Oh Look. It's Another Izulde Try At FM (13)

[Izulde]

I've got on my UNLV lounge pants, T-shirt, and Real Betis hoodie. Really need a good pair of slippers to complete the ensemble and feel comfortable.

But I suppose that's a microcosm of my typical FM playing experience - Get 1/2 to 2/3rds of the way to really getting with it, but there's always that one final element missing for it to really click long-term.

Doesn't stop me from trying, though.

So this time around I've taken the Staines Swans, who I've probably taken before. This time I'm not going to muck around with staff at first go-round. I'll just take my $41,000, one year contract, and see how we go with the people already in place staff-wise.

I spend a fair bit of time pouring over formations to see what's most comfortable looking to me, and eventually decide (for now) on the 4-4-2 Diamond.

Hmm. Music would be good, too. Pandora fired up. And yeah, I'm going to go all stream of consciousness/flip-flopping probably. The fun of fending off panic attacks, which has been a near-nightly occurrence ever since August. It's been better the past few days, thanks to vaping and playing Fire Emblem, but it's not quite enough, so from fire to Football it is.

Anyway, I'm feeling lazy, so I'll let my Assistant pick the team for now.

Training I'm not even going to touch.

Heh. My assman is also one of my players.

After reviewing the Team Report, it's clear we desperately need help at AMC and DMC and depth everywhere but DC and GK.

And of course, there's no transfer money. We have $15,000 left in the wage budget though, so let's go shopping.

Unfortunately there's zero DMCs in our area, but fortunately there's a couple AMCs - a 23 year old and a youth player. I immediately put in a bid on the 23 year old and scout the kid.

Oh, and we're suppose to avoid relegation. Oops. Probably not the time to implement a new system whole-hog.

vs Reserves
The senior squad dominates the first half and goes in 2-0 at the break, thanks to goals by Tony Garrod, who looks like our best player at the moment, and Mario Quiassaca, who was a start I made to overrule my assman.

The second half is more of the same with Quiassaca tacking on a second goal, and Reece Hall scoring a fluke longshot goal from the ML position.

***

After looking at Josh Mulvaney some more, we're not interested, and so we'll be cancelling the deal that would have him here. He'll be pissed, but I don't care.

vs Maidstone
We look tired and sloppy in the first half. Tony Garrod does pick up another goal, but Reece Hall is sent off on a double yellow towards the end of the first half and it's tied 1-1. A brief glimmer of hope when Garrod takes a gorgeous pass from Mario Quiassaca and blasts it in for the early 2-1 lead, but of course, our defense takes a nap and we lose 3-2. Terrible play from our fullbacks in this one, and Jack Turner is rightfully frustrated with his own mediocre performance at the back.

We grab our first signing, 16 year old ML Wayne Young, who my scout thinks could become a League 2 worthy player when he develops. Hot damn. He'll get his shot to start, certainly, despite how young he is.

I notice Mario Quiassaca is out of contract, as is Jerel Ifil, and those are two of our key players from what I've seen thus far. Unfortunately, Ifil wants $63,000 a year, and Quiassaca doesn't want a contract with us. Great.

Pausing here, I think.

[Izulde]

Insomnia has crossed over into the free-floating realm of overtiredness and detachment so we'll keep this train rolling until I fall asleep, since it's daylight and such. My own fault for crashing yesterday afternoon, I suppose.

So yeah. Things are pretty sketchy around here what with those two guys no-gos to stick around, and there's really no fat to trim on the wage budget.

Therefore, we'll just see how it goes.

Merstham
Our offense plays completely flat this game and the defense breaks down twice in the second half to send us out 0-2 losers. ...HTF is this team going to avoid relegation?! I tell the whole squad off for that shit result and everyone's amped up except Mario Quiassaca. Well, fuck you too, dude. Ain't gettin' no contract from me, now.

Jerel Ifil got hurt in the last match and is out 5-6 weeks. Karma for trying to bend us over in contract negotiations, I say.

I nearly fall out of my chair when I see 29,002 season ticket sales for our 2,500 seat stadium. Then I look again and see it's Betis. Damn.

Canvey Island
Bunch of B-listers with some of my original planned first eleven out there. We go down 0-1 on a fluke goal and keep missing clear shots which is frustrating everyone until Tony Garrod breaks through with a goal for 1-1... only to have them answer right back seconds before the first half whistle blows. FML. And of course they score again right after the second half starts. And of course the ref gives us a tease of a PK that Garrod nails home and of course we lose 2-3.

Heh. A coach yaps at me that we should upgrade the youth facilities. We're trying to just stay afloat this year, Chauncey. Quit your barking.

Brentford
Or however you spell it. League 1 side. 1-4 final. 'Nuff said.

Odaine Keane-Smith is out 2 weeks with injury. He was a candidate to replace our injured wannabe $63,000 man. Not now!

Lewis Farrell, our starting DR, and Sam Page, a starting DC are named captain and vice-captain for the season respectively.

We sign 16 year old striker prospect Perry Law on a no-contract basis for depth and 16 year old goalie Iain Armstrong on a youth contract. Mr. Armstrong has League 2 potential allegedly.

Lewis Farrell feels pressured at being named captain, which is too bad, because at 21, even if he feels too young, he's the best choice and everyone is happy he got the band.

I'm supposed to introduce Law and Armstrong at a press conference. I probably shouldn't do it right now, but fuck it.

First question: "Aren't you consider about Perry Law's injury history?"

SCOUT, Y U NO TELL ME DIS?!

Feh. Whatever.

[Izulde]

We somehow manage to sell 75 season tickets despite our trainwreck of a friendlies performance.

Louis-Rae Beadle, an AML who I don't think has played yet, gets hurt and is out 1-3 months.

Match 1 - Bromley
We'll probably get our tails kicked, but I do like that before the match, AFC Hornchurch's manager, Jimmy McFarlane, says we've got a good shot at staying up.

Starting Lineup
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Sam Page
DC Matt Drage
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor (Ass. Man.)
ML Wayne Young (Youth transfer)
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Perry Law (Youth transfer - No contract)

30' - No highlights thus far. Wayne Young gets a knock, though, so it's Reece Hall on for him. Young's looked nervous in any case.

Oh wait, I have it set to Key Highlights. No wonder.

38' - Scott Taylor's old ass gets blown past, but our defense recovers in time to prevent the goal, and Taylor hustles back to clear it out. That's it until halftime.

I tell Perry Law to calm down at half time because he's looking very nervous, and then he ends up looking confused. 16 year old boys don't know shit.

48' - Yeah, Jordaan Brown is playing like crap today, but we don't have anyone to slot in for him. Will Bor does take Scott Taylor's place, though.

50' - Nice little pass from Law to Garrod with Wheeler running to the subsequent feed to try and get the goal, but sadly, it's right at the keeper.

55' - A buildup by us is all soap, but they get a long, beautiful pass nearly all the way down the field to set up a perfect shot.... .... and it narrowly misses. Whew.

64' - One of their guys gets yellow-carded, but our free kick turns out for naught. They again try a counter, but the defense holds.

86' - They've had a couple corners miss, and Mario the Ass comes on for Law to finish out our subs. Ferguson is looking wiped out there, though, and we need more depth.

89' - A piss-poor job of clearing by us and Buchanan for their side stays with the ball and slots in it. FML. 0-1

And that's how it ends.

Jordaan Brown put up a 5.4 stinker today and Reece Hall's 5.9 was awful as well. Ironically our two DCs earned a 7.0.

I'm getting a little annoyed with how FM 2013 keeps fast-forwarding the calendar even when there's new messages I want to look at, though I'm sure there's a setting to fix that. Such as the staff telling me to train attack set pieces when I can't because by the time the game stops again, it's Match Day.

Heh, Bromley's in takeover talks. That boosted their value maybe to beat us.

Match 2 - Dorchester
Starting Lineup
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Odaine Kemar-Smith
DC Alfie Arthur
DR Qaseem Sotonwa
DMC Scott Taylor (Ass. Man.)
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Will Bor
ST Louis-Rae Beadle (Yes, we have 2 of them)
ST Mario Quiassaca

Not good for continuity, I know, and Wheeler's only at 87%, but what can you do?

17' - You can tell these guys aren't used to playing together. Nothing going on offense, and poor shooting form by Dorchester is keeping us alive. That'll change I'm sure.

25' - Ugh. Two beautiful setups for Quiassaca by Taylor and Bor, and Mario can't get his foot forward to hit in either one. That may have been our best shot.

Stop me if you've heard this before. 0-0 at the half, though we did get a couple whatever long-range cracks towards the end. Will Bor is playing like ass out there, as is Odaine Kemar-Smith, but we don't have any reserves to replace either one.

65' - A couple of half-ass close shots early in the second half, but Rae-Beadle *just* misses one here, and it's kicked aside to give us a corner. Taylor and Bor are ordered to switch spots, and [b]Wayne Young[b] is brought on to replace Hall. Ugh, Kemar-Smith *just* misses the goal on the header by a fraction of an inch.

70' - Turner punches the ball out although he's playing dangerously there. Young grabs it, runs down the entire left side of the field and crosses to Wheeler, who knocks it in for our first league lead!!!! 1-0

78' - Cyril Ocansey comes on for Quiassaca.

92' - Yellow for Kemar-Smith.

And we get the 3 points!

Nathan Beckett played great at DC today - 7.2 and 7.1s for Alfie Arthur and Qaseem Sotonwa at DC and DR respectively. But of course the man of the hour is the exhausted David Wheeler with our first league goal of the year and a 7.9, though one of Dorchester's defenders got Man of the Match.

Bromley got bought by David Sheepshanks.

Basingstoke
Starting Lineup
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Sam Page
DC Matt Drage
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor (Ass. Man.)
ML Wayne Young (Youth transfer)
MR Adam Cashin-Murray
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Perry Law (Youth transfer - No contract)

This is a game we definitely need to win if we want to make sure we stay clear of the drop zone.

[b]10'[b] - A heart-stopping free kick by them misses.

14' - Garrod is having trouble getting anything going today.

32' - Shit. Long shot by Lake and it's now.. 0-1

37' - Bullshit penalty given to them and of course they convert 0-2

I chew them out at half.

68' - Law heads it forward into the penalty area and Garrod races in to send it home. 1-2 and Bor on for Ferguson.

85' - We get screwed out of an equalizing penalty kick. Quiassica in for Law.

91' - Quiassca sets it up for Cashin-Murray, but it's no dice. Tony Garrod gets hurt right before game's end.

Some loan information coming up next time.

[Izulde]

Our First Loan
ST Luis Cumbers - Welling - 3 month loan
If my staff is right, I should have done a full season loan on this kid. He's our best striker right now according to them, and it isn't even close. Very, very excited, though it feels weird to be loaning in somebody from our own league.

Couldn't have come at a better time because Tony Garrod is out 6-7 weeks with a twisted ankle.

Maidenhead
Lineup
GK Jack Turner
DL Max Worsfold
DC Odaine Kemar-Smith
DC Alfie Arthur
DR Qaseem Sotonwa
DMC Will Bor
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Louis-Rae Beadle
ST Mario Quiassaca

Our guys suck at staying in match shape apparently. I dont' think we've fielded the same lineup for two straight matches yet. Of course, some of these fellows are having to play winded due to lack of depth.

4' - We have a couple cracks off a corner, but nothing.

5' - Very stupid play by Turner coming out should have cost us a goal, but Maidenhead are fellow relegation candidates and it shows.

6' Quiassaca takes a pass from Wheeler and dribbles to the far post, then crosses it all the way to the other side where Hall is waiting to put in the goal! 1-0

19' - Our initial effort off a corner doesn't work, but Quiassaca catches the half-volley and calmly shoots it in! I'm sorry I talked smack about you, Mario. 2-0

31' - It's a yellow for Ferguson.

34' - Jesus. [b]Turner[/d] drops a ball and I think we're in for it, but Kemar-Smith just gets in to clear it out. Evidently Turner wants to risk losing his starting spot.

43' - Terrible giveaway by Sotonwa, but Bor gets it back and feeds it to Sotonwa, who redeems himself with a nice arcing pass that Quiassaca chases down and deposits for his second goal of the game!! 3-0

We better not lose this lead. That's all I can say. Sam Page goes in for a tired-looking Alfie Arthur, and Scott Taylor takes Ferguson's place.

47' - Damn. Beautiful assist by Sotonwa is disallowed because Clone #1 pushed a defender on the goal in.

65' - Cracking counter started by Kemar-Smith that not only prevented a goal but almost tacks another one on ends with Sotonwa narrowly missing. After a corner and some fiddling around, Quiassaca narrowly misses the hat trick when he can't pounce on a readily waiting rebound.

79' - Yellow for Hall.

80' - Second dropped ball for Turner this game. This time there's no respite and they're with a faint shimmer of hope. 1-3

89' - Second straight game with a late game injury. This time it's Bor and I decide to let the no-experience at DMC Beckett learn a few minutes there.

Hell of a game. Mario Quiassaca with the 9.0 and Man of the Match. 7.5 for Reece Hall and 7.1s for Alfie Arthur and Odaine Kemar-Smith. 7.0 for Qaseem Sotonwa, and it's our technical B squad that has our first two wins of the year. Food for thought.

Fuck Jack Turner and his 5.9, though. Might as well give the new goalie a shot. On the other hand, after I calmly tell him off, he gets motivated and inspired, so we'll chalk it up to a bad game.

I figured out how to pause the game so I could give instructions for our next pre-match training at the advice of my staff.

Qaseem Sotonwa is eligible for a professional contract and wants $5,500 with an increase to $7,000 once he hits 30 games with the club. ...Yeah, that's not gonna happen, great as he's been in the first two league matches.

...Because we loan in Robbie Rice for a season-long loan and Rice is capable of playing DR better than Sotonwa. Another season-long loan we pick up is Nathan Smart, who can play striker and anywhere along the right side of the field.

H&W
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Matt Drage
DC Alfie Arthur
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor (Ass. Man.)
ML Reece Hall
MR Nathan Smart (Season Loan)
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers (3 month loan)
ST Mario Quiassaca

Decided to go with a mix of alleged A and B because there's not only this game, but another league match a few days later.

5' - good thing I fired up Turner before the game because he makes a beautiful save after a Arthur misclear.

10' - Damn. Though that nice shot by Cumbers was going in.

17' - Yellow card for Smart. I'll let you do the CSI: Miami joke.

To put it bluntly, we're playing like shit at the half outside of Jack Turner, who has been making brilliant save after brilliant save. Alfie Arthur and Nathan Smart go out for Sam Page and David Wheeler respectively.

48' - We're taking stupid shot after stupid shot.

50' - Misfire by them in what should have been a goal.

52' - Sheesh. Two corners, one of which was damned close to getting us, but Ferguson wisely conceded the corner. We're getting slammed here.

63' - [b]Rae-Beadle in for Quiassaca, who's lolly-gagging out there for the fun of it.

91' - Third straight game with a late-game injury you say? Yep, and this time it's Wheeler, our most valuable player. And we're out of subs. Time to turtle up.

We escape with the draw and the point, though this is a game we should've won on paper. 7.5 for Man of the Match Matt Drage, 7.2 for Turner, 7.1 for Nathan Beckett.

After 5 games, we're 2-1-1 with 7 points and a +1 GD, good for 12th in the league. Drop zone is 2 points at the moment.

Board's fine with me, and I forgot to mention their aim is for me to Give youth a chance. Hopefully I've been doing that. Still need a DMC, though, for depth.

[Izulde]

Weston-super-mare
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Odaine Kemar-Smith
DC Alfie Arthur
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Andrew Cashin-Murray
ML Wayne Young
MR Nathan Smart
AMC Will Bor
ST Perry Law
ST Mario Quiassaca

We're expected to lose this one.

0' - Well that was close. Should've been a goal, but Brown shoots it out the sideline just in time.

9' - Penalty kick awarded thanks to Kemar-Smith's screwup. And of course it goes in. 0-1

25' - There's a shot for Young, but instead he dribbles right into the goalie. Yay.

26' - We should be down 0-3 right now, but fortunately they miss again.

30' - Completely made to look like idiots. 0-2

38' - Young passes it up to Law, who loses possession, but Quiassaca pounces on the loose ball and drills it in from 30 yards out to give us a chance. 1-2

44' - Oh look, another freaking injury with seconds to spare in a half. Fortunately, it's the cruddily performing Kemar-Smith, who gets replaced by Jerel Ifil, who's now recovered from his own injury.

It's Worsfold on for Brown at the half at DL. Smart needs a new person to replace him, but we have no one in our subs or in our lineup capable of doing it, as our other options were too tired to play this game.

51' - We're looking really fired up on defense since the break, fending off numerous shots and throwing ourselves in the path of the ball to intercept and prevent goals.

65' - But when you can't get anything going offensively, and keep getting slammed with shots, eventually one's going to go through. 1-3

71' - Now it's just piling on. Free kick into a leaping header, and it's 1-4

80' - We've quit, apparently. Turner just stands there, and will be benched next game. 1-5

Great game by Mario Quiassaca. Everyone else played like shit, and I tell them off about it, which greatly upset Quiassaca, even when I talked to him and told him I wasn't mad at him, and that he did great. Didn't work, though.

We loan in Marcus Moody from Farnsborough for 3 months, just to get another body on the MR side.

Welling
GK Iain Armstrong
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Qaseem Sotonwa
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor (AM)
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Louis-Rae Beadle
ST Mario Quiassaca

Another likely loss, TBH.

8' - Bad start for Armstrong as his hesitancy costs a goal. 0-1

10' - Completely outclassed. 0-2

22' - Yellow for Brown.

27' - Two narrow misses for Rae-Beadle.

30' - Armstrong looks like a dumb 16 year old kid out there. 0-3

31' - And another. 0-4

[b]67'[/b - Worsfold on for Hall.

Brown got hurt towards the end of the game, but we had no one to play DL, so he played on. This 5 substitutes thing has always been frustrating because we don't have much variety in our coverage.

I'm also thinking I need to rethink when I put guys in the lineup. I've been adopting a 90% minimum policy, but that's leading to constantly revolving lineups that's not helping our cohesion at all, I don't think.

Brown's out a month.

[BYU 14]

Ouch, that's a brutal 2 game stretch brother..

[Izulde]

Key match against Billericay next. We both have 7 points, and 4 points is drop candidate, so I talk a little smack at my staff's urging. We're also 19th right now, one spot above the drop.

vs Billericay (15th)
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Matt Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Mario Quiassaca

7' - A little bit better header and we'd have allowed a goal. Not a great start, guys. We need this one.

12' - There we go! Free kick from Turner to Quiassaca and bam! Half-volley for the lead! 1-0

14' - Wheeler to Cumbers, but the header's angled short.

17' - Terrible giveaway by Ferguson and some nice passing around sets them up for an easy goal. 1-1

42' - Billericay has been passing beautifully but can't get on target. Meanwhile we've been taking long shots, but not this time, as Wheeler heads it up to Ferguson, who answers for his prior giveaway with a nice short pass to Cumbers who actually dribbles closer before taking his shot, rifling it home. 2-1

It's Young in for Hall at the half.

46' - Taylor to Quiassaca to Cumbers... who somehow missed the goal and I thought sure it was in. Damn damn damn.

51' - Fuck. Turner, who has had an amazing game to this point, own goals. 2-2

61' - I singled him out as a great player in the prematch presser, but Ferrell has been playing like ass, so I pull him for Smart.

70' - Young loses the ball, but Beckett's right there to get it and make a lovely cross to Quiassaca who knocks it in for his second goal and the lead! 3-2

74' - Brilliant clear-out by Beckett, who has been amazing these last few minutes, and an equalizing goal is disallowed due to obvious offsides.

91' - Heart's in the mouth as they keep swarming, and a header comes up... but thankfully is off to the side.

Whew. 3 points we very, very much needed.

Key players
Mario Quiassaca - 8.8 (MoM)
Jack Turner - 7.9
Sam Page - 7.5
Luis Cumbers - 7.3

Jack Turner becomes our first player named to the Blue Square South XI Team of the Week.

We're also sitting 15th in the league following that win.

FA Cup - vs Sutton United
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Matt Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Mario Quiassaca

This is a winnable game against one of our conference foes, and we've a week before our next league match (albeit a short turnaround time), so I want to start building continuity and go with the same exact lineup as last game - a first for this year, I think.

7' - Ugh. Complete fluke pass by them somehow goes in. 0-1

14' - Yellow for Ferrell. Wheeler's gimped, too.

23' - And there's the great pass and the fucking giant leaping header by a guy who looks like he's 90 feet tall. UUUUUGGGGHHHH!! 0-2

26' - Fucking refs disallow a free kick goal because Cumbers allegedly pushed somebody. Screw that.

36' - A wasted opportunity for Sutton, my ass.

44' - Cumbers just misses a redeeming goal. Story of the game.

In which everyone stunk up the joint the first half. I tell them off, and Quiassca gets butthurt about it, so I bench him for Perry Law.

50' - Weird sequence where we keep going back back back before going forward, but our attack nets nothing.

54' - Young on for Hall.

72' - The fans start leaving, sick of Law and his wildly inaccurate long-range shots.

87' - In which there have been yellows for Wheeler and Young and after which there's been a crazy sequence of missed shot after missed shot, but finally Ferguson pokes through the crowd to get one home. Surely no more than consolation, though. 1-2

89 - You sure we're playing at home? Penalty award to Sutton and they of course there because Turner stands there like a fucking dumbass. 1-3

Great. I tell Ferguson individually he did a lot better that second half and he switches off. Quiassaca also Eeyores on me when I rip the team for their overall shoddy showing. Turner, Beckett, and Young are also pissed off at me for reaming the team a new one.

Shut up, whiny kids. Just shut the hell up.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Ouch, that's a brutal 2 game stretch brother..

Yeah I know. Seems like each version of FM gets more and more complex. Hopefully I can manage to stick around for another season at least, though.

[Izulde]

So like, I just messaged a bunch of girls on OKCupid, of which only one of them will respond, and I know I'll get a response there because it's somebody I know who's quite the cool chick. Neither one of us is interested in each other like that, though.

I'm not in the mood to work on the novel, and can't sleep, so it's off we go back into FM.

I'm warned again by the FA for bitching about the refs, which makes the board mad at me. Watch me not care.

What the hell? Jimmy McFarlane turns his back on me and says we're not cut out for this level. OH YEAH? YOU'RE ON BLAST!

The growing rivalry between us and AFC Hornchurch continues when I tell the journalist there's no way in hell McFarlane's team is going to stay up.

Salisbury (5th)
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Matt Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Mario Quiassaca

Not much of a shot of our winning this one most likely, but we'll do our damnedest.

5' - Barrage of shots and one gets through on a sneaky header that looked offsides to me. I hate this game. 0-1

13' - Disallowed goal because this time they get the offsides call right. Yay! We've yet to do anything offensively in the highlights.

40' - Our first offensive highlight when Cumbers heads it up for Quiassaca to chase down, but the shot's a misfire.

At the half, Law comes on for the injured Cumbers, and Beckett is replaced by Worsfold.

49' - Aaaand we leave a guy wide fucking open for the easy score. 0-2

59' - Blown easy shot by Law.

82' - And there go my very faint hopes for a draw. 0-3

85' - Hat trick for Ross Wilson. 0-4

The press conference crackhead thinks *I* signed Lewis Ferrell and I didn't.

Our next opponent has 34 year old Pele as a player on their squad. ...Yeah, we're screwed.

Hayes &W
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Matt Drage
DC Qaeem Sotonwa
DR Robbie Rice
DMC Will Bor
ML Reece Hall
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Nathan Smart
ST Mario Quiassaca

Yeah we're trying some different things today to see if that will shake things up.

Oh, but before we begin, the board is pleased with my leadership, especially how many young kids I'm giving opportunities to. Um, okay. Whatever you guys say.

14' - We get about 90 billion chances right in front of the frigging goal mouth but nobody is brave enough to take the damned shot.

19' - Home cooking to give Sotonwa a yellow.

34' - Drage puts the ball into row Z to keep us alive.

35' - And Sotonwa is sent off. Fuck you, ref.

Continuing our tradition, Bor is hurt right before the half. Taylor comes on to relieve him and Worsfold subs in for Hall.

47' - Wheeler does a great wheel and puts a nice ball forward for Quiassaca, who promptly half-asses the shot.

49' - Bull dives and Wheeler gets booked. Talk about bullshit.

53' - Cutting through our D like butter and 20 yards out, there's the gamewinner. 0-1

67' - Ferguson got hurt and I missed it somehow. Worsfold gets robbed of a goal by the damn post. We pull Ferguson's spot back from AMC to MC and insert Marcus Moody. Fuck it.

76' - Turner's stupid ass rushes out and there goes our draw hopes. 0-2

We actually didn't play all that badly, all things considered. But our goal differential is ghastly and if we had the 7 points that a drop team does now, we'd be in the relegation zone.

We're playing terribly, all things considered, and will be lucky to stay up. None of the guys I've gotten has been worth anything, and we still can't find a consistent, coherent lineup for anything in the world

[Izulde]

There's a really great looking 21 year old Congolese AMC who we spend all our money on, but he's being held up by work permit issues.

Eastleigh (3rd)
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

This is what my staff swears is the best lineup we can possibly put together, with the exception of DMC, where I prefer Scott Taylor's versatility off the bench, even though it isn't the best by the average ratings. We'll give it a go, though, and see what comes of it. Nice to see Garrod back at any rate.

8' - Young completely shanks a shot.

11' - Not sure how Eastleigh flubbed that one. Should've been a goal indeed.

16' - Cumbers is hurt, so it's Quiassaca on.

18' - Sloppy pass by Farrell leads to an interception by them and it's within a fraction of a centimeter away from going in. We've been lucky thus far.

28' - Hmm. Young didn't look offside to me, but he shanked it anyway. What is it with all my 16 year olds that can't shoot the damn ball?

b]30'[/b] - Boot from Turner to Garrod and so.damn.close. I really thought that was going in.

36' - Yellow for Quiassaca

46' - Yellow for Ferrell. :eyeroll:

Considering how massively favored the hosting Eastleigh is, fighting to a draw at the half is just fine by me. Jerel Ifil is winded, and playing like crap besides, so it's Drage on for him. Rest of the team is playing pretty well.

48' - Their defense has been doing a sensational job of throwing bodies in front of our shots.

51' - Brown's done, so it's Worsfold in.

65' - Sure wish they would take shots closer. Garrod's rebound could have netted us a lead if someone was there.

70' - Great defensive work to keep the sheet clean.

82' - GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLL!!!!!!!!!! Goal Goal Goal!!! reads the commentary! OMG. Worsfold makes a gorgeous pass for Garrod, who actually is inside and beats out the defense to kick it in!!!!! 1-0

86' - Fletcher to Quiassca, but Young isn't quite quick enough to drill in the easy rebound. Damn. Want that insurance goal.

OMG OMG BIGGEST UPSET EVER!!! TAKING DOWN THE #3 TEAM ON THE ROAD!!!

Ratings over 7
7.5 - Sam Page (Man of the Match), Tony Garrod
Everyone except Ifil netted a 6.8 or better.

Also, Jamie Day of Welling came to see how Luis Cumbers was doing. Too bad his loaned out player didn't see much field time.



Crappy quality on the video, I know, but I don't know how to make it better.

Anyway, we're now 14th in the table, and our next match is against... you guessed it, AFC Hornchurch and its smack-talking manager, Jimmy McFarlane.

The Congolese AMC's work permit application was turned down, but we're going to appeal that, aaand we get turned down. Damn it.

AFC Hornchurch
GK Jack Turner
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Nathan Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Max Worsfold
MR David Wheeler
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Mario Quiassaca

0' - "Let's get this relegation six-pointer underway." Nice. Even nicer? The Hornchurch player kicks it out to goal kick touch and makes no attempt to even try and aim at the goal.

5' - Ferrell takes out a player, gets it up to Wheeler who splits a pass between two defenders to Quiassaca, but nothing happens of it.

17' - A lot of back and forth around the pitch, but despite two corners, Hornchurch can't do anything.

22' - Woo! We get a PK awarded even though Hornchurch wigs out!!! For some reason, Ferrell takes the penalty even though I quickset it to Quiassaca after looking at the ratings. Doesn't matter, though, because he brings home the bacon! 1-0

32' - Thought we had the insurance on a header off a corner, but their keeper does great to snag it out of the air.

36' - ...Damn it. Long-range goal. We seem to be giving up a lot of those lately. 1-1

Ferguson and Bor are doing terrible, but I have no one who can replace the former, so it's Taylor on for Bor. Smart comes on for Wheeler, who's playing with a knock and looking a little winded.

51' - A lot of ping-pong right now.

72' - I'm going to be pissed if we walk out of here with nothing. 1-2

88' - God damn it! Shot after shot so close so close and the one I thought sure was going in but no, it had to rebound and whoever shot it couldn't get the fuck up to just poke the bastard ball in!

It's another Man of the Match for Sam Page with a 7.7 and Nathan Beckett netted a 7, but everyone else? Fucking horrendous.

We also lose David Wheeler for close to two weeks.

Still 16th, but that was a devastating loss, as our -12 goal differential means we have to get points, points, points to avoid the drop. Worse yet, everyone behind us has a game in hand.

[Izulde]

Basingstoke becomes the second BSS team to find new owners this season.

We sign 22 year old AMC/ST Jordan Johnson, who represents a massive upgrade over Troy Ferguson. How big? Ferguson is 0.5* at AMC - Johnson is 2* right now. This might be the one signing we need to get us over the hump.

We're heavy favorites against Sutton United, even though they beat us in our first match against them.

Sutton United
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Nathan Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Wayne Young
MR Nathan Smart
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

10' - Brown arcs the corner and Page nods it on to Garrod, who finishes it off with a header that beats out the defender, and just like that we've got a lead. 1-0

13' - Great sequence and goal disallowed after Garrod's declared offside. Boo.

17' - Ugh. Brown gets beat out and just like that, it's a tie game. Fucking typical. 1-1

Yellows for Ferrell and Bor before the half. Young has sucked the big one, so he's replaced by Worsfold at the half, and an exhausted Brown subs out for Beckett.

53' - Yellows for Smart and Johnson. This ref is a real assfarmer.

70' - Great pass from Bor to Smart, who runs in space but can't make the pass to set up the easy shot. Then they narrowly miss on the other end in a counter.

81' - Fantastic free kick strike by Ferrell and we've got the lead!!! Now hold it, you bastards!!! 2-1

85' - Narrow miss on a long shot by Sutton United.

89' - At first I get excited, thinking we have a PK, but no, it's Garrod with a yellow.

90' - FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK!!!! THEY SCORE ON A FUCKING CORNER! FUCK YOU, FM! 2-2

Such unbelievable bullshit. OMG I'm so fucking pissed right now.

7.9 for Man of the Match Tony Garrod and 7.3 for Lewis Ferrell. Ugh. Still, we got a point and yeah. Guess I should be nice in the full-time talk.

Wayne Young is butthurt when I point out he hasn't done the best for us so far. Get over it, kid.

The midfield version of Louis Rae-Beadle wants PT. That's cool. Take a hike, kid.

Truro
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Nathan Drage
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Max Worsfold
MR Marcus Moody
AMC Scott Taylor
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

1' - A mistimed tackle by Page gives them an easy shot on goal. Sigh. 0-1

5' - Getting ugly fast. 0-2

9' - Another fucking goal, but this one's disallowed at least.

Yeah, everyone is just terrible all half long. Mario Quiassaca on for Garrod at the half, Beckett in for Brown.

It's completely garbage in the second half, with no noteworthy highlights.

7.1 for Jack Turner, but yeah, awful all around.

Why the hell do journalists keep telling me this a weak lineup and I'm not playing key players? I've gotten that twice now in a row and I don't understand it.

WTF? My staff says to dump Matt Drage for poor play, but he has a 6.8 average rating. The same for Will Bor, whose 6.66 rating isn't awful by any means.

I don't get this game at all. I really don't.

[Izulde]

Chelmsford
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

Hopefully the media will shut up about the key players thing now, because that's our best lineup according to our staff.

3' - Are we surprised? No. 0-1

7' - Okay, so maybe you should have been back in sooner, Ifil. He leaps above everyone else on a corner to head in for an immediate answer. 1-1

26' - Johnson is everywhere after a botched corner to keep the play alive, but the solid crack by Wheeler goes for naught after no one can follow through the rebound. Turner stupidly comes way out almost to the damned sideline to punch the ball for a throw-in.

33' - Oh look. Turner comes out and gets blasted for his error. What a surprise. 1-2

We've been playing like crap and our assman wants to say we've been unlucky? HAHAHAHAHA. Taylor on for Bor, Smart on for Garrod.

78' - Smart plays a beautiful ball for Cumbers with no one in front of the kid and he shanks it.

83' - Lollygagging by Ifil leads to Chelmsford taking the ball away and 90 million corners and shots, which by some miracle all go fruitless. Rice in for an injured Ferrell.

92' - I swear this game has code to make players hurt right at the tail end of games. Cumbers goes off, and fuck it all because we're out of subs.

Jerel Ifil wins Player of the Game with an 8 rating. 7.6 for Page, 7.4 for Ferrell, and really, our backline played outstanding in the second half. Wayne Young continues to suck - 5.9.

Really, though, we just got unlucky on this one.

We have our first casualty as Welling fires its manager. Expected to contend for promotion, the Wings are sitting a mediocre 12th. I'm tempted to apply, but decide not to.

The board's opinion of me is downgraded to satisfied because of all the losing and losing big we've been doing.

We sign 21 year old Welsh midfielder Billy Taylor to a $2.1k contract. He'll provide depth at ML/MR, even though he's not ready to push the starting lineup yet.

Tonbridge
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Will Bor
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

4' - Cumbers cuts to Wheeler in space, but the shot's off target.

10' - Garrod sets up the perfect header for Cumbers, who once again blows a perfect opportunity.

40' - Finally!!! The god damned drought finally ends for Cumbers, who gets an absolutely sensational ball from Young and hits the goal on-target and on the freaking ground!!! 1-0

41' - Tonbridge has their own sitter screwed up, so nice to see we're not the only ones.

That was easily the best first half we've played in a long time. Page continues to be great, putting up a 7.4, and of course, Cumbers' goal gives him a 7.2 at the break. No subs for now. Let's just roll with this.

55' - 1-1 Also, Beckett in for Brown.

71' - A knock for Ferrell but he'll fight through. Taylor on for Bor, Smart on for Garrod.

76' - The top post somehow saves us from a losing goal. That would just have been the icing on everything.

86' - Stop me if you've heard this one before. Smart sets up the perfect shot for Cumbers, and Cumbers blows it.

Gorgeous game by Sam Page, Man of the Match, with an 8.5 rating, the highest I've seen from any of our players. Overall we played well, and a t least we got a point, but man... Cumbers is the most frustrating player ever.

Sam Page becomes just our second player to be named to the Team of the Week.

Apparently Farnborough fired their manager at some point, too, and I somehow missed it because they've got a new one, right before we meet them in the FA Trophy.

I'm close to a potentially huge transfer signing that should hopefully keep us up, but for now...

FA Trophy - Farnborough
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Tony Garrod

Although a league win is more important at this point, a cup win would really boost the morale of the team, so I'm putting out what is supposedly our top lineup.

28' - We've been facing heavy pressure all game and have been fending them off. An easy shot off a corner, but they miss it like Cumbers is playing for them.

40' - [b]Taylor[b] takes a knock.

44' - Whisker away from a goal by them there. We've had not much luck trying to get any offense going on our side.

Against my better judgement, Ferguson and Bor go in for Taylor and Johnson, who are tired.

50' - Well, Ferguson executes a nice move for Garrod, but Tony's shot is right at the keeper.

52' - Well, well, well! Bor intercepts a pass, and gives it to Garrod who feeds Wheeler and it's in for the super score!!! 1-0

70' - Knocks for Bor and Cumbers, but we'll keep playing on.

75' - And now is where Bor's deficiencies come into play, as he's dispossessed and the ensuing run and shoot just bangs off the top bar and out of play.

91' - Ferguson to Garrod to Cumbers... ...who dilly-dallys trying to find the perfect shot and does nothing to it. Needless to say, he won't be back when his loan ends soon.

"Staines are the winners, but in truth it was a poor match."

Poor match, my ass. Look at this.

7+ Ratings
Sam Page - 7.8 (MoM)
Tony Garrod - 7.5
David Wheeler - 7.3
Jordaan Brown - 7.2
Jerel Ifil - 7.1
Jack Turner -7.1
Lewis Ferrell - 7.1
Luis Cumbers - 7.1

We really kicked it up in the second half, and I couldn't be more thrilled to finally snap the losing streak.

Will Bor is out a week and a half.

We loan 24 year old striker Guiseppe Sole from Blue Square Premier side Woking until the end of the season. We tried to sign him outright earlier, but the board wasn't willing to meet his demands. Although not the big, big signing I alluded to earlier, he's instantaneously the top striker on our club, and will be a nice replacement for the disappointing Cumbers.

We also pick up defensive midfielder Jean-Sylvain Dossou from Niger. The 25 year old is an uptick over the terrible DMC situation we had with Scott Taylor and Bor. Our fans love the signing.

...Great. Eastleigh in the first round of the FA Trophy. We're at home, but still...

...And then comes the huge signing. 19 year old defensive midfielder Johnny Goddard who signs for a whopping $28,000 contract but he's so, so worth it by my scouts. Right now he's a leading star for our level, and he has League 2 potential. Let me put it like this:

Defensive Midfielder Rankings
Goddard - 4*
Dossou - 1.5*
Taylor - 1 to 1.5*
Bor - 4 silver stars, whatever that means

Farnborough
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Johnny Goddard
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Luis Cumbers
ST Guiseppe Sole

I'm playing a dangerous game, starting two new guys in a contest that may have a major effect on the relegation battle. Farnborough is currently in the drop, and we just beat them in the FA Trophy. They're eager to kick our butts, no doubt.

Oh, cool note: both the FA Trophy game and this match are at Farnborough

1' - Great job by Wheeler to keep a possession alive, and though it doesn't turn into anything because Cumbers is out of position, Goddard sends a stinging rocket that I'm shocked the goalie managed to hang on to. Way to announce yourself, kid.

2' - Wow, our defenders get caught out of position, which has been pretty rare the last few games, and somehow they miss the wide open shot.

3' - Love, love, love this sequence. Johnson heads it up to Sole, who has his shot blocked, but Young finds it and sends it up to Wheeler, who centers it for Cumbers, who knocks it in! Every single player on that move except for Wheeler is somebody I managed to find. Great feeling. 1-0

13' - Ferrell strikes at the goal from a ridiculously long way away and I'm wondering why, but then Johnson shows why by pouncing on the rebound and getting it in. Lovely! 2-0

23' - Ugly times. Young, who has improved his play greatly since getting left out for a few games and called out in the media, takes a knock, and Page, the lion in the heart of our defense, both get knocks. Both insist on playing on, though.

Great first half, but we've all seen what that's been like before with epic second half meltdowns. Beckett in for Page at the break.

50' - ZOMG. So close to going in and cutting our lead in half. Young is looking a little slow out there, so I'm going to give Billy Taylor his first action.

64' - I'm already starting to see the huge impact Goddard is having on our team. He's darting all over the field and has saved our bacon numerous times. There's a goal by them at this point, but it's clearly offsides and correctly called as such.

68' - Goddard to Wheeler to [b]Johnson[b]... ...who hangs on to the ball too long, and Wheeler's follow-up crack goes wide.

71' - Time to lock this down and go defensive.

73' - Impressive shot by Billy Taylor that nearly knocks over the goalkeeper, but it hits the crossbar anyway.

79' - Failure to clear out adequately = goal for them. Do.not.fuck.this.up. 1-2

81' - If I wasn't unemployed right now, I'd pick up my monitor and throw it against the wall. Fucking worthless punkass bitchwore piece of fucking cumslut piece of shit positioning!!!!! 2-2

92' - OH MY GOD ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME YOU GOD DAMN MOTHERUFKC DKFASHNHSOGHASOGHASFOGHASDOHGA;FGHASD;GHAS;IAHASOGHASFOGHA9WTY34YTW390TYR90TYWR9TYA 2-3

FUCK YOU SCOTT TAYLOR THEY PLAYED LIKED FUCKING SHIT YOU DO NOT FUCKING PISS AWAY A GOD DAMNED MOTHERFUCKING 2-0 LEAD TO A FUCKIGN 2-3 LOSS WITH 10 FUCKING MINUTES LEFT

I don't care if you're stressed Lewis Ferrell. God damned right you should be fucking angry Jordaan Brown who fucking can't even spell your own god damned motherfucking first name right.

AND WE'RE NOW IN THE FUCKING DROP! THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLES!

FA Trophy - Eastleigh
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Johnny Goddard
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Guiseppe Sole

Might as well get Garrod and Sole used to playing together.

11' - Johnson swings up to Wheeler who centers it for Sole, leading to what is perhaps the prettiest goal we've seen this season. I don't care. We'll lose at the end anyway. 1-0

27' - I'm expecting the tie goal to happen here, but Shankuverymuch. Young goes down 30 seconds later, and he's done. More time for Billy Taylor to suck, I suppose.

39' - Garrod loses the ball in their half, and on the counter, the tie misses only by the slightest of margins.

At the half, Brown is dripping sweat, so I bring on Beckett. I'm sure this lead is only Fantasy Island.

57' - Wheeler gets knocked but he'll have to play on, as I spend my last sub on Taylor for a wiped Goddard.

59' - First highlight? Taylor giving the ball away. Luckily they miss.

60' - Great pass from Johnson to Wheeler, who misses the shot by a fraction of an inch.

69' - There we go. Turner rushes out like a fucking reject like he does sometimes and there's the tie goal we all knew was coming. 1-1

70' - Johnson to Wheeler to nobody there to apply the finish.

Further injury to Wheeler and one to Billy Taylor, but we scrounge out a tie. I guess you could call that a moral victory. 7.4 for Guiseppe Sole.

4-5 weeks without David Wheeler, who just happens to be one of our best players. Color me so not shocked.

Eastleigh - FA Trophy Replay
GK Iain Armstrong
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Nathan Drage
DC Qaeem Sotonwa
DR Robbie Rice
DMC Will Bor
ML Billy Taylor
MR Nathan Smart
AMC Troy Ferguson
ST Perry Law
ST Mario Quiassaca

Yep, we're putting out a B-list squad. We don't need to win this one.

36' - They narrowly miss on a free kick.

It's that quick and uninteresting a first half. Yellow cards for Law, Ferguson, and Drage, with Law getting his literally seconds before the halftime whistle.

For some weird reason, it's not letting me sub anyone in. ...Oh wait, I forgot to assign subs for this match. Oops.

Hilarious. Chance after chance after chance they have and it all falls short, including a disallowed goal.

91' - Roflsauce. Easy goal opportunity and they shank it.

101' - On-target shot... crazy bounce off the woodwork. LOL.

And it's halftime of extra time, still 0-0. And it's going to PKS!

1-0 - Robbie Rice
1-1
2-1 - Mario Quiassaca
2-2
3-2 - Will Bor
3-3
3-3 - Law shanks it
3-3
4-3 - Troy Ferguson
4-4
5-4 - Nathan Smart
5-5
6-5 - Billy Taylor
6-6 - Though I thought Armstrong had this stopped
7-6 - Nathan Beckett
7-7
8-7 - Nathan Drage
8-8 - Only just
9-8 - Qaseem Sotonwa

Armstrong saves the penalty!!!!! B side wins! B side wins!!!

Notes
Qaseem Sotonwa - 8.3 (MoM)
Robbie Rice - 7.4
Matt Drage - 7.4
Troy Ferguson - 7.3
Will Bor - 7.1

Sutton United
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Johnny Goddard
ML Wayne Young
MR Marcus Moody
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Guiseppe Sole

We need a win, plain and simple.

1' - Beautiful ball by Goddard, except nobody's there to send it in.

17' - Spirited defense by Sutton denies us.

30' - Young comes up with a dynamite header to end a scary moment.

35' - Completely pathetic inability to stop their striker from mowing us down. 0-1

43' - It's right there for Sole but he can't finish.

Worsfold on for Brown.

70 - Geez. They should've had that one and I don't know how they didn't.

80' - Holy crap. 25 yard strike from Young that finds the net! 1-1 and Taylor on for Johnson.

83' - Another shouldwouldacoulda for Sutton.

87' - Maybe luck is with us for once, as Taylor slams it in from 20 yards out. 2-1

91' - I swear under my breath as I think that's in, but Turner makes the most fantastic save of his career to stop it.

Not enough words to describe what this win means. Wayne Young is Man of the Match with a 7.3 rating, even though Scott Taylor's gamewinner puts him at 7.4.

That pulls us back up into 19th, albeit only a single point away from the drop, and far more worrying, that very team, Eastbourne Boro, has 2 games in hand on us.

Sigh. Wayne Young is out 2 weeks with injury.

Havant & W
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Scott Taylor
ML Max Worsfold
MR Nathan Smart
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Guiseppe Sole

We're playing defense and I tell the team to just calm their tits.

5' - Both teams are playing sloppy on the outset. They narrowly miss a goal, though.

18' - Sigh. 0-1

28' - A chance to extend their lead just misses.

41' - I see Eastborne Boro leading 1-0 and get depressed. Smart to Garrod to Sole connection for a goal tries to cheer me up. 1-1

We've played extremely well today, so much so that we've forced them into a 5-3-2 at the start of the second half. But we all know how this story is likely to end up.

61' - Smart's looking exhausted but I have no one to replace him. Brown has been bad, though, so Beckett comes in for him.

71' - Taylor slides up to AMC and Goddard comes in at DMC, letting Johnson end his night.

74' - Our corner defense sucks Gollum cock. 1-2

Sigh. It's hard to get mad at the team. It really is. Sam Page with 7.7 for MoM and 7.2 and 7.1 for our strikers. But more losing isn't what we need.

We're now in the drop on goal differential and everyone in the same territory has a game in hand on us.

Welling
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Johnny Goddard
ML Reece Hall
MR Billy Taylor
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Guiseppe Sole

36' - Both defenses have been playing great, but then Goddard launches a beautiful rainbow to Sole who shoots.... and misses, but for the first time in forever (cue Frozen soundtrack), Garrod is there for the rebound and the score. 1-0

41' - Oh look, terrible clearance. Oh look, goal tie. 1-1

We've been playing pretty well, but we all know the second half implosion is coming.

51' - That should have been it based on an easy rebound, but they shank it. Quiassaca in for Sole, Taylor for Johnson.

62' - Fucking dicks. Ferrell's getting treatment so we're down a man and they fucking score. 1-2 JUST FUCKING SEND US DOWN ALREADY, YOU FUCKIKNG HATEFUL PIECE OF SHIT FM!!!

73' - I throw my keyboard. 1-3

Hall is hurt at some point and it's only that we're still mathematically in the hunt to stay up that I don't quit.

Basingstoke - FA Trophy 2nd Round
GK Iain Armstrong
DL Nathan Beckett
DC Odaine Kemar-Smith
DC Nathan Drage
DR Qaseem Sotonwa
MC Louis-Rae Beadle
MC Will Bor
MC Jean-Sylvain Dossou
AMC Scott Taylor
ST Perry Law
ST Mario Quiassaca

Because cups don't matter now.

6' - Cool. Red for Sotonwa. I'm going to just ignore the game now.

0-3 final. Next.

We loan in Josh Mulvaney for the rest of the season as a depth signing. We're likely to drop anyway, so what difference does it make? AMC/ML/MR playable.

Basingstoke
GK Jack Turner
DL Jordaan Brown
DC Jerel Ifil
DC Sam Page
DR Lewis Ferrell
DMC Johnny Goddard
ML Wayne Young
MR David Wheeler
AMC Jordan Johnson
ST Tony Garrod
ST Guiseppe Sole

#2 in the league? Yeah, good luck with that.

5' - Not sure how it happened, but Ferrell centered it for Jordan in no man's land, and he calmly put it in. We blow leads like whores blow old dudes, so I'm not excited. 1-0

8' - Only the woodwork prevents the immediate answer.

33' - They keep threatening and should have scored once or twice. Young gets hurt AGAIN! I hem, I haw, I put in Worsfold.

43' - There it is, the obligatory tie goal right before the fucking cuntsnap half. 1-1

51' - Look! Nobody there for the rebound.

63' - Guess what time it is?!!!! GIVING UP THE FUCKING LEAD AGAIN TIME! 1-2

72' - Look at all the fucks I do not give. 1-3

90' - Lulz. Fluke 45 yard strike from Goddard. Whatever. 2-3

Young is out 3-4 months. We're now 21st but could get out of the drop provided we won games. That isn't going to happen. I quit.

Apparently I really suck as a coach, because they go Draw-Draw-Loss-Win their next four games and are sitting 18th.

Whatever.

[NoSkillz]

Love the writeups!

Hope the wins start coming soon.

EDIT: Oh crap, you quit. Couldn't see that line through the tears!

[chesapeake]

Is it wrong of me to delight in your obvious misery? It probably is, but your write-ups are so entertaining to read that I can't help but to enjoy them. And I've had similar bouts of extreme frustration with FM, where every reasonable measure I've tried to get the team going have failed. So I feel your pain, brother.

You've probably been trying this, but since your guys seem to get tired before the end of halves, maybe find a spot a little earlier where you can tell them to 'take a breather' (or whatever the shout is) and 'retain possession' so they can get a little energy back before the other team makes a big push at the end of the half. That seemed to work for me some of the time, although it can also mean that you give up the goal in the 27th minute rather than the 43rd. You've probably also tried switching to a defensive possession game with 5-7 mins left in the half as well, but if not, you may want to try that, too.

I didn't play FM 13, but I played 12 and am now playing 14 as York. I believe 13 is more like 14, and as such, it sure seems that games move much more dynamically and require more tactical changes during the game as circumstances ebb and flow.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Your luck with this seems quite similar to my own with previous editions. Even when I had vague bits of success I never really figured out much of anything & some of the losing streaks were just brutal.

[Izulde]

Thanks, folks. I'll continue to press on, likely with another BSN/BSS team, because it feels like cheating to promote myself to a higher level.

And feel free to delight away. I do think it's become much more nuanced tactically, which is probably adding to my woes. I tend to be better at finding talent than utilizing it properly in the FM series.

[Young Drachma]

Haha..I find I enjoy that game more when I play with successful teams from the outset before torturing myself. Haha..but I love your attitude about it.

Also I'd hit up some tactics sites and download tactical files and training files people put out there. It's made my life WAY easier. I haven't done anything with 14, but in the past this is what I do to make the game more interesting because otherwise it's too much.

[Izulde]

Yeah I may end up doing that. We'll see what happens, though.

[Izulde]

Chester and Brackley in the Blue Square North have both opened up, so I apply to both gigs. Hopefully my luck in FM is better than IRL right about now.

Both teams are flattered by my interest, but the media wonders if I'm serious about the jobs since I applied to both teams.

Brackley is first to call. They're offering me $52,000 and are sitting 19th, just above the drop zone. I feel like they have solid talent on hand and should be doing better. Their wage budget is $275,000 a year, but they're spending $338,000.

On the one hand, I feel like I should take over this relegation candidate. On the other hand, I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't wait for Chester first, so I'll delay.

Chester's not calling, but I'm pleased to see AFC Hornchurch sets a record with 12 straight losses. Meanwhile, Brackley is now goal differential away from the drop.

Fuck it. I'll try to be a hero.

First things first, clear out the staff and bring in my own people, something I should have done at Staines.

Next up, jettisoning the flotsam, which means goodbye, Jefferson Louis, Marvin Robinson, and Steve Diggin, all released on frees.

Maybe there's not as much talent as I thought. Brett Solkhon and Michael Corcoran are named captain and vice-captain for their highest combo of Influence/Teamwork/Workrate, though who knows if any of them are starters.

Solkhon was already the captain, it turns out, so it's all good.

Scouting range expanded? Do tell. Unfortunately when I go to the board room, I don't see anything that indicates where or how it's expanded to, so I'm confused.

Anyway, by releasing all those guys, I got the wage budget down to $258,000. Go me. Tom Sharpe and Brett Solkhon were named to the Team of the Week.

Nice. I'm asked about the Staines resignation and if I regret it. They're up to 17th now by the way, so clearly the failure was in my tactics. I'd like to smugly point out they're succeeding with guys I found, though.

Even nicer - "If Izulde Jestor hadn't realized how little interest his appointment at Brackley would generate, he has a better idea now, as only one journalist showed up at the press conference announcing his hiring."

And it was the Non-League Paper, who I've been friendly with from my previous tenure at Staines.

Ian Gay and Andrew Bernal sign contracts to be the assistant manager and chief scout respectively. Both should be upgrades over what I had previously.

Good thing I took the job because Chester went with someone else. The problem is, Brackley's now 20th, and in the drop. And we're playing the #2 team in the league.

We bring a couple coaches, so we'll see how this goes.

After a look at the team report, we're strong on the right side, okay in the middle, weak on the left, and have one great striker.

We're going to try a 4-1-4-1 and see how it goes.

Colwyn Bay
GK Laurie Walker (the starter is hurt)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
DMC Brett Solkhon
ML Tom Winters
MC Michael Corcoran
MC Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

Only 4 subs because we're short on bodies. Guess I shouldn't have canned everyone after all. Oops.

23' - Crawford takes two shots at the goal, but neither one manage to fall in. I found out before the game he's been on a major goal drought. Corcoran takes on a knock immediately after.

46' - The obligatory soccer Jestorball allowed goal near the half is disallowed due to obvious offsides being obvious.

Not a bad first half, but... *cue the ominous music*

46' - Damn. Odhiambo puts it up on the far post for Corcoran, who *just* misses the header.

52' - Warren Peyton on for Winters.

81' - Let's shut this shop down and contain to try and save the point. Ugh. Corcoran, who has been our most energetic player to this point, goes down. We switch to a 5-4-1 and bring in Josh Green at DC.

Gay wants me to say the team was unlucky, but we played this perfectly in getting the point. 7.5 for Stevland Angus and 7.1 for Tom Sharpe.

Unfortunately, the point's not enough to move above the drop, and (sound familiar?) everyone has a game in hand on us.

So the payroll we just cleared out got eaten up by getting 32 year old Aaron Brown from Bath, who has a 7.13 so far this season at this level. It took a two year commitment to get him to sign, but he projects to step in immediately at ML, and he can also play DL if need be.

We also bring in 19 year old Irish left midfielder Ryan Markey to develop on our reserve squad. Based on this awesome guide: FM13 Individual Training Guide I decide to train him as a Winger, because he's a little weak on the offensive side relative to his defense.

But we're not done yet, snapping up striker Lee Barney from Maidenhead on a loan. In retrospect that wasn't the best idea, but we're hurting for depth at this point, so whatevs. We'll train him to be a Complete Forward as per the guide's instructions.

Big, big game on tap. Away against Chester, the team who said they were excited about me, but then didn't bother offering me the job. Really want to win this one.

Chester
GK Billy Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
DMC Brett Solkhon
ML Aaron Brown (New guy)
MC Michael Corcoran
MC Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

16' - Woods takes a knock.

35' - Sharpe misses a header and they should have scored, but don't. We can't get anything on target today.

So many opportunities, so poor a shooting going on. I'm not sure what the answer is here, to be honest. I know we're playing pretty damn solid our first two games, but just can't break through for a goal.

56' - Team captain Brett Sokhon is hurt and has to come off. I'm going to try switching to a 4-4-2 and seeing what Lee Barney can do.

74' - Ryan Austin on for Odhiambo, Tom Winters on for Reid. Also, yellow for Barney.

78' - Caught out of position and we're done. 0-1

82' - Woods to Nisevic, who heads it up, and Barney beats out the others to coolly punch it on his debut. Why can't a certain someone else do that? 1-1

90' - Yellow for Corcoran

92' - A beautifully put forward ball by Chester and I'm thinking we're done, but then Nisevic makes a phenomenal defensive play to preserve the point!

7.2 for Stevland Angus, 7.1 for Eddie Nisevic, and 7.3 for Lee Barney.

Still 20th, and now a point behind. A win is needed so badly it's insane. Make that 21st after an interval period.

Unfortunately we've a rash of injuries that's completely decimated us. This team be snakebit, yo.

Harrogate (3rd)
GK Jack Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
ML Aaron Brown
MC Michael Corcoran
MC Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Lee Barney (Loan)
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

There's lots of guys needing a rest, but we just can not afford it due to lack of bodies. As is, we only have four healthy subs.

5' - Enormous pressure. 2 shots should have gone in for them already.

13' - With nothing to lose, I go with an Attacking, Rigid style to see if that changes anything.

18' - So close for Brown. Really thought he had it.

21' - Why do I even bother? 0-1

43' - Can I just say I hate the needless complexity of 13? It really makes me want to go back to 12. Sideline shouts are the most irritating addition ever, since they apparently mean so fucking much in this stupid engine, and I never use them ever. 0-2

Yeah, we're playing horrendous.

57' - I made a sub earlier but I don't care. Barney makes a terrific pass for Reid, then races all the way down the field and makes a sliding tackle shot for the goal. Oh so pretty. Too bad it won't matter a damn. 1-2

Now at 21st. 5 points just to be equal with the 19th placed team now, and we'd lose on goal differential. 29 games played thus far, and 42 in the schedule I think, so it's doable, but we need to get hot.

I've been trying to Google and find a super tactic for LLM in 13, and will try the Arrigo 4-4-2 to see if that works.

Stalybridge Celtic
GK Jack Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown
DM Michael Corcoran
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Warren Peyton
ST Lee Barney (Loan)
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

This guy says he never uses shouts, so we'll see if his tactic works.

9' - Whew. So close to a goal but it juuuust misses, thankfully.

18' - Hmm. Crawford beats out the defender, then centers it for Barney, who knocks it in. Maybe this tactic works after all. 1-0

37' - Turley has the worst goal kick ever, probably because I've been calling him Jack and his name is Billy. Right to the opposition, and somehow the ball bounces off the post and doesn't go in, much to everyone's disbelief. Oh, and Woods is booked on a dive.

Have we had a lead yet at the half in my tenure here? I don't know. But we're playing totes brills. Odhiambo on for Woods.

60' - We have been stupid lucky on the shots that are on target and should have gone in but haven't. Stu.pid.luh.kee.

64 - In which we fend off a trillion and one corners.

67' - In which Nisevic gives away the ball for free and fuck you very much announce for saying Bramley's terrible run of form continues. [b]1-1]/b] Oh and Winters on for Brown.

78' - Some never say die tackling from our side when it looks like Celtic is ready to start a counter, and Peyton gets the last slide in, following it with an electric pass to Barney who scores his second of the game! 2-1

84' - Holy shit! I think I'm in love! Reid with a throw-in, Corcoran with the sliding tackle-pass, and there's Barney for the first hat trick by one of my teams ever in FM 13!!!!! 3-1

Let me just post, so y'all can feast on its loveliness.

7+ Stats
Lee Barney - 9.6!!!! (MoM duh)
Izak Reid - 7.9
Stevland Angus - 7.7
Harry Crawford - 7.7
Warren Peyton - 7.5
Tom Sharpe - 7.2
Billy Turley - 7.2

Crawford's looking whatever about our rapturous joy, so I go over and tell him he did well, and he's happy. Got to be tough for the kid - prior management brought in him to be the man, and he still has yet to score a goal, and meanwhile Barney, who's a guy I thought about getting at Staines, has been tearing it up.

With the win we move back up to 20th and are 2 points away from safety (though game in hand thing applies). We're also 2 points from falling back to 21st, but let's give this awesome tactic another shot shall we?

Interesting question in the post-presser. Will I look to bring Crawford more permanently to the team? I'm not sure. I'd love to, but money becomes an issue.

Staines is back in the drop by a point, by the way, and it's a mad scramble at the bottom. Speaking of which, I try and get some of my players from them, but it's no soap. Board's being really stingy since we're a few hundred bucks over our wage budget due to Brown's signing.

We bring in MLR Anthony Edgar from Barnet and ST Stefan Brown from Basingstoke on 3 month loans to give us some depth. They're trained as Wide Midfielder and Complete Forward respectively.

I forgot who
GK Billy Turley
DL Aaron Brown (Purchased)
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
ML Anthony Edgar (Loan)
DM Michael Corcoran
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Lee Barney (Loan)
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

First time in forever I can remember having a full complement of reserves. We're abusing the hell out of the loan market, but that's good. Gives us quality along with what I hope is our new amazing tactic.

And we're actually favored in this one, believe it or not.

12' - Reid with the corner to Woods, who passes about an inch up for Angus to kick it in. <3 1-0

23' - Crawford to Edgar, who has a nice crack at it, but nobody there to pick up the rebound.

43' - Sigh. We've been dominating to this point, but then got caught napping. 1-1

It's Green on for the exhausted Angus unfortunately.

55' - A knock for Barney, who's been awful today anyway, so I'll put in Stefan Brown. Well, he's knocked out entirely, so yeah. Winters in for wiped Reid and Edgars slides over to the right side.

60' - Crawford's shot gets deflected (what else is new?) but S Brown has the presence of mind to run to it and kick it in for a debut goal! 2-1 And a sitter on the other end gets left wanting.

79' - Let's pull back into containment for the next 11 minutes, get our 3 points, and merrily trot along.

80' - Hi, there sexy thing. Winters centers it for Edgar just outside the box, who breezes home the distance shot and we're looking beautiful right now. 3-1

83' - Yellow for Sharpe.

7+ Notes
7.5 - Tom Winters (MoM)
7.5 - Anthony Edgar
7.3 - Stefan Brown
7.2 - Stevland Angus

Nothing way crazy here, and I feel a little guilty about this super tactic, but in my defense I'll say in both games we had a very real chance of allowing more goals (and should have), so the results might have been very different. Also, two of the best guys, including the Game MVP, were reserves that were *my* call to make.

Ping: FrogMan. Luton Town sets a record with 6 straight wins in FA Trophy play.

Unfortunately everyone around us also won, so there's not much to be said. Izak Reid is named to the Team of the Week.

Gainsborough
GK Billy Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
ML Anthony Edgar (Loan)
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Lee Barney (Loan)
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

We're now overloaded with options on the left, so we'll need to hunt around for more loan players and/or non-contract free transfers who can balance the roster out.

6' - Great interception by Solkhon, but Edgar can't convert on the ensuing pass.

11' - Another should've been goal for them, but somebody, I didn't see who, cleared out the danger literally in the nick of time.

18' - Magic juice gone? 0-1

30' - Heh. Crawford puts it forward perfectly for Barney, who clanks it off the frame.

This is the worst we've looked since swithching over to the awesome Arrigo 4-4-2. Corcoran comes on for Angus, who the very first game after I praise how awesome he's been since I got here, tanks it. I also get up in their faces to stop fucking around. We're in the drop, in case you guys haven't noticed.

58' - Yellow for Reid. Nary a highlight for anyone yet other than the whatever kickoff one.

73' - Reid and Woods look like they don't give a shit. Nobody to replace Woods, but Winters in and the flip-flop with Edgar as per usual.

79' Ugh. 0-2

91' - Yellow for Solkhon.

Okay, so not a supertactic.

We're now 3 points back and behind on goal differential. It may be too little, too late.

Guiseley
GK Billy Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Eddie Odhiambo
ML Anthony Edgar (Loan)
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Izak Reid
ST Lee Barney (Loan)
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

We're losing Crawford and Woods soon, but there's not much out there in the loan market to replace them right now, bad joss.

10' - Was it all just a dream? Long strike. 0-1

30' - They should've had the insurance goal there.

Not sure WTF is going on. We go from dreamy scoring back to the same old shit.

52' - Tired of watching Barney's wild ass long range nothings. In S Brown and our traditional Winters and swap of midfielders.

69' - After quite a bit of rinky dinking, Winters finds Solkhon, who evades the defender's tackle try and puts it in. Saints be praised or something. 1-1

71' - More long range shots, this time from S Brown. I quick google this and find that Put the ball int he box is what I should shout, so I do.

72' - Now isn't that nice. Edgar passes it into space for Crawford, who runs AND FINALLY ENDS HIS OVER 28 HOUR GOAL DROUGHT JUST BEFORE HIS LOAN FINISHES TO GIVE US THE LEAD!!! 2-1

73' - Winters narrowly misses on a free kick. The G team switches to a 4-2-4.

89' - Let's not make me look stupid, hmm? Contain.

Whew. Just barely pulled it out.

7+
Brett Sokhon - 8.1 (MoM)
Harry Crawford - 7.7
Anthony Edgar - 7.3
Ryan Woods - 7.2
Tom Sharpe - 7.1

Unfortunately, everyone ahead wins, and we're still 2 points away plus GD away. The hilarious part? #19 is held by none other than Chester, who have been just awful. Karma, bitches. Karma.

Having chosen to rest a number of key players? Really? Go fuck yourself. I'm sick of journalists saying that to me.

Anthony Edgar is in the Team of the Week.

Boston United
GK Billy Turley
DL Aaron Brown
DC Ryan Austin
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Tom Winters
DM Michael Corcoran
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Harry Crawford (Loan)

Okay, this is what my assman says is our best starting XI. We'll roll with it and see how it goes.

4' - Should've had that one there, Mulligan and Crawford.

11' - Our positioning inside the box is sucking today.

13' - They make a great tackle on a corner, but Mulligan is there to knock it back in for his first goal of the year. 1-0

24' - Man, that should have been in. Corcoran makes it beautifully for Mulligan, who even though he didn't get it, had a wide open rebound sitting there for Edgar, who then shot like he'd never touched a soccer ball before.

30' - I hate long range strikes. 1-1

Eddie Odhiambo in at MR for Edgar at the break. Overall though, we've been playing pretty well. Just that damn fluky long strike that hosed us.

56' - Turley you dipass!!!! IF you're going to come out for the ball, fucking GRAB IT. DON'T LOLLY KICK IT TO THE OPPONENTS! Your worthless hide is lucky that somehow missed! My assman is complaining about Corcoran, so I put in Solkhon to shut him up.

69' - Let's push it in the box, boys. None of this long-range crap.

72' - Odhiambo feeds it on up to Mulligan, who does this neat side kick thing to give it to Solkhon 20 yards out... and it's in!!! 2-1

78' - I'm *this* close to listing Turley. Fucker keeps giving it to the opponents like he bet his salary on them.

85' - Lock it down. Contain.

A truckload of 7s on the nose, but of course the hero of the game is Gary Mulligan, who has Ian Gay to thank for recommending him in the lineup. 8.8 and Man of the Match. 7.3 for Brett Solkhon and 7.1 for Ryan Austin, another Gay mention.

And we're 19th!!! Granted, only by a point, but Chester has to feel pretty salty right now, considering they were 10th at the time their vacancy opened up.

That's the good news. Bad news is, Harry Crawford won't be joining us for the rest of the year. We're not at a high enough level. Ryan Woods is due to end his loan term too, but we don't have the option of even asking for an extension.

So... lots of things to think about.

[Izulde]

Youth Intakes
Ian Gay is really, really excited about DM Luke Dixon. MR Brad Varney and DR Gareth Lee also look like useful contributors when they develop.

We loan Charlie Hunter in for 3 months from Boreham Wood. He'll either be depth or a DM starter when Woods leaves.

My Gay assman (Teehee) wants me to sign a bunch of the young trialists, but only the three above are worth keeping around by my lights.

FC Halifax
GK Billy Turley
DL Aaron Brown
DC Ryan Austin
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Tom Winters
DM Michael Corcoran
DM Ryan Woods (Loan)
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Lee Barney (Loan)

Our comparative hot run of form has us favored, which is always a touch nerve-wracking. Barney wins out over S Brown for the start for now.

7' - We retreat backbackback from a botched corner and Turley does his usual stupid throw, but Austin's there to pick it up, and Barney just narrowly misses the shot after he outpaces everyone.

11' - After Barney wastes three beautiful balls with long shots I try shouting, "Work Ball Into Box" at him.

15' - Facepalm. Now Barney just lets a sitter go and the defense frantically clears it out despite the fact that we had close to 5 or 6 easy shot opportunities there.

28' - Their defense is really amped up for us. They keep finding ways to successfully contest our shots, even though we're finally getting smarter about them.

5.9? Not going to cut it, Lee Barney. Not when we have Stefan Brown on tap to replace you, which he does. Austin can't breathe he's so tired, so Solkhon slots in for him.

48' - Own goal on an A Brown cross into the box? We'll take it! 1-0

65' - Yellow for Corcoran

89' - Usual lockdown Contain to sew this one up.

For once I'll agree with the poor match comments. Very dull.

Tom Sharpe and his 7.9 are good for Man of Match, along with a sprinkling of 7s.

2 match ban for yellows for Corcoran.

How huge was that win for us? We leapfrog from 19th to 17th, and are now 5 points clear of the drop. Over in the South, Staines is 2 point clear of relegation and hated personal foe AFC Hornchurch is dead last, 7 points and goal differential from even dreaming of safety.

We bring Danny Newton in as a depth striker pickup on a 3 month loan, but the bigger fish is Frogman's Luton's Danny Walker on a end of season loan. Is he Crawford? Not even close, but he's immediately our second-best striker, and so will get in the lineup.

Time to page through my roster and see who is under 24 and hence worth setting to a specific training.

Eddie Nisevic - Wingback
Dan Walker - Complete Forward

The rest are either over 24, and hence not likely to develop further, or are not here long enough for it to matter. This really is an experienced team, so it was shocking to see them struggle as much as they had before I came on board with my magic tactic I found.

Whoa. We somehow have $26.45k in our budget now! Which means we must have been paying for Woods or Crawford. A week left to the deadline and it's time to go shopping!

Just for the fun of it, I check in on our old pal Luis Cumbers. On paper, he'd be our best striker, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from his ineffectiveness, and he'd want way too much money.

We find a dynamite player in John Nutter, but he wants too much money, and Portsmouth, one of my favorite English cities, and a league 1 side, is interested, so no go.

...Wait. Charlie Hunter is studying until June 30th, so he's not going to be available until after the season is over? What a god damned waste of a loan.

Vauxhall Motors
GK Billy Turley
DL Aaron Brown
DC Ryan Austin
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Tom Winters
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Eddie Odhiambo
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

4' - Come on, Winters. No long-range shots that are stupid, remember?

27' - Austin misses the interception and we pay. 0-1 Did I forget to mention Vauxhall is directly above us, and if we win, we can climb to at least 16th?

30' - Yellow for Odhiambo

36' - Should have hammered that one in, guys. About 3 people were standing there ready for the easy one and they all snuffed on it.

Stefan Brown in for Dan Walker, who isn't quite up for a full game yet.

47' - Yellow for Mulligan. I'd like to get a mulligan on this game.

60' - Odhiambo caps off a lot of passing and motion with a cross that Solkhon manages not to get in thanks to crazy mad defensive work by the goalie and a defender, but Mulligan finds his way to the scrum and it's an easy tap-in for the tie. 1-1 We'll put Angus in for Austin.

64' - Juuuuust missed the head-in there, Angus. Too bad.

92' - Yellow for Angus.

Sure, we should have won, but a point's a point. (7.3 Mulligan, 7.1 Reid, BTW), and we were really thin at DMC. We just got unlucky is all.

Yeah, I brought in a bunch of new players. It's worked, hasn't it?

Guiseppe Sole gets called out by Staines' new manager after a draw. I chuckle. Workington in our division fired theirs.

We come to fast terms with two players that will accept less than their initial demands in exchange for two year contracts. Just hope we can get them in before the deadline...

Frogman's Luton Town wins the FA Trophy. In other news, Nutter signs with Portsmouth as expected.

Well, shit. We lose Ryan Austin for a month. Huge blow to our defense.

Damn it. I wanted to speak to the journalist about the transfer deadline, but the stupid processor moved too quickly. I *really* wish I knew how to set it, so it would automatically stop for things like that.

We do pull off two transfers on the last day, though, and we're *still* $8.7k under budget. I miss the chance to talk to the journalist again. Damn it! I'm media awesome, damn it!

Anyway...

GK Max Crocombe is 23, and comes from one of our two parent clubs, Oxford on a free transfer. Signed for $17,75k a year for two years, he has Blue Square Premier quality upside, and could, right now, challenge Bill Turley's 39 year old rust ass for the starting spot. Will train as Sweeper Keeper, per the guide's recommendations.

DC/DMC Aaron Wickham arrives from Crawley and is 19. An important get considering our injury issues. Will train as Ball Playing Defender, an actual role in our setup, and is our best DMC right now. DC wise, he's pretty far down the chart, but he also has good BSP potential.

This is the first time since I've played 13 that they've actually asked for a press conference about my transfers. Seemed like it happened more often in previous versions. Wickham loves that I feel he can contribute right away, and why not? He played 19 games at BSP side Nuneaton on a loan, and while his 6.09 rating was abysmal, he's playing a level lower now.

Bishop's Stortford
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Aaron Brown (Signed)
DC Steveland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Tom Winters
DM Michael Corcoran
DM Aaron Wickham (Signed)
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

Our biggest game of the season, and I'm throwing in our new goalie in there. Stupid? Perhaps, but Billy Turley kept pissing me off.

Funny, when I started at Brackley, we were chasing Bishop's Stortford, but we found the magic and they stayed stagnant. We have 43 points to their 40, and our GD is over them by 1. So you can see just how insanely huge this game is. Probably our entire season defined by it.

28' - Nothing much doing for either side, though we had one opportunity. Mulligan's hurt and on the sidelines getting treated. Sharpe does a hell of a job, but eventually he gets beaten, and that's an ouch. 0-1

Pitiful we've been on offense. Odhiambo and Stefan Brown on for Wickham and Mulligan respectively.

81' - Nobody can get anything going. Not a single highlight so far, and I'm just here to say Solkhon has to come off with an injury and we throw Nisevic in there because there's literally no one else.

91' - A highlight finally... and it's a failed corner for them.

I'm not going to blame this loss on Crocombe. He played very well, near as I can tell. We were playing on their turf and they wanted it more. (7.3 Stevland Angus, 7.2 Tom Sharpe). Our first loss in 5 games.

Altrincham secures a playoff spot, Hinckley is officially relegated.

We lose Solkhon for a month. Bad time of year to be getting injuries.

5 games left to play, and we're now just 2 points from the drop. Had we won or even tied, we'd have a lot more breathing room. As is...

Remember how I said the last game was a huge one? Here's an even bigger one, just three days later.

I get jobbed out of the Manager of the Month voting. Tom Winters and Michael Corcoran both want more money than what I'm willing to pay, so they'll suit up for someone else next season if we survive.

Board's satisfied. Thought they'd be pleased.

Cromby
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Steveland Angus
DC Michael Corcoran
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown (Signed)
DM Eddie Odhiambo
DM Aaron Wickham (Signed)
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

Sketchy as hell lineup? Yep. That's what essential back to backs do. We're at home, facing 19th Cromby. Win, and we're very much in great shape. Tie or lose, and thin ice continues.

0' - I put the pressure on, telling them I expect a win. Great tackle by Odhiambo and pass into Muligan... who moonshots it into the next town. Sigh.

7' - Stupid fucking positioning, defenders! 0-1

16' - We're pissing this away like we're the fucking Dolphins. Yellow for Odhiambo.

27' - Work the ball into the fucking box!

30' - Crocombe does his best Tully impersonation.

41' - Yellow for Corcoran.

I go apeshit at halftime. Rip a fucking locker door off its hinges and throw against the wall, screaming at them to FUCKING PLAY LIKE OUR FUCKING LIVES DEPEND ON THIS SHIT! WE ARE *AT FUCKING HOME PLAYING A GOD DAMN FUCKING TEAM BELOW US!!!*

Stefan Brown on for Mulligan, and Tom Winters at ML for Aaron Brown.

51' - Winters gets the ball after a clearance, runs forward and crosses, where the Corby defenders beat up whoever is down there. And along comes Stefan Brown to calmly tie it all up. THAT'S WHY I SUB AT HALF, BITCHES! 1-1

52' - Angus makes a panty-dropping clearance to stop a sure goal. Way to go man.

Later 52' - Nisevic rainbows it to Stefan Brown who runs down until he can cross to Winters. Winters is like Nope Nope Nope about the shot and passes it to Edgar instead, who PUTS THAT DAMN BALL IN! BRACK-LEE! BRACK-LEE! SCORING GOALS LIKE BRUCE LEE!! 2-1

61' - Bullshit THAT WAS OFRFFSIDES! 2-2

80' - And down goes Stefan Brown. Yeah, because we sure as fuck don't have enough injured players. Show me why I loaned, you, Barney!

81' - FUCK YOU AND YOUR ZEBRA VAGINA PUNK BITCH SELF YOU FUCKING ASSFARMING REF! THAT WAS NOT A FUCKING RED ON WICKHAM! I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR FUCKING PUNK ASS AFTER THIS GAME, I SWEAR TO MOTHERFUCKING HOLY GOD!!!!

87' - Narrow miss. I get out my Kali sticks and wave them threateningly at the ref. Defensive because by Lake Fuck, we need at least a point out of this bullshit.

88 - YEAH! HELL TO THE FUCKING YEAH! SO INTIMIDATED BY MY STICKS YOU GIVE US THE PK!!!!!!!!! Shit... I haven't set my PKers yet. Damn Damn Damn.

DOUBLE YELLOW FOR THEIR GUY FOR BITCHING ABOUT THE PENALTY!!! WE'RE ALL SQUARE NOW, HOS!!!

Talk about pressure for Lee Barney. I told him in pep talk when I put him on, all passion and energy that he could be the difference-maker for us. Shit just got real right here, with the penalty kick in the 88th minute....

...Fuck I don't know if I can watch....

Kick to the left..... AND IT'S GOOD! GOOOOOOOAAAAALLL!!!! 3-2 Contain ye sons of whores... CUUUUUUNNNNN TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAIIINNNNNNN!!!!!

And we do!

I am punch drunk after finally caving and buying FRAPS because I wanted to preserve this moment for all time.

Before I show you the video...

7+ Ratings
Tom Winters - 8.2 (MoM)
Anthony Edgar - 7.7
Stevland Angus - 7.3
Stefan Brown - 7.2

Plus the usual assortments of 7s including Max Crocombe.



Video may be hard to see, and even at full screen it's blurry, but FRAPS can only do so much, unfortunately. Still pretty awesome, though.

Now, after this thrilling win, are we safe? No. Not by a long shot.

But with 4 games left, we're 5 points up on top relegation zone candidate Chester. I decide not to appeal Wickham's two game suspension. I want to guarantee he's there for at least the last two games if we need him.

Haha Michael Corcoran credits my locker room flipout for our win. Always good to see.

Altrincham has officially clinched the league.

We're 16th and taking on the 14th place team.

Guiseley
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Steveland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown (Signed)
DM Eddie Odhiambo
DM Michael Corcoran
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

With all our injuries and suspensions, we're holding that defensive line together with Scotch tape.

3' - Wide open rebound and they miss it. Unbelievable.

7' - Yellow for Odihambo. He's card-prone, I've noticed.

26' - Beautiful Reid to Edgar to Mulligan chain that misses the goal by the thinnest of margins.

42' - Yellow for Mulligan.

I'd be happy to hang on for a draw, to be honest, with how bad our defense is right now.

60 - Beautiful save by Crocombe

71 - Barney on for Edgar, Danny Newton in for Walker.

79' - Yellow for Barney. That was fast.

Scoreless draw it is.

7+
Stevland Angus 8.2 (MoM)
Tom Sharpe - 7.2
Eddie Nisevic - 7.1
Max Crocombe - 7.1

Winnable game, but we'll take what we can for now. Still 5 points ahead with 3 remaining. Sleep time.

[Izulde]

So, funny story... one of the recording programs I tried I thought wasn't working. Came home today to a full hard drive and insert panic mode. Turns out it'd been on the whole time, recorded nearly 14 hours of video, and ate my hard drive.

Saddest part? The quality was 10000000x better than FRAPS, and I paid $37 for FRAPS' stuttering self. Kind of pisses me off to be honest, but lesson learned, I suppose.

So, three games left. Mathematically, everyone from 14th-21st could go up or down, with Hinckley already out as previously noted. Next game should narrow the field more though.

Charlie Hunter wants the loan terminated because he hasn't been getting enough games. WELL, NO SHIT, KID! YOU'RE AT UNIVERSITY. HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY WHEN YOU'RE UNAVAILABLE FOR EVERY GAME?!



Needless to say, we terminate it and good riddance.

Solihull Moors
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Steveland Angus
DC Michael Corcoran
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown (Signed)
DM Eddie Odhiambo
DM Michael Corcoran
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

Every game counts. I may have accidentally had the wrong lineup listed last game by the way. Corcoran played DMC then too.

6' - Fabulous 35 yard ball from Reid to Walker, who heads it in and finally gets his first goal for us. 1-0

9' - Penalty called on Nisevic. Rightfully deserved, to be frank. 1-1

26' - ....What the hell, Reid?! Colossally stupid header back towards the goal allows them to snipe right in. 1-2

32' - Our backline is just terrible today. Mistake after mistake after mistake and it's directly led to all three goals scored. 1-3 That one's on Sharpe.

45 - Don't know how that missed, but it did.

Edgar doesn't give a shit when I firmly but not screamingly tell them to get their head out of their asses, so he's benched for Barney. Wish I could do the same for Sharpe, but I'll settle for telling him personally to snap out of it by telling him I have faith in him to do better than that. He's normally one of my most reliable guys. He responds to that.

63' - Just as I'm about to bench him for crappy play, Mulligan intercepts a corner's clearance at the semi-circle and fires the hell out of it past the hopeless goalie to give us a spot of hope. 2-3

85' - Barney shows off his pacey stuff and gets it to Mulligan who tips it up to Walker.... but the Hatter loan's header is weaksauce like a white belt's first try at a kata.

86' - Aaaand there's the clincher. 2-4

5.8 for Max Crocombe and 5.7 for Eddie Nisevic. I'm not going to thrash either one for it, though. Honestly, it's the first bad game Crocombe's had in goal, and he's young, so I don't want to crush his confidence.

...And everyone but Dan Walker ignores me. Great.

Workington is officially relegated and everyone above our 17th place is safe. That means...

Relegation Candidates
Brackley - 47 points (-9 GD)
Vauxhall - 44 points
Corby - 44 points
Chester - 42 points (-13 GD)

Win one of the remaining two games, and we're safe. Tie and we're 98% safe. Lose both, and we may have issues. It's really that simple, and it's why that win over Corby two games ago looms so damn large right now. Otherwise we'd be where they are and they'd be where we are.

We try to get Dan Walker signed to us permanently, but we're way far apart on the money, so it's a no go.

Worcester (4th)
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Steveland Angus
DC Michael Corcoran
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown (Signed)
DM Eddie Odhiambo
DM Michael Corcoran
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

This won't be the game to get any points. Not sure why Wickham isn't eligible yet. But we're at home and Ian Gay says to tell them to do it for their fans! ...Okay.

6' - Yeah that's on Crocombe. Terrible positioning. 0-1

13' - Exceptional end run by Edgar, who kicks it back to Reid before getting it back and heading it to Walker, who nods it up to Mulligan for the authoritative slam home. 1-1

17' - I'm really warming up to Mulligan despite my initial skepticism. He's shown great drive the last few games and he does it again, pouncing on the keeper's inability to hang on to the ball to push it in. We've got the lead for the first time this game. 2-1

21' - Mulligan circles around the half-circle to kick it to Brown, who plays an absolutely exquisite ball that just keeps Walker onside for the easy lay-in. Sensational! 3-1

22' - This game sure isn't lacking for goals. Just a great hook shot by the likely playoff bound team. Quite pretty, actually. 3-2

What a thrilling first half. That's what it's all about right there - two teams fighting it out for points and position, neither one willing to give an inch. Barney gets the call in place of the tired Walker, because the kid's shown he has what it takes to step up in big moments like this.

55' - Man.... Mulligan gets nailed on the goal kick from Crocombe, but Odhiambo is there to pick it up and make a beautiful run in... only to shank the shot.

71' - Yellow for Corcoran, who's been playing kinda sucky today. Not as bad as Reid, who's sitting there with a 5.9, but still... all our replacement options are in the mid and attack, and there's no reason to sub those guys out.

86' - Let's secure staying up and drop the wall down.

87' - Corcoran must have heard me talking about him, because he delivers a textbook pass to Mulligan, who blows past everyone for the goal, the hat trick, and the guaranteed everything wonderful. 4-2

7+
Gary Mulligan - 9.6 (MoM)
Stevland Angus - 8.1
Michael Corcoran - 7.7
Aaron Brown - 7.5
Eddie Odhiambo - 7.4
Max Crowcombe - 7.3
Eddie Nisevic - 7.1

And with that, Brackley is officially in Blue Square North again next season! The media calls it a surprising win because Worcester has been hot lately, but I don't care. We'll take that one all day every day.

Gary Mulligan gets a nice little article about how he has 6 goals in the 12 games he's started. Needless to say he'll be named to the League Team of the Week.

You know it's a big win when 3 journalists show up to your press conference - Birminghammail.net, The Non-League Paper, and BBC Hereford & Worcester. Nice.

Meanwhile in non-safe land, Chester has 43 points, Corby 44, and Vauxhall 45 heading into the final game of the year. I actually kinda want Chester to stay up so I can kick their asses next season.

So we can't finish any worse than 17th, but with a win we can slide up to 15th provided both teams above us lose. Worth trying for the win, or no? Boston United could get up to 6th by beating us and having the teams above them lose, but they're a lock to finish no worse than 10th themselves (currently 9th)

Not sure what I'll do just yet.

[Izulde]

Boston United (9th)
GK Max Crocombe (Signed)
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Steveland Angus
DC Michael Corcoran
DR Izak Reid
ML Aaron Brown (Signed)
DM Eddie Odhiambo
DM Michael Corcoran
MR Anthony Edgar (Loan)
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Dan Walker (Loan)

We're going to dance with the guys who brought us, even though Ryan Austin is back. We'll keep him as a sub, though.

13' - Brown to Mulligan who dribbles before passing it to Walker for the shot. Nobody's fast enough on the rebound, and make mental note to have Work Ball in Box be a permanent shout. Think I said that already but it bears repeating.

18' - After trying and trying, Odhiambo *finally* gets a shot just outside the box to go in for his first goal with us! Beautiful Brown to Mulligan to Eddie chain is what set it up, though. 1-0

20' - Poor pass by Mulligan is intercepted and they nearly score the immediate answer... just wide, though.

Still that scoreline at half, and we're playing beautifully this game. Really nice to see.

47' - Walker runs down a loose ball and centers it for a waiting Mulligan for the easy tip-in insurance goal. 2-0

50' - Another great Brown to Mulligan pass... but Gary sits on the ball too long before taking his shot, so it's wasted.

54' - Austin for the superbly playing Angus, only because the latter's getting tired and I don't want to risk injury.

55' - Edgar to Walker to Mulligan... GOAL! 3-0

66' - Mulligan with a knock, so Barney takes over.

We get a few more shots at padding our lead further, but they just narrowly miss. Not complaining though. "What an exceptional half from Brackley," the announcer says at the conclusion of the game, and I couldn't agree more. What a fantastic way to end the season.

7+ Ratings
9.3 - Gary Mulligan (MoM)
8.9 - Dan Walker
8.0 - Eddie Odhiambo
7.7 - Eddie Nisevic
7.6 - Tom Sharpe
7.3 - Aaron Brown
7.1 - Izak Reid

Vauxhall is the team dumped, much to my glee.

Gary Mulligan is our top goalscorer of the year with 8 goals in just 13 games. He's been a big, big part of our stretch run success.

The fans are over the moon with that away win, as well they should be. We finish the year 17th after the media originally predicted the team to finish 10th. Yeah, I can see why the previous guy got sacked.

Haha! In the press conference, this comes up:



Dude has been trying repeatedly to get a goal and it's taken him this long to succeed in my tenure here, so yes, collector's item, and congrats to him!

No Contract Players
Warren Peyton
Josh Green
Stevland Angus
Eddie Odhiambo
Laurie Walker

Expiring Contract Players
Billy Turley - $33,500
Michael Corcoran - $21,000
Tom Winters - $16,750

June 2014 Contract Players
Izak Reid - $35,000
Gary Mulligan - $33,500
Ryan Austin - $31,000
Tom Sharpe - $23,500
Eddie Nisevic - $20,000
Aaron Brown - $17,750
Max Crocombe - $17,750
Aaron Wickham - $17,750
Brett Solkhon - $17,500

Obviously Billy Turley won't get a new contract. Tom Winters wants more than what I'm willing to pay for a guy who doesn't figure as a long-term starter in my plans. Michael Corcoran is a good player, but he doesn't fit in my system at all, as we don't use MC, so I'll try offering him to clubs along with Tom Winters to see if I can get money for them.

Nobody's willing to bite, though.

Gary Mulligan is on the Team of the Week.

Max Crowcombe has impressed in training, which is always good to see. Aaron Brown's fitness is taking a hit, though. And in general, players aren't happy with the fitness and goalkeeping coaching we have.

Breaking News (Part 1)
Gary Mulligan wins the Blue Square North Player of the Month Award and Stevland Angus finishes third in voting.

Breaking News (Part 2)
I finished second in Manager of the Month voting, losing out to Bishop Stortford's coach, which is very fair. The board also comes calling with a new contract offer, with a repeat one year, $52,000 deal. I'd like to see something more, but it's fair, given we're only talking about a quarter of a season's work here.

I try to hire a fitness coach for $2,200 a year, but the board blocks me.

Ian Gay wants me to take Corcoran and Winters off the list. Yeah, not doing that.

Year-end Training Results
Laurie Walker and Max Crocombe both made improvements and both are goalies. Nice problem to have.

Tom Winters declined, and Billy Turley, Gary Mulligan, Eddie Odhiambo and some scrub look like they'll decline next year.

Board Review
Satisfactory. They loved the Dan Walker loan-in, and the Gary Mulligan breakout. The fans rate me Good in the transfer market and player performance.

Stefan Brown and Anthony Edgar posted a 7 and 6.83 average rating respectively while at the club, but Edgar was ever-present, whereas Brown was just a reserve.

Gainsborough beats Harrogate in the promotion playoff final.

The 17th place is a record high for the club because it's Brackley's first year in Blue Square North. I'm not shortlisted for the Manager of the Year award because I haven't been here long, which is fair.

We repeat our one year jersey sponsor for $8k for the season and our $275k wage budget with $0 transfer budget. There's also a shitty sponsorship deal worth $1k/year over 5 years. Hope we have the right to tear up that contract at some point.

God damn it. I land a great player but the board cancels it due to the effect on the budget. Time to just flat out release Winters, Corcoran, and Turley on frees. With that happening, we suddenly free up a ton of money in our budget and can grab some top talent.

Transfer Notes
We steal 21 year old MLC Callum McNish from Oxford City on a 2 year, $28,000 per year deal. He's already capable of playing at the BS Premier level and has League 2 upside. Pen him in as the starting left midfielder and a massive upgrade over the Winters/Brown combo we used last season.

MC/ST Elliott Sandy leaves us for Bishop's Stortford, which is pretty much whatever since he never played for us after I showed up and only had a 6.64 rating for the previous manager.

GK Laurie Walker goes to Oxford City. Again, don't care.

What does sadden me is that DM/DR Eddie Odhiambo packs his bags for Histon. Really wanted to keep him around, but he wasn't interested in staying with us at all.

By the way, Staines managed to stay up, and ironically also finished 17th.

Quick-skimming the roster, the backline is fine. But we need a backup goalie, a starting defensive midfielder, and another starting striker.

We take care of the DMC by signing 31 year old Tyrone Thompson from Gainsborough on a non-contract basis. Then we make the big splash by paying 21 year old Ashley Yeoman to a two year, $42,500 a year contract, making him the highest paid player on the club by far. He doesn't quite have the ripping pace that Dan Walker did, but he won out over Walker because my scouts swear Yeoman has a lot higher upside than Walker does.

Warren Peyton signs a non-contract with Welling

Croatia joins the European Union. Luis Cumbers signs a $21,000 a year with Histon. Good luck with that fellas. Anthony Edgar signs with Cambridge for a whopping $67,000. We wanted to bring him back but there was just no room in the budget for him.

I lock up most of my staff on one or two year deals, not wanting to hunt around, and they'll be fine for now. All get raises but that's okay.

Chester earns the biggest Underachievers label for our conference which is soo right.

Izak Reid wins Fans Player of the Year thanks to his 7.01 rating.

Brackley Best 11
GK Billey Turley
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Eddie Odhiambo
ML Tom Winters
MC Brett Solkhon
MC Michael Corcoran
MR Izak Reid
ST Harry Crawford
ST Gary Mulligan

Lee Barney made the alternates, which is awesome.

$12k in TV rights. Snore.

We're expected to achieve a mid-table position this year, but the budget increases for shooting higher are so tiny, I'm not even going to bother with them.

...LOL!



So I guess AFC Telford is kind of sunk, huh?

We steal 20 year old Spanish DC/DM Sergio Sanchez out from under Staines' noses. He'll fight Tyrone Thompson for a starting spot at DMC. Better still, he has BS Premier potential and is signed for two years at the bargain basement rate of $4,400 a season.

Kind of regret giving Yeoman all that money now, as it's put us $13,7000 over our wage budget, but oh well. Hopefully he proves his worth it. We still have depth gaps to fill at goal and MR, but more on that in the next post.

[Izulde]

...Whoa! We got moved to Blue Square South. Can this really happen?! Apparently, because we're now in the same division as Staines! Bishop's Stortford made the move also.

Goalkeeper
Max Crocombe (19 - $8k - New Zealand)

Yeah, just Max. My staff still believes in his upside and he performed well for us last season - 6.85 average rating in 6 starts. Obviously he's the guy in the middle for us, and if he is indeed BS Premier quality in his upside, he'll be here for a while. Signed through 2015.

Defenders
Stevland Angus (32 - Jamaica)
Ryan Austin (28 - $45k)
Aaron Brown (33- $2.5k)
Josh Green (25)
Eddie Nisevic (22 - $20k)
Izak Reid (25 - $50k)
Sergio Sanchez (20 - $2k - Spain)
Tom Sharpe (24 - $20k)
Brett Solkhon (30 - $12k)
Aaron Wickham (19 - $10k)

There's a fair bit of value here. Green is on his way out to another club most likely and I'm not going to comment much on this group because so much of their playing time pre-dates my arrival to the club last season. I will say that a Sharpe/Austin pairing at DC would give us arguably the strongest group in the league, but after further review, we're not going to do that. Instead, our backline is going to be as follows:

DL Nisevic
DC Sharpe
DC Sanchez
DR Austin

That gives us the strongest possible back four, with Sanchez's 3* current by my scouts the lowest rating. It's a group I'm excited about, particularly since they played so well last season. Solkhon, Angus and Brown are the reserve guys that will see quite a bit of playing time.

Defensive Midfielder
Wickham
Tyrone Thompson (31)
Sanchez
Solkhon

As you can see, by default, Thompson wins the DMC starting spot next to Wickham. I'd like to get one more player here for stronger depth, or upgrades, as Wickham and Thompson are both 2.5* currently, although Wickham has BS Premier upside.

Wing Midfielders
Brown
Callum McNish (21 - $16k)
Reid

McNish was a monstrous get for us. 4-4.5* current and he'll immediately become our new ML. Between him and Reid's 5* rating on the right side, I'll take that duo over any other pairing in the league. But there is literally no one to back up Reid, and while I love Brown's work last season, more help would be useful.

Strikers
Gary Mulligan (28 - $30k)
Ashley Yeoman (21 - $10k)

Yeoman and Mulligan both have 2.5* ratings currently, which is sorta making me regret that $42k a year contract I gave the kid, but it's all about that 5* potential. There's literally no one else to play striker either, so depth will be something we need to address here, too.

Youth Players
DM Luke Dixon (3*)
DRC Gareth Lee (2.5*)
MR Brad Varney (2.5*)

To be fair, Varney is also a MC, but we don't need those in our setup. Yeah, none of these kids will play at the BSP level it's looking like, but maybe they can be depth or something.

Welp, talk about a total reversal of plans, because we just loaned in 22 year old GK Joe Day from Peterborough for the entire season, and Day is a topflight keeper, as in BS Premier quality right now. This could potentially make us favorites for doing something.

A couple more of our guys get snapped away by other clubs, but they weren't in our plans, so it's not a big deal.

Uh oh. Izak Reid wants out to a bigger club. ...Shit. Shit shit shit. Still, he's got $50k value and I don't want to stand in the way of his obvious ambition.

We bring in 17 year old striker James Roberts on a 3 month loan from parent club Oxford. He's raw, and still very much a backup to our top strikers, but still.

I offer Reid to clubs, but nobody's biting at the $50k value. Tony Garrod signs with Eastleigh for $46,500.

Peterborough
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

7' - ...Well that's one way to show off your skills. Reid dribbles down the field singlehandedly and puts it in goal. Sure nobody wants to pay the $50,000 fee and make everyone happy? 1-0

16' - Really, they shoudl pummel us. 1-1

46' - We've had a couple really close chances since last update, but then this beauty comes through.. with Mulligan to Yeoman for a goal and the lead! 2-1

50' - Score should have tied up after Nisevic makes a terrible pass taht gets intercepted, but it just misses. Brown on for him after that awful error.

54' - Flawless free kick. 2-2

62' - Solkhon on for Wickham

72' - Gareth Lee on for Austin, James Roberts on for Yeoman

Lots of shot attempts by them, but nothing doing. What a fantastic result! I don't care if it's preseason. We just freaking tied a League 1 team!

7+
Max Crocombe - 7.4 (MoM)
Izak Reid - 7.3
Tom Sharpe - 7.1

One thing I noticed though is that our DMCs got exposed a lot in this tactic. Thompson in particular made a lot of bad plays, so it's an area we'll need to thicken up. The problem is, nobody listed for loan is worth having, and we can't get non-contract guys due to our being over budget.

[u]Blue Square South Promotion Odds[/b]
Hayes and Yeading, Salisbury, and Eastleigh all 6-1 favorites. Chelmsford 8-1, Welling 10-1, and Wealdstone 12-1. We're 33-1, which means oddsmakers think we'll have to fight against relegation. Media's got us slated for 14th.

Braintree
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

[b]15']/b] - ...Uhoh. McNish is knocked. Brown's hustled on for him.

25' - Wickham shakes off a tenacious defender to pass it to Yeoman in the half circle, who wheels about and passes it to Mulligan and it's in the net. 1-0

26' - Immediate answer via corner 1-1

41' - Sigh. Now Mulligan is hurt. In goes Roberts. This is not good. And Yeoman shanks the easy one on one miss. Yeah that's why we're paying you $42,000, asshole.

53' - We looked slow there. 1-2

71' - I throw on all the subs bar Crocombe.

It's a BS Premier team and it's preseason, so I'm not too pissed at the loss.

Fuck!!!! Callum McNish out 4 weeks. Not good. Not.good.at.all.

Oxford
All you need to know is that all the subs started, and that includes the 3 U18 players. All in all, I'm fine with the 0-1 result.

What I'm annoyed by is Stefan Brown getting a non-contract from Hayes and Yeading. He's supposed to go to us, damn it.

Aldershot
The U18 kids were wiped so they got swapped out. I still went with a sub-heavy lineup. Regardless, 0-5 is NOT acceptable.

Unbelievable. Dan Walker signs a non-contract with Boreham Wood.

Brett Solkhon keeps his captaincy as he has throughout Brackley's time in Blue Square Conference play and I make the admittedly surprising decision to name 20 year old Sergio Sanchez vice-captain.

vs Truro
GK Joe Day
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

We're favored, and I'm excited to get the season started.

11' - Wow! Reid with the free kick and Sanchez heads it up and in for the goal. Great start by our new Spanish vice-captain! 1-0

14' - ....And immediately after, Sanchez flubs the play in the middle, leading to an easy equalizer for them. 1-1

27' - ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! Day's sorry ass drops the ball without even being shot at and in it goes. 1-2

28' - Fabulous play. Mulligan catches the ball *just* as it's about to go over the line for a goal kick, slots it back and center in the box for Wickham, who makes it our second defensive guy with a goal on the day. 2-2

30 - Wickham to Brown with a pretty ball for Yeoman... ....and shot's no good, but there's Reid with the follow-through for the lead!!! 3-2

Solid first half overall. Now let's cut down on the miscues and go win this thing.

49' - Seriously? Now Yeoman's hurt, meaning my two high-priced offseason signings will likely contribute jack shit for the early season. Roberts on for him.

64' - Fuck you FM, seriously just FUCK YOU!!!! Now Reid has to fucking go off. That's BULLSHIT! My 3 best fucking players all god damned fucking hurt before the fucking first game is over. Congratulations, Brad Varney, you're now the youngest player ever to appear on the pitch for Brackley.

85 - Shut it down and contain.

91 - Gorgeous run by Mulligan and he kicks it back to Varney for the giveback and the easy shot.. and of course Gary misses.

7+
Izak Reid - 8.0
Sergio Sanchez - 7.5
Aaron Wickham - 7.3

I'm scared to look at the injury report after the game, but miraculously, both Reid and Yeoman appear okay.

We make two emergency 3 month loans - MR Nick Freeman from Histon, and DM/ST Jermaine Udumaga from Oxford.

Izak Reid is named to the first Team of the Week.

Well that's just great. Udumaga is hurt himself.

Hayes & Yeading (21st)
GK Joe Day
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Ryan Austin
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Stevland Angus
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST James Roberts

Yep, a Scotch taped lineup because it's such a short break. We're away to boot, at a preseason favorite who got their asses kicked the first game.

4' - Mulligan intercepts a pass and gives it to Thompson, who does a back and forth with Solkhon before booting it up to Mulligan again in the box, who dribbles a bit more.... and bangs it in! 1-0 A dream start, indeed.

22' - Day makes an absolutely jaw-dropping save that makes me not regret loaning him in despite his big error in the opener.

46' - Bullshit disallowed goal. They claimed Mulligan fouled somebody which so did not happen.

50' - And here comes former Saint Josh Green as a reserve.

61' - Reid moves back to DR, and Nick Freeman comes on at MR, exhausted Austin taking his spot on the bench.

65' - Jesus! Another damned dropped ball by Day and only nerves by the H&Y guy prevent the tie as he shanks the wide as hell open goal mouth.

68' - Wickham on for Thompson.

78' - Wide open for Wickham and he just misses it. Ugh.

79' - Another easy goal we should have had, but the scrum ends up with the defense kicking it out.

80' - :eyeroll: Wickham has to come off, so I'm forced to jury-rig a 5-3-2 with Brown coming on at ML and Angus shifting back to DC.

83' - A should have been goal for them. Let's just lock this down and get the 3 points, mkay?

91' - Sharpe smacks it hard on a corner play and Mulligan follows with an insane slide tackle shot... but their defense is playing hardball, refusing to give up that insurance goal.

Not a pretty win, but I'll take it, by God. We were underdogs and playing awfully thin.

7+
Gary Mulligan - 7.4
Brett Solkhon - 7.3
Tom Sharpe - 7.3
Joe Day - 7.3

Aaron Wickham is out 6 to 9 days. And we have our third match of the season in 2 days against....

....

....

Staines.

[Izulde]

Staines vs Brackley
Staines is coming to town and they've also started the season 2-0-0 and are 3rd to our 4th.

Our guys are exhausted - the curse of not having a good Fitness coaching regime, which they've complained about, so we run out with this lineup:

GK Joe Day
DL Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

They're running 4 flat backs, a DMC, 2 MCs, an AML, an AMR, and a ST. Familiar names include Jack Turner, Scott Page, Lewis Ferrell, David Wheeler, Johnny Goddard and Louis-Rae Beadle.

Staines is also on a 9 game unbeaten run dating back to last season, and they can set a club record with 10 today by beating us, so I really, really want to win the Izulde Jestor Classic. Doubly so since we're on our home turf.

22' - Scary moment there, as Wheeler boots it in to the post, but it bounces off and Angus clears it out.

25' - Yellow for Solkhon.

33' - And of course, another fucking injury force off, like we've had EVERY DAMN GAME SO FAR. This time it's Sanchez, and we slide Sharpe and Angus down to put Nisevic in.

43' - Solkhon should have had that one...

So we're exhausted (Thompson is at 61% already), and dealing with a rash of injuries. Yet, I'm hoping we can find a way to win this.

72' - Fuck. 0-1

74' - Page goes off on a second yellow, and I'm hoping that'll be enough to let us score the equalizer goal in the time remaining.

89' - Nice shot from Freeman, but no one's there to grab the rebound.

Heartbreaking loss, but really, what was to be expected with all our injury and fitness issues? Staines jumps up to first as a result of the win, heh, which we would have done had we won. The real kicker? They were picked to finish 20th by the media.

Oxford City (6th)
GK Joe Day
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

We're 7th, and Oxford City are our archrivals. We're playing at their place. Great to have McNish back, although we're still a ways away from full health, obviously.

0' - Terrible goal kick by Day and yeah. 0-1

19' - ...Yeah that should have been a goal by them and I thought it was in. Hair of chinny chin chin miss.

37' - Off a corner, Sharpe kicks it and misses, goalie deflects, Sharpe kicks it again, goalie deflects again, but third time is the try and Sharpe finally puts it in. 1-1

40' - Dear defenders, stop fucking scoring an awesome goal and then immediately playing shit on the other end to allow a goal that assfucks the point you just got. 1-2

51' - Pacey striker = d00m. 1-3

63' - Heh. PK and yellow for Sharpe 1-4

74 - Thought we were going to get away without a sendoff injury? Oh fuck no. Now it's Yeoman. Roberts in for him, but who gives a fuck?

89 - Pile pile pile. 1-5

Walk of Shame
Eddie Nisevic - 5.4
Joe Day - 5.2
Sergio Sanchez - 5.0

Needless to say, they're getting ripped into. I also transfer list Ashley Yeoman for half his $12k valuation.

Bromley
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Now we're almost back to full health, though it's another away game so I'm not holding out much hope. Day got benched after that disaster, so let's give Crocombe another shot.

2' - Narrowest of free kick misses by Austin!

24' - And again, Austin just missing on the free kick.

25' - Yellow for Mulligan

31' - Yellow for Sanchez

33' - Another stupid kick by Crocombe, only he has the pace to get back and stop the goal from scoring.

35' - Nice Wickham to McNish string to set up Mulligan ...who blows the open shot.

Roberts on for Mulligan at the half, because Gary's playing like ass. Overall, though, we've been doing pretty well.

46' - Yellow for McNish.

51' - Starting to feel a fuckload like Staines last season. 0-1

53' - Wickham Yellow

59' - Exactly like it. 0-2

76' - Solkhon and Brown on for Wickham and McNish.

Sanchez had a good day - 7.3, but I decide not to beat the team up overall, much as I want to. Their morale is already pretty hammered.

Training
Eddie Nisevic, Ashley Yeoman, and Joe Day have all improved. Aaron Brown continues decline.

Luke Dixon improved for youth squad, Brad Varney no.

Board really wants me to sell players. I'm trying man, I'm trying. But nobody's biting.

Bishop's Stortford (5th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Sergio Sanchez
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

0' - Thought Brown had it on the pass from Yeoman, but no soap.

1' - Yeoman to Solkhon to Mulligan and *there's* the start we were looking for 1-0

28' - Our backline has been really aggressive about getting in the way of shots, but they're outpaced on this counter. Fortunately the shot goes wide.

33 - Mulligan feeds it from midfield to Solkhon, who plays some lovely harp music to Yeoman in for the goal!! 2-0

Terrific first half, exactly what we needed. Roberts is going to come on for Yeoman, who needs the breather.

54' - Roberts gets a yellow card on what was a great goal opportunity for us, but I didn't see what for.

61' - Yellow for Thompson

71' - Freeman on for Reid. Yellow for Solkhon.

84' - We're facing a lot of pressure, so it's time to close the gates and contain.

7+
Brett Solkhon - 8.4 (MoM)
Tom Sharpe - 7.6
Gary Mulligan - 7.5
Ashley Yeoman - 7.3
Stevland Angus - 7.2

What a phenomenal performance by our team captain when we needed it most. Great job all around considering this was on another 3 days rest. Yeoman ended a 10 hour drought, too.

The win moves us up to 9th in the table.

[Izulde]

The resting key players thing rears its head again. It's called resting my players, jackass.

Farnborough (12th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Everybody's healthy now, thankfully, so we can run out a full strength side. Their goalie hasn't allowed one in 209 minutes, key factor in why they're favored.

9' - Reid intercepts a throw-in and there's a whole lot of passing going on that eventually ends in this chain - Thompson to Yeoman to Mulligan inside the box for the score and the early lead. So much for that unstoppable goalie. 1-0

26' - Yeoman takes the ball all by himself down the field on a counter, but the keeper runs out to steal the ball away in a dangerous, yet successful move.

37' - Stop me if you've heard this before. Crocombe with a poor goal kick, but happily they're offisides and off target, to boot.

38' - Yellow for Austin

42' - Perfect shot. Nothing to be done. 1-1

Angus is on for Nisevic at the half, as our starter is having a lousy game (5.8).

52' - That's a goal we should have been able to stop. Ugh. 1-2

62' - We'll take that own goal on a corner, sure. 2-2

69' - Solkhon on for Wickham, Brown for McNish.

Heh, the announcers think Farnborough should feel like they've won the game, but I feel like we should have. I'll take the away point, though.

7+
Tom Sharpe - 7.4
Ashley Yeoman - 7.4
Sergio Sanchez - 7.3
Gary Mulligan - 7.2

Wealdstone (9th)
GK Joe Day
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

This is a match we should be able to win. We're at home and these guys were just promoted.

18' - Absolutely amazing stop by Day, as I'm now rotating whoever the hot goalie is. Crocombe earned himself a couple starts, but he cost us 2 points last game, so our loan guy gets in.

And that's about it. Our offense has gone nowhere so far.

65' - Solkhon on for Wickham, Udumaga on for Yeoman.

72' - Crackerjack shot Udumaga following a brilliant running interception by Austin and a play setup, but their goalie is playing as passionately as Day.

79' - So close again, but Mulligan's shot is blocked by a defender and when he gets it again after a throw-in, it bounces off the top of the crossbar by the smallest margin I've ever seen.

86' - Oh, for fuck's sakes. Such bullshit. 0-1

Yeah, that's a game we should have won. We were unlucky as fuck, though.

Tonbridge (12th)
GK Joe Day
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

28' - Bounced off Day's hands and in. Fuck. 0-1

33 - Yeoman catches a loose ball following a tackle of [bMcNish[/b] and we get the immediate answer. 1-1

42 - Mulligan makes a terrific tackle to start a movement that ends up with Nisevic launching one into the box for the originator to make a diving head in for the lead! 2-1

44 - Piss-poor fucking positioning by Day again. Why the fuck do I loan your overrated piece of shit ass, motherfucker?! 2-2

I tell off Day and half my backline over the complete shitwank job they did that half.

58' - Day is running all over the field like a snotragged dumbass. Lucky he doesn't give up a goal.

68' - Great save by Day? IDGAF.

71 - Solkhon on for Wickham. Oh look, Day's fucking reject ass comes out again and gets scored on because he isn't fucking protecting the goal. 2-3

78 - Reid to Yeoman to Mulligan, but all I can think about is how fucking stupid Day is. 3-3

83 - Reid to DR, Freeman in for Austin's sorry playing ass.

91 - Day is done. He will never fucking play another game for me ever unless Crocombe's hurt. Fucking idiot again played a shitty kick and only flubfucker on the enemy shank preserves the draw.

Oh look, Michael Corcoran scores the go-ahead goal late for Oxford City.

Day had a 3.6 rating, the worst I've ever seen from any player ever in the history of FM. Way to waste the 8.8 and 7.9 from Mulligan and Yeoman respectively, assmaggot.

Fucker just sits there looking composed. Fuck you, you piece of rotten overhyped shit.

I rip him again in the media, and his reaction? Day does not feel worthy of Izulde Jestor's comments[/b]. I'd release you on a free if you were contracted to me right now, punk. Eat a giant bag of rancid dicks.

Salisbury (11th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

6' - Crocombe and Sanchez make a trillion great stops to fight off heavy, heavy pressure.

28' - We've had a few cracks, but nothing superclose. They score a goal here but it's disallowed due to offsides.

37' - Can't believe they missed after Crocombe rushed out too soon.

47' - A miss on an easy goal on a corner for them, too.

49' - Yellow for Yeoman. I immediately replace him with Udumaga.

51' - Yellow for Austin

60' - Is that Crocombe out there or Day? Dropped ball and only Nisevic's boot to the sideline bails us out.

62' - Solkhon on for Wickham.

89' - Mulligan and Udumaga play the back and forth game, with Mulligan getting the last touch which goes in for the goal and the lead! 1-0 Lllllllllock it down.

Precisely the kind of upset road win we needed.

7+
Tom Sharpe - 7.7 (MoM)
Gary Mulligan - 7.7
Sergio Sanchez - 7.5
Ryan Austin - 7.5
Eddie Nisevic - 7.1

Basingstoke (8th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

One thing I forgot to mention - Brett Solkhon has the team record for league appearances with 83.

20' - It's a knock for Austin but he'll play through it. Feels weird to be favored in this game, as we're on the road and this team is above us in the standings. We're also not on a hot streak or anything.

Our offense stagnates the entire half. Only two offensive highlights and it's nothing even close to scoring. The usual flip of Reid to DR and Freeman at MR for Austin happens earlier this time because of that knock.

47' - Spirited fight by our defense to fend off multiple swarming shots to start the second.

57' - McNish hits a booming curve from way out near midfield that the opposing keeper drops, and Yeoman shows great pace to beat the fallen goalie for the easy goal 1-0

61' - Solkhon on for Thompson this time.

88' - Containment time.

Blahblahblah poor match. Whatevs. 3 points.

7+
Sergio Sanchez - 7.4
Ashley Yeoman - 7.3

Ryan Austin is out 4-5 weeks. We've got the depth to cover that, though, so not *too* worried.

Training Notes - Good
Ashley Yeoman
Sergio Sanchez
Asswipe
Gareth Lee

Training Notes - Bad
Izak Reid
Aaron Brown

The board is pleased with me because we're 9th in the table, but the fans are rightfully booing me about the Joe Day loaning, calling it "an aberration".

vs Chorley (FA Cup 2nd Round Qualifying)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Izak Reid
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Jermaine Udumaga
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

In addition to the Austin injury, I decide to give a few players a rest, and just start the reserves.

10' - The disparity in talent is ridiculous, so we get to see things like Freeman one kick bombing an intercepted throw in to the six yard box where Mulligan is waiting to head it in 1-0

14' - Damn. Just damn. Freeman is *UP* for this one as he belts a corner perfectly for Sharpe to knife in. 2-0

16' - Udumaga's long shot doesn't fall, but Yeoman's there for the ridiculously easy rebound. 3-0

22' - Oh, that's offsides. Yep. Nice try, Chorley

35' - Mulligan was allegedly offsides. Don't think so, but we're kicking so much ass, I don't care.

40' - Angus misses a header and we pay for it with 20 yard strike. 3-1

44' - Ugh. Reid's hurt.

We move Solkhon to DR and put Sergio Sanchez in at DMC so we can pull Reid, and James Roberts goes in for Yeoman.

53' - Yellow for Freeman

71' - ...I swear it crossed the touchline for a goal for us.

73' - Shit. Mulligan's hurt. He's waving it off, though.

74' - FUUUUUUUCK! 3-2

89' - Thompson's in for Udumaga and we go into lockdown mode.

90' - McNish plays the most perfect ball ever for McNish, who dribbles until he can find the angle he wants... and... BAM! INSURANCE FTW! 4-2

7+
Gary Mulligan - 8.8 (MoM)
Nick Freeman - 7.7
Tom Sharpe - 7.5
Jermaine Udumaga - 7.4
Ashley Yeoman - 7.4
Callum McNish - 7.1

That's a nice $7.94k in the coffers right there.

James Roberts' 3 month loan finishes but we won't bring him back.

Dorchester (17th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

We spend the entire first half beating down the door but doing absolutely nothing close until [b]Wickham[b/]'s shot that was deflected in the 43rd minute. On the flip side, it's been all shutdown work by the defense.

60 - Nothing cracking yet. Reid to MR, Solkhon in at DR, Sanchez in at DMC for Freeman and Wickham respectively.

83' - Thompson's done, so I push McNish over to MC and insert Aaron Brown in at ML.

And in the end, just absolutely nothing. We didn't play like shit - we just couldn't find that little something something to get it done.

[Izulde]

@Havant & @ (2nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Izak Reid
DM Sergio Sanchez
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Not holding out much hope of our being able to do anything here, though we're still 9th in the table, especially since we're on short rest.

4' - Yeoman to Mulligan who has a crack, but nobody's there to hit the rebound.

8' - Had a try at tackling a guy as he was shooting, but there was just no stopping that one. 0-1

15' - Angus, who missed that tackle, pushes it to Freeman on a long header, who then sends it on up to Yeoman and I think it's the equalizer, but the goalie gets there before our striker.

20' - We keep on applying the pressure but they keep holding. Then, Wickham runs down a cleared out corner, wings it out to Freeman. Our loanee then jackhammers it up to the middle where Mulligan's waiting to head it in, and he does so. 1-1

33' - A completely fluke corner kick that turns into a goal all by itself. Ugh. 1-2

We've really been controlling the match, so we shouldn't be losing. Solkhon comes on for Angus, who is having his worst day in a long time (5.5).

50' - Should have had that, Yeoman.

67' - Yeoman runs all the way down the right flank and then makes a pinpoint cross to Mulligan, who nets his second header goal of the match, 10th overall score of the season. 2-2 Reid is also having an awful day, so Solkhon shifts to DR, Sanchez drops down to DC, and Udumaga comes in as the DMC.

86' - Brown in for McNish. But before that can happen, Freeman snags a Mulligan blocked shot, crosses it to the far post of the six yard box, and McNish is there to knock it in the wide open goalpost for the late lead!!! 3-2



88' - Contain curtain so we can walk out of here with 3 very unexpected points.

92' - Pretty fish to give a late yellow to Wickham, there.

"Brackley certainly showed they are no pushovers here!" Indeed. In fact, this might be the most impressive win of my tenure. What a great feeling.

7+
Gary Mulligan - 8.8 (MoM)
Nick Freeman - 8.4
Ashley Yeoman - 7.9
Callum McNish - 7.5
Max Crocombe - 7.2

Funny enough, it's Izak Reid who praises my halftime talk, even though he really wants out.

We're now in 8th place, tied with a bunch of teams with 21 points in 13 matches. Goal differential is what has us down here, as our -1 is the worst of anyone until Tonbridge at 13th. Top 21 point team is Chelmsford, in a promotion playoff spot at 5th, and Oxford City is 4th with 22 points. 26 points and 2nd and 3rd are Eastleigh and Havant & W. 30 points for Welling, the league leader.

I don't think we have the horses for winning the league, but I'm starting to think getting to the promotion playoffs is a possibility.

Our six game unbeaten streak is a new Brackley record (from 2012 on)

vs Bedworth - FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Jermaine Udumaga
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

We would have gone with as many reserves as possible anyway (except Assfarmer), but the fact of some guys needing some rest translates well into it anyway. Still should wipe the floor with these guys.

9' - Udumaga gets a knock, but puts to rest any notions of pulling him off by latching on to a cleared shot just outside the box and kicking it in for the early lead. 1-0

16' - Udumaga to Yeoman to Mulligan as a clean 1-2-3 and goal down the middle of the pitch. I love playing inferior competition. 2-0

23' - At this point, it's getting laughable. Yeoman with a plum pas to Mulligan and the totally easy goal to make this damn near a rout. 3-0

26' - Thompson booms it to Mulligan, who heads it to Yeoman. A touch of dribbling later, and we've got ourselves yet another goal not even 30 minutes into the game. 4-0

29' - I think I can legitimately LOL at this point. Brown with a beautiful corner right to Sharpe, who nonchalantly short kicks it in for the lead so large I've never seen us do it before. 5-0

42' - Reid lazily passes it and they intercept for a goal off the upright that gives them a tiny, tiny chance. 5-1

55' - We're getting sloppy. Angus misplays a kick from Crocombe, only a brilliant save by our goalie keeps it from starting to get a little interesting. Brown makes a dynamite clearance on the ensuing corner to rob Bedworth of a lockdown goal.

Talk about an asskicking. Everyone has a 7 or better with the exception of Izak Reid's 6.7, highlighted by 9.4 for Gary Mulligan (MoM), 9.3 for Ashley Yeoman, 8.4 for Tom Sharpe, 8.3 for Aaron Brown, and 8.1 for Jermaine Udumaga.

Udumaga is out 5 to 6 weeks, which brings him back after his loan finishes. It's suggested I terminate the contract, but I don't want to do that.

Gary Mulligan gets named to the Team of the Week, our most decorated player by far.

The good news is, Ryan Austin has resumed training. The bad news is, Nick Freeman and Jermaine Udumaga have their loans ending soon.

vs Eastleigh (2nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Big, big game. We've 7 games unbeaten, Eastleigh 13. We win this one, and it becomes a huge climb up the ladder, I think. Then again, we just beat the then #2 team on the road, so who knows?

20' - Should have been a goal for them there off the corner. Header went up and over.

27' - Bloop goal if I ever saw one. Looked just like a bloop single in baseball. 0-1

43' - Mulligan has been wildly misfiring all day. Then there's this sequence where Thompson sends it up to McNish, who heads it to Mulligan, who finally literally uses his head and dives forward to bang it in. 1-1

45' - Yellow for Freeman.

Despite the tie, we haven't been playing all that well. Austin comes on for the garbage playing Sanchez (5.9).

66' - Sigh. Caught out of position. 1-2 Reid up to MR, Solkhon on at DR.

81' - We're awarded a penalty, and McNish kicks it... barely making it!!! 2-2

91' - Thompson has to go off hurt, so Solkhon up to DMC, Austin to DR, and Angus in at DC.

7.9 for Mulligan and matching 7.3s for McNish and Crocombe. We'll take the tie, considering we were underdogs.

Tyrone Thompson is out 6 to 8 days. He'll miss the FA Cup game, and is iffy for our next league game against Maidenhead.

We can't find anybody decent on loan availability, and when we do, they reject us or are about to be transferred to another team. Very frustrating to say the least.

[Izulde]

Impressive October Trains
Eddie Nisevic
Max Crocombe
Sergio Sanchez
Luke Dixon

Decline October Trains
Brett Solkhon

vs Hednesford (FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Stevland Angus
DC Ryan Austin
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

This is our last shot to play Freeman, probably, so we'll get the most out of him possible. Otherwise, standard distribution of rest as much as possible applies.

8' - I really do love Brown. He's so great at clearing out dangerous situations.

21' - Should have been a goal, Mulligan, given Yeoman set you up perfectly following Solkhon's header.

31' - McNish places a beautiful corner to Angus, but the goalie makes a great stop. Happily, it bounces off his hands to the far post where Austin is waiting to head it in for his first ever goal for us. 1-0

We're playing decently, but we're not quite dominating like I think we have the potential to be.

51' - It's a knock on Solkhon, but he'll play on.

68' - Yellow for McNish.

70' - Solkhon heads up for Mulligan, who gets drilled before the ball gets there, and I'm shocked that's not a penalty. Yeoman has the wide open shot and blows it, though we manage to get a corner. Wickham *just* misses on the second corner.

73' - The hell? Mulligan's diving header from Yeoman's boot cross is in, I swear! Must have just missed breaking the plane.

87' - McNish on the corner to Angus, who tries the turnaround kick... and it's finally in! 2-0. Lockdown mode initiated.

Only Ashley Yeoman's 5.8 was lower than a 6.9 (and he had a 7.0 at half, so really sucked in the second half. Stevland Angus was the highlight and MoM with an 8.9.

A huge $22,000 for winning that round.

We grab 26 year old ML/ST Nathan Arnold on a 3 month loan. He'll be a backup for us at both those positions, and could play MR if forced to.

vs Maidenhead - 20th
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Just three days after our FA Cup match, and we've got another one. This should be a win for us.

10' - Sanchez is facing a lot of pressure outside the box, so he passes it down the line to Wickham, who executes a pinpoint shot for the early lead. 1-0

26' - We put a ton of pressure on the goalie on a corner, but it's no soap for the insurance.

29' - Now it's their turn to amp up the pressure on a corner, but Sanchez finally eliminates the danger.

We get a couple more shots, but are unlucky not to pad our lead by halftime.

54' - Freeman's cross hits a streaking McNish to finally get that insurance goal! 2-0

60' - Sigh. And there's the answer off a corner. 2-1

63' - Thompson for Wickham, Reid to MR and Solkhon in on DR.

76' - Reid passes it forward inside the box to the six yard area, but the defender can't control it, and Yeoman is there to punish him for his mistake. 3-1

82' - Disallowed goal for us, as Yeoman is declared offside. A little fishy if you ask me.

Terrific outing. Nobody got lower than a 6.9, with the highlights an 8.0 for Ryan Austin (MoM), a 7.8 for Ashley Yeoman, a 7.7 for Callum McNish, and a 7.5 for Sergio Sanchez.

We were 10th before the match and are now 8th with 25 points. 3rd place Eastleigh has 27 points, 2nd place Havant & W 30. Welling is still dominating the league with 36 points, and have just 1 loss all season long.

Needless to say, we're definitely in a position to have ourselves challenging for a promotion playoff spot by the end of the season. Thing have looked pretty good through 15 games *knocks on wood*

[Izulde]

Max Crocombe has been doing so well in training that Ian Gay sends me a note to tell me about it. I'd love to see Max be a long-term part of this team, but we'll just have to see what happens.

vs Oldham (FA Cup 1st Round)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Ryan Austin
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Nick Freeman
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

The usual resting of players, since I see no chance of our winning this game.

5' - Goal for them bounces just off the crossbar.

13' - Oh, come on, Yeoman! You had the wide open shot after Mulligan's shot is deflected by the defender and you hit it in the fucking side netting!

25 - Yeoman intercepts with a header to Thompson, who follows it up with a pass to Mulligan. Then the ball's sent to a hard-charging Yeoman who redeems with a neatly knocked in goal. 1-0

42 - Mulligan puts forth a lovely ball to Yeoman who should have had a goal, but he lost control of the ball at just the wrong moment. Then again, their counter should have netted a goal, so I'm calling it all even.

Sanchez on for Wickham at the half. Honestly, I don't really care if we win or lose this game now. The fact that we've held our own against a League 1 team for an entire 45 minutes shows we have the potential to do something this season.

56' - Mulligan gets knocked, but he'll fight it off since we have no replacements for him.

58' - A beaut of a control of a loose ball by Yeoman, but then he screws up the wide open shot. Sigh.

67' - This has been a game of terrible finishing by both sides, as Oldham misses on this one, too.

79' - Yellow for Freeman.

85' - Let's contain this one down for the massive upset. Reid goes in at MR for Freeman.

90' - Great hustle by our defense to cordon off a likely late tying goal, capped off by a booming kick from Angus that goes out for a throw-in near Oldham's goal box.

7+
Ashley Yeoman - 7.4
Ryan Austin - 7.4
Stevland Angus - 7.3
Brett Solkhon - 7.3
Max Crocombe - 7.3

Aaron Brown stunk in the second half and finished with a 5.9, but we still pulled off arguably the most massive upset since I've taken the reins here.

We pick up a cool $31,770 for the victory - much-needed money for our cash flow. Nice writeup about the win, too.



A record three players make the Team of the Week - Ashley Yeoman, Callum McNish, and Ryan Austin. We also get our first nibble on Izak Reid, whose value has plummeted to $35k, with Northampton interested, but not willing to pay $4k in transfer fees. On the other hand, Dover and Gateshead are majorly interested.

I screwed up on my loans, as Nathan Jones, the guy I wanted to have for the full season, I only did 3 months, while Simon Wilson, the striker I only wanted 3 months, I accidentally did full season on. Damn it.

On the flip side, Sergio Sanchez has been killing it in training.

@ Cinderford - FA Trophy Final Qualifying Round
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Stevland Angus
DC Ryan Austin
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Nathan Arnold

This should be a cakewalk, sticking with our usual B Cup lineup.

14' - It isn't the Wickham to Solkhon to Mulligan for a goal that impresses me the most. It's that Mulligan snuck behind Arnold to confuse the goal before low kicking it in. 1-0

Should have had another goal shortly before half, but Arnold is still getting used to our setup. We've been playing decently, but not dominating like we should against such an inferior team.

70' - Of course, their goalie being sensational isn't helping matters any. He blocks two successive shots from Arnold and Mulligan. Really, really doing well.

The most exciting win on the planet? No. But we'll take it. Everyone has 6.9 or better, headlined by Stevland Angus's 8.0 (MoM), Ryan Austin's 7.8, and Gary Mulligan's 7.4.

$6.79k for the win.

Gateshead's boss shows up at the game to check out Izak Reid, so the time may be coming when the transfer happens. 12 games since we've lost, which is a new team record.

@ Weston-super-mare (13th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Ryan Austin
DM Tyrone Thompson
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Not gonna lie. This smells like a trap game, and it shows in the fact that we aren't favored.

17 - Own goal by Angus. 0-1

18 - Vicious strike by them that no one could stop. 0-2

23' - A breath of life? Nisevic dribbles a bit down the flank and crosses it to Yeoman, who heads it in. 1-2

33 - Or not. Our backline has been shit today. 1-3

37 - Mulligan heads it to Yeoman, who firmly kicks it in and is intent on not letting us fall out. 2-3

5.5 and 5.7 for Austin and Angus, the latter of whom is yanked for Wickham.

60 - Reid's played like shit, too, so I pull him for Arnold.

81 - Yellow for Solkhon

83 - Arnold recovers his own cleared out corner and centers it to a waiting Wickham who Man-Ram heads it in for the tying score! 3-3

91 - Damn. We had the goal at our mercy but Yeoman couldn't be fast enough to beat out the defender.

All in all, we'll take the tie. It's a game I think we could've and probably should've won, but so it goes. We drop down to 10th with the tie, but it's still a tight pecking order for the playoff promotion spots.

@Gloucester (14th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Nathan Arnold

3' - Thought Wickham had that one on Reid's box interior free kick, but I guess not.

36 - Crocombe has been fantastic at turning away a couple of good shots by them today.

64 ....That sure as shitfuck looked offsides to me. Oh, and I just noticed Billy Turley's 39 year old ass is the goalie for them. 0-1 Arnold drops down to MR and I decide to give Sam Wilson his first crack.

74 - GOD DAMN IT MULLIGAN NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO FUCKING SCREW UP EASY SHOTS!!!

79 - As it turns out, it's Wilson who has to show Mulligan how the fuck to get up after your own god damned rebound for the certain goal. FIST PUMP, MAN! 1-1

83 - Brown comes on for McNish

A few free kicks exchanged and a narrow, failed last gasp effort from Mulligan. Really, this is a game we should have won easily. But I don't want to rip them apart, either, because they showed resiliance to come back for the point.

And that point is temporarily good enough to slide us up to 7th.

[Izulde]

@ Solham - FA Trophy 1st Round
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Ryan Austin
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Sam Wilson
ST Nathan Roberts

For the first time in forever, we have neither Mulligan nor Yeoman at striker, so this is a bit of a risky gambit. But the former needs rest and the latter could use a break as well, and we're facing incredibly weak competition again.

14' - Brown trots down the flank and passes up to Solkhon in the six yard box, and following the second's pass to empty space just on the opposite side of the post, I'm thinking it's a waste... until Wilson zooms past everyone else for the goal. I think this kid might be this year's Barney. 1-0

29' - The free kick goes short pass from Brown to Reid, short pass Reid to Angus, Angus goal! 2-0

We're really dominating this match, which is always great to see after those frustrating league ties.

57' Yellow for Wilson

79 - They've been getting some shots off but they've been of the long, whatever variety. Here's some more misery for them - Reid on a corner that sees Sharpe outjump the opponent for the header in 3-0

Complete and total domination. 6.9 the low, and up top we have matching 8.4s from Stevland Angus and Tom Sharpe (MoM), 8.0 from Izak Reid, 7.9 from Eddie Nisevic, and 7.7 from Sam Wilson of the 7.6+ territory.

$8.49k in the coffers for that one. Every little bit helps.

@Bath (18th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

It feels like it's been a while since we've won a league game, so this is our shot to do it.

7' - Yellow for Sharpe

42' - Thompson's in the box and he parks it with a short pass to spark a chase that Mulligan wins and puts in on the first real shot we've had all game. Bath's defense is doing great otherwise. 1-0

We're lucky to be up a goal, because we've been pretty damned mediocre out there. Arnold comes in for a lackluster Yeoman.

62' - Mulligan with the fantabulous ball forward for Arnold, who beats everyone and catches the keeper napping for an amazing insurance goal. 2-0. In the same breath, Thompson takes a knock, but he'll play on for now. By the way, that goal also broke Arnold's 10 hour+ drought.

71' - Wow. Not only is Austin there to get the ball after a rebound that has me thinking answer back, he drops it right in front of Mulligan to engineer another attack. Doesn't score a goal, but it eats up more time off the clock.

77 - Thompson's been great, but his injury is clearly affecting his stamina, so Solkhon heads out on to the field to replace him.

79 - Sharpe throws his body in front of the ball to stop a shot and Bath is screaming about a penalty but they don't get it.

86 - I hate doing it and robbing him of the rest, but Sanchez has to come on for an absolutely drained Wickham. And we'll just slam the door now.

90' - Actually we don't because I forgot to change it, but that's all right because Mulligan slams it home on a 20 yard strike to make this a full-on rout. 3-0

7.5+ Ratings
Gary Mulligan - 8.8 (MoM)
Stevland Angus - 8.0
Ryan Austin - 7.6

Yeah, it was that incredible a performance by our lads. Now, why the hell was I containing on a 3 goal lead, you ask?

Because our goal differential is now +4, and we're 4th in the league. That's right... we're in promotion playoffs territory. Before anyone starts dreaming about auto-promotion, though, Welling is running away with this thing with 42 points, second place Havant & W has 34 points with a game in hand, and then there's three of us all with 30 points.

vs Chelmsford (6th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Nathan Arnold
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Guys needing rest mean we have to juryrig the lineup a bit, but it'll work I hope, as this is a big, big game.

6 - Not a good start. 0-1

Yeah. It's been that shit a match so far.

47 - Wickham's knocked out of the game, so I slide up Sanchez and bring in Sharpe.

70 - In a desperation move, I shift Mulligan to MR in place of Arnold and slot in Wilson at striker.

77 - Knock for Solkhon.

We literally never got a shot on goal. And in front of our home fans, too. It was our first league loss in 11 games. But we're still 5th, which is promotion playoff spot.

Impressive Training
Gary Mulligan
Max Crocombe

Disappointments
Ryan Austin
Luke Dixon

Wow. Here's a new one. An agent is offering his player to me, 20 year old MR Francis McCaffey. We end up bringing him on a 3 month loan, because he's an immediate upgrade to Izak Reid's backup spot.

Board Confidence Update - December 1st
Delighted with me because of our league position. We made $41,370 profit last month due to $69,120 in prize money from the FA Trophy and FA Cup.

[Izulde]

@ Eastborne Boro (14th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Sergio Sanchez
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Callum McNish
MR Francis McCaffery
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Good thing we loaned in McCaffery at the last second, because it turns out we need him right off the bat.

11' - ...Wow. How did their striker who outran everyone miss that wide open shot? Unbelievable.

Our passing has been for absolutely shit tonight, but spirited play from our backline has kept it all clean. Luke Dixon gets his first senior action at DM, and Wilson comes on for Yeoman.

84 - Both offenses have lacked punch and direction, but they finally get a goal... only it's called off due to questionable offsides call.

86 - Austin gets knocked, but he'll fight on.

92 - DAMN IT! I thought sure as fuck McCaffrey had that rebound goal in and he *just* missed it. What a fabulous finisher that would have been!

7+ for Crocombe and our entire backline except for Brown. Sharpe gets MoM with his 7.6. We were just unlucky this game is all. Unfortunately that drops us to 6th and out of the promotion playoff spot.

vs Southport (FA Cup Round 2)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Gareth Lee
DM Luke Dixon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Brad Varney
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Sam Wilson

Yeah, we're powering down the lineup as much as possible, as I don't see us winning this one at all. The U18 kids will get their taste of first action, as we try to rest up for the rest of league play.

1 - Hell of a rocket by Thompson. Too bad it's no soap.

9 - Own goal by Dixon. Shit. Kid looks devastated. 0-1

12 - 20 yard strike for Brown, which is his first goal for us? Have trouble believing it, but whatever works. 1-1

15 - Knock for Varney. Stay on, kid.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. Three kids and we're tied at the half, and should be ahead. Reid comes on for Lee, McCaffrey for Varney.

Fuck. An own goal away from pulling off another massive upset. The replay's going to be away, so you know we'll get hammered there. Truth is, though, we just got way outplayed in the second half and were lucky to stay the course.

Max Crocombe earns his first Team of the Week nod. Brad Varney goes down for 5 to 6 weeks with a twisted ankle.

vs Welling (1st)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Ryan Austin
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

We're 9th coming into this game, by the way, with a game in hand on #3-5. But trying to beat the clear-cut top team in the league is no easy feat.

Yeah, it's been that dull a first half. Neither side can chug their offense up to speed, so it's made for a boring game.

48' - First clear shot I've seen, but they shank the kick.

55' - I can see why they're the best team in the league. Twice Yeoman kicks it, and twice, Mott clomps on to the ball like a giant glob of apple sauce to save the goal.

74 McCaffrey and Arnold on for Reid and McNish

86 - One of Crocombe's bad goal passes, and it's somehow shanked again.

7+s for our entire backline again. Sure, we could have won this game with a little more luck, but there's no shame in drawing the team that's so far ahead of everyone else, it's ridiculous.

Unfortunately, we're now down to 10th in the table and no games in hand.

More bad news - Nathaniel Wedderburn, who we wanted to bring in, goes to Staines instead on loan. On the bright side, we bring in Oldham's MR Kirk Millar on a 3 month loan who I'm kicking myself for not bringing in for the whole season after I get a good look at him.

vs Worcester - FA Trophy 2nd Round
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Stevland Angus
DC Ryan Austin
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Sergio Sanchez
DM Lee Dixon
ML Callum McNish
MR Francis McCaffrey
ST Nathan Arnold
ST Sam Wilson

3 matches in one week, of which this is the first. To make matters worse, 4 starters need a rest, which is why we're going with this damn near C list lineup in the one cup match we've a shot at winning, as Worcester is 4th in the Blue Square North.

5 - A knock for Dixon, who has had a terrible start to his senior career, I must say.

28 - Sheesh. Four straight corners and nothing doing with anything of them. Our drought on offense continues.

44 - Long range strike right before the half of course, which will be enough for them to win the game. 0-1

I'm getting a little sick of this shit, so I rip into them at halftime.

52 - Absolutely gorgeous run down the middle of the pitch by Arnold, who then splits two defenders and a goalie with a great shot in off the bar to equalize. 1-1

70 - I swear, Angus has more narrow goal misses than anybody else on this team.

84 - So what would be the total feather cap on Dixon's rough career start? Why, a fucking undeserved red card, of course. At this point I'm saying fuck it, pulling Sanchez back to DC, and shutting up shop for the draw.

91 - A little more force and Arnold would have a great fuck you goal. Alas, just a little too soft (That's what she said).

7.8 for Angus, 7.6 for Arnold, and may I point out that Dixon had a 7 before he got unfairly canned?

I'm fined $300 by the FA for shredding the refs about the red card. Fuck you, I don't care. I'm making $52,000 in this fantasy universe.

@Southport (FA Cup Round 2 Replay)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Gareth Lee
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Aaron Brown
MR Francis McCaffery
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Sam Wilson

Weak a lineup as iI can put out, what with injuries, suspensions, and rest needings. No way we should have a shot in this one.

0 - Balls to the wall Wilson shot that bounced off the interior top bar after a great interception and pass by Mulligan. Soooo close.

36 - Yellow for Wilson.

Neither side can break through, it seems, continuing our late trend of stout defense and non-existent offense.

48 - Hardnosed defense to start the second half can't hold up to a long strike miracle, which we seem to be giving up way too many of lately. 0-1

68 - WTF is this long bomb bullshit?! 0-2

80 - Home cooking. Just to make sure there's no hope of our coming back, here's a PK. 0-3

I won't tell you the number of sub-6s we had today. Worst second half we've played since probably sometime last season. I'm not too upset about it, though. The money's nice, but cup play has been a drain on our league position.

@Truro (21st)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Kirk Millar
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Our blowing off the cup games gives a full-strength squad for a must-win game against one of the conference's shittiest teams.

18 - We're denied a penalty we should have gotten.

25 - Crocombe shows slow reflexes in going after a goal that should have scored, but it goes just over the bar.

41 - Yellow for Sharpe

I can't remember the last time we scored two goals in a game. Thompson in for Wickham.

64 - Sign of how rough things are that Sharpe's sure goal bounces off the crossbar instead of going in.

73 - And now Mulligan holds on to the ball too long looking for the perfect shot. OMG another header that bounces off the crossbar on a corner

84 - Arnold for Mulligan, Brown for Nisevic.

We can't even buy a fucking goal at this point. We're now 9th, 4 points out of a playoff promotion with a game in hand. I try to tone down my disgust with the referees, and the FA slaps me a $400 fine anyway. Fuck you.

Fuck you, John Nutter, for going to Maidenhead rather than me on loan.

vs Hayes & Yeading (22nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Kirk Millar
ST Sam Wilson
ST Ashley Yeoman

If we can't even beat the league's worst team on our own turf, we don't deserve to fight for a promotion spot.

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this team? Shot shot shot shot shot shot shot shot shot and nothing nothing nothing nothing. Frustrated, I scream at them at the half break.

53 - Solkhon on for Thompson, and we're still nothing doing.

[b]82[/b - Arnold up to striker and Brown in at ML. We've had a crossbar bounce, yep.



WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS?!

After some haggling, we re-sign Brett Solkhon to a one year contract extension that will see him take a $4,000 paycut from $17,500 to $13,500. The only reason I'm retaining him is because he's played well for us, and he's our team captain. The rest of the squad looks like it's going to undergo some major overhauls.

Good Trainers
Max Crocombe
Callum McNish
Sergio Sanchez

Bad Trainers
Tom Sharpe

We loan in George Bowerman from Walsall for the rest of the season. He's so great a striker, he blows everyone else on the team out of the water. Hopefully he'll be the tonic we need to fix our anemic offense.

@Worcester (FA Trophy Round 2 Reply
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Francis McCaffrey
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

Do I care at all about cup play? No, but I'm forced to put up a semi-decent lineup anyway. Interesting note: Aaron Wickham says he doesn't want to play for Jamaica in his player reaction. Does that mean he's been called up? A quick look at Jamaica's teams says No, but he must be in discussion for it.

18 - Yeoman is really pressing out there and doing jack squat. They score early and you know it's all over from here. 0-1

37 - Our drought *finally* ends as Thompson pitches a ball into the box that McCaffrey runs up and centers for Wickham to bounce it in. 1-1

46 - Oh look, a *just* before the whistle blows goal. 1-2

Brown's 5.7 ass gets yanked for Nisevic.

56 - Time to stop paying attention 1-3

1-4 Final Ugh.

Joe Day requests to terminate his loan. I agree, you worthless sack of shit.

vs Oxford City (5th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Kirk Millar
ST Gary Mulligan
ST George Bowerman

You want to know the fitting part? George Bowerman is on a goal drought of his own. Of course, that's at Walsall, which is a League 1 team, as opposed to our level.

Big game. Rivalry matchup and Michael Corcoran and Laurie Walker on the other side. I always want to kick these guys' asses.

11' - Within the first 11 minutes, Bowerman cracks twice in a row at goal and misses, Wickham gets hurt, and Bowerman picks up a yellow. Solkhon on for Wickham. Oh, and Oxford City blow a certain goal.

24 - Oh, that was beautiful! Bowerman with the interception and running past everyone for a pristine shot and our first lead in forever!!! 1-0

36 - Millar jacks it forward for Mulligan to find, which he does on the far side and punches it in for ZOMG OUR FIRST 2 GOAL GAME IN LIKE UMPTEEN MILLION YEARS!!!! 2-0

43 - There's McNish with the cross after a dribble sequence upon the pass from Mulligan... and there's Bowerman slicing his way through for his second goal!!! 3-0

45 - They beat the 3 man defense somehow, but the post rises up to knock aside the goal and preserve our 3 margin halftime lead!

Wow, just wow! Evidently Bowerman was just what we needed! (More on that later).

53 - A knock on Nisevic. I'm not willing to take any chances, so Brown on.

69 - OMG!!!! McNish rainbows a beautiful ball for Bowerman WHO STRIKES IT HOME FOR A DEBUT HAT TRICK!!!!!! BOW-ER-MAN! BOW-ER-MAN! BOW-ER-MAN! 4-0

76 - THIS GAME GETS EVEN BETTER! MICHAEL CORCORAN GOES TWO FEET FIRST ON OUR HERO BOWERMAN AND THE REF RED CARDS HIS ASS!!! YES YES YES!!!!!

80 - Guess what? GUESS WHAT?! Bowerman can pass, too! as he takes the ball outside the semi-circle and gives it to Solkhon inside the box, and our team captain gets his first goal of the year!!! 5-0

87 - Their nerves are so rattled, Oxford City can't even hit a surefire goal.

What an absolutely awesome awesome awesome game.

Lineup Ratings
George Bowerman - 9.6 (MoM, duh)
Callum McNish - 8.9
Gary Mulligan - 8.8
Brett Solkhon - 8.3
Tom Sharpe - 8.2
Kirk Millar - 8.0
Izak Reid - 7.8
Ryan Austin - 7.7
Sergio Sanchez - 7.4
Max Crocombe - 7.2
Eddie Nisevic - 7.1
Aaron Brown - 7.0
Aaron Wickham - Pulled due to injury and so had no rating

That is the most beautiful team ratings line I've ever, ever seen.

I find out afterwards that Michael Corcoran is Oxford City's team captain, so it was awesome to see him sent off, and even more awesome to see *our* team captain score after the game. This is definitely one for the ages.

I also finally figured out that you can view the highlights on the main inbox after the match and where to change the video prefs so that they're actually good. I set the quality from 360 (yikes!) to 1080 and selected my favorite clips to package together and upload (One was a custom clip I created).

While we're waiting for that to process, some more notes on Bowerman:

I noticed during our drought that my best striker in that attribute only had a Finishing of 8 (Yeoman), so I trolled the loan list dropping the Finishing minimum down until I hit 12 in the loan list, where Bowerman was. Snapped him up immediately, and well, you see the result. Also has Pace 12, Stamina 13, Work Rate 12, PK 14, Technique 11... so he's someone I want to keep around for a long time if I can. At least he'll never have to buy another beer in our town ever again.



Huh, it didn't save the commentary. That's... disappointing. But I also saved it in FRAPS *with* the commentary, so there's that, I suppose. Let me know if you guys want me to upload it with the commentary and I'll re-upload and edit the link.

Anyway, the win's only enough to move us from 12th to 11th, but it knocks our archrivals down to 6th. We've 37 points and +8 differential. 41 points and +15 is what gets you into promotion playoffs right now.

Max Crocombe continues to flourish in training and he's without question a player we should try and keep long-term.

I'm just going to leave this here



Talk about dominating.

Ashley Yeoman has also impressed in training and while he hasn't quite earned his lofty salary yet, he and Bowerman should be our top two strikers going forward, as he's surpassed Mulligan.

Hahahaha! Joe Day is disappointed to find himself transfer listed. Gee, maybe that's because you suck.

We loan in DC Garry Richards from our old friends Luton Town, which means we can shuffle our lineup some more.

@Bishop's Stortford (13th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Callum McNish
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Say hello to our new powerhouse lineup. We're still weaker than we'd like at DMC, but it's hard to find those on loan, unfortunately. We're not favored in this due to being on the road.

35' - Yellow for Sharpe.

38 - I'm beginning to think last game's offensive explosion was just a sweet little dream when Millar drops it in the perfect spot off a corner for Richards to kick it in for a goal on his debut 1-0

A drab match, complain the announcers, but I think we're doing fairly well so far. Not awesome, but there's a lot of fairly new pieces in the lineup that are still getting used to one another.

80 - Solkhon on for Wickham

82 - The right wing cross to McNish is usually good for a goal, but not this time.

84 - He's been amazing, but now it's time for Richards to give way to Angus so he doesn't get wiped out. I'm pondering closing down, and after as much thought as one takes at 5 am when one has a screwed up sleeping schedule, I do.

Yeah, yeah poor match. Just give me my 3 points.

The whole backline gets 7.3 or better, headlined by Richards' 8.8 and MoM. It's also a 7.2 for Kirk Millar.

We inch our way up to 10th. At 25 games, we have 1 or 2 games in hand of everyone ahead of us, so hopefully we can use that to take our 40 points up to 44 and beyond, and get back in the promotion playoff spot.

Some interesting stats:
-Gary Mulligan leads the league in most times caught offsides with 34, and Max Crocombe's 85% pass completion rate has him tied for 4th in the league, the other people around him all midfielders.
-Crocombe is also 3rd in shutouts with 11. To no one's surprise, Welling's Sam Mott leads with 16 clean sheets.
-Michael Corcoran is tied for the lead in penalties with a flawless 3/3.
-Ashley Yeoman is tied with two others for the lead in shots on target ratio with 52%.
-Tyrone Thompson leads in tackles per game at 5.73.

[Izulde]

Garry Richards gets on the Team of the Week.

@Staines (12th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Garry Richards
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

I always want to beat my former team to show them what they're missing (even though I resigned).

5 - I'm mesmerized by this bright yellow ball. First time I've seen it that color. What I hate? Bowerman blowing a chip shot. That's not how you get the fat money I'm thinking of offering you, son.

14 - Barclang by Nisevic

36 - Yellow for McNish

We're back to our usual flat play, so here's me firmly telling them to get their heads out of their asses.

57 - There we go. Cross from Yeoman to Bowerman who doesn't flub the easy strike this time. 1-0

71 - Great header by Yeoman to Millar on the wing outside the box, our right midfielder then crossing to Bowerman who coolly finishes it. 2-0 Solkhon on for Wickham.

73 - Textbook play by them. Just no stopping that. 1-2

77 - Offsides! That's offsides! THANK YOU!

83 - Angus on for Richards and let's get out of here with our 3 points. Especially after Solkhon misses the easiest goal in the world from Millar's feed.

93 - McNish goes down. Arnold on to replace him.

94 - WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT TOTAL AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT?! FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU OSBORN AND YOUR FUCKING DEBUT 2 GOALS! 2-2

That was the biggest fucking bunch of BULLSHIT I have EVER fucking seen!

Fuck that 94th minute goal bullshit.

And fuck Callum McNish's torn hamstring taking him out 3-4 months.

We move up to 8th, but I'm still not happy. A win would have had us in 7th and a point behind a playoff spot with a game in hand. Now a game in hand means we need to win that to get up into the playoffs spot.

[Izulde]

vs Bromley (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Tyrone Thompson
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Francis McCaffrey
ST Gary Mulligan
ST George Bowerman

3 days from our last match and its bitter conclusion. This one is absolutely critical to get points from, as they're tied with us on points.

6 - Knock for Thompson.

20 - Crocombe comes out too soon and it's a long, easy goal. Sigh. 0-1

21 - That looked offsides to me, but what do I fucking know? 0-2

I'm already preparing for next season in my head, and it's clear we need to improve our finishing up front, our wing play, and our defensive midfield. Our backline will probably need a rebuild as well. In short, we're probably going to have a massive overhaul.

Dixon and Wilson on for Thompson and Bowerman, because it doesn't matter for this match anymore.

65 - Mulligan - McCaffrey - Mulligan give and go on right side of the box for the goal. 1-2

91 - Golden opportunity slips by when a barrage of shots does nothing, but then Richards captures the ball on the other hand that engineers an attack. Wilson's shot is blocked, but he picks up his rebound and slides it to Solkhon, who this time is on target for the late equalizer. 2-2

Well, 2 points over the last two matches is better than 0, but even 3 from Staines and 0 from this one would have been better. Still, the fightback is what counts. 8.1 for Brett Solkhon as MoM, and 7.3 for Gary Mulligan.

@Wealdstone (14th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Gareth Lee
DM Lee Dixon
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Aaron Brown
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Another short rest game. They're coming hard and fast now. Though we're 9th in the table, we're only 3 out from the playoff promotion spot with a game in hand.

30 - Angus with the short center to Brown and I think it's in, but it bounces out, and Lee can't use his youth to beat out the defender for the rebound goal.

[b33[/b] - For all the brilliant displays he puts on, Bowerman also has maddeningly easy misses like here.

37 - On the other hand, here's Bowerman short passing to the right for Millar, who does his short pass forward to a zooming Yeoman who *finally* ends his parched goal drought! 1-0

The scoreline doesn't reflect just how much we've been dominating this game, because we've totally controlled it. Wickham is wiped, but we've no replacements for him, so I decide to gamble and make the DMC a ST and put in Mulligan. Yeah, I feel like playing with fire.

66 - The side effect of the new shift is that Wealdstone gets more aggressive, taking advantage of Dixon all by himself in the midfield. Sadly for them, it also means that Mulligan puts forward an awesome ball for Yeoman, and though the shot misses, they're still running back to try and defend, whereas Bowerman is already there to put the rebound in. Nice to see the gamble pay off. 2-0

76 - Monstrous header on a corner. Nothing to guard against that. 2-1

79 - I'm getting a bad feeling here. 2-2

84 - We're robbed of a penalty. Nice home cooking, assmongers.

Honestly, even though we had no defensive subs, we probably would made the right decision. We were playing two U18 guys on the road and were exhausted all around, so maybe a draw was okay.

We're now 7th, all games even, and 2 points back of promotion playoffs. I shut my mouth about the penalty for once.

32 year old Dale Binns comes in on a til end season loan from Maidenhead, just because we're that desperate for ML coverage. He's out anywhere from 3 days to a week and a half himself, but we'll make do until then.

vs Farnborough (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

10 - Richards gets caught napping on a pass from Crocombe and nearly costs us a goal.

44 - Yellow for Thompson.

Our strikers have been awful and we've looked meh in general in what should be a very easy contest.

57 - Enough of Yeoman's incompetence. On comes Mulligan for him, and Brown for a winded Arnold.

83 - Chance after chance after chance we've come so close, and *finally* Millar does a little shake and bake inside the half-circle before the short pass to Mulligan for the goal. 1-0.

86 - Yellow for [b]Wickham[b/]

94 - We keep on the pressure and Brown gets a corner for Austin to rear up and send home!!! No last minute ties here, folks! 2-0

That was a breakthrough win we really needed after all these frustrating ties.

The entire backline is 7+, highlighted by Ryan Austin's 8.2 MoM. 7.4 for Gary Mulligan off the bench, too.

Ryan Austin hits the Team of the Week.

We're now 6th, a point away from promotion playoffs with 29 games in the ledger.

[Izulde]

Expiring Contracts
DL Eddie Nisevic - $21,000
22 year old wants a pay increase, but he's only posted 6.76 rating so far this season, down from 7.03 last year. More to the point, while he's a good player for this level, he has no upside to him, and so he'll be allowed to either stay as a non-contract, or go elsewhere next season.

DR/MR Izak Reid - $35,000
26 year old is a BS Premier level player now and in the future, but his value has crashed with each passing month. It started off at $50k and now it's down to $22k. Originally a few clubs were interested, but now they've cooled off. He still wants to move to a bigger club and his 6.91 rating hasn't been wowtastic, just good. That said, he's willing to take a $500 paycut for next season, and I'm thinking of having him sign it.

DLC Tom Sharpe - $23,500
25 year old old has really elevated his game and is playing a 7.13 rating right now. Another BS Premier level player now and future, he wants a pay increase, but the board doesn't like him and is only willing to pay $13,500 - a contract rate he won't accept, obviously, and nor should he. Will keep tabs, however.

DCR Ryan Austin - $31,500
All the 29 year old does is average 7+ ratings in our setup, but he's injury-prone and, like Nisevic, tapped out to this level. He's willing to accept a paycut to $23,500 off the bat, but the board is only authorizing $13,500 salary, so he's another wait and see.

ST Gary Mulligan - $33,500
His technical attributes suck, but his 16 Bravery, 18 Teamwork, 19 Work Rate, 14 Natural Fitness, and 16 Stamina are why he's our leading goal scorer both last season and this, the latter of which he has 14, doubling that of Ashley Yeoman's 7. 7.28 average rating, too. But he just doesn't have the talent to compete at the next level, and he wants a sizable contract increase that I'm in no way, shape, or form willing to pay, so he'll be playing somewhere else next year, or sit on a non-contract.

D/ML Aaron Brown - $17,750
He's been one of my favorite signings ever, and posted a solid 6.94 rating this year, 6.87 last season. But he's 33 and is clearly on the downslide. He also wants a pay increase, if you can believe that. Not gonna happen, so he'll non-contract for us until someone decides they want to pick him up.

Impressive Trains
Eddie Nisevic
Max Crocombe
Ashley Yeoman

Sadface Train
Brad Varney

George Bowerman wins Blue Square South Player of the Month Award, and Sam Page from Staines finishes third. Even better, Bowerman tells the press that he loves it at Brackley because everyone is so friendly and supportive. So.tempted.to.sign.

The board's delighted with my leadership, thanks to George Bowerman, but Aaron Brown's recent struggles have caused concern.

vs Salisbury (2nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Big, *big* game here. If we win, we can legitimately call ourselves contenders for promotion, let alone the playoffs.

20 - Shit. Knock on Crocombe. We've had a few close chances, but can't connect for the lead.

36 Damn. Knock for Austin. Still no go.

40 - They've been hammering lately, and I swear they have this one on a corner, but Sharpe does well to pound away the danger.

Angus comes on for the injured Austin at half. I really want this one.

65 - Mulligan for Yeoman to try and break this stalemate.

Unfortunately their defense just plays phenomenally all game like ours does and it's another draw. Another 7.1 or better for the whole backline, but it's Sergio Sanchez who gets MoM with his 8.1 rating, showing tons of hustle out there.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! MAX CROCOMBE OUT A MONTH!

Ryan Austin's out 5 to 6 weeks, too.

Oh, and Oxford City now has a full 3 point lead on us.

We hurriedly loan in Lithuanian GK Lukas Lidakevicius from Barnsley on our last available loan, a 3 monther. He's got BS Premier right now on him, with League 2 upside.

@Tonbridge (17th)
GK Lukas Lidakevicius
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

For some reason, they're favored.

3 - Horrendous start. 0-1

20 - Obvious offsides is obvious.

22 - Nisevic shoots a rainbow to Yeoman, who catches it in stride and darts forward for the tying goal. 1-1 Oh, Bowerman picked up a yellow at some point.

38 - Man, Nisevic has been on form today with his passing. Floats a short one to Wickham, who rams it in from 20 out. Guess Eddie really wants that new contract. 2-1

As good as we've been, we could be doing a little better, I think. [b]Reid[b/]'s been dogging it out there.

69 - Knock for Millar, so it's Reid to MR and Solkhon in at DR.

78 Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!! Brackley drops from 5th to 6th because Sharpe fucking half-asses a clearance and gets scored on as a result Fuuuuck! 2-2 Get in there, Mulligan.

91 - Solkhon with the cross..... Sanchez jumps to head.... AND IT'S IN!!! 3-2 CONTAIN!!!!!!!!!

All but three players had 7 or better, and even those were 6.8, 6.9 and 6.9. What a huge, huge, huge win. Aaron Wickham gets Man of the Match for his 7.8 rating, but I want to give special recognition to Lukas Lidakevicius, who came in a difficult spot and delivered a 7.2 mark.

And with that, we're officially 5th in the league again, thanks to our goal differential. And it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for us to actually challenge for the league crown, as Salisbury currently has top honors with 57 points to our 50. Welling's gone ice cold lately.

[Izulde]

So don't break me tonight
This is crazy love
And you know I'm gonna follow you home
Through the rain
Cause I need your love
And you know I'm gonna follow you home

TI (ft. Rihanna), Akon (ft. Eminem), and Carly Rae Jepsen as a triple track on my Pandora and guess what I end up singing along to? Yep, CRJ.

I'm in that pre-interview zone a few hours too early, so to alleviate it, let's play on!

Brad Varney breaks his ribs and is out 2-3 months. Too bad, kid.

For some reason we have 3 weeks before our next game. Weird. Sergio Sanchez has impressed in training. Yay!

Lukas Lidakevicius gets called up to the Lithuania U21 team, which is pretty cool. Then again, he's already had 13 caps for them, so not as cool as a new callup.

Impressive Trains
Sergio Sanchez
Kirk Millar
George Bowerman

Sadface Trains
Stevland Angus
Dale Binns

Still delighted board, still concerned about Aaron Brown

@ Dorchester (8th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Why Crocombe and not the Lithuanian? Dance with the one who brought you. Every game is key from here on out, of course, so let's get it done.

7 - Barf. We putz around in front of goal and then they counter strike for the lead because Crocombe can't fucking stay in goal. 0-1

32 - Honestly, HTF do you miss on an easy heading opportunity from Binns, Bowerman? Dumbass.

It's Mulligan and Solkhon on for tired Yeoman and doesn't GAF Reid at half and I tell the team to wake the hell up.

Our offense completely disappears the whole fucking game. Completely inexcusable, and once again, we drop out of 5th immediately after achieving it.

Crocombe rats out my flipping out to the press. Good thing I like you, kid.

Turns out we're a point behind again. And it was our first loss in 13 league games.

vs Basingstoke(13th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Need to get winning again. And winning, not pissy little draws.

4 - Wickham swings in a free kick from the right flank and Binns of all people is there to push it in. Great start, guys! 1-0

16 - Sharpe nearly tacks on a corner header insurance.

40 - Nisevic far posts it on a corner for Richards, but the should've goal is an isn't.

77 - Brown in for Binns and Thompson in for Sanchez, the latter having picked up a yellow.

89 - Solkhon on for Wickham and Contain.

Poor match indeed, but 3 points is 3 points.

7.5 for Garry Richards and Aaron Wickham, 7.3 for Dale Binn, as once again our whole backline posts 7 or better ratings.

Unfortunately everyone else around us won as well, so there's no movement.

Ashley Yeoman's work in training is praised again, but we've yet to see the results on the field.

The youth pull this year is garbage. Nobody worth signing. Sergio Sanchez continues to stand out in training.

vs Havant & W (4th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Max Crocombe
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Millar's loan finished. He sucked for the most part, so I'm not sorry to see him go, especially since Austin is ready again. Huge game here. And a MUST WIN.

25 - The most precision pass I've ever seen from Wickham to Reid's elevating head. Ball bounces to Bowerman who heads.. only to have it blocked. But Bowerman's got the presence of mind to send an immediate volley when it hits the ground, and in it goes!! 1-0

40 - Nisevic corners it to Sharpe for the header, but it's deflected... happily Richards hangs about the far post for the lay-in and we've insurance! 2-0

Now we've all seen this before where we have a great first half and then melt down in the second. Let's hope it doesn't happen here.

61 - Reid gets three shots on the goal after Bowerman's shot bounces and he can't make any of them.

70 - The defender trips trying to tackle Yeoman, who calmly waits a second and then shoots it on in for the beautiful, beautiful 3 goal lead. 3-0 Thompson and Solkhon on for our two tired DMCs.

This is the best I've seen the backline ever play, with everyone getting 7.4 or better. MoM honors go to Sharpe for his 8.5, Richards next to him getting 8.2. Sergio Sanchez earned a 7.5 and Yeoman got a 7.7, Bowerman an 8.1. Just a fantastic result.

With 56 points, we're now in 4th place and Welling is sitting up top with 60 points. Yes, folks, it's entirely possibly we could see Brackley Town find a way to auto-promote!

8 games left...

[Izulde]

Izak Reid is complaining because he hasn't been moved yet. We offer him up again for a $2k asking price and Luton Town and Bradford City allegedly have interest.

We loan Gareth Lee to Leamington.

@Eastleigh (2nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Max Crocombe
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

We win this, and we can maybe vault up to 2nd. Lose, and we could find ourselves out of the playoff spot yet again.

Just two highlights total in the first half, one for each team. Defenses are playing fantastically and nobody's even coming close to sniffing a goal. Binns is struggling today, so we'll put Brown in for him.

59 - Great run by Yeoman, but then he completely tanks what should have been a chip shot for him. Sigh.

62 - Amazing long shot by Sharpe to hit Brown, and this time Yeoman sinks the easy shot in. 1-0

71 - I'm groaning when Yeoman gets knocked down for a disposession, but the speedy Reid is there to pick up, run down to the six yard line, and put it up for a Bowerman header. Just like that, we're looking superb value for the 3 points. 2-0

77 - Solkhon on for Sanchez

81 - Yellow for Nisevic

92 - We darn near add a third goal, but it just misses. We'll take what we got though.

In a familiar story, all defenders have 7.2 or better rating, spearheaded by Sharpe's MoM 8.4. Props also to Bowerman and Yeoman at 7.7 and 7.6 respectively to round out the 7.5+. Just an absolutely balla performance on the road by our guys.

...LOL! Oxford City wants me to give them Tom Sharpe. They're not offering any money. I tell them to fuck off. I set an asking price of $150k so everyone else leaves me the hell alone. He made it to Team of Week by the way.

The Lithuanian goalkeeper wants his loan terminated. I tell him no.

Izak Reid changes his mind about wanting to be transferred now that we have a shot at promotion (We're 3rd, by the way). No problem, man. Glad to keep you around.

@Maidenhead (19th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Tyrone Thompson
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Aaron Brown
MR Izak Reid
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Injury to Wickham and Binns is ineligible because this is his parent club. Don't see us losing this one, however.

27 - Our offense has been for shit, and we're lucky they didn't score here, booting it in the air rather than line-driving it.

30 - I don't care if people trash him, Brown shows why he's one of my favorites by out-jumping his opponent and nodding it to the wide open Yeoman for the score. 1-0

I gotta be honest. It feels like we're lucky to be leading right now, and we need to step up our game in the second half.

45 - And then there's Bowerman, running down a backwards header by the hosts to shoot an easy one-on-one goal for the doubled lead. 2-0

52 - Absolutely aces job by Austin and Crocombe combining to stop an almost certain goal. Wow!

76 - I swear that was offsides, but ref says nope, nope, nope. 2-1 Mulligan and Solkhon on for Yeoman and Thompson

85 - Solkhon fights a scrum to play a beautiful pass for Reid who does a run and cross to the flying Brown, and just like that, we can take a breather. 3-1 Let's shut up shop eh?

86 - Fuck that immediate free kick answer. 3-2

This was one of our uglier wins, but 3 points is 3 points. Aaron Brown gets an 8.0, George Bowerman a 7.6, and Ashley Yeoman a 7.3. Eddie Nisevic really screwed up in the second half. He also ignores me when I'm talking after the game, so he'll sit next game.

With 6 games left, we're 1 point and goal differential away from 1st, yet still in 3rd. We've also opened up a 4 point lead on 5th - 62 points to 58 - so there's a small bit of breathing room there. But now that we're up this high, I want auto-promotion.

Good Trains
Stevland Angus
Sergio Sanchez
Ashley Yeoman

Sadface Trains
Dale Binns

I win Manager of the Month, which is awesome, and rightfully deserved, if I do say so myself.

Alan Cooke re-signs another year as our physio for a slight pay increase. We also sign Izak Reid to a two year contract extension that takes his pay from $35,000 to $30,500. Simply put, he was too valuable to let walk for nothing.

But then we lose Tom Sharpe for 2 months to injury. That's *really* going to hurt. Welling's head coach Simon Davey praises us to the press, so I give him some love in return.

We sign Stuart Bimson to a 1 year contract to be our second scout. He really likes Kirk Millar,who we had on loan before.

vs Gloucester (18th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Aaron Brown
DC Stevland Angus
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Sergio Sanchez
ML Dave Binns
MR Izak Reid
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

We should be able to crush these guys.

8 - Everybody's falling down like toy soldiers, and Gloucester misses a goal they should have had.

25 - Sensational job by their backline to lock out what I thought was a guaranteed goal.

Familiar story here. Struggling offense and not able to generate anything. Mulligan and Thompson come on for Yeoman and Wickham, both exhausted at the half. I tell them in no uncertain terms to get it in gear.

We get about 10 different chances where we should have easily netted a goal and won this thing, but no, we had to settle for a fucking tie. I emphatically let them know that's not going to cut it.

That's good enough to temporarily put us in 2nd, but we're now a full 3 points plus GD behind Welling, and Eastleigh and Oxford City both have a game in hand.

Ashley Yeoman's training draws plaudits again.

Away goes Garry Richards, his loan finished. That further damages our backline.

vs Weston-super-mare(13th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Dave Binns
MR Izak Reid
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

1 - Ugh. Dynamite ball from Reid to Bowerman, only to see the boneheaded shank of a wide open goal.

26 - Solkhon booms it to the moon and when it comes back down to Earth, Yeoman is there to get the ball, run forward, and show Bowerman how to not blow the easy ones. 1-0

37 1-1

Come on, guys. Stop fucking around out there.

66 - On come Thompson and Brown at DMC and DL respectively, replacing Angus and Nisevic after shifting.

68 - God damn I hate games like this from Bowerman. Get in there Mulligan.

74 - Binns finds Mulligan on a perfect pass, and our leading goalscorer picks up #20, because he doesn't have mental breakdown games like Bowerman. 2-1

76 - Mulligan loses the ball, but then backtracks to the half-circle and powers it in from that spot for the insurance! He wants that nice, new contract, but he won't get it. 3-1

What a difference a half makes. We go from sucking to everyone on the field having 7 or better at the end of the game. Naturally Gary Mulligan's 2 goals earn him the 8.5 and MoM honors, but Ashley Yeoman posted an 8.2, and Sergio Sanchez and Aaron Wickham round the 7.5 and up with 7.6 and 7.5 each.

Welling destroys my former club Staines so they stay on top.

With 4 games left, we're sitting at 66 points in 2nd place. 5th place has 61 points and a GD equal to ours, so we have a small cushion in terms of playoffs, but in order to get that golden ring...

...We have to beat Welling, and we play on their turf next.

Before that, though, it's time to vote for Blue Square South Player of the Year. Gary Mulligan is shortlisted, which I find interesting, as I don't think he necessarily deserves to be on there. I vote for Welling's DC. 11 Man of the Match awards and 7.80 average rating, both league highs.

@Welling (1st)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

The formula's simple - Win, and we're goal differential away and tied on points for 1st. Tie or lose, and you can essentially giftwrap the championship to Welling, who I've said all season long is the conference's top team and rightfully deserves to be here.

13 - Wickham takes a knock, but he'll shake it off.

25 - We fight off 4 Welling corners in a row.

35 - Yellow for Solkhon.

47 - Yellow for Sanchez, which is bullshit.

Look, Welling is still clearly the class of this league, and I count ourselves lucky to have held them to a draw to this point. Odds are we lose this game, but I'm proud of how we're holding our own thus far.

53 - It's a knock for Solkhon, who already was tired, and I'm not willing to take any risks. On comes Thompson.

65 - Solid ball forward by McNish in his first game back. Yeoman gets it and plays the give and go with Bowerman. Upon the return from his partner, Yeoman STRIKES HOME THE GOAL!!!!! 1-0 But our star ML is also looking tired, so Binns pulls off his warm ups and comes on in relief.

75 - Welling get robbed by the goal line! Granted, that's happened to us before, but it sucks seeing it happen to them. Also great, because, well, we're still winning!

AND WE PULL OFF THE MONSTER UPSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every single player on the team had at least a 7 except for Thompson with 6.9, with our top getters Sergio Sanchez (7.8), Stevland Angus (7.7), Ryan Austin (7.4), and of course, Ashley Yeoman (7.3)

A passing note to say Truro got relegated a long time ago. With 3 games left, we're tied for the lead on points and hold a 7 point advantage on 5th place. So with one more win, we at least guarantee we'll be in promotion playoffs.

But it's going to be a tough road as we play again 2 days after the shocking upset of Welling.

vs Bath (12th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Tyrone Thompson
DM Lee Dixon
ML Dale Binns
MR Brad Varney
ST Gary Mulligan
ST George Bowerman

Yep, this lineup has been put together with scotch tape due to rest and injury issues. I don't know how the hell we'll scrape out a win with this crew, but it's our only shot, considering we have another game 5 days after this.

12 - Binns centers the ball, and Thompson picks the sweetest time ever to get his first goal of the season, his shot finding its way through a whole lot of traffic for the early lead. 1-0

13 - Great tackle by Thompson to start a counter, but Binns sees his shot *just* miss.

24 - In the miracle play of the whole season maybe, Dixon sends a gorgeous pass to his fellow youth class member Varney, who shoots WHILE HE'S RUNNING, and it bounces off the post and goes in!!!!!! 2-0

What a heroic first half! But our backline is playing on fumes right now, and we have 45 long, long minutes to go. I do have Solkhon in reserve, but he's a break glass in case of emergency sub.

57 - The pressure we're facing is immense, and the lead should have been cut to 1 here, but fortunately their striker is playing nervy as hell and not connecting the way he should.

60 - Yellow for Thompson

62 - You have to give credit to the staggering performance Thompson has put on. He makes a dazzling interception to commence an attack, then plays out a needle for Bowerman, who stares down the keeper and improbably tacks on his 10th goal of the season. I say improbable because of how exhausted we all are... but I'll take it! 3-0

80 - Absolutely world class performance from our worn out defenders and midfielders in stopping two straight corners. At this point, we're just going to try and run out the clock. Not getting cute with contain yet. I want to keep pressure on them.

This is probably the single most special game and victory I've ever had in FM. Two U18 players, a guy everyone wanted to give up on, an old loan-in... and we pull off an ass-whomping victory. Gary Mulligan has the team low of 7.0. Next lowest? 7.2, and it only gets better from there.



Tyrone Thompson, who was denigrated the same way Aaron Brown was, captures Man of the Match with and 8.8 rating. Sergio Sanchez, who played tired from the start, mustered an 8.6, and Ryan Austin netted an 8.1. Other 7.5 and overs: 7.7 for George Bowerman and Brad Varney, and a 7.6 for Dale Binns.

We secure a playoff spot with the win and are in first place following Welling's 1-0 loss to our archrivals Oxford City - the only time I may salute our foes.

2 games left. Like the NBA lottery, at absolute worst, we finish 4th.

Sergio Sanchez is named to the Team of the Week.

@Chelmsford (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Sharpe being out is killing our defensive depth. Sanchez is having to play tired again because I have no other options. It's going to be tough to win this away game, because they really, really want to play spoilers here, and we're not at 100%.

11' - Welling and Eastleigh take early 1-0 leads, and so do we after Yeoman receives a great pass from I think it's Wickham or Austin, runs forward, and times it for his liking. 1-0

36 - Funniest.moment.ever. I'd forgotten I set Crocombe to be the PK guy and so when we're awarded a controversial penalty, our goalie marches over to take the shot.... and it's in!!! Welling is up to 2-1 now after briefly dropping to a 1-1 tie. 2-0

41 - Whole lot of passing ends in Reid crossing to McNish, but the header is *just* outside.

A couple guys are playing on fumes, but we're in total control of this game at the break. Now do.not.let.up.

62 - Last I looked, Eastleigh was up 2-0 and Oxford City had a 1-1 tie. Chelmsford rightfully gets a disallowed goal due to an obvious foul by their heading guy.

65 - Fuck that dicksmurfing fluke fucking goal! 2-1

70 - Mulligan on for the dragging Yeoman.

71 - Brilliant ball by Solkhon for Mulligan, and only an astronomic stop by their goalie prevents the add-on. 2-2 Welling last I saw.

86 - Binns and Brown in, because McNish is wiped and Nisevic is looking nervous. We'll keep pressure on, though, because that's how Brackley fucking rolls!

AND WE HANG ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7+
Ashley Yeoman - 8.0 (MoM)
Max Crocombe - 7.9
Ryan Austin - 7.8
Aaron Wickham - 7.6
Sergio Sanchez - 7.4
Stevland Angus - 7.1

I love the grit and composure these guys showed on the road, and really, all throughout the second half of the year. No matter what happens, I'm proud of them.



Ashley Yeoman isn't listening to me. Brat. But I don't care right now. You know why?



That's right. With Welling a 2-2 tie with Bishop's Stortford and Oxford City a 1-1 draw with Bath, we've officially clinched the Blue Square South title!!!!

Still one game to play, but I'll use that as a victory lap for my favorite players.



Obviously I want to stay at Brackley and grow them, similar to what so many have done elsewhere, but we'll see what happens.



Gee, considering I thought it was going to be Welling all season long, I think it's safe to say I didn't anticipate us winning, much as I hoped we would.



Fucking ecstatic of course. It's the best non-real life outcome I've experienced in the last few days. I seriously am sitting here wondering how the heck we pulled off this miracle run.

Sweet justice to see Max Crocombe in the Team of the Week.

Good Trains
Aaron Brown
Luke Dixon
George Bowerman

Bad Trains
Gary Mulligan
Dale Binns*

* - Note: Some dude in the reserves has popped up on good/bad trains through the season but I haven't listed him because he doesn't matter.

Obviously I win my second straight monthly Manager of the Month nod.

The board comes calling. They're willing to offer me a payraise to $60,000 from the previous $52,000 I earned before, but it's another one year deal. Hmm, that's fine. It'll give me a chance to show I'm worth even more next season if we stay up.

vs Eastborne Boro
GK Max Crocombe (Brought in at last year's transfer deadline)
DL Aaron Brown (My first ever signing with the club - taken from Bath)
DC Stevland Angus (Originally here)
DC Sergio Sanchez (Stolen in the offseason after Staines wanted him)
DR Brett Solkhon (Team captain before I got here - has kept that role)
DM Aaron Wickham (Brought in at last year's transfer deadline)
DM Tyrone Thompson (Offseason signing)
ML Callum McNish (Big offseason signing)
MR Izak Reid (Originally here)
ST Gary Mulligan (Originally here)
ST George Bowerman (Loan from Walsall)

Tom Sharpe would be here and Brown in place of McNish if Sharpe wasn't hurt. He's another original. I went back and forth between Mulligan and Ashley Yeoman, until I remembered the latter's highest wage on the club irked me because he didn't earn it.

Mulligan was also the single biggest reason we stayed up at the end of last season, and became the Fans' Player of the Year because of his 8 goals in 12 games. I also love how he overcomes his technical deficiencies with mental and physical grit. And, truth be told, it's probably his farewell song with us.

3 - Should have been a goal. Mulligan is playing a little too relaxed right now.

47 - While Mulligan and McNish both have taken knocks in the interim, that still should have been an easy score for the former. Looks like I'll put Yeoman in at the break.

Ashley Yeoman and Ryan Austin take their places at the half, allowing Mulligan and Thompson to take breathers and enjoy their season (Solkhon up to DMC). The two newcomers also played key roles in our title run.

73 - Yeoman passes to Bowerman in the box and a cool finish later, I'm wondering if Eastbourne had a shot of getting out of the drop if they beat us. 1-0

78 - Binns in for McNish, as not only our 1B big signing is tired and inefficient today, the 32 year old loan played a massive role down the stretch for us while McNish recovered from a nasty injury.

88 - Angus is hurt and has to come off. We'll play with 10 men the rest of the game.

7.5 for George Bowerman, 7.3 for Stevland Angus, and 7.1 for Sergio Sanchez.

Callum McNish is out a month, Gary Mulligan a little over that, but nobody really cares.

700 people showed up for that final game, which was our best league attendance all season long. Our best attendance? 1,215 people for the Peterborough friendly. Our best competitive attendance? 861 people for that epic 1-0 FA Cup upset of Oldham.

Last year's high
770 people for an Oxford friendly
League and competitive high: 300 vs Droylsden, 291 vs Bishop's Stortford 2nd

339 vs Weston-super-mare late in the season was our 2nd league best, but we broke the 300 attendance margin in 5 league games this season, so attendance really picked up towards the end of the season as we performed our title chase, as opposed to last year, which started off with the same rough attendance as this season, but tapered off when fans realized the team was just going to fight against the drop.

Incidentally, had Eastbourne Boro beaten us, they would have been safe and Gloucester would have dropped. Instead, they join Hayes and Yeading, and Truro as relegation teams.

Further season review on next post.

[Izulde]

Movement's already happening. Eddie Nisevic is packing his bags for League 2 Lincoln on a free transfer come early June, and we're bringing in 20 year old Nigerian striker prospect Nabil Guediora, who though quite raw, has some delicious looking technical skills (11 in Dribbling/Finishing/First Touch/Passing, 12 in Heading) and a stellar 17 in Natural Fitness. He's got work to do on his mental game, but at $2.8k a year for two years, and BS Premier level upside, he's a cheap project.



You can see why I didn't have a real problem letting Nisevic go. He was the least valuable of all our regular starters.

Luton Town wins their second straight FA Trophy

Wow, I win the title and the board's just pleased with me. Whatever.

Top Trains
Eddie Nisevic
Max Crocombe
Sergio Sanchez
Ashley Yeoman

Decline Trains
Ryan Austin
Stevland Angus
Aaron Brown

St. James Park is undergoing an expansion from 3013 (261 seated) to adding 525 seats, 500 standing, with scheduled completion of September 24, 2014 in order to meet Blue Square Premier requirements. Hope our average attendance of 293 goes up next year in a big way.

$18 ticket price $285 season tickets $190k value Semi-professional Insecure Finances Local Reputation

My own reputation has gone from Local to Regional as a result of the promotion, I think.

How funny. Chester wins promotion to Premier as well via playoffs.

I'm heavily favored to win Blue Square South Manager of the Year award. I vote for my friend Simon Davey of Welling.

Despite getting promoted, we still only get $8k for our jersey sponsorship. But the payroll allowance jumps to from $275k to $375k.

I'm named Blue Square South Manager of the Year, as is only fitting. Ironically enough, Staines' manager comes in 2nd.

Dorchester is promoting up with me after beating Welling in the playoff final.



I have all the feels for Welling losing like that. Wanted them up with me.

So with all this money, I immediately set to work on retaining Tom Sharpe and trying to lure George Bowerman to the team. Bowerman's not interested, but I commit Sharpe to a two year contract extension that pays him about the same wages as he was making last year, so we still have money to burn.

Transfers In
DM/DC Taylor Parmenter (23 - Ebbsfleet)
-Didn't stand out for them last season, but we envision using him at the DMC spot where he's leaps and bounds ahead of everything else we had there last season. $28k is a fair price, considering how hard it is to find DMC guys.

There's an issue with trying to get Johnny Goddard from Staines. In order to pull off the deal I have to pay my old team $14k, which gets taken directly from my wage budget. I decide not to do that, and cancel the transfer.

DLCR Samuel Bangura (19 - Chelsea)
-Came out of the youth system but didn't cut it. Very cheap 3 position depth player who has BS Premier potential and has had 2 caps for Sierre Leone already. At $2.2k a year for two years, he's an out and out bargain.

I'm trying to get more deals done, and we have $109k in the wage budget, but the board keeps cockblocking me at every turn and I don't know. It's getting frustrating.

We lose out on a striker we really wanted to Welling. Ouch. We also strike out on a huge DMC upgrade who signs with Chelmsford.

Brackley Best 11
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Ryan Austin
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Gary Mulligan
ST Ashley Yeoman

I'm stunned Aaron Wickham wasn't there instead.

$9.15k in TV rights. Yay?

Yeah I'm not doing anything other than steer clear of relegation.

We lost $525k last year.

Aaron Brown, Gary Mulligan, and Ryan Austin all decide to leave Brackley after their contracts expire, as does our coach who wasn't worth much.

As a result, we're now up to $134k free money, which allows us cash to sign some key players to extensions, but my eyes are burning, and there's still a lot of roster decisions to be made and players to try and lure in, because it's been so long since I've been at the BSP level, I've forgotten if they have the freedom BSN/BSS teams do.

We'll hit July 1st and review later sometime tomorrow.

[Simbo Klice]

I have to admit that I got a couple nice LOLs at your anger over Joe Day's disastrous game against Tonbridge. Congrats on promoting though.

[Izulde]

Thanks. Was thrilled to promote, and I'm *still* mad at Day for that.

[Izulde]

In addition to Parameter and Bangura, we've got the following guys:

ML/MR Courtney Harris (22)
$37.5k contract, but his physical attributes are amazeballs (14 Fitness, 13 Pace, 13 Stamina) and he has 14 Work Rate. My scouts rate him as equal to or better than Izak Reid, so he'll get the start there and we'll drop Reid to DR.

DLC Leon Clowes (22)
$19.5k and another great physical specimen (13 Jumping, 13 Pace) and also has 13 Decisions and 12 Positioning. Like with Harris, my scouts see him as equal to or better than our starter, in this case Sharpe, so he'll get the nod at DL and that means we can move Sharpe back inside.

ST Gianluca Gracco (23)
We went back and forth trying to land this Italian who has the best physical attributes of anyone I've ever had on this team - everything is 13 or higher with the exception of 7 stamina and 10 strength. 12 Influence and 13 Off The Ball, too. Should be worth the $37.5k contract, and he's rated as our top striker.

Board's back to satisfied. They're sad about Eddie Nisevic leaving.

ST Elliott James (17)
Strictly a shot in the dark youth signing. May not pan out after looking at him more, but we'll see.

DM/DC Ryan Woodford (22)
Inked on a non-contract, he has the upside to play at this level and could conceivably fight for a starting spot at DMC, as he's well behind a lot of players at DC.

ML Cladudiu Hoban (22)
Also on a non-contract, he's very raw and essentially here as a project to develop into a decent rotation ML guy in our system.

We sign a fitness coach, to stop players complaining about crappy the coaching there is.

89 season tickets sold so far. Lot of teams were sniffing around Tyrone Thompson, so we give him a non-contract to keep him locked in.

We can now afford 3 coaches apparently, so I'm going to put that to use.

Oh look, Izak Reid is crying that he wants to be transfer-listed again. Heh, okay pal.

Talk about a knife in the back. Tyrone Thompson signs a non-contract with archrivals Oxford City after signing a noncontract with us. Can't say as I really blame him, though. He'll get more opportunities down there.

[b]Brazil[l/b] wins the World Cup, beating England 2-1.

After our coach hires, every category is 2 or 2.5*. Not fantastic, but still better than what we had.

Cladiu Hoban is out 2-3 months, further weakening our ML depth. We sign Elvis Hammond as a Player/Scout apparently, even though I wanted him just as a player. I thought the 33 year old would be a useful depth player, but he stinks.

Interesting. The Forest Green and Brackley match will be on TV on November 8th. We get $3k for it.

Prior to our first friendly....

Goal Keeper
Max Crocombe (20 - $18k)

Yep still just the one keeper. Max is still our guy and is rated as decent for this level, with the potential to be leading. We'll have to find a backup obviously, because we all know what happened last season, but for now, he's our man.

Defenders
DLC Leon Clowes (22 - $3.5k)
DLC Tom Sharpe (25 - $35k)
DCR/DM Sergio Sanchez (21 - $10k)
DR/MR Izak Reid (27 - $45k)
DLCR Samuel Bangura (19 - $3k)
DLC Stevland Angus (33)

Obviously there's more coverage elsewhere, but this is what I see as the primary set of guys. Clowes/Sharpe/Sanchez/Reid should be a great starting backline and Bangura has 3 position versatility while he develops. Angus is pretty much done for this level, but he'll still hang around.

Defensive Midfielders
DM/DC Taylor Parmenter (21 - $10k)
DM/DC Ryan Woodford (22)
DM/DC Aaron Wickham (20 - $14k)
DM/DC/DR Brett Solkhon (31 - $9k)

Essentially what we have is one dynamite player (Parmenter) with League 2 upside and a bunch of currently mediocre players. We need to beef up this area through loans or something.

Midfielders
ML Callum McNish (22 - $24k)
MLR Courtney Harris (22 - $14k)
ML Claudiu Hoban (22)

While we have Reid who can slide to MR, depth here overall is an issue. I do like our two starters, though, and think they represent an upgrade. McNish signed a contract extension, as did Crocombe and Sanchez, by the way. Sanchez got the biggest jump - $4.4k to $17k.

Strikers
Ashley Yeoman (22 - $30k)
Gianluca Gracco (23 - $24k)
Nabil Guediora (19 - $4k)
Elvis Hammond (33)

So I said how I signed those three other guys to extensions, right? Well, Yeoman wants a hefty pay increase that I'm not willing to do, especially since he doesn't have next level upside. Depth is a serious issue until Nabil develops. I love the look of Gracco, by the way.

vs Newcastle Reserves
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Time to see how this new-look team plays out.

46 - Harris, who has really impressed me in the eye test, feeds it up to Yeoman on the border of the goalbox. Yeoman then slides it over to Gracco, who hits it for the just before half goal. 1-0

Bangura, Guediora, and Solkhon come on DC, ST, and DR respectively, Harris flopping over to ML, and Reid up to MR.

67 - Guediora steals the ball and gives it to Yeoman, who holds until our new Nigerian prospect is in the box before sending a controlled pass in, whereupon it's 2 for 2 in new guy goals. 2-0

68 - Lee, Hammond, Dixon and Angus on for a bunch of tired guys off at DR, ST, DM, and DL.

83 - [b]Varney[b] on for Reid

Pretty damn good result. The new guys made an impact and the old guys looked fine, except for McNish and his 6.1. Still need to add some more depth and find upgrades in places, but overall, nice start.

1,796 people showed up to watch that one, so I'm glad we gave our fans a good game.

[Izulde]

[b]vs Oxford (Friendly)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DC Samuel Bangura
DR Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Lee Dixon
ML Dale Binns
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Elvis Hammond

Only a few days after the first friendly, so it's a B/C lineup. As you can see, we've brought back an old friend in Dale Binns on a non-contract. He's garbage for this level and decayed at 33, but he knows the system.

7 - Goal for our parent club. 0-1

8 - Superb pass by Dixon to Gracco who then crosses to Hammond for the score almost immediately following their opening salvo. 1-1

19 - Gracco should've made that.

Angus and Hammond both took knocks in the first half, so they're swapped out for Lee and Guedioura, whose name I keep spelling wrong without the accent mark and the second u. McNish and Varney come in on the wing spots, and Parmenter and Woodford take over at DM. Clowes slides in at DL.

77 - Yeoman on for Gracco.

88 - Woodford picks up the cleared corner and knocks it back to Bangura who finds an open Guedioura in the box. Just like that, we've a goal and the lead late in the game. 2-1

Brackley looking good in preseason. Max Crocombe gets a 7.6, our two goalscorers 7, and Bangura a 7.1. Really loving how these guys are meshing together.

vs Notts County (Friendly)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

3 - Goal for them. 0-1

12 - Harris shadows Gracco so that when our Italian Stallion's shot is blocked, our right midfielder can move it in the middle for Yeoman, who snipes it in. 1-1

20 - They're ahead again. 1-2

28 - And again. 1-3

So, you know how our backline is traditionally the strength of our team? All sub 6s at the break. Whole lot of subbing going again, but fuck listing them all because it's preseason and I just want to hurry on to the regular season.

46 - Varney sticks with ball and passes it to Yeoman, who finds a running Solkhon, our veteran team captain finding the pluck and the net. 2-3

48 - Gracco runs down a ball flicked forward by Yeoman, and much to my incredulous disbelief, in the first 3 minutes of the second half, we've gone and equalized. 3-3

65 - Whoever this Jonathan Obika kid is, I want him. 3-4

77 - So much for all our goodwill. I en masse subbed after Obika's hat trick goal btw. 3-5

Just an awful day for our starting backline. Happens sometimes, and it's only preseason. Izak Reid is whining about his training load, and at this point, I can't wait to get him out of here.

Nabil Guedioura is out a couple weeks. Not a big deal, really.

We sign 18 year old ST Jack Jeffery on a 2 year deal for $2.1k a year. Good developmental project who can become quite good for this level.

DRC Andrew Burns comes in from Billericay on a 3 month loan. He'll be good insurance in case Reid leaves or gets hurt.

vs Shrewsbury
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Samuel Bangura
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

4 - Gonna be a long day. 0-1

25 - Yep. 0-2

Sheesh. Gracco, Bangura, and Clowes all pick up knocks during the first half. Subs for all three.

71 - Dixon intercepts (Yeah another round of subs) and passes it to Hammond, who runs into the box and scores. 1-2

72 - Just damn. Hammond to Solkhon and just like last game, we're all tied up in the second half. 2-2

91 - Poor pass by Crocombe = late goal. 2-3

Way to really step it up in the second half there, and I'm proud of how they played overall against a League 1 team.

We made $38k last month thanks to minimum 531 fans at each preseason friendly and also being still well under wage budget ($50k, in fact)

@Bromley (Friendly)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Samuel Bangura
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Elvis Hammond

So I tell them they need to win this because it's a freaking BSN/S team and we come out completely flat on offense. Pretty ridiculous.

69 - After knocking on the door all second half, they miss a header in the box, and Hammond hammers it in to finally get the lead. 1-0

81 - Gracco locks on to the bounce of a blocked Hammond shot and we've got this one in the bag 2-0

"Brackley really picked up their game in the second half. The manager's halftime talk really must have motivated them."

I'm noticing this is a team that's responding well to kicks in the butt at halftime when they're lousing up the joint.

In the interests of preserving continuity, Brett Solkhon and Sergio Sanchez retain their captain and vice-captain roles.

Transfer In - MR/ST Lewis Taaffe (22 - Hayes and Yeading)
Provides an upgrade at backup striker/right midfielder. Signed to a two year contract that pays him $20.5k a year - perhaps a little steep for a backup at this level, but his versatility and upside to be a good player are worth it. Not flashy, but a solid all-around player who I'm going to train as a complete forward because Yeoman's out of contract and won't return next year.

Max Crocombe is praised for his training efforts again. Would love to see him called up by New Zealand's national team at some point.

We're tabbed to finish 21st and drop by the media. I don't care. I'm listed as Favored Personnel, incidentally.

@Barnet
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Here we go! Our BS Premier debut!!!

18 - We come into this as substantial underdogs, but we're holding our own so far. Then Clowes has to come off, so Sharpe and Sanchez slide one notch to the left, allowing Burns to come on, because Bangura's out with injury for this one.

20 - And this is why we signed him! Gracco not only steals the ball near midfield, he outraces everyone with his blazing pace, hornswaggles the keeper, and blasts it in! 1-0

30 - Yeoman has a knock but he'll play on.

33 - Great pass from McNish to Gracco, and the keeper does well to save. That's the second straight connection the two have made that came close to a goal, and they seem to be developing wonderful rapport.

35 - Reid with the corner and Sanchez heads it in! 2-0

39 - Yeoman gives Gracco the perfect setup, but the shot's wasted. Ugh.

Well, well, well! Nobody expected a first half like that! Guedioura will come on for Yeoman, but overall, I just have to say I'm thrilled with how the first 45 minutes went.

47 - This team's showing a lot of fight. Guedioura battles it out in the box for a ball and finally wins it for the quick pass to Harris. No challenge for our right midfielder because he immediately puts in the middle of the six-yard box where Gracco gets into a scrum and finally fights through the traffic for his second goal! 3-0

50 - Perfect pass, perfect one on one shot that no goalie would have stopped... and yeah. Not mad though. 3-1

74 - Beautiful ball by Guedioura, but Gracco shanks an easy chance at a hat trick.

78 - Shady yellow for Sanchez

92 - Shit. Crocombe is hurt. He'll play on, but it's an ominous sign...

All but Woodford have at least a 7, and even he had 6.9

7.5+
Gianluca Gracco - 8.8 (MoM)
Taylor Parmenter - 8.0
Izak Reid - 7.7
Courtney Harris - 7.5

What a beautiful start. To show just how huge this win was, Barnet was tabbed by the media to finish 4th. The bad news: Leon Clowes is out 2 weeks.

The relieving news: Max Crocombe is okay.

[Izulde]

That victory was also our 6th in a row, setting a new club record. We sold 225 season tickets for this year, a massive increase over last season's 75.

vs Stockport (24th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Dale Binns
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Short rest, so it's a makeshift lineup out there.

10 - Hard to believe they missed that one.

13 - Yellow for Sharpe

37 - Crocombe has been playing his ass off this game in my view, but we haven't had any offensive highlights until this one. Gracco kicks it back to Solkhon who plants it in the box for Wickham. I'm stunned to see our defensive midfielder up so high, but he sends it in, so it's all good. 1-0

Feels like we should be playing better. Guedioura and Sanchez on for the tired Yeoman and Burns

68 - Sharpe has been awful this half and nearly costs us the lead when he gets dispossessed and outrun. But what gets the note here is Guedioura's having to go off with injury, and Hammond in for him.

72 - Great counter goal by them. 1-1

88 - I forget who made the great tackle, but Harris gets the loose ball and sends it to Hammond. Lay-up is there for Gracco to run and shoot, and we've the late lead! 2-1 and we drop into Contain mode.

Awful pass by Wickham nearly made him the goat, but the whistle blows in time.

7+
Brett Solkhon - 7.9 (MoM)
Aaron Wickham - 7.9
Max Crocombe - 7.5
Gianluca Gracco - 7.4

And a whole lot of 7s. Another strong game, and we've opened play 2-0-0, which presently has 5th, or promotion playoff spot.

We finally have a backup goalie in 18 year old Liam Priestly. He's got considerable potential, but he's not there yet, being quite raw. Costing me $10.25k, which is a lot more than I want to spend for a backup, but oh well.

@Newport County (4th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Samuel Bangura
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Don't see us winning this one, but you never know.

27 - Reid gets the ball back after throwing it in and launches a high meteor to the six yard box, where Gracco uses his amazing leaping powers to outhustle everyone and knock it on in. That's 3 straight games our Italian man has scored. 1-0

34 - Harris plays a dynamite ball for Yeoman who applies the fiery finish and we're just unstoppable at the moment. 2-0

Incredible first half, but Yeoman and Reid are looking tired, so it's Taaffe and Burns on. Reid's pissed at having to sit and my talk about how we're playing well. Seriously dude, just shut the fuck up already. Everyone knows you hate it here, you fucking crybaby.

46 - I can forgive Gracco his misses at easy goals for now, simply because he's been productive.

48 - Disallowed goal that I saw coming because Harris was offsides. Too bad.

69 - Well, now they missed a should have scored, so it's all equal.

73 - That's the second poor pass Crocombe's had this game, and they miss another open shot. OTOH, our Kiwi keeper's made some incredible stops that made me say wow.

Minimum 7 for everyone bar Lewis Taaffe, whose shitty 6.1 I can forgive because he's coming off injury of his own and is being thrust into a setup likely entirely different from what he's faced before.

7.5+ Ratings
Gianluca Gracco - 8.2 (MoM)
Ashley Yeoman - 7.6
Sergio Sanchez - 7.6

That win moves us up to 2nd place, as only Exeter has also won its first three games. Crazy. Never would have imagined us starting this well.

[chesapeake]

Congrats on winning the league. You have a great ability to not only get your team promoted quickly, but to do it by winning the league outright. Your Woking dynasty was the same way, IIRC. I can usually get my team promoted before too long, but I don't get nearly as many championships. So, kudos!

[Izulde]

Thanks. I have to credit this one to the tactic though, rather than anything special I did. I also think the fact that I do a lot of rotation to keep my players healthy and fresh helps. Kind of like how in DDS leagues, I tend to have fewer injuries than other teams who run an above average pace offense and a high pressure defense because my starters average 28-32 minutes a game.

[Izulde]

Max Crocombe earns Team of the Week honors.

@Gateshead (4th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Samuel Bangura
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Dale Binns
MR Courtney Harris
ST Nabil Guedioura
ST Ashley Yeoman

I'm just going to enjoy this fabulous run for as long as it lasts. Every game I see a loss, but we somehow manage to find our way through.

6 - Knock for Reid.

8 - They score on a corner. 0-1

20 - Yellow for Wickham

27 - Can't believe that didn't go in for them.

35 - Now Binns gets knocked.

Solkhon slides to DR and Dixon comes on. Taaffe pops in at MR. I'm not really seeing a way for us to come back because we haven't been playing well, are injury-riddled, and playing low men on the depth chart.

66 - Bangura's sent off with injury and I'm forced to end Sanchez's rest day.

We get a couple more shots, but nothing comes of it. Not upset about the loss, though. 7.8 and 7.2 for Burns and Angus in the back. We just didn't have any luck tonight.

Izak Reid is out 5 to 6 weeks and Dale Binns is out 2 weeks. We've got the resources to cover those guys, kind of.

Now this is interesting. Bromley want Liam Priestley on a 5 month loan and they're willing to pay all of his salary. That's actually a pretty good deal, so I'll accept it, on condition that I'm allowed to recall him in case of injury.

Gareth Lee and Jack Jeffery both go on a season loan to Leamington, our feeder team.

Bromley's not willing to consider a recall. But considering I'm bringing in another GK prospect, it's fine and so Priestley is off to Bromley.

vs Altrincham (19th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Samuel Bangura
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Elvis Hammond

This is a win we need if we want to be sure of staying up. Altrincham got promoted the first year in this universe via playoffs and managed to stay up last season.

Nobody can anything on target, and Gracco gets knocked just before the half. He'll come off in favor of Guedioura, and Burns will be replaced by Solkhon.

48 - Ugh. 0-1

54 - I'm tired of watching Harris's fuckups, and pull him for Taaffe.

60 - That was pretty neat. Woodford tackles an Altrincham guy who is dribbling out a corner and punts it into the goal. 1-1

79 - Guedouria centers it for Parmenter, who passes it into the box for Hammond. Our Ghanaian striker/scout dribbles with the defender on him until he finds the spot he likes, and *BAM*! 2-1

Courtney Harris's 5.9 was lousy as you can guess, but everyone else is close to 7 or better (a 6.9 and 6.8 in there). 7.7 for MoM Taylor Parmenter and 7.6 for Ryan Woodford.

We're now in 2nd place, TROLOLOLOL! Of course, Gianluca Gracco being out a week isn't going to help, but we'll make do.

Shane Fagan, a 19 year old Irish goalkeeping prospect, signs a two year contract for $2.1k, so we're quite fine to let Liam Priestley go on loan to Bromley. We also sign 18 year old striker prospect [b]De'Jaune Taylor-Crossdale on a two year, $2.4k per contract.

It's all about finding those raw gems and getting them cheap to polish them up.



Cool. CoolCoolCool.

vs Braintree (14th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Dull first half. Gracco looks like he came back too early, so Guedioura takes his spot at the break. McNish has sucked, so I slide Harris over and plug in Taaffe.

71 - Bangura in for the drained Clowes.

Well, our backline and D-midfielders played great, all posting 7+ ratings. It's on the wings and up front where we were point blank bad. Not going to tear into them, though. It was a cold, foggy day.

Impressive Trains
Ashley Yeoman
Sergio Sanchez
Elliott James

Bad Trains
Elvis Hammond
Brad Varney

I finish second in BS Premier Manager of the Month voting to Exeter's guy, which is totally fair, considering they haven't lost a single game yet. (Still just a point behind them because of all their draws, however).

Transfer Deadline
We get super busy on this, working the loan and transfer lines, and at the end of the day we have:

MLR Tambeson Eyong (24 - 3 month loan from Wealdstone)
A depth pickup, strictly speaking. Probably won't see much, if any time at all once our guys are back from injury.

DM Seanan Clucas (21 - Season long loan from Bristol Rovers)
Genuinely excited about this kid. He's better than Woodford by my scouts, albeit only slightly so. So he's someone who gives us a pretty nice upgrade at what is the hardest position to find people for.

DC Jordan Smith (18 - Free transfer)
I originally wasn't going to buy anyone, but Smith was a $3.1k/year for 2 years deal and his 18 Natural Fitness jumped out at me, as did his upside. Will probably spend time with the Reserves to build up his game.

Shit, there was one more player I wanted to loan in, but I couldn't get it to revert back to the screen fast enough. Oh well.

[b]@Wrexham (13th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Samuel Bangura
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Lewis Taaffe

Let's see how this goes. They're favored, because they're underachieving and everyone rightfully thinks of us as a paper tiger.

Another dull first half, but we'll take it, all things considered.

48 - Bangura exchanges passes with Harris, and, upon receiving it in the box, floats it to the side where Gracco cheerfully picks it up and bangs it home. 1-0

58 - Three straight corners we fend off.

63 - Precision strike. Nothing to do about that one. 1-1 Eyong and Guedioura on for Harris and Taaffe.

81 - 1-2

84 - Yellow for Gracco.

This one was all on our backline, save for Bangura, who won MoM with his 7.8 rating. 5.9s for Sanchez and Sharpe just aren't going to cut it.

With the loss we drop from 2nd all the way down to 8th. Because there's 24 teams, it's a 46 game season. Through 7, we have 13 points, with 5 points the drop zone.

Gainsborough, who *barely* avoided the drop last year (20th) after promoting in the first season, has lost all of its first seven games and have 0 points.

[Izulde]

[b]Max Crocombe[/g] gets another special great training note.

@Dorchester (21st)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Samuel Bangura
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Not sure why Dorchester's favored here.

[b]4]/b] - Heavy, heavy pressure from our hosts. Then we get a shot at the other end and Gracco loses the ball. Harris takes a knock, but will play on.

9 - Corner by McNish makes it easy for Sharpe to get the sliding tackle goal. 1-0

26 - Yellow for Gracco

31 - Whole lot of aerial kicks here in this possession, the last two of which are a 30 yarder back to Bangura from Yeoman, and our 19 year old versatile defender finishes the footie part of it with a half-volley to Gracco, and Air Italia flies it in goal with his head. 2-0

41 - Fraction of inch Yeoman missed that one by. Swore it was in. Yellow for Clucas

47 - How the FUCK DOES THAT BULLSHIT HAPPEN?! Fuckign SECONDS before the damn halftime whistle blows. 2-1

Harris to ML and Taaffe in at MR. Still so pissed about that goal allowed.

45 - Nice way to answer that! Gracco puts it forth to start a race between the keeper and Parmenter, and our DM gets the powerup and wins the goal. 3-1

47 - Whole lotta dribbling for Yeoman, but he makes it pay off with a laser beam goal, and we're looking great now. 4-1 My assman tells me Sanchez needs a rest, so in goes Burns.

52 - Gracco with the great ball for Harris, who delivers with the goal. Think we're telling the rest of the BS Premier that we belong on this stage? 5-1

70 - Taaffe is forced to go off with injury, and I'm forced to improvise with a modified 4-4-2 Diamond that uses Harris and Clucas as MC, Yeoman as AMC, and Guedioura as a striker.

Dorchester is crying after that complete and total second half meltdown. I think I set a record for highest average ratings. One 6.9 and the rest min 7s, but check out this 7.5+ line:

7.5+
Gianluca Gracco - 9.0 (MoM)
Ashley Yeoman - 8.9
Tom Sharpe - 8.6
Taylor Parmenter - 8.1
Courtney Harris - 8.0
Samuel Bangura - 7.8
Leon Clowes - 7.8

I don't think I've *ever* had five 8+ rated guys in a match before. This was definitely a statement game we made here, that we don't belong in the relegation contenders category.

We're back up in 6th following that rout of the Magpies, who have drawn better attendance than us so far. Indeed, so far our average attendance of 695, while blowing out last season's, is 2nd worst in the league, ahead of only Boreham Wood. On the other hand, the 23.08% of average capacity ranks 15th in the league.

[Izulde]

Seanan Clucas is called up to Northern Ireland's U21 Team. He's made 6 appearances so far for them.

Ashley Yeoman and Leon Clowes are named to the Team of the Week.

vs Boreham Wood (4th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Nabil Guedioura
ST Ashley Yeoman

3 - Fabulous volley from Burns to Guedioura who bounces it in, but it's disallowed late due to offsides. He sure looked onsides to me.

7 - ....Well that's a first. Guedioura gets busted for a handball and sent off with a red. Yeoman will be the lone striker up front now as we play for the draw.

35 - Terrible header clearance by Sanchez and the goal's in. 0-1

37 - Crocombe slips and falls over in the mud getting prepared to contest a long-range shot, and ...yeah. It's that kind of game. 0-2

66 - Yeaaaaaaah.... that offsides was obvious, McNish. Sorry.

72 - We *finally* get an onsides goal on a Burns to [bYeoman[/b] connection. 1-2 Hammond and Eyong come in at ST and MR, with Harris shifting to ML

A couple more shots, but no soap. My assman wants me to rip the team but they played well considering what they had to work with.

[Izulde]

Taylor Parmenter has made the most tackles per game in the league with 7.5.

vs Cambridge (6th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

24 - Yeoman's on the right wing and he crosses it to Gracco. The Italian's shot is block tackled, but he stays in front of it and gets another shot with no one in front of him, and this time it's a score. 1-0

Really great first half. Maybe not so much on offense, but our defense is playing phenomenally right now. Woodford goes in for Parmenter and Eyong for Harris.

60 - Yellow for McNish

67 - Groan. Sitter for Yeoman goes unconverted. And after Eyong and Woodford got the nice pair of passes to set him up, too.

84 - Woodford lays a great ball for Gracco, who literally runs a circle around the goalie to knife it in! 2-0



As always, best viewed in fullscreen.

Nothing lower than a 6.9 and the entire backline got 7.2 or better. Needless to say the Player of the Match was Gracco with his 8.8, who is quickly becoming my favorite FM player ever. 7.7. and 7.6 for Sharpe and Sanchez respectively locking down that D-line middle.

Stockport fired its manager. I don't report on all the firings, by the way, simply because I can't keep track of them all. Gianluca Gracco is named to the Team of the Week.

We're back up to 5th after the win.

@ Lincoln (17th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

I've not been rushing back the injury guys for the most part, instead letting them work out with the reserves until they're back to match fitness. I've also noticed Liam Priestley got hurt while on his loan but don't know how serious it is yet.

"Brackley's low confidence after their slump will see Lincoln through." Um, slump? What the hell slump are you talking about? We're underdogs, yeah, but the only one who has poor morale is Reid, who wants so badly to get out of here.

Fantastic defense, no real offense to speak of as usual in what amounted to a very quick, uneventful first half. We're playing well, though. Woodford comes in at DC for Sanchez, his first time playing there for us this season.

74 - Cladiu Hoban checks in for the first time for us, subbing in for McNish.

We just couldn't crack the force field, and the ratings ranged from 6.9-7.2, so we did well overall, and at least got a point out of it. Crocombe was the high point with his 7.2.

Portsmouth fires their manager, and rightfully so. The once proud Premier and Championship side has had four straight demotions - from Championship to League 1 to League 2 and now down to Blue Square Premier, where they sit 15th. Glancing over their roster, they have just too good a team to be doing that poorly.

Then I realize something...

Semi-Professional Clubs in BS Premier
Brackley
Colwyn Bay
Dorchester
Ebbsfleet
Gainsborough
Woking

6 teams out of 24. Everyone else is a professional squad. And obviously we don't have the money to turn pro. Here's a full confession - Portsmouth is my favorite English city out of all the ones I've visited and going there ended up being one of my mom and I's favorite travel memories.

On the other hand, I'm building something very special here with Brackley. Tough choice. Even better? We play them next. I decide to apply, just to see what happens.



Looks like they found me out.



Really, jackasses? I just fucking got you a promotion *and* have you in contention for promotion playoffs, and this is how you repay me? Fuck you all.

Oh and Liam Priestley is out a month.



At least *somebody* out there likes me. :P

vs Portsmouth (15th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Portsmouth runs a 4 backline - DM - MC/MC - AML/AMR - ST formation. I prefer our Arrigo 4-4-2 personally, and it's what I'll implement if Pompey decides I'm the Caesar for them.

[b]"This Brackley team just doesn't impress me, and Portsmouth should win comfortably" - Ian Smith, football.guardian.co.uk." Wow, way to throw more fuel on the raging fire between these two teams, Mr. Smith.

35 - And there's the shank by Portsmouth. You guys sure you don't want to hire me?

Our strikers are having a terrible day, so Guedioura and Taaffe both come on to replace them at the break in a bold move on my part.

57 - Sharpe's header on a Taaffe corner *just* clangs off the bar. Damn, thought that was in.

We get a number of shots after that, mostly on Sharpe rockets to Guedioura, but nothing hits, and we're forced to settle for a draw in a game we should have won.

LOL. "Portsmouth's assistant has no right to be happy about that performance" and something else I missed because the screen went by too fast.

Wealdstone, which is leading the Blue Square South, wants to loan Jordan Smith for 4 months and promises regular first team action for him. Okay, sounds good to me.

The St. James Park expansion is completed, raising stadium capacity to 4,000 with 825 of them seats.



Hmm. Does that mean in order to get the job, I'd have to quit? Not going to quit, though. I'm fine with it either way. Either I get to rebuild Portsmouth or I get to continue building what I think is something very special here at Brackley.

vs Dover (20th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Ryan Woodford
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

Where the fuck are you getting the idea that Brackley's been really poor of late? We've been doing fine, thanks.

22 - Obvious PK is obvious, and I will never, ever get tired of watching Crocombe shoot and make penalties. 1-0

29 - WTF are you thinking Bangura?! Backwards header leads to a banging goal for them. 1-1

40 - If I had a dollar for every time the post hosed Sharpe, I could buy a house in San Diego.

Sharpe moves over to DL and Burns replaces Bangura. Taaffe goes in at MR for Harris, who has been a big disappointment relative to his friendly successes.

Wow, is the team ever cursed. 5 times I've counted in the second half where the post just blocked at us every turn.

875 people attended that frustrating clank-show, which is a club record since our FA Cup game against Oldham in the biggest upset of my career. Izak Reid skips training, so I warn him. He does it again, I'll fine his ass.

Portsmouth opts to go with Sean Dyche for the manager position. Can't say I blame them - he has League 1 and Championship head coaching experience, as opposed to me who is an up and comer.

Still a little disappointing, though.

[Izulde]

So it turns out the reason I'm not the Portsmouth head boss is because there would indeed have been compensation required to be paid. Oh well. Max Crocombe's in the Team of the Week.

@Mansfield (8th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Leo Clowes
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Claudiu Hoban
MR Courtney Harris
ST Nabil Guedioura
ST Ashley Yeoman

2 - Le ugh. 0-1

4 - Sheesh. Lucky fucking bounce. 0-2

Yeah, worst half we've played in a long time. Reid's benched for Burns/Wickham because I forgot to put Woodford in the subs, and Taaffe replaces Harris.

58 - Two quick yellows for Hoban. Like trying to come back wasn't hard enough.

67 - K. 0-3

14 games in and we're 9th with 22 points. The drop zone has 12 points right now, so we're still okay with our cushion a little over a quarter of the way into the season.

[Izulde]

Good Trains
Callum McNish
Sergio Sanchez
Ryan Woodford

Bad Trains
Izak Reid
Claudiu Hoban
Brad Varney

Board's delighted with me due to our league position, although they still bemoan Eddie Nisevic's departure. They lost $19k last month.

vs Hereford (22nd)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Samuel Bangura
DC Sergio Sanchez
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Lewis Taaffe

Everyone says we're struggling, so we're being picked to lose to these cows. Not really seeing it, though.

0 - Not sure how that got in. 0-1

1 - That one should have gotten in though.

11 - Our offense utilizes a whole lot of passing, and this one is no different, with the end move a McNish center for Taaffe, who bags his first goal for us. 1-1

23 - And there's Gracco with his traditional easy miss.

30 - Clucas fakes out his defender and sneaks it in to Taaffe, who scores his second of the game and the season. Wow! 2-1

36 - Guess who's on fire today? It's Taaffe, who crosses it to McNish, and we've our third goal in 25 minutes. Epic scoring is epic. 3-1

43 - Hereford pins Gracco in the upper left corner, so he bolts it back to Bangura, who boots it to McNish, and it's like the Irish midfielder drank a Finishing +2 potion before the game, because lo and behold, it's another goal! 4-1

Take that, jackass oddsmakers telling us we'd lose at home to a relegation side. Woodford's on for Clucas.

67 - I love how this team never gives up. We have 3 or 4 shots blocked, but our boys keep fighting, and eventually Gracco hits the short-range scorcher. 5-1

69 - McNish is starting to misplay his passes, so Binns gets the nod.

All our starters had 7.1 or better, and we got some beaut of ratings overall.

7.5+
Callum McNish - 9.6! (MoM)
Lewis Taaffe - 9.4!
Gianluca Gracco - 8.3
Samuel Bangura - 8.0
Sergio Sanchez - 7.9
Seanan Clucas - 7.7
Andrew Burns - 7.6

I don't think I've ever gotten two 9+ ratings in a recent version of FM. Amazing. That was Taaffe's first goal in 24 matches. That's not the best part, though. The best is this:



Yeah, he was definitely worth dung, all right. And we're the ones who got him fired. Hereford was picked 10th in the preseason media, so for them to be in the drop is pretty bad. As for us? 7th, which is way above our heads.

Nobody wants Reid, even when I offer him at a really cheap price of $8k.

Gianluca Gracco and Callum McNish make the Team of the Week, but I'm disappointed to realize Andrew Burns' loan ends soon. Gracco, by the way, is tied with two others for most Man of the Match awards.

Oh cool.



He's become my most reliable staff member, so it's great to see him put in this effort at professional development. Ashley Yeoman steps up his game in training.

@Ebbsfleet (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Leon Clowes
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman

3 - They leave Harris wide open on the right side of the box and Parmenter finds him there. Although he hasn't shown good goal-scoring instincts yet this season, this one Harris deposits. 1-0

13 - No excuse for that goal to be allowed at all 1-1

23 - In the last 10 minutes, we've seen Clucas get a yellow, Gracco take a knock, and our opponents somehow miss a wide open goalmouth.

Woodford and Guedioura for Parmenter and Gracco at the half. We're playing well, but I think we can do even better.

Pretty dull second half, a yellow for Clowes the only noteworthy event. Still, considering how heavily they were favored and us being on the road, I'll take the point.

Gianluca Gracco is out 2 weeks. Not good.

[Izulde]

vs Colwyn Bay (24th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Samuel Bangura
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Andrew Burns
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Seanan Clucas
ML Callum McNish
MR Izak Reid
ST Lewis Taaffe
ST Ashley Yeoman

There's no way we should lose to these guys.

Our pitch is already Very Poor condition and with it pouring rain right now, it creates a real slopfest where nobody's really able to do much of anything, so we're still sitting at a snore-inducing 0-0 at the break. Woodford for Parmenter and Guedioura for Yeoman.

52 - Reid crosses it to Taaffe, whose shot is blocked, but Clucas is there to send in the follow-through for his first ever goal for us! 1-0

53 - It's raining so hard the ball is slippery and Crocombe drops it. Fortunately Colwyn Bay is so demoralized at this point in their season they don't pursue it, and a few passes later, Woodford shoots... and it bounces off the post. But then Taaffe beats out the defense on the rebound, giving us the precious insurance score. 2-0

74 - We're awarded a penalty after McNish is drilled in the box and crumples to the ground. Crocombe moseys on over and hits it home! 3-0

87 - Guedioura misses an easy chance and he's really struggled for us, so it may be time to think about dropping him down to the Reserves, where he can play and build his confidence up.

88 - Bangura's knocked.

These are the kinds of emphatic wins we need if we want to stay up. 7.1 or better for all starters save Yeoman, and Seanan Clucas 8.2 - MoM), Max Crocombe (8.0), Andrew Burns (7.7), Lewis Taaffe (7.7) and Tom Sharpe (7.5) are the keys.

How bad is Colwyn Bay? They're 1-16 with no ties. Yeah. Meanwhile, we're up to 6th and within striking distance of the promotion playoffs again.

One of our coaches Steve Book, failed his Continental A exam.

vs Tamworth (FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Leon Clowes
DC Ryan Woodford
DR Andrew Burns
DM Brett Solkhon
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Claudiu Hoban
MR Tambeson Eyong
ST Nabil Guedioura
ST Ashley Yeoman

Trying something experimental for the FA Cup lineup against a BSN team, just to see what happens. Tamworth is on a high streak and Guedioura (507 minutes) and Yeoman (540 minutes) are both on goal droughts, so let's see if the law of averages kicks in here.

Wickham and Solkhon both pick up yellows, and we have two instances in the first half where Yeoman and Geudioura had open shots, but hesitated and were taken down as a result. Bangura and Reid come on for Sharpe and Burns, as I'm determined to let our strikers play out of their funk.

52 - Unbelievable Tamworth miss.

61 - Bullshit penalty that probably just cost us the game 0-1

70 - Eyong hasn't impressed me at all, and neither has his counterpart, but on this attack, he constantly sticks with it and crosses to the far post, where an unguarded Hoban is waiting to kick it in for the tie and the first ever goal for us. 1-1

76 - It's more apparent than ever this game - Solkhon and his 5.7 rating are done as a useful player. We'll have a new captain next season, and anyway, on comes Clucas for him.

Eyong wins MoM with a 7.5 rating for his hustling work, and frankly we should have won this game. We just got bent over by the refs.

YOU'RE GOD DAMNED MOTHER FUCKING RIGHT I'M GOING TO BITCH ABOUT IT!



May have? MAY HAVE?! Son, there ain't no doubt about it. The refs cocked that one up like a band of gay porn stars.

Max Crocombe continues to train well

@ Tamworth (FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Leon Clowes
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Dale Binns
MR Tambeson Eyong
ST Elvis Hammond
ST Lewis Taaffe

Still trying to keep as low-wattage a lineup in there as possible.

3 - We've been disrespected by the oddsmakers all season long, and it continues here, with our not being favored despite being a higher division and higher in the league table than them. A goal for the hosts is disallowed due to offsides here.

32 - They're playing like they want it a lot more, but still miss open shots.

Doing well so far? I don't think so, Mr. Gay.

56 - Harris and Bangura in at MR and DR. I'm sick of Eyong's incompetence today, and Reid is just tired.

83 - It's a boot down and to the right for Angus, and Harris does this crazy, twisting header thing for the go-ahead goal that just barely bounces its way in! 1-0

Ugly, anemic win, but Stevland Angus got a 7.9 and MoM, and Leon Clowes (7.7) and Courtney Harris (7.5) contributed to our being just good enough to get the win and advance, picking up a $22k paycheck along the way.