton picks up a yellow card for a hard tackle on Donaldson.

60 minute mark: Barnard becomes daring dribbling the ball up the left side of the pitch.. he passes to wright.. and then instead of retreating as one might expect him to do, he races up the left side of the field. Wright hits him with the pass. Barnard crosses to Donaldson who is in the center of the box. Charlton tries to head the ball but misses. Donaldson gets it and heads it past the keeper into the middle of the net.. GOAL!!!!!! 2-1 us.

62 minute mark: Leigh Wood gets a yellow card for a hard tackle on Norman Sylia. I don't mind as it was likely a goal saving tackle with Sylia having open pitch in front of him.

64 minute mark: Realizing that Donaldson is getting winded, and that I have the lead. I decide to pull him and try out the 4-5-1 I've been tinkering with. I put Shepherd in as the 5 midfielder (center) and I sub in Dunning for Atkins who is winded. Also, going to a rather defensive posture looking for the counter attack..

68 minute mark: Wood makes a key header out of bounds to stop a potentially dangerous cross by the opposition through the box.

74 minute mark: After a flurry of deflections by our defenders that the opposition controls, Brown steals a pass and sends it long to Farrell. Farrell races back.. he takes it into the box.. he shoots low and hard towards the left corner.. the keeper dives.. he can't get it.. GOAL!!!! 3-1!

83 minute mark: Brown makes a great intervention on a Richard Leadbeater dribble into the box. Brown tackles him hard and Leadbeater is hurt, but it was a nice clean tackle that lead to a clearance..

92 minute mark: My keeper feeds it up to Farrell.. Farrell passes it back to Dunning.. Dunning is at the midfield circle. He passes it up to Johnson.. Johnson feeds a through ball between two defenders to give Farrell a 1-1 opportunity with the keeper.. he shoots hard and straight.. the keeper deflects it.. but it still goes in!! GOAL!!! That is 2 for Farrell who is showing that he does have some potential. I'm also thinking that the 4-5-1 has more potential than I gave it credit for..

Final score 4-1 Win for Harrogate Town!!! This was our first road win.

We were outshot 15-9.

Andy Farrell wins MoM due to completing 21 of 25 passes, 2 of 4 tackles, 1 of 7 headers, and 2 big goals. He drew 2 fouls and had 4 of our 9 shots.

[jbmagic]

awesome dynasty

can you post the current standings for your division

thanks

[Eaglesfan27]

The Chairman made an announcement to the local press today that he was very pleased with our 4-1 win over Redditch United.

Stalybridge Celtic Manager Peter Wragg is talking trash to the press about Droylsden saying he believes they will be relegated to the England Regional Divisions this season. Interesting to see how the feud between these two will play out.

[Eaglesfan27]

awesome dynasty

can you post the current standings for your division

thanks
Thanks, and yes I can. Thanks to the print function working in FM2005 and the easy editor on this board, this should work fairly decent.


Opening the newspaper today, I notice that our fans can see that we have finally climbed a bit out of the cellar. Of course we are still far from the top half of the league as was/is expected of us:



<!--StartFragment --> <TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>Pos</TD> <TD>Inf</TD> <TD>Team</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Pld</TD> <TD>Won</TD> <TD>Drn</TD> <TD>Lst</TD> <TD>For</TD> <TD>Ag</TD> <TD>G.D.</TD> <TD>Pts</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>1st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Nuneaton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>13</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>+8</TD> <TD>22</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>2nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Barrow</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>17</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>+12</TD> <TD>17</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>3rd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worcester</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>+6</TD> <TD>17</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>4th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lancaster</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>+5</TD> <TD>13</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>5th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Vauxhall Motors</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>16</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>+4</TD> <TD>13</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>6th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Alfreton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>+3</TD> <TD>13</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>7th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Runcorn</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>13</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>8th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worksop</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>14</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>+4</TD> <TD>12</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>9th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stafford Rangers</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>17</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>+2</TD> <TD>12</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>10th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hinckley</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>12</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>11th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Southport</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>-4</TD> <TD>12</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>12th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Kettering</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>+1</TD> <TD>11</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>13th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hucknall</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>14</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>11</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>14th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Altrincham</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>11</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>15th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Ashton Utd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>10</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>16th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stalybridge</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>14</TD> <TD>-7</TD> <TD>10</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>17th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Moor Green</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>0</TD> <TD>9</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>18th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Redditch</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>-4</TD> <TD>9</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>19th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Bradford PA</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>0</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>-7</TD> <TD>9</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>20th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Harrogate Town</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>-3</TD> <TD>8</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>21st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Droylsden</TD> <TD></TD><TD>9</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>-5</TD> <TD>7</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>22nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Gainsborough</TD> <TD></TD><TD>8</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>-5</TD> <TD>6</TD></TR>

[Eaglesfan27]

This week in practice as we work on the 4-5-1 more, I see a new lively step in the players. Morale is better than it has been all season. This big win could be the springboard to a winning streak. It's amazing how fast things can change. Hopefully, we can keep the good feelings around the team and get on a good roll.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we host 1st place Nuneaton. They have no loan players, but it's clear to see why they are number 1. Their top striker is Gez Murphy and he is a 25 year old entering his prime. He is a very dangerous finisher and already has 9 goals on the season in 10 appearances. Left Winger, Stuart Whittaker is a relentess pacey veteran who is dangerous with the ball in the midfield. Gary Fitzpatrick is a 33 year old veteran midfielder who is losing his physical skills, but makes up for it with excellent mental awareness on the field. He rarely makes mistakes. Their top DC, Steve Welsh is injured which should help our chances some. Not surprisingly, they are 5:4 favorites to win the match.

We are going with a 4-5-1 today, in part because of the offensive ability of our opponent. The other obvious reason was our scoring burst in the last game once we implemented the 4-5-1. We will focus on playing very defensively and counterattacking where the opportunity presents itself.

The Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Brown
DC: Wood
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Atkins
MC: Shepherd
MC: Johnson
MR: Fox
SC: Farrell (He earned this start with his 2 goals last game.. it was a tough choice, but Donaldson is a loaner and if Farrell can start scoring he will get the starts when I go to 1 striker)

S1 Buxton
S2 Donaldson
S3 Hunter
S4 Curtis
S5 Dunning

It's a dry cold 37 degrees today. The match is about to start.

[LionsFan10]

Hey Eagles, great read as always. I was just wondering if you were being forced to watch your U18 and Reserve teams play while in-between the "big" games? I am being forced to watch these matches, even though I have my asst. manager set to control these teams, well everything except contract negotiations, which I take care of. I'm playing Exeter in the English Conference National with a fake league universe. Just wondering I missed an option somewhere ...

[Eaglesfan27]

4 minutes into the match Brown makes a key header away on a cross. Atkins feeds the ball long for Farrell, but the defense catches him and forces the ball out of bounds giving us a corner. Unfortunately, the keeper easily intercepts the corner kick.

7 minutes: Carl Adams gets a yellow card for holding Farrell on the counter attack.

20 minute mark: Our defense seems to have been frustrating the opposition as they aren't getting any good scoring opportunities. At this point, our counter attack strikes again as the long pass from Atkins heads towards Farrell, the keeper comes way out of goal outside the box to kick away the pass. However, he misstrikes the ball and sends it right to Farrell who was chasing the ball down. The keeper can't do anything but look as Farrell dribbles past him and easily shoots the ball into the goal from 25 yards out! GOAL!!!!!!

40 minute mark: Farrell fights past the defender to get off a shot on goal which is tipped over the bar. On the ensuing corner kick the defender heads it back towards the corner taker, Wright. Wright then passes back to Johnson who draws the defenders towards him. Johnson then passes the ball back to Wright who is outside the box to the left of goal. Wright crosses towards Atkins.. Atkins heads the ball. Love the defender for Nuneaton tries to handle Atkins header, but he just redirects it past his own keeper for the goal!!!!

2-0 us. Love gets blame for an own goal.

Our defense continues to frustrate the opposition and at the 45 minute mark Farrell almost scores again on the counter attack as Wright sends him a great ball. Farrell's shot just hits the crossbar and skims over it.

2-0 at the half.

52 minute mark: Black makes a key block on a shot by Gez Murphy and deflects it out of bounds.

62 minute mark: I sub Donaldson in for the winded Farrell, Dunning comes in for the tired Wright, and Hunter comes in for Johnson.

70 minute mark: Brown heads away a pass intended for Murphy. Dunning takes the ball up the left side of the pitch, and makes a nifty pass to Atkins. Atkins passes back to Dunning who centers for Donaldson. Donaldson shoots... it's.. high.

85 minute mark: Our defense stops a flurry of shots (prior to them reaching the keeper) and then finally clears it. Fox takes it up the right wing and centers for Chris Brown?!? (What the heck is he doing up there) Brown shoots.. far wide right.

We end up preventing up any further good scoring opportunities.

Game over 2-0 win!!

We were outshot 4-2, but certainly made those 2 count.

Atkins won MoM with 33 of 37 passes complete, 1 of 2 tackles won, 4 of 4 headers won, 2 passes intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

Hey Eagles, great read as always. I was just wondering if you were being forced to watch your U18 and Reserve teams play while in-between the "big" games? I am being forced to watch these matches, even though I have my asst. manager set to control these teams, well everything except contract negotiations, which I take care of. I'm playing Exeter in the English Conference National with a fake league universe. Just wondering I missed an option somewhere ...
No, that is odd but I haven't had to watch any U18 or reserve matches :confused:

I don't have an AM to run those matches either. I'm not getting reports about those games either. It's processing right now, but will check that in a second...

Well crap! I'm glad you asked that question. Apparently my 2 U18 players and my 3 reserves haven't played any games all year!! I thought their would be a league schedule for the reserves and U18's automatically? Apparently not, and since I don't have an AM no friendlies were arranged for them. I guess I have some friendlies to arrange to get these guys some PT.

[Eaglesfan27]

October 25th, 2004 -

West Ham has fired Alan Pardew today. Javier Clemente is also the favorite for this job.

Paul Merson has been fired by Walsall today as well. Trevor Francis is the favorite to take over the job according to the newspaper.

Also, Marseille has fired Jose Anigo. Gerard Gili is the favorite to take over that job.

Finally, today we received some potentially excellent news as the 1st round draw for the English FA cup occurred. We will host Croydon Athletic in the 1st round which should be a winnable game for us. Particularly, if we can continue the good play of late.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola - I'm a little confused how I'm in this cup match as I lost the 2nd round qualifying match?

[Desnudo]

Are you sure it wasn't FA Trophy instead of FA Cup?

[Eaglesfan27]

My bad. You are correct, I'm now scheduled to play the 1st round of the FA trophy against Croydon Athletic. Thanks for clearing that up. The match will be in 8 days on Nov 6, 2004.

[Eaglesfan27]

October 30th, 2004 -

Jupp Heynckes, the German born manager, takes over the head job at Leeds.

The highly respected Argentian manager, Carlos Bianchi takes over management of Marseille.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we are in 16th place, and we are hosting 8th placed Southport. Jerome Fitzgerald their right fullback is the rock of their defense so far this year. Kevin Leadbetter has been their main thread among forwards with 2 goals and 4 assists. Steve Pickford has been the main man in the midfield. Their team looks average in many ways, and I'm surprised that they are 4:5 favorites and the odds for us winning are 3:1.

Given the success last game, I'm using the 4-5-1 again, and the exact same lineup. Morale is high among the guys playing, and I'm riding the hot hands right now.

It's a dry cool 33 degrees today.

[Eaglesfan27]

7 minutes: Alex Mortimer, their main DC is given a yellow card for tripping Farrell who might have burnt him otherwise.

9 minute mark: Farrell receives the long pass from Atkins to the left corner of the pitch. He holds up a minute waiting for some help.. he centers to Johnson.. Johnson is in the box and heads the ball.. the keeper dives to his left.. he barely tips it over the bar.

19 minute mark: Atkins receives a corner kick from Fox.. He has a second to wind up.. he drills the shot right into a defender.. the ball bounces harmlessly away.

23 minute mark: Black makes a huge tackle as the opposition somehow managed to get a 3 on 2 breakaway. Fortunately, Black sends it out of bounds after making the tackle.

42 minute mark: Atkins gets a nice pass back from Farrell. He drills a shot, but the keeper makes the save.

45 minute mark: Wright picks up a minor injury, but seems to be limping. I have a tough decision on whether to yank him.. I'm going to watch him closely for the next few minutes to see if he can shake it off..

0-0 at the half.

50 minute mark: Wright seems to be fine now. On a free kick (thanks to a penalty drawn by Farrell) Atkins kicks it back a bit to Chris Brown who unleases a hard shot on goal from 30 yards out. It barely goes over the bar.

55 minute mark: Liam Watson gets a yellow card for pulling on Chris Brown's shirt as brown is getting himself more involved with the offense than I necessarily want him to be.

64 minute mark: I sub out the injured/tired Wright for Dunning. I put Hunter in for Johnson who has just picked up a minor injury (hopefully), and I sub in Donaldson for Farrell who is tired.

75 minute mark: Atkins sends a ball from the center of midfield into the box.. Donaldson is racing towards it, but the keeper beats him to it and kicks it out of bounds around midfield.

87 minute mark: Fox takes the corner kick which Shepherd heads towards goal. The keeper punches it away. Brown gathers the rebound and shoots.. over the net.

92 minute mark: Fox takes the corner kick and Donaldson connects with the header... but the keeper tips it over the bar. The ensuing corner is cleared by the defense.

0-0 tie is the final score.

We outshot our opposition 12-2.

Jemal Johnson wins MoM with 19 of 22 passes completed, 4 of 5 tackles won, 4 of 6 headers won, and 1 pass intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 1st, 2004 -

Met with my boss today. He is "satisfied" with my performance. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. I better keep up the winning and start moving further up the table towards the top half like he expected for this season.

[Eaglesfan27]

Nov 6, 2004 -

Today we host Croydon Athletic. They are a semi-professional team that don't have any full time players. As a result, I don't have any statistics to review. It looks like we should dominate this team in the 1st round of the English FA trophy. We are 1:8 favorites with 12:1 odds that Croydon will win. This is by far the best odds I've ever had with this team.

Despite our expected dominance, I'm keeping my defensive 4-5-1 with a counterattack offense, as we haven't lost since we went to this formation.

I'm keeping the same lineup as last match, as we desperately need the money from this trophy, and I can't take the chance of taking any team too lightly.

It's a crisp dry 46 degrees.

[SirFozzie]

The FA Trophy's for non-League teams (by that, it means no Premiership, Championship, League 1 and League 2 teams), so it's for the Conference down.. it's a cup tho.. and be nice to play at Wembley, huh? :D

[Eaglesfan27]

5 minute mark: Black steals the ball from Croydon's striker. He feeds the ball up ahead to Atkins who passes wide to Wright. Wright plays the ball up to Farrell who easily beats the defense.. Farrell takes it into the box.. and loses control of the ball, bad dribble, giving the defense time to get back and clear it.

19 minute mark: Barnard comes off with an injury. He can't play any longer. I'll sub Dunning in for him.

27 minute mark: Brown steals a pass in our own box, he sends a long pass ahead to Johnson.. Johnson shoots from outside the box.. stopped by the keeper.

29 minute mark: Farrell receives a corner kick. He turns.. he shoots.. blasts the shot.. the keeper punches it away.. Johnson shoots.. the keeper punches it away.. Brown gets the rebound.. shoots over the bar.

44 minute mark: Farrell gets a breakaway.. he shoots.. keeper deflects it.. Atkins picks up the rebound.. shoots.. hits a defender in the body.. Johnson gets the rebound.. shoots.. hits a defender... Farrell gets the rebound.. shoots.. hits the crossbar.. defense clears it..

Halftime: 0-0.

57 minute mark: Fox dribbles down the right side of the pitch.. plays a great cross.. Farrell is by the far post.. keeper comes out and grabs it just before it reaches Farrell.

64 minute mark: Wright picks up a minor injury, but I decide to remove him. I move Dunning up to the left wing spot. I bring Curtis into the DL spot (he can play DC or DL), and I yank Shepherd who is winded, and switch to a 4-4-2 (defensive orientation still with the counter attack) by bringing Donaldson onto the pitch to play alongside Farrell.

66 minute mark: I question the wisdom of my move as Croydon gets their first break away 2 minutes after I make this move... Richard Harris receives a long pass on the counter attack.. Chris Brown is back.. but Richard Harris makes a move on him faking left and going right.. he burns Brown.. into the box.. he shoots towards the upper right corner.. my keeper dives.. tips it.. still finds the net. 1-0

74 minute mark: Brown heads a crossing pass away. Atkins collects the ball at midfield.. he sends it up the field to Farrell.. Farrell takes the ball into the box.. he fakes left, goes right.. shoots to the lower right corner.. off the post... and in!!!! GOAL!!!!! 1-1

77 minute mark: Brown heads away the keeper's very long pass just outside our box. Atkins passes it up ahead to Farrell. Farrell is all alone.. FLAG for offsides. No wonder he was all alone.

78 minute mark: Wood heads away a long pass by the opposition.. he heads it just short of midfield... Farrell takes it.. he flicks it ahead to Donaldson.. Donaldson races past the defense.. he dribbles from 40 yards out.. 30 yards out.. 20 yards out.. into the box.. he looks at the keeper for a second and flicks it into the lower right corner... goal!!!!! 2-1

88 minute mark: Atkins sends another long ball into the Box.. Donaldson collects it.. pressured by the defense from behind.. he shoots... just wide left.

89 minute mark: Farrell steals the ball at midfield.. he flicks a long pass up to Donaldson.. Donaldson is being chased down from behind.. he runs into the box.. he aims for the lower left corner.. he shoots... he scores!!!! 3-1. Our 171 fans erupt into applause.

91 minute mark: Dunning steals the ball from the right winger.. he dribbles up the field towards the corner.. he centers it.. Farrell controls it.. he sends a quick pass to Donaldson.. can he get the hat trick... Donaldson shoots.. over the bar..

3-1 Final score. Our fans give us a standing ovation (all 171 of them).

We outshot them 18-2

Atkins gets a 10 for form and wins MoM with 62 of 68 passes complete, 0 tackles, 5 of 5 headers, and 1 credited assist.

[Eaglesfan27]

The FA Trophy's for non-League teams (by that, it means no Premiership, Championship, League 1 and League 2 teams), so it's for the Conference down.. it's a cup tho.. and be nice to play at Wembley, huh? :D
Yes, it would be :)

[Eaglesfan27]

Yes!!!

We were awarded 4,000 dollars for winning the 1st round the FA trophy.

No! Mark Barnard will miss about a month with strained knee ligments. Dunning will likely have to play left full back, With Colin Hunter being my main backup for all midfield positions now.

A local newspaper journalist wants to know how we will handle playing without Barnard. I debated on several different ways to handle this situation. I don't want to disparage Mark's contributions, but I need to let the team know that I'm not worried (even if I am) I tell the reporter that one player doesn't make a team, and that my squad will cover his absence well.

[MizzouRah]

Yes!!!

We were awarded 4,000 dollars for winning the 1st round the FA trophy.

No! Mark Barnard will miss about a month with strained knee ligments. Dunning will likely have to play left full back, With Colin Hunter being my main backup for all midfield positions now.

A local newspaper journalist wants to know how we will handle playing without Barnard. I debated on several different ways to handle this situation. I don't want to disparage Mark's contributions, but I need to let the team know that I'm not worried (even if I am) I tell the reporter that one player doesn't make a team, and that my squad will cover his absence well.

Wow, this game seems really deep. Which by the way, I figured just by the CM enthusiasts here, but I've never really thought much of CM and I think I've been too short on trying to like the FM Demo.

Great read!

Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

November 8th, 2004

Atkins twisted his knee in practice today and is expected to miss a week. Our midfield will now be very thin (particularly if I run the 4-5-1) and we will be in significant trouble if another injury occurs. Despite this, I feel good about our current streak of no losses in the last 4 games.

[Eaglesfan27]

Wow, this game seems really deep. Which by the way, I figured just by the CM enthusiasts here, but I've never really thought much of CM and I think I've been too short on trying to like the FM Demo.

Great read!

Todd
Thanks for the compliment. Yes, it is very deep. By viewing player profiles, I see that most of the team is really happy with my response, and want to reward the confidence I'm showing in them. Not too surprisingly, Barnard is a little unhappy at my comment and his morale has gone down some (of course the injury could have done that too.)

[Eaglesfan27]

November 9th, 2004 -

The 2nd round of the FA Trophy was drawn today. I get the call and hear that we will be hosting our league foe Moor Green. We haven't played them yet this year, but they have several good transfer players. I'm glad it is least on our pitch.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 9th, 2004 -

We are now in 14th place and we host 6th place Stafford Rangers today. Stafford has a dangerous right winger, Robin Gibson who already has 7 assists and 2 goals. Neil Grayson is their *veteran* striker. The 40 year old hasn't slowed down much and he is their leading scorer with 8 goals on the season. His mental awareness on the field is truly a sight to behold. Chris Smith, their DC, is a rising star, and he is already playing very consistent defense. Their keeper James Lindley doesn't let many soft goals in and we will have to work to beat him. They are 5:4 favorites to beat us.

Our Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Dunning
DC: Brown
DC: Wood
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Hunter (I don't have much of a choice with the injury to Atkins)
MC: Shepherd
MC: Johnson
MR: Fox
SC: Farrell

S1 Buxton
S2 James Turley - I may have to play the speedster in the midfield (well out of position)
S3 Clayton Donaldson
S4 Lennie Curtis - really played subpar defense, but he is my top backup defender now
S5 Dominique Krief - the kid has great speed, but not much else. I might have to play him in the midfield.


It's a dry cool 37 degrees today, and the match is about to begin.

[MizzouRah]

How many games are in a season?


MR

[Eaglesfan27]

Crap. Just before the match is about to begin Atkins lets me know that he has lost confidence in my ability to manage, and thinks he should be manager of this team. He is playing the best on the team (7.54.) I'll have to think about how to handle this. Least he isn't saying this in front of the whole team. I'll have to monitor the team in practice, to see if I think I'm losing anyone else..

Well, it's game time:

2 minute mark: Neil Kelly gets a yellow card for a hard tackle on fox out on the wing.

9 minute mark: Craig Lovatt gets a yellow card for a hard tackle on Farrell. Mr. Sukhdev Thiarra seems to be a ref who calls a tight match.

24 minute mark: Gibson dribbles up the right wing... takes it in some towards the right corner of the box.. sends a short cross to Mulligan.. Mulligan heads it.. Pettinger waves futilely as it sails over his left shoulder. Goal. 1-0

35 minute mark: Hunter steals the ball at midfield.. he sends a quick pass to his right to Shepherd. Shepherd send a very good 20 yard pass into the box towards Farrell. The keeper races towards it.. Farrell races towards it.. Farrell gets it.. feints to the right of the keeper and taps it in around him!!! GOAL!!!!!!! 1-1 That is Farrell's 5th of the year in league play.

44 minute mark: Grayson unleashes a powerful shot from just outside the box.. it deflects off Brown.. towards the goal.. I'm amazed as Pettinger dives and catches it just before it crosses the line.

Halftime: 1-1

48 minute mark: Dunning makes a brilliant sliding tackle to prevent Grayson from getting a very good shot at goal from point blank range.

57 minute mark: Farrell on the break, he takes it into the left corner of the box.. he crosses to Fox.. Fox unleashes a powerful volley towards the left upper corner of the net.. the keeper barely tips it over.

61 minute mark: Gibson gets the ball to Grayson right in the center of the box with a good pass. Grayson shoots.. Pettinger calmly saves it and clutches it to his chest.

63 minute mark: Farrell is winded, so Donaldson is subbed for him. Also, Wright is quite winded. I move Dunning up to left wing, and put Curtis in at left full back.

71 minute mark: Shepherd is injured, and I decide to go to a 4-4-2 as a result, and put Turley in his natural position of Striker.

82 minute mark: Dunning dribbles it up the left side of the pitch.. he crosses it short to Turley. Turley shoots.. wide right on the sharp angled shot.

84 minute mark: Pettinger makes a wonderful save on a point blank shot from Gibson.

Final score: 1-1

We were outshot 13-8

Neil Kelly wins MoM, 15 of 25 passes complete, 11 of 14 tackles, 7 of 8 headers won, 4 passes intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

How many games are in a season?


MR
42 regular season games in the league I'm in (I play each opponent once at home and once away.) I'm currently 4-3-5 and in 14th place.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 10th, 2004 -

Paul Shepherd is out for a few weeks with a groin strain. We are now very thin in the midfield, and I'll likely have to shelf the 4-5-1 for a week or two, and go to a defensive 4-4-2. Also, I've been monitoring the guys in practice today, and I don't think anyone besides Atkins is disillusioned with my management. However, that could change in time..

[Eaglesfan27]

November 17th, 2004 -

We are currently ranked 15th, and we are traveling to face 18th ranked Stalybridge. Stalybridge is being led by the veteran striker Andy Hayward who has 7 league goals. Gregg Pearce is the anchor of the defense. The relatively weak midfield is being led by Nathan Wharton. Craig Dootson has been very good in goal, but has been barraged by shots. Likely due to home field advantage Stalybridge is 6:4 favorites.

Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Dunning
DC: Brown (whose loan expires in a few days - I'm attempting to renew it.)
DC: Wood
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Hunter (in for the injured Atkins and Shepherd)
MC: Johnson
MR: Fox
SC: Farrell (the kid is steadily improving and could be an important part of our future, or part of our money making efforts..)
SC: Donaldson

S1: Buxton
S2: Turley
S3: Simon Sturdy (the kid might get some PT with the injuries..but that would be bad if it happens as he looks unprepared in practice.)

S4: Curtis
S5 Krief

It's dry and 45 degress today. The match is about to begin.

[Eaglesfan27]

1 minute mark: Grant Black gets a yellow card for tripping Hayward. Fortunately, this is judged to have occured outside the box.

2 minute mark: Donaldson is called for offsides on the counter attack. Donaldson is furious. He argues with the ref. He gets a yellow card.

7 minute mark: Calcutt receives the ball in the midfield.. he flicks it ahead to Hayward who makes it into the box.. Hayward shoots.. Pettinger blocks it but can't control the rebound. Damien Hindle gets to the rebound.. he shoots... low and towards the left corner. My keeper doesn't have a chance. Hindle scores. 1-0

30 minute mark: Farrell gets the ball in the box.. he tries to fake out the keeper.. the keeper stays in front of him.. he is cleanly tackled by a defender who has had a chance to catch up.

37 minute mark: Hunter feeds a great through pass between 2 defenders to Johnson.. Johnson is just outside the box.. the keeper is coming out to meet him.. Johnson shoots.. way over the bar!

41 minute mark: Fox gets called for holding Whealing's jersey and receives a yellow card.

43 minute mark: Farrell makes a nifty pass from just left of the box to Donaldson who passes to his right to Johnson. Johnson shoots.. he beats the keeper, but it is just left of the goal post.

1-0 at the half and I notice that Fox is having the worst half of football so far that I've seen from any of my guys.. I debate on pulling him, but there are no good viable replacements. Despite that I will pull him if he doesn't start making better plays in the next 10 minutes..

52 minute mark: Fox gets called for tripped Haywood inside our half. Stokes takes the free kick from about 30 yards out. Stokes shot deflects off the wall (I think it was Curtis) and goes into the upper right portion of the net. The keeper is totally out of position for this deflection, but I can't blame him as that was a fluke deflection. 2-0 Stalybridge

Fox has a 4 for form, and he has made several bad plays. I yank him. I bring in the speedster Krief to see what he can do.

56 minute mark: Krief fights his man for the ball.. they are fighting furiously with their feet.. vying for the ball.. Krief finally wins control.. he dribbles furiously down the right sideline.. he crosses.. not a bad pass, much better than I've seen in practice.. Farrell has a shot.. he shoots.... Over the net.

65 minute mark: Donaldson is winded and has a yellow card, so I sub in the speedster Turley.

80 minute mark: Turley receives a long pass from Hunter. Turley dribbles into the box. He shoots.. the keeper stops it.

81 minute mark: Krief gets called for pulling the shirt of his man. Yellow card.

2-0 final score.

We were outshot 16-7 and I feel like this was one of our poorest efforts this season. I don't know if it is just because the team misses Atkins who is out on injury. He has been our captain all year. Conversely, is his discontent spreading to the rest of the team..

Gregg Pearce won MoM with stellar defense. He completed 22 of 29 passes, 4 of 4 tackles, and 12 of 13 headers.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 21st, 2004

Chris Brown's team, Huddersfield, rejected my initial attempt to renew his loan. I up my offer to pay 20% of his contract and see if they will accept.

West Ham has hired "legendary" manager Javier Clemente.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we travel to play 10th ranked Kettering Town. We are currently 19th in the league. Kettering's defense is lead by their loan player Ashley Westwood (Northampton). Simon Ward has been playing spectacularly in goal for Kettering with 4 clean sheets already this year. Oliver Burgess is the main man in the middle of the field. He has 4 assists and 3 goals so far this year. Darren Lynch is the main force at Striker and he has 3 goals on the year with 2 assists. Kettering is heavily favored at 4:5 odds.

We are switching to our 4-5-1 as Atkins is back from his injury. I have to play him as he is so important to the team, and hope that I can win back his trust. I thought about disciplining him, but I need him to be giving 100%.

Our starting lineup is exactly the same as last time except Atkins is starting in the midfield between Hunter and Johnson. Donaldson moves back to the bench. Simon Sturdy moves back to the reserve team. Krief stays on the bench as he did make one good play last game..

It's wet and 42 degrees today. The field is muddy.

[Eaglesfan27]

3 minute mark: Black stops a drive by Burgess. He flicks the ball out to Fox.. Fox dribbles up the right sideline to about midfield. Then, he is challenged and lofts a pass down the sideline. Johnson races to it.. He centers.. Farrell controls the center.. settles the ball.. shoots.. hard down and low towards the left corner of the net.. the keeper can't get it... GOAL!!!! 1-0

6 minute mark: Lynch gets a breakaway against us. He dribbles into the box.. Brown is chasing him down.. Lynch shoots.. over the bar.

9 minute mark: Drew Roberts gets called for holding Farrell. Yellow card to Roberts and we have a free kick from just outside the box.

12 minute mark: Lynch receives a long pass from Westwood.. he dribbles towards our box.. he passes it to Drew Roberts.. Roberts passes back to Lynch.. Lynch shoots... Pettinger tips it over the bar with a play to his left.

20 minute mark: Colin Hunter is called for holding Burgess' shirt. Yellow card.

24 minute mark: Burgess passes to Roberts who passes to Lynch.. Lynch unleashes a hard shot.. Pettinger does brilliantly to turn it over the bar!

27 minute mark: Dunk passes it to Lynch in the left corner of the box.. Lynch dribbles towards the goal.. he shoots.. hard and high angled shot to the upper right corner.. Pettinger waves at it, but he can't get to it.. goal.

29 minute mark: Niall Inman gets called for holding Atkins jersey, yellow card for Inman.

34 minute mark: Grant Black makes a great tackle in the center of the box to stop Lynch's shot from point blank range.

1-1 at the half.

46 minute mark: Johnson receives the ball and takes it up the right sideline.. he crosses it towards the far post.. Farrell controls it and shoots the angled shot towards the upper right corner of the goal... Ward tips it over the crossbar.

56 minute mark: Burgess sends it to the left corner of my zone. Lynch barely chases it down before it goes out of bounds. He sends a wild curving cross to Daniel French. French heads it towards goal.. Pettinger blocks it but can't control the rebound.. French taps in the rebound for the goal. 2-1

64 minute mark: Hunter is exhausted so I put Krief on for him. Also, Farrell is tired, so I put Donaldson on for him.

66 minute mark: Krief makes a surprisingly good long pass to Donaldson. Donaldson takes it into the box.. he puts a move on the keeper.. the keeper stays in front of him and cuts the angle off.. he shoots.. hard angle towards the left goal post.. past the keeper... and wide.

71 minute mark: Krief makes an important tackle back in the box on Lynch.. He gets up and flicks the ball ahead to Atkins who hits Donaldson with a perfect pass in the box. Ward comes out to cut down the angle.. Donaldson shoots.. Ward gets a piece of it.. it trickles towards the goal.. Westwood beats the ball to the goal line and clears it wide of the net.

75 minute mark: Burgress gets a yellow card for holding Krief.. the kid is playing better in a game than he practices..

80 minute mark: Wright is exhausted, so I pull him and bring Turley into the game putting him up front alongside Donaldson. I move Krief onto the left wing (significantly out of position)

85 minute mark: Krief makes a nice pass to Atkins who passes to Turley in the box.. Turley has to shoot immediately as the defense is closing down on him.. he shoots.. over the bar.

88 minute mark: Brown makes a key header on a cross from Lynch.. he sends it out to Atkins who flicks it ahead to Krief.. Krief runs past his man and races down the pitch.. into the box.. he shoots as the keeper rushes out to meet him.. it's WAY high.

Final Whistle Blows: 2-1 loss for us.

We were outshot 11-8

Darren Lynch won MoM as he was all over the pitch. 25 of 29 passes complete, 1 of 1 tackles won, 5 of 8 headers won, 1 goal and 1 assist.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 24, 2004 -

Chris Brown has gone back to his team as they refused to loan him any longer. I've also officially been rejected by 47 different players whose teams agreed to send the player, but the player refused to come on loan.

My defense just lost a big piece of stability.. and it will be interesting to see how we respond.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we face Moor Green in the 2nd round of English FA Trophy. Moor Green is led by the excellent keeper they have on loan from Oldham, Craig Mawson. Since coming to the team last month, they have had 3 shutouts. Guy Sanders is a central defender who provides excellent defense in front of the Mawson. Neil Davis and Sean Dowdall are their tandem strikers who are a deadly duo and each has 7 league goals at this point. Despite all of this, we are 5:4 favorites.

Our Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Dunning
DC: Shepherd (he can play midfield or DC, and we need his relatively good tackling and heading ability back there. Besides which I'm convinced Curtis cannot be trusted back there for prolonged periods.)
DC: Leigh Wood
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Hunter
MC: Atkins
MC: Johnson
MR: Fox
SC: Farrell

S1: Buxton
S2: Turley
S3: Donaldson
S4: Curtis
S5 Krief (who is making an argument for being in the starting lineup.)

It's a dry cool 40 degrees today.

[Crapshoot]

November 24, 2004 -

Chris Brown has gone back to his team as they refused to loan him any longer. I've also officially been rejected by 47 different players whose teams agreed to send the player, but the player refused to come on loan.

My defense just lost a big piece of stability.. and it will be interesting to see how we respond.

Yeah - its par for the course at that level.- no professional really wants to play in the conference.. :D

On the bright side, if you get promoted- things will look better...

[Eaglesfan27]

6 minute mark: Dunning saves a definite goal as he stops Dowdall with a tackle right after Dowdall dribbles the ball past my keeper. Dunning clears the ball to Johnson who is called for unfairly jumping with a midfielder. Johnson is furious and argues with the ref. He gets a yellow card.

8 minute mark: Shepherd makes a big tackle on Dowdall that stops him from getting off a shot inside the box.

9 minute mark: My keeper sends it long to Wright on the left wing.. Wright sends a long pass to Farrell who outraces the defense.. 2 dribbles into the box.. defender approaching behind him.. he shoots.. low and to the right.. goal!!!!!! 1-0

20 minute mark: Pettinger kicks the ball long.. it bounces in the opposition's turf.. Farrell tracks it down.. the keeper comes out to challenge him.. Farrell shoots.. over the bar.

1-0 at the half.

52 minute mark: Shepherd clears a ball to the left wing.. Wright sends a pass into the oppositions Turf. Farrell chases it down.. he is about 15 yards out towards the left corner of the box.. he shoots.. and goes for the narrow angle.. keeper is surprised and barely tips it over the bar.

57 minute mark: Atkins steals a pass from the midfielder.. sends a sharp pass to Wright.. Wright sends a pass from the left side of the midfield that bounces into the box.. Farrell is onto the ball quickly.. from about 10 yards.. immediately shoots.. down and to the left.. it's in!!!!! GOAL!!!! 2-0

62 minute mark: Krief is subbed in for the tired Johnson. I decide to leave Farrell in so that he can attempt to get the hat trick.

72 minute mark: Krief steals it from the opposition just to the right of the central circle.. he passes it to Atkins.. Atkins passes to Farrell who passes back to Hunter. Farrell races ahead at this point.. and Hunter immediately lofts the long pass from him. Farrell runs and catches the ball and shoots from just outside the 20 yard box.. slams it into the upper left corner!!! GOAL!!!! He has the hat trick.. the fans start shouting his name! (all 183 of them)


3-0 final score.

We outshot them 7-6

Farrell wins MoM with 9 of 13 passes completed, 1 of 7 headers won, 1 pass intercepted and 3 goals scored.

[Tekneek]

On the 2nd opportunity, David Jervis crosses the ball from the left wing to Carl Alford at striker.

Back in CM3, Carl Alford was with Stevenage Borough (the Conference club I traditionally start with). He was usually one of the best finishers for me. No shame in giving up a goal to that guy.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 28th, 2004

We were awarded 6,000 dollars for our win in the 2nd round of the English FA Trophy!

I treated the guys to a night out at our local pub. During the evening, I felt I got a good gauge of how guys are feeling about my management. The general consensus is that most of the team thinks we have much more potential than we are showing. However, they also seem to be behind me firmly. Atkins still seems to think that he would be a better manager, but he is telling me he will try his best to raise our league position. I believe him, and he continues to play well. Since he is one of my best players, I will continue to play him each game.

[Tekneek]

Boston Utd is offering 0 dollars and 10% of his next sales price.

A very interesting offer, but only because I've never seen one like that before. I'm holding off on ordering FM2005 until after the new year, so I'll be reading for any little tidbits that are unique to this release.

[Eaglesfan27]

November 29th, 2004 -

A dizzying number of managers are getting fired. I wonder how my meeting with my boss is going to go in 2 days.. In the meantime, I have a game to get ready for against my next opposition.

[MizzouRah]

Atkins still seems to think that he would be a better manager, but he is telling me he will try his best to raise our league position

What do you think would happen if you loaned this guy? (I'm assuming you can't trade him?)

I know he's a good player, but that has to be freaky having a good player wanting your job. Maybe he'll goto your boss and demand the position of coach or else he's leaving. :)

Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

November 29th, 2004

My lucky string of draws for the FA Trophy is over. At least I'll be the home team against Forest Green Rovers who are in the English Conference National. Perusing the newspaper, it appears they have several quality players.

My next game is against Hinckley on the road. They have Nicky Eyre on loan from Tottenham and he has been providing solid play in goal for them. He has 2 clean sheets in 5 matches. Adam Wills leads their defense and is playing spectacularly as their DC. Matthew Trevett is leading the midfield and has 7 assists. Nathan Lamey is their leading striker with 6 goals. We are 6:4 favorites.

I'm using the exact same lineup as last match despite it being only 3 days later.

It is a wet rainy day and the temperature is 54 degrees.

[Eaglesfan27]

What do you think would happen if you loaned this guy? (I'm assuming you can't trade him?)

I know he's a good player, but that has to be freaky having a good player wanting your job. Maybe he'll goto your boss and demand the position of coach or else he's leaving. :)

Todd
He used to play for top notch teams, and he still still good for my level of play, but honestly I can't get any money for loaning him. If I could, I would consider it. However, if I did that it would likely piss off the rest of my team since he is our captain and 3rd best player. That probably wouldn't be a good idea as right now at least the rest of the team is behind me. Also, he is my ONLY coach, so I wouldn't have anyone training the guys if I let him go. (For some reason, the manager can't coach any positions directly)

My best hope is that we start winning and he regains confidence in us..

[Eaglesfan27]

12 minute mark: David Nugent beats Wright and dribbles down the left side line.. crosses sharply to Paul Barnes.. Barnes shoots.. Pettinger barely tips it over the bar.

18 minute mark: WTF!! Paul Barnes just shoot a 30 yard blast that had wicked curve on it! I haven't seen that before at this level of play. Pettinger barely manages to punch it away with a last second dive.

18 minute mark: Black gathers up the rebound, and he sends a pass the length of the pitch... Farrell outraces the defender.. he gathers the ball up inside the box.. he dribbles to his right.. the keeper comes out to cut down the angle.. Farrell shoots.. and blasts it past the keeper into the lower right corner of the net!!! GOAL!!!! 1-0

That was Farrell's 10th league of the year.

25 minute mark: Wright steals the ball and centers to Atkins at midfield.. Atkins dribbles a few steps and sends pass to Farrell.. Farrell dribbles around the defender.. shoots.. the keeper tips it over the goal.

31 minute mark: Richard Lavery is given a yellow card for a trip on Atkins.

36 minute mark: Wright steals the ball.. centers to Atkins.. Atkins dribbles and floats a pass into the box.. Farrell gets it.. shoots.. down and to the left.. just wide.

40 minute mark: hunter steals the ball and plays it up to Farrell who is around mid field.. Farrell dribbles between two defenders buying himself space.. he dribbles to just outside the box.. defenders are recovering.. he shoots towards the upper left corner.. just wide.

1-0 at the half.

48 minute mark: my opposition changes for a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3.

The effects of playing on 3 days are showing.. Farrell is getting exhausted. So I sub him out at the 60 minute mark for Donaldson. Also Wright is exhausted. I sub in Krief for him. Finally, Johnson is exhausted so I sub in Turley (who is now clearly out of position as is Krief.)

70 minute mark: Atkins pass is intercepted by Matthew Trevett. Trevett passes to the left wing. Richard Lavery takes a few steps and sends a crisp low pass into the box. Matt Lewis takes the pass inside the box.. dribbles once.. shoots from left of goal.. he goes for the narrow angle and puts it into the upper left corner as my keeper was playing the wide angle. 1-1

89 minute mark: Krief makes a good move on his man and shoots a hard shot from outside the left side of the box.. the keeper deflects it.. Donaldson collects the rebound and passes it backwards to Turley.. Turley shoots at a WIDE open net.. over the bar.

1-1 Final Score.

I'm finding myself more and more impressed with Farrell every game.

We were outshot 20-8! (Mostly off target)

Nicky Eyre won MoM with a 9 form in goal.

[Eaglesfan27]

December 1st, 2004 -

I had the dreaded meeting with the chairman today. Surprisingly, (considering we are in 20th place) he is "pleased" with my performance. That is the word he used. I think that is better than satisfied. Hopefully, we can continue to improve our performance. The team morale seems to really be good now. Even Atkins seems to be less surly.

[Eaglesfan27]

December 8th -

We are currently ranked 20th and we host 2nd ranked Barrow today. This will be Jemal Johnson's last game with us as his loan is over and Blackburn wants him to return and won't extend the loan. Despite injuries to a few of their players Barrow has been playing explosive team ball. They have 4 goal scorers with at least 6 goals: Gavin Knight - a dangerous striker, Jamie Peterson - the best left winger I've seen yet, Michael Kewley - their 3rd dangerous striker (the 2nd is injured), and Graham Anthony their midfielder. Simon Bishop is a superior keeper who has 9 clean sheets in 15 league games so far. They are 6:4 favorites.

Our starting lineup has a slight alteration: Donaldson injured his wrist in practice yesterday, and will be out for a week or so. As a result, Lee Morris my backup striker will be the last sub.

It's a dry crisp 36 degrees today.

[MizzouRah]

You're doing well so far EF! Keep it up.


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

16 minute mark: After a mostly defensive battle, Pettinger gets called for Pushing Gavin Knight in the penatly box! Penalty awarded. Graham Anthony takes the penalty shot.. low and to the left... my keeper doesn't even move.. Goal. 1-0

38 minute mark: Shepherd heads a crossing pass away from my goal area.. Atkins passes to Fox.. Fox passes it long to just outside the penalty box.. Farrell catches up to the ball. He shoots... the keeper deflects it.. Farrell races to the ball.. he taps it in.. GOAL!!!!! 1-1

1-1 at half time.

60 minute mark: Farrell is tired. I sub in Turley for him. Also, Johnson is tired, and I don't want him to make a mistake so I sub him out and put Krief into the match.

A surprisingly boring 2nd half ends with a 1-1 tie.

Edit: Forgot the summary.

They outshot us 8-4.

Graham Anthony won MoM for them. He completed 34 of 38 passes, 4 of 5 tackles, 3 of 4 headers, and he intercepted 5 passes.

[Eaglesfan27]

September 29th, 2004 -

Boston Utd becomes the first team to offer me a deal on one of my players. They want one of my few U18 players. 16 year old Josh Bowker who plays the right wing. Bowker has limited technical talents at the moment, but fair physical talents. He is a remarkably determined young man who shows great dedication to practice. His wonderful mental attributes make me excited about the prospects for this kid.

Boston Utd is offering 0 dollars and 10% of his next sales price. I respectfully decline.
December 10th, 2004 -

My second offer for this kid comes through. Wakefield and Emley are offering me 52,000 dollars for this kid immediately. That would be a nice boost to the coffers! That also makes me wonder how this semi-professional team can afford to pay so much money for him. It's a tough decision, that I will consider carefully in the next week that I have to respond.

[Eaglesfan27]

December 11th, 2004 -

I decide to ask Mark Atkins for his opinion about everyone on the team now that he has had almost half a season to watch them. I also asked him about their response to training. I found it funny that he would comment that he is very pleased with his own high dedication to training. Unfortunately, he wouldn't give me a full report on himself. After reading his report on Josh, and reviewing Josh's work myself, I decide to sell the 17 year old. We are currently 70,000 dollars in debt, and the 52,000 dollars is just too much to ignore for this player. Yes, Josh has great dedication to training but his physical skills are still only average at best and his technical skills are quite mediocre at this point. Then again, I wonder why several clubs want him.. they might be seeing him as a star in the future. Oh well, I need money now. I agree to sell him.

[jbmagic]

how long is a loan? when do you get him back to your team?

[Eaglesfan27]

Currently we are ranked 18th and we are hosting 20th ranked Runcorn. They have Alan Julian on loan from Brentford and he is playing well with 2 clean sheets in 6 games for this club. David Ness anchors the defense. Lee Parle is the director of the midfield and he has 4 assists. Ged Courtney is the main scoring threat on the team and he has 6 league goals to this point. We are even odds favorite to win this game.

Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard (freshly back from his injury - seems like a good game for him to get his fitness back)
DC: Shepherd (doing well back in the defense)
DC: Wood
DR: Black
ML: Wright (7.42 avg form is second on the club)
MC: Hunter
MC: Atkins (7.47 avg leads the team)
MC: Krief (earns the start with some strong sub work since Johnson is gone)
MR: Fox
SC: Farrell (showing signs of being a star)

S1: Donaldson (recovered from injury)
S2: Turley
S3: Buxton
S4: Dunning (versatility returns to the bench)
S5: Curtis

It's 45 degrees and sunny today.

[Eaglesfan27]

how long is a loan? when do you get him back to your team?
A loan is either 3 months long or some are all season. In these cases, the teams insisted on only giving them to me for 3 months. Unfortunately, I won't be getting them back (unless the team changes their mind in the future and offers them on loan again.)

[Eaglesfan27]

I do seem to have Donaldson until the end of the season..

[Eaglesfan27]

Except for 1 weak shot on goal by Farrell, it's a VERY boring first half.

0-0 at the half.

60 minute mark: Still a boring game as both teams are playing 4-5-1 formation. I decide to sub out the tired Farrell with Donaldson. Also, Hunter is tired, so I sub him out and bring in Turley. I switch to a 4-4-2 with Turley up front alongside Donaldson.

72 minute mark: Wright is tired and he gets called for pulling his man's shirt. He gets a yellow card which in combination with his fatigue is enough to sub him out. I put Dunning in at his spot.

91 minute mark: After 19 more boring minutes.. Dunning crosses to Krief in the box!! Krief heads it.. it hits the bar.. bounces back to Krief.. he shoots.. the keeper punches it away.

Our 2nd 0-0 tie this year.

We outshot our opponent 5-0 as they played a very defensive 4-5-1 all game long.

Dominique Krief wins MoM in his first start! 19 of 25 passes complete, 1 of 1 tackles, 1 of 1 headers.

[Eaglesfan27]

December 13, 2004 -

Many interesting things in the newspaper today. Kevin Keegan resigned from Manchester City today. Glenn Hoddle is the leading candidate to replace him.

Liverpool's James Smith has joined Droylsden on loan. Pundits believe he will significantly help their defense.

Moor Green have bolstered their defense with the signing of experienced Welsh defender Marvin Arthur. Experts believe he will be a big aid to the team.

Bowker agreed to a contract with Wakefield and Emley and the 52,000 dollar deal has been completed.

[Eaglesfan27]

December 18th, 2004 -

Today we are ranked 18th and we are traveling to 16th ranked Ashton Utd. They have dangerous goal scorer Gary Birch on loan from Walsall. Jamie Miller is up front with him and has 8 goals on the year. Nicholas Clee plays solidly in the midfield. Darren Royle is the leader of the defense. Ashley Conner has 7 clean sheets in 21 appearances this year, and is a very good keeper.

Despite this we are 4:5 heavy favorites to win the match. We are using the same 4-5-1 and same lineup this match. It's 34 degrees wet and muddy.

[Eaglesfan27]

29 minute mark: Royle sends a long pass to Birch.. Birch takes it into the box and fires a hard shot.. Pettinger controls it.

32 minute mark: On the counter attack, Wright centers to Farrell. Farrell shoots but the keeper tips it over the bar.

36 minute mark: Atkins takes the corner.. Farrell receives it.. shoots.. keeper deflects it.. scramble for the ball.. Shepherd gets the ball.. shoots... keeper tips it over the bar.

41 minute mark: Pettinger stops a point blank shot from Clee.

60 minute mark: Within the span of a minute, both Wright and Farrell pick up injuries. Hopefully they aren't serious. I sub in Dunning for Wright. I sub Donaldson for Farrell. Also, I yank Hunter who is tired and bring in Turley switching my formation to a 4-4-2 defensive formation.

67 minute mark: Turley gets a long pass.. takes it into the corner.. feeds back to Atkins who is just outside the box.. Atkins shoots... the keeper stops it.

72 minute mark: Pettinger kicks the ball to Atkins.. Atkins sends it up the left side of the pitch to Turley.. Turley crosses to Donaldson.. Donaldson shoots.. keeper dives.. and blocks it.. defender clears it.

77 minute mark: Pettinger catches a corner kick.. he quickly kicks it long and deep.. Donaldson outraces the defense.. Donaldson dribbles it into the box... he shoots low and to the left.. the keeper dives... he misses it!!! GOAL!!!! 1-0

80 minute mark: Birch gets a breakaway on a long pass by Clee... he takes it from just outside the box.. he shoots a powerful shot... it hits the crossbar.. Black controls the rebound.. he sends a long pass over the defense... Turley races to catch up to it, but the keeper comes out of the box and kicks it away.

84 minute mark: Clee gets a yellow card for a hard dirty tackle on Atkins.

88 minute mark: Pettinger barely deflects a Clee shot wide of the goal.

91 minute mark: wild scramble in front of my net.. several defenders block several shots by my opponent.. finally Black clears it.

93 minute mark: Krief receives a long outlet pass from Black.. Krief shoots.. the keeper deflects it.. Turley gathers the rebound by the left post.. he tries to jam it in.. the keeper blocks it out of bounds.

Finally time runs out. 1-0 victory!

We were outshot 15-9. 9 of Ashton's shots were on goal, and not surprisingly Pettinger wins MoM with 9 big saves and the only assist of the match.

[SirFozzie]

Nice!

Looks like the tactics finally helped out ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

Post match news:

Farrell is out for at least 5 days with a strained neck. Grant Black is out for a few weeks with a twisted knee. That will be a bad blow to me as I'm very thin at right full back (Black was the only guy rated at the position..)

[Eaglesfan27]

Nice!

Looks like the tactics finally helped out ;)
Yeah, I resisted the 4-5-1 as I consider it a "boring" tactic. However, I'd rather be a little boring than fired ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

We are currently in 18th place and we are hosting 10th place Lancaster City today. Lancaster City is led by their main DC Joe McMahon. Steve Jones is the catalyst in the midfield and he has 4 assists and 4 goals on the season. Michael Yates is the danger up front and he has 9 goals on the season. Their keeper Mark Thornley has excellent reflexes and will be hard to score on today.

Starting Lineup is a bit different:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Shepherd
DC: Wood
DR: Curtis (I'm really unhappy with him here, but no choice.)
ML: Wright
MC: Hunter
MC: Atkins
MC: Krief
MR: Fox
SC: Donaldson (Farrell out with injury)

S1 Turley
S2 Buxton
S3 Dunning
S4 Sturdy
S5 Morris

It's 37 degrees and dry today.

[Eaglesfan27]

29 minute mark: Atkins gets a pass from Wright.. he shoots a hard shot from just outside the box. Thornley easily handles the shot. On the counter attack, Krief has to tackle Steve Jones from behind. He earns the yellow card.

44 minute mark: Barnard is called for a hard tackle on Steve Jones.. Yellow card.

47 minute mark: Atkins is tackled just outside the box. Yellow card on Ryan-Zico Black. Free kick is taken by Fox.. he blasts a shot between a slot in the wall.. the keeper is surprised (perhaps screened by the wall) he makes a diving grab at it.. it deflects off of his fingers.. and in!!! Fox's 1st goal!!! 1-0

1-0 at the half.

60 minute mark: Curtis who has played surprisingly well at right fullback gets a yellow card for a hard tackle on Michael Yates. Donaldson is winded, so Turley comes in for him.

64 minute mark: Krief gets in front of a point blank shot by Yates.. deflecting it away.

70 minute mark: Wild scramble in front of my net. Wright finally clears the ball down the pitch.

75 minute mark: Dunning comes in for Hunter who is tired.

88 minute mark: Peter Thompson has a breakaway against my keeper.. I'm saved by the ref who calls the offside.

1-0 win for us!

We were outshot 6-3.

Surprisingly, Thornley gets MoM for his 2 saves? Oh well, I'm just happy with the win.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dec 26, 2004 -

Gary Megson has taken over Manchester City's head job.

We are approaching a time of the year that is normally my favorite. January! Normally, its one of the key times to shop for Bosman players who I can get for free. However, I'm not sure that we have any real chance of getting these guys, but I will explore any possible options.

Looking at my own club, I see Donaldson will be returning to Hull in June and that will free up 700 dollars per week of wage, so perhaps I can find a cheap player or 3 that might help the club. Also, Atkins contract expires in June and he is being paid 180 dollars per week. If I can win back his support, I'd like to renew his contract as he is valuable as a player and a coach, even though he is a poor coach.

I'll also gather my notes on my team at this point and review things as this is almost the half way point of the season after this upcoming game.

[Eaglesfan27]

We are currently 16th ranked, and we are traveling to 14th ranked Vauxhall Motors for our first match with them this season. I find myself wondering what sort of relationship they have with Manchester Utd as they have two loan players from the club! They also have 2 loan players from Tranmere. The first loan player from Man Utd is not too concerning. Adam Eckersley is a raw left fullback and he won't be too concerning in this match. However, the other player is David Poole who is a dangerous striker. Poole appears to be an elite scorer from what I've heard about him, yet he hasn't scored any goals in 5 appearances for the team. Mike Kinsella is an average keeper, and we should be able to beat him. Anthony Wright is a determined goal scorer and he leads the team with 10.

Our starting Lineup is almost the same as last game. The main difference is Farrell is now starting at striker since he is healed from his injury. Donaldson will replace Morris as a substitute on the bench.

We are heavy 4:5 favorites. It's a very breezy day and 54 degrees. I consider if I might have to cancel our long passing with the breeze, but decide to keep it for the start of the match..

[Eaglesfan27]

15 minute mark: Atkins is tackled hard just outside the box.. no flag, but we get a free kick from just outside the box.. Fox's shot goes over the bar.

39 minute mark: Poole receives the ball at midfield from his keeper.. he sends it wide to the left winger, Paul Brown. Brown dribbles up the left side of the pitch.. he plays a cross for Poole. Shepherd misses the header.. the ball reaches Poole.. Poole shoots... right into the upper right corner.. goal. 1-0

42 minute mark: Poole receives a pass in the block.. Shepherd pressures him.. Poole shoots.. wide left.

1-0 at the half.

60 minute mark: Poole gets the ball in the box.. he shoots.. Pettinger blocks it.. Shepherd clears the rebound.. scramble for the ball in our half.. Krief tackles Rob Lawton and injures him. He'll have to go off.

62 minute mark: Farrell is tired as is Wright. I sub in Donaldson for Farrell and Dunning for Wright.

1-0 victory as the last 30 minutes are very boring with the opposition playing turtle.

We each had 5 shots.

Bradley Cullen won MoM with 29 of 42 passes completed, 6 of 6 tackles, 6 of 7 headers, and 8 passes intercepted.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we face Moor Green for the second time this season. We beat them in the FA trophy match, but now we face them in a league match. We are in 18th place and they are in 14th place. We are hosting them. Moor Green is led by the excellent keeper they have on loan from Oldham, Craig Mawson. Guy Sanders is a central defender who provides excellent defense in front of the Mawson. Neil Davis and Sean Dowdall are their tandem strikers who are a deadly duo Dowdall still has 7 league goals at this point, but Davis has 10 goals so far. Perhaps due to our previous win, we are even odds favorites.

We are using the same starting lineup as last match.

It's a dry cool 42 degree day.

[Eaglesfan27]

10 minute mark: Atkins takes a shot from 30 yards out that is just barely wide right.

25 minute mark: Krief intercepts a pass midfield.. he heads it to Atkins who plays the ball forward for Farrell.. Farrell dribbles into the box.. and is tackled from behind cleanly.

34 minute mark: Paul Smith centers the ball from the left wing.. Neil Davis shoots from 30 yards out... The ball flies towards the goal.. Pettinger just misplays it as it sails through his arms. Goal.

1-0 at the half.

65 minute mark: No offense as they are playing very defensive. I switch to a 4-4-2, subbing Donaldson and Turley onto the pitch. Also, I sub Dunning in for Wright. Farrell and Hunter are the other players to come off the pitch.

85 minute mark: Truly a great move by my offense as Dunning plays it long for Turley.. Turley catches up to the ball.. dribbles between 2 defenders.. centers it for Krief.. Krief heads it.. the keeper barely tips it over the bar.

93 minute mark: Donaldson gets the ball at midfield from Atkins.. Donaldson floats a long pass to Turley. Turley gets it in the box.. he fakes right.. goes left.. he has the keeper beat! He is only 6 yards out.. he shoots... wide left!!! The crowd is in disbelief at his amazing level of inaccuracy.

Game over, 1-0 loss.

We outshot them 6-4.

Craig Mawson, the keeper, wins MoM

[Eaglesfan27]

Now we are at exactly the half way point. Time to look at the league standings in the morning newspaper:





<!--StartFragment --> <TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>Pos</TD> <TD>Inf</TD> <TD>Team</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Pld</TD> <TD>Won</TD> <TD>Drn</TD> <TD>Lst</TD> <TD>For</TD> <TD>Ag</TD> <TD>G.D.</TD> <TD>Pts</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>1st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worcester</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>13</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>+17</TD> <TD>45</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>2nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worksop</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>13</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>36</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>+15</TD> <TD>42</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>3rd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Barrow</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>35</TD> <TD>20</TD> <TD>+15</TD> <TD>37</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>4th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Nuneaton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>32</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>+14</TD> <TD>37</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>5th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Southport</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>23</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>+5</TD> <TD>34</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>6th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Alfreton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>29</TD> <TD>25</TD> <TD>+4</TD> <TD>32</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>7th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hucknall</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>30</TD> <TD>33</TD> <TD>-3</TD> <TD>32</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>8th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Vauxhall Motors</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>26</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>+5</TD> <TD>29</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>9th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Kettering</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>26</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>29</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>10th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stalybridge</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>29</TD> <TD>35</TD> <TD>-6</TD> <TD>29</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>11th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stafford Rangers</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>35</TD> <TD>34</TD> <TD>+1</TD> <TD>28</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>12th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Moor Green</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>26</TD> <TD>+2</TD> <TD>27</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>13th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lancaster</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>25</TD> <TD>20</TD> <TD>+5</TD> <TD>26</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>14th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hinckley</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>26</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>26</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>15th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Runcorn</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>17</TD> <TD>23</TD> <TD>-6</TD> <TD>26</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>16th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Redditch</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>25</TD> <TD>27</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>25</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>17th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Altrincham</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>23</TD> <TD>29</TD> <TD>-6</TD> <TD>25</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>18th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Gainsborough</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>20</TD> <TD>25</TD> <TD>-5</TD> <TD>23</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>19th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Harrogate Town</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>19</TD> <TD>-4</TD> <TD>22</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>20th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Droylsden</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>19</TD> <TD>32</TD> <TD>-13</TD> <TD>21</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>21st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Ashton Utd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>19</TD> <TD>33</TD> <TD>-14</TD> <TD>21</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>22nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Bradford PA</TD> <TD></TD><TD>21</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>38</TD> <TD>-20</TD> <TD>14</TD></TR>

[Eaglesfan27]

We are only 7 points from being in the top half of the league like the board wants. Of course, we are also only 1 point from being relegated. Not very good.

Looking at the roster and some basic stats:

<!--StartFragment --> <TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>Pkd</TD> <TD>Inf</TD> <TD>Name</TD> <TD>Position</TD> <TD>Morale</TD> <TD>Form</TD> <TD>Con</TD> <TD>Apps</TD> <TD>Gls</TD> <TD>Av Rat</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD>Unh</TD> <TD>Mark Atkins</TD> <TD>DM RC</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>7-7-8-7-7</TD> <TD>73%</TD> <TD>22</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.41</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>ML</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Andrew Wright</TD> <TD>M L</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>74%</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.33</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DR</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lennie Curtis</TD> <TD>SW/D LC</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>7-7-7-8-7</TD> <TD>77%</TD> <TD>10 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.25</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>FC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Andy Farrell</TD> <TD>S C</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>68%</TD> <TD>19 (1)</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>7.20</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Inj</TD> <TD>Grant Black</TD> <TD>D/DM R</TD> <TD>Superb</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>60%</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.14</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Paul Shepherd</TD> <TD>D/DM RC</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-8-7-7-7</TD> <TD>79%</TD> <TD>19 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.10</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S5</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Clayton Donaldson</TD> <TD>S C</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>82%</TD> <TD>8 (10)</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>7.06</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DL</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Mark Barnard</TD> <TD>D LC</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-8-7-7-7</TD> <TD>77%</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>7.06</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Leigh Wood</TD> <TD>SW/D/M C</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>5-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>79%</TD> <TD>20</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lee Morris</TD> <TD>S C</TD> <TD>Poor</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>100%</TD> <TD>0 (1)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Lst</TD> <TD>Justin Jackson</TD> <TD>S C</TD> <TD>Very Poor</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>100%</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Colin Hunter</TD> <TD>AM/F LC</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>76%</TD> <TD>13 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S3</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Richard Dunning</TD> <TD>D/DM L</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-6-7-7</TD> <TD>88%</TD> <TD>6 (12)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S2</TD> <TD></TD><TD>James Turley</TD> <TD>F RC</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>85%</TD> <TD>6 (11)</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>6.94</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Dominique Krief</TD> <TD>M C</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>8-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>73%</TD> <TD>5 (6)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>6.91</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>GK</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Paul Pettinger</TD> <TD>GK</TD> <TD>Poor</TD> <TD>7-9-7-7-6</TD> <TD>99%</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>6.88</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MR</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Christian Fox</TD> <TD>AM RC</TD> <TD>Okay</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>71%</TD> <TD>19 (5)</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>6.83</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S4</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Simon Sturdy</TD> <TD>M L</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>7-7-7-7-7</TD> <TD>100%</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Loa</TD> <TD>Marc Smith</TD> <TD>D L</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>6-7-7-7-8</TD> <TD>100%</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S1</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Nick Buxton</TD> <TD>GK</TD> <TD>Good</TD> <TD>8-8</TD> <TD>100%</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR>

[Eaglesfan27]

<!--StartFragment --> <TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>Pkd</TD> <TD>Inf</TD> <TD>Name</TD> <TD>Apps</TD> <TD>Gls</TD> <TD>Ast</TD> <TD>MoM</TD> <TD>Pas</TD> <TD>Tck</TD> <TD>Drb</TD> <TD>Sh T</TD> <TD>Av Rat</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD>Unh</TD> <TD>Mark Atkins</TD> <TD>22</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>76%</TD> <TD>2.16</TD> <TD>0.70</TD> <TD>19%</TD> <TD>7.41</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>ML</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Andrew Wright</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>4</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>76%</TD> <TD>1.39</TD> <TD>1.85</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.33</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DR</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lennie Curtis</TD> <TD>10 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>68%</TD> <TD>3.61</TD> <TD>0.09</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.25</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>FC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Andy Farrell</TD> <TD>19 (1)</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>83%</TD> <TD>0.98</TD> <TD>1.96</TD> <TD>55%</TD> <TD>7.20</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Inj</TD> <TD>Grant Black</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>61%</TD> <TD>2.90</TD> <TD>0.05</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.14</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Paul Shepherd</TD> <TD>19 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>73%</TD> <TD>1.87</TD> <TD>0.50</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.10</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S5</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Clayton Donaldson</TD> <TD>8 (10)</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>85%</TD> <TD>0.99</TD> <TD>2.21</TD> <TD>56%</TD> <TD>7.06</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DL</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Mark Barnard</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>66%</TD> <TD>1.75</TD> <TD>0.24</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.06</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>DC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Leigh Wood</TD> <TD>20</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>69%</TD> <TD>3.05</TD> <TD>0.10</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lee Morris</TD> <TD>0 (1)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Lst</TD> <TD>Justin Jackson</TD> <TD>2</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>79%</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>2.00</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Colin Hunter</TD> <TD>13 (2)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>76%</TD> <TD>1.19</TD> <TD>1.02</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S3</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Richard Dunning</TD> <TD>6 (12)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>69%</TD> <TD>2.03</TD> <TD>0.86</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>7.00</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S2</TD> <TD></TD><TD>James Turley</TD> <TD>6 (11)</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>82%</TD> <TD>1.65</TD> <TD>3.18</TD> <TD>47%</TD> <TD>6.94</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MC</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Dominique Krief</TD> <TD>5 (6)</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>77%</TD> <TD>1.87</TD> <TD>0.94</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>6.91</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>GK</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Paul Pettinger</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>48%</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>6.88</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>MR</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Christian Fox</TD> <TD>19 (5)</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>1</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>74%</TD> <TD>1.64</TD> <TD>1.48</TD> <TD>53%</TD> <TD>6.83</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S4</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Simon Sturdy</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>-</TD> <TD>Loa</TD> <TD>Marc Smith</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>S1</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Nick Buxton</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD> <TD>-</TD></TR> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR>

[Eaglesfan27]

Reviewing my data, I see that Lennie Curtis is playing Right Fullback surprisingly well. Atkins and Wright have been my two most consistent players, but they are slumping. I might need to try to shake the team up some, if we can't get a winning streak going.

[Eaglesfan27]

OH YEAH!!!

After many rejections from a large variety of names, I get a potential star to agree to come join us for 3 months. Mark Smyth is a 19 year old hot prospect striker for Liverpool who has agreed to come visit us and could be here by the next game. According to the game tape I've seen, he has amazing speed (possibly the best on my team) Add to that, he is a good dribbler and a great finisher. We will be starting him at striker in the 4-5-1 and 4-4-2 that we are playing as soon as he arrives.

Also, during the past 2 days, I've been looking at many Bosman players. Unfortunately, my initial contact of several agents have indicated that the players have absolutely zero interest in joining our club. I've decided to offer Atkins a deal for another year as player/coach. I've also offered a new contract To Lennie Curtis since he is still playing right fullback well. I also offered new contracts to youngsters Simon Sturdy and Lee Morris (mainly because I'm afraid I won't be able to get bodies to replace them.)

[Eaglesfan27]

January 1st, 2005 -

Today, I met with the boss (I thought he would want New Year's off!) and he told me is pleased with my performance.

Mark Smyth has arrived in time for our game this afternoon.

Reading the newspaper, some awards have been announced:

Inter's striker Adriano has won the World Footballer of the year award. He has 13 goals in league play this year. Andriy Shevchenko of Milan came in second. He also has 13 league goals so far this year. Dejan Stankovic of Inter came in 3rd with 7 goals, and 9 assists in league play this year.

The World Player of the year was won by Andriy Shevchenko. Dejan Stankovic came in 2nd, and Andriy Shevchenko came in 3rd.

Adriano won the European Footballer of the year award, Dejan Stankovic came in 2nd, and Andiry Schevchenko came in 3rd.

Real Madrid's Iker Casillas won European Goalkeeper of the year. He has 12 clean sheets in 24 appearances in this league year. Santiago Canizares of Valencia came in 2nd, and Victor Valdes of Barcelona came in 3rd.

Real Madrid's Walter Samuel won the European Defender of the year award. ze Maria of Inter came in 2nd, and Romero of Deportivo came in 3rd.

Inter's ze Maria won European midfielder of the Year! Dejan Stankovic came in 2nd, and Gianluca Zambrotta of Juventus came in 3rd.

Inter's Adriano won European Striker of the Year, Andiry Shevchenko came in 2nd, and Sameul Eto of Barcelona came in 3rd.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we are in 19th place and we host 18th place Gainsborough. They beat us on their pitch on 8/17/04 2-0. Today They are led by their DC Chris Timons, MC Luke Staton, and the dangerous Carl Alford up front who has 8 league goals on the year.
Their keeper Jamie Holmshaw is streaky and he either plays wonderful or terrible. He has 8 cleansheets, but has given up 2 goals a game in the remainding games. We are even odds favorites to win this game.

Today's Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Barnard
DC: Shepherd
DC: Wood
DR: Curtis
ML: Wright
MC: Krief
MC: Atkins
MR: Fox
SC: Smyth (he just arrived, but I need to start this talent right away)
SC: Farrell (he is playing too well throughout the year to yank him from the lineup)

S1 Buxton
S2 Donaldson
S3 Hunter (demoted to the bench with the switch to 4-4-2.)
S4 Turley
S5 Dunning

It's a cool dry, 39 degree day.

[Eaglesfan27]

6 minute mark: Carl Alford breaks through my defense.. he is running towards the box.. Wood Tackles him from behind... flag.. RED Card on wood!!


Since Wood is ejected, I have a really tough decision. I decide to go for offense, and take a major chance, and switch to a 3-4-2.

11 minute mark: Smyth has his first touch of the ball.. he explodes with it, racing down field.. both DC's charge him.. he passes between them to Farrell.. Farrell has the keeper all alone.. Farrell shoots.. the keeper deflects it wide of the net.

31 minute mark: smyth gets a long pass from Atkins.. he is racing down the field.. Timons slides and knocks the ball away from him.. the keeper clears it up the field to Alford.. Alford shoots over the goal..

33 minute mark: Alford brings it into the box.. he passes back to David Jervis who quickly passes it back into the box towards the left goal post to Gareth Grant.. Grant settles it.. shoots.. in at the near left goal post. 1-0

45 minute mark smyth dribbles the ball down the left side of the pitch.. the defense is flowing to him.. he passes btw two defenders.. Farrell has it in the box.. he shoots.. barely deflected by the keeper.. the defender gets the rebound and kicks it away.

1-0 at the half.

46 minute mark: Atkins sends it to Fox on the right wing.. Fox takes it up the field.. he centers for Smyth who is by the far post... the central defender barely heads it over the bar and out of bounds.

61 minute mark: Fox centers it to Smyth.. Smyth is about to head it in the goal... Farrell is called for being offsides.

63 minute mark: I sub Turley in at right wing for the tired Fox. I also sub in Donaldson for Farrell who is tired. Also, I decide to bring in Hunter for Krief who is tired.

66 minute mark: Turley passes it from the right wing to Atkins.. Atkins passes it into the box to Smyth.. Smyth shoots.. it goes barely wide to the left of the goal.

76 minute mark: Donaldson gets the long pass in the right corner.. Donaldson centers the ball to Smyth.. the DC heads it back over the goal.

83 minute mark: Smyth receives a pass from Atkins.. he dribbles from 40 yards out.. dribbles between the 2 defenders.. into the box.. he shoots.. the keeper deflects it.. the defender clears it.

86 minute mark: Total scramble in front of our own net... finally Shepherd clears it to Smyth.. Smyth dribbles it up the middle of the field.. he goes past a defender.. two defenders close on him.. he passes to his right.. Turley comes racing in from the right wing.. Turley dribbles it into the box.. Turley shoots it to the upper left corner of the net... GOAL!!!!!!! 1-1

89 minute mark: Turley's speed is serving him well on the right wing.. he beats a defender.. dribbles past midfield.. centers for Smyth.. Smyth beats a man.. passes back to Turley who is racing towards the net.. the defender intercepts the pass.

Game over 1-1 tie.

Despite being down a man most of the match, we outshot them 12-9

Jamie Holmshaw, their keeper earns MoM as he actually made 9 good saves including several good shots by Smyth.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 3rd, 2005 -

Lennie Curtis agreed to a new 2 year deal for 240 dollars/week.

Simon Sturdy has signed a new 2 year deal for 90 dollars/week.

Lee Morris has signed a new 2 year deal for 90 dollars/week

Atkins signed a new deal with a raise to 300 dollars/week! He let me know he appreciates the raise, and he is no longer disillusioned with my management of the club. Glad to see the money talked ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we host 8th placed Hucknall. We tied them 0-0 in a league match on August 14th and we lost to them 1-0 in the English Cup 2nd qualifying round.

They have recently acquired Bas Savage, a striker, on loan from Reading. Steve Palmer has been their most consistent midfielder. Leon McSweeny has been their top goal scoring threat with 8. Allstair Asher has been their most consistent defender. Ian Bowling is an average keeper.

Our starting lineup is the same as last match with us giving the 4-4-2 another shot, particularly since I liked the interplay between Farrell and Smyth.

It's 42 degrees and dry outside.

Edit: Wood is banned from this match, and Black is back from his injury. As a result, Wood will slide into the middle of the defense (which worries me) and Black will start at right fullback.

[Eaglesfan27]

1 minute mark: Atkins passes it wide to Fox.. Fox sends a long diagonal pass into the box.. Smyth heads it (finally a forward who can head the ball!) and it sails past the keeper into the center of the net... GOAL!!!!! 1-0

11 minute mark: Bas Savage puts a move on Curtis.. Curtis is beat.. Savage is running toward the goal.. Curtis tackles him from behind.. Yellow card. Outside the box at least. Free kick.

12 minute mark: Pettinger stops a flurry of shots.. the defense is failing to clear the rebounds.. finally Curtis clears one of the rebounds..

41 minute mark: Smyth dribbles up the left sideline.. past a defender.. he crosses for Farrell but the cross is a little too high and fast for Farrell to handle.. it sails out of the box.. and eventually out of bounds.

44 minute mark: Mark Smith the opposition's midfielder comes sliding in with both legs on Barnard.. He injures Barnard!! The ref gives Smith the red card for the dangerous tackle.

Dunning comes in for Barnard.

47 minute mark: Fox hits the corner kick to Smyth.. Smyth outjumps his mans.. head it towards the goal.. the keeper tips it over the bar.

Time runs out before the next kick can occur. 1-0 at the half.

49 minute mark: Wild scramble in front of Hucknall's net.. multiple shots deflected by defenders.. finally Smyth gets a shot cleanly through the mess... the keeper barely tips it over. Corner kick is blocked by a defender and cleared.

63 minute mark: Smyth is playing very well, but he is tired. I decide to pull him for Turley. Fox is also tired. I have to play Hunter out of position.

74 minute mark: Farrell is pressuring the defender Simon Brown.. Brown passes it back to the keeper, but he sends it too high.. it floats over the keepers head... and sails into the goal!!!! 2-0!!! :)

88 minute mark: Scramble in front of our net.. finally Black clears it.

Game over. 2-0 win for us.

We were outshot 7-5.

Paul Pettinger won MoM for his 6 saves (one was off target)

[Eaglesfan27]

Post Match news:

Mark Barnard has another damaged ligament in his knee and is out for another month. Mark Smith of Hucknall better watch his back next time we play. I'm feeling a bounty game coming on ;)

Again the journalist asks how we will respond to Barnard's absence. I give him the same reply: "One Player doesn't make a team, we will cover Mark's absence."

I decide to send Mark to a specialist to examine the knee. The specialist takes a look at it, and feels with physiotherapy Mark will be back as good as new in 2 to 3 weeks.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 7th, 2004 -

Surprisingly, I did get a Bosman signing!! Ben Surey agreed to come from the top ranked Conference National Team Gravesend to play for us next year when his contract expires at the end of March. Our scout has watched him extensively and is very impressed. Most impressive about this midfielder is his very accurate passing. Ben is also a very sure tackler and shows impressive bravery on the pitch. The scout also notes that very determined and is always hustling on the pitch. Ben also seems to have an excellent sense of team work. The big drawback to Ben's game is that he will frequently lose track of his man. We will be paying Ben 400 dollars/week.

[Eaglesfan27]

Wow. Gravesend agreed to let Ben come play right away for us? In any case, he is now on our squad.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today we are ranked 18th in the conference. We face 1st ranked Worcester on their pitch. They beat us 1-0 in our only match with them earlier in the year. Their keeper Danny McDonell is *very* skilled and will be hard to beat. He has 16 clean sheets in 23 league appearances this year! Christian Moore is a 32 year old veteran striker who has 15 goals in 23 league appearances this year. Carl Heeley is a pivotal player. Worcester are even odds favorites going into this match.

Our starting lineup:

GK: Pettinger
DL: Dunning
DC: Shepherd
DC: Curtis
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Surey
MC: Atkins
MR: Fox
SC: Smyth
SC: Farrell

S1: Buxton
S2: Turley
S3: Krief
S4: Hunter
S5: Donaldson

Note that injuries have left me with no backup defenders, and I will have to play someone out of position back there if a guy is injured.

It's 41 degrees and dry today.

[Eaglesfan27]

13 minute mark: Smyth explodes with the ball down the left sideline, dribbling past 2 guys.. he centers.. Atkins has the ball just outside the box.. Atkins shoots.. wide left.

37 minute mark: Pettinger stops a powerful blast from Moore.

0-0 at the half. Our captain, Atkins points out this is the biggest crowd we've seen all year, about 2000 fans. Too bad the money is mostly going to our opposition.

47 minute mark: Farrell is tackled on a breakaway by Barry Woolley. Barry is granted a yellow card. The red says that Farrell was tackled just outside the box. Atkins takes the free kick.. Atkins blasts it.. over the bar.

54 minute mark: Pettinger stops a blast by Moore.

63 minute mark: Surey makes a steal on a hard tackle.. he gets up and passes it to Smyth.. Smyth dribbles past his man.. short pass to Farrell.. Farrell shoots.. the keeper stops it.

At this point, Farrell is tired, so I sub in Donaldson. Also, I sub in Turley for Fox since Turley impressed me the last time I gave him some PT at right wing.

75 minute mark: Donaldson steals a pass at midfield.. he passes it Smyth.. Smyth dribbles between two defenders.. around another.. into the box.. he blasts a shot to lower right corner.. the keeper dives and catches it cleanly.

85 minute mark: Black hits Donaldson on the very long pass.. Donaldson dribbles into the box.. goes left.. then right.. shoots to the lower right corner... GOAL!!! What! It won't stand. Donaldson is judged to have been offside!

88 minute mark: Shepherd makes a key save on a crossing pass by heading it away from our net.

Game over.. 0-0 tie at the top opponent's field isn't bad.

We outshot them 9-5

Atkins wins MoM for 32 of 39 passes complete, 5 of 7 tackles complete, 4 of 8 headers won, 5 passes intercepted.

[Chief Rum]

Is Eaglefan's table postings screwed up for anyone else? All I see is a lot of gray with some faint characters you can make out if you like hard enough.

It seemed pretty obvious to me, so I thought maybe it was me, since no one else is talking about it.

Otherwise, good read, Eaglesfan.

CR

[Eaglesfan27]

Is Eaglefan's table postings screwed up for anyone else? All I see is a lot of gray with some faint characters you can make out if you like hard enough.

It seemed pretty obvious to me, so I thought maybe it was me, since no one else is talking about it.

Otherwise, good read, Eaglesfan.

CR
Thanks for the compliment.. and as far as the table, what background are you using? It's showing up fine for me. If I can fix the problem, I will.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 9th, 2005 -

Kettering Town just fired their manager. They are 8th in my conference. That doesn't fill me with confidence regarding my own job security.

Southampton has fired their manager Steve Wigley. Micky Adams is the likely replacement, but Kevan Keegan is also a possibility.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 11, 2004 -

We are currently in 20th place and we travel to play 22nd ranked Bradford PA. Earlier in the year, they beat us 1-0. Lee Martin is an above average keeper on loan from Huddersfield. Alan Henry anchors the defense. Craig Smith is the catalyst in the midfield. Paul Walsh is their leading scorer up front with 5 goals. We are 5:4 favorites to win this match.

Our starting lineup is exactly the same as last match as wood and Bernard is both out with injuries still.

It's a dry crisp 44 degrees.

[thealmighty]

Tables are messed up for me as well, probably because I use the 'sideline green.'

Great read as usual, Ef. Keep it up.

[Eaglesfan27]

14 minute mark: We have 2 corner kicks that are deflected out of bounds by the defenders. On our 3rd corner kick, Fox sends it curving toward the near post where Surey heads it... into the goal!!! Surey 1st goal!! Our first goal on a corner kick all year long! 1-0

21 minute mark: Farrell receives a long pass from Surey.. takes it from the right corner.. dribbles a few steps inward.. crosses to Smyth.. Smyth heads it.. inches wide right of goal.

44 minute mark: Smyth dribbles down the left side of the pitch.. crosses to Farrell.. Farrell heads it towards goal.. the keeper barely tips it over the bar.

Halftime 1-0

46 minute mark: Smyth tracks down a very long pass from Curtis left of the box.. he takes a few dribbles.. draws two defenders.. passes btw them to Farrell.. Farrell has the shot.. he hesitates.. defender closing on him.. he shoots.. wide left.

59 minute mark: Paul Walsh receives a long pass in our box.. he shoots from point blank range.. Pettinger deflects it.. Shepherd clears the rebound.

67 minute mark: Paul Welsh hits the crossbar on a shot.. bounces back into my box.. a flurry of tackling and shooting ensues.. finally Black clears the ball.

69 minute mark: I sub in Donaldson for the tired Farrell. Turley for the tired Smyth, and Hunter for the tired Wright.

75 minute mark: Another nervous scramble in front of my net occurs.. Dunning tackles Paul Walsh and injures him. Black clears the ball.

77 minute mark: Hunter feeds the ball up to Donaldson... Danny Walsh jumps unfairly with Donaldson.. whistle is blown... Steve Oleksewycz argues the call.. yellow card.. he keeps arguing after the yellow card... second yellow card! He is ejected.

84 minute mark: Shepherd heads away a pass by the opposition.. Atkins controls the rebound.. he dribbles a dozen steps up the middle of the field.. he flicks a high pass up ahead to Donaldson.. Donaldson gets control of it just outside the box.. takes one dribble and shoots low and to the left corner... the keeper can't get to it.. GOAL!!!!! 2-0

91 minute mark: Turley gets a yellow card for a hard tackle on Allan Pearce in an attempt to steal the ball.


Game over 2-0 win!

We outshot them 12-11 (only 1 of their shots was on officially on goal.)

Atkins wins MoM with a 10 for form! He completed 32 of 34 passes, 2 of 2 tackles, 3 of 3 headers, 1 pass intercepted, and 1 great assist.

[Eaglesfan27]

Tables are messed up for me as well, probably because I use the 'sideline green.'

Great read as usual, Ef. Keep it up.
I'm using the yellow background. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make it work despite the background? If it's something I can fix, I'd like to do so. Thanks.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 12th, 2005 -

I awake to find myself delighted to read the following article:

"Harrogate Town Board Pleased With Win Over Avenue"

Harrogate Town's Chairman Bill Fotherby declared himself extremely pleased with the 2-0 win over Bradford Park Avenue. He said that he felt the team was starting to show good form.

With the team showing good form of late, the fans are hopeful that the team will reach the 1st half of the table performance that was expected of the team in the preseason.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 15th, 2005 -

The big day has arrived as we host English National Conference Team Forest Green in the 3rd round the FA Trophy. This could be a big win for us. Forest Green generally starts Steve Perrin in goal, and he hasn't been that great this year. He is conceding an average of 2 goals a start. Jon Richardson is a solid DC for them. Simon Bryant is the main catalyst in the midfield, and Charlie Griffin is the primary beneficiary. He has 5 goals in league play this year. Not surprisingly, they are 4:5 favorites.

We are using the same lineup that has been having success lately. Neither of our players who are injured are recovered yet.

It's a cool crisp 40 degrees with the sun shining brightly.

[Eaglesfan27]

4 minutes mark: Surey is tackled hard. No flag but a whistle is blown. Atkins takes the kick from at least 35 yards out.. he sends an absolute blast towards the goal.. the keeper is slow to react... it flies into the upper left corner.. oh what a shot!!! what a goal!!! 1-0


16 minute mark: Wright is called for a hard tackle on Simon Bryant.. yellow card to Wright.

35 minute mark: Smyth dribbles past a defender.. between two others into the box... he is about to shoot.. and he is tripped! Penalty shot awarded! Stephen Morris is called for the trip and argues it, getting a yellow card. Shepherd steps up confidently to take the penalty shot... he approaches.. he shoots.. to the right of the keeper... GOAL!!! 2-0 us.

39 minute mark: Smyth uses his speed to go wide around his defender.. he is left of the box.. he puts a move on his man.. dribbles into the box.. sends the short cross to Surey.. Surey heads it.. past the keeper! GOAL!!!! 3-0!


45 minute mark: Wright picks up a "minor injury" but he looks horrible out there. Half time whistle blows, and I decide to sub him as he is in major pain.

Hunter is subbed in at left wing for Wright.

3-0 at the half.

55 minute mark: Charlie Griffin unleashes a powerful header of a cross.. Pettinger barely tips it over the bar.

68 minute mark: Krief in for the tired Fox. Turley in for the tired Smyth.

78 minute mark: Andy Thompson elbows Mark Atkins in the face. Red Card for Thompson!! Atkins shows professionalism and just shakes it off without retaliating.

Game over. 3-0 win for us!

We were outshot 6-3, but obviously made our 3 shots count.

Our new midfielder, Ben Surey wins MoM with 20 of 27 passes complete, 4 of 5 tackles, 3 of 3 headers, 4 passes intercepted, and 1 goal scored.

[MizzouRah]

I watched a footie game on FOX tonight. Hamburg vs Bordum or something like that. :) Actually, it was quite entertaining.

You're doing well, it's nice to see.


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

CM 03/04 made me start watching EPL (English Premiere League) matches whenever they were on. They can be quite entertaining. :)

Thanks, I'm not sure how well I'm doing, but it's better than it was early in the season.

[Eaglesfan27]

We just received word that we won 8,000 dollars for our win in the 3rd round of the FA trophy. This is much needed money and the chairman was quite happy with the win.

[Eaglesfan27]

I just read this article in the newspaper:

"Christopher Engles (that is my character's name) has received the dreaded vote of confidence from the Harrogate Town board among speculation that the manager was about to be sacked.

The board said they back Engles, but they expect him to turn things around quickly, or they would look for a new manager who can get the job done."

[Eaglesfan27]

January 18th, 2005 -

Today the 4th round Draw was made the FA Trophy. We will be hosting Droyslden! We tied them earlier in the year 1-1. Hopefully, I'll win my next few league games and make it to this game as manager still. The match will occur Feb 5, 2005.

[jbmagic]

nice job so far...

what is Bosman players?

thanks

[SirFozzie]

Before the Bosman ruling in Europe, a team held a player's registration card (Ie, what allows him to play professional soccer) indefinitely.. even when the players contract ran out. Therefore, if the player could not get another team to buy out his registration, then he was stuck with whatever his existing team gave him, if he wanted to play at all!

(this next bit is cut and paste)

In 1990, when a Belgian player, Jean-Marc Bosman, claimed that the Belgian Football Federation and UEFA-FIFA transfer rules prevented his transfer to a French club, US Dunkerque, from RC Liege in Belgium. He took his case to court to challenge the transfer rules claiming that they were in conflict with EU rules on competition and free movement of workers and that therefore, they were illegal.

In its 1995 judgement, the European Court of Justice upheld Bosman’s claims and decided that when a professional football player's contract with his club expires and if that player is a citizen of an EU country, the club cannot prevent him from signing a new contract with another club in another EU country. Nor can it make it more difficult by asking his new club to pay a transfer, training or other fee.

(now, that's been slightly modified, younger players, under 23 years old, can get compensated for training fees and the like. But if they are over 23, you can sign them without paying a fee to the existing team WHEN their contracts expire.)

One quirk is, that a player is free to negotiate with other clubs when there are 6 months to go on his contract. In MLB terms, imagine Pedro Martinez being free to negotiate with all the MLB teams in June of 2004, which team he'll play for in 2005. It can be pretty interesting around December.

One things teams have to worry about is overreaching. Say it's december, and you're running high. You're kicking butt. You're going up a division next year, and you want some higher level players. So you splash the cash, signing players for next year on Bosman transfers..

Then you blow it. No higher league. No influx of extra cash. Some expensive players still coming in.

Bit risky, don't you think?

One thing you'll see as a player enters his last year of the contract. If the determines that they can't/won't resign him after this year, they'll attempt to sell him to another team (remember, contracts don't carry over from club to club. If a player gets sold to another team, he's free to reject the transfer, or demand more money or a longer contract from his new team) in an attempt to cash in on the player while they still can. Economics, doncha know ;)

[daedalus]

Yay! Good wins! Good signing, too!

Any luck finding any unattached players?

Have you figured out why you're bleeding out money like crazy?

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm not sure why I'm bleeding money like crazy. I do know this "other" expense of about 8,000/month is hurting me bad.

As far as the Bosman risk.. very true.. I think my boss is pissed at me because I received that Bosman early! I'm still amazed that I received the Bosman immediately since I didn't offer a transfer for him. In any case, with his salary I'm currently 200 dollars over my wage budget. So, I've been debating all day today (between boring moments at the parties ;)) about what to do.

I'm strongly considering ending Donaldson's loan early. It might hurt my professionalism rating. It might hurt our goal scoring capacity. However, it is the only way I can see to bring our wage budget immediately under control (then I'd be a few hundred under the wage budget again) and might be the only way to appease my boss. Of course, if we lose a few more games than it might be a moot point.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 19th, 2005 -

Today is a difficult day. After reading about my potential firing in the newspaper, I went and talked to my boss. He said that he is primarily concerned about our high wage budget. I review the roster and the associated contracts. I realize I never was good at math, but I better become proficient quickly. I see that Turley and Donaldson are the two highest paid players at 700 dollars/week. I realize that Turley might have a future with us, but Donaldson is gone after this season.. can I afford to send him back to Hull early?

I'm considering this issue when I get word that David Scarsella a young talented keeper from Australia wants to join our club! I offered his parent club 2,000 dollars since my boss had approved us to spend 20,000 dollars after my sale of Josh. The reason that I offered the money to his club is that this kid had dynamite skills according to my scout. My scout brought me some game tape of this kid, and I had to agree that he was spectacular in goal. His only problem was that his reflexes appeared slow at times, however, he was good at directing his defenders. He was very good at 1:1 situations. He was only 22. I thought this was a kid who could improve, and now he wanted to come play for us!

I thought about it all day, and finally I rechecked my figures. If I sent Donaldson back to Hull, and I signed this kid to the 220/week he was asking for, I'd still be 1 dollar under the wage budget. After careful consideration, I decided to pull the trigger. I call Scarsella's agent and told him to fax over the contract and I'd sign it. I then called Donaldson into the office. It was a difficult meeting. I valued his contribution. I checked one more time if he would consider signing on with us after the loan was over. He told me a polite but firm no. I told him, "I'm sorry, but we need to terminate your loan immediately. Thank you for playing here, and I hope we can work together in the future." He seemed fine with this and walked out of my office quickly. I wonder if I'll ever see him again.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 19th, 2005 -

Wow, the kid moves quick. He arrives in time to talk to one reporter who must hate his wife. The reporter is still around at 10:30 PM. The kid and the reporter talk. I like how he the kid handles himself. He tells the reporter "I know I have skills. I know I won't be in the first team immediately, but I hope to show Coach Engles that I have what it takes to make it into the first team." I like his moxy. We'll see how he progresses. If he looks good in practice, I'll be able to move either Buxton or Pettinger for some cash.

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 17th ranked team hosts 9th ranked Alfreton town. Will we be hungover without Donaldson? Alfreton Town is led by Grant Brown at DC. Mark Sale provides the scoring punch with 11 goals on the season. Gavin Saxby is an average keeper at best. We are 5:4 favorites.

Starting Lineup:

GK: Pettinger (will the new kid chase him out of a job?)
DL: Dunning
DC: Shepherd
DC: Curtis
DR: Black
ML: Wright
MC: Surey
MC: Atkins
MR: Fox
SC: Smyth
SC: Farrell

S1: David Scarsella (the kid just arrived but he is my top choice for backup keeper)
S2: James Turley
S3: Krief
S4: Hunter
S5: Lee Morris (18 year old striker will get some PT with Donaldson gone if we stick with 4-4-2. Kid is determined so hopefully he will develop with PT)

It's a cool dry 39 degrees.

[BreizhManu]

Is Scarsella going to get a work permit ?

[Eaglesfan27]

18 minute mark: Wright feeds the ball down the left side of the pitch.. Smyth races to it.. he centers.. Surey receives the pass.. he shoots... he misses wide left.

21 minute mark: Mark Sale floats a pass to Peter Duffield... Pettinger races out to intercept it.. he misses the ball.. Duffield runs around him.. taps it in.. goal. 1-0

28 minute mark: Mark Sale takes the ball into the box.. he shoots.. it's past the keeper.. hits the crossbar.. Curtis clears it.

32 minute mark: Wright plays a wonderful through ball for Farrell.. Farrell chases it down in the box.. he is about to shoot.. Grant Brown tackles him and kicks the ball away.

1-0 at the half.

59 minute mark: Dunning sends it long for Smyth.. Smyth gets to the ball.. dribbles past Brown.. into the box.. shoots.. over the bar.

64 minute mark: Wright picks up a minor injury.. I sub Hunter on for him. Also, I notice that Farrell is having a horrible game.. a 4 for form according to my report. I decide to yank him for Turley. I wonder if Farrell is upset about Donaldson's departure.

1-0 final score. The opposition played Turtle and keepaway for most of the remainder of the game with 9 guys frequently back in their zone.

We outshot them 8-4, but only 1 of our shots was on target.

Despite this Gavin Saxby is awarded MoM for his astonishing 1 save.

[Eaglesfan27]

Is Scarsella going to get a work permit ?
My bad. I forgot to mention he also has Italian nationality. If he didn't, there would be no way I could get him as there is no way he would qualify for a WP.

[daedalus]

Is it possible that Surey's contract was unprotected as well as being near ending? If it was unprotected, that might explain how you signed him immediately.

[FrogMan]

Is it possible that Surey's contract was unprotected as well as being near ending? If it was unprotected, that might explain how you signed him immediately.
contracts for Bosman type players are always unprotected in their last 6 months. If you offer for the transfer to happen *now*, you have to pay the transfer compensation, if you offer for the transfer to happen at the end of the player's contract, you don't have to pay any compensation. Only way I see that he got the player before the end of his contract may be that he offered to have the transfer happen now and did not realize it...

And about it being risky to sign many on Bosman, I can attest to that, as I signed 6-7 players on Bosman with my Luton side between the 04-05 season and the 05-06 season. Put me some 20k over my weekly wage budget. I was in the crapper, didn't know what to do, then I got a good offer for my player of the year in 2004-05, whom I didn't feel like was performing as well in the new season. They offered me 450k, I majored it to 750k, and they accepted (it was Gillingham I think), so he went off. I was ready to get slaughtered by my fans, but have not heard one bit. Then I checked the team's finance, and the board must have been very happy about the transaction since they upped my wage budget to a point where I'm only 1k over budget :) The sold player only had a wage of 4k, se he can't have done all that by himself...

FM

[daedalus]

contracts for Bosman type players are always unprotected in their last 6 months. If you offer for the transfer to happen *now*, you have to pay the transfer compensation, if you offer for the transfer to happen at the end of the player's contract, you don't have to pay any compensation. Only way I see that he got the player before the end of his contract may be that he offered to have the transfer happen now and did not realize it...I was more referring to the fact that the contract might have been unprotected (something like 2 years after the contract is signed for certain age and 3 for others) as well as being within 6 months of ending, giving him having a choice to either acquire the player immediately or at the end of the contract where he might have accidently chose an immediate transfer. As you said, he would have had to pay compensation if he chose to do an immediate transfer instead of at the end of the contract. I, uhh, have acquired many quality players by way of unprotected contract that I could not get their team to agree to sell.

As an example, if you look at Pascal Cygan on Arsenal at the start of the game, his contract is unprotected and anyone can come over and sign him (please?) on immediate transfer even though his contract is nowhere near expiring.

I guess I shouldn't knock the Cybot. Much. He's actually a "commanding centre-back" in the game and actually useful. In the game.

[FrogMan]

daed, we're saying the same thing ;)

I only found it weird that he would get the player in advance and can only see that he asked for the transfer to happen now and not only at the end of the contract. The puzzling thing is that I didn't have to feeling that EaglesFan had that much to work with in transfer money...

FM

[daedalus]

He had 20 large to play with from selling Josh Bowker.

[daedalus]

Well, yes and no, Frogger. Unless something has changed in recent versions . . .

You can negotiate with the player in the last 6 months of his contract as he can leave on the Bosman and he will leave at the end of the contract. To get the player immediately, he would have to go through the club and make it an actual transfer, not just by contacting the player via the "Sign Player" screen. An example of this would be, to use Arsenal examples since I know them well, Edu and Lauren in January following the start of the game. You can go ahead and negotiate with them and sign them but they won't complete their transfer until the end of their contract in June.

An actual unprotected contract is just that, unprotected (the old criteria was something like 2 years after contract signed for someone 28 and over and 3 for someone under, don't know what it is now). You can sign the player now, regardless of when his contract expires. An example of this would be Pascal Cygan. Or, Roy Keane. Assuming you can get him to leave Manchester United, you can go ahead and sign him as soon as the game starts and you would owe them 8 million pounds.

It's possible that Surley's contract were both unprotected and expiring and, so, Eaglesfan27 had a choice between signing now or later where the game had defaulted to the "now" choice without him seeing.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm having a ton of patients (I actually typed players at first ;0) call and cancel. In a rare moment of foresight I brought my laptop and my game to work. I just checked, and I see that I did in fact pay 6,000 dollars in compensation to Surey's old team!! I'm positive that I hit sign player and not transfer, but I guess I didn't set an option to wait until the end of the contract?

Oh well, live and learn. :) In any case, I've used 2,000 for the keeper, and 6,000 for Surey, so I still have 14,000 from the Josh sale to play with. However, being 1 dollar under my wage budget I doubt I will be acquiring any players unless they are cheap and stellar from what my scout reports. If I do that, I will have to get a buyer for one of my current players as our finances are generally crap right now.

Of course, I could be fired soon.. we'll see :)

[FrogMan]

I'm having a ton of patients (I actually typed players at first ;0) call and cancel. In a rare moment of foresight I brought my laptop and my game to work. I just checked, and I see that I did in fact pay 6,000 dollars in compensation to Surey's old team!! I'm positive that I hit sign player and not transfer, but I guess I didn't set an option to wait until the end of the contract?

Oh well, live and learn. :)
something very similar happened to me before I learned what a Bosman transfer really was. I had seen this 22yo AM C whom I thought would fit pretty well in my 4-3-3 tactics. So I send my scout and they come back with very good comments, saying he has a lot of potential and would be a good signing for the team. I go in, click on "Approach to sign", make sure I set it to be effective once his current contract is over but fail to see the compensation I'd have to pay to his current team. He accepts the offer, everything seems all nice and good, until I click on the last "accept" button and I get the email that I will have to pay 180k in compensation to his team :eek: I had like 36k in transfer budget left, so I thought it would simply say I wasn't allowed to sign the player when the time would come, but it went through, simply putting my transfer budget balance to zero.

I have since sold one of my players for 750k, and while my team board allows me to keep 85% of every sales, I only have some 450k left in my budget, which means they have taken off the 180k.

I'm still happy about the acquisition, since Mark Jones, said player, as now played on and off for my first team, alternating with my usual starting AM C, and he's averaged over 7 in form since the start of the season :)

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

That sounds like a nice signing!

I always find myself compulsively checking how much I have to compensate teams when the player is a younger player. I could have sworn that I didn't see any compensation due to wherever I signed him from. In any case, I'm still happy with getting him for 6,000 as his value is rising :)

[FrogMan]

That sounds like a nice signing!

I always find myself compulsively checking how much I have to compensate teams when the player is a younger player. I could have sworn that I didn't see any compensation due to wherever I signed him from. In any case, I'm still happy with getting him for 6,000 as his value is rising :)
And you know what I compulsively check? player values before and after they arrive on my team :) I then keep them on check, see if they gain value, then I know I've made a good buy :)

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

January 22nd, 2005 -

Today I find myself reconsidering how to mold this roster. My scout has raved about a kid, Adam Muller. Adam plays for my next opponent Worksop. I take a look at the video tape he shot. The kid is quick.. he's fluid with the ball, and he definitely shows a depth touch around the goal. He might be as fast as Turley with better accuracy on his shot. I decide to give Worksop a call. They are 3rd in the league and likely to be advancing. I'm hoping they might let him go, since he probably isn't good enough to play at the next level. I ask them how much they might sell him for. They say, "12,000 dollars." I look at the budget and see that we have 18,000 dollars in the transfer budget. I talk to my chairman, and he says he wants me to do what is best to improve the squad. I consider not doing it because of our debt. I decide to pull the trigger. I make an offer. If it is approved, I will be attempting to move Turley whose speed is put to waste by his amazing level of inaccuracy.

[Miller Time]

Great read! Can you post the standings again when you get a chance? Do the winners of your conference get promoted to Division 3? I know promotion might be the last thing on your mind now, but who knows what could happen next year. :)

Thanks!

[Eaglesfan27]

Great read! Can you post the standings again when you get a chance? Do the winners of your conference get promoted to Division 3? I know promotion might be the last thing on your mind now, but who knows what could happen next year. :)

Thanks!
Assuming that I understand the English system correctly (which is a big assumption), the winners of my conference will be promoted to the national conference level. Least that is my understanding. I think the winners of the national conference are the ones that get promoted to League 2 (formerly called Division 3?)

[Eaglesfan27]

Okay, that makes sense to me. On the other side, where do you go if you get ***cough*** relegated? :D
Again, based on my limited understanding, I would go to the English Regional Divisions which I don't believe are simulated in this game. Therefore, I'll be very curious to see what happens should I be relegated.. well I hope I don't find out ;)

[Miller Time]

Okay, that makes sense to me. On the other side, where do you go if you get ***cough*** relegated? :D

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 18th ranked team travels to 3rd ranked Worksop. Worksop is lead by the amazing Dene Cropper who seems to score goal after goal with just hard work. Cropper has 18 league goals in 24 league games. Adam Muller (whom I'm targeting for transfer) plays alongside him and has 8 goals on the year. Gavin Smith has been their most consistent midfielder this year. Darren Bradshaw has been a rock for the defense the last month. Their keeper, Kristian Roberts, appears to be above average. Despite this, we are 5:4 favorites!?!

Our starting lineup is a little different this match:

GK: Scarsella (this kid looks too good in practice to not give him a start.)
DL: Barnard (freshly back from his physiotherapy)
DC: Wood (freshly back from injury - I was tempted to leave Curtis in at this spot as Curtis has played well, but Wood also plays well and I think he is the more talented player - and he is younger.)
DC: Shepherd.
DR: Black
ML: Dunning (versatile player who moves up from left fullback due to an injury to our star player Wright. Wright will miss about a week.)
MC: Surey
MC: Atkins
MR: Fox
SC: Smyth
SC: Farrell

S1: Pettinger (hopefully he doesn't sulk about the demotion.)
S2: Turley (could be out the door...)
S3: Krief
S4: Hunter
S5: Curtis

It's a monsoon out on the field.. with gusty winds.. driving rain, and it's 44 degrees.

Time to start the match..

[Eaglesfan27]

2 minute mark: Fox is slammed to the ground by Bradshaw. No flag!?! I can't believe it. Fox looks hurt, but insists he can play. I'll be watching him closely.

9 minute mark: Wood intercepts a pass in our box.. he passes to Atkins.. Atkins dribbles three steps to midfield.. he passes long to Smyth.. Smyth dribbles past a defender.. to his left.. into the box.. big left footed shot... the keeper dives to his left.. it's past him into the right lower corner!!! GOAL!!!!! 1-0

13 minute mark: Barnard is tackled hard by Adam Muller in our zone.. he looks like he is hurt.. he insists on staying in the match. I see that Fox is limping bad and holding his side. I decide to pull Fox for Krief.

19 minute mark: Krief takes it across midfield down the right side.. he is tracked down by a defender.. he centers to Atkins.. Atkins sends it to the left winger Dunning.. Dunning is challenged.. he sends it to the left corner.. Smyth tracks it down.. he is challenged by a defender.. he makes a move on the defender.. he takes two steps towards the goal.. and crosses it long for Farrell who is inside the 6 yard box.... Farrell outjumps the defender.. he hits a powerful header... the keeper can't get it.. GOAL!!!! 2-0 :)

24 minute mark: Muller gets a long ball on the counter.. he is racing towards my box.. Black is trying to catch up with him.. Black tackles him cleanly.. Scarsella boots the loose ball up the field.

29 minute mark: Scramble for the ball in front of my net after Scarsella stops a Muller shot from point blank range.. a few defenders block shots.. finally Krief manages to come out of the traffic with the ball.. he clears it up the field.

39 minute mark: Bradshaw sends a long ball to Muller who races past my defense.. Muller takes it inside the box.. to about 8 yards out.. he shoots high and to the right.. Scarsella tips it over the bar.

41 minute mark: Muller passes to Peacock in the right corner.. Peacock crosses to Cropper who is by the near post.. Cropper heads it to Matty Caudwell who is by the far post.. Scarsella misses the pass.. Caudwell heads the ball into the net.. 2-1.

44 minute mark: Surey intercepts a pass at midfield.. he flicks the ball ahead to Smyth.. Smyth races into the box.. Bradshaw catches up to him and tackles the ball away.

44 minute mark: On the counter attack, Caudwell gets the ball.. he passes to Muller who dribbles to the right corner of the box, Muller passes to Cropper at the left corner of the box.. Cropper shoots.. just wide right on the sharply angled shot.

45 minute mark: Gavin Smith steals a pass from Krief.. he sends it deep down the pitch to Cropper.. Cropper races into the box.. he fakes left.. goes right.. blasts a shot to the lower right corner.. Scarsella dives.. he gets his finger tips on it.. deflects it.. it hits the post and goes in. 2-2

2-2 at the half.

Barnard appears to be laboring with his new injury. I sub in Curtis at left full back for him.

49 minute mark: Atkins is slammed to teh ground by a hard shoulder from Darren Bradshaw!! NO FLAG again!?! I'm yelling at the ref. Meanwhile, Atkins is hurt.. he has to come off the pitch. I put Hunter in as my last sub for Atkins.

66 minute mark: Muller gets a breakaway on a counterattack... he dribbles into the box.. shoots to the lower right corner.. Scarsella barely manages to tip it wide.

80 minute mark: Muller dribbles into the left half of the box.. it's a 2 on 1! Muller passes to Cropper.. Cropper shoots.. Scarsella somehow flings himself into the path of the ball.. deflected away.. Wood has recovered by this point and he clears it.

84 minute mark: Scarsella sends a long kick to midfield.. Surey heads it down the field on the fly.. it's into the box.. Smyth races to it.. he dribbles left.. one step.. two steps.. three steps.. past the keeper.. he has a wide open net.. he shoots.. and it sails over the bar!!! Smyth can't believe it.. neither can I.. Smyth hangs his head in his hands.

86 minute mark: Curtis dribbles down the left side of the pitch.. he gets even with the box.. he centers for Smyth.. Smyth beats his man.. he is by the left post.. he aims it for the right corner of the goal.. just wide.

89 minute mark: Scarsella makes a good save of a long shot by Gavin Smith.

91 minute mark: Curtis makes a key tackle on a potential Muller breakaway.

92 minute mark: Krief steals the ball at midfield from Gavin Smith.. he plays an ok ball into the box.. Farrell catches up to it.. he aims for the high left corner.. he hits it.. just over the bar.

92 minute mark: Dunning plays a ball up for Smyth.. Smyth is tackled from behind with a dangerous slide. Yellow card for Bradshaw (finally!) The call is outside the box.. so no penalty kick. Dunning takes the set piece.. he shoots.. just over the bar.

Final whistle. 2-2 tie.

We were outshot 12-11.

Matty Caudwell, their left winger won MoM. He completed 13 of 15 passes, 1 of 1 tackles, 1 of 4 headers, 1 assist, and 1 goal.

[Eaglesfan27]

Talking to my physio post match, he tells me: "You are exhausting Black. Give the guy some rest." He also lets me know that Atkins will miss about a week with a bruised thigh (suck it up man) and that Krief twisted his ankle and will miss about 2 weeks likely.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 25th, 2005 -

Worksop countered my offer for Muller. They want 6,000 immediately, 14,000 over the course of a year (to be paid in monthly installments) and 35% of next sale. I countered that offer with 6,000 up front and 50% of next sale.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 26th, 2005 -

I think Worksop is confused about the art of negotiating. They are increasing their demands. They are now asking for 8,000 immediately plus 14,000 over the course of a year, and 50% of next sale!

I decide I will counter with 8,000 up front and Turley. I'd have to cut Turley's salary anyway. Turley's lack of determination in practice in combination with his poor shooting skills have convinced me he is the expendable part of this equation. I tell them I want these negotiations to remain private so that Turley isn't upset. They assure me that they will be kept private.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Again, based on my limited understanding, I would go to the English Regional Divisions which I don't believe are simulated in this game. Therefore, I'll be very curious to see what happens should I be relegated.. well I hope I don't find out ;)

My understanding is that you become unemployed, but I might be wrong.

Enjoying this, by the way.

[Eaglesfan27]

January 27th, 2005 -

Worksop counters my offer. They ask for 28,000 up front! They also want 44,000 over 6 months. I take it as a sign to end negotiations.

I read in the newspaper that Kevin Keegan has taken over management of Southampton. Glad to know that fired managers can get rehired..

[Eaglesfan27]

Today my 20th ranked team hosts 18th ranked Droylsden. Droylsdan appears to have a talented squad that hasn't worked well together. Mark Bailey is anchoring the defense. Chris O'Brien has been the most consistent midfielder. Claran Kilheeney has been a potent scorer from the striker position. Their keeper position has been in flux and it's unclear who they are going to start. Our earlier match on September 25th ended in a 1-1 tie. We are 5:4 favorites.

Our starting lineup:

GK: Scarsella (another start to see what the kid can do.)
DL: Barnard (didn't get hurt seriously last game.)
DC: Curtis (I'm really torn between him and Wood as I'm not happy with either's play.)
DC: Shepherd
DR: Wood (due to Black's fatigue)
ML: Dunning (wright is still recovering from an injury)
MC: Hunter (atkins is almost recovered but not in game shape from his injury)
MC: Surey
MR: Fox
FC: Smyth
FC: Farrell

S1: Morris
S2: Turley
S3: Sturdy (backup left winger will get time as Wright needs rest)
S4: Marc Smith (backup left full back will get time because he is my only backup defender who is healthy)
S5: Pettinger (in case of injury.)

It's a cool crisp 45 degrees today.

[Eaglesfan27]

First 3 minutes: Curtis makes several good headers to send passes back to midfield where they came from (as opposed to entering the box)

30 minute mark: Austin Skelly sends a cross to Claran Kilheeney inside the 6 yard box.. Scarsella can't catch the pass.. but he somehow recovers to block Claran's header... Barnard comes to the ball and clears the rebound.

0-0 at the half.

49 minute mark: Fox takes the corner.. he sends a high kick into the box.. to the far post.. Surey is by the post.. he jumps.. his defender jumps.. Surey jumps higher and heads the ball towards the corner of the goal.. the keeper can't get to it... GOAL!!!! 1-0

60 minute mark: I put Turley in at right wing for the tired Fox.

66 minute mark: Turley steals the ball from the left winger.. he takes a few steps.. sends a surprisingly good pass 20 yards up the field to Smyth.. Smyth dribbles past his man.. into the left side of the box.. he shoots.. the keeper can't get to it.. it hits off the right post.. and in!!!! GOAL!!!! 2-0

70 minute mark: Their keeper comes out to kick the long pass away from Smyth who is charging the ball.. he hits it up the right side of the field.. Dunning intercepts it.. Dunning sees the keeper out of net.. and he launches a laser from midfield.. it's past the keeper.. heading to the right corner.. will it be wide? NO!!! It's a GOAL!!!! 3-0 :)

71 minute mark: Smyth is tired, so I sub on Morris for him. Wood is tired, so I sub in the kid Marc Smith to play right fullback.

78 minute mark: Curtis makes a great play on a long pass heading into the box.. heading it away.. on the counter Turley dribbles it up the right hand side.. he crosses the ball into the box.. 6 yards out Morris heads it.. right into the middle of the net past the stunned keeper.. Morris has his first goal!!! 4-0! Turley has 2 assists, and I find myself considering putting him at right wing more often (even though he is not rated to play the position ;) )

The announcer mentiones Droylsden had an "8 game unbeaten streak that is sure to end today."

88 minute mark: Claran gets the ball inside the box.. he puts a move on the defender to get wide open.. the keeper cuts down the angle.. Claran shoots up and away to the right corner.. Scarsella moves quickly and catches the shot cleanly!

4-0 Victory!

We were outshot 5-4 (but made every single shot count ;))

Turley won MoM despite being a sub for only the last 30 or so minutes of the match. Turley completed 11 of 15 passes, 1 of 1 tackles, 1 of 2 headers, 2 passes intercepted, 6 runs, and 2 assists.

He was one of 7 men to receive an 8 for form this match. Hopefully the morale of the team will go up and we can ride it for a while.

[Eaglesfan27]

After the game, Mr. Fotherby hugged me and told me how proud he was of the team. I'm not sure I liked him hugging me, but a guy can't hug another guy and then fire him in a few days, can he?

[Desnudo]

After the game, Mr. Fotherby hugged me and told me how proud he was of the team. I'm not sure I liked him hugging me, but a guy can't hug another guy and then fire him in a few days, can he?

Ever hear of the kiss of death? ;)

[Eaglesfan27]

January 30th, 2005 -

Today I received good news/bad news.

First the good news. Another loan player agreed to come play for us for free (well his team is paying all of his salary.) Hudderfield's Greg Kelly is coming to play for us for 3 months. He is a talented midfielder from the match that I saw on TV. He is also a nifty finisher and could play up front in a pinch. I think he will be a nice boost to the tiring Atkins and the rest of the midfield.

As far as the bad news. I woke to see this article in the newspaper:

"Harrogate Town manager Christopher Engles has received a vote of confidence from the club's directors ahead of Tuesday's away game against Altrincham.

Engles has come under increasing pressure recently, but the Harrogate Town board have handed the manager a life-line by telling him his job is safe for now."

Darn, this is the dreaded vote of confidence.

[Eaglesfan27]

Feb. 1st, 2005 -

Mr. Fotherby called me into his office for our monthly meetings. He made it quite clear that he is unsatisfied with my performance, and I better start winning quickly if I wish to remain manager. I nod solemnly, and am about to leave when he says, "I am glad how you got our wage budget under control."

Least he likes something that I'm doing.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm feeling the heat today. We are currently ranked 17th and we travel to 11th ranked Altrincham. We lost 1-0 to them on September 28th at home. I'm hoping we can turn that around today. They have recently added Gareth Evans on loan from Blackpool and he is a beast on their defensive line. David Beharall is still playing well at DC. Scott Brown has been playing spectacular in the midfield the last 5 games. Rod Thornley has been the main scoring threat, and he has 11 goals so far this season. Stuary Coburn has played well in goal with 11 clean sheets in 32 appearances on the year. They are 5:4 favorites

Morale on the team is excellent except for Pettinger who is sulking. Fortunately, the rest of the team seems to be behind my decision to play Scarsella. Perhaps because of my precarious situation, I decide to take a few risks.

GK: Scarsella
DL: Barnard
DC: Shepherd
DC: Curtis (played really well last game.)
DR: Wood (also played well here last game.)
ML: Wright (back from injury.)
MC: Surey
MC: Atkins (back from injury.)
MR: Turley (played very well in 30 minutes at the posiiton..)
SC: Smyth
SC: Farrell

S1: Pettinger
S2: Greg Kelly (I want to work the newcomer in slowly and not disrupt chemistry.)
S3: Dunning
S4: Hunter
S5: Morris (I can't totally bench him after his first goal.)

It's a wet 35 degrees today.

[Eaglesfan27]

6 minute mark: Turley trips the left winger... no flag but a whistle. Turley argues the call.. yellow flag!

9 minute mark: Wright is run over by Beharall. No foul.. no penalty, but an injured Wright results. Kelly can play left wing among other positions, and I decide to give him a shot.

13 minute mark: Turley steals the ball.. passes from the right wing up to Farrell.. Farrell quickly passes a short pass to Smyth.. Smyth dribbles to his left.. shoots.. just over the bar.

20 minute mark: wod gets called for a trip on Jack Wanless, a striker. Yellow flag.

22 minute mark: Curtis makes a key tackle in the box to clear a ball.

29 minute mark: Scarsella makes an excellent save on a shot from 10 yards by Wanless.

35 minute mark: Rob Matthews centers to Scott Brown who is 15 yards out... right in the center of the pitch.. he shoots.. towards the upper left corner.. Scarsella dives.. but can't get to it. Goal. 1-0 Altrincham.

35 minute mark: The midfielder passes the ball back to Wood at right full back.. he sends a very long pass to Smyth in the box.. Smyth takes too dribbles to his left.. around the keeper who came out to get the ball.. shoots.. right into the center of the net!!! GOAL!!!! 1-1

44 minute mark: Curtis heads a crossing pass away from the dangerous Thornley. Shepherd clears.

1-1 at the half.

54 minute mark: Scarsella makes an amazing save on a great pass from Scott Brown to Thornley that got him an open look at the net.

Oops (accidental post.. rest of post to follow.)

[MizzouRah]

My scout brought me some game tape of this kid

Maybe I'm stretching a bit, but does the game really have a clip from some of his games?


Todd

[SirFozzie]

Probably not in this case, but one of the things that happen is the game, is that an agent will aproach you, representing a player on another team, bringing you highlights (and you can view the highlights just like any other match) of his player and inviting you to make a bid for him

[RPI-Fan]

Probably not in this case, but one of the things that happen is the game, is that an agent will aproach you, representing a player on another team, bringing you highlights (and you can view the highlights just like any other match) of his player and inviting you to make a bid for him

The scout won't necessarily give you "clips", but he does provide you a link to the game he scouted, so if the kid scored you can easily view it.

[MizzouRah]

Thanks to the both of you, that's pretty neat.


Todd

[Eaglesfan27]

The end of this game will be posted in a little bit.. had a long protracted meeting with some people tonight on the web to discuss some stuff. As far as my prose.. some of it is creative license. I don't want to say I just looked at his numbers! :)

[Eaglesfan27]

57 minute mark: Turley dribbles down the right sideline.. he beats his man.. he starts dribbling towards the goal.. beats another man.. into the box.. shoots.. over the bar.

64 minute mark: Turley is exhausted. I reluctantly put Dunning there out of position. Farrell is also tired, so I give Morris another shot at playing.

71 minute mark: Kelly feeds the ball up to Morris in the box. Morris makes a nifty move on his man.. goes to his left.. shoots.. into the keeper's arms.

76 minute mark: Surey is seriously hurt by a collision with Gareth Evans. Unfortunately, I've already used up all 3 subs, so I have to play with 10 men at this point. I decide to go with a 4-4-1.

1-1 tie.

We were outshot 19-9!

Leigh Wood wins MoM with 18 of 22 passes, 9 of 11 tackles!, 7 of 12 headers, 5 passes intercepted, and an assist.

[Eaglesfan27]

Post match report: Wright's encounter with Beharall is going to be costly. Damaged ankle ligaments.. out at least 4 weeks.

Surey's encounter with Gareth Evans wasn't nice either. His shoulder is "damaged" according to my crack physio. He will be out at least a week.

[Eaglesfan27]

<!--StartFragment --> <TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>Pos</TD> <TD>Inf</TD> <TD>Team</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Pld</TD> <TD>Won</TD> <TD>Drn</TD> <TD>Lst</TD> <TD>For</TD> <TD>Ag</TD> <TD>G.D.</TD> <TD>Pts</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>1st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worcester</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>18</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>41</TD> <TD>16</TD> <TD>+25</TD> <TD>62</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>2nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Barrow</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>15</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>49</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>+21</TD> <TD>52</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>3rd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Worksop</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>14</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>43</TD> <TD>33</TD> <TD>+10</TD> <TD>48</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>4th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Vauxhall Motors</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>13</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>43</TD> <TD>31</TD> <TD>+12</TD> <TD>46</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>5th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Nuneaton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>39</TD> <TD>30</TD> <TD>+9</TD> <TD>45</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>6th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Southport</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>37</TD> <TD>30</TD> <TD>+7</TD> <TD>45</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>7th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Moor Green</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>39</TD> <TD>28</TD> <TD>+11</TD> <TD>41</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>8th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Alfreton</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>36</TD> <TD>36</TD> <TD>0</TD> <TD>41</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>9th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hucknall</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>39</TD> <TD>47</TD> <TD>-8</TD> <TD>41</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>10th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stalybridge</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>41</TD> <TD>44</TD> <TD>-3</TD> <TD>39</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>11th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Kettering</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>34</TD> <TD>41</TD> <TD>-7</TD> <TD>38</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>12th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Altrincham</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>32</TD> <TD>37</TD> <TD>-5</TD> <TD>37</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>13th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Hinckley</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>39</TD> <TD>37</TD> <TD>+2</TD> <TD>36</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>14th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Stafford Rangers</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>45</TD> <TD>47</TD> <TD>-2</TD> <TD>36</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>15th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Droylsden</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>33</TD> <TD>43</TD> <TD>-10</TD> <TD>36</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>16th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Harrogate Town</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>27</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>+3</TD> <TD>35</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>17th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Redditch</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>37</TD> <TD>38</TD> <TD>-1</TD> <TD>35</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>18th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Gainsborough</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>32</TD> <TD>37</TD> <TD>-5</TD> <TD>35</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>19th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Ashton Utd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>9</TD> <TD>8</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>31</TD> <TD>40</TD> <TD>-9</TD> <TD>35</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>20th</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Lancaster</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>7</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>10</TD> <TD>31</TD> <TD>32</TD> <TD>-1</TD> <TD>33</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>21st</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Runcorn</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>6</TD> <TD>11</TD> <TD>12</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>42</TD> <TD>-21</TD> <TD>29</TD> </TR><TR bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TD>22nd</TD> <TD></TD><TD>Bradford PA</TD> <TD></TD><TD>29</TD> <TD>5</TD> <TD>3</TD> <TD>21</TD> <TD>24</TD> <TD>52</TD> <TD>-28</TD> <TD>18</TD></TR> </TD></TR>

[Eaglesfan27]

Viewing the standings in my local newspaper, I see that I'm only 3 tantalizing points from being in the top half of the league like my board wants. Of course, that means 5 different teams would have to lose while I won, but it could happen. We just need to get a winning streak going..

[Eaglesfan27]

Hello again my friends! Today we play Droylsden again for the 4th round of the FA trophy. We recently beat them 4-0 and the team remembers this and is pumped. We feel that we should do well. The key people on their team have not switched. We are 5:4 favorites despite missing several of our players.

Injured/Banned:
Wright (out)
Surey (out)
Turley (5 yellow cards = 1 game ban!)

Despite these absences, my team feels confident.

Our lineup:

GK: Scarsella
DL: Barnard
DC: Shepherd
DC: Curtis
DR: Wood
ML: Greg Kelly
MC: Hunter
MC: Atkins
MR: Fox
SC: Smyth
SC: Farrell

S1: Pettinger
S2: Krief
S3: Dunning
S4: Black
S5: Morris

It's a dry cold 34 degrees today.