FM 2006: Tim Moungey Takes Yeading

[Izulde]

I've decided to do something a little different here and not do game by game caps. Rather, I'll do synopsis reports.

So I took over Yeading, recently promoted to Conference North/South play. Naturally, I'm expected to battle against relegation, so I get to work on setting things up.

After signing a few reserve players and calling them up, I decide to go with a 1-4-2-1-2 formation (Sweeper/4 DB/2 MC/1 AFC/2 ST)

We get our asses kicked in just about every friendly save for the last one against AFC Wimbledon, where after I pull our sweeper for allowing an own goal and going to a 4-2-1-3 formation that hey, we kick ass and pull the 3-1 upset!

I got rid of a bunch of players who didn't fit into our formation and plans, namely a bunch of wingback and wide-ranging midfielders. I've decided to just have a centre focused team that just works on running it down the middle.

Here's some of the new guys we've added in via transfer:

DRC Kyle Lapham:
19 years old, I got him on a free transfer from League One Swindon Town. Originally gotten because I had 0 DR, he's quickly turned out to be the best player on the team. His 10 passing is absolutely phenomenal and even my idiot assistant manager/player recognizes that this kid is probably end up going to be a star someday. I just hope he sticks with us. He's consistent as all hell and a brilliant player, in addition to being aggressive and brave. Also won our only MoM award thus far, in that last friendly against AFC Wimbledon.

ST Danny Morgan
A 20 year old fetched from the League Two side Oxford United, he came in because I desperately needed some TT strikers. Thus far he's been pretty good for me, though not as dynamic an impact as Lapham. Still, he's another brave one and I see him as becoming a significant key of the future.

I'm still hunting around for a good GK and I could use upgrades and/or depth at the AFC/MC and yes DR positions.

Here's the tenative starting lineup after switching formations prior to our first league game.

GK Delroy Pruddie (Won out over Mark Rose, who I view as a promising young GK)
DL Adam Everitt (Asst. Manager prefers even younger Ben Hudell but I don't agree
DC Nevin Saroya
DC Yiadom Yeboah (Yeboah and Mark Leach are interchangeable as far as I"m concerned, so I'll go with the Asst. Manager here
DR Kyle Lapham
MC Darti Brown
MC Dave Clarke (Two solid veterans. Would like to pick up a youth guy here)
AMC Charlie Mapes (A young guy, pretty damn talented I'd say)
FC Danny Morgan
FC Darrell Cox (PK-kicker extraordinnare at only 17 (15 rating) Another future star in my book)
FC Johnson Hippolyte (41 years old and he's still playing. A real inspiration to all the guys)

Dave Clarke and Delroy Pruddie are the team captains.

[Izulde]

0-0, 0-1, 0-3, 0-4. Those are the scores of our League games for August. Guess who has a big fat honking goose egg in every single contest?

That's right, us. We haven't scored a single fucking goal in league play and the one time we did look to have one, it was a) a game we were already losing 0-3, and b) the fucking ref called him offsides.

Our form isn't *that* bad and morale's pretty good. I just don't know what the hell to do. I'm scouring everywhere for more players, but oi. Damn frustrating.

[Izulde]

So I took a harder look at my squad and realized just how much of a dipass my assistant manager is. The guys he has as the starting strikers all suck for crap in finishing and I've been benching my best finishing guys.

Say hello to Marvin Morgan, recently called up from Reserves, who has a Finishing of 8, and Errol Telemaque, who'd been buried on the subs despite having a team best 13 Finishing.

It's now October and in the month of September, we went 2-0-0 in league play with a 1-0 victory over Maidenhead and a 3-2 win against Bognor Regis thanks to some snappy tactics on my part.

We're now sitting at 15th in the league table and we look pretty safe from relegation at the moment.

Unfortunately we lost 2-1 to some underling side in the FA Cup because I got cocky and started a bunch of guys who needed match practice. By the time I tried to undo the damage, it was too late.

Still, I can't complain too much. Though 15 of our guys have contracts expiring in June of 2006, I'm hoping I can get them locked up around November or December, thereabouts. At bare minimum, we should be able to avoid relegation this year and get me signed to a multi-year deal and a raise above this $22,000 a year I'm making now.

Edit: Oh yeah and we won those two games due largely to fine passing from Danny Morgan to Marvin Morgan, combining for 2 assists and 2 goals in league play. The Morgans work well together!

Edit 2: His name is actually Marvin, not Mike.

Edit 3: I forgot to mention that in August, we transferred in MC Graeme Matthewson, 19, from Darlington. He started off really crappy for us, but I made the media comment that he would get better as he adjusted to the team style, and sure enough, that's exactly what he's done, as he's become an integral part of both our youth movement and our midfield.

[Izulde]

October showed us a 2-2-1 mark (wins/losses/ties) and was a schizophrenic affair.

We started with Marvin Morgan scoring three goals in the first two games to lead us to two more straight victories. By then we were up to 7th and starting to entertain fanciful dreams of promotion playoffs.

Then we lost to 4th Eastbourne Boro 3-0 and worse, lost Kyle Lapham for the rest of the month, which meant I had to start ineffectual Ben Huddel in the DR spot. With that in mind, I'll take the tie we scraped out, though we could have easily gotten the win in our last game against Lewes, a 2-3 loss, if Delroy Pruddie wouldn't have been hurt.

Ah well, we're still sitting in 12th place through 11 games at the moment, a good 6 points clear of that dreadful relegation zone, so we're still far surpassing initial expectations with our midtable showing.

Transfer hunts have proven extremely futile, as a lot of great strikers I've gone for have chosen to go to subregional clubs (Why I have no idea, but hey, at least they're not going to a conference rival!)

I could still use an upgrade in goal and some better striker depth I think, not to mention somebody to back up Bynham on the right side who won't suck it up. Otherwise I'm pretty content with the club I have. Of course there's always room to improve, but I'll take a midtable finish this year if that's how it turns out.

We still have the FA Trophy to look forward to at any rate.

[Izulde]

We went 0-3 in league play in November, including a disgusting 4-3 loss in the FA Trophy to an underside.

To that end, I went looking for transfer players and got the following people shipped in:

DM Brendan Hughes
25 years old, brave, determined, and influential, he gives us a corner man, something we'd be lacking before. At the moment, he's in DR, where he's competent and has temporarily taken over the starting spot from Kyle Kapham, whose performances have gone downhill. In just two appearances thus far, he's played quite well and I'll be looking to sign him on for multiple years. Could potentially become the team captain.

MC Gareth Wilson
Also 25 and determined, he passes well and tackles well. Like Hughes, he's Irish and came to us after having been hunting for a job for a while. He's taken over the MC starting spot formerly occupied by Dave Clarke, our former captain. Also Like Hughes, he's played well in his first couple appearances for us.

GK Matthew Bulman
Just 19 years old, I got him from Swindon on a free transfer. He's better than Prudie in just about every important category, so I've slotted him in as the starter in net. Though he gave up 3 goals in his debut, he actually did pretty well and I look for him to be our goalie of the future.

There's constant shuffling for the starting lineup, and not everyone is entirely settled. Here's the normal starting 11 as of now.

GK Bulman
DL Everitt
DC Saroya
DC Yeboah (It's been Leach the last few matches, but I'm not happy with his performance
DR Hughes
MC Wilson
MC Matthewson
FC Cox (though D. Morgan makes this difficult)
FC M. Morgan (Still our top goalscorer)
FC Telemaque (Isn't scoring nearly as well as his finishing stat suggests he should)

I also signed a bunch of guys to contracts to ensure that they'll stay on with the club for next year, provided we don't fall into relegation. Right now we're 18th, just 3 points out the drop.

[Coffee Warlord]

You can always try the Nielsen 3-4-3 Run and Shoot.

[Izulde]

Actually the Moungey 4-2-1-3 Centre Play can work if you have the right players.

And this got proven as we went 1-1-2 in December, which means we're sitting 16th in the table, a breathing space of four points from the drop. This, despite losing a lot of our key players to a flu that's ravaged the club even though I've been sending everybody home.

Oh and we picked up yet another transfer, one that I had to spend the $2k I'd gotten from those sent out on, but he's worth it.

AM RC Ruben Zadkovich
19, he's the superior to 23 year old starter Charlie Mapes in just about every way, though I have to say that Charlie's been playing quite well for us. So my guess is they'll platoon until it gets sorted out just who the best is. Chances are it'll be Zadkovich, as Mapes provides us with a a lot more versatility off the bench.

Everyone is delighted with my performance, which is good, but they don't want to give me a new contract just yet, which is bad.

A bunch more guys are going to be flying out the door, as I transfer listed virtually everyone not on the first team so we can stay under wage budget, as there's another bloke I'm looking at bringing in to ring in the New Year.

[Izulde]

Wow! What an incredible January! Despite tons of injuries and fatigue decimating our lineup in the early part of the month and being forced to rely on very patchwork lineups, we put together an incredible run of 5-2-1 to boost us up to 11th place in the table at the start of February.

This includes capping off the month with reeling off three straight wins. We're 13 points away from the relegation zone, so we're sitting really pretty right now.

Some guys got shuffled out and one guy came in, the one hinted at in the last update.

MC/DC Shane Huke
20 years old, from Peterborough, he represents an incredible upgrade for our team. He can tackle, he can pass, and he has good strength and stamina for our level. Right now he's playing as the starting DC where he's competent. Late-game strategy usually has him moving up to MC and allowing one of our former DC starters, now subs, to slot in the backline. His form has been absolutely sensational since joining us, including a Man of the Match honour. Without him, we don't play nearly as well.

Picking up Matthew Bulman was certainly the right move. After he adapted to our squad's style of play, he's shot up to a 7.00 rating, with 4 clean sheets and 2 Man of the Match nods. Even better, he's absolutely thrilled to be a part of Yeading and appears to want to stay here for the long haul.

What a fantastic, fantastic month. Just amazing.

[Izulde]

Our simply dazzling form continues in the month of February with 2-1-0 record. Now we're occupying the mind-boggling 10 spot in the league table and even more dizzying is the fact that we're just 5 points out of promotion playoffs. That's how well the Yeading Ding have been playing under my leadership.

We've got our eye on someone that might get transferred into us shortly, though the competition for him is hot indeed.

Man of the Month this time is DC Nevin Saroya who has been on a tear of 8 form lately and whose play in back has been vital to the team's success. Since it's been a while, let me update the lineup.

GK Matthew Bulman
DL Adam Everitt*
DC Shane Huke
DC Nevin Saroya*
DR Brendan Hughes
MC Gareth Wilson
MC Graeme Matthewson
FC Danny Morgan
FC Marvin Morgan#
FC Darrell Cox*

*=Original Yeading Senior Team
*=Original Yeading Player (Reserve Team)

That's how much I've revamped the team. Just 4 of the starting 11 are original Ding men. The bench is a mixture of original Dings and newcomers that have transported in.

Want another example of how far we've come? Eastbourne Boro, who clobbered us 3-0 in the first going, only managed to draw us in the second round and they were heavily favoured as they sit #3.

Weymouth is still so far in front of everybody it would take a miracle for them not to get the automatic ride to Conference National.

[Izulde]

March is done and the league season is drawing to a close. With little more than a handful or so of matches left, we're in 10th still, but probably not going to make promotion playoffs. We went 1-1-2 in March, including an irritating loss to 22nd Hayes that had me ripping into the team. Scoring has suddenly become a problem for our side, but the matter is rectified with the most recent signing, namely....

AMR/ST James Lawson
This 19-year old dude formerly of Southend is a veritable striker god in terms of the Conference South players. Stellar passing, technique, positioning, and teamwork. Very good PK shooting and pretty good finishing. In fact, he's so good he's being heralded as the saviour of the Yeading franchise. To wit:



Pretty damn sweet, huh? First time I've ever gotten something like that in FM.

I have to admit though, he sucked it in his debut for us. But then, in the second game, he scored two late goals to steal the win for us from Sutton United. I'm loving this kid!

Oh and Darrell Cox got transferred out to Cambridge City. I liked the kid, but he just fell out of favour recently with me and I didn't really see him getting back into it, even though he's just 17. I rely heavily on players who know how to play together and his teamwork just wasn't enough.

Also, I'm in contract negotiations with the Board. Originally they tried offering me a three year deal for $18,000. Say what?! I'm making $22,000 now and you want to put that on me? No way man. I know the club is precarious financially, but I'm kicking ass for you. Don't try and hose me like that.

So after a couple back and forth negotiations, they made the offer of $22,000 for two years. That I can deal with. Gives me a little bit of job security, though not too much in case we come into a ton of money and I happen to deserve some of it... but at the same time, I can afford to just make the same amount if it'll help the club out.

So I'm taking it!

[Izulde]

We closed out the season by going 2-2-4 in April, allowing us to finish in 9th place in Conference South. Not bad for a bunch slated for relegation, eh? My guess is next season we'll be able to fight for promotion playoffs. And we did pretty well that last month despite losing Marvin Morgan mid-month to an ankle injury.

Weymouth won the automatic promotion to Conference National as I may have already mentioned. Their clinching was an easy matter, so easy that I expect they'll be able to stay up there next year.

Liverpool won the EPL and a bunch of teams got promoted and relegated, most of whom I'm not mentioning because they don't apply to me. Weder Bremen scored a 1-0 upset over Porto for the Euro Cup. Unfortunately for Liverpool fans, they weren't able to get a double, as Arsenal wins the FA Cup by beating them 1-0.

Moor Green and Dorchester won promotion to Conference National, the latter beating out Eastbourne Boro 2-1 in the playoff final. I'm saying right now that Eastbourne Boro are going to be favourites to win promotion next year. I think they're that good a team.

Thurrock went to the drop as a result of their season-ending tie to us, since they desperately needed a win to stay up. Bognor Regis was the other relegation... My old FM 2005 team. I feel there's a certain poetry there, as I've dropped FM2005 from my playing list completely.

The FA Trophy went to Stevenage with a 1-0 victory over Exeter. Machester United won the European Champions Cup with a 3-2 win versus Real Madrid.

Not surprisingly, Marvin Morgan was voted Player of the Year by Ding fans. He lead us with 11 goals last year, 10 of which occurred in league play, the only one to hit double digits in scoring.

Our expectations for next season are to finish mid-table. I think we can handle that. Hell, I think we might even be able to push for promotion playoffs, if you want the truth of it.

We signed a new transfer that I'll tell you about next post, and I applied for the job at Hereford even though I have no intentions on taking it if I get offered it.

[Izulde]

France beats Brazil 2-0 to win the 2006 World Cup.

England, Spain, and Germany all sack their managers after dismal showings in the World Cup. My chances of getting assigned there look pretty slim indeed.

We get our asses kicked in friendlies.

Richard Ouitte (sp) was transferred in but I realized he sucks, so I transferred him out for $10k.

A bunch of people got their contracts resigned. Others are wait and see.

Then the bad news comes in our last friendly. Matthew Bulman gets hurt and is out for 2-4 weeks minimum. He misses our first game and I stupidly sign and call up Paul Reid from the U-18 team because I don't trust Delroy Preddie. What happens?

An annoying as hell 4-3 loss that we should have won. So yeah, I'm ticked right now. Oh and Danny Morgan our lone left-footer, is out too. I need a lefty striker with better finishing, damn it!

I'm real pissed at the moment. We won't make the promotion playoffs at this rate.

[Izulde]

So, I'm still hacked off about that opening league loss to Newport County. Worse yet, we've got a crush of early league games in August, and with Matthew Bulman out for a while yet, we're likely in the hole early.

But since I haven't done it yet, let me do a position breakdown, brief like last year's.

Goalkeeper

Matthew Bulman remains the man for both now and the future. I'd argue that he's one of the better goalies in the Conference South and he'll be the one that leads us if we're going anywhere. Or maybe not. His injury might affect him for the worse. We still have Delroy Preddie around and he'll be getting the starts while Bulman's out, as Paul Reid is young and sucking pretty badly.

Defender

Brendan Hughes is still the man at DR, and he's arguably our best defender. He's recently signed a deal that'll keep him with us through 2011. Shane Huke is a valuable DC/MC for us who starts and plays in both positions, but he wants $35k a year for his next deal and that might not happen, so we may see him get shipped out. If he does, then look for Hughes to replace him and Kyle Lapham, who recently got yanked off the transfer list, to go up on DR. I've become high on Lapham again recently, so that's good. Nevin Saroya is still a fixture at one of the DC spots and isn't going anywhere, despite repeated interest in him from other clubs. Adam Everitt maintains the DL starting spot and will stay with the team due largely to his good physical skills, hard work, excellent teamwork ability, and obscenely cheap price. A lot of these guys have recently been signed to long-term deals.

For the subs, Marc Leach is excellent in that role and could probably challenge for a starting job. Yiadom Yeboah is 29 and not very good, but he does in a pinch. Overall, I'm quite satisified with this group and their play has kep us in it.

Midfielders

Gareth Wilson and Graeme Matthewson hold down the fort at MC and do a pretty good job there, despite this feeling I keep having that we need to upgrade there. Charlie Mapes is a guy that I may try starting at MC over Matthewson just to see what he can do. Mapes is also one of our three big AMC guys, the others being Ruben Zadkovich, the starter, and Leon Woodruffe, an AMC/ST who have a unnatural obsession for and who I just signed to a long-term deal even though I probably shouldn't have.

Dave Clarke is a veteran backup and our captain when he's on the field. He was extremely happy when I signed a two-year deal with the club and even as me listed as his Favoured Personnel. That's so damn cool! I've never had a fanboi like that before. Darti Brown is the other backup, who comes cheap and has serviceable skills for a backup of this level.

Strikers

James Lawson is the one that everyone loves and is listed as the most beloved player on our club information, as the fans think he's the cat's pajamas. His finishing is only average relative to the rest of the squad, but his other attributes more than make up for it. Marvin Morgan was our top goal-scorer last season and voted the MVP by the fans. He still retains his starting spot, though I'm always looking to upgrade there. The left side is normally mantained by Danny Morgan who is out at the moment with an injury. I'm looking for a left-footed striker with good finishing and teamwork ability, but so far I haven't found him.

Woodruffe is the top backup, with Jermaine Roche and Errol Telemaque also in there. Roche is young and still has upside, but Telemaque, though he has the best finishing by far on the team, has no clue of how to bust his ass or work with the team, and he got even worse in the offseason, going from 2 each area to the lowest of low, 1, in each spot.

Looking over the team, I'd say getting better and more depth at striker is our top priority. I'd like to get an assistant manager too, if that's possible. We *really* need one.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, I like this style. It's different, but there's enough here that I know what's going on without feeling as though I'm playing out every match with you.

[Izulde]

Thanks, Jon. I like this style too. It keeps the flow going and keeps me interested in doing in a dynasty as I don't have to stop and report on every single match.

We ended up going 2-2-0 in August. Both losses were irritating because they were only by one goal. Delroy Preddie has been a surpisingly stable force in goal as he plays there while we're still waiting for Matthew Bulman to get back from injury.

But the biggest forces have been Brendan Hughes and James Lawson. Hughes won Man of the Match twice this month and has been in great form. Lawson has 3 goals and 1 assist in the 3 league matches he's been in thus far, thereby validating the fan-love that spreads around him.

At the moment we're in 12th place with 6 points. Considering 7 points is good enough to be playoff contenders, we're still in it by a wide, wide margin. The sweetest win this month was a 2-1 victory over Bath, who, despite being promoted to Conference South just this year, is playing insanely good and are sitting 4th at the moment. 5th is Billericay, their fellow promoted team. Funny, huh?

Margate is another team that was promoted. Apparently all the relegated teams were shifted over to Conference North, as the only other new team I can find is Redditch, last year part of Conference North, this year moved to Conference South.

Oh and we have a new assistant manager. Gary Shelton is cheap, very good at the mental aspects of running an organization, and hopefully will decide to stay with us longer than a year.

With him under my authority, it's time to finally go transfer shopping!

[Izulde]

September was a lovely month for us as we not only went 3-1-0 in league play, but we scored a solid 3-1 victory over Welling in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, just four days after we beat them 3-2 in league play.

Our success can be largely attributed to two players that we transferred in. They are:

ST Kelvin Langmead
A 21-year old transfer from Shrewsbury, he possesses a superb (for our level) all-around game that makes him our best striker, even better than James Lawson. How good is this guy? In 4 league games, he's scored 5 goals and had 2 assists, with 2 Man of the Match honours. He also had a hat-trick his second game out.

Pretty damn brilliant, especially since when I first got him, he demanded that the team be built around him. So I thought, "Oh great, we've got a prima donna on our hands." Our fans were uneasy as well, but thus far, he's been nothing short of the consumate professional on the field.

DLRC Shola Oyedele
Yep, that's right. He can play all three positions on the back line. What's even better, this 22 year old is a natural at both DR and DL, which are our biggest need areas. He's taken over at DR, allowing us to shift Brendan Hughes to DC where he's more comfortable. Fact is, this guy's now our best defensive bloke, and he's a delight to watch play on the pitch. He's also saved our bacon and prevented goals from being scored numerous times. When Adam Everitt went down with an injury, we were able to slide him in at DL and put Kyle Lapham at his natural position at DR. He allows us to do a *lot* with what is arguably the strongest part of our team, and has won a MoM award already.

That last loss in league play sucked, though. A 2-1 loss to Billericay that dropped us from 4th to 7th and shot them up to 3rd.

So we're at 7th right now, but that's okay. There's still a lot of season left for us to fight our way into playoffs territory, and with a little luck, we could even break through to the #1 spot and automatic promotion, as we're just 3 points back from there. Well, potentially 6, because everybody has a game in hand on us just about, so we may drop some more before we rise again.

Edit: We picked up Oyedele from MK Dons. He's also Nigerian and has made 4 U21 caps for his homeland so far. That's how good he is.

[Izulde]

Good News: We breezed through FA Qualifying with wins over a couple of scrub teams and now are in the first round of the FA Cup

Bad News: We went 1-2 in league play for October, including in an infuriating 1-0 loss to Cambridge City that had me throwing things and cursing so profanely, not even a month of soap could cure my mouth.

Part of our struggles at first were adapting to the new goalkeeper I picked up. I just had the feeling that Matthew Bulman wasn't going to cut it. So I got....

GK Tonny Nielsen
22 years old and a tall glass of water. We're talking he's 6'9" tall. I mean this guy is *BIG*. He struggled during the first couple of games, until I screamed at him during halftime of an FA Cup match. After that he's played a lot better, enough to where I feel justified in going over budget and paying him $40k a year.

The problem being, we've been hit hard with injuries to strikers. James Lawson, Marvin Morgan, and Jermaine Roche have all been hurt at some point or another. Danny Morgan is still gone with an injury. Lawson and Roche are also still out.

When you have that kind of decimation along your front line, particularly when Woodruffe, the top backup, has absolute shit for endurance, you're going to have scoring outages, and that's been our problem.

Still, not all is lost, I think. We're in 9th place, 3 points out of promotion playoffs and 5 points away from that coveted first place spot. Granted, teams 6-8 have a game in hand, but I still feel like we have a shot at getting into the playoffs if we can avoid the fucking injury bug.

I'm not going to be content with simple midtable like we're expected to hit. I want a shot at promotion to Conference National, damn it!

[Izulde]

I deliberately throw the FA Cup and FA Trophy matches as much as possible. The fact that we lost 1-0 to a fucking subconference side in the FA Trophy though even when they had just 10 men on the field for 90% of the game *and* one of their players had a nasty knock besides... well that goes to show how fucking irritating this month was.

A horrible 0-2-1 in league play this month. Tonny Nielsen has been yanked from his starting job in favour of Matthew Bulman and yet we *still* lost, 2-1 in our next conference game.

So we're 16th and with promotion playoffs 7 points off and our absolutely horrendous run of form lately... and it looks like we'll be fighting just for midtable.

Fucking hell, I hate this. We should be fighting for promotion, not sucking so horrible like this. Nielsen's ass is transfer-listed too, by the way. No sense in being over wage budget if we're going to blow the whole fucking league like this.

Edit: I even snapped a pen in rage and hurled the pieces against the door. Man it's been a long, long time since a game's managed to get me this immersed that I get that pissed off.