When They Kick At Your Front Door: A Brixton FC Story (FM18) - Page 2

BrixtonFC · 05-26-2024, 08:03 PM

Rae hasn’t been used much recently so I’m giving him the start. He just mastered “Knock Ball Past Opponent” so I hope to see plenty of that.

Southern Counties East
vs. Chatham, 7 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Rae
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Macey, Cullen

Nothing much at all happens until just before 40’ when Rae shows he’s good at being a Poacher. Barlow saw Rae standing between two centerbacks and knocked the ball forward perfectly for Rae to sprint and one-time the ball into the net. Beautiful! In the 53rd minute O’Donnell sends a free-kick into the box right to Smith who waits for traffic to clear before Frogger-ing the ball across the street to its rightful destination. I swap everyone out but Chicken Legg and Rae but then realized I missed taking Duckett off until the 75th minute. Luckily, Martin enters for a corner kick and immediately heads the ball in. What timing! Chatham pulls one back in the 89th off of one of those FM specials: A defender tries to clear a ball up-field only to have the ball hit a teammate which then bounces to an opponent in the box who is free-and-clear. Thanks, Myles! Turd.

(Frogger was fresh in my mind after hearing it discussed in the World’s Greatest 2nd Edition AD&D podcast, THACO’s Hammer.)

POM: Terry Barlow (1 assist, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)

Rae’s lack of sharpness bites me in the ass. He got a bruised thigh late in the game and is out 5 to 10 days.

FA Vase Seventh Round
vs. Pickering, 10 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Al-Ziod, Cullen, McAdam, Jones, Nixon, Martin, Taylor, Donaldson

Pickering prove no slouches but after 13’ we are able to punch through their armor with a counter-attack culminating in an O’Donnell cross to Macey for an easy goal. In the 22nd, our tactic of Prevent GK Distribution FINALLY pays off when Macey robs their left central defender of a slow pass from the goalie. Never in any matches in this season have I seen this even attempted. Good work, Eddie!

At the half I make the rare Assertive “Don’t get complacent” talk and almost everyone focuses up; Maguire and Legg are the notable exceptions. I hope that isn’t a portent. Not two minutes into the second half O’Donnell beats his man and lifts a tight shot into the ceiling of the net. He totally baffled the goalkeeper. At 56’ Eddie again steals a distribution but this time kicks it straight at the goalie. Derp. Because a lot of the non-starters aren’t getting enough playing time I do a full outfield swap at 60’, Macey’s hat-trick be damned.

And five minutes later it bites me in the tookis as Pickering counter-attack and make Chicken Fucker look incompetent. But that’s all the excitement there is to be had and we’re onto the Quarter Final!

POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals, 1 key pass)

Another match, another agent, another nope. Sorry, Carroll, that 7.3 doesn’t matter when I have you signed until 2020.

BrixtonFC · 05-26-2024, 08:08 PM

The Days Between
The FA Vase Quarter Final draw happens on the 11th. Please not Dartford, please not Dartford, please not Dartford. YES! We get to host Hampton & Richmond, who are in the Conference South, so it’s not easy street but at least it’s not the team that last beat us again.
O’Donnell turned 17 on the 9th and I went to offer him a Full-time contract and he refused to negotiate. Says we couldn’t meet his ambitions or some shit like that. Luckily we have him until 2021 so either he eventually signs or we sell him at a healthy profit.

This is the reschedule of the match that was postponed due to a water-logged field. Lettuce see what happens.

Southern Counties East
at Erith Town, 14 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Cullen, Donaldson, Jones, Nixon, Martin, Rae, McAdam

No postponement this time despite a “Very Poor Pitch.” Hopefully we don’t suffer any injuries. Interesting formation they use, 4-3-3 with three strikers and three central midfielders.

Erith Town probably wish the match had been cancelled though. We get a penalty in the 9th minute and O’Donnell skies it. What the fuck?! Seventeen minutes later he makes up for his sin planting a score off a Duckett cross. It was just the two of them with nary a defender in sight and if they had botched it I was going to yank Ben. In the 32nd their right striker gets his second yellow and we are hopefully on Easy Street. Two minutes into extra time we get a Duckett goal (a beautiful tight-angle one to the ceiling of the net) in the aftermath of a corner.

At 60’ I sub out O’Donnell and Spearing who are on yellows. At 65’ I bring in Rae for Macey (on a 6.4) so he can get his fitness back up, and Cullen for Barlow who is stinking up the joint with a 6.3 rating. Just after entering extra time Maguire finds Nixon at the far post and the victory is sealed, as is Legg’s first cleansheet in two matches. Or so I thought. Duckett has been horrible the second half and passes the ball right to a Townie who Route Ones it up the field and Legg just stands there looking stoopid. And not another minute later their goalie launches one forward and they get a repeat.

POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)

I lamblast™ them and point out Clark, Barlow, Macey, and Rae specifically. I then hand out some fines and warnings. Barlow doesn’t feel the fine was justified, blaming his team-mates. That’s not good. Macey accepts his warning and Clark accepts his fine, he even gets a Determination bump.

A lot of players are in the high 80s in their Match Fitness so I have heavy rotation. Macey and O’Donnell are on my shitlist so they don’t even suit up today.

Southern Counties East
at Whitstable, 17 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Jones, Donaldson, Martin, Taylor
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Rae

The first action doesn’t happen until the 34th minute and Cullen does well getting the ball to Jones’ noggin but he just sends it softly to the goalie. Le Sigh. Amazingly not a minute later we get a penalty opportunity and Jefcoate of all people gets the opportunity. (Taylor is on the pitch but he too is kind of on my shitlist for his botched penalty.) Jefcoate does not disappoint and gets his first goal of the season. At 69’ I bring on Rae and Nixon for Taylor and Cullen who have done nothing to impress me. Also Jefcoate comes off for the Jordanian Prince as he’s earned a yellow. Just before 80’ when I was going to switch to Defensive due to our recent lapses, Whitstable get us with the Route One. That’s our weakness. Five minutes later the lads respond to my Overload change-up with a Martin-Jones-Rae combo for a goal. I switch to Contain and give as many players defensive instructions as possible. In the first minute of stoppage time of six minutes Parker gets doinked in the head and on comes Maguire. And then with 6 seconds left Jones scores off a corner and the squeaky-bum match ends with a Brixton victory.

POM: Robert Jones (1 goal, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)

Oh fuck me to tears. Parker has a fractured skull and will be out for 3 to 4 months. Fuuuuuuuck. One of our two DRs in the U18 is currently out for 11 days to 3 weeks for a twisted ankle so it seems the FM fix is in. Youth Intake is right around the corner and hopefully we get a good DR who can take Parker’s place.

BrixtonFC · 05-26-2024, 08:19 PM

The Week Between
Awesome! Another Player Development email, this time from my Head of Youth Development, Harold Pennington. He believes that The Real Slim Shadi’s “potential could lead to him becoming a League Two left-back in the future.”

YEAH! It’s Ratbirdtown again!

Southern Counties East
vs. Crowborough, 21 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Donaldson, Cullen

Just before 2’ we march the ball up the field slowly, methodically and then pounce with a long ball to the left corner. Duckett sends in a low cross to the near post and Macey get us on the board. Anything you can do I can do better, says O’Donnell. He takes a Barlow feed up the middle and meets the ball near the right post and we’re up two. Oh my. In the 35th Maguire sends in a prayer that meets Duckett’s left foot near the left post and we score again.

We have a Cup match in 3 days so I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap at 60’. I try Donaldson at right back just for shits and giggles. And of course that bites me in the ass again. Same shit, different game, a Route One attack and Legg just stares at the attacker. And this is even after I dropped our line back to normal. I think it may be Day and Clark who are the problem. Rae does draw one back in the 84th and we see out the match.

POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes)

Duckett has been on fire of late. I need to check to see if he’s rating higher than everyone else the last 5 and 20 games. In the last 5 games he’s averaging 8.04 with Maguire the closest at 7.50. Over the last 20 games, he’ at 7.98, second to Macey (somehow) at 8.19.

I issue a warning to McAdam for a 6.3 rating. I don’t have the option for Taylor but he’s been on a bad steak recently so I have a sit-down with him. He admitted he didn’t do well. At this moment I notice he has a 3 in Teamwork. He probably needs to be shipped off if we get two good strikers in our Youth Intake Day.

Also another match, another agent, another no. Barlow, remind your agent about your Erith Town performance, please.

It’s been 5 matches since we had a clean sheet. I’ve no idea what the hell is going on. Let’s try to improve that against a team two steps above us in the English pyramid?

Southern League Cup Quarter Final
vs. Kings Langley, 24 February 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Donaldson, Cullen

It’s a pretty boring match with neither Macey or O’Donnell able to dial it in. We do get a goal at 38’ courtesy of an own goal though Duckett kind of got the defender and GK all a-panicky. In the second half we get a free kick that gets headed by Spearing to Pearson who strikes it true. A few moments later they draw one back but I can’t fault Legg this time, it was a long shot that went to the far upper left corner. And we strike back immediately with the Duckett-Pearson combo. I pulled Macey and his 6.4 rating for Taylor and switch to 4-4-2 Standard. And Taylor gives up the ball and Kings score on the counter. Fucking hell. But Taylor redeems himself with a goal in the 81st.

POM: Steve Pearson (2 goals, 1 key pass)

Six matches without a cleansheet. This is not what the doctor ordered.

BrixtonFC · 05-26-2024, 08:24 PM

In Summary
Another great month victory-wise but there has been a number of shaky performances and just one cleansheet. We’re semi-talented. I don’t know why the kids are faltering in dumb ways. Maybe I shouldn’t stick with the same tactic from match-to-match? But we’ve extended our league lead to 20 points and are still in two cups so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.

In my next update I’ll go over our 2018 Youth Intake Day. I think this is a good time to talk about my desires for the long-term makeup of the team.

A number of my desires are really not explainable; it’s just the way my age-addled brain works. I would like at least one American in my Starting XI but I’m not going to be a homer and make Brixton an U.S. exclave. To keep the Brixton motif alive, I would like one or two players from the Caribbean. For goalkeeper, I want a Pole. I want one of my defenders to be German, hopefully one of the centrebacks. Somewhere on the team I want a Japanese or South Korean player. I want the bulk of my players to be English or British or Irish. I probably won’t sign many, if any, Central or South Americans. I just don’t like the style of play in real life so that carries over into how I play FM. When we get to the Premier League and I can scout worldwide I’ll probably make those regions the last ones I explore. I guess maybe part of that is because of the whole agent “owns” a player thing.

Now onto my favoritest part of the game!

BrixtonFC · 06-09-2024, 04:23 PM

YOUTH INTAKE DAY 2018

Reasons to Be Cheerful

It’s that time of year now that spring is in the air and we get new gits with loads and loads of Flair. With apologies to Spitting Image.

We got one amazing player who’s ready to contribute but none of the others are anywhere near first team material right now.

Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 1
1. Kemar Kirkpatrick: My AssMan has the audacity to claim he is going to be better than Ben O’Donnell. Poppycock! That’s ridiculi, beyond ridiculous. Oh my. Can play with both feet, but stronger on the right. He’s 193cm (6’4”) which is crazy for a 15-year-old. Not any Mentals below 9. No Physicals below 11 except Strength. Already “very well-suited to League Two football.” I have hit the jackpot!

2. Gary Leary: Already a Natural at MR and ML, and Competent at AMR. (And left-footed!) Should be my wing sub once we get to Conference South, where substitute numbers actually matter. (Big assumption there.)

3. Bill Taylor: Looks like a good Core player with great Teamwork and Work Rate already.

4. Ashley Hibbert: Can play a lot of positions on the right side and up front. And I get to make some Simpsons jokes!

5. Caribbean players: Aside from Kemar, we have another player born in Jamaica and a player born in Tobago. This fits my Brixton theme very well as it’s home to many Afro-Caribbean people.

6. Seven players who just might be rated at 5 stars on Potential Ability.

7. Everyone has a 9 or better Natural Fitness.

8. Eleven players have Determination in the double-digits.

9. Nine players have a good Personality.

10. Good spread of positions with none being over- or under-represented. (This one time in FM14, I got three GKs and four STs in one youth intake. /Hannigan)

Bonus: How I ended up with an Angolan kid is anyone’s bet. He has great physicals except Strength and Stamina. However, with a Marking of 2 and a Positioning of 1 he’ll never make it as a Fullback.

I’m not going to show all the cards, just the ones of the players I think might actually be with us for the full term of their first contract.

Kemar Kirkpatrick (ST, AMC)
Like I said, Brixton has hit the jackpot. There is nothing not to like except he will probably outgrow us before we are high enough in the pyramid to appease him.

Andy Robinson (AMR, MR)
He’s going to be better than Robbie Jones but whether he’s going to be better than Pearson is up for debate. I wish his Determination was better but I’m glad about his Corners starting so high.

Dean Rice (DL, WBL)
Good left fullbacks are hard to find. I have a plethora of them. Jefcoate and The Real Slim Shadi are real good and I think Dean Rice will eventually be nearly as good. This will help me sell off Jefcoate once Rice’s Determination gets Tutored up.

Mitchell Nightingale (DC)
He’s slow, he’s short but he has a lot of good defensive skills. I think I’ll be able to get him up to starter quality eventually.

Bill Taylor (MC, DMC, AMC)
I haven’t instituted my drive to make my central midfielders into what I call Core: being Natural at DMC, MC, and AMC. Bill Taylor will easily be able to become such a player. He has a weird spread of Attributes, not really being good at attack and being pretty crap with defense.

Tasos Noulas (DMC)
Now here’s a player who too can be a Core player but with much better defensive skills than Bill Taylor. He speaks Greek so maybe in the future if he’s still around he can be Mentor for any Greek players I manage to sign.

Ashley Hibbert (MR, AMR, AML, ST)
I’m liking him more than Andy Robinson not just for all the positions he can play but also his high Determination, Flair, Natural Fitness, and Pace.

Youth Candidate Match
Nothing much happens until 40’ when Carey (DM) pushes Noulas (DM) to the ground during a free kick and Bill Taylor (MC) scores easily from the spot. McNulty (ST) has a chance at 50’ but sends the ball wide right from inside the 18-yard box. At 83’ Noulas tries an effort from 25 yards out but just misses the upper left corner. That’s it. Nothing else happened. I was really hoping Kemar would impress but he only managed a 6.7.

Scouting
I don’t have the budget to scout many teams and I don’t think any youths are going to want to come to Brixton anyway. Therefore, I’ll only scout four teams that are nearby: AFC Croydon, Bromley, Croydon, and Dulwich Hamlet. By mid-month all my scouting requests are processed. There are some wonderful kids out there but none of them are willing to sign. Those that are willing to sign are not going to be better than what we already have.

BrixtonFC · 06-11-2024, 08:09 PM

March 2018

The winner takes it all

Yeah! An excellent training report! I’m especially pleased to see Smith do well as I think he’s going to be a force for us for a good while.

Financial Matters
A slight improvement in our finances; we lost around £9,000 less in February.

Southern Counties East
vs. Glebe, 3 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, ML, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, O’Donnell, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Rae, Taylor, Donaldson, Cullen

In 17’ Pearson receives a long pass from Maguire off to the right of goal and has enough space to cross to the far post where his bestie is charging but instead of going for glory he nods it to Benny to his right who seals the deal. Between 31’ and 34’ Benny and Eddie have opportunities but are off the mark on long-range shots. Just after 40’ Benny receives a long boot forward by Pearson, he takes it to the endline, draws the opposition leaving Barlow alone at the far post to put in the low cross. Eddie is rocking it 6.4 style so I give him a pep-talk, let’s see if it works.

It took him 5 minutes and 20 second but Eddie makes it three. He and Benny had a fast break courtesy of Shady and with the option to shoot or pass he shot and it went right through the goalies legs. Rae was needing match fitness so I swap him in for Benny at 60’. Just before 78’ another hoof-it-forward sees Eddie on a one-on-one and he gets a brace. At 88’ Glebe almost get one in off a corner but luckily the defense is doing wonderful today and clear the ball upfield.

POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals)

Huzzah! We have a cleansheet again! In setting up this game I realized that I had been using the Spade since mid-December. Not a good idea.

The Week Between
Let us look at our finances on a per-game basis.

From the Glebe match we made £6,718. Match day income was £5,379 plus gate receipts of £1,659. Match day expenses were £320. Ah, but let us look at how much we paid in player salaries. For bonuses (goals, assists, clean sheets, appearance, etc.) we spent £1,250 and for salaries, for the whole team, is £8,589. So essentially we lose £3,121 ever week. More on weeks when we don’t play at home. Less when we have a game mid-week at home. We gotta increase ticket prices to at least £6 in the off-season.
Because of Parker’s injury I’m bringing up left DC Martin Duggan as I’m going to use Clark as the second DR until the end of the season.

On 6 March I get an email from Rutherford about player development. He believes DM Tasos Noulas can be much better than Connor Smith. I find that surprising. I’m also highly skeptical. Only time will tell.

Southern Counties East
at Rochester United, 10 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, O’Donnell, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

Just over 5’ in and our first corner sees a Duckett-Carroll-Spearing combo give us an early lead. On the restart Rochester try to stab our gut but Smith kicks the ball out to Pearson on the right wing and his long pass finds O’Donnell who sinks it from 7 yards out. Just before the 18th minute Maguire finds himself way too far forward, ends up with the ball at the endline and crosses it perfectly to Benny at the near post. Of course Benny has to hit the near post just for shits and giggles and the rebound comes right back to him and this time he got his act together and put us in a commanding lead. And. O’Donnell had a chance of a third but his header bounces off the underside of the crossbar and he fouls a defender trying to get to the rebound. Our inability to keep cleansheets rears its ugly head when Macey can’t make anything of being oddly alone to the goalie’s right. He fumbles around with the ball when a defender charges and kicks the ball way deep into our territory and Carroll let’s their striker pass him by and Chicken Legg just watches the ball go on by. But then 15 seconds after the restart Duckett sends in a prayer and Benny is able to outrun the opposition, one-timing the ball right under the goalie. He has his hat trick and will come off at half for Kemar’s debut. But not satisfied, Barlow times a perfect pass with a Benny run and he has four.

At 50’ Duckett gets pushed down in the box during a Pearson cross and he sinks the penalty. At 60’ I bring on some players who just need some match time. During the 73’ Maguire sends in another prayer and Kemar can’t beat the goalie one-on-one and sends the ball high and to the outside.
After the match I tell the lads that they did well and I was happy with their performance. Kemar, who squeaked out a 6.3 rating, was delighted. Nobody else had any kind of response. Jesus, kid, you need a lesson.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (4 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)

Even though his Happiness is Perfect I still have a talk with Kemar. He acknowledges he sucked and promised to do better. His happiness did not drop.

The Days Between
Having elevated Duggan (temporarily) and Kirkpatrick (permanently) to the Senior team I wanted to check Dynamics to see what effect this had. I am shocked to see that everyone but Duggan in the Core Social Group. I guess Nixon moved up and Kirkpatrick was a natural to fit. This is cool. Macey and Day have not seen any increase of late though.

In FA Cup news, League One club Bury weren’t satisfied taking down Liverpool, they’ve now notched their belt again taking down Chelsea. Bury scored in 70’ and Chelsea had a man sent off at 81’ so the victory seems fair and square. Bury isn’t even top of their league, they are 8th!

Up next is the return of the Leathernecks. No, not the U.S. Marines, but English football club Corinithian. Mmm...sexy leather...

I am switching things up again to get players some Match Fitness and rest some important starters for the upcoming FA Vase Quarter Final.

Southern Counties East
vs. Corinthian, 14 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, Cullen, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Donaldson, McAdam, Duckett, Rae

In the 7th minute Taylor get us ahead after we had some fancy passing off a free kick and Martin sends in a good cross. 8 minutes later Kemar shows what he can do as a Deep Lying Forward, sending a carpet level cross that bounces off Taylor’s foot for a slow-mo goal. Spot on 24’ Kemar gets his first career goal after a Martin cross pinballs off a falling Taylor. Almost 3 minutes latter Kirkpatrick feeds Taylor for his hat trick. Holy crap! A fourth from Taylor though he was offsides. I guess this low in the pyramid the refs aren’t that good either. A B.S. penalty in the 37’ is Corinithian’s only hope. Which really pisses off Kemar and Paul with the first one repeating that super low cross to Taylor for his fifth FIFTH!!! goal of the first half.

At the half I take off Taylor, move Kemar over to the Advanced Forward and bring on Rae. A little jealousy must be in the air as Kemar nets his brace courtesy of Rae. And then he gets his hat trick. In the 68th the lads were patiently probing and Donaldson found Kemar all by his lonesome in the middle of the arc and his shot was soft but too high in the corner for the GK to have a chance. Just before 80’ we get a make up call from the ref and Jefcoate gets his second penalty shot of the season.

POM: Paul Taylor (5 goals, 1 key pass) And a perfect 10.0 rating!!!

(A couple of days after the match I was looking at Kemar’s Player Card to see what it was taking him so long to recover from the match and I noticed that he has the “Places Shots” trait. That would explain his “soft shot” to get his hat trick. I wasn’t able to figure out the fitness mystery though. His Stamina is 12 and his Natural Fitness is 14. Maybe because he’s only 15?)

The Days Between
The scouting report for Hampton & Richmond comes in and actually we have very comparable squads. I’m not worried about this match now.

Kind of annoyed that we are only drawing 919 spectators to a semi-final match in a cup. C’mon!

FA Vase Quarter Final
vs. Hampton & Richmond, 17 March 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Nixon, Martin, Rae, Taylor

Well it didn’t take long for the Macey to Pearson to O’Donnell triad to work, just 80 seconds. The rest of the half is barren excitement as we trade opportunities and Macey again shows his lack of Composure when he’s alone. Oddly though, when he’s in heavy traffic he sinks, like he did at 41:25.

Just before the half Duckett gets a bruised foot and I swap him out at the half for Martin. After 10 minutes I have to bring off Barlow who has a strained knee and right off the restart Macey feeds Benny at the top of the box and we have a comfortable lead. At 65’ I swap out all the Smith, O’Donnell, and Macey, and nothing at all happens for the rest of the match. A comfortable win and we are onto the Semi-finals! Unfortunately we will face a Conference South team as they all won. Dreaded Dartford is in that group. Le sigh.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (2 goals, 5 key passes, 2 chances created)

Of note, Barlow had 10 key passes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that many for any player before.

The Week Between
Oh praise Cthulhu, we get to host Poole Town, 20th in Conference South, and don’t have to travel to Dartford. Excellent.

On 22 March, our Tactics Coach, Defending Coach, and Attacking Coach bag the Continental Pro Licenses. Excellent, Smithers. They are all currently 4 stars rated, hopefully now they’ll creep up higher.

Southern Counties East
at Cray Valley, 25 March 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick

The scoring starts just after 5’ with another Macey goal amidst heavy traffic. The ball ping-ponged for a few seconds and I couldn’t quite track its course. Benny gets us number two right at 18’ from some fancy traffic negotiation. And spot on 31’ heavy traffic deflects a Barlow long-range shot right to a free Duckett at the left post and we get our third. Four minutes later Cray get FMed when one of their DCs slide-tackles Macey and the ball goes to Pearson who does not miss.

At the half I swap out everyone but Chick Legg and switch us to 4-4-2 Standard. I wasn’t hoping to score but Martin sends in a long shot from the left flank and totally surprises the goalie in the 57th. And at 67’ Rae gets in on things. After that I switch everything I can to a defensive posture just to see the match out without any injuries.
It was good to see that no player had multiple goals. Spread the love around a little, you know.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (1 goal, 1 key pass)

The Week Between
On 27 March another player development email comes in from my AssMan. This time I learn that James Jefcoate has the potential to be “League Two talent”.

On 29 March no less than 13 teams came looking to sign or take on trial Brian Carey, an Irish midfielder I signed back in late October to round out the U18 squad. I accepted the offers and by the afternoon he is gone. The next day another player, Aidan Collins, also a late October Irish find, draws interest from two clubs and I accept an offer. I make no money off these transaction but that is alright as they weren’t in my plans.
Also on the 30th two teams came sniffing around a left-footed Central Defender, Rory Collopy, but I need him for U18 DC depth so I say no.
Just before the U18 match on the 30th Alex Rae injured himself in training. A pulled calf muscle will keep him out 2-4 weeks. Kemar will get Rae’s minutes.

The Collins saga continues into the 31st as do more rumors about Collopy. C’mon, dudes, I’ve got a match to win!

Said win against Deal will see us winning the league. Despite that I’m going to start the Second XI as a lot of the players are losing match sharpness now that we are down to one match per week. Now we’re down to only 888 sold tickets. We gotta turn the beat around.

Southern Counties East
vs. Deal, 31 March 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey

The lads are a bit nervous. Despite dominating possession and a lot of activity in Deal’s third we just can’t accurate shots off. That is until 13’ when Martin leads a counter-attack down the left side and launches an early cross in hopes of catching out the goalie. The goalie was partially caught off guard and can’t control a bounce and the deflection goes right to Kemar and he doesn’t miss the wide-open net. Ten minutes later Kemar gets his second when an attack on the right flank see Day overlapping Jones and Day’s cross is perfect to the near post area where Kemar’s right foot eases my concerns. Afterwards Martin develops a case of the complacencies and I have to give a stern talk at half to not let your guard down.

The lads channel the spirit of Chuck Woolery and score in two and two, this time it’s Clark and his big foot sending in a cross to the far post where it meets Kemar’s big head, earning him his second hat trick of his 3-game career. At 70’ I throttle things back and decide to let the starters stay in for the full match. I hope this doesn’t affect morale.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)

Turns out I need not worry as everyone’s Morale is now Perfect.

In Summary
What a wonderful month! We won the league; there was never any doubt about that really. Our prize youth turns out to be fan-damn-tastic! In a weird development, teams way down the pyramid came looking for our players. None offered money so it wasn’t that hard to say no except the two I didn’t see having a future here.

Now I gotta think about the rest of the season. We have eight league matches to go and at least two cup matches. I’m normally inclined to give some of the U18s game time but I’m torn on whether to do that or not. Only time will tell.

Chas in Cinti · 06-12-2024, 03:41 PM

Congrats! Great league season...

BrixtonFC · 06-19-2024, 04:44 PM

Thank you, Chas! I may have over-Sugar Daddied things, a valuable lesson, but I'm having fun. I hope my readers are too.

BrixtonFC · 06-19-2024, 04:49 PM

Movin' right along

Oh Robbie Jones, why must you forsake me? I give a pep-talk and he seems to have gotten the message. Barlow, Spearing, Duckett…I heart you.

Financial Matters
We lost £178,000 last month. We’ll dip below £12,000,000 for our balance next month.

Board Confidence
Huzzah! I’m now Untouchable. My approval rating is only 77% but that is “Untouchable” somehow.

Player Matters
A note about Aidan Collins, who hasn’t gotten the message and accepted that bid yet. He joined the team on 8 November and not one Attribute has increased by one point yet. He’s had some minor improvements. Tackling has gone from 3.6 to 4.4 and that’s the best he’s had. Please leave! (His Personality is Fairly Professional so I have no idea why he’s sucking.) On the 1st, Colney Heath declare their interest in him. Make up your mind kid!
Collopy is drawing more and more interest. On 2 April three teams express interest in him and a fourth makes an offer of a whole whopping zero pounds so I deny them.

Player Development
Good news! Connor Smith is a Potential League Two talent. Better news is Mark Nixon is a Potential League One talent. Also good news is that Tom Johnstone is also like Nixon.

In related news, I get notice on 3 April that a slew of teams are fixing to release some youth players. I give them a gander but none have double-digit Determination; I’m scouting them anyways.

Coach Development
On 1 April I get another email about coaching badges. This time it’s my Shooting coach bagging a Continental Pro license.

Next victim up is Tunbridge Wells. They are second in the league but only 1 point ahead of Erith Town. Though the difference between second and third is irrelevant, because only the top team gets promoted, the game engine certainly will have them fighting for a higher position. Right? RIGHT?! (Let us hope.)

Southern Counties East
at Tunbridge Wells, 4 April 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

Pearson and O’Donnell start out the match nervous for some reason but after 13 minutes Pearson shakes that off when he sees an overlapping Maguire and that kid takes it to the endline for a trademark cross to the far post where Duckett heads it in for his 16th goal of the season. Four minutes later the action comes from the left side with Duckett sending a low cross to Macey at the near post, who delivers with surety.

Up two-nil at half I dial things back, naturally. I feel a trap coming. The feelings are unfounded as 5 minutes in Tunbridge almost score but the rebound finds Pearson who sends it Route One to Macey. Eddie outruns the defender and sends it through their goalie's crotch for our cushion goal. At 60’ I bring on Nixon, McAdam, and Taylor; the first two because they need match fitness, and Taylor because O’Donnell is phoning it in again. A minute later they get one by Legg on a counter-attack. Here they come, those the feelings again? Nope. Macey gets his hat trick 10 minutes later.

POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals)

Really bummed about conceding a goal. Legg has 11 league clean sheets which is only best in the league by one. I hope he ends the season with the most by a good margin.

BrixtonFC · 06-19-2024, 05:02 PM

The Days Between
Another bid comes in for Collopy, this time for a whopping £110. I opt to keep him.

Speaking of bids, Collins rejects South Normanton and will stay with us. For now...

It’s time to see if we can still maintain being in the cup competitions. Bath has a team that’s pretty good. Luckily they only have one 5-star player and that is their goalie.

Southern League Cup Semi Final
at Bath, 7 April 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

The first 30’ is predominantly us trying to exploit the left flank but despite many great Duckett crosses, nothing comes of it mostly because Macey is easily dispossessed. But in the 33rd minute the kids try the right side and then cut in to the middle of the field, feeding O’Donnell who feeds Macey who once again shows he’s better in the thick of things than by himself. At half I give Ye Olde Speech, Passionately, “Things are going well, but I know you’re capable of even better” Spearing gets motivated but Chicken Fucker gets stressed and “Looked to switch off.”

Eight minutes into the second half Bath’s lone striker gets past our central defenders and Legg’s speech reaction jumps to the forefront of my mind. Ye of little faith; he stonewalls the Bather. At this point I dial things back and choose the Control philosophy, and drop the defensive line back some. At 65’ I take out my wingers and the Jordanian Prince as they are getting tired. At 68’ their left winger lobs in an early cross and Legg once again comes through defending a point-blank shot, but Jefcoate evidently fouled the striker during the post-rebound melee. To quote Harry Vanderspeigle, “This is some bullshit.” Immediately afterwards I sub out the rest of the outfield, I have Nixon as the Shadow Striker as he’s really, really good. And of course The Jamaican Wonder, who almost draws us even immediately. In the 88th Kemar almost gets us the win but he can’t get a header on target.

After full-time I thought we’d get a replay at home but instead we go into extra time. Should have thought about that. I’m sure our players are still more fresh than theirs… At 101’ Martin was two yards out and all alone and manages to hit the upright. Jesus. The team plays uninspired from that point on.

On to the penalties! Dammit. Nixon, our only player on the pitch with double-digit Penalty Taking rating, sinks the first salvo. And Legg blocks Bath’s first shot! But then Jefcoate flubs his chance (7 in PT). It sure isn’t Martin’s day. He skies his chance. And so goes our chances at a trophy.

POM: Teddy Cullen (5 key passes, 4 chances created)

Martin is gutted. I’m really to blame though. I should have been more strategic about my selection. Gah!

The Days Between
A couple hours before our home match against Croydon, AFC Mansfield show up with a pail of money for Derek McLeish, a U18 Striker. Unfortunately for them the pail only has £825. Negative, Ghost Rider.

With the FA Vase Cup Semi-Final coming up I’m giving the Second XI the start. I’m also switching to the 4-4-2 to give Martin a chance to get Natural in ML and Nixon at MC. I also hope to give Rae some minutes on his road to recovery.

Southern Counties East
vs. Croydon, 11 April 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, ML, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Donaldson, Cullen, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell, Rae

Luckily the start is pretty quick with a Kirkpatrick-Nixon combo working just before 5’. It’s pretty dead until Kemar gets a brilliant shot off in the 39th but the GK is unimpressed. And just before half he has another chance but botches it. He seems to be a streaky player. I Assertively tell the squad that they were just alright and I expected to see things improve. It’s like I’m a prophet, though a 20-minute delayed one. Kemar playing as a Deep Lying Forward receives the ball from a Day launch out of our 18-yard box and tips it forward to Taylor, who is outpacing everyone; he sinks it with a low lob over a falling keeper. I then swap out the MCs and a few minutes later new arrival Cullen affords Taylor an opportunity for a brace and he delivers.

I give Rae the last 15 minutes of Kemar’s time. My pre-game plan was to bring off Taylor and make Rae a Poacher but I decided to give Taylor a chance to get his hat trick.

POM: Paul Taylor (2 goals, 1 key pass)

BrixtonFC · 06-19-2024, 05:11 PM

The Days Between
Another day, another Collopy offer, another no.

The scouting report for Poole Town comes in and they are not as good as our squad, but just by a hair. They are however riddled with injuries so I fancy our chances.

Damn, a cup Semi Final and we still can’t pull in a thousand fans.

FA Vase Cup Semi Final
vs. Poole Town, 14 April 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

Nothing happens in the first 39 minutes except Al-Ziod, Barlow, and Carroll draw yellows in quick succession. I chastised the lot of them at half and ask the young offenders to Calm it down. I switch us to Attack, to vary our passes to Mixed, and stop the players from getting Stuck In. It takes a while and a Shout of Show Some Passion but finally Smith starts a counter with a long shot forward to Macey, who launches one in from 20 yards out. I switch us back to Control and short passes.

At 65’ I take out the kids with yellow and bring in suitable players with Nixon being on because he’s actually pretty good at taking penalties. At 69’ their DMC gets his second yellow. At 75' I switch us to 4-4-2 and take off some players who can be replaced by better options in case we do go to penalties. And shortly thereafter Pearson sends a long pass into O’Donnell who embarrasses the goalie and now I feel comfortable. I immediately switch to Defensive and start wasting time. At 85’ their right-back gets his second yellow and it’s game, set, match. In the 92’ we get a free kick near their box and Duckett softly feeds it to Day and he gives it a go. The ball hits the underside of the crossbar and eventually bounces into goal.

POM: Daniel Duckett (1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)

The Week Between
We get to face East Thurrock United in the FA Vase Final at Wembley. That match won’t happen until 19 May and you can bet your sweet bippy that I’m going to field the best possible, rested team I can.

Another offer for McLeish comes in, this time for Weymouth, who look like they may be promoted to Conference South. Still, £750 ain’t gonna cut it. A couple of days later Clevedon come in with the same offer so they get the same answer. An offer comes in for Collins but I don’t accept this time as the requestor is from a league down and there ain’t no way he’s gonna accept the move.

Southern Counties East
at Bearsted, 21 April 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Kirkpatrick, Martin, Rae, Nixon

This is the most boring match ever! The players just aren’t doing anything. That is until 46 seconds into 60 seconds of injury time when finally Duckett gets some freedom and sends a low cross to O’Donnell who sinks it. Ten minutes into the second half, and after a Demand More shout, Duckett gets his second assist, this time Macey is the beneficiary. Or so I thought; Eddie was offsides. But a minute later Maguire’s cross finds Duckett way out left and his cross ping-pongs around the 6-yard box before Pearson pokes it in. A couple of minutes later there is a strange goal. We get a free kick but the wall blokes it and it goes flying toward the midline and Spearing kicks it sky-high towards the goal and Macey is able to track it over-the-shoulder and one-times the ball with his right foot.

I do my trademarked full outfield swap and switch to 4-4-2. Our fourth goal comes off a corner. Donaldson sends it in to Jones who is straight out from the left upright 9 yards. He heads it to Kemar who sends in a screamer from 12 yards out.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 goal, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)

With this clean sheet Chick Legg pulls in the lead again over the keeper from Beckenham; that dude allowed in 4 goals today.

BrixtonFC · 06-19-2024, 05:17 PM

The Week Between
More interest in Derek McLeish, Rory Collopy, and Aidan Collins comes in. I really don’t want to have to find another DC for the U18s and even though these offers come from teams one and two levels above I still say no. Until he complains about this I’ll keep saying no.

Southern Counties East
vs. Sevenoaks, 28 April 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

Since winning the league the players have been really stale in the first half of games. Case in point, we have no opportunities in the first 25 minutes but Sevenoaks do, almost scoring after some sloppy defensive play. Finally, in the 40th minute Smith and Pearson surprise with an attack up the middle and Pearson does a good job of not botching the chance. At 66’ we finally look competent and the O’Donnell-Macey up-the-gut attack works. And that’s all she wrote.

I didn’t tinker at all with the tactics all game except after 5 minutes when I remember we have problems with having too high a defensive line. I also didn’t do a full outfield swap once our fate was sealed; I wanted Pearson and Duckett to get the full 90 in hopes of getting them over the hump of being Natural at Attacking Midfielder.

POM: Connor Smith (1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)

My plan of keeping the wingers in partially worked; Duckett is now Natural at Attacking Midfielder Left.

The Week Between
Two offers come in, one for McLeish and one for Collopy, neither of which blow my socks off.

In Summary
Well, we’re down to just one cup competition and I believe it will make us some money as we should keep half the gate receipts for Wembley. I still can’t believe some of our youths are drawing interest. I figure once the Transfer Window opens more teams will come for our “Seniors” with O’Donnell and Kirkpatrick being the most obvious targets. I have faith that in the next league up I can get by with Macey, Taylor, and Rae. Now, if Duckett also gets pilfered…

BrixtonFC · 06-24-2024, 07:47 PM

May 2018

That was easy

Excellent training news! I’m especially glad to see an increase in Strength in my defenders.

Financial Matters
As expected, we lost just over £200,000 during April and face the same fate for May unless that match at Wembley attracts enough fans. Yes, we are now below £12 million in the bank.

Board Confidence
Still Untouchable, still at 78% approval.

Dynamics
Excellent news! Ben O’Donnell is now an Influential Player alongside Chris Day.

While looking around the Dynamics pages I notice that our Match Cohesion is Abysmal. What the heck? Off to the Internets! I guess I didn’t realize that flip-flopping 11 players all at once and not spending time training Match Cohesion would drag it down. I remedy that instantly and wonder if that’s why our early match ineptitude developed.

Player Development
Oh how neat! Recent Youth Candidate Bill Taylor now has a Media Description of “Hard working midfielder.” I think this is because his Teamwork and Work Rate both climbed to 15 each. He’s gonna probably make the Seniors this summer. The challenge for him is getting his Marking, Tackling, and Positioning up to respectable levels.

The Week Between
More offers are coming in for our players. Canvey Island, on a reclaimed island on the north side of the Thames, east of London, offer £650 for ST Derek McLeish. I pass. Also, of course, are two additional offers for Collopy and of course I say no.

With only five matches left in the season I want to get Kemar some game time so he starts today over Macey, who is the twelfth sub just in case something goes pear-shaped.

Southern Counties East
at AFC Croydon, 5 May 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Macey

My pre-match speech draws no favorable reactions, which is a bummer because I had been on a good streak. Nothing’s doing until the 20th when Croydon get a corner despite us owning them in possession and shots so far. After 30’ I have to Demand More and switch to Attacking in the hopes of getting something to happen. Within two minutes it works when a Kemar-Pearson-Duckett-Kemar combo pulls us ahead. In the 37th I have to take Pearson off due to a knee injury. Dammit, I really want him to get his AMR up to Natural!

After the half it takes 15 minutes for us to get in gear again and Al-Ziod gets his first career goal, a blast from 21 yards out. At 65’ I take off Carroll and his yellow, my midfielders so Nixon and McAdam can get more playing time, and O’Donnell so Rae can get his Match Fitness up. With this I drop Kemar down to Shadow Striker. The rest get swapped out at 70’. Despite switching to Defensive at 80’ we give up another late goal and mostly it’s Legg’s fault as it came right to him with very little velocity. Therefore the squad get the Don’t Get Complacent speech and they surprisingly don’t ignore me.

POM: Daniel Duckett (1 assist, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)

And the butcher’s bill on Pearson is…drumroll…Bruised Knee, Out 1 to 2 days. Oh praise Cthulhu!

The Week Between
Macey’s mentoring of McNulty comes to an end. His Personality went from Balanced to Resolute and his Determination went from 12 to 17. McNulty was “delighted at the results of his link-up” and so am I.
Obligatory offer report. McLeish, £525, no, x2.

BrixtonFC · 06-24-2024, 07:52 PM

I’m really hoping we snap out of our “funk” and dominate from whistle to whistle. We now are drawing only 800 fans. Fudge...

Southern Counties East
vs. Sheppey, 12 May 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Cullen, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick

Things seem to be working. I Demand More after 10 minutes of nothing and two minutes later Carroll gets a boot on the ball from a corner kick and we’re up one. Ten minutes later a Maguire cross goes errant but so did one of Sheppey’s defenders and Duckett sinks the penalty. And 5 minutes latter Duckett gets an assist off a Benny goal. Second half was tame with just me subbing out players in a strategic fashion. Literally that was all the happened; there were no highlights whatsoever. Good to see us come out of our funk.

POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)

Sheppey had two strikers go off with serious injuries, one at 17 minutes and his replacement at 78 minutes. Out of curiosity I looked at their player cards. The second one has a pulled groin and will be out for six weeks. Ouch!

The Days Between
Before the match I get the weekly (or bi-weekly?) Player Development email and the moment I’ve been waiting for is finally here, the suggestion of my AssMan for Macey to tutor Kirkpatrick. I’d love to see Macey’s Driven personality transfer to Kemar to say good-bye to his Balanced personality. Also, to get his Determination from 12 to 19 would be swell. Thankfully, the initial meeting went well.

Fifteen minutes before the match begins Kevin Parker is removed from the injured list. I make him my 12th sub and might bring him in for 15 minutes if things are going right.

Southern Counties East
vs. Canterbury, 15 May 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Cullen, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Rae, Parker

Oh my god, this is so what the doctor ordered. A quick start with Martin crossing to Kemar for an easy goal just before 4’. Thirty-five minutes later Taylor gets an assist when he sends an early cross to Kemar who is free and clear, out-juking the GK. Just over two minutes later in stoppage time Clark gets an assist and Kemar gets a hat-trick.

The second half passes quietly with strategic substitutions, including Parker getting his 15 minutes of fame.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)

BrixtonFC · 06-24-2024, 07:57 PM

The Days Between
The scouting report for East Thurrock comes in and we have a better team. We should win this match. Other pre-match emails flow in. Only 4,000 fans are expected and there goes my dream of a nice payday. But on the bright side, we are 5-4 odds to win.

Their manager is acting all calm in the pre-match presser. This is my least favorite part of Football Manager. Some questions are just dumb and there’s never any good response so I tend to use “No comment” a lot.

Bath win the Southern League Cup so I guess things are a little less bitter losing to the eventual champ. Oh well, what could have been.

Though I’ve run out of money for scouting packages my scouts occasionally request meetings to go over players they somehow have found. The players are generally above our reach or are just bad, i.e. someone with a single digit Natural Fitness, really low Determination, and/or bad Personality.

This kid gets a rating of 82 according to my chief scout and I learned over the previous month that really good players who are playing Championship or Premier League level with PL potential are around 94 to 96. I think he might be worth a stab come June. If I sign him I’ll get his DMC up to Natural because he’d make a great Anchor Man, something I like to use in my Defensive formation. (He’s from Gravesend, about 20 miles down the Thames from London, so he’s kind of local but he plays way out in Bristol on the “west coast” of England, across the River Severn from Wales. That should help?)

Woohoo! Forty-three hundred spectators! Come on big money! No whammies, no whammies, no whammies!

FA Vase Final
vs. East Thurrock (at Wembley), 19 May 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick

Nothing is going our way: missed chances, dispossession, and then a Barlow injury at 35’. Finally in 44’ Smith finds his old self again and steals the ball, sends it up to O’Donnell who spots a streaking Macey and he gets us on the board.

We enter the second half with orders to Attack but the kiddos ain’t attacking. I shout for more creativity and get a corner shortly thereafter. It leads to a goal that went from Duckett’s foot to Spearing’s head to O’Donnell’s head to Spearing’s foot and down the chute. I dial us back some. Spearing picks up a yellow but I keep him in as things are going quite well. At 80’ I go full defensive in hopes of sealing the victory. I also take off Donaldson for McAdam and make him a Ball Winning Midfielder with a Defend role.

Hallelujah! There were some tense moments in the final 10 minutes including a free kick that almost went in but we did it! Our first cup trophy!

POM: Ben O’Donnell (1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)

Barlow’s injury is moderately bad; twisted ankle, out 3 to 5 weeks. He’ll only miss one game because that’ll all there is. I’ll give his start to Nixon.

We made around £12,500 from the match but we are still running a deficit for the month. Bummer.

BrixtonFC · 06-24-2024, 08:06 PM

The Week Between
A Dynamics update! Chick Legg is now an Influential Player. He’s on par with Chris Day (our Vice Captain, for now) and Ben O’Donnell. Eddie Macey, our Captain, is still a Highly Influential Player but not a Team Leader, the highest tier on the Dynamics pyramid. Come the new season I’m pretty sure Day will be gone, especially if we get that Shane Pilcher kid, so I’ll probably make Chick Legg Vice Captain as I think O’Donnell might get pilfered.

Alright, it’s the last game of the year. Can we sweep the league? In the pre-match press conference I said we’d win. What? Me worry?!

Southern Counties East
at Lordswood, 26 May 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Rae

Princesprick almost draws first blood as they out-Controlled us in the third minute. It’s been a while but the Duckett-Pearson combo for a score rears its lovely head(er) and we take Control after 11’. The D-P Combo strikes again 18 minutes later and the boys are having fun out there. Smith even gets in on the action sending in a squeaker from 17 yards out.

Five minutes after the restart I begin making subs as I want everyone to get a chance to play today, even Webb. I start with Macey (6.5) and Maguire (so Clark can get some before Parker comes in). I move O’Donnell up to ST and put Taylor in at AMC. At 55’ it’s DL and the MCs. At 60’ it’s the ST and DCs. At 65’ it’s the Wingers and Goalie. Then at 75’ it’s Clark off and Parker on. The good thing about all these starts-and-stops is that Knightsknob never get any momentum going.

Just on 81’ a free kick on the left side makes its way to the right side where Jones sends in a cross aimed for Kemar’s noggin. I don’t know if he plays pool but he sure knows how to get English on a football using his head. I’ve never seen a Beckham bend off a header!

POM: Daniel Duckett (2 assists, 4 key passes, 4 chances created)

In the post-match email dump I get notice that the manager of Wolverhampton was in the stands watching O’Donnell. I knew the big teams would come. Though calling the Wolves a “big team” is a bit of a misnomer in this Alternate Universe FM2018 as they finished 21st in the Championship, 4 points above regulation. Gulp.

The Days Between
Our players certainly dominated the league. I really didn’t expect Macey to score more than O’Donnell but that path was set even before I adopted the Spade formation; in the 4-4-2 Standard, Macey was the Advanced Forward so he was being fed the ball more. If Benny is still with us come the next season I’m going to change that up. I’m also quite relieved to see Chicken Legg win the most clean sheets battle.

After sending the lads off for the summer the board request a meeting. They want to discuss club improvements, youth level more specifically. Turns they want to improve our youth system to qualify as a Level 1 setup. I couldn’t be happier.

Season Review
The final Board Confidence comes in. I’m still Untouchable but now I’m at 88%. Not too shabby.

As far as player development, I was really bummed that Pearson could not get to Natural at AMR. I want to institute a 3-2-3-2 formation but I don’t want to do that until Pearson is done with learning AMR then I can use him and Duckett as Mezzalas.

End of Season Awards
The only surprise here is Day making the cut. I guess I waited too long for Spearing to get that spot.

The players will not report back until 2 July, which equals 5 weeks of pre-season. I was hoping for more. Oh well, fewer matches to get my formation familiarization up to snuff.

In Summary
Well, that was an easy season. Hopefully my readers didn’t mind it too much. I knew having a Sugar Daddy was going to make things go smoothly but not that smoothly. It’s a valuable lesson learned about the database and game set-up. A lot of teams in the County League levels of the English pyramid don’t have any real players, just the Greys, because I didn’t select the “Add Players to Teams” button when starting the game. A quick examination of the league we’re going into shows that about half the teams are 100% real players and the other half are 75% real players. So things should be tougher.

I’m going to continue on with this team, naturally, but if for some reason I have to restart things I’ll make adjustments so I don’t walk away with things from the start. I’m really intrigued by Kemar, Benny, The Jordanian Prince, Chicken Legg, and Connor Smith. If I’m being realistic, Kemar, Benny, and Daniel Duckett have no business being this far down and teams should come hunting for them. I originally thought that teams high up wouldn’t look this far down based on how the game engine is built but having that Wolves manager watch Benny I guess proved me wrong. If they do get sold Brixton will struggle. If it turns out that we start off the season easily then I’ll make it a point to change the formations frequently so we don’t get too good at any one. That should level the field.

Chas in Cinti · 06-25-2024, 10:43 AM

I'm enjoying it and hope you'll continue!

BrixtonFC · 06-28-2024, 08:01 PM

June 2018

Hot fun in the summertime

Financial Matters
We lost £2.1 million over the season. Wow. This is not sustainable. Even though we have a Sugar Daddy I’m not sure what happens if we run out of money. Looking at the finer details it appears that £1.9 million of our losses are taxes, almost all of it “Corporation Tax”. I’m not sure if we’ll get a lot of that back having run a deficit for the year. Frankly, I don’t remember if that news will come in soon or on 30 June, which is technically the end of the season.

Turns out that news comes in on 17 June. We avoid a tax hit but we don’t get a refund. I don’t understand English taxes, no surprise!
Also on that day we get news on kit sponsors. We’re going to get a grand total of £16,000 for the season. A mere drop in the bucket...

The chairman scales back our transfer budget to £149,000 and I’m sure we won’t get anywhere near that. He also injects £110,000 into the coffers, bringing us just an RCH above £2 million. (A few days later I realize that £149k is our scouting budget. Our transfer budget is still around £6 million.)

The 27th of June sees us publishing our losses for the season. An interesting line item is that £275,000 is ground maintenance for our “new stadium.” I don’t know if that is for Brockwell Park (our current stadium and future U23 stadium) or Windmill Gardens (our future stadium), or both.

New Players
On 2 June I go to make an offer for that kid out on the “West Coast,” Shane Pilcher. For some reason I can’t make an offer. I poke around for a while (cuz FM18 is still kind of new to me) and then watch some YouTube videos. I didn’t find an explanation why I can’t make the offer but I do discover that I can instruct my Director of Football to do so. I don’t actually have a DoF but my AssMan handles things.

I promise the kid Rotation because he will def be our third best DC and allow the AssMan to offer up to £10,000 and £450 per week, what my chief scout says would be his highest wage demand. (Full disclosure: My scouts are notoriously wrong about wage demands…) A couple of days later Bristol Manor Farm accept a bid of £0 (what the fuck?!) so my AssMan offers Pilcher £425 until 2020, with a one-year club option. I don’t like that he offered a 25% promotion wage rise and 5% yearly wage rise. I wish I knew why I couldn’t do the negotiating.

New Staff
Also on 2 June I address the matter of expiring staff contracts. My two crappy scouts are due to expire at the end of the month (JK, they aren’t that old) so I offer Mutual Terminations, which they accept for £1,000 apiece. They were emergency hires back a year or more ago; neither scout is really that good. One had 7 and 6 for Judging Player Ability and Judging Player Potential, while the other had 5 and 7. Yeesh!

I make an offer to Paul Gordon is who is 15 and 15 in JPA and JPP. I also make an offer to Ron Bunce who is rated 14 and 13. Quite the improvement! Within a couple of days they both sign.

As we advanced to the new season on 25 June I got notice that we are now in a U23 competition. I did not expect that. I had to hire a U23 Manager and find a pretty good one sitting on his thumbs.

Offers
Sure enough, O’Donnell is a target. The first offer comes in on Sunday, 10 June from Chesterfield, a mid-table League 2 team. They offer a whopping £3,000 and 40% of next sale. I do not accept. Four other teams are interested in him but the only ones that have a chance are Wolves and Queens Park Rangers. Four days later Chesterfield try again but they don’t even bother to up their price. This is one of the failings in Football Manager. Year after year this has not improved. (Your results may vary, I’ve yet to put much time in the 2020-2022 versions and have not even bothered to buy 2023, and 2024.)

Carlisle, in League Two, offer £3,000 for O’Donnell on 17 June and of course I say no.

Leyton Orient shows up on 15 June with the hats in their hands wonder if Duckett is available for £2,500. Oh! So close!

In a twist, a Championship team, Barnsley, asked to take Duckett on trial for a week. Nope. He’s with us until 2020 and is Indispensable. You got your own youths! A bit jealous I suppose QPR asks a week later to take O’Donnell on trial.

Final tally:
O’Donnell, 5 teams, £8k highest offer
Duckett, 3 teams, £3.1 highest offer.
Pearson, 4 team, £4k highest offer.

At one point O’Donnell got pissed that I denied him an opportunity to go to QPR. Their bid was pathetic so I couldn’t accept it. Hopefully he’ll calm down once we start the season and win some games. Hopefully.

Team Rankings
For the EPL fans in the house, here are the ranking in this AU:
1. Liverpool
2. Man City
3. Man United
4. Chelsea
5. Arsenal (you can’t say “Arsenal” without saying “Arse.”
6. Tottenham
7. Southampton
8. West Ham
9. Leicester
10. Newcastle

We are 694th. :-D

Sundry Items
Shadi Al-Ziod comes to me right after Pilcher was signed asking for a new contract. He’s making £200/week and really deserves more but I don’t want to start a trend so I give him a “Don’t mess with the good dressing room atmosphere” speech. He agrees and backs off. He’s due for a 15% raise due to a new contract year coming up and a 15% raise due to our promotion. He also is under contract until 2019 plus Brixton have an option to extend. Once the season starts and our new season ticket numbers come in I’ll probably offer new contracts so long as we can afford it. (Later in the month I get an email showing early indications are that our new ticket prices average £6.)

And Now The Bad(?) News
I did not set up the database correctly. Under the Clubs section there is a subsection for “Regional Divisions” which is where you set up the progression up the pyramid, I guess. I left that blank. Brixton should have been moved up to the Isthmian League First Division South but instead when the game advanced to the 2018/2019 season we were moved to Southern League First Division West. I checked out my other computer where I ran the simulation for 3 game years to make sure the database wasn’t broke and to make sure the Brexit variable wouldn’t make the game unenjoyable. I never thought to check the league progressions.

It doesn’t “break” the game but it does “break” the immersion of the game as we’ll be playing out west and not in the London area. I’m going to continue ahead and chalk it up to a learning experience. I have since fixed the database.

On the flip side, all the cup competitions appear to be right.

(On the Ironic News Front, the league we promoted into is home of Bristol Manor Farm, the original team of our new DC Shane Pilcher.)

Let’s commence preparations for rumbling!!! The start of the season is right around the corner! The kiddos report on 2 July and we are going to do wonderful things.

BrixtonFC · 07-07-2024, 08:07 PM

July 2018

We have liftoff!

Financial Matters
Huzzah! We made a profit in June! We made just over £81,000. The cash infusion by the Chairman plus the new kit sponsor money helped that immensely. In looking at the various tabs I noticed in the Expenditure tab that there is a line item for “Director Emoluments” and that figure last season was £14,057. I mean…he is the Chairman after all?

On 8 July we get an email saying that we’ve only sold 129 season tickets so far and another 100 are expected. That is bad news. Last season we had 250 season ticket holders. Oh boy.

Board Confidence
Still Untouchable but down to only 80%.

Dynamics
As the lads come back our squad’s “Dressing Room Atmosphere” is still Very Good and “Managerial Support” is still Excellent.

If memory serves me correctly, I should have a team meeting foisted upon me when the team returns but that doesn’t happen. I then try to hold a meeting (from the Dynamics tab) but am told there is no suitable reason. I hope I get an opportunity to talk about season expectations. (I wonder if this means the database is broken. I suppose we’ll find out.)

Daniel Duckett moves up to the Influential Player level on 10 July. Excellent, cuz I have no idea how much longer I’ll have O’Donnell. A week later our starting left central defender Robert Carroll moves up to Influential Player, which is great cuz Day is going away. I wanted to shit-can him already but things really haven’t played out that way. The same day as the Carroll news he complains that there’s not enough depth in the defense. Message received! O7

Player Matters
On the transfers front Tranmere (Conference National) ask if they can take U18 midfielder Bill Taylor on trial. Three minutes later Macclesfield (also Conference National) make a transfer offer of £0 for Bill. This is going to be the state of affairs until late September. And the final tally is...
Player, Number of Offers, Highest Offer:
Bill Taylor, One, £0
Steve Pearson, Four, £4,500
Daniel Duckett, One, £1,800
Robert Carroll, Three, £1,500
Ben O’Donnell, Thirteen, £17,250
Dean Rice, Two, £0
Declan McNulty, Four, £0

New Players
On 1 July I get an email from my Press Officer that a bunch of teams released some players so naturally I send my scouts out to take a gander.

On the new player front, I realized pretty quickly that I needed at least one more central midfielder for the U18 teams. In the process of looking for one I found two that I like, but one of them is good enough to start for us in the Seniors.

I still have my dreams of Mezzalas and this guy excels in that department. Bonus: He’s got experience at all three Core positions. He signs with us on 24 July.

This guy is kind of like Noah and he signs with us on 19 July and goes into the U18 team.

I also need a second AML in the Seniors but I’m having problems finding one. Then this guy shows up in a scouting report:

I can’t believe all those Naturals and Accomplished ratings! He’s like the ultimate sub! He trained at Liverpool in his youth and must have been one of those released kids I told my scouts to take a look at. He has no negative personality traits and is Level-Headed when handling the media. I’ll take a stab.

Whomp, whomp. He chose Tranmere (Conference National) and their £925/week offer.

I abandon my search for a back-up left winger as I remember that Nixon can play AML and Jones can play ML. I might still try to bring in another DC because of Carroll’s complaints. I really need to dump Day, which becomes more difficult on 31 July when he moves up to Highly Influential. Drat! I waited too long.

Player Development
On the first of every month I update all the player deets in my spreadsheet. One of the items I enter is a player’s current assessment on their playing level. Kemar Kirkpatrick is now rated as “very well-suited to Championship football.” Amazing. He’s gonna ask to leave real soon I bet. Another holy-moly with him is that his mentoring is going great; his Determination is up to 18 by 31 July.

Not really development but every player saw his Value decline by half when the team came back, except Rory Collopy who went from £45 to £230. My theory is that on 1 July we entered a new contract year and years remaining is part of the maths of determining Player Value.

Our starting right midfield, Terry Barlow, is now deemed a “Potential League One Talent.” Then I get notice that our right winger Steve Pearson is now a “Good League Two Talent”.

From The Funny Names File
You’d think Jack Daniels would give you higher Bravery and not be Balanced.

Friendlies
This is generally how I run my friendlies this far down the pyramid: start with three walk-overs, get a little tough competition for three matches, take on a heavy to make some money, then close out with a bunch of patsies.

7 July vs. Epsom: 7-0 429 spectators, not good. We see a brace from whiney-boy O’Donnell and Pilcher, the sole new player, gets a goal off a free kick. And newly promoted U18 kid Nightingale gets a goal off a corner. Good stuff.
10 July vs. Elmstead: 6-1 469 spectators. It takes a while for the starting XI to get into gear but then they pour it on. Nightingale even gets a goal.
13 July at Broadfields United: 2-0 This was a mix-matched starting squad as I was focused solely on Match Fitness. That explains why we were super sloppy, especially Rae, and didn’t accomplish much.
16 July vs. Croydon: 4-0 450 spectators. Three penalty shots in the first half; we get our two but Webb denies them.
19 July at London APSA: 7-0 I started the eleven I’ll start the season with. Took ‘em 15 minutes to get on the board but a flood of 7 goals in 30 minutes was my reward for patience. Kemar got his trio in a nine-minute span. I kept them in after 45 and my hubris cost me Duckie with a bruised knee for three days.
22 July at Fisher: 8-0 Mostly non-starters get the start. Fisher don’t show signs of life until after the half but by then it’s too late and we get the final five goals after we disabuse them of notions of challenging us.
25 July vs. Nuneaton: 7-0 They are in Conference North so they should be a pretty tough challenge. They could not withstand an Eddie trio and new-arrival Noah Harding’s two assists and 8.6 rating.
28 July vs. West Ham U23: 4-0 Yes! A sellout! Seven-thousand fans watch Benny score 1:13’ in and the ensuing cakewalk. I’m surprised they didn’t put up more of a fight. Best news? We made £53,000!!!
31 July at AC London: 5-0 Despite the scores we weren’t that impressive with Rae being particularly bad with a 6.3 rating. Two of our goals came after the 3 minutes of extra time had already passed.

In Summary
A pretty good month. We made a bit of dosh, £12,568 to be exact, thanks to that West Ham sellout. (Half the crowd came in from East London.) We found some good talent in the midfield with each already having the makings of a Core player. We’ve won all our matches and only Rae is stinking up the joint. There are many callers for our players and luckily O’Donnell is the only who is unhappy for not being able to flee.

BrixtonFC · 07-28-2024, 06:49 PM

August 2018

And I guess that's why they call it the blues

Spoiler alert: This update will be sad.

Excellent! Another good training report. Having great fitness coaches sees us having good performances on the Physical Abilities side.

Financial Matters
More excellent news! We made a profit of £22,734 last month. Our season tickets sales helped contribute but the visit by West Ham’s U23 really made the difference.

Despite the puny profit, having that Sugar Daddy allows us to offer £105k for a squad bonus if we win the league. For cup competitions we are allowed up to a crazy amount of £525k but I selected the Low end of £225k. Quite the nice bonus!

Board Confidence
No change seeing as we are still in the pre-season.

Dynamics
It’s good to have more Influential Players. Going to need them when O’Donnell flies the coop.

Player Matters
I’m gonna take a moment here to examine the differences between our start-of-the-season Starting XI and how things changed from last year.

The first difference you’ll notice is the switching of the preferred formation. Then you’ll notice that changes are strictly on defense. Pretty neat that one of the changes came from a kid working his way into the lineup. The other two are imports.

At GK, Legg was just sitting out there ripe for the plucking so I could not resist. Primarily I snagged him because in Training Camp next season he should be old enough to tutor Webb, or, preferably a wunderkind who comes in on Youth Intake Day. Despite being our Vice Captain, I moved on from Day as our starting right DC half way through the season as he just wasn’t all that good. He was kind of a desperation purchase I suppose. Al-Ziod was a minor upgrade at DL but at this point I view him as a potential large profit yet to be realized. Our midfielders remain static as do our attackers though I eventually moved O’Donnell to AMC.

If I were a betting man (I’m not) I’d wager next year we won’t have Kirkpatrick, Pearson, and Duckett. I can see Paul Taylor, Andy Robinson, and Ashley Hibbert moving into those starting spots. Hibbert will have to work on his AML (Accomplished right now) unless we get a Youth at the end February who blows me away and keeps Hibbert on the right.

Cup Draws
It’s time to kick off the cup season and we have the Southern League Cup up first. Drumroll, please… We travel to Newmarket, two levels below us on the English football pyramid. Wish we got a harder team and at home; I need those fans in the stadium.

Friendlies
Before we can get to that match and the league fixtures, we still have two friendlies to wrap up.

3 August at Kensington: 7-1 Macey and Taylor take turns scoring and assisting but it’s Taylor who gets the hat trick. Pearson, Rae, and Duckett also get in on the act.
6 August vs. Rusthall: 7-1 Two goals in 32 seconds tends to lead to good things, not counting Macey pulling his groin and he’ll be out 6 to 11 days. Drat.

BrixtonFC · 07-28-2024, 07:01 PM

Regular Season
And now the real games begin. I feel confident of winning the league but not keeping O’Donnell (obviously) and Kirkpatrick.

Southern First Division West
at Bishop’s Cleeve, 11 August 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Day, Jefcoate, Harding, Cullen, Hodgson, Nixon, Hibbert, Taylor, McAdam

My worries of O’Donnell phoning it in are relaxed in the 9th minute. As they are with Kemar one minute into extra time in the first half. We do get a little sloppy in the second stanza but that’s alright when 13 of your 19 shots are on target.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 assist, 6 key passes, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
It’s FA Cup draw time! We get to host Glossop North End who are in a league at the same level of the pyramid as us. None of the players in their senior squad are Greys so they should present somewhat of a challenge.

We beat Salisbury last year 4-1 in the Third Round of the FA Vase. Let’s hope we can do the same or better.

Southern First Division West
at Salisbury, 14 August 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Pilcher, Jefcoate, Harding, McAdam, Hodgson, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick, Thompson

Macey is healthy so he gets the start and also starts the scoring 1:10 into the match. Smith of all people gets a brace in under two minutes, the second being a beautiful header in traffic from a Duckett free kick. That height of his is a real difference maker. In the second half Benny scores, showing again that his desire to leave doesn’t affect his play; high Professionalism that one.

POM: Connor Smith (2 goals, 2 key passes)

BrixtonFC · 07-28-2024, 07:08 PM

The Days Between
Another draw! This time for the FA Trophy. We travel to Liverpool. Don’t worry, we are taking on AFC Liverpool, the minnows of the Mersey.

In order to avoid further headaches about young, promising players wanting to leave, I am now offering contracts to the kids who turn 17 and are worth keeping. Case in point, Connor Smith now makes £425 but I didn’t get an extra year out of him. It’s more realistic this way.

So many offers have come in for Benny that I’ve given up keeping track of them. The good thing is that after each offer the following team ups the ante by £5,000 while still maintaining the 40% of the next sale and £5 million buy-back clauses.

Now onto our first cup match.

Southern League Cup First Round
at Newmarket, 18 August 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Nightingale, Day, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Jones, Donaldson, Macey, Taylor, Harding

It takes almost 30 minutes but Duckett finally gets us on the board with his first goal of the season. A few minutes later Kemar gets his second of the season, both have been headers. Repeat that sentence but with “third” instead…for realz! What I’m saying is that it was a convincing win, as expected.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)

The Week Between
Two more cup draws come our way. We’ll host two matches: Beaconsfield Town in the Southern League Cup and Guernsey in the FA Vase. Mo’ money, mo’ money!

(Guernsey is a pretty neat team. They play on one of the Channel Islands, English islands just off the French coast around the bend from the beaches of Normandy. I’d like to get there one day.)

As I expected, offering that new contract to Connor Smith has opened the gates for others wanting in on the good stuff. Spearing is one of them. I made him our starting right central defender back in January and he has been solid ever since. I promise I’ll offer him a contract, figuring he’ll be cheaper now.

Speaking of expected…21 August 2018 will go down as a very sad day. Ben O’Donnell a wunderkind who cut his teeth in Brixton is heading for the south coast of England. He has signed with Brighton & Hove Albion. I’m sad to see him go but this is what he wanted. In return we get £45,000 and 40% of any sell-on fee. Once we get to the Premier League I will activate his £5 million buy-back fee. I do not know if that will be available if Brighton sell him on though. Bugger. (He’s making £775/week and was immediately dumped into their U23s. Le sigh.)

Al-Ziod wants a new deal too. I’m thinking that because he didn’t come from Brixton’s Youth Academy he might ask for more money so I’m going to hold off until the end of the season. (His contract runs out at the end of the season but it has a one-year option.) I promise him a contract at the end of the season and he goes away happy. He’s already League Two quality so I hope someone comes swooping in, if I’m being honest with you, Ricki.

Oh yeah! Big crowd expected today! Almost 2,300 fans!

FA Cup Second Preliminary Round
vs. Glossop, 25 August 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Harding, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae, McAdam

A strange thing happened on the way to the Forum. I had my first tunnel interview. They wanted to know why Daniel Duckett got the Captain’s armband. I didn’t have an option to say, “I need Eddie as a left wing sub and Day is also a sub...so..."

My faith in Duckie is rewarded as at 6’ his cross to Pearson’s head bounces off the underside of the crossbar and into goal. Four minutes later we get a penalty shot and Duckie converts. In the 24th Pearon’s free kick from 19 yards out goes to the upper right where maybe only Bigfoot could have stopped it. Kemar wasn’t impressed so one-ups him with a placed shot from 19 yards out on a great breakaway. And it’s not even the half! The rest of the match is Duckie and Pearson schooling Glossop and by 54’ we’re up 7-0 so I do a full squad swap less Legg.

Wow. Just wow.

POM: Daniel Duckett (3 goals, 2 assists, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)

In financial news, that big home crowd alone brought in around £25,000 in gate receipts and concessions. We are running a good profit, mostly due to the sale of Benny. Woe is me.

BrixtonFC · 07-28-2024, 07:14 PM

The Days Between
Okay, that was a slaughter. Brixton is just too good for this level even with O’Donnell’s departure. I think to level the field I’m going to change course and bring in two new tactics so at least we won’t be so Fluid. That should make us not such a threat. I’ll wait until the start of September; still trying to get Pearson Natural at AMR.

Another week, another draw. For the FA Cup First Qualifying Round we get to host Stocksbridge or Waltham Abbey, both are theoretically equal to us.

Well, this is good news: 805 fans attended our U23s match against Barnet’s U23s on a Monday night. We netted £6,000 for that. We might actually make a profit this season!

So more good news rolls in just before our match against Evesham. Eddie Macey is now a Team Leader. Excellent. Looks like I’ll be making him a regular starter again. Now that Ben O’Donnell is gone

I’m going for heavy rotation again as some of the non-starters are down in the low 80s in Match Fitness. Also I hope to make the game a bit more of a challenge. I also don’t suit up the max number of subs.

Southern First Division West
at Evesham, 29 August 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Hodgson, Nixon, Taylor, Kirkpatrick

In the 7th minute it appears like this might be another easy game. Hearing about the 19-yard special in the previous match, Donaldson matches that effort. Rae’s header off a Cullen cross in the 16th adds insult to injury. Rae gets a brace 16 minutes later. But just before 45’ Eveshame draws blood on a counter-attack!

Cullen restores our three-goal lead right at 49’ and Macey makes it 5-1 exactly 10 minutes later. After some midfield swapping Rae picks up an injury in the 69th and I have to bring in Kemar. Things get exciting in the final 10 when Evesham strike again off a slow build-up. Don’t know why the defense turned off there. A few minutes later Hodgson gets his first Brixton goal and victory is sealed.

POM: Teddy Cullen (1 goal, 2 assists, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)

The news on Rae is almost bad. Damaged foot from being tackled, out 11 days to 2 weeks. Yikes.

The Days Between
Something is wrong with my save. I keep getting £4,500 offers for Pearson so I always so no and select the option that reads, “Reject all offers of equal or lower value” but teams keep coming in with the same offer. (This is not happening with other players.) I manually change his asking price to £100,000 and then I get successive offers of £8.5k, £9k, then £9.5k. You’re getting closer, chaps, just at a glacial pace. Then things get real weird a few hours later. Offers of £12.25k, £13k, £13.75k. By 1900 hours Reading is offering £21,000. The transfer window is closing. Will someone offer £100k before midnight? Turns out the answer is no.

In Summary
So much sad. Good bye, Benny. I hope you make millions so you can build that Spaceship. Spaceship! Spaceship!

At least we had a good month on the pitch.

BrixtonFC · 08-07-2024, 07:35 PM

September 2018

Everything's cool

Mixed training news. I can’t believe Duckett had a poor showing, he’s been developing so nicely.

Financial Matters
Huzzah! We made £21,388 in August! Now I have to realize that sale of Ben O’Donnell was the reason. Dangit.

Board Confidence
Still “Untouchable” but down to 77% mostly because of O’Donnell’s departure. Really? You realize that was an inevitability, right?

Dynamics
Everything’s cool on this front.

Player Matters
A first for me happened. I got an email about a player completing an intensive language course. Al-Ziod is now rated Good at speaking English.

New Tactics
So as I mentioned earlier, I’m switching up our formations to make it so we don’t dominate so easily. The first new formation is the Club.

BrixtonFC · 08-07-2024, 07:41 PM

Now let’s see what we can do with this new formation against Didcot.

Southern First Division West
vs. Didcot, 1 September 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Donaldson, Taylor, Pearson, Duckett

It takes just over 15 minutes but our new formation “worked.” We didn’t Control our way up the field, we had three players hoof it forward which lead to a Macey and Kemar breakaway, the first getting the assist, the second getting the goal. Another change I made was making Harding our Corner and Free Kick taker. He proves I made the right choice after he sends in a kick to the box where Nixon passes it to Kemar and it’s two-nil. Two minutes later we are gifted a soft penalty and Kemar converts. And two minutes later another breakaway sees Kemar returning the favor for Macey. This is too easy.

At 60’ I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap™ and switch back to the Spade in hopes of getting Pearson up to Natural in AMR. (Is there an echo in here?) Duckett to Taylor, Pearson to Duckett, all in a day’s work.

In a rare moment, I get the post-game speech right. I tell them they did great but not to let it get to their heads. 13 of the 21 players who played “Seemed motivated” or “Seemed to gain focus”.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)

The Days Between
Another player turns 17 and immediately gets a contract offer. This time it’s our first-choice sub at goalie, Robert Webb. He was only asking for £220.

Southern First Division West
vs. Cinderford, 5 September 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Donaldson, Taylor, Pearson, Duckett

An early Carroll card worries me and is followed soon after with one for Shady. At 11’ my worries skyrocket as Barlow is injured and has to come off; it looks like it’s an upper body injury. Five minutes later Smith gets an assist feeding Macey an easy layup. Ten minutes later it’s a future trend: Macey feeds Kemar for a slam dunk. Then a reverse to make it 3-0. After the restart Kemar gets another placed shot and after the swap out and move to the Spade, Pearson gets on the scoreboard courtesy of Duckett.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)

Oh boy, we might have to go back to the Spade. Barlow’s gonna be out for 3 to 5 weeks with “Fractured Ribs”.

BrixtonFC · 08-07-2024, 07:45 PM

The Days Between
On the “Players Requesting New Contracts Though They’re Signed to 2020 Front” Maguire’s agent harassed me right after the game, saying he needs a new contract. Maguire doesn’t turn 17 until the penultimate day of the season but in this case I think he deserves the new contract as he’s only making £110/week.

OH YEAH! We have 2,290 fans in the stadium. Another tunnel interview, I wonder what dumb question they’ll ask today? They wanted to know why I am fielding a whole new starting eleven. I explain that they all deserve to play. No idea how this will be accepted by the players and if I’ll even be able to tell.

FA Cup First Qualifying Round
vs. Stocksbridge, 8 September 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Pearson, Cullen, Duckett, Taylor
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Hodgson, Nixon, Jones, Macey, Pilcher

Oh jesus. Just before 6’ Duckett has to come out. It seems to put a damper on the mood as it takes until after 22’ to finally show signs of life and this Donaldson chap really shows how to take single-touch, long-range shots, this one a 17-yarder from inside the box. That was all the happened in the first half, which introduces me to a rare emotion: Worry.

Our opponent comes out on fire but are a bit off target. At 65’ I have to swap out Jefcoate, Day, and Taylor who are underperforming. It does nothing for us and in the final minute Stocksbridge get a breakaway but Webb is able to swaddle the shot. At least the lads know they underperformed, especially Jefcoate with his 6.3. Luckily they all get Fired Up by my speech.

POM: David Donaldson (1 goal, 2 key passes)

Oh man, I’m gonna get FMed. Duckett is out 2 to 3 weeks for pulled ankle ligaments. Ugh. On the flip side, we made almost £29,000 for the match.

The Days Between
For the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round we get to travel to Ascot. They are a league below us so I feel confident. This time I’ll field the Starting XI, can’t risk getting bounced out of the FA Cup! For the FA Trophy we get Frickley, if we get past AFC Liverpool.

FA Trophy Second Round
at AFC Liverpool, 12 September 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Hodgson, Taylor, Jones, Rae, McAdam

After 42 minutes of golden opportunities and opponent golden cards we finally strike gold with a Macey cross to Kemar's head. We are really missing Barlow and Duckett. A stern yet Calm talking-to during the break gets ‘em Fired Up. However, nothing happens in the first 20 minutes so I do an outfield swap and demand they put on a show which sends everyone into Deep Thoughts (by Jack Handey) and Rae gets Stressed. In the 75th we finally get a sequence of action. Cullen poorly tries a free kick and the rebounding eventually finds Hodgson alone in the box to the right and he amazingly gets it past the keeper. I immediately make a COVID-level lockdown and jigger everything to the most defensive I possibly can.

POM: Andy Hodgson (1 goal)
Well that is a rarity! A sub getting the POM award. Relish that, young man!

BrixtonFC · 08-07-2024, 07:51 PM

The Days Between
Appleton and Cullen both turn 17 but Cullen is the only one worth signing to a new contract. He is now making £230/week.

FA Vase Second Round
vs. Guernsey, 15 September 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Smith, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Jones, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, McAdam, Taylor, Rae, Pearson

I think one of the cool things about Football Manager is that you can actually see the players’ roles shine through in the match engine. Case in point is our first two goals. Harding as a Mezzala has drifted wide to receive a pass, he spots Macey and gets the assist on the goal. Two minutes later Maguire as a Wingback is about halfway into Guernsey’s territory when he receives a pass from Macey. He dribbles in a bit and spots a charging Kemar. His cross is inch-perfect and Kemar’s right foot rockets the ball home.

Did I mention we’re going to get FMed? Smith goes down just before 59’ with a potential foot injury. Naturally, I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap™. That pays off with a Rae goal. Shortly thereafter our opponent’s midfielder gets his second yellow and it’s easy street from there out.

POM: Mark Nixon (1 goal, 5 key passes, 1 chance created)

Fuck. Another ankle ligaments incident. Connor Smith will be out 3 to 4 weeks.

Another bit of interesting news came in. Everton are sniffing around Robert Carroll. Though Everton are in the Championship, last season they were in the EPL. Methinks Carroll is a Premier League talent?

The Days Between
We have another draw, this time FA Vase Third Round. We’ll travel to Trafford who are in a league comparable to ours. In other words, should be a cakewalk.

There’s a gap in our schedule on 28 September so I offer a friendly at Brockwell Gardens to the Fulham U23s and they accept. We should make some money off the match.

Another week, another youngster turning 17. This time it’s our Professional Angolan, Angelino Ferreira. With a Determination of 15 and a Professional personality I thought of maybe keeping him around long-term so he could be the leader of the U23s and be a habitual mentor. I offer him a low-wage contract that could keep him in South London until 2021, at least.

Southern First Division West
at Bitton, 18 September 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Donaldson, Macey, Taylor
Subs: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Nixon, Cullen, Hodgson, Thompson, Jones, Rae, Kirkpatrick

An early goal helps things along but it’s over 30 minutes before we strike second blood. On the kickoff we get complacent and they score immediately. And then they go and commit a penalty on Taylor after the restart! Just like that, Noah Harding gets his first Brixton goal.

In the second I bring on some players who are getting low on Match Fitness: Cullen (BBM), Thompson (SS), Hodgson (AML) and Rae (Poacher). It’s only a matter of a few minutes when Hodgson sends a corner kick right to McAdam near the penalty spot, spelling the demise of Bitton.

POM: Simon McAdam (1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass)

BrixtonFC · 08-07-2024, 07:55 PM

The Days Between
Even before winning a POM award, Billericay offered me £1,000 for Simon McAdam. They come asking again and again I say, “No.”

FA Cup Second Qualifying Round
at Ascot, 22 September 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, Jones, Cullen, Hodgson, Rae, Taylor

Another slow start, Pearson scores in the 20th after intercepting a pass from Ascot’s left central defender in the 6-yard box. That opens the floodgates as Macey, Kemar and Kemar quickly strike true. It’s been a while since a DC scored off a corner so it’s nice to see Carroll get one, though it was with his foot, not his head. After Kemar’s hat trick just after 58’ I make major swaps to get the other gents up to scratch.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)

The Week Between
More draws! Good bit of luck, we get to host two games! We get to host Gosport in the Southern League Cup, supposing we get past Beaconsfield, and Harrogate in the FA Cup. Harrogate are in the Conference National North so they pose a problem. Hopefully that also means a bigger crowd.

Billericay continue their pursuit of McAdam but they have yet to up their offer so I deny them.

On 26 September I get an email that the United Kingdom left the European Union and rules changes will be announced in the coming weeks. While setting up the database I ran 3 multi-year simulations to see what effects Brexit would have on this save. The rules shouldn’t change at all. I guess we’ll find out soon.

It’s time for that friendly against Fulham’s U23s. I’m hoping to get a lot of people and make some money. It ended in a 2-2 tie but many starters, most notably Maguire, Nixon, and Kemar, performed poorly. We attracted over 6,100 fans and made over £46,000. Hopefully morale doesn’t take a hit. The match was on a Friday so they already have Saturday off but I also give them Sunday as I don’t want any jadedness creeping in.

In Summary
I tried to institute new formations to make the games more of a challenge but the easy victories still came. That is, until the injuries to three starters changed things. We persevered though there were some close calls. We remain in all the cups. Everything's cool.

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:25 PM

October 2018

The right stuff

Simon, Simon, Simon…I had so much hope for you. Get it together, man!

Financial Matters
We made over £23,000 last month, bringing our season total to a smidge over £89,000. Such a relief! I was very worried we’d be in the red all season, again.

On the 1st our U23s hosted QPR’s U23s. We lost, big whoop. Over 5,000 fans showed up and we almost made £32,000. That is mindboggling! The large U23 crowds are keeping us afloat.

Board Confidence
Still “Untouchable” and still at 77%. I wonder what it would be if we hadn’t sold off O’Donnell.

Dynamics
No changes, which is good. I don’t want Chris Day to move up to Team Leader as he won’t be with us next season. I’m just a little bit worried about the ding to Dynamics that will take. I should really start thinking about his replacement as Vice Captain.

Player Matters
One thing I’ve not been good at this year so far is getting the U18s trained up properly in their new positions. I’ve been too focused on making sure everyone is Match Fit. I have too many kids in that squad. Now I’m going to prioritize players who actually have a future in the Seniors squad.

New Tactics
As part of our switch away from the Spade formation I’ve also added the Diamond. Spade, Club, Diamond. What would a Heart formation look like? Four strikers, one advanced midfielder? Anyhoo…I like the 4-4-2 Diamond because we get to have two strikers, and I have two good ones, pull a DMC as I like to use the Regista role.

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:30 PM

Now off to the matches!

Southern First Division West
vs. Beaconsfield, 3 October 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Barlow, Donaldson, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Macey, Taylor

We jump out early, before 3 minutes, with a Maguire cross to Duckett. And it take less than another 3 minutes for a Harding pass up the middle to Kemar. It takes 7 whole freakin’ minutes for Duckett to cross to Harding’s head for our third. Well, then the goals just kept coming, including a hat trick for Kemar and a hat trick of assists for Duckey. (Is that a thing?)

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)

Finally! Pearson is a Natural at AMR now. Take that and add that Barlow is back and Smith will be back by our next match and I’m going to finally abandon the Spade for the most part.

Another Championship team, Barnsley, comes sniffing around Carroll now. It’ll be interesting what kind of offer we get and if it comes before the January transfer window.

The Days Between
WHOA! It looks like Kemar Kirkpatrick is going to declare for England. He’s been called up by the England Under 19s for three matches in mid-October. I was wondering if Jamaica would call him up first. He’s barely 16 and already getting the call-up. Pretty darned cool. I now fear that he’ll become a transfer target in January. Oh, and Simon McAdam has been called up to join the Northern Ireland Under 19s for the same period. Pretty darned cool.

The scouting report on Harrogate indicates we should have a problem as they have many highly-rated player. But almost all of them are very tired from a recent match or have match sharpness of 61% or lower. Should I embrace hubris and say we are going to win?

Alright, lads! Let’s keep our FA Cup dreams alive!

FA Cup Third Qualifying Round
vs. Harrogate, 6 October 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Nightingale, Day, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Donaldson, Taylor, Rae, Hodgson

One of their midfielders gets two yellows in the first 12 minutes. Despite the advantage it takes us 15 minutes to score; Spearing cleans things up after a corner kick. Or so I thought. He was offsides.

I have to chide the crew at half time about their lackadaisical attitude. Despite their getting Fired Up they don’t really shows signs of life but we’re saved by a penalty opportunity after one of their central defenders pulls Macey down from behind. Nixon sends it right to the goalie’s gut and it goes right back to Nixon who doesn’t botch his second chance. Nixon gets a second goal spot on 59’ so I switch us to the Diamond counter-attack and make some swaps. Five players have earned yellows so they come off. We get an insurance goal with 7 minutes left in the match from Rae, via Cullen. And then another insurance goal with a penalty shot, courtesy of an overzealous ref. The offender got a red card for his efforts.

POM: Mark Nixon (2 goals, 1 key pass)

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:35 PM

The Days Between
It’s time to see who we play in the next round of the FA Cup. …rolls the dice… We’ll play either Coggeshall (same level as us) or Lowestoft (a level above us); either way we have to travel to them.

Remember how I said I’d be dropping the Spade formation? Well, with two starters out for international matches, I’m going to revert. We’re going up against the absolute worst team in the with zero points after 6 matches. What? Me worry?!

Southern League Cup Second Round
at Winchester, 9 October 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Nixon, Smith, Pearson, Barlow, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Legg, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Thompson, Donaldson, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Taylor, Rae

In the 6th Duckett almost scores from a free kick but the goalie’s last-second desperation lunge keeps things clean. It takes another 61 minutes for us to get a chance and Taylor sends it right to the keeper’s knees. In the last minute of regulation we get a lucky score when Cullen sends a free kick to Nightingale’s noggin; he did a wonderful job of rising above everyone and nodding it in.

POM: Ricky Spearing (1 key pass, 1 chance created)

Whew! What a fucking embarrassing performance. Looks like I jinxed myself. Macey, Duckett, and Barlow were all 6.4 or under. Looks like a fine for Eddie and an official warning for Barlow are due. Luckily both accept their punishments.

The Days Between
International reports come in. Kemar had a great first match, scoring a goal. Not so hot second match. McAdam had a not so hot first match but had a very good second match, scoring a goal.

FA Vase Third Round
at Trafford, 13 October 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Nixon, Smith, Pearson, Barlow, Duckett, Taylor
Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Harding, Thompson, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae, Donaldson

This match is all about hazards of the command Work Ball Into Box with so many passes in the 18-yard box instead of shooting. Luckily it’s Pearson’s head and feet that make the difference, though he missed two absolute sitters. Many of our “on target” shots were right to the goalie, plus we had several hit the crossbars; 11 out of 29 shots were Clear Cut Chances.

POM: Steve Pearson (3 goals)

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:39 PM

The Days Between
Billericay force my hand on McAdam by offering a contract, straight up. I don’t know how much they are offering him but if he signs they’ll have to pay Brixton £170 for each league appearance he makes for the first 40 matches. I do not like this. I offer him a professional contract.

Oh, and yes, another draw for a cup. In the FA Vase Fourth Round we host Droylsden, who are in a league similar to ours.

On the international front, McAdam had a less-than-stellar performance against Germany but Kemar had a spectacular performance against the Faroe Islands, an 8.1 with a goal.

I can’t believe Al-Ziod is almost in automatic suspension territory for having too many yellow already this season; he gets to ride the bench. I’ve started formally training Jones as AML now so he gets a start there.

FA Trophy Third Round
vs. Frickley, 16 October 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Hodgson, Barlow, Jones, Macey
Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Cullen, Pearson, Donaldson, Duckett, Rae, Nixon

We have a slow start again and a tremendous Chick reflex save in the 7th keeps us afloat. Our first opportunity comes 15 minutes later but first Macey kicks it right at the goalie then bounces the rebound off the crossbar. After some more sloppy crossing and crossbar action I have to get the team to go Attacking after the break.

It takes 60 minutes but finally a fast break allows Hodgson to cross to Macey who finally terminates his rectal-cranial inversion and scores from six yards out. At 65’ I do almost a full swap as I switch to Counterattack in the Diamond formation. It only takes 3 minutes to work. Macey gets a breakaway but his shot was blocked but the rebound went to Pearson who had an open, undefended net in front of him. These late-game heroics are doing wonders for my blood pressure. Pearson gets a brace with 15 minutes to play to seal the victory. Mostly. We give one up late, which kind of proves my point (that I’ve only made to myself) that the Counter is a horrible tactic. And Germans love David Hasselhoff.

POM: Noah Harding (1 assist, 5 key passes, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
For the next round of the FA Trophy we will host either Matlock (Matlock! /Grampa Simpson) or Harrogate. That’d be crazy if we got Harrogate again. It’d be great for our bottom line methinks. Later that day it’s confirmed, we get Harrogate. Ahahaha

David Donaldson is the next item up for bid, for a new contract. He didn’t complain or turn 17, this was because of the weekly (monthly?) transfer and contracts advice summary email.

I know what you’re thinking: Don’t we already have enough Strikers? A) You can never have enough strikers because you never know when one of your favs will go into a slump and B) they usually sell well on the secondary marker. I think I’m going to grab this guy. There are many things to like about him: height, quickness, set pieces, and dribbling. By the new year Macey will have finished mentoring Kemar so he can work on Marcus’ Determination and Balanced personality. He’ll also be insurance if Kemar leaves. I don’t believe the scouts’ assessment that he’s only 1.5 stars.

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:43 PM

FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round
at Lowestoft, 20 October 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Smith, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Thompson, Taylor, Rae, Jones

Another game with a horribly slow start and several woodworks hits and unbelievably acrobatic saves by our opponent’s keeper. But finally after 35’ Kemar finds himself in a one-on-one and cracks the seal on this one. Just before the halftime whistle Carroll gets a rare by-the-foot goal and my idea of chastising the lot during the break changes. The ref left enough time for us to get in a quick counter and Kemar showed he’s not selfish when he and Macey are on a two-on-one.

The second half by contrast starts quickly with a Harding free kick to the upper left corner from 30 yards out. Barlow robs a defender in Lowestoft’s box and passes to Macey for his brace. I then do my trademarked swap at 60’ but before the instructions can get processed, Macey gets his hat trick from some great passing after Harding’s corner goes astray. Fifteen minutes later our job becomes easier when a Tofter hacks down Thompson and gets a straight red card.

POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
Our prize for beating Lowestoft is a trip up north to Nuneaton who play in the Conference National North. The FA Cup First Round sees the introduction of League One and League Two teams (3rd and 4th rungs of the football ladder in England) so we lucked out, all things considered.

Nightingale picked up a knock very late in the last match plus my wingers are losing match fitness so I’m going to have a one-game return to the Spade.

Southern First Division West
vs. Taunton, 24 October 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Day, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Smith, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Rae
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Macey, Nixon

Our scoring starts with a penalty shot after Jones is pushed to the ground trying to get on the end of a Hodgson cross. The push results in a straight red. Hodgson, denied the assist, scores the goal. Later Parker overlaps Hodgson, receives his pass and sends in a cross from way over in right field. A charging Rae introduces his forehead to the ball at the six-yard line and just like that we’re up two.

Rae’s noggin makes a second appearance in the second half and shortly afterward his chest gets a goal, but for Taunton. Whomp, whomp. We also allow a legit Taunton goal after 90’ when Spearing sends a sloppy back-pass that Carroll wasn’t expecting and though Webb stonewalls the opposing poacher, the rebound goes right back to the striker who one-shots it in.

POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)

I notice an interesting situation: Brixton isn’t technically top of the league table. Totton has played two more matches than us and have yet to lose, with 2 draws. Our next match is against the third-place team, Horndean, funny name, who have only one loss and one draw. In theory, we could fall to third place ourselves if we lose that match.

Even weirder, St. Ives has somehow managed to only play 6 matches so far (they’re in 5th) and two teams further down have played 11 matches already. The problem with all the lower-level cups, I suppose.

BrixtonFC · 08-14-2024, 05:49 PM

The Week Between
Another Brexit email comes in on the 26th. No changes are expected but the formal details have yet to be confirmed.

We aren’t the only ones interested in Thirlwell. Goole, in the Northern Premier League, one level above us, have made him an offer. I don’t know the details so I’m not sure what we’re up against. I’m banking that the full time contract plus full time coaches and outstanding facilities will give us the edge.

Southern First Division West
vs. Horndean, 27 October 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Nightingale, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Smith, Day, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Donaldson, Taylor, Rae, Jones

Oh my. 1:26 in and Harding sends in a screamer of a free kick from 30 yards out. Things are clicking just fine with Macey goals in the 14th, 20th and 32nd minutes. The middle one was assisted by Harding with a tremendous no-look back-heel pass. Wondeful stuff! Best signing, ever! We continue to pile things on and all my pseudo-fretting about not being top of the table are washed away. (Totton finally lost.)

POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals)

Frohawk?! What kind of name is Frohawk?! A funny one, thats what kind of name it is.

The Days Between
Marcus Thirlwell signs with us on the morning of 28 October. Good thing we have a U23 match the following day as his Match Sharpness is all the way down to 47%.

In Dynamics news, James Jefcoate is now an Influential Player, which further cements my thoughts about off-loading The Jordanian Prince.

Now let’s see how the new kid on the block handles being a sub for the seniors. His debut with the U23s was a 6.5 in 71 minutes of action.

Southern First Division West
vs. Norwich United, 31 October 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, Day, Jefcoate, Smith, Jones, Duckett, Taylor, Thirlwell, Rae, Jones

I’ve been on a streak of unmotivating speeches of late but I nail this one and it pays off just at 9’ when Harding gets another long-range goal but this time from open play. Second goal comes 90 seconds later when Pilcher gathers a rebound off the goalie, then the post, during the melee post-corner, courtesy of Harding. We march into the locker room after a Macey tight-angled header and the only thing bugging me is Kemar being complacent. I give him a pep-talk and he gets motivated.

In the second half nothing happens in the first 20 minutes so I swap out the lads and move to the Diamond. Thirlwell misses an opportunity but Duckey doesn’t. Marcus manages only a 6.5. I can’t expect him to be jelling already, right?

POM: Noah Harding (1 goal, 1 key pass)

Just before the end of the month Nixon comes to me asking for a new contract. I promise I’ll offer him one “soon” meaning after the first of the month.

In Summary
Holy smokes! Nine matches in 31 days! That’s a lot of football, my friends. Luckily we won them all but there were some close calls. We definitely got a lot of help from the referees too. We added a potential steal in Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell who has yet to show I made the right choice but, much like that ant, I’ve got high hopes.

BrixtonFC · 08-21-2024, 08:41 PM

November 2018

‘Cause this is thriller

It’s never a good sign when your Captain and Vice Captain both have bad training reports in the same month.

Financial Matters
Oh praise Cthulhu! We made almost £71,000 last month, bringing our season total to £156k. I can work with this!

Board Confidence
Well isn’t that something… Still untouchable but now only 76% rating. I wonder what caused the drop? The “Matches” sub-section is only at 98%. I doubt I’m being judge on our U18s, who are not the greatest in their group.

Dynamics
As I mentioned in the last update, James Jefcoate is now an influential player.

The Days Between
I offer Nixon that new contract he wanted. He’s gonna be costly but if he gets that Stamina up to a respectful level then he’s going to be well worth it. He’s gonna make £1,300 a week! That’s about $89k a year for us ‘Mericans.

The next victim is Gosport, who are bottom of the league. However, the last time we took on the worst team in the league we won on a last second header by Florence Nightingale so maybe I shouldn’t be all hubris-y.

Southern League Cup Third Round
vs. Gosport, 3 November 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, McAdam, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Thirlwell, Smith

When a match starts and you get to continue watching the pitch instead of the in-between-action info you know you’re in for something. I get to watch the entirety of the 46 seconds it takes for us to score. Macey caps off the action with a short, sharp strike from 8 yards out. The restart action continues and aside from about 30 seconds between the first goal and restart I’ve seen all the action. Yes, first goal. Because on the restart we quickly earn back the ball and Macey gets his brace at 1:43. So the day goes. His hat trick comes at 3:53. SMDH. To get us into double-digits, Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell gets his first club goal on a penalty shot.

Let’s talk ratings real quick. Macey got a 10.0, which I think is the highest we’ve had in a competitive match. Gosports right back got a 3.7 and that has to be the lowest I’ve ever seen EVER.

POM: Eddie Macey (5 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)

BrixtonFC · 08-21-2024, 08:49 PM

The Week Between
For the fourth round of the Southern League Cup we get to host Fleet Town, same level as us and in a league we should be in had I set up the database right. D’oh!

One of those things that I’ve always wondered about Football Manager, and really football in general, is when do players get paid. I’ve said to myself, “I’ll look into that sometime” but I’ve never looked into it. But then I found the answer by accident: Around noon on Sunday. I was looking at the Finance screen the day after the Gosport match and hit Continue and the game stayed on the screen when it returned from processing and I saw a large drop. We pay just over £12k in player wages and just under £10k in staff wages per week.

Nixon signs his new contract on Monday, 6 November. I have some trepidation about it as that’s a lot of money. He’s eventually gonna be worthy but for now I’m worried about our bottom line. It’s the 10% yearly raise and 25% raise for winning the league clauses.

More international call-ups for Kemar and McAdam with the former in two matches and the latter in one.

Somehow we are being treated as the favored ones for this FA Cup match, with 4-6 odds.

FA Cup First Round
at Nuneaton, 10 November 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Harding, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Thompson, Thirlwell, Rae, Macey

Nuneaton gets the first action that leads to their right midfielder collapsing in on our box but a brilliant slide tackle by Carroll ends that notion. A minute later Kemar’s sloppy cross leads to a lot more sloppy crosses but when the goalie punches the ball away it lands right in front of Harding 25 yards out and he sends in a rocket. Brixton up 1-0. Aside from a botched Kemar attempt, that was all the action in the first half.

During the intermission I give the most stirring speech ever given. Histories will recall and analyze for generations. “We have nothing to fear but complacency itself.” Everyone gains focus or gets motivated. Except Kemar, who’s not having the best of games. I give him a personal word on the way out, “You weren’t that bad but I believe you can still improve. I have faith in you.” He looked happy.

But it’s the old Duckett to Pearson connection that gives us the comfort zone at 60’. At 68’ I go to the Diamond and swap out some tired lads. At 75’ the rest of the walking dead come off. My tactical genius pays off within two minutes when Jefcoate launches a cross from way out yonder in the minor key and it finds Thriller’s head and victory is ours.

POM: Noah Harding (1 goal, 1 key pass)

Kevin Parker was injured in the 84th minute with a gashed head, which will keep him out for 8 to 14 days. That’s one hell of a gash!

The Days Between
Sunday, 11 November, Veteran’s Day, marks the end of Macey mentoring Kirkpatrick. The email said Kemar was a little disappointed, which makes absolutely no sense to me as his Determination climbed all the way up to 19 and his Personality is now Driven, just like Eddie. FM18 is drunk again!

Immediately after that was the draw for the FA Cup, we get to host either Doncaster (League 1) or Yeovil (League 2).

Just before the Harrogate match I get notice that Al-Ziod has been called up for international duty for a match on 20 November. Look at little Brixton with the worldly squad!

Can we keep ourselves alive for all the cups? Based on how we pasted them previously I’m confident we can. And I believe we can do this with Kemar on the bench. He at 92% Conditioning and has an international match in two day and I want him wowing the crowds so the name of Brixton rings in everyone’s ears for two countries. (Bugger! Not even 900 tickets sold.)

FA Trophy Fourth Round
vs. Harrogate, 13 November 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, McAdam, Smith, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Webb, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Thirlwell, Kirkpatrick

It takes 16 minutes for the first action shot and it ends in a familiar way: Duckett to Pearson to goal. Our second goal comes from an odd combo: Pilcher to Duckett. He was way over on the touchline half-way into Harrogate territory and crossed it all the way to the far post. This from a guy with a 3 Crossing! Duckett is possessed today! Goal three comes from another Duckett/Pearson combo. Pilcher gets a second assist in the second. Duckett, Macey…I’m sensing a theme here.

Pilcher does screw up though and his poor first touch leads to a Harrogate goal. There is no excuse for the second goal. All of a sudden we can’t win headers. But newly-arrived, newly-subbed Thirlwell restores balance to the Force and gives us a four-goal lead again.

(NB: After the match I noticed that the first goal was credited as an own goal. I don’t believe it. Looked like a rocket by Pearson. FM18 is drunk again!)

POM: Paul Taylor (1 goal, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)

Yep, those two goals were evidently Chick’s fault; he rocked a 6.3 rating. We won so I don’t think an official warning is in order, that and I chastised him in the locker room and he responded appropriately.

We made £5,300 from the match.

BrixtonFC · 08-21-2024, 08:56 PM

The Days Between
Contract and cup draw time!

We get to travel to some weird placed called Ossett Albion in the FA Trophy Fifth Round. This causes a match versus Totton to get pushed back to Boxing Day. Now we’re growing up just like we’re a real English football club.

On the same day Paul Taylor turns 17 I offer him a contract. He has League One potential so this is a no-brainer. He only asks for £325 per week but he really deserves more. I offer £500 until 2020 plus a 1-year club option. He immediately accepts and I tie a bow on the matter.

The next day is Terry Barlow’s 17th birthday. He too is League One potential talent so he’s getting a contract too. I offer him the same contract as Taylor but he doesn’t accept it immediately.

Kirkpatrick did not score a goal in his international appearance but he did rate a 7.7.

Let’s keep with the cup momentum and send Droylsden home with a more open fixture list. If things go right, one of our youth candidates may get his Senior debut at DL. If I’m being honest, I’m a little worried I made too many changes to the starting lineup.

FA Vase Fourth Round
vs. Droylsden, 17 November 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Webb, Nightingale, Day, Smith, Maguire, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Cullen, Thompson, Thirlwell, Rae
Subs: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Rice, Barlow, Harding, Hodgson, Taylor, Jones, Macey, Nixon

With a Rae header off a Thompson corner at 2:46 my worries fade away. Fully confirmed 35 minutes later with Rae getting his brace. I bring on Rice at 55’ as Jefcoate’s a little tired and Rice needs some WBL time. No hat trick for Rae but he did get POM.

POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 2 chances created)

The Days Between
Another day, another draw. This time the FA Vase Fifth Round, which sees us traveling to Darlington in the Conference National North, 15 spots below Harrogate on that table.

McAdam and Kirkpatrick were merely okay in their matches on 19 November, each getting a 6.5. Kemar is Jaded after the match and he’ll probably return to us and get some time off.

The next day sees the mentoring of Thirlwell by Macey commence. I’ll be floored if Thriller’s Determination goes all the way up to 19 (from 4) and his personality makes it to Driven. That would be epic.

And then Pearson comes into my office, hat in hand, asking for a new contract. He’s under contract until 2020 so I kindly tell him no and he admits he’ll have to wait. He’s already League One quality and I’m afraid of how much he will ask.

This match is against Pilcher’s old team, Bristol Mother Fucker. What? Oh… Bristol Manor Farm. Of course he gets a start to show them what they missed.

Southern First Division West
at Bristol Manor Farm, 20 November 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Jefcoate, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Taylor, Macey
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Rice, Smith, Pearson, Jones, Thompson, Thirlwell, Rae, Donaldson

Because my tall strikers are tired or unavailable I immediately switch Macey from Target Man to Defensive Forward as that is his best role. Luckily he scores before 10 minutes is up with the assist coming from Paul Taylor. The MFers are pretty good at dispossessing our troops but we generally recover them quickly. Courtesy of a GK with small hands Taylor scores at 23’ with a close-in shot. (I check, his handling is 9. Hahaha his name is Scott Lamb, the best DM ever who ran a campaign I played in.) Nixon was getting jealous so he decided to get his shots on target and takes us up three.

We get a scare in the 51st when an MF free kick ping-pongs around the big box before dinging off the crossbar. Macey picks up a knock 5 minutes later so off he comes for Thriller. They continue to be a threat until in the 70th when one of their midfielders does the lunging, two-footed slide on Donaldson from behind and gets a red.

POM: Noah Harding (1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)

That is Noah’s fourth POM. Wasn’t I saying something about how he was the best signing ever?

BrixtonFC · 08-21-2024, 09:01 PM

The Days Between
Not to be out done by his teammates, The Jordanian Prince also rocks a 6.5 rating in 76 minutes of field time. :-\

Barlow signs his contract ensuring he’ll be with us until 2021, if I activate the option year.

This should be an interesting game with gale-force winds and a downpour. Maybe I’ll have to switch things up and just go Route One. We’re going with a lot of rotation today as there are many tired bodies.

Southern First Division West
vs. Bideford, 24 November 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Donaldson, Thirlwell, Rae
Subs: Webb, Smith, Day, Nightingale, Maguire, Rice, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Taylor, Macey, Jones

Luster isn’t the only thing the first half was lacking, it was devoid of action and on-target shots. Until just after 45’ when Rae scores off a Parker cross. But there was still enough time left for a Cullen corner that Spearing connected with perfectly and I have to ditch my plans for a brutal chastising. After the restart we do get another goal when Thriller sinks a penalty shot following a foul against Thompson during a free kick.

POM: Teddy Cullen (1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
Huzzah! The Brexit final-say is in and nothing in the football world will be affected.

Cirencester is fourth in the league so they should present-hahahaha I can’t even finish that lie.

Southern First Division West
at Cirencester, 27 November 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Harding, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Cullen, Taylor, Macey, McAdam

It takes 14 minutes but we finally get a chance because Nixon was fouled in the box chasing a Duckett cross; Nixon does not miss. I can’t believe the number of penalty shots we’ve been given this year. We win but the performance was a big lump of meh, especially Kirkpatrick who manager a paltry 6.4. Many of the subs were garbage too.

POM: Mark Nixon (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)

I give Kemar a talking to and he admitted he sucked. Hopefully he improves next match. I kept him in the whole match so I might not actually play him in the next one if he is too tired.

In Summary
Well our run continues and things haven’t really been that close. We signed what appears to be a steal in Marcus "Thriller" Thirlwell. If his mentoring goes as planned I’ll be much pleased. A couple players got better contracts, which they fully deserved. Three of the lads got some more international time but none of them shined. My only concern is Kemar Kirkpatrick has seemingly lost the plot. I sure hope he turns that around.

Chas in Cinti · 08-22-2024, 10:53 AM

Still following and enjoying!

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 01:55 PM

December 2018

No new tales to tell

Well, to be fair, Mr. Donaldson isn’t getting a lot of playing time so his poor training performance is not too surprising. On the positive side, Nixon’s Stamina is improving.

Financial Matters
We lost £14,000 last month but are sitting pretty at positive £145k for the season. Those new contracts, plus not having an FA Cup match at home, played a big role in the negative cash flow.

Board Confidence
Oh sweet Baby Jesus! My Untouchable-ness is now up to 80%. Hot damn!

Dynamics
Nothing new here, which can be good news or it can be bad news.

New let’s see what some of the second-teamers can do. A lot of players are getting low in match fitness so that’s what prompts the rotation.

Southern First Division West
at St. Ives, 1 December 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Pilcher, Al-Ziod, Thompson, McAdam, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Rae
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Harding, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Thirlwell, Macey

The first half is absolutely devoid of any action sequences and I fear this does not bode well for us. By 67’ there still hasn’t be a single action sequence so I switch to the Club and swap everyone out except Pilcher because I don’t have enough defenders for the formation. It takes until 70:28 for the first action and some fancy passing sees Thriller one-on-one but his shot is weak. Five minutes later he redeems himself but again shows me he’s not to so Thrilling. Holy fucking shit! Three minutes and forty-five seconds into six minutes of injury time St. Ives gets a free kick deep in our end. The shot is errant, intercepted by Jefcoate who sends a long boot forward to Macey. He chests it down and has an inch-perfect pass to Thriller who jukes the GK, rounds him, and sends the winning score in.

POM: St. Ives DR Steve Thompson (4 key tackles)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a match take so long to show actual game play. I have the Highlight settings set to Key but that is just ridiculous. In their previous two matches St. Ives was outscored 11-0, including an 8-0 drubbing by the 11th place team. Sigh.

The boss of Blackpool was present at the match to watch Shadi Al-Ziod. Luke Green, give me a call! He’s available!

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 02:01 PM

The Days Between
The crazy crowd biz continues. Our U23s played the U23s of a County Leagues level club. Got that? The backups of a team from below us. The NINTH level of the English football pyramid. Over 1,800 fans. On a Monday night. In a drizzle at 13°C (55° F). Unreal. Thankfully. Made us £14,000.

Southern First Division West
at Fairford, 4 December 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, McAdam, Hodgson, Donaldson, Jones, Macey, Taylor

Well here’s a surprise, it only took 1:46 to get our first highlight. Hahahah But after 41 seconds of some great passing and ball control, Kemar gathers his own rebound and gets a goal from a tight angle. Good to see him get off the snide. He gets his brace spot-on 12’ after a sweet pass from Nixon.
This Shadow Striker and Poacher combo has worked charms, twice today and dozens of times since I first instituted the Spade formation. And so it goes with his hat trick, this time with Nixon getting all Tricky Dick with a fancy back-heel pass while staring toward our goal.

Fairford do get one late when their beautiful cross from the left gets cleared by a diving Jefcoate header that unfortunately goes to their striker, catching Chicken Legg by surprise. The other bad news is that in the 76th Hodgson has to come off for a foot injury. And then Fairford gets a second by going Route One. But Taylor gets his revenge. And then they get third blood. What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on out there?!

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)

This is the first time we’ve allowed 3 goals in one match. I’ll chalk this up to my refusal to change to Defensive mentality when we are up safely.

On the Hodgson front, once again we get hit by sprained ankle ligaments. Out 4 to 5 weeks. Poor guy. I was hoping to ship him off in January for a loan spell.

Right after the game I get another email saying we’ll face Yeovil in the FA Cup as they got past Doncaster. This is good news for us.

The Days Between
My enthusiasm about Yeovil is short-lived. The next night their scouting report comes in and they are quite well stacked. Especially their strikers, who are loanees from Swansea and Birmingham.

Also comes news of a rumor that Al-Ziod may make a move to Accrington Stanley (weird name) in League Two. Throw an offer my way, chaps. A journalist comes asking about the rumor and I reply, “I’d be willing to let him go, for the right price.”

The next day Maguire felt the need to opine to the press, saying he’s not surprised and he hopes Shadi doesn’t let his performance drop. I’ve never seen such an email so I have no idea what this might portend.

During Wednesday’s Backroom Staff Meeting I get the advice I always get, recommended staff to fill open staff positions. I generally ignore them because we don’t need them and they usually suck. Sometimes I’ll take a look to see if there is a quality person to sign. I found one this time! He’s a Physio with 20 in Physiotherapy and double-digits in Determination, Level of Discipline, and Motivation. I make an offer.

The day before the Yeovil match we get all the press business. First, notice that we’re 5-4 odds to win. That’s just crazy! Second, the hated press conferences but I feel it’s “wrong” to send my AssMan. I try to be as Calm and bland as possible knowing that my words will be twisted somehow.

FA Cup Second Round
vs. Yeovil, 8 December 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Smith, Pearson, Duckett, Cullen, Taylor, Thirlwell, McAdam

It only takes two minutes for us to strike first when Harding sends a corner straight to Spearing’s head. Yeovil prove to be no slouches though when they get a header from open play not 5 minutes later. This is an uncomfortable state. We get two good chances over the next 20 minutes but Macey and Kirkpatrick are not dialed in yet. But Nixon is! He receives a pass after a throw-in, does his best thing, Dribbling, and sends one in down Yeovil’s throat.

I highly recommend to the lads to not get complacent. Will they listen? After 68’ I have to remove Macey and Kirkpatrick as they are rocking 6.4s. At 80’ I bring in the rest of the subs and switch to the Diamond in the hopes that fresher legs will win the day along with the counter. Just before full time we get that counter-attack with Taylor on the right side of the box looking to cross to Thirlwell in the middle but he gets pushed down so we get that crucial penalty shot. Thirlwell is now a perfect 3 for 3 on penalty shots and we’re onto the Third Round!

POM: Noah Harding (2 assists, 6 key passes, 4 chances created)

We brought in 3,000 spectators so we made around £30k from them plus another £51k in prize money.

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 02:07 PM

The Days Between
That really good physio, Dan Hudson, signs with us the evening after the Yeovil win.

I now know where our FA Cup run ends: Millwall. They are a Championship team and we are well and truly fucked. It was fun while it lasted! It will also be good for our pocketbooks: Brixton will receive £64,800 just for appearing.

FA Vase Fifth Round
at Darlington, 12 December 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Jefcoate, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, McAdam, Jones, Duckett, Cullen, Taylor, Thirlwell, Smith

Okay, so this is going to be a good Kemar game. We get a counter-attack with Nixon fulfilling the Mezzala role perfectly; he drifts out wide, takes the ball almost to the end line and sends in a low cross to Kemar whose first attempt hits the goalie’s ham-hands but he gets his own rebound. His second goal is also from a cross, courtesy of Maguire, but he uses his head near the penalty spot this time. Macey gets in on things too, getting the ball from Jefcoate but I’m not sure if it was a lob-pass or a cross. It came from deep and crossed roughly a third of the field, left-to-right.

At 58’ I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap and move to the Diamond. I only get about 90 seconds of that before Paul Taylor gets injured bad enough that the game auto-stops for a substitution. I bring on Smith and move to the Spade. A Darling gets a break-away but he’s minorly injured so can’t sprint all-out so he’s caught by Day who makes a great sliding tackle to clear it out to the left flank. On the ensuing counter Parker sends in a cross but before anyone can get to it Duckett gets pulled down. Yet another penalty shot for Brixton! Two minutes later Jones puts an exclamation point on things and we see out the game comfortably.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals)

Now let’s go look at Paul Taylor’s “lower leg injury.” No Whamies, no Whamies, no Whamies! Shin splints?!?!?!? Out 2 to 3 months?!?!?! Oh fiddlesticks! I send him to a specialist, which I’ve been assured means he’ll only be out 2 months.

Immediately after the match Kevin Parker’s agent comes in with a demand for an improved contract. He’s making £170/week and is asking only for £375. I drop it to £350 cuz I need that kind of symmetry. What can I say? I’m a Libra.

The Days Between
We are getting close to the Transfer Window opening. So it’s time to see what interest my players are drawing:

Daniel Duckett: 1 team, League One
Robert Carroll: 8 teams, highest in Championship
Steve Pearson: 11 teams, highest in Championship
Connor Smith: 4 teams, highest in League One
Ricky Spearing: 6 teams, highest in League One
James Jefcoate: 2 teams, highest in League Two
Shadi Al-Ziod: 4 teams, highest in League One
Peter Maguire: 1 team, League Two
Bill Taylor: 2 teams, highest in Conference National
Rory Collopy: 2 teams, highest in Regional Premier Divisions

This match should be a piece of cake so I’m gonna do a whole squad flippity-swop.

Southern League Cup Fourth Round
vs. Fleet Town, 15 December 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Smith, Pearson, Cullen, Duckett, Rae
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Macey, Harding, Jones, Thirlwell, Kirkpatrick

I was worried we’d have a no-highlight game again, what, with all the swapping. But Rae settles my nerves, scoring from a Duckett cross before 5’. Sadly that’s all Rae does in the first half; he must have already spent his luck points. Just before the half whistle Duckett gets his second assist from a Cullen goal that wasn’t so much of a shot as it was a redirection.

Rae must have renewed his luck at half as he scores 3 minutes into the second half. Things are made easier for us 10 minutes later when a Fleet midfielder picks up his second yellow murdering Cullen. Then 5 more minutes pass when another Fleet midfielder picks up his second yellow. Such a permissive environment allows Rae to get his hat trick. With 20 minutes left the slaughter is complete when Duckett gets his FOURTH assist from a Day header for goal.

The sole Fleet goal is fully on Webb. Parker sent a pass back with little velocity but Webb’s First Touch roll failed him and then he just stared at the ball. Imagine my anger that we give up a goal while two men up! Rae isn’t finished yet and gets his fourth. Incredible!

POM: Alex Rae (4 goals, 4 key passes)

Yep, you read that right, I made no substitutions. Imagine that! Also, I’d like to point out that Duckett had a spectacular match too with his 4 assists, 6 key passes, and 5 chances created.

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 02:15 PM

The Days Between
We have two more draws to watch. The first is for the Southern League Cup Fifth Round, which only has 16 teams left. One of the best-named teams is still in it and I wouldn’t mind going down to South Park. Nope, we’re going to host the Hunger Games. That should bring in some dosh as they are in the Conference National South. Oh. My advisors have advised me the team is called Hungerford. What a silly name!

The second draw is for the FA Vase Sixth Round. Fleet are still in it and I wouldn’t mind a repeat against them. Nope, we travel to Chester who are in the Conference National North, not the best draw for us.

Parker signs his new deal, which in theory could keep him with us until 2022.

FA Trophy Fifth Round
at Ossett Albion, 18 December 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Harding, Barlow, Pearson, Nixon, Jones, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Smith, Day, Nightingale, Maguire, Jefcoate, McAdam, Cullen, Donaldson, Macey, Thirlwell, Duckett

Just before the 12th Kirkpatrick gets dispossessed in the box after some nice dribbling but the stray ball makes it to Pearson’s right foot and there is nobody in the way to even have a chance to block the shot. Not two minutes later Pearson chases a long ball that Barlow cleared from a corner in our end. His unselfishness shines through when he spies a lonely Kemar and just like that we are in a command position. For fucks sake! We are very vulnerable to Route One attacks and that’s how Albion draw one back. Our two-goal lead is restored when about half the team plays keep-away around Albion’s box until Kemar sees an unmarked Nixon; he sends a rocket in from 8 yards out. If it weren’t for the amazing play of their goalie we’d be up probably 7-1 at the half.

The second started with not much action and I figured it’d be a dull close out but instead I got to witness the shortest cross I’ve ever seen. The ball was above the ground so it counts as a cross, right?

Not even the full width of the 6-yard box. Why he didn’t go for goal? I don’t know.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 goal, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 3 chances created)

There is a small butcher’s bill to pay. Jefcoate picked up a twisted knee in the 90th minute and will be out 3 to 4 days.

In the stands today we had the bosses of Barnsley and Brentford, both in the Championship, watching Carroll and Pearson. Steve’s performance is certainly going to amp up interest now. Hopefully it starts a bidding war.

The Days Between
Now that we're on to the next round of the FA Trophy, it’s time to find out who we next play. We get to travel to Weston-super-Mare to challenge that Conference National South team.

In contract news, Tom Johnstone, in the U18s these days, gets a new contract offer. The kid has League One potential so it’s the wise thing to do.

Shadi Al-Ziod gets another international call-up. This time for the Asians Nations Cup on 10 January 2019. Go Slim Shadi!

I do not know what Swindon Supermarine is all about. Swindon is nowhere near the ocean. Is it another company team like Cray Valley Paper Mill? Wikipedia says it has to do with the merging of clubs, one of which started as a social club associated with the Supermarine aircraft company. They made the Spitfire fighter planes of WWII.

C’mon lads! Let send the fans home with an early Xmas gift!

Southern First Division West
vs. Swindon Supermarine, 22 December 2018

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Magurie, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Rice, Harding, Pearson, Duckett, Cullen, Rae, Thirlwell, Smith

On the first day of Christmas, my players gave to me, a goal at 8 by Macey. On the second day of Christmas, my players gave to me, a fine Kemar header, and a fine two point lead. On the third day of Christmas, my players gave to me, an injured Barlow, just before that Nixon, gives us a solid three point lead. On the fourth day of Christmas, my players gave to me, switch to Dia-mond, in Dean Rice, no further action, and we left with a solid victory.

POM: Mark Nixon (1 goal, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)

I tried to do the full 12 days of Christmas but there just wasn’t a lot going on. :-D

Terry Barlow’s injury is enough to keep him out for a week with a twisted knee. What’s with all the lower body injuries?! Aside from Parker’s cracked skull late last year I’m pretty sure they’ve all been knees, shins, or ankles. Oh right, Parker also had a gashed head and Barlow had some cracked ribs. That Injury History tab of the Medical section sure is handy.

Pearson’s agent came in again demanding a new contract. This time Pearson was rocking a 6.7 as a sub. Go away, Dan Haworth! It’s almost certain I’m selling Pearson in a few week because he’s going to become a grump soon.

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 02:21 PM

The Days Between
Johnstone signs his contract, keeping him with us until 2022 in theory.

Also, on the Dynamics front, Spearing and Smith move up to the Influential rung. Too bad Spearing will probably be gone in a month. But if Smith could move up some more, maybe he can replace Day as the Vice Captain. Nope, just checked, his Leadership is only 7.

Next up is our first match against Totton, who are third on the table. In theory this should present a challenge? Al-Ziod is busy being an internationaler for this match so Rice gets on the bench again.

Southern First Division West
vs. Totton, 26 December 2018

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Magurie, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Rice, McAdam, Jones, Duckett, Thompson, Rae, Thirlwell, Donaldson

It takes more than a third of the match for us to get some action. From a free kick Harding doesn’t go for the killer shot but sends a pass to Nixon whose shot somehow makes it through the masses, bouncing to Macey’s foot and we’re up. Smith, filling in for Barlow, later tries some of the long shot magic but it hits the corner of the post and crossbar right to Kemar and easy-peasy, we’re up two. It doesn’t take long after the restart for another Brixton opponent to pick up a second yellow giving us an advantage for like the tenth time this season. I don’t wait too long before the switch to the Diamond as several players are below 90% for Match Fitness so they need the minutes. Before the changes can take effect though Maguire hoofs a long cross in to Kemar but the ball drifts way to the side where Totton’s right back tries to head it back to the goalie only for it to be intercepted by Macey. That leaves plenty of time for Rae, Thirlwell, and Day to add to Totton’s misery.

POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)

It wouldn’t be a Brixton post-match without some kind of situation going on. This time it’s not an agent wanting a new contract but Spearing wanting to move on to Carlisle, who are currently 21st in League Two. Buddy, you can do better than that. Hopefully he’ll see that better teams want him and he’ll go to League One. Or better.

The Days Between
It’s Jefcoate’s turn for a new contract. He’ll be important if and when I can sell Al-Ziod. I offer him £450/week so I can keep him until 2021, 2022 with a club option.

This will be my 100th game in charge of Brixton. It’s been a phenomenal start and I hope to continue winning despite what I predict will be a January Sell-Off Bonanza.

Rice impressed me the last match with an assist and a 7.1 rating so he’s going to get his first start. Part of that is I didn’t realize how long Shadi is going to be out. I thought it was just one match. He comes back on 12 February. I sure hope I can sell him while he’s away!

Southern First Division West
vs. Bishop’s Cleeve, 29 December 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Rice, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Donaldson, Harding, Macey, Cullen, Jones, Thirlwell, Rae

It’s been a while (I think?) since we had the Duckett-Pearson connection but it happened in the sixth minute so I heap some praise on the kids. A minute later a Bishop gets a red card from tackling Kemar as he tried to receive a pass. Kemar sinks the free kick from about 20 yards out and I’m not sure anybody moved in reaction before it was in the back of the net. As per usual, Pearson returns the favor to Duckett, this time waiting until the thirty-ninth minute. Two minutes later we get a Kemar goal that is reminiscent of his early months with us: A slow-speed, placed shot into the upper left corner from 16 yards out. His hat trick is fulfilled a few moments later and I’m thinking of a full swap at half. It was a header set up by a Pearson cross after he skipped over a sliding tackle. He does that with shocking frequency.

I do the full swap but you can’t color me impressed as there isn’t a single highlight sequence and I constantly have to berate The Replacements.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)

BrixtonFC · 08-29-2024, 02:23 PM

The Days Between
The morning of 29 December sees the arrival of an email with all the expiring contacts, players and staff. Most of the players won’t get new contacts as they are mostly in the U18s and not that good. If my youth intake isn’t good I’ll maybe extend some of the ones who haven’t already signed pre-contracts. I’m pretty sure all the staff will return except that stop-gap scout I picked up last year.

I offer Macey a new contract. My AssMan isn’t impressed with his skills but he is my captain and scores a lot.

In Summary
Kind of a month reminiscent of the previous month. Not much variance except some lackadaisical performances. But hopefully next month will be different with me unloading some players. It’s a good feeling still being in all competitions as we enter the new year but I sure would like to get a chance to type “The Week Between” in earnest.

BrixtonFC · 09-01-2024, 06:18 PM

January 2019

Breaking up is hard to do

Excellent! Kemar and Nixon have stepped things up and newly, quasi-elevated Dean Rice is impressing. McAdam and Harding are dead to me.

Financial Matters
More good news. We made almost £20k in December bringing our season total to £165k.

Board Confidence
Whoaaaa. Still Untouchable but now up to 87%. Let’s see how that drops when the transfer window closes.

Dynamics
As mentioned in December, Spearing and Smith are now Influential. At least Smith’s chances of leaving are pretty low.

Player Development
Oh snap! Those shin splints had a tremendous effect on Paul Taylor. His Bravery dropped 3 points (from 10.8 to 8.2 to be exact)! I’ve never seen that before. Holy cow.

Two of our Irish players are being sniffed about by some Irish teams now that their window is open. Val Waters got an offer from Sligo Rovers and Declan McNulty from St. Patrick’s Athletic. I want Val Waters to go and I am on the fence about McNulty; Declan’s desirability will be affected by our Youth Intake Day.

Scotland gets in on things too. Ross County want Derek McLeish and offer him a pre-contract.

More offers come in from English teams. Barnsley want Steve Pearson and we negotiate £16k, 25% of sell-on fee, and a £2.5 million buy-back clause. Accrington make an offer of £1,600 for Al-Ziod but my minimum is £5k plus other clauses and they back out.

Nothing like a New Year’s Day match! It’s breezy, 5° C, and there’s a drizzle. How…English.

Southern First Division West
at Wimborne, 1 January 2019

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Jefcoate, Cullen, Smith, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Rice, Harding, Hodgson, Jones, Barlow, Macey, Thirlwell, Thompson

Luckily our opposing goalkeeper has frozen hands as he can’t handle shots allowing us to retain possession on a poor cross that leads to Rae getting two shots in rapid succession with the second one going in. Ten minutes later Kemar’s off-target shot ricochets off a central defender and into goal, but just barely; he doesn’t get credit for the goal. Kemar has been looking like he’s ready for a slump with his Complacent attitude. Cullen continues with the fine Brixton tradition of long shots by central midfielders and we’re up three.

I forgot to drop our line back after establishing the cushion and they beat us with some give-and-go. The cushion is restored shortly thereafter with a close Spearing shot after some crazy pinballing in the box. Then Carroll commits an unnecessary foul in our box, tripping an opponent who had no hope of catching up to a ball headed out. The exclamation on the half is Kemar missing an easy header. Oy vey. And of course another Rae goal.

After the first 45 minutes are up I express my dismay to the squad. The Defense (Legg 6.3, Carroll 6.2) get a scolding and Kemar gets a pep-talk though he deserves a scolding too. Too many players are complacent. We do get a late goal courtesy of Macey but generally the subs didn’t do much.

POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)

I fine Legg a week for his 6.3 and Kemar would have received an Official Warning for his 6.4 if the game gave me an option to do so. Instead I had a one-on-one. My Kemar consternation wasn’t just for the 6.4 but for the complete Jekyll and Hyde routine he’s taken to of late. He was non-plussed and wanted to talk about it and I told him to shut up and get on with his job. He seems to have stepped back.

BrixtonFC · 09-01-2024, 06:28 PM

The Days Between
Cardiff and Brentford also come in with offers for Pearson, the same as Barnsley's, and I accept after I jacked up the price to £20k.

Waters shoots down Sligo Rover though so he might not actually go anywhere. The same goes for McLeish and Ross County.

Notts County, League Two, make an offer for Connor Smith but I shoot them down as he’s in my future plans and not that hot of a commodity that it wouldn’t be unnatural for him to stay. Portsmouth, League One, want Carroll but offer only £1,500 so I say no.

Blackburn also want to play the “can we” game but they want Pilcher, someone I consider quite the find and our best central defender when Spearing and Carroll leave. It doesn’t help that they low ball us with a miserly offer of £500.

For our next match we get to play a club from one of those super English-sounding places: Mangotsfield. I’m pretty sure his is one of those matches that kept getting moved back due to cup fixtures getting in the way. For the final match of the year we get to host them and I’d like them to get used to losing to us so we close out the season on a high note.

Southern First Division West
at Mangotsfield, 5 January 2019

Formation: Club
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Rice, Harding, Barlow, Thompson, Macey, Thirlwell
Subs: Webb, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Rae, Smith

After 5’ Pilcher gets a close-range opportunity from a corner but his header bounces off the crossbar. Three minute later Macey steals a ball way out wide and is faced with the decision of whether to dribble in and shoot or cross to Thirlwell. He opts for the cross but Thirlwell’s header goes right to the able-handed goalie. That’s all that happens in the first. I give the crew a pep-talk, “I know you can all do well and win” but only Thompson and Legg are enthused. Not-So-Thrilling is rocking a 6.4 so I give him a direct confidence booster and he just stares at me.

I switch to Attacking but make Macey a Defensive Forward on Defend duty in the hopes he has a better chance to steal a ball. So of course that means he has to come off ten minutes in with a damaged heal. But that does the trick! We get some nice build-up play with Harding sending the ball way off to the right where a prancing Parker sends in a cross to Rae’s lovely dome and we get on the scoreboard. I go back to Control and make Rae a Target Man - Support, but in the 78th minute Maggotfield get a header from a corner.

I switch us to the Spade, keep our mentality of Attacking, and swap on fresher legs. In the 86th it works the charm. Oddly, it’s Cullen being a thief that wins the game for us. Rae was slide-tackled just beyond the circle, the ball rolled all the way to the 18-yard box but the DC who recovered had poor First Touch ability and Cullen pounced on the rebound and shot one past the keeper from 7 yards out. We almost got a cushion but Donaldson’s header from a corner goes off the crossbar and way back up field.

In the locker room I didn’t want to focus on what was just another squeaky-bum match so I told the lads to switch focus to the next match and not get complacent. Interesting, most players responded positively but the youngins who played poorly (Thirlwell, 6.4, and Rice, 6.2) got stressed.

POM: Teddy Cullen (1 goal, 1 key pass)

Again with the foot injuries! Macey is out 10 days to 3 weeks with a damaged heal. This is bad. Kirkpatrick and Thirlwell are streaky and Taylor is still injured. We might lose a match. Dammit.

I have a chat with Rice and Thirlwell about their performances and thankfully they both agree they sucked. I didn’t do official warnings or fines because they are still young and new to the first team. No point in alienating them already.

The Days Between
I realize pretty quickly we are going to have to go back to the Spade, not because I fear losing but I just don’t have the strikers to do the Club or Diamond. Taylor is out for another 2 to 5 weeks still. I believe Nixon as a Shadow Striker will pick up the slack and score plenty.

Of course the ghouls, I mean journalists, come around asking how ever will I deal with the loss of Macey for the Millwall match. I take the high road, “I prefer to be optimistic; this is a chance for someone to step up and grab the headlines.” Had Kemar been around I would have been staring at him the whole time.

Speaking of Millwall, they want to take Pilcher on trial for 1 week. Noooo. We need him to play YOU. The next day Wigan and Fleetwood, both in the Championship, drop stacks of cash on my desk for the privilege of acquiring Shane. Both are less that £1,500 so I of course say no. How pissed will he be?

And Dundalk over in Ireland want to take Duggan for a test drive. Another no.

Declan McNulty stiff-arms St. Patrick’s Athletic, something that pleases me.

In player development news, in the weekly advice summary email I’m informed that U18 midfielder Bill Taylor is a potential Championship talent. Great news. His media description is “Hard working midfielder” so I look forward to his elevation to the Seniors.

Now for the bad news. Pearson has agreed to a deal with Brentford. I ask to delay for a week so I can at least have him with us for the Millwall match.

I feel confident in this match as they are 20th. Regardless of how we are doing I’m going to do an early full swap to keep the troops fresh for the Millwall match. I’m hoping the questions about Macey being out and a new hero emerging means the game is going to make Kirkpatrick king for a day.

Southern First Division West
vs. Slimbridge, 9 January 2019

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Rice, McAdam, Hodgson, Jones, Cullen, Rae, Thirlwell, Harding

The pre-game starts out wonderfully with my speech inspiring Duckett and Kirkpatrick. Our first action comes 17’ in with a pacey Duckett priming up for a cross as Kirkpatrick is coming up the middle. But he takes the shot himself and blows the great opportunity. Another 17’ goes by before we get another corner which was initially unsuccessful but the physical play afterwards sees Barlow tripped by Bridge’s defensive midfielder and Nixon gets a penalty shot. Nixon gets us the lead but I was afraid he wouldn’t as he had rolled his ankle 5 minutes into the game and hasn’t quite recovered.

My half time speech of “you’re doing well but you can do better” sees Spearing, Carroll, and Kemar switch off. This is not good. I speak of my faith in Kemar and praise the defense for their solid work. Everything’s cool.

As promised, I switch to the Diamond at 55’ and swap everyone. (Nixon came off at half due to those fitness concerns; Cullen came on.) Rae continues to show his worth as he really takes the Work Ball Into Box instruction to heart, dribbling to the right post and scoring from a tight angle two yards out.

POM: Daniel Duckett (7 key passes, 6 chances created)

BrixtonFC · 09-01-2024, 06:36 PM

The Days Between
More offers and trial offers come in. I say no to Carroll going to Cardiff. Millwall make a straight-up offer for Pilcher but I can’t let him go because I’m sure Carroll and Spearing will be gone by the end of the month. Blackburn make the same pitch for him and get the same reply.

I knew we are going to get boned by Millwall and when the scouting report comes in the evidence is on full display.

The pre-match presser is tricky and I just try to maintain a positive attitude. The Millwall manager agrees with me that it’ll be a fun occasion.

FA Cup Third Round
at Millwall, 12 January 2019

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Pearson, Barlow, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, McAdam, Hodgson, Jones, Nixon, Rae, Thirlwell, Cullen

I have a slight glimmer of hope at the outset as most of the Millwall squad start the match tired, mostly in the 90-80% range on Condition. Amazingly we get the first shot but it’s a weak effort by Barlow that is off target. OH MY EFFING LORD! In the 23rd we get a free kick in Millwall’s end. Duckett manages to get the ball to the middle of the scrum around the penalty spot and super-tall Smith is able to rise above everyone and head in the goal! Unbelievable!

But then Maguire gets called for a penalty for kicking their left winger who was breezing right past him. Miracle of miracles, Legg deflects the shot out of bounds. He then collects the ensuing corner with aplomb and a sense of dominance. We control possession back up the field and eventually Kemar tries a placed shot but misses by a good margin. (At this point I notice Millwall’s goalie is “Disenchanted.” Wonder why? His Determination is 12 so maybe his Pressure is super low?) We again get possession and play keep-away for a minute but that ends when Pearson’s perfect cross to Kemar results in some more woodwork doinking.

So of course at this point someone has to break a lower body part. It’s Carroll with a Damaged Heal. At half I praise the lot of them, Jefcoate and Legg get all giddy. I admonish Kemar for his 6.4 and he gets Fired Up. We can do this!

I should have brought Carroll off as he didn’t recover much during the half but it’s Spearing who’s asleep at the wheel and lets the ball get past the backline. The striker’s brain must be broke because he tried a 40 yard attempt once he realized Carroll was going to beat him to the box. The shot was way worse than Barlow and Kirkpatrick’s earlier.

At 51’ I bring off Carroll for Pilcher. Millwall begins piling up yellows but then we get our second, courtesy of Smith. Off he comes for McAdam. Just as I’m starting to think of shaking things up and going Diamond, our short passing style and wide play pays off. McAdam spies Harding, who sees a sneaky Pearson skulking forward, passes through the corner of the box, Pearson picks it up out wide, crosses it to Kemar but Barlow intercepts it with his right foot and we are up two!

At 72’ I make my final substitutions. Kemar is down to a 6.3 so I bring on Marcus, which Kemar should see as a major indictment of his current play. It doesn’t take long but the Diamond combo of a Deep Lying Forward, played by Rae, and a Poacher, played by Thirlwell, works to perfection when Thriller bounces in a goal off the bottom of the crossbar. This is unreal!

Ten minutes later we get a slight repeat but now it’s Thriller’s 26-yard desperation shot that stuns the crowd. And just like that, we’re on to the next round.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 assist, 4 key passes, 3 chances created)

Amazing. I had an inkling the game engine was setting us up for victory but this will go down as the largest upset in FA history, it doesn’t matter that it was “only” a Championship-level opponent. And we make almost £130k in prize money! With Pearson getting POM it makes my decision to delay his transfer a week look like I’m a managerial genius. :-)

I take the opportunity to praise Chick Legg in private conversation. That penalty stop really got us to stop worrying and play with confidence. I also pull Kemar aside for a private chat. He says he’ll improve but I fine him a week’s salary just to drive home the point. He’s been all over the map recently.

Back to the positive side of things, Carroll’s damaged heal cleared up by the end of the match so he won’t be on the shelf. Also, I did not realize it but at this stage in the FA Cup the gate receipts are split evenly so we made an additional £123k from this match. Right now our profit for the month is just over £200k, putting us over £366k for the season.

The Days Between
So who are we going to take down in the next round of the FA Cup? We get to host Bolton, who these days are only League One. We really lucked out. There was one Conference National team still in the mix but most of the teams left are Premier League or Championship. The match will be 2 February just after the transfer window closes and several key players might be gone by then so our odds will be pretty long.

Oh wow. Shadi Al-Ziod in Jordan’s match against Oman failed to score but rated a 9.1. What a baller!

More offers come in that are laughable. For example, Barnsley believe a non-negotiable offer of £1,500 is gonna go over well at our corporate offices.

One offer isn’t so laughable. Millwall really want Pilcher, offering up to £17,000 for him. I still say no.

Will we have a FA Cup hangover in the cup match? I sure as hell hope not! With a couple of players Tired and several more getting close to that I do worry my rotation will be rife with bad omens.

FA Trophy Sixth Round
at Weston-super-Mare, 15 January 2019

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Day, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Rae
Subs: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Nightingale, Rice, Donaldson, McAdam, Thirlwell, Thompson, Jones, Kirkpatrick, Cullen

We start off with lots of good passing and tackling though it takes three minutes for the odd combo of Duckett-Hodgson-Nixon-Duckett to get our first goal. The second goal comes a minute later with another odd combo of Duckett-Rae-Hodgson-Nixon. Our passing in the box is phenomenal. Rae and Nixon gets us our third goal at 11’ and the hangover is not a thing today.

POM: Alex Rae (1 goal, 2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)

After the match Duckett’s agent demands a new contract for Duckett. I say no, Duckett gets mad, we have a face-to-face. He understands that he has too much time on his contract to get a new one. Honestly, I figured he’d be gone by now but turns out only League One team Rotherham want him.

I withheld Pearson from the match as I figured his departure was imminent and I’m not wrong, it was after the match. I have a good talk with him before he leaves. I tell him he was a great servant for the club and he is welcome back anytime. He thanks me and admits he’d like to return. “Oh, you will once we make it to the Premier League as I’m sure you’ll be good enough for us then.”

(I maintain an Excel spreadsheet as part of playing Football Manager. It’s epic. Holds a ridiculous amount of information. I decided to create a History tab to keep track of departed players, like Ben O’Donnell. Did you know that “History” is reserved by Excel as a tab name? I didn’t! I called it “Histree”. Also, I checked in on Benny. He’s made 4 sub appearances for Brighton, scoring once. Still sitting in their U23 team. I wonder if he regrets the move.)

BrixtonFC · 09-01-2024, 06:42 PM

The Week Between
Now Fleetwood want in on Pilcher but their offer is a mirror image of the previous one. So is my response. Walsall, League Two, want Al-Ziod for £1,200, an embarrassing offer. Several teams have chosen to come in with non-negotiable offers, which leads to an auto-denial by me.

These cups are really cramping our schedule. This week we don’t have a Saturday match so the lads will be able to recover from any jadedness that has built up. A peek at the fixtures list shows that our first week without a mid-week match is in early March. Right after Youth Intake Day. Will a newly arrived lad get a start in our Winchester match on 9 March?

Shadi Al-Ziod does well in a match against Syria, rating in at 7.3. Not so well against Japan with a 6.7.

For the seventh round of the FA Trophy we get to host York, of the Conference National league. It’s not the best draw but not the worse either. In the Southern League Cup Quarter Finals we host Billericay or Swindon Supermarine if we get past Hungerford. I’m hoping for Billericay for the Ian Dury references. Finally, for the FA Vase Seventh Round we host Fleet Town when we get past Chester.

I’m reminded on a Tuesday to praise some players. I normally don’t praise players when they have Perfect Morale but Rae has been an absolute beast recently so I heap the praise upon him.

Now on to some more cup play in which we play a higher level team but I’m not scared.

Southern League Cup Fifth Round
vs. Hungerford, 23 January 2019

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Caroll, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Thompson, McAdam, Macey, Donaldson, Jones, Thirlwell, Rae

My pre-match speech inspires Kirkpatrick and I hope that is a sign of great things to come. I tell you what, our Box-to-Box Midfielders sure are good scoring from distance. Duckett sends a corner directly to Barlow, he dribbles forward a smidge and sends in a screamer from 21 yards out, just squeaking it in past the left post. Another corner sees us get a penalty chance and I switch Kemar in to take it instead of Nixon. I want his confidence up. That almost backfires. (His Finishing is 14, Composure 11, but Penalty Taking only 4.) He sends it right to the goalie who can’t handle it and Kemar beats everyone to the ball and he sinks it from a tight angle.

We then swap goals off corners with Duckett getting one for us and Brian May getting one for our opponent. Sorry, Hungerford, but we are the champions, my friend. Our fourth comes from a fast counter but Kemar’s slack attitude sees him too far back to receive Duckett’s cross but Barlow is the man of the hour.

The sixth and final goal is a bizarre one. Macey runs down the right side, leaps over a sliding tackle, shrugs off a shoulder bump and crosses from the endline. Donaldson flies through the air and heads the ball into the crossbar, deflecting it downward. The GK can’t recover it though and goes chasing it, fumbles it, Donaldson tries to slide-tackle it into goal but misses. The ball is just sitting there. Donaldson gets to his feet between the ball and the goal, puts his foot on the ball and rolls it backward into the goal. B-zar.

POM: Daniel Duckett (2 goals, 2 assists, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
Shadi’s performance declines as the Jordan team runs into increasingly tough completion. Against South Korea, best Korea, he rates 6.0 and gets a yellow card.

Offers keep coming in for the usual suspects but the offers don’t increase and neither does my willingness to accept them. That is until Millwall comes in with an offer for Pilcher that could be worth £28,500. I’m really tempted but I’m so proud of my find that I don’t want to let him go. Spearing and Carroll are available, Millwall.

It’s nice to return to league matches. I can relax more and enact more rotation. Webb hasn’t played in a while so he gets a start. As it goes with Thriller.

Southern First Division West
at Cinderford, 26 January 2019

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Harding, McAdam, Hodgson, Barlow, Jones, Thirlwell
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Caroll, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Cullen, Macey, Thompson, Duckett, Rae, Kirkpatrick

Now it seems Barlow is on fire. Today he gets the starring role of Shadow Striker, putting him in the perfect place to head in a Hodgson cross when just the two of them get a breakaway against four Cinderford defenders. Nothing much happens until the 85th when Donaldson stabs the enemy up the gut with a precision shot. And with that we maintain a perfect league record.

POM: Terry Barlow (1 goal, 3 key passes)

BrixtonFC · 09-01-2024, 07:13 PM

The Days Between
On the transfers front the only new news is Ebbsfleet, Conference National, trying to unsettle Duckett, tipping a journalist that they might offer up to £2,100 for him. That ain’t gonna cut it, bubs. Dagenham & Redbridge (a.k.a. Dag & Red), in League Two, also start some shit about Smith. Sigh.

I still think it’s pretty ridiculous that we are favored against teams two or more rungs above in the ladder.

FA Vase Sixth Round
at Chester, 29 January 2019

Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Jefcoate, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Webb, Smith, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Rice, Cullen, McAdam, Donaldson, Macey, Thirlwell, Jones

I find it pretty funny when Barlow sends a ball to the right corner for Rae, as a Poacher, to chase down. What is he supposed to do, cross it to our Target Man Kirkpatrick? What? It worked?! Kemar really used his head there! Later Harding sends a free kick into the box where I expected Spearing to get a goal but he heads it down to Rae two yards to his left and Rae threads the needle into the back of the net.

By 63’ we’re up three so it’s time to do some swapping. The third goal comes from another Rae to Kirkpatrick cross. This time the duo are two-on-four, something that doesn’t seem to bother our attackers at all.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)

The Days Between
Excellent! We get to face Billericay Dickey! And Fleet Town again.
The Jordanian Prince is back early as his national team washed out of Asian Nations Cup. He’ll probably get the start against Bolton. He now has 5 caps. Pretty darned cool.

It’s quite a shame that Sports Interactive can’t program transfers more accurately. The last week of the month was a lot of £1,500 offers for Carroll. With no exaggeration, I probably rejected 25 offers. Also, we kept getting offers for Pilcher on the last day but at least each offer was better than the previous. Even a couple of teams came looking for Liam Roberts, MC in the U18s, but they were really low, around £500. In summary, I didn’t sell anybody, sadly.

Summary
We suffered through some injuries up front but were able to overcome. Rae really came on strong at the right time while Kemar faltered. Barlow also had some key moments and of course who could forget Pearson’s performance in the FA Cup win? It was sad to say good-bye to him but we were holding him back.

Let’s take a look at our competitions. In the Southern First Division West we are undefeated and atop the table. The board rate me at 80% for that. For the Southern League Cup we are in the Quarter Final, which rates a 55% board confidence because we are expected to win it. For the FA Trophy, 55% for being in the Seventh Round when we need to reach the Quarter Final. The FA Vase is another competition we are expected to win and we’re in the Seventh Round, scoring 55%.

Most importantly, we have far exceeded our expectations in the FA Cup where we’re in the Fourth Round. We only had to make the First Round so we have pleased the board 85%.

05-26-2024, 08:08 PM	#52
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between The FA Vase Quarter Final draw happens on the 11th. Please not Dartford, please not Dartford, please not Dartford. YES! We get to host Hampton & Richmond, who are in the Conference South, so it’s not easy street but at least it’s not the team that last beat us again. O’Donnell turned 17 on the 9th and I went to offer him a Full-time contract and he refused to negotiate. Says we couldn’t meet his ambitions or some shit like that. Luckily we have him until 2021 so either he eventually signs or we sell him at a healthy profit. This is the reschedule of the match that was postponed due to a water-logged field. Lettuce see what happens. Southern Counties East at Erith Town, 14 February 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Cullen, Donaldson, Jones, Nixon, Martin, Rae, McAdam No postponement this time despite a “Very Poor Pitch.” Hopefully we don’t suffer any injuries. Interesting formation they use, 4-3-3 with three strikers and three central midfielders. Erith Town probably wish the match had been cancelled though. We get a penalty in the 9th minute and O’Donnell skies it. What the fuck?! Seventeen minutes later he makes up for his sin planting a score off a Duckett cross. It was just the two of them with nary a defender in sight and if they had botched it I was going to yank Ben. In the 32nd their right striker gets his second yellow and we are hopefully on Easy Street. Two minutes into extra time we get a Duckett goal (a beautiful tight-angle one to the ceiling of the net) in the aftermath of a corner. At 60’ I sub out O’Donnell and Spearing who are on yellows. At 65’ I bring in Rae for Macey (on a 6.4) so he can get his fitness back up, and Cullen for Barlow who is stinking up the joint with a 6.3 rating. Just after entering extra time Maguire finds Nixon at the far post and the victory is sealed, as is Legg’s first cleansheet in two matches. Or so I thought. Duckett has been horrible the second half and passes the ball right to a Townie who Route Ones it up the field and Legg just stands there looking stoopid. And not another minute later their goalie launches one forward and they get a repeat. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created) I lamblast™ them and point out Clark, Barlow, Macey, and Rae specifically. I then hand out some fines and warnings. Barlow doesn’t feel the fine was justified, blaming his team-mates. That’s not good. Macey accepts his warning and Clark accepts his fine, he even gets a Determination bump. A lot of players are in the high 80s in their Match Fitness so I have heavy rotation. Macey and O’Donnell are on my shitlist so they don’t even suit up today. Southern Counties East at Whitstable, 17 February 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Jones, Donaldson, Martin, Taylor Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Rae The first action doesn’t happen until the 34th minute and Cullen does well getting the ball to Jones’ noggin but he just sends it softly to the goalie. Le Sigh. Amazingly not a minute later we get a penalty opportunity and Jefcoate of all people gets the opportunity. (Taylor is on the pitch but he too is kind of on my shitlist for his botched penalty.) Jefcoate does not disappoint and gets his first goal of the season. At 69’ I bring on Rae and Nixon for Taylor and Cullen who have done nothing to impress me. Also Jefcoate comes off for the Jordanian Prince as he’s earned a yellow. Just before 80’ when I was going to switch to Defensive due to our recent lapses, Whitstable get us with the Route One. That’s our weakness. Five minutes later the lads respond to my Overload change-up with a Martin-Jones-Rae combo for a goal. I switch to Contain and give as many players defensive instructions as possible. In the first minute of stoppage time of six minutes Parker gets doinked in the head and on comes Maguire. And then with 6 seconds left Jones scores off a corner and the squeaky-bum match ends with a Brixton victory. POM: Robert Jones (1 goal, 2 key passes, 2 chances created) Oh fuck me to tears. Parker has a fractured skull and will be out for 3 to 4 months. Fuuuuuuuck. One of our two DRs in the U18 is currently out for 11 days to 3 weeks for a twisted ankle so it seems the FM fix is in. Youth Intake is right around the corner and hopefully we get a good DR who can take Parker’s place. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

05-26-2024, 08:19 PM	#53
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Week Between Awesome! Another Player Development email, this time from my Head of Youth Development, Harold Pennington. He believes that The Real Slim Shadi’s “potential could lead to him becoming a League Two left-back in the future.” YEAH! It’s Ratbirdtown again! Southern Counties East vs. Crowborough, 21 February 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Donaldson, Cullen Just before 2’ we march the ball up the field slowly, methodically and then pounce with a long ball to the left corner. Duckett sends in a low cross to the near post and Macey get us on the board. Anything you can do I can do better, says O’Donnell. He takes a Barlow feed up the middle and meets the ball near the right post and we’re up two. Oh my. In the 35th Maguire sends in a prayer that meets Duckett’s left foot near the left post and we score again. We have a Cup match in 3 days so I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap at 60’. I try Donaldson at right back just for shits and giggles. And of course that bites me in the ass again. Same shit, different game, a Route One attack and Legg just stares at the attacker. And this is even after I dropped our line back to normal. I think it may be Day and Clark who are the problem. Rae does draw one back in the 84th and we see out the match. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes) Duckett has been on fire of late. I need to check to see if he’s rating higher than everyone else the last 5 and 20 games. In the last 5 games he’s averaging 8.04 with Maguire the closest at 7.50. Over the last 20 games, he’ at 7.98, second to Macey (somehow) at 8.19. I issue a warning to McAdam for a 6.3 rating. I don’t have the option for Taylor but he’s been on a bad steak recently so I have a sit-down with him. He admitted he didn’t do well. At this moment I notice he has a 3 in Teamwork. He probably needs to be shipped off if we get two good strikers in our Youth Intake Day. Also another match, another agent, another no. Barlow, remind your agent about your Erith Town performance, please. It’s been 5 matches since we had a clean sheet. I’ve no idea what the hell is going on. Let’s try to improve that against a team two steps above us in the English pyramid? Southern League Cup Quarter Final vs. Kings Langley, 24 February 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Day, Clark, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Donaldson, Cullen It’s a pretty boring match with neither Macey or O’Donnell able to dial it in. We do get a goal at 38’ courtesy of an own goal though Duckett kind of got the defender and GK all a-panicky. In the second half we get a free kick that gets headed by Spearing to Pearson who strikes it true. A few moments later they draw one back but I can’t fault Legg this time, it was a long shot that went to the far upper left corner. And we strike back immediately with the Duckett-Pearson combo. I pulled Macey and his 6.4 rating for Taylor and switch to 4-4-2 Standard. And Taylor gives up the ball and Kings score on the counter. Fucking hell. But Taylor redeems himself with a goal in the 81st. POM: Steve Pearson (2 goals, 1 key pass) Six matches without a cleansheet. This is not what the doctor ordered. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

05-26-2024, 08:24 PM	#54
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	In Summary Another great month victory-wise but there has been a number of shaky performances and just one cleansheet. We’re semi-talented. I don’t know why the kids are faltering in dumb ways. Maybe I shouldn’t stick with the same tactic from match-to-match? But we’ve extended our league lead to 20 points and are still in two cups so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. In my next update I’ll go over our 2018 Youth Intake Day. I think this is a good time to talk about my desires for the long-term makeup of the team. A number of my desires are really not explainable; it’s just the way my age-addled brain works. I would like at least one American in my Starting XI but I’m not going to be a homer and make Brixton an U.S. exclave. To keep the Brixton motif alive, I would like one or two players from the Caribbean. For goalkeeper, I want a Pole. I want one of my defenders to be German, hopefully one of the centrebacks. Somewhere on the team I want a Japanese or South Korean player. I want the bulk of my players to be English or British or Irish. I probably won’t sign many, if any, Central or South Americans. I just don’t like the style of play in real life so that carries over into how I play FM. When we get to the Premier League and I can scout worldwide I’ll probably make those regions the last ones I explore. I guess maybe part of that is because of the whole agent “owns” a player thing. Now onto my favoritest part of the game! __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-09-2024, 04:23 PM	#55
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	YOUTH INTAKE DAY 2018 *Reasons to Be Cheerful* It’s that time of year now that spring is in the air and we get new gits with loads and loads of Flair. With apologies to Spitting Image. We got one amazing player who’s ready to contribute but none of the others are anywhere near first team material right now. Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 1 1. Kemar Kirkpatrick: My AssMan has the audacity to claim he is going to be better than Ben O’Donnell. Poppycock! That’s ridiculi, beyond ridiculous. Oh my. Can play with both feet, but stronger on the right. He’s 193cm (6’4”) which is crazy for a 15-year-old. Not any Mentals below 9. No Physicals below 11 except Strength. Already “very well-suited to League Two football.” I have hit the jackpot! 2. Gary Leary: Already a Natural at MR and ML, and Competent at AMR. (And left-footed!) Should be my wing sub once we get to Conference South, where substitute numbers actually matter. (Big assumption there.) 3. Bill Taylor: Looks like a good Core player with great Teamwork and Work Rate already. 4. Ashley Hibbert: Can play a lot of positions on the right side and up front. And I get to make some Simpsons jokes! 5. Caribbean players: Aside from Kemar, we have another player born in Jamaica and a player born in Tobago. This fits my Brixton theme very well as it’s home to many Afro-Caribbean people. 6. Seven players who just might be rated at 5 stars on Potential Ability. 7. Everyone has a 9 or better Natural Fitness. 8. Eleven players have Determination in the double-digits. 9. Nine players have a good Personality. 10. Good spread of positions with none being over- or under-represented. (This one time in FM14, I got three GKs and four STs in one youth intake. /Hannigan) Bonus: How I ended up with an Angolan kid is anyone’s bet. He has great physicals except Strength and Stamina. However, with a Marking of 2 and a Positioning of 1 he’ll never make it as a Fullback. I’m not going to show all the cards, just the ones of the players I think might actually be with us for the full term of their first contract. Kemar Kirkpatrick (ST, AMC) Like I said, Brixton has hit the jackpot. There is nothing not to like except he will probably outgrow us before we are high enough in the pyramid to appease him. Andy Robinson (AMR, MR) He’s going to be better than Robbie Jones but whether he’s going to be better than Pearson is up for debate. I wish his Determination was better but I’m glad about his Corners starting so high. Dean Rice (DL, WBL) Good left fullbacks are hard to find. I have a plethora of them. Jefcoate and The Real Slim Shadi are real good and I think Dean Rice will eventually be nearly as good. This will help me sell off Jefcoate once Rice’s Determination gets Tutored up. Mitchell Nightingale (DC) He’s slow, he’s short but he has a lot of good defensive skills. I think I’ll be able to get him up to starter quality eventually. Bill Taylor (MC, DMC, AMC) I haven’t instituted my drive to make my central midfielders into what I call Core: being Natural at DMC, MC, and AMC. Bill Taylor will easily be able to become such a player. He has a weird spread of Attributes, not really being good at attack and being pretty crap with defense. Tasos Noulas (DMC) Now here’s a player who too can be a Core player but with much better defensive skills than Bill Taylor. He speaks Greek so maybe in the future if he’s still around he can be Mentor for any Greek players I manage to sign. Ashley Hibbert (MR, AMR, AML, ST) I’m liking him more than Andy Robinson not just for all the positions he can play but also his high Determination, Flair, Natural Fitness, and Pace. Youth Candidate Match Nothing much happens until 40’ when Carey (DM) pushes Noulas (DM) to the ground during a free kick and Bill Taylor (MC) scores easily from the spot. McNulty (ST) has a chance at 50’ but sends the ball wide right from inside the 18-yard box. At 83’ Noulas tries an effort from 25 yards out but just misses the upper left corner. That’s it. Nothing else happened. I was really hoping Kemar would impress but he only managed a 6.7. Scouting I don’t have the budget to scout many teams and I don’t think any youths are going to want to come to Brixton anyway. Therefore, I’ll only scout four teams that are nearby: AFC Croydon, Bromley, Croydon, and Dulwich Hamlet. By mid-month all my scouting requests are processed. There are some wonderful kids out there but none of them are willing to sign. Those that are willing to sign are not going to be better than what we already have. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-11-2024, 08:09 PM	#56
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	March 2018 *The winner takes it all* Yeah! An excellent training report! I’m especially pleased to see Smith do well as I think he’s going to be a force for us for a good while. Financial Matters A slight improvement in our finances; we lost around £9,000 less in February. Southern Counties East vs. Glebe, 3 March 2018 Formation: 4-4-2 Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, ML, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, O’Donnell, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Rae, Taylor, Donaldson, Cullen In 17’ Pearson receives a long pass from Maguire off to the right of goal and has enough space to cross to the far post where his bestie is charging but instead of going for glory he nods it to Benny to his right who seals the deal. Between 31’ and 34’ Benny and Eddie have opportunities but are off the mark on long-range shots. Just after 40’ Benny receives a long boot forward by Pearson, he takes it to the endline, draws the opposition leaving Barlow alone at the far post to put in the low cross. Eddie is rocking it 6.4 style so I give him a pep-talk, let’s see if it works. It took him 5 minutes and 20 second but Eddie makes it three. He and Benny had a fast break courtesy of Shady and with the option to shoot or pass he shot and it went right through the goalies legs. Rae was needing match fitness so I swap him in for Benny at 60’. Just before 78’ another hoof-it-forward sees Eddie on a one-on-one and he gets a brace. At 88’ Glebe almost get one in off a corner but luckily the defense is doing wonderful today and clear the ball upfield. POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals) Huzzah! We have a cleansheet again! In setting up this game I realized that I had been using the Spade since mid-December. Not a good idea. The Week Between Let us look at our finances on a per-game basis. From the Glebe match we made £6,718. Match day income was £5,379 plus gate receipts of £1,659. Match day expenses were £320. Ah, but let us look at how much we paid in player salaries. For bonuses (goals, assists, clean sheets, appearance, etc.) we spent £1,250 and for salaries, for the whole team, is £8,589. So essentially we lose £3,121 ever week. More on weeks when we don’t play at home. Less when we have a game mid-week at home. We gotta increase ticket prices to at least £6 in the off-season. Because of Parker’s injury I’m bringing up left DC Martin Duggan as I’m going to use Clark as the second DR until the end of the season. On 6 March I get an email from Rutherford about player development. He believes DM Tasos Noulas can be much better than Connor Smith. I find that surprising. I’m also highly skeptical. Only time will tell. Southern Counties East at Rochester United, 10 March 2018 Formation: 4-4-2 Standard Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, O’Donnell, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick, Cullen Just over 5’ in and our first corner sees a Duckett-Carroll-Spearing combo give us an early lead. On the restart Rochester try to stab our gut but Smith kicks the ball out to Pearson on the right wing and his long pass finds O’Donnell who sinks it from 7 yards out. Just before the 18th minute Maguire finds himself way too far forward, ends up with the ball at the endline and crosses it perfectly to Benny at the near post. Of course Benny has to hit the near post just for shits and giggles and the rebound comes right back to him and this time he got his act together and put us in a commanding lead. And. O’Donnell had a chance of a third but his header bounces off the underside of the crossbar and he fouls a defender trying to get to the rebound. Our inability to keep cleansheets rears its ugly head when Macey can’t make anything of being oddly alone to the goalie’s right. He fumbles around with the ball when a defender charges and kicks the ball way deep into our territory and Carroll let’s their striker pass him by and Chicken Legg just watches the ball go on by. But then 15 seconds after the restart Duckett sends in a prayer and Benny is able to outrun the opposition, one-timing the ball right under the goalie. He has his hat trick and will come off at half for Kemar’s debut. But not satisfied, Barlow times a perfect pass with a Benny run and he has four. At 50’ Duckett gets pushed down in the box during a Pearson cross and he sinks the penalty. At 60’ I bring on some players who just need some match time. During the 73’ Maguire sends in another prayer and Kemar can’t beat the goalie one-on-one and sends the ball high and to the outside. After the match I tell the lads that they did well and I was happy with their performance. Kemar, who squeaked out a 6.3 rating, was delighted. Nobody else had any kind of response. Jesus, kid, you need a lesson. POM: Ben O’Donnell (4 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created) Even though his Happiness is Perfect I still have a talk with Kemar. He acknowledges he sucked and promised to do better. His happiness did not drop. The Days Between Having elevated Duggan (temporarily) and Kirkpatrick (permanently) to the Senior team I wanted to check Dynamics to see what effect this had. I am shocked to see that everyone but Duggan in the Core Social Group. I guess Nixon moved up and Kirkpatrick was a natural to fit. This is cool. Macey and Day have not seen any increase of late though. In FA Cup news, League One club Bury weren’t satisfied taking down Liverpool, they’ve now notched their belt again taking down Chelsea. Bury scored in 70’ and Chelsea had a man sent off at 81’ so the victory seems fair and square. Bury isn’t even top of their league, they are 8th! Up next is the return of the Leathernecks. No, not the U.S. Marines, but English football club Corinithian. Mmm...sexy leather... I am switching things up again to get players some Match Fitness and rest some important starters for the upcoming FA Vase Quarter Final. Southern Counties East vs. Corinthian, 14 March 2018 Formation: 4-4-2 Standard Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, Cullen, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Donaldson, McAdam, Duckett, Rae In the 7th minute Taylor get us ahead after we had some fancy passing off a free kick and Martin sends in a good cross. 8 minutes later Kemar shows what he can do as a Deep Lying Forward, sending a carpet level cross that bounces off Taylor’s foot for a slow-mo goal. Spot on 24’ Kemar gets his first career goal after a Martin cross pinballs off a falling Taylor. Almost 3 minutes latter Kirkpatrick feeds Taylor for his hat trick. Holy crap! A fourth from Taylor though he was offsides. I guess this low in the pyramid the refs aren’t that good either. A B.S. penalty in the 37’ is Corinithian’s only hope. Which really pisses off Kemar and Paul with the first one repeating that super low cross to Taylor for his fifth FIFTH!!! goal of the first half. At the half I take off Taylor, move Kemar over to the Advanced Forward and bring on Rae. A little jealousy must be in the air as Kemar nets his brace courtesy of Rae. And then he gets his hat trick. In the 68th the lads were patiently probing and Donaldson found Kemar all by his lonesome in the middle of the arc and his shot was soft but too high in the corner for the GK to have a chance. Just before 80’ we get a make up call from the ref and Jefcoate gets his second penalty shot of the season. POM: Paul Taylor (5 goals, 1 key pass) And a perfect 10.0 rating!!! (A couple of days after the match I was looking at Kemar’s Player Card to see what it was taking him so long to recover from the match and I noticed that he has the “Places Shots” trait. That would explain his “soft shot” to get his hat trick. I wasn’t able to figure out the fitness mystery though. His Stamina is 12 and his Natural Fitness is 14. Maybe because he’s only 15?) The Days Between The scouting report for Hampton & Richmond comes in and actually we have very comparable squads. I’m not worried about this match now. Kind of annoyed that we are only drawing 919 spectators to a semi-final match in a cup. C’mon! FA Vase Quarter Final vs. Hampton & Richmond, 17 March 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Nixon, Martin, Rae, Taylor Well it didn’t take long for the Macey to Pearson to O’Donnell triad to work, just 80 seconds. The rest of the half is barren excitement as we trade opportunities and Macey again shows his lack of Composure when he’s alone. Oddly though, when he’s in heavy traffic he sinks, like he did at 41:25. Just before the half Duckett gets a bruised foot and I swap him out at the half for Martin. After 10 minutes I have to bring off Barlow who has a strained knee and right off the restart Macey feeds Benny at the top of the box and we have a comfortable lead. At 65’ I swap out all the Smith, O’Donnell, and Macey, and nothing at all happens for the rest of the match. A comfortable win and we are onto the Semi-finals! Unfortunately we will face a Conference South team as they all won. Dreaded Dartford is in that group. Le sigh. POM: Ben O’Donnell (2 goals, 5 key passes, 2 chances created) Of note, Barlow had 10 key passes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that many for any player before. The Week Between Oh praise Cthulhu, we get to host Poole Town, 20th in Conference South, and don’t have to travel to Dartford. Excellent. On 22 March, our Tactics Coach, Defending Coach, and Attacking Coach bag the Continental Pro Licenses. Excellent, Smithers. They are all currently 4 stars rated, hopefully now they’ll creep up higher. Southern Counties East at Cray Valley, 25 March 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick The scoring starts just after 5’ with another Macey goal amidst heavy traffic. The ball ping-ponged for a few seconds and I couldn’t quite track its course. Benny gets us number two right at 18’ from some fancy traffic negotiation. And spot on 31’ heavy traffic deflects a Barlow long-range shot right to a free Duckett at the left post and we get our third. Four minutes later Cray get FMed when one of their DCs slide-tackles Macey and the ball goes to Pearson who does not miss. At the half I swap out everyone but Chick Legg and switch us to 4-4-2 Standard. I wasn’t hoping to score but Martin sends in a long shot from the left flank and totally surprises the goalie in the 57th. And at 67’ Rae gets in on things. After that I switch everything I can to a defensive posture just to see the match out without any injuries. It was good to see that no player had multiple goals. Spread the love around a little, you know. POM: Ben O’Donnell (1 goal, 1 key pass) The Week Between On 27 March another player development email comes in from my AssMan. This time I learn that James Jefcoate has the potential to be “League Two talent”. On 29 March no less than 13 teams came looking to sign or take on trial Brian Carey, an Irish midfielder I signed back in late October to round out the U18 squad. I accepted the offers and by the afternoon he is gone. The next day another player, Aidan Collins, also a late October Irish find, draws interest from two clubs and I accept an offer. I make no money off these transaction but that is alright as they weren’t in my plans. Also on the 30th two teams came sniffing around a left-footed Central Defender, Rory Collopy, but I need him for U18 DC depth so I say no. Just before the U18 match on the 30th Alex Rae injured himself in training. A pulled calf muscle will keep him out 2-4 weeks. Kemar will get Rae’s minutes. The Collins saga continues into the 31st as do more rumors about Collopy. C’mon, dudes, I’ve got a match to win! Said win against Deal will see us winning the league. Despite that I’m going to start the Second XI as a lot of the players are losing match sharpness now that we are down to one match per week. Now we’re down to only 888 sold tickets. We gotta turn the beat around. Southern Counties East vs. Deal, 31 March 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey The lads are a bit nervous. Despite dominating possession and a lot of activity in Deal’s third we just can’t accurate shots off. That is until 13’ when Martin leads a counter-attack down the left side and launches an early cross in hopes of catching out the goalie. The goalie was partially caught off guard and can’t control a bounce and the deflection goes right to Kemar and he doesn’t miss the wide-open net. Ten minutes later Kemar gets his second when an attack on the right flank see Day overlapping Jones and Day’s cross is perfect to the near post area where Kemar’s right foot eases my concerns. Afterwards Martin develops a case of the complacencies and I have to give a stern talk at half to not let your guard down. The lads channel the spirit of Chuck Woolery and score in two and two, this time it’s Clark and his big foot sending in a cross to the far post where it meets Kemar’s big head, earning him his second hat trick of his 3-game career. At 70’ I throttle things back and decide to let the starters stay in for the full match. I hope this doesn’t affect morale. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals) Turns out I need not worry as everyone’s Morale is now Perfect. In Summary What a wonderful month! We won the league; there was never any doubt about that really. Our prize youth turns out to be fan-damn-tastic! In a weird development, teams way down the pyramid came looking for our players. None offered money so it wasn’t that hard to say no except the two I didn’t see having a future here. Now I gotta think about the rest of the season. We have eight league matches to go and at least two cup matches. I’m normally inclined to give some of the U18s game time but I’m torn on whether to do that or not. Only time will tell. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-12-2024, 03:41 PM	#57
Chas in Cinti High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Congrats! Great league season... __________________ Email: [email protected]

06-19-2024, 04:44 PM	#58
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	Thank you, Chas! I may have over-Sugar Daddied things, a valuable lesson, but I'm having fun. I hope my readers are too. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-19-2024, 04:49 PM	#59
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	*Movin' right along* Oh Robbie Jones, why must you forsake me? I give a pep-talk and he seems to have gotten the message. Barlow, Spearing, Duckett…I heart you. Financial Matters We lost £178,000 last month. We’ll dip below £12,000,000 for our balance next month. Board Confidence Huzzah! I’m now Untouchable. My approval rating is only 77% but that is “Untouchable” somehow. Player Matters A note about Aidan Collins, who hasn’t gotten the message and accepted that bid yet. He joined the team on 8 November and not one Attribute has increased by one point yet. He’s had some minor improvements. Tackling has gone from 3.6 to 4.4 and that’s the best he’s had. Please leave! (His Personality is Fairly Professional so I have no idea why he’s sucking.) On the 1st, Colney Heath declare their interest in him. Make up your mind kid! Collopy is drawing more and more interest. On 2 April three teams express interest in him and a fourth makes an offer of a whole whopping zero pounds so I deny them. Player Development Good news! Connor Smith is a Potential League Two talent. Better news is Mark Nixon is a Potential League One talent. Also good news is that Tom Johnstone is also like Nixon. In related news, I get notice on 3 April that a slew of teams are fixing to release some youth players. I give them a gander but none have double-digit Determination; I’m scouting them anyways. Coach Development On 1 April I get another email about coaching badges. This time it’s my Shooting coach bagging a Continental Pro license. Next victim up is Tunbridge Wells. They are second in the league but only 1 point ahead of Erith Town. Though the difference between second and third is irrelevant, because only the top team gets promoted, the game engine certainly will have them fighting for a higher position. Right? RIGHT?! (Let us hope.) Southern Counties East at Tunbridge Wells, 4 April 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen Pearson and O’Donnell start out the match nervous for some reason but after 13 minutes Pearson shakes that off when he sees an overlapping Maguire and that kid takes it to the endline for a trademark cross to the far post where Duckett heads it in for his 16th goal of the season. Four minutes later the action comes from the left side with Duckett sending a low cross to Macey at the near post, who delivers with surety. Up two-nil at half I dial things back, naturally. I feel a trap coming. The feelings are unfounded as 5 minutes in Tunbridge almost score but the rebound finds Pearson who sends it Route One to Macey. Eddie outruns the defender and sends it through their goalie's crotch for our cushion goal. At 60’ I bring on Nixon, McAdam, and Taylor; the first two because they need match fitness, and Taylor because O’Donnell is phoning it in again. A minute later they get one by Legg on a counter-attack. Here they come, those the feelings again? Nope. Macey gets his hat trick 10 minutes later. POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals) Really bummed about conceding a goal. Legg has 11 league clean sheets which is only best in the league by one. I hope he ends the season with the most by a good margin. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-19-2024, 05:02 PM	#60
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Another bid comes in for Collopy, this time for a whopping £110. I opt to keep him. Speaking of bids, Collins rejects South Normanton and will stay with us. For now... It’s time to see if we can still maintain being in the cup competitions. Bath has a team that’s pretty good. Luckily they only have one 5-star player and that is their goalie. Southern League Cup Semi Final at Bath, 7 April 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen The first 30’ is predominantly us trying to exploit the left flank but despite many great Duckett crosses, nothing comes of it mostly because Macey is easily dispossessed. But in the 33rd minute the kids try the right side and then cut in to the middle of the field, feeding O’Donnell who feeds Macey who once again shows he’s better in the thick of things than by himself. At half I give Ye Olde Speech, Passionately, “Things are going well, but I know you’re capable of even better” Spearing gets motivated but Chicken Fucker gets stressed and “Looked to switch off.” Eight minutes into the second half Bath’s lone striker gets past our central defenders and Legg’s speech reaction jumps to the forefront of my mind. Ye of little faith; he stonewalls the Bather. At this point I dial things back and choose the Control philosophy, and drop the defensive line back some. At 65’ I take out my wingers and the Jordanian Prince as they are getting tired. At 68’ their left winger lobs in an early cross and Legg once again comes through defending a point-blank shot, but Jefcoate evidently fouled the striker during the post-rebound melee. To quote Harry Vanderspeigle, “This is some bullshit.” Immediately afterwards I sub out the rest of the outfield, I have Nixon as the Shadow Striker as he’s really, really good. And of course The Jamaican Wonder, who almost draws us even immediately. In the 88th Kemar almost gets us the win but he can’t get a header on target. After full-time I thought we’d get a replay at home but instead we go into extra time. Should have thought about that. I’m sure our players are still more fresh than theirs… At 101’ Martin was two yards out and all alone and manages to hit the upright. Jesus. The team plays uninspired from that point on. On to the penalties! Dammit. Nixon, our only player on the pitch with double-digit Penalty Taking rating, sinks the first salvo. And Legg blocks Bath’s first shot! But then Jefcoate flubs his chance (7 in PT). It sure isn’t Martin’s day. He skies his chance. And so goes our chances at a trophy. POM: Teddy Cullen (5 key passes, 4 chances created) Martin is gutted. I’m really to blame though. I should have been more strategic about my selection. Gah! The Days Between A couple hours before our home match against Croydon, AFC Mansfield show up with a pail of money for Derek McLeish, a U18 Striker. Unfortunately for them the pail only has £825. Negative, Ghost Rider. With the FA Vase Cup Semi-Final coming up I’m giving the Second XI the start. I’m also switching to the 4-4-2 to give Martin a chance to get Natural in ML and Nixon at MC. I also hope to give Rae some minutes on his road to recovery. Southern Counties East vs. Croydon, 11 April 2018 Formation: 4-4-2 Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, ML, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones, Nixon, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson, Donaldson, Cullen, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell, Rae Luckily the start is pretty quick with a Kirkpatrick-Nixon combo working just before 5’. It’s pretty dead until Kemar gets a brilliant shot off in the 39th but the GK is unimpressed. And just before half he has another chance but botches it. He seems to be a streaky player. I Assertively tell the squad that they were just alright and I expected to see things improve. It’s like I’m a prophet, though a 20-minute delayed one. Kemar playing as a Deep Lying Forward receives the ball from a Day launch out of our 18-yard box and tips it forward to Taylor, who is outpacing everyone; he sinks it with a low lob over a falling keeper. I then swap out the MCs and a few minutes later new arrival Cullen affords Taylor an opportunity for a brace and he delivers. I give Rae the last 15 minutes of Kemar’s time. My pre-game plan was to bring off Taylor and make Rae a Poacher but I decided to give Taylor a chance to get his hat trick. POM: Paul Taylor (2 goals, 1 key pass) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-19-2024, 05:11 PM	#61
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Another day, another Collopy offer, another no. The scouting report for Poole Town comes in and they are not as good as our squad, but just by a hair. They are however riddled with injuries so I fancy our chances. Damn, a cup Semi Final and we still can’t pull in a thousand fans. FA Vase Cup Semi Final vs. Poole Town, 14 April 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen Nothing happens in the first 39 minutes except Al-Ziod, Barlow, and Carroll draw yellows in quick succession. I chastised the lot of them at half and ask the young offenders to Calm it down. I switch us to Attack, to vary our passes to Mixed, and stop the players from getting Stuck In. It takes a while and a Shout of Show Some Passion but finally Smith starts a counter with a long shot forward to Macey, who launches one in from 20 yards out. I switch us back to Control and short passes. At 65’ I take out the kids with yellow and bring in suitable players with Nixon being on because he’s actually pretty good at taking penalties. At 69’ their DMC gets his second yellow. At 75' I switch us to 4-4-2 and take off some players who can be replaced by better options in case we do go to penalties. And shortly thereafter Pearson sends a long pass into O’Donnell who embarrasses the goalie and now I feel comfortable. I immediately switch to Defensive and start wasting time. At 85’ their right-back gets his second yellow and it’s game, set, match. In the 92’ we get a free kick near their box and Duckett softly feeds it to Day and he gives it a go. The ball hits the underside of the crossbar and eventually bounces into goal. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created) The Week Between We get to face East Thurrock United in the FA Vase Final at Wembley. That match won’t happen until 19 May and you can bet your sweet bippy that I’m going to field the best possible, rested team I can. Another offer for McLeish comes in, this time for Weymouth, who look like they may be promoted to Conference South. Still, £750 ain’t gonna cut it. A couple of days later Clevedon come in with the same offer so they get the same answer. An offer comes in for Collins but I don’t accept this time as the requestor is from a league down and there ain’t no way he’s gonna accept the move. Southern Counties East at Bearsted, 21 April 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Kirkpatrick, Martin, Rae, Nixon This is the most boring match ever! The players just aren’t doing anything. That is until 46 seconds into 60 seconds of injury time when finally Duckett gets some freedom and sends a low cross to O’Donnell who sinks it. Ten minutes into the second half, and after a Demand More shout, Duckett gets his second assist, this time Macey is the beneficiary. Or so I thought; Eddie was offsides. But a minute later Maguire’s cross finds Duckett way out left and his cross ping-pongs around the 6-yard box before Pearson pokes it in. A couple of minutes later there is a strange goal. We get a free kick but the wall blokes it and it goes flying toward the midline and Spearing kicks it sky-high towards the goal and Macey is able to track it over-the-shoulder and one-times the ball with his right foot. I do my trademarked full outfield swap and switch to 4-4-2. Our fourth goal comes off a corner. Donaldson sends it in to Jones who is straight out from the left upright 9 yards. He heads it to Kemar who sends in a screamer from 12 yards out. POM: Steve Pearson (1 goal, 3 key passes, 3 chances created) With this clean sheet Chick Legg pulls in the lead again over the keeper from Beckenham; that dude allowed in 4 goals today. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-19-2024, 05:17 PM	#62
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Week Between More interest in Derek McLeish, Rory Collopy, and Aidan Collins comes in. I really don’t want to have to find another DC for the U18s and even though these offers come from teams one and two levels above I still say no. Until he complains about this I’ll keep saying no. Southern Counties East vs. Sevenoaks, 28 April 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Cullen Since winning the league the players have been really stale in the first half of games. Case in point, we have no opportunities in the first 25 minutes but Sevenoaks do, almost scoring after some sloppy defensive play. Finally, in the 40th minute Smith and Pearson surprise with an attack up the middle and Pearson does a good job of not botching the chance. At 66’ we finally look competent and the O’Donnell-Macey up-the-gut attack works. And that’s all she wrote. I didn’t tinker at all with the tactics all game except after 5 minutes when I remember we have problems with having too high a defensive line. I also didn’t do a full outfield swap once our fate was sealed; I wanted Pearson and Duckett to get the full 90 in hopes of getting them over the hump of being Natural at Attacking Midfielder. POM: Connor Smith (1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created) My plan of keeping the wingers in partially worked; Duckett is now Natural at Attacking Midfielder Left. The Week Between Two offers come in, one for McLeish and one for Collopy, neither of which blow my socks off. In Summary Well, we’re down to just one cup competition and I believe it will make us some money as we should keep half the gate receipts for Wembley. I still can’t believe some of our youths are drawing interest. I figure once the Transfer Window opens more teams will come for our “Seniors” with O’Donnell and Kirkpatrick being the most obvious targets. I have faith that in the next league up I can get by with Macey, Taylor, and Rae. Now, if Duckett also gets pilfered… __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-24-2024, 07:47 PM	#63
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	May 2018 *That was easy* Excellent training news! I’m especially glad to see an increase in Strength in my defenders. Financial Matters As expected, we lost just over £200,000 during April and face the same fate for May unless that match at Wembley attracts enough fans. Yes, we are now below £12 million in the bank. Board Confidence Still Untouchable, still at 78% approval. Dynamics Excellent news! Ben O’Donnell is now an Influential Player alongside Chris Day. While looking around the Dynamics pages I notice that our Match Cohesion is Abysmal. What the heck? Off to the Internets! I guess I didn’t realize that flip-flopping 11 players all at once and not spending time training Match Cohesion would drag it down. I remedy that instantly and wonder if that’s why our early match ineptitude developed. Player Development Oh how neat! Recent Youth Candidate Bill Taylor now has a Media Description of “Hard working midfielder.” I think this is because his Teamwork and Work Rate both climbed to 15 each. He’s gonna probably make the Seniors this summer. The challenge for him is getting his Marking, Tackling, and Positioning up to respectable levels. The Week Between More offers are coming in for our players. Canvey Island, on a reclaimed island on the north side of the Thames, east of London, offer £650 for ST Derek McLeish. I pass. Also, of course, are two additional offers for Collopy and of course I say no. With only five matches left in the season I want to get Kemar some game time so he starts today over Macey, who is the twelfth sub just in case something goes pear-shaped. Southern Counties East at AFC Croydon, 5 May 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Macey My pre-match speech draws no favorable reactions, which is a bummer because I had been on a good streak. Nothing’s doing until the 20th when Croydon get a corner despite us owning them in possession and shots so far. After 30’ I have to Demand More and switch to Attacking in the hopes of getting something to happen. Within two minutes it works when a Kemar-Pearson-Duckett-Kemar combo pulls us ahead. In the 37th I have to take Pearson off due to a knee injury. Dammit, I really want him to get his AMR up to Natural! After the half it takes 15 minutes for us to get in gear again and Al-Ziod gets his first career goal, a blast from 21 yards out. At 65’ I take off Carroll and his yellow, my midfielders so Nixon and McAdam can get more playing time, and O’Donnell so Rae can get his Match Fitness up. With this I drop Kemar down to Shadow Striker. The rest get swapped out at 70’. Despite switching to Defensive at 80’ we give up another late goal and mostly it’s Legg’s fault as it came right to him with very little velocity. Therefore the squad get the Don’t Get Complacent speech and they surprisingly don’t ignore me. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 assist, 3 key passes, 3 chances created) And the butcher’s bill on Pearson is…drumroll…Bruised Knee, Out 1 to 2 days. Oh praise Cthulhu! The Week Between Macey’s mentoring of McNulty comes to an end. His Personality went from Balanced to Resolute and his Determination went from 12 to 17. McNulty was “delighted at the results of his link-up” and so am I. Obligatory offer report. McLeish, £525, no, x2. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-24-2024, 07:52 PM	#64
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	I’m really hoping we snap out of our “funk” and dominate from whistle to whistle. We now are drawing only 800 fans. Fudge... Southern Counties East vs. Sheppey, 12 May 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Cullen, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick Things seem to be working. I Demand More after 10 minutes of nothing and two minutes later Carroll gets a boot on the ball from a corner kick and we’re up one. Ten minutes later a Maguire cross goes errant but so did one of Sheppey’s defenders and Duckett sinks the penalty. And 5 minutes latter Duckett gets an assist off a Benny goal. Second half was tame with just me subbing out players in a strategic fashion. Literally that was all the happened; there were no highlights whatsoever. Good to see us come out of our funk. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created) Sheppey had two strikers go off with serious injuries, one at 17 minutes and his replacement at 78 minutes. Out of curiosity I looked at their player cards. The second one has a pulled groin and will be out for six weeks. Ouch! The Days Between Before the match I get the weekly (or bi-weekly?) Player Development email and the moment I’ve been waiting for is finally here, the suggestion of my AssMan for Macey to tutor Kirkpatrick. I’d love to see Macey’s Driven personality transfer to Kemar to say good-bye to his Balanced personality. Also, to get his Determination from 12 to 19 would be swell. Thankfully, the initial meeting went well. Fifteen minutes before the match begins Kevin Parker is removed from the injured list. I make him my 12th sub and might bring him in for 15 minutes if things are going right. Southern Counties East vs. Canterbury, 15 May 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Cullen, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Rae, Parker Oh my god, this is so what the doctor ordered. A quick start with Martin crossing to Kemar for an easy goal just before 4’. Thirty-five minutes later Taylor gets an assist when he sends an early cross to Kemar who is free and clear, out-juking the GK. Just over two minutes later in stoppage time Clark gets an assist and Kemar gets a hat-trick. The second half passes quietly with strategic substitutions, including Parker getting his 15 minutes of fame. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-24-2024, 07:57 PM	#65
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between The scouting report for East Thurrock comes in and we have a better team. We should win this match. Other pre-match emails flow in. Only 4,000 fans are expected and there goes my dream of a nice payday. But on the bright side, we are 5-4 odds to win. Their manager is acting all calm in the pre-match presser. This is my least favorite part of Football Manager. Some questions are just dumb and there’s never any good response so I tend to use “No comment” a lot. Bath win the Southern League Cup so I guess things are a little less bitter losing to the eventual champ. Oh well, what could have been. Though I’ve run out of money for scouting packages my scouts occasionally request meetings to go over players they somehow have found. The players are generally above our reach or are just bad, i.e. someone with a single digit Natural Fitness, really low Determination, and/or bad Personality. This kid gets a rating of 82 according to my chief scout and I learned over the previous month that really good players who are playing Championship or Premier League level with PL potential are around 94 to 96. I think he might be worth a stab come June. If I sign him I’ll get his DMC up to Natural because he’d make a great Anchor Man, something I like to use in my Defensive formation. (He’s from Gravesend, about 20 miles down the Thames from London, so he’s kind of local but he plays way out in Bristol on the “west coast” of England, across the River Severn from Wales. That should help?) Woohoo! Forty-three hundred spectators! Come on big money! No whammies, no whammies, no whammies! FA Vase Final vs. East Thurrock (at Wembley), 19 May 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick Nothing is going our way: missed chances, dispossession, and then a Barlow injury at 35’. Finally in 44’ Smith finds his old self again and steals the ball, sends it up to O’Donnell who spots a streaking Macey and he gets us on the board. We enter the second half with orders to Attack but the kiddos ain’t attacking. I shout for more creativity and get a corner shortly thereafter. It leads to a goal that went from Duckett’s foot to Spearing’s head to O’Donnell’s head to Spearing’s foot and down the chute. I dial us back some. Spearing picks up a yellow but I keep him in as things are going quite well. At 80’ I go full defensive in hopes of sealing the victory. I also take off Donaldson for McAdam and make him a Ball Winning Midfielder with a Defend role. Hallelujah! There were some tense moments in the final 10 minutes including a free kick that almost went in but we did it! Our first cup trophy! POM: Ben O’Donnell (1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created) Barlow’s injury is moderately bad; twisted ankle, out 3 to 5 weeks. He’ll only miss one game because that’ll all there is. I’ll give his start to Nixon. We made around £12,500 from the match but we are still running a deficit for the month. Bummer. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-24-2024, 08:06 PM	#66
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Week Between A Dynamics update! Chick Legg is now an Influential Player. He’s on par with Chris Day (our Vice Captain, for now) and Ben O’Donnell. Eddie Macey, our Captain, is still a Highly Influential Player but not a Team Leader, the highest tier on the Dynamics pyramid. Come the new season I’m pretty sure Day will be gone, especially if we get that Shane Pilcher kid, so I’ll probably make Chick Legg Vice Captain as I think O’Donnell might get pilfered. Alright, it’s the last game of the year. Can we sweep the league? In the pre-match press conference I said we’d win. What? Me worry?! Southern Counties East at Lordswood, 26 May 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Kirkpatrick, Rae Princesprick almost draws first blood as they out-Controlled us in the third minute. It’s been a while but the Duckett-Pearson combo for a score rears its lovely head(er) and we take Control after 11’. The D-P Combo strikes again 18 minutes later and the boys are having fun out there. Smith even gets in on the action sending in a squeaker from 17 yards out. Five minutes after the restart I begin making subs as I want everyone to get a chance to play today, even Webb. I start with Macey (6.5) and Maguire (so Clark can get some before Parker comes in). I move O’Donnell up to ST and put Taylor in at AMC. At 55’ it’s DL and the MCs. At 60’ it’s the ST and DCs. At 65’ it’s the Wingers and Goalie. Then at 75’ it’s Clark off and Parker on. The good thing about all these starts-and-stops is that Knightsknob never get any momentum going. Just on 81’ a free kick on the left side makes its way to the right side where Jones sends in a cross aimed for Kemar’s noggin. I don’t know if he plays pool but he sure knows how to get English on a football using his head. I’ve never seen a Beckham bend off a header! POM: Daniel Duckett (2 assists, 4 key passes, 4 chances created) In the post-match email dump I get notice that the manager of Wolverhampton was in the stands watching O’Donnell. I knew the big teams would come. Though calling the Wolves a “big team” is a bit of a misnomer in this Alternate Universe FM2018 as they finished 21st in the Championship, 4 points above regulation. Gulp. The Days Between Our players certainly dominated the league. I really didn’t expect Macey to score more than O’Donnell but that path was set even before I adopted the Spade formation; in the 4-4-2 Standard, Macey was the Advanced Forward so he was being fed the ball more. If Benny is still with us come the next season I’m going to change that up. I’m also quite relieved to see Chicken Legg win the most clean sheets battle. After sending the lads off for the summer the board request a meeting. They want to discuss club improvements, youth level more specifically. Turns they want to improve our youth system to qualify as a Level 1 setup. I couldn’t be happier. Season Review The final Board Confidence comes in. I’m still Untouchable but now I’m at 88%. Not too shabby. As far as player development, I was really bummed that Pearson could not get to Natural at AMR. I want to institute a 3-2-3-2 formation but I don’t want to do that until Pearson is done with learning AMR then I can use him and Duckett as Mezzalas. End of Season Awards The only surprise here is Day making the cut. I guess I waited too long for Spearing to get that spot. The players will not report back until 2 July, which equals 5 weeks of pre-season. I was hoping for more. Oh well, fewer matches to get my formation familiarization up to snuff. In Summary Well, that was an easy season. Hopefully my readers didn’t mind it too much. I knew having a Sugar Daddy was going to make things go smoothly but not that smoothly. It’s a valuable lesson learned about the database and game set-up. A lot of teams in the County League levels of the English pyramid don’t have any real players, just the Greys, because I didn’t select the “Add Players to Teams” button when starting the game. A quick examination of the league we’re going into shows that about half the teams are 100% real players and the other half are 75% real players. So things should be tougher. I’m going to continue on with this team, naturally, but if for some reason I have to restart things I’ll make adjustments so I don’t walk away with things from the start. I’m really intrigued by Kemar, Benny, The Jordanian Prince, Chicken Legg, and Connor Smith. If I’m being realistic, Kemar, Benny, and Daniel Duckett have no business being this far down and teams should come hunting for them. I originally thought that teams high up wouldn’t look this far down based on how the game engine is built but having that Wolves manager watch Benny I guess proved me wrong. If they do get sold Brixton will struggle. If it turns out that we start off the season easily then I’ll make it a point to change the formations frequently so we don’t get too good at any one. That should level the field. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

06-25-2024, 10:43 AM	#67
Chas in Cinti High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cincinnati, OH	I'm enjoying it and hope you'll continue! __________________ Email: [email protected]

06-28-2024, 08:01 PM	#68
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	June 2018 *Hot fun in the summertime* Financial Matters We lost £2.1 million over the season. Wow. This is not sustainable. Even though we have a Sugar Daddy I’m not sure what happens if we run out of money. Looking at the finer details it appears that £1.9 million of our losses are taxes, almost all of it “Corporation Tax”. I’m not sure if we’ll get a lot of that back having run a deficit for the year. Frankly, I don’t remember if that news will come in soon or on 30 June, which is technically the end of the season. Turns out that news comes in on 17 June. We avoid a tax hit but we don’t get a refund. I don’t understand English taxes, no surprise! Also on that day we get news on kit sponsors. We’re going to get a grand total of £16,000 for the season. A mere drop in the bucket... The chairman scales back our transfer budget to £149,000 and I’m sure we won’t get anywhere near that. He also injects £110,000 into the coffers, bringing us just an RCH above £2 million. (A few days later I realize that £149k is our scouting budget. Our transfer budget is still around £6 million.) The 27th of June sees us publishing our losses for the season. An interesting line item is that £275,000 is ground maintenance for our “new stadium.” I don’t know if that is for Brockwell Park (our current stadium and future U23 stadium) or Windmill Gardens (our future stadium), or both. New Players On 2 June I go to make an offer for that kid out on the “West Coast,” Shane Pilcher. For some reason I can’t make an offer. I poke around for a while (cuz FM18 is still kind of new to me) and then watch some YouTube videos. I didn’t find an explanation why I can’t make the offer but I do discover that I can instruct my Director of Football to do so. I don’t actually have a DoF but my AssMan handles things. I promise the kid Rotation because he will def be our third best DC and allow the AssMan to offer up to £10,000 and £450 per week, what my chief scout says would be his highest wage demand. (Full disclosure: My scouts are notoriously wrong about wage demands…) A couple of days later Bristol Manor Farm accept a bid of £0 (what the fuck?!) so my AssMan offers Pilcher £425 until 2020, with a one-year club option. I don’t like that he offered a 25% promotion wage rise and 5% yearly wage rise. I wish I knew why I couldn’t do the negotiating. New Staff Also on 2 June I address the matter of expiring staff contracts. My two crappy scouts are due to expire at the end of the month (JK, they aren’t that old) so I offer Mutual Terminations, which they accept for £1,000 apiece. They were emergency hires back a year or more ago; neither scout is really that good. One had 7 and 6 for Judging Player Ability and Judging Player Potential, while the other had 5 and 7. Yeesh! I make an offer to Paul Gordon is who is 15 and 15 in JPA and JPP. I also make an offer to Ron Bunce who is rated 14 and 13. Quite the improvement! Within a couple of days they both sign. As we advanced to the new season on 25 June I got notice that we are now in a U23 competition. I did not expect that. I had to hire a U23 Manager and find a pretty good one sitting on his thumbs. Offers Sure enough, O’Donnell is a target. The first offer comes in on Sunday, 10 June from Chesterfield, a mid-table League 2 team. They offer a whopping £3,000 and 40% of next sale. I do not accept. Four other teams are interested in him but the only ones that have a chance are Wolves and Queens Park Rangers. Four days later Chesterfield try again but they don’t even bother to up their price. This is one of the failings in Football Manager. Year after year this has not improved. (Your results may vary, I’ve yet to put much time in the 2020-2022 versions and have not even bothered to buy 2023, and 2024.) Carlisle, in League Two, offer £3,000 for O’Donnell on 17 June and of course I say no. Leyton Orient shows up on 15 June with the hats in their hands wonder if Duckett is available for £2,500. Oh! So close! In a twist, a Championship team, Barnsley, asked to take Duckett on trial for a week. Nope. He’s with us until 2020 and is Indispensable. You got your own youths! A bit jealous I suppose QPR asks a week later to take O’Donnell on trial. Final tally: O’Donnell, 5 teams, £8k highest offer Duckett, 3 teams, £3.1 highest offer. Pearson, 4 team, £4k highest offer. At one point O’Donnell got pissed that I denied him an opportunity to go to QPR. Their bid was pathetic so I couldn’t accept it. Hopefully he’ll calm down once we start the season and win some games. Hopefully. Team Rankings For the EPL fans in the house, here are the ranking in this AU: 1. Liverpool 2. Man City 3. Man United 4. Chelsea 5. Arsenal (you can’t say “Arsenal” without saying “Arse.” 6. Tottenham 7. Southampton 8. West Ham 9. Leicester 10. Newcastle We are 694th. :-D Sundry Items Shadi Al-Ziod comes to me right after Pilcher was signed asking for a new contract. He’s making £200/week and really deserves more but I don’t want to start a trend so I give him a “Don’t mess with the good dressing room atmosphere” speech. He agrees and backs off. He’s due for a 15% raise due to a new contract year coming up and a 15% raise due to our promotion. He also is under contract until 2019 plus Brixton have an option to extend. Once the season starts and our new season ticket numbers come in I’ll probably offer new contracts so long as we can afford it. (Later in the month I get an email showing early indications are that our new ticket prices average £6.) And Now The Bad(?) News I did not set up the database correctly. Under the Clubs section there is a subsection for “Regional Divisions” which is where you set up the progression up the pyramid, I guess. I left that blank. Brixton should have been moved up to the Isthmian League First Division South but instead when the game advanced to the 2018/2019 season we were moved to Southern League First Division West. I checked out my other computer where I ran the simulation for 3 game years to make sure the database wasn’t broke and to make sure the Brexit variable wouldn’t make the game unenjoyable. I never thought to check the league progressions. It doesn’t “break” the game but it does “break” the immersion of the game as we’ll be playing out west and not in the London area. I’m going to continue ahead and chalk it up to a learning experience. I have since fixed the database. On the flip side, all the cup competitions appear to be right. (On the Ironic News Front, the league we promoted into is home of Bristol Manor Farm, the original team of our new DC Shane Pilcher.) Let’s commence preparations for rumbling!!! The start of the season is right around the corner! The kiddos report on 2 July and we are going to do wonderful things. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

07-07-2024, 08:07 PM	#69
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	July 2018 *We have liftoff!* Financial Matters Huzzah! We made a profit in June! We made just over £81,000. The cash infusion by the Chairman plus the new kit sponsor money helped that immensely. In looking at the various tabs I noticed in the Expenditure tab that there is a line item for “Director Emoluments” and that figure last season was £14,057. I mean…he is the Chairman after all? On 8 July we get an email saying that we’ve only sold 129 season tickets so far and another 100 are expected. That is bad news. Last season we had 250 season ticket holders. Oh boy. Board Confidence Still Untouchable but down to only 80%. Dynamics As the lads come back our squad’s “Dressing Room Atmosphere” is still Very Good and “Managerial Support” is still Excellent. If memory serves me correctly, I should have a team meeting foisted upon me when the team returns but that doesn’t happen. I then try to hold a meeting (from the Dynamics tab) but am told there is no suitable reason. I hope I get an opportunity to talk about season expectations. (I wonder if this means the database is broken. I suppose we’ll find out.) Daniel Duckett moves up to the Influential Player level on 10 July. Excellent, cuz I have no idea how much longer I’ll have O’Donnell. A week later our starting left central defender Robert Carroll moves up to Influential Player, which is great cuz Day is going away. I wanted to shit-can him already but things really haven’t played out that way. The same day as the Carroll news he complains that there’s not enough depth in the defense. Message received! O7 Player Matters On the transfers front Tranmere (Conference National) ask if they can take U18 midfielder Bill Taylor on trial. Three minutes later Macclesfield (also Conference National) make a transfer offer of £0 for Bill. This is going to be the state of affairs until late September. And the final tally is... Player, Number of Offers, Highest Offer: Bill Taylor, One, £0 Steve Pearson, Four, £4,500 Daniel Duckett, One, £1,800 Robert Carroll, Three, £1,500 Ben O’Donnell, Thirteen, £17,250 Dean Rice, Two, £0 Declan McNulty, Four, £0 New Players On 1 July I get an email from my Press Officer that a bunch of teams released some players so naturally I send my scouts out to take a gander. On the new player front, I realized pretty quickly that I needed at least one more central midfielder for the U18 teams. In the process of looking for one I found two that I like, but one of them is good enough to start for us in the Seniors. I still have my dreams of Mezzalas and this guy excels in that department. Bonus: He’s got experience at all three Core positions. He signs with us on 24 July. This guy is kind of like Noah and he signs with us on 19 July and goes into the U18 team. I also need a second AML in the Seniors but I’m having problems finding one. Then this guy shows up in a scouting report: I can’t believe all those Naturals and Accomplished ratings! He’s like the ultimate sub! He trained at Liverpool in his youth and must have been one of those released kids I told my scouts to take a look at. He has no negative personality traits and is Level-Headed when handling the media. I’ll take a stab. Whomp, whomp. He chose Tranmere (Conference National) and their £925/week offer. I abandon my search for a back-up left winger as I remember that Nixon can play AML and Jones can play ML. I might still try to bring in another DC because of Carroll’s complaints. I really need to dump Day, which becomes more difficult on 31 July when he moves up to Highly Influential. Drat! I waited too long. Player Development On the first of every month I update all the player deets in my spreadsheet. One of the items I enter is a player’s current assessment on their playing level. Kemar Kirkpatrick is now rated as “very well-suited to Championship football.” Amazing. He’s gonna ask to leave real soon I bet. Another holy-moly with him is that his mentoring is going great; his Determination is up to 18 by 31 July. Not really development but every player saw his Value decline by half when the team came back, except Rory Collopy who went from £45 to £230. My theory is that on 1 July we entered a new contract year and years remaining is part of the maths of determining Player Value. Our starting right midfield, Terry Barlow, is now deemed a “Potential League One Talent.” Then I get notice that our right winger Steve Pearson is now a “Good League Two Talent”. From The Funny Names File You’d think Jack Daniels would give you higher Bravery and not be Balanced. Friendlies This is generally how I run my friendlies this far down the pyramid: start with three walk-overs, get a little tough competition for three matches, take on a heavy to make some money, then close out with a bunch of patsies. 7 July vs. Epsom: 7-0 429 spectators, not good. We see a brace from whiney-boy O’Donnell and Pilcher, the sole new player, gets a goal off a free kick. And newly promoted U18 kid Nightingale gets a goal off a corner. Good stuff. 10 July vs. Elmstead: 6-1 469 spectators. It takes a while for the starting XI to get into gear but then they pour it on. Nightingale even gets a goal. 13 July at Broadfields United: 2-0 This was a mix-matched starting squad as I was focused solely on Match Fitness. That explains why we were super sloppy, especially Rae, and didn’t accomplish much. 16 July vs. Croydon: 4-0 450 spectators. Three penalty shots in the first half; we get our two but Webb denies them. 19 July at London APSA: 7-0 I started the eleven I’ll start the season with. Took ‘em 15 minutes to get on the board but a flood of 7 goals in 30 minutes was my reward for patience. Kemar got his trio in a nine-minute span. I kept them in after 45 and my hubris cost me Duckie with a bruised knee for three days. 22 July at Fisher: 8-0 Mostly non-starters get the start. Fisher don’t show signs of life until after the half but by then it’s too late and we get the final five goals after we disabuse them of notions of challenging us. 25 July vs. Nuneaton: 7-0 They are in Conference North so they should be a pretty tough challenge. They could not withstand an Eddie trio and new-arrival Noah Harding’s two assists and 8.6 rating. 28 July vs. West Ham U23: 4-0 Yes! A sellout! Seven-thousand fans watch Benny score 1:13’ in and the ensuing cakewalk. I’m surprised they didn’t put up more of a fight. Best news? We made £53,000!!! 31 July at AC London: 5-0 Despite the scores we weren’t that impressive with Rae being particularly bad with a 6.3 rating. Two of our goals came after the 3 minutes of extra time had already passed. In Summary A pretty good month. We made a bit of dosh, £12,568 to be exact, thanks to that West Ham sellout. (Half the crowd came in from East London.) We found some good talent in the midfield with each already having the makings of a Core player. We’ve won all our matches and only Rae is stinking up the joint. There are many callers for our players and luckily O’Donnell is the only who is unhappy for not being able to flee. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

07-28-2024, 06:49 PM	#70
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	August 2018 *And I guess that's why they call it the blues* Spoiler alert: This update will be sad. Excellent! Another good training report. Having great fitness coaches sees us having good performances on the Physical Abilities side. Financial Matters More excellent news! We made a profit of £22,734 last month. Our season tickets sales helped contribute but the visit by West Ham’s U23 really made the difference. Despite the puny profit, having that Sugar Daddy allows us to offer £105k for a squad bonus if we win the league. For cup competitions we are allowed up to a crazy amount of £525k but I selected the Low end of £225k. Quite the nice bonus! Board Confidence No change seeing as we are still in the pre-season. Dynamics It’s good to have more Influential Players. Going to need them when O’Donnell flies the coop. Player Matters I’m gonna take a moment here to examine the differences between our start-of-the-season Starting XI and how things changed from last year. The first difference you’ll notice is the switching of the preferred formation. Then you’ll notice that changes are strictly on defense. Pretty neat that one of the changes came from a kid working his way into the lineup. The other two are imports. At GK, Legg was just sitting out there ripe for the plucking so I could not resist. Primarily I snagged him because in Training Camp next season he should be old enough to tutor Webb, or, preferably a wunderkind who comes in on Youth Intake Day. Despite being our Vice Captain, I moved on from Day as our starting right DC half way through the season as he just wasn’t all that good. He was kind of a desperation purchase I suppose. Al-Ziod was a minor upgrade at DL but at this point I view him as a potential large profit yet to be realized. Our midfielders remain static as do our attackers though I eventually moved O’Donnell to AMC. If I were a betting man (I’m not) I’d wager next year we won’t have Kirkpatrick, Pearson, and Duckett. I can see Paul Taylor, Andy Robinson, and Ashley Hibbert moving into those starting spots. Hibbert will have to work on his AML (Accomplished right now) unless we get a Youth at the end February who blows me away and keeps Hibbert on the right. Cup Draws It’s time to kick off the cup season and we have the Southern League Cup up first. Drumroll, please… We travel to Newmarket, two levels below us on the English football pyramid. Wish we got a harder team and at home; I need those fans in the stadium. Friendlies Before we can get to that match and the league fixtures, we still have two friendlies to wrap up. 3 August at Kensington: 7-1 Macey and Taylor take turns scoring and assisting but it’s Taylor who gets the hat trick. Pearson, Rae, and Duckett also get in on the act. 6 August vs. Rusthall: 7-1 Two goals in 32 seconds tends to lead to good things, not counting Macey pulling his groin and he’ll be out 6 to 11 days. Drat. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

07-28-2024, 07:01 PM	#71
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	Regular Season And now the real games begin. I feel confident of winning the league but not keeping O’Donnell (obviously) and Kirkpatrick. Southern First Division West at Bishop’s Cleeve, 11 August 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Day, Jefcoate, Harding, Cullen, Hodgson, Nixon, Hibbert, Taylor, McAdam My worries of O’Donnell phoning it in are relaxed in the 9th minute. As they are with Kemar one minute into extra time in the first half. We do get a little sloppy in the second stanza but that’s alright when 13 of your 19 shots are on target. POM: Steve Pearson (1 assist, 6 key passes, 1 chance created) The Days Between It’s FA Cup draw time! We get to host Glossop North End who are in a league at the same level of the pyramid as us. None of the players in their senior squad are Greys so they should present somewhat of a challenge. We beat Salisbury last year 4-1 in the Third Round of the FA Vase. Let’s hope we can do the same or better. Southern First Division West at Salisbury, 14 August 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Pilcher, Jefcoate, Harding, McAdam, Hodgson, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick, Thompson Macey is healthy so he gets the start and also starts the scoring 1:10 into the match. Smith of all people gets a brace in under two minutes, the second being a beautiful header in traffic from a Duckett free kick. That height of his is a real difference maker. In the second half Benny scores, showing again that his desire to leave doesn’t affect his play; high Professionalism that one. POM: Connor Smith (2 goals, 2 key passes) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

07-28-2024, 07:08 PM	#72
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Another draw! This time for the FA Trophy. We travel to Liverpool. Don’t worry, we are taking on AFC Liverpool, the minnows of the Mersey. In order to avoid further headaches about young, promising players wanting to leave, I am now offering contracts to the kids who turn 17 and are worth keeping. Case in point, Connor Smith now makes £425 but I didn’t get an extra year out of him. It’s more realistic this way. So many offers have come in for Benny that I’ve given up keeping track of them. The good thing is that after each offer the following team ups the ante by £5,000 while still maintaining the 40% of the next sale and £5 million buy-back clauses. Now onto our first cup match. Southern League Cup First Round at Newmarket, 18 August 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Nightingale, Day, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Jones, Donaldson, Macey, Taylor, Harding It takes almost 30 minutes but Duckett finally gets us on the board with his first goal of the season. A few minutes later Kemar gets his second of the season, both have been headers. Repeat that sentence but with “third” instead…for realz! What I’m saying is that it was a convincing win, as expected. POM: Steve Pearson (1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created) The Week Between Two more cup draws come our way. We’ll host two matches: Beaconsfield Town in the Southern League Cup and Guernsey in the FA Vase. Mo’ money, mo’ money! (Guernsey is a pretty neat team. They play on one of the Channel Islands, English islands just off the French coast around the bend from the beaches of Normandy. I’d like to get there one day.) As I expected, offering that new contract to Connor Smith has opened the gates for others wanting in on the good stuff. Spearing is one of them. I made him our starting right central defender back in January and he has been solid ever since. I promise I’ll offer him a contract, figuring he’ll be cheaper now. Speaking of expected…21 August 2018 will go down as a very sad day. Ben O’Donnell a wunderkind who cut his teeth in Brixton is heading for the south coast of England. He has signed with Brighton & Hove Albion. I’m sad to see him go but this is what he wanted. In return we get £45,000 and 40% of any sell-on fee. Once we get to the Premier League I will activate his £5 million buy-back fee. I do not know if that will be available if Brighton sell him on though. Bugger. (He’s making £775/week and was immediately dumped into their U23s. Le sigh.) Al-Ziod wants a new deal too. I’m thinking that because he didn’t come from Brixton’s Youth Academy he might ask for more money so I’m going to hold off until the end of the season. (His contract runs out at the end of the season but it has a one-year option.) I promise him a contract at the end of the season and he goes away happy. He’s already League Two quality so I hope someone comes swooping in, if I’m being honest with you, Ricki. Oh yeah! Big crowd expected today! Almost 2,300 fans! FA Cup Second Preliminary Round vs. Glossop, 25 August 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Harding, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae, McAdam A strange thing happened on the way to the Forum. I had my first tunnel interview. They wanted to know why Daniel Duckett got the Captain’s armband. I didn’t have an option to say, “I need Eddie as a left wing sub and Day is also a sub...so..." My faith in Duckie is rewarded as at 6’ his cross to Pearson’s head bounces off the underside of the crossbar and into goal. Four minutes later we get a penalty shot and Duckie converts. In the 24th Pearon’s free kick from 19 yards out goes to the upper right where maybe only Bigfoot could have stopped it. Kemar wasn’t impressed so one-ups him with a placed shot from 19 yards out on a great breakaway. And it’s not even the half! The rest of the match is Duckie and Pearson schooling Glossop and by 54’ we’re up 7-0 so I do a full squad swap less Legg. Wow. Just wow. POM: Daniel Duckett (3 goals, 2 assists, 2 key passes, 2 chances created) In financial news, that big home crowd alone brought in around £25,000 in gate receipts and concessions. We are running a good profit, mostly due to the sale of Benny. Woe is me. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

07-28-2024, 07:14 PM	#73
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Okay, that was a slaughter. Brixton is just too good for this level even with O’Donnell’s departure. I think to level the field I’m going to change course and bring in two new tactics so at least we won’t be so Fluid. That should make us not such a threat. I’ll wait until the start of September; still trying to get Pearson Natural at AMR. Another week, another draw. For the FA Cup First Qualifying Round we get to host Stocksbridge or Waltham Abbey, both are theoretically equal to us. Well, this is good news: 805 fans attended our U23s match against Barnet’s U23s on a Monday night. We netted £6,000 for that. We might actually make a profit this season! So more good news rolls in just before our match against Evesham. Eddie Macey is now a Team Leader. Excellent. Looks like I’ll be making him a regular starter again. Now that Ben O’Donnell is gone I’m going for heavy rotation again as some of the non-starters are down in the low 80s in Match Fitness. Also I hope to make the game a bit more of a challenge. I also don’t suit up the max number of subs. Southern First Division West at Evesham, 29 August 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Hodgson, Nixon, Taylor, Kirkpatrick In the 7th minute it appears like this might be another easy game. Hearing about the 19-yard special in the previous match, Donaldson matches that effort. Rae’s header off a Cullen cross in the 16th adds insult to injury. Rae gets a brace 16 minutes later. But just before 45’ Eveshame draws blood on a counter-attack! Cullen restores our three-goal lead right at 49’ and Macey makes it 5-1 exactly 10 minutes later. After some midfield swapping Rae picks up an injury in the 69th and I have to bring in Kemar. Things get exciting in the final 10 when Evesham strike again off a slow build-up. Don’t know why the defense turned off there. A few minutes later Hodgson gets his first Brixton goal and victory is sealed. POM: Teddy Cullen (1 goal, 2 assists, 5 key passes, 4 chances created) The news on Rae is almost bad. Damaged foot from being tackled, out 11 days to 2 weeks. Yikes. The Days Between Something is wrong with my save. I keep getting £4,500 offers for Pearson so I always so no and select the option that reads, “Reject all offers of equal or lower value” but teams keep coming in with the same offer. (This is not happening with other players.) I manually change his asking price to £100,000 and then I get successive offers of £8.5k, £9k, then £9.5k. You’re getting closer, chaps, just at a glacial pace. Then things get real weird a few hours later. Offers of £12.25k, £13k, £13.75k. By 1900 hours Reading is offering £21,000. The transfer window is closing. Will someone offer £100k before midnight? Turns out the answer is no. In Summary So much sad. Good bye, Benny. I hope you make millions so you can build that Spaceship. Spaceship! Spaceship! At least we had a good month on the pitch. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-07-2024, 07:35 PM	#74
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	September 2018 *Everything's cool* Mixed training news. I can’t believe Duckett had a poor showing, he’s been developing so nicely. Financial Matters Huzzah! We made £21,388 in August! Now I have to realize that sale of Ben O’Donnell was the reason. Dangit. Board Confidence Still “Untouchable” but down to 77% mostly because of O’Donnell’s departure. Really? You realize that was an inevitability, right? Dynamics Everything’s cool on this front. Player Matters A first for me happened. I got an email about a player completing an intensive language course. Al-Ziod is now rated Good at speaking English. New Tactics So as I mentioned earlier, I’m switching up our formations to make it so we don’t dominate so easily. The first new formation is the Club. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-07-2024, 07:41 PM	#75
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	Now let’s see what we can do with this new formation against Didcot. Southern First Division West vs. Didcot, 1 September 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Donaldson, Taylor, Pearson, Duckett It takes just over 15 minutes but our new formation “worked.” We didn’t Control our way up the field, we had three players hoof it forward which lead to a Macey and Kemar breakaway, the first getting the assist, the second getting the goal. Another change I made was making Harding our Corner and Free Kick taker. He proves I made the right choice after he sends in a kick to the box where Nixon passes it to Kemar and it’s two-nil. Two minutes later we are gifted a soft penalty and Kemar converts. And two minutes later another breakaway sees Kemar returning the favor for Macey. This is too easy. At 60’ I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap™ and switch back to the Spade in hopes of getting Pearson up to Natural in AMR. (Is there an echo in here?) Duckett to Taylor, Pearson to Duckett, all in a day’s work. In a rare moment, I get the post-game speech right. I tell them they did great but not to let it get to their heads. 13 of the 21 players who played “Seemed motivated” or “Seemed to gain focus”. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created) The Days Between Another player turns 17 and immediately gets a contract offer. This time it’s our first-choice sub at goalie, Robert Webb. He was only asking for £220. Southern First Division West vs. Cinderford, 5 September 2018 Formation: Club Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Donaldson, Taylor, Pearson, Duckett An early Carroll card worries me and is followed soon after with one for Shady. At 11’ my worries skyrocket as Barlow is injured and has to come off; it looks like it’s an upper body injury. Five minutes later Smith gets an assist feeding Macey an easy layup. Ten minutes later it’s a future trend: Macey feeds Kemar for a slam dunk. Then a reverse to make it 3-0. After the restart Kemar gets another placed shot and after the swap out and move to the Spade, Pearson gets on the scoreboard courtesy of Duckett. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created) Oh boy, we might have to go back to the Spade. Barlow’s gonna be out for 3 to 5 weeks with “Fractured Ribs”. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-07-2024, 07:45 PM	#76
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between On the “Players Requesting New Contracts Though They’re Signed to 2020 Front” Maguire’s agent harassed me right after the game, saying he needs a new contract. Maguire doesn’t turn 17 until the penultimate day of the season but in this case I think he deserves the new contract as he’s only making £110/week. OH YEAH! We have 2,290 fans in the stadium. Another tunnel interview, I wonder what dumb question they’ll ask today? They wanted to know why I am fielding a whole new starting eleven. I explain that they all deserve to play. No idea how this will be accepted by the players and if I’ll even be able to tell. FA Cup First Qualifying Round vs. Stocksbridge, 8 September 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Pearson, Cullen, Duckett, Taylor Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Hodgson, Nixon, Jones, Macey, Pilcher Oh jesus. Just before 6’ Duckett has to come out. It seems to put a damper on the mood as it takes until after 22’ to finally show signs of life and this Donaldson chap really shows how to take single-touch, long-range shots, this one a 17-yarder from inside the box. That was all the happened in the first half, which introduces me to a rare emotion: Worry. Our opponent comes out on fire but are a bit off target. At 65’ I have to swap out Jefcoate, Day, and Taylor who are underperforming. It does nothing for us and in the final minute Stocksbridge get a breakaway but Webb is able to swaddle the shot. At least the lads know they underperformed, especially Jefcoate with his 6.3. Luckily they all get Fired Up by my speech. POM: David Donaldson (1 goal, 2 key passes) Oh man, I’m gonna get FMed. Duckett is out 2 to 3 weeks for pulled ankle ligaments. Ugh. On the flip side, we made almost £29,000 for the match. The Days Between For the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round we get to travel to Ascot. They are a league below us so I feel confident. This time I’ll field the Starting XI, can’t risk getting bounced out of the FA Cup! For the FA Trophy we get Frickley, if we get past AFC Liverpool. FA Trophy Second Round at AFC Liverpool, 12 September 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, Smith, Pearson, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Hodgson, Taylor, Jones, Rae, McAdam After 42 minutes of golden opportunities and opponent golden cards we finally strike gold with a Macey cross to Kemar's head. We are really missing Barlow and Duckett. A stern yet Calm talking-to during the break gets ‘em Fired Up. However, nothing happens in the first 20 minutes so I do an outfield swap and demand they put on a show which sends everyone into Deep Thoughts (by Jack Handey) and Rae gets Stressed. In the 75th we finally get a sequence of action. Cullen poorly tries a free kick and the rebounding eventually finds Hodgson alone in the box to the right and he amazingly gets it past the keeper. I immediately make a COVID-level lockdown and jigger everything to the most defensive I possibly can. POM: Andy Hodgson (1 goal) Well that is a rarity! A sub getting the POM award. Relish that, young man! __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-07-2024, 07:51 PM	#77
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Appleton and Cullen both turn 17 but Cullen is the only one worth signing to a new contract. He is now making £230/week. FA Vase Second Round vs. Guernsey, 15 September 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Smith, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Day, Nightingale, Jones, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, McAdam, Taylor, Rae, Pearson I think one of the cool things about Football Manager is that you can actually see the players’ roles shine through in the match engine. Case in point is our first two goals. Harding as a Mezzala has drifted wide to receive a pass, he spots Macey and gets the assist on the goal. Two minutes later Maguire as a Wingback is about halfway into Guernsey’s territory when he receives a pass from Macey. He dribbles in a bit and spots a charging Kemar. His cross is inch-perfect and Kemar’s right foot rockets the ball home. Did I mention we’re going to get FMed? Smith goes down just before 59’ with a potential foot injury. Naturally, I do Ye Olde Outfield Swap™. That pays off with a Rae goal. Shortly thereafter our opponent’s midfielder gets his second yellow and it’s easy street from there out. POM: Mark Nixon (1 goal, 5 key passes, 1 chance created) Fuck. Another ankle ligaments incident. Connor Smith will be out 3 to 4 weeks. Another bit of interesting news came in. Everton are sniffing around Robert Carroll. Though Everton are in the Championship, last season they were in the EPL. Methinks Carroll is a Premier League talent? The Days Between We have another draw, this time FA Vase Third Round. We’ll travel to Trafford who are in a league comparable to ours. In other words, should be a cakewalk. There’s a gap in our schedule on 28 September so I offer a friendly at Brockwell Gardens to the Fulham U23s and they accept. We should make some money off the match. Another week, another youngster turning 17. This time it’s our Professional Angolan, Angelino Ferreira. With a Determination of 15 and a Professional personality I thought of maybe keeping him around long-term so he could be the leader of the U23s and be a habitual mentor. I offer him a low-wage contract that could keep him in South London until 2021, at least. Southern First Division West at Bitton, 18 September 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Donaldson, Macey, Taylor Subs: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Nixon, Cullen, Hodgson, Thompson, Jones, Rae, Kirkpatrick An early goal helps things along but it’s over 30 minutes before we strike second blood. On the kickoff we get complacent and they score immediately. And then they go and commit a penalty on Taylor after the restart! Just like that, Noah Harding gets his first Brixton goal. In the second I bring on some players who are getting low on Match Fitness: Cullen (BBM), Thompson (SS), Hodgson (AML) and Rae (Poacher). It’s only a matter of a few minutes when Hodgson sends a corner kick right to McAdam near the penalty spot, spelling the demise of Bitton. POM: Simon McAdam (1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-07-2024, 07:55 PM	#78
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Even before winning a POM award, Billericay offered me £1,000 for Simon McAdam. They come asking again and again I say, “No.” FA Cup Second Qualifying Round at Ascot, 22 September 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, Donaldson, Jones, Cullen, Hodgson, Rae, Taylor Another slow start, Pearson scores in the 20th after intercepting a pass from Ascot’s left central defender in the 6-yard box. That opens the floodgates as Macey, Kemar and Kemar quickly strike true. It’s been a while since a DC scored off a corner so it’s nice to see Carroll get one, though it was with his foot, not his head. After Kemar’s hat trick just after 58’ I make major swaps to get the other gents up to scratch. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals) The Week Between More draws! Good bit of luck, we get to host two games! We get to host Gosport in the Southern League Cup, supposing we get past Beaconsfield, and Harrogate in the FA Cup. Harrogate are in the Conference National North so they pose a problem. Hopefully that also means a bigger crowd. Billericay continue their pursuit of McAdam but they have yet to up their offer so I deny them. On 26 September I get an email that the United Kingdom left the European Union and rules changes will be announced in the coming weeks. While setting up the database I ran 3 multi-year simulations to see what effects Brexit would have on this save. The rules *shouldn’t* change at all. I guess we’ll find out soon. It’s time for that friendly against Fulham’s U23s. I’m hoping to get a lot of people and make some money. It ended in a 2-2 tie but many starters, most notably Maguire, Nixon, and Kemar, performed poorly. We attracted over 6,100 fans and made over £46,000. Hopefully morale doesn’t take a hit. The match was on a Friday so they already have Saturday off but I also give them Sunday as I don’t want any jadedness creeping in. In Summary I tried to institute new formations to make the games more of a challenge but the easy victories still came. That is, until the injuries to three starters changed things. We persevered though there were some close calls. We remain in all the cups. Everything's cool. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:25 PM	#79
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	October 2018 *The right stuff* Simon, Simon, Simon…I had so much hope for you. Get it together, man! Financial Matters We made over £23,000 last month, bringing our season total to a smidge over £89,000. Such a relief! I was very worried we’d be in the red all season, again. On the 1st our U23s hosted QPR’s U23s. We lost, big whoop. Over 5,000 fans showed up and we almost made £32,000. That is mindboggling! The large U23 crowds are keeping us afloat. Board Confidence Still “Untouchable” and still at 77%. I wonder what it would be if we hadn’t sold off O’Donnell. Dynamics No changes, which is good. I don’t want Chris Day to move up to Team Leader as he won’t be with us next season. I’m just a little bit worried about the ding to Dynamics that will take. I should really start thinking about his replacement as Vice Captain. Player Matters One thing I’ve not been good at this year so far is getting the U18s trained up properly in their new positions. I’ve been too focused on making sure everyone is Match Fit. I have too many kids in that squad. Now I’m going to prioritize players who actually have a future in the Seniors squad. New Tactics As part of our switch away from the Spade formation I’ve also added the Diamond. Spade, Club, Diamond. What would a Heart formation look like? Four strikers, one advanced midfielder? Anyhoo…I like the 4-4-2 Diamond because we get to have two strikers, and I have two good ones, pull a DMC as I like to use the Regista role. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:30 PM	#80
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	Now off to the matches! Southern First Division West vs. Beaconsfield, 3 October 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Barlow, Donaldson, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Macey, Taylor We jump out early, before 3 minutes, with a Maguire cross to Duckett. And it take less than another 3 minutes for a Harding pass up the middle to Kemar. It takes 7 whole freakin’ minutes for Duckett to cross to Harding’s head for our third. Well, then the goals just kept coming, including a hat trick for Kemar and a hat trick of assists for Duckey. (Is that a thing?) POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals) Finally! Pearson is a Natural at AMR now. Take that and add that Barlow is back and Smith will be back by our next match and I’m going to finally abandon the Spade for the most part. Another Championship team, Barnsley, comes sniffing around Carroll now. It’ll be interesting what kind of offer we get and if it comes before the January transfer window. The Days Between WHOA! It looks like Kemar Kirkpatrick is going to declare for England. He’s been called up by the England Under 19s for three matches in mid-October. I was wondering if Jamaica would call him up first. He’s barely 16 and already getting the call-up. Pretty darned cool. I now fear that he’ll become a transfer target in January. Oh, and Simon McAdam has been called up to join the Northern Ireland Under 19s for the same period. Pretty darned cool. The scouting report on Harrogate indicates we should have a problem as they have many highly-rated player. But almost all of them are very tired from a recent match or have match sharpness of 61% or lower. Should I embrace hubris and say we are going to win? Alright, lads! Let’s keep our FA Cup dreams alive! FA Cup Third Qualifying Round vs. Harrogate, 6 October 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Nightingale, Day, Smith, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Donaldson, Taylor, Rae, Hodgson One of their midfielders gets two yellows in the first 12 minutes. Despite the advantage it takes us 15 minutes to score; Spearing cleans things up after a corner kick. Or so I thought. He was offsides. I have to chide the crew at half time about their lackadaisical attitude. Despite their getting Fired Up they don’t really shows signs of life but we’re saved by a penalty opportunity after one of their central defenders pulls Macey down from behind. Nixon sends it right to the goalie’s gut and it goes right back to Nixon who doesn’t botch his second chance. Nixon gets a second goal spot on 59’ so I switch us to the Diamond counter-attack and make some swaps. Five players have earned yellows so they come off. We get an insurance goal with 7 minutes left in the match from Rae, via Cullen. And then another insurance goal with a penalty shot, courtesy of an overzealous ref. The offender got a red card for his efforts. POM: Mark Nixon (2 goals, 1 key pass) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:35 PM	#81
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between It’s time to see who we play in the next round of the FA Cup. …rolls the dice… We’ll play either Coggeshall (same level as us) or Lowestoft (a level above us); either way we have to travel to them. Remember how I said I’d be dropping the Spade formation? Well, with two starters out for international matches, I’m going to revert. We’re going up against the absolute worst team in the with zero points after 6 matches. What? Me worry?! Southern League Cup Second Round at Winchester, 9 October 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Nixon, Smith, Pearson, Barlow, Duckett, Macey Subs: Legg, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Thompson, Donaldson, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Taylor, Rae In the 6th Duckett almost scores from a free kick but the goalie’s last-second desperation lunge keeps things clean. It takes another 61 minutes for us to get a chance and Taylor sends it right to the keeper’s knees. In the last minute of regulation we get a lucky score when Cullen sends a free kick to Nightingale’s noggin; he did a wonderful job of rising above everyone and nodding it in. POM: Ricky Spearing (1 key pass, 1 chance created) Whew! What a fucking embarrassing performance. Looks like I jinxed myself. Macey, Duckett, and Barlow were all 6.4 or under. Looks like a fine for Eddie and an official warning for Barlow are due. Luckily both accept their punishments. The Days Between International reports come in. Kemar had a great first match, scoring a goal. Not so hot second match. McAdam had a not so hot first match but had a very good second match, scoring a goal. FA Vase Third Round at Trafford, 13 October 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Nixon, Smith, Pearson, Barlow, Duckett, Taylor Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Harding, Thompson, Jones, Cullen, Macey, Rae, Donaldson This match is all about hazards of the command Work Ball Into Box with so many passes in the 18-yard box instead of shooting. Luckily it’s Pearson’s head and feet that make the difference, though he missed two absolute sitters. Many of our “on target” shots were right to the goalie, plus we had several hit the crossbars; 11 out of 29 shots were Clear Cut Chances. POM: Steve Pearson (3 goals) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:39 PM	#82
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Days Between Billericay force my hand on McAdam by offering a contract, straight up. I don’t know how much they are offering him but if he signs they’ll have to pay Brixton £170 for each league appearance he makes for the first 40 matches. I do not like this. I offer him a professional contract. Oh, and yes, another draw for a cup. In the FA Vase Fourth Round we host Droylsden, who are in a league similar to ours. On the international front, McAdam had a less-than-stellar performance against Germany but Kemar had a spectacular performance against the Faroe Islands, an 8.1 with a goal. I can’t believe Al-Ziod is almost in automatic suspension territory for having too many yellow already this season; he gets to ride the bench. I’ve started formally training Jones as AML now so he gets a start there. FA Trophy Third Round vs. Frickley, 16 October 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Hodgson, Barlow, Jones, Macey Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Cullen, Pearson, Donaldson, Duckett, Rae, Nixon We have a slow start again and a tremendous Chick reflex save in the 7th keeps us afloat. Our first opportunity comes 15 minutes later but first Macey kicks it right at the goalie then bounces the rebound off the crossbar. After some more sloppy crossing and crossbar action I have to get the team to go Attacking after the break. It takes 60 minutes but finally a fast break allows Hodgson to cross to Macey who finally terminates his rectal-cranial inversion and scores from six yards out. At 65’ I do almost a full swap as I switch to Counterattack in the Diamond formation. It only takes 3 minutes to work. Macey gets a breakaway but his shot was blocked but the rebound went to Pearson who had an open, undefended net in front of him. These late-game heroics are doing wonders for my blood pressure. Pearson gets a brace with 15 minutes to play to seal the victory. Mostly. We give one up late, which kind of proves my point (that I’ve only made to myself) that the Counter is a horrible tactic. And Germans love David Hasselhoff. POM: Noah Harding (1 assist, 5 key passes, 1 chance created) The Days Between For the next round of the FA Trophy we will host either Matlock (Matlock! /Grampa Simpson) or Harrogate. That’d be crazy if we got Harrogate again. It’d be great for our bottom line methinks. Later that day it’s confirmed, we get Harrogate. Ahahaha David Donaldson is the next item up for bid, for a new contract. He didn’t complain or turn 17, this was because of the weekly (monthly?) transfer and contracts advice summary email. I know what you’re thinking: Don’t we already have enough Strikers? A) You can never have enough strikers because you never know when one of your favs will go into a slump and B) they usually sell well on the secondary marker. I think I’m going to grab this guy. There are many things to like about him: height, quickness, set pieces, and dribbling. By the new year Macey will have finished mentoring Kemar so he can work on Marcus’ Determination and Balanced personality. He’ll also be insurance if Kemar leaves. I don’t believe the scouts’ assessment that he’s only 1.5 stars. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:43 PM	#83
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round at Lowestoft, 20 October 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Smith, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Jefcoate, Donaldson, McAdam, Thompson, Taylor, Rae, Jones Another game with a horribly slow start and several woodworks hits and unbelievably acrobatic saves by our opponent’s keeper. But finally after 35’ Kemar finds himself in a one-on-one and cracks the seal on this one. Just before the halftime whistle Carroll gets a rare by-the-foot goal and my idea of chastising the lot during the break changes. The ref left enough time for us to get in a quick counter and Kemar showed he’s not selfish when he and Macey are on a two-on-one. The second half by contrast starts quickly with a Harding free kick to the upper left corner from 30 yards out. Barlow robs a defender in Lowestoft’s box and passes to Macey for his brace. I then do my trademarked swap at 60’ but before the instructions can get processed, Macey gets his hat trick from some great passing after Harding’s corner goes astray. Fifteen minutes later our job becomes easier when a Tofter hacks down Thompson and gets a straight red card. POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created) The Days Between Our prize for beating Lowestoft is a trip up north to Nuneaton who play in the Conference National North. The FA Cup First Round sees the introduction of League One and League Two teams (3rd and 4th rungs of the football ladder in England) so we lucked out, all things considered. Nightingale picked up a knock very late in the last match plus my wingers are losing match fitness so I’m going to have a one-game return to the Spade. Southern First Division West vs. Taunton, 24 October 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Day, Jefcoate, Donaldson, Smith, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Rae Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Macey, Nixon Our scoring starts with a penalty shot after Jones is pushed to the ground trying to get on the end of a Hodgson cross. The push results in a straight red. Hodgson, denied the assist, scores the goal. Later Parker overlaps Hodgson, receives his pass and sends in a cross from way over in right field. A charging Rae introduces his forehead to the ball at the six-yard line and just like that we’re up two. Rae’s noggin makes a second appearance in the second half and shortly afterward his chest gets a goal, but for Taunton. Whomp, whomp. We also allow a legit Taunton goal after 90’ when Spearing sends a sloppy back-pass that Carroll wasn’t expecting and though Webb stonewalls the opposing poacher, the rebound goes right back to the striker who one-shots it in. POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 3 key passes, 3 chances created) I notice an interesting situation: Brixton isn’t technically top of the league table. Totton has played two more matches than us and have yet to lose, with 2 draws. Our next match is against the third-place team, Horndean, funny name, who have only one loss and one draw. In theory, we could fall to third place ourselves if we lose that match. Even weirder, St. Ives has somehow managed to only play 6 matches so far (they’re in 5th) and two teams further down have played 11 matches already. The problem with all the lower-level cups, I suppose. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-14-2024, 05:49 PM	#84
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Week Between Another Brexit email comes in on the 26th. No changes are expected but the formal details have yet to be confirmed. We aren’t the only ones interested in Thirlwell. Goole, in the Northern Premier League, one level above us, have made him an offer. I don’t know the details so I’m not sure what we’re up against. I’m banking that the full time contract plus full time coaches and outstanding facilities will give us the edge. Southern First Division West vs. Horndean, 27 October 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Nightingale, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Smith, Day, Parker, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Donaldson, Taylor, Rae, Jones Oh my. 1:26 in and Harding sends in a screamer of a free kick from 30 yards out. Things are clicking just fine with Macey goals in the 14th, 20th and 32nd minutes. The middle one was assisted by Harding with a tremendous no-look back-heel pass. Wondeful stuff! Best signing, ever! We continue to pile things on and all my pseudo-fretting about not being top of the table are washed away. (Totton finally lost.) POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals) Frohawk?! What kind of name is Frohawk?! A funny one, thats what kind of name it is. The Days Between Marcus Thirlwell signs with us on the morning of 28 October. Good thing we have a U23 match the following day as his Match Sharpness is all the way down to 47%. In Dynamics news, James Jefcoate is now an Influential Player, which further cements my thoughts about off-loading The Jordanian Prince. Now let’s see how the new kid on the block handles being a sub for the seniors. His debut with the U23s was a 6.5 in 71 minutes of action. Southern First Division West vs. Norwich United, 31 October 2018 Formation: Club Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, Day, Jefcoate, Smith, Jones, Duckett, Taylor, Thirlwell, Rae, Jones I’ve been on a streak of unmotivating speeches of late but I nail this one and it pays off just at 9’ when Harding gets another long-range goal but this time from open play. Second goal comes 90 seconds later when Pilcher gathers a rebound off the goalie, then the post, during the melee post-corner, courtesy of Harding. We march into the locker room after a Macey tight-angled header and the only thing bugging me is Kemar being complacent. I give him a pep-talk and he gets motivated. In the second half nothing happens in the first 20 minutes so I swap out the lads and move to the Diamond. Thirlwell misses an opportunity but Duckey doesn’t. Marcus manages only a 6.5. I can’t expect him to be jelling already, right? POM: Noah Harding (1 goal, 1 key pass) Just before the end of the month Nixon comes to me asking for a new contract. I promise I’ll offer him one “soon” meaning after the first of the month. In Summary Holy smokes! Nine matches in 31 days! That’s a lot of football, my friends. Luckily we won them all but there were some close calls. We definitely got a lot of help from the referees too. We added a potential steal in Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell who has yet to show I made the right choice but, much like that ant, I’ve got high hopes. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-21-2024, 08:41 PM	#85
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	November 2018 *‘Cause this is thriller* It’s never a good sign when your Captain and Vice Captain both have bad training reports in the same month. Financial Matters Oh praise Cthulhu! We made almost £71,000 last month, bringing our season total to £156k. I can work with this! Board Confidence Well isn’t that something… Still untouchable but now only 76% rating. I wonder what caused the drop? The “Matches” sub-section is only at 98%. I doubt I’m being judge on our U18s, who are not the greatest in their group. Dynamics As I mentioned in the last update, James Jefcoate is now an influential player. The Days Between I offer Nixon that new contract he wanted. He’s gonna be costly but if he gets that Stamina up to a respectful level then he’s going to be well worth it. He’s gonna make £1,300 a week! That’s about $89k a year for us ‘Mericans. The next victim is Gosport, who are bottom of the league. However, the last time we took on the worst team in the league we won on a last second header by Florence Nightingale so maybe I shouldn’t be all hubris-y. Southern League Cup Third Round vs. Gosport, 3 November 2018 Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Thompson, McAdam, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Thirlwell, Smith When a match starts and you get to continue watching the pitch instead of the in-between-action info you know you’re in for something. I get to watch the entirety of the 46 seconds it takes for us to score. Macey caps off the action with a short, sharp strike from 8 yards out. The restart action continues and aside from about 30 seconds between the first goal and restart I’ve seen all the action. Yes, first goal. Because on the restart we quickly earn back the ball and Macey gets his brace at 1:43. So the day goes. His hat trick comes at 3:53. SMDH. To get us into double-digits, Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell gets his first club goal on a penalty shot. Let’s talk ratings real quick. Macey got a 10.0, which I think is the highest we’ve had in a competitive match. Gosports right back got a 3.7 and that has to be the lowest I’ve ever seen EVER. POM: Eddie Macey (5 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created) __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com

08-21-2024, 08:49 PM	#86
BrixtonFC Mascot Join Date: Sep 2023	The Week Between For the fourth round of the Southern League Cup we get to host Fleet Town, same level as us and in a league we should be in had I set up the database right. D’oh! One of those things that I’ve always wondered about Football Manager, and really football in general, is when do players get paid. I’ve said to myself, “I’ll look into that sometime” but I’ve never looked into it. But then I found the answer by accident: Around noon on Sunday. I was looking at the Finance screen the day after the Gosport match and hit Continue and the game stayed on the screen when it returned from processing and I saw a large drop. We pay just over £12k in player wages and just under £10k in staff wages per week. Nixon signs his new contract on Monday, 6 November. I have some trepidation about it as that’s a lot of money. He’s eventually gonna be worthy but for now I’m worried about our bottom line. It’s the 10% yearly raise and 25% raise for winning the league clauses. More international call-ups for Kemar and McAdam with the former in two matches and the latter in one. Somehow we are being treated as the favored ones for this FA Cup match, with 4-6 odds. FA Cup First Round at Nuneaton, 10 November 2018 Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Harding, Pearson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Thompson, Thirlwell, Rae, Macey Nuneaton gets the first action that leads to their right midfielder collapsing in on our box but a brilliant slide tackle by Carroll ends that notion. A minute later Kemar’s sloppy cross leads to a lot more sloppy crosses but when the goalie punches the ball away it lands right in front of Harding 25 yards out and he sends in a rocket. Brixton up 1-0. Aside from a botched Kemar attempt, that was all the action in the first half. During the intermission I give the most stirring speech ever given. Histories will recall and analyze for generations. “We have nothing to fear but complacency itself.” Everyone gains focus or gets motivated. Except Kemar, who’s not having the best of games. I give him a personal word on the way out, “You weren’t that bad but I believe you can still improve. I have faith in you.” He looked happy. But it’s the old Duckett to Pearson connection that gives us the comfort zone at 60’. At 68’ I go to the Diamond and swap out some tired lads. At 75’ the rest of the walking dead come off. My tactical genius pays off within two minutes when Jefcoate launches a cross from way out yonder in the minor key and it finds Thriller’s head and victory is ours. POM: Noah Harding (1 goal, 1 key pass) Kevin Parker was injured in the 84th minute with a gashed head, which will keep him out for 8 to 14 days. That’s one hell of a gash! The Days Between Sunday, 11 November, Veteran’s Day, marks the end of Macey mentoring Kirkpatrick. The email said Kemar was a little disappointed, which makes absolutely no sense to me as his Determination climbed all the way up to 19 and his Personality is now Driven, just like Eddie. FM18 is drunk again! Immediately after that was the draw for the FA Cup, we get to host either Doncaster (League 1) or Yeovil (League 2). Just before the Harrogate match I get notice that Al-Ziod has been called up for international duty for a match on 20 November. Look at little Brixton with the worldly squad! Can we keep ourselves alive for all the cups? Based on how we pasted them previously I’m confident we can. And I believe we can do this with Kemar on the bench. He at 92% Conditioning and has an international match in two day and I want him wowing the crowds so the name of Brixton rings in everyone’s ears for two countries. (Bugger! Not even 900 tickets sold.) FA Trophy Fourth Round vs. Harrogate, 13 November 2018 Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, McAdam, Smith, Pearson, Taylor, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Al-Ziod, Thompson, Harding, Hodgson, Cullen, Jones, Thirlwell, Kirkpatrick It takes 16 minutes for the first action shot and it ends in a familiar way: Duckett to Pearson to goal. Our second goal comes from an odd combo: Pilcher to Duckett. He was way over on the touchline half-way into Harrogate territory and crossed it all the way to the far post. This from a guy with a 3 Crossing! Duckett is possessed today! Goal three comes from another Duckett/Pearson combo. Pilcher gets a second assist in the second. Duckett, Macey…I’m sensing a theme here. Pilcher does screw up though and his poor first touch leads to a Harrogate goal. There is no excuse for the second goal. All of a sudden we can’t win headers. But newly-arrived, newly-subbed Thirlwell restores balance to the Force and gives us a four-goal lead again. (NB: After the match I noticed that the first goal was credited as an own goal. I don’t believe it. Looked like a rocket by Pearson. FM18 is drunk again!) POM: Paul Taylor (1 goal, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 2 chances created) Yep, those two goals were evidently Chick’s fault; he rocked a 6.3 rating. We won so I don’t think an official warning is in order, that and I chastised him in the locker room and he responded appropriately. We made £5,300 from the match. __________________ For the full effect: https://brixtonfc.com