By The Nine! - FM 2013 9 Level Dynasty

[Izulde]

Awesome. My post got eaten. Long story short, the following happened:

-A whole ton more injuries
-Losing, losing, losing.
-Ryan Horne going to Peterborough North Star
-A 3-2 win in the second leg of the Chell Trophy, where we scored 3 goals in the second half to almost force extra time. It was also a game that saw us bring back the 4-5-1, which we now have as a secondary tactic
-Match Training is set to Tactics Only

And right after getting knocked out of the Chell Trophy is where we pick up the remainder of the season.





is how both the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 looked after the initial set to training Tactics Only and introduction as a tactic being worked on.

(16th) vs Ely City (17th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani/Tim Pitt
M: George Coy/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

Injuries caused that backline to happen as we lost both our #1 and #2 DL and our #3 DL is tired after the Chell Trophy game.

23 - 25 yard free kick goal by Gomez-Pico is his first ever for us, and the first time we've held a lead in a league game for who knows how long? "For the first time in forever..." Thanks, Frozen. 1-0

49 - And because this is a soccer universe and Izulde dynasty where nothing can go right, Jake Wells is knocked out with injury, leaving U18 callup Gary Dowridge to step in. No pressure, kid. You're only replacing the most beloved Thetford Town player in this history.

63 - Did they score? Yep. Nti in for Talbot, Gittings for McEachran. I know it's totally crazy to dream I'll find league win, but for the first time in forever, at least we've got a chance. Don't let them in, don't let them score again... 1-1

Look at all the highlights nobody has.

Great big fucking sigh.

Fuck the transfer deadline. Let it go... let it go.... can't bring in any more... let it go... let it go...

16th vs Walsham-le-Willows (13th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Nas Foreman/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/DJ Spittlehouse/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

Snoozer first half. Jones for Coy

47 - Ugh. Y U MISS OGBONNA?!

60 - WTF SPITTLEHOUSE?! THAT WAS YOURS! OFF WITH HIS HEAD! GET IN THERE, MULDOWNEY!

82 - Late goal given up you say? Why yes! 0-1

Oh you feel being warned for missing practice was harsh, Max Bridges? Fuck you - you're out.

Good Trains
Lewis Clover
Ted Gusterston
Anthony Adams

Bad Trains
James Hambridge
Gary Dowridge

$2.99k profit last month and board is still satisfied

17th @Brantham Athletic (8th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Nas Foreman/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

0 - An embarassing miss by Talbot. Even his manager's got his head in hands. No, no I don't. I'm just shaking my head and mumbling about how it fucking figures.

19 - Aaaaaand now Ogbonna blows a gimme.

44 - Why yes, let's award them the penalty right before the half as they convert. Because fuck us actually being able to win a fucking league game, amirite? 0-1

Rayhan for Foreman at the break, even though it like, totes doesn't matter.

64 - Ogbonna sucks so Nti nips in.

66 - Wells with the balla interception and pass to Gomez-Pico. Even more awesome pass to Talbot sets up the 1 v 1 and this time he manages not to fuck it up. He scored one of our second half goals in the Chell Trophy defeat, but this is his first league goal for us 1-1

75 - And of course, there's a shit goal kick by Malek that's intercepted and they score, because really, we're supposed to say fuck that to Thetford Town actually finishing out of last place 1-2

80 - Not sure why celebration. Gomez-Pico does get a goal in a post-corner scrum, but like... can I haz wins? 2-2

At least it's not a defeat?

4 games left in the season, and Woodbridge Town has already clinched. Going to hunt up breakfast or lunch or fourthmeal or WTF ever it is, and then come back and finish off this miserable, miserable year.

[Izulde]

Uh oh. Thetford Town is once again the subject of a takeover rumor.

17th @FC Clacton (12th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Nas Foreman/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

4 - Talbot gets the ball on Malek's goal kick and plays a beaut of a setup pass to Ogbonna, whose shot just barely manages to find the bottom of the net 1-0

Rayhan for Foreman at half.

59 - Clover gets the header on the corner but instead of sending it in, he nods it back to Rayhan, who further backpasses to Ogbonna. Coy gets the wing pass and crosses it to far post where Clover's migrated from the near post he originally headed and the kick in is easy. Muldowney is having a garbage game, so Gittings gets in 2-0

64 - Malek goal kicks and Ogbonna falls down heading it forward to open space. Talbot beats out the defender to the ball and deftly delivers on the 1 v 1. Barring a typical collapse, we've got this 3-0

8.1 for Matthew Malek, 7.5 for Egzon Asllani, 8.0 for Jake Wells, 8.5 and PotM for Lewis Clover, 8.0 for Dubi Ogbanna and 8.2 for Spencer Talbot. I literally can not remember a game we dominated this much.

Still in last place, though, as Ely City won, too.

Needham Market wins the Eastern Counties Senior Cup.

17th @Haverhill Rovers (10th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Dan Gittings
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

Called up Jeffery Green from the U18/Reserve squad because Nas Foreman is actually seeing his ratings drop across the board, so I want to give someone else a shot.

5 - Gomez-Pico and Ogbonna play the 1-2 before the Nigerian cross passes to Talbot and it's easy breezy for the goal 1-0

52 - Malek goes to ground too soon and as a result they hit the 25 yard equalizer. Feh. Hann for Gittings, Nti for Talbot. 1-1

57 - Nti with an excellent interception that starts a move culminating in Ogbonna's forward header finding Muldowney wide open for a 1 on 1, and the center midfielder actually converts 2-1

90 - Nti's hurt and we're forced to switch to a flat 5-4-1, with Rayhan as a new DC.

7.6 for Spencer Talbot, 8.1 for Luke Muldowney, and 8.2 for PotM winner Dubi Ogbonna. Funny how we're finally finding our spark when the games don't matter. But still in last place on goal differential. With 2 games left, we can climb as high as... 15th. Yeah, it's been that bad a year.

17th vs Gorleston FC (12th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
DM: Dil Spittlehouse
M: Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney
AM: Jordan Sidhu/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot

I'm going to experiment with using the 4-5-1 Control tactic when we're favored and the 4-4-2 Counter when we're not and see how it does.

5 - Sidhu wins a jumper for possession on the left midfield and nods it on to Talbot on the left boundary of the six yard box. I think he's going to cross it but instead he confidently banks the diagonal in for the score! 1-0

22 - Sidhu is knocked, but he'll play out the rest of the half.

Though he's awkward at it, Jones is going to play the AML because we have no one else capable of playing it, and that's going to be one of our big priorities heading into next offseason if we decide to stick to this plan.

66 - Wood on for Spittlehouse. I should also note that these last several games, I've just been doing Key Highlights rather than Comprehensive to get through the season faster.

73 - Nathan Winsper has often been a thorn in our sides, and here he blocks two straight clearance attempts by our defenders, then chugs down to the box to shoot... and fortunately Malek picks it up. Then Green sprays an incredible cannon all the way down the left flank for Jones to grab, who dribbles down to the touchline just inside the box before crossing to the far side of the six yarder. McEachran is completely alone and unmarked, and he bangs it in. 2-0

88 - God damned bar helps THEM out 2-1

7.5 each for Spencer Talbot and Jake Wells, with my boy Wells getting PotM. The win moves us up to 15th, but we need to win to be able to ensure our position. Even with a draw, we could end up in last place if Ely City wins.

This interesting bit of news hits my email re: the takeover talks:



Considering there's still $750k in loan debt, that would be massive if he wiped out all of that.

Wisbech Town wins the Chell Trophy, so at least we lost to the champions. Still a feeling of what might have been, there.

15th vs Dereham Town (2nd)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Lewis Clover/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
DM: Dil Spittlehouse
M: Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney
AM: Jordan Sidhu/Carl McEachran
S: Spencer Talbot

Not an easy draw, but we're slightly favored against a hot team, so the 4-5-1 it is.

3 - Not a good start 0-1

Rayhan for Green and Ogbonna for Talbot at the half.

50 - Brilliant clearance by Wells and the ensuing move sees Sidhu dribble across the midfield line before drop-shotting a perfect pass for Ogbonna, who scores the equalizer to get us back in the game. 1-1

77 - Gomez-Pico and Ogbonna exchange passes before the kick-out to McEachran, who runs down to the sideline on the right wing before crossing back to Ogbonna. Defense tackles away the ball but then just sits there rather than clearing, and the Nigerian surges forth again to nip in the go-ahead goal. Wood subsequently comes in at DM for Spittlehouse 2-1

82 - Immediate answer but it doesn't matter because Ely City is getting waxed 3-0. 2-2

We should have won that game. no excuse to get a draw that late. Luckily both teams below us lost, so we finish 15th. Hope that's enough to save my job.



Goalkeepers


Perfectly fine with these two going forward

Defenders


No doubt about it - Nas Foreman was a bust. We've got our basic lineup of Calvin Powell, Lewis Clover, Jake Wells, Egzon Asllani going forward, as Clover looked very uncomfortable at DL relative to DC or even DR. Could definitely use some better depth here, though.



We need to look at two things here: the 4-4-2 and the 5-4-1. Under the 4-4-2, we're just fine with Luke Muldowney and Pelayo Gomez-Pico, and George Coy and Ollie Hann did well enough at ML/MR for me to quite like them. Dan Gittings did okay at MR, but I'm eh on his overall talent. TBH, I'm not quite sold on Coy or Hann as well, so talent upgrade is needed there probably. George Jones did just fine at MR, but Carl McEachran shouldn't be playing there, so depth, esp at ML, would be a huge help. MC depth there's Dil Spittlehouse and that's it, as Jason Wood was pretty bad there. Then again, Will Summerfield is legal next year, so he probably covers the MC starting or depth beautifully.

For the 4-5-1, Spittlehouse is solid at DM, but I don't trust Wood at all anymore. MC is already covered. At AM, Jordan Sidhu was okay on both sides, and Jones and McEachran both did well there, in spite of my aggravations with them. Depth will be a concern going forward.

But what about our reserves? Will Forbes and Kurt Twomey showed real promise at DM and MC, so they'll both get promoted to the senior team next year. Simon Farrell was meh, and Nigel Swaine eh. Yeah I just covered all the areas in one go.

Strikers


The four man rotation of Spencer Talbot, Dubi Ogbonna, Danny Nti, and Dom Petrucci works quite well. No need to go striker shopping, although I should note that Ricky Clarke's good games all came at AMC, a position we won't feature at all.

Thetford Town Top 10 (Not Counting Appearances and Goals Allowed)
Dubi Ogbonna - 2nd Goals - 16; T-2nd PoTM - 6; 10th Shot on Target % - 40; 5th Key Passes - 31
Dil Spittlehouse- T-8th Yellow Cards - 5
Lewis Clover - 1st PotM - 7; 1st Key Headers - 99 (Next had 76!), 1st Interceptions Made - 280 (Next had 238), 10th Average Rating - 7.27
Pelayo Gomez-Pico - 4th Pass Completion % - 82
Luke Muldowney - 10th Pass Completion % - 80
Egzon Asllani - T-5th Key Tackles - 12

Indeed, Lewis Clover proved the very incarnation of Jake Wells and even better than him in some respects.

Shopping List
Upgrade DL
Depth for DL/DC
Upgrade/Depth for ML/MR/AML/AMR

I honestly don't think we're that far from being a title challenging team. I really don't.

Bad Trains
Lewis Clover
Dom Petrucci

That's monthly, so calm blue ocean.

Gorleston FC and Soham Town Rangers join some other division squads in firing their managers. Forgot who the others were offhand. Fortunately for me, the current board is content despite our lackluster league finish.

Yearly Trains - Good
Lewis Clover

Yeah he's a keeper all right.

I decide to set June 13th as the preseason date, rather than the traditional first week in July. I want these guys to really work on getting their tactical knowledge and fitness down pat.

Speaking of, did we show any improvements in either of the strategies? I'll let you decide.

Top 1 is where we are right now; Bottom 1 is where we started





Takeley FC wins the FA Vase

Our physio retires so we hire the youngest sucky one we can find, in hops that he'll grow, because all our options are bad.

This nifty note pops up:



Considering he's 17, I'm going to say it's a girlfriend that did it (and him).

Oh, and we can't bring anyone in because of the stupid transfer embargo while the board decides whether or not to sell.

What a crock. John Young does buy the team, but reneges on his promise to wipe out the loan debt.

We lost $16k last year which I thought was pretty good all things considered.

Transfer In - ST/AML Robert McDonald (27)
Depth signing.

Transfer In - AMR/MR Luke Smithson (28)
Depth signing.

Transfer In - MLR Joshua Hough (20)
Depth signing.

Transfer In - MLR Matty Campbell (19)
Another former Thetford Town player. Was Welsham-le-Willows best player last year in terms of average rating I think, or close to it (7.3). Very solid all around skillset and a surefire starter once again.

Honestly I probably shouldn't have signed those depth guys. They look pretty terrible, but it is what it is. Screen puked on me again, so I'm going to go ahead and submit this, then start anew.

[mrtourette]

Good to see Jake Wells back in a Thetford shirt where he belongs.

[Izulde]

Jason Wood gets $2.8k from Stamford FC and Lewis Clover stabs us in the back like Aaron Malton did, signing with division rival Dereham Town. We also lose Dan Gittings, to Cogenhoe United. Clover obviously hurts, though the other two were quite far down on our list, so it's all good.

Because of the early preseason start, the physio recommends extended leave of 4 weeks for a number of players:

Tired Guys
Egzon Asllani
Luke Muldowney
Pelayo Gomez-Pico
Dil Spittlehouse
Carl McEachran
Ricky Clarke
Jordan Sidhu
Joshua Hugh
Robert Macdonald
Matty Campbell

Permission is granted for all players to get another month off. Everyone else, high intensity Fitness Training

Transfer In - DC Tom Hawkins (26)
12 Pace, 12 Accleration, 11 Concentration, 10 Determination, 10 Workrate, 11 Tackling. Not Lewis Clover by any stretch of the imagination, but an adequate replacement.

vs Thetford Town 18s (Friendly)
GK: Hambridge
D: Foreman/Wells/Hawkins/Pitt
M: Hann/Twomey/Summerfield/Smithson
S: Talbot/Nti

Because we're going through so many friendlies, I'll just briefly summarize what happens with each of the 7-10 we have.

Danny Nti gets hurt early in this one and we go down 0-1 in the first half. Kurt Twomey gets injured as well. We tie it up early in the second half but go on to lose 1-2. Yeah.

Danny Nti is out a month after that injury.

Calvin Powell and Jordan Sidhu are considered the two worst signings of last year. Whatever, fuck you.

Traitor Lewis Clover is Fans Player of the Year, but I'm not going to show the Best 11 this year because it shows Pelayo Gomez-Pico as DM i a 5-4-1 which is stupid, because he never played there for us.

Matthew Malek is now on the All-Time starting 11, as is Luke Muldowney (as an AMC in a 4-3-1-2 setup, which is dumb too). Danny Nti and Lewis Clover made the All-Time team as reserves.

More stupidity: My assman thinks I should try and get a guy who's making $54k a year. ...Yeah that's gonna happen.

U18 Signing - ST Tod Sugarman
So this grey guy... 11 Finishing, 10 Free Kicks, 11 Long Shots, 10 Composure, 11 Determination, 11 Flair, 10 Balance, 10 Jumping, 14 Natural Fitness, 10 Strength... His only problem? 2 Pace. Still a damn interesting signing worth grabbing. He also scored the gamewinner in the U18 vs Seniors game.

vs Bourne Town - Friendly
GK: Malek
D: Powell/Rayhan/Hawkins/Pitt
M: Coy/Summerfield/Twomey/Hann
S: Talbot/Ogbonna

We go down 0-1 but then march back 2-1 on goals by Talbot and Ogbonna. But then Twomey is sent off with a red and we're forced to settle for the 2-2 draw.

vs Saffron Walden Town - Friendly
GK: Hambridge
D: Foreman/Rayhan/Wells/Smith
M: Coy/Twomey/Summerfield/Jones
S: Talbot/Sugarman

Boring game. 0-0 draw with maybe 2 highlights all contest.

Montenegro joins the European Union. Cool.

Carl McEachran signs for Felixstowe & Walton United. Not cool.

vs Welwyn Garden City (Friendly)
GK: Malek
D: Foreman/Rayhan/Hawkins/Pitt
M: Coy/Forbes/Summerfield/Hann
S: Petrucci/Ogbonna

Finally we have a good preseason game, winning 2-0 on goals by Ogbonna and Talbot as our opponents never even sniffed a shot at the goal. Hawkins completely controlled the backline with an 8.3

Transfer In - AMRLC Michael Holland (20)
Depth signing.

vs Wroxham FC
G: Hambridge
D: Foreman/Hawkins/Asllani/Smith
M: Campbell/Gomez-Pico/Spittlehouse/Hough
S: Talbot/Clarke

First half goals by Talbot and Clarke give us a surprising 2-0 halftime lead on a semi-pro team. Lead's cut to 2-1 early in the second, but Petrucci comes up with a big one on a tackle goal to make it 3-1 before we literally give one up mere seconds before the finish to end 3-2.

vs Lowestoft Town (Friendly)
G: Malek
D: Powell/Wells/Asllani/Pitt
M: Hann/Gomez-Pico/Spittlehouse/Campbell
S: Talbot/Ogbonna

So yeah, this friendly and the last one, both against superior teams? Scheduled by my fucking retard of an assman, as are the next two. Assman friendly handling only gives you 4 jobs and they all suck. Then you have to do the laborious process of scheduling the remainder yourself and it sucks big dick.

Promotion Odds
Needham Market: 5-2
Soham Town Rangers: 5-2
Dereham Town: 3-1
Cambridge Regional College: 3-1
Haverhill Rovers: 6-1
Thetford Town: 100-1

...Wow. Seriously, fuck you, oddsmakers. Worst.odds.ever.

I'm so offended, I blow right past the rest of the friendlies (1-1 draw and an absolutely insane 4-1 victory where we score all 4 goals after Kurt Twomey is sent off early in the first on an unfair red.

I'm never doing this multi-friendly again as long as we're Amateur level. It was a complete waste of time in terms of getting our tactics up to speed... maybe because we had 2? Guess I'll junk the 4-5-1 and just focus on the 4-4-2 since we'll be dogs in every single fucking game.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by mrtourette

Good to see Jake Wells back in a Thetford shirt where he belongs.

Seriously. Especially since that asshole Clover betrayed us.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Originally Posted by Izulde

U18 Signing - ST Tod Sugarman
So this grey guy... 11 Finishing, 10 Free Kicks, 11 Long Shots, 10 Composure, 11 Determination, 11 Flair, 10 Balance, 10 Jumping, 14 Natural Fitness, 10 Strength... His only problem? 2 Pace. Still a damn interesting signing worth grabbing. He also scored the gamewinner in the U18 vs Seniors game.

A U18 striker with 2 Pace, who isn't a steaming pile of suck in general? He's even a fairly athletic dude, by other measures.

I look at the Grey Ghosts on my youth team, too. I've never seen one as intriguing as Sugarman, but I've signed two or three of them. One is developing into a young boss with our U19 side.

[Izulde]

Good Trains
Gary Dowridge
Pelayo Gomez-Pico
Danny Nti

So yeah... fuck this long preseason bullshit. We went from the same but with Competent in Width to magically Awkward in Width in both formations and everything else set back to what it was at the end of last season even though I had Tactics Only for Default Match Training and Team Cohesion for General Training to acclimate the squad

Egzon Asllani retains his captaincy, with Dil Spittlehouse the new Vice-Captain.

George Jones goes off to Bedfont Sports so at this point, forget the 4-5-1 entirely. We'll just run the 4-4-2 this season. Even better, Will Summerfield tears his hamstring and is out 3-4 months.

vs Felixstowe & Walton United
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Lewis Smith
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

Real good chance to open up with a win. As for the lineup? Went with the best performers in preseason, with the exception of MR, but you're nuts if you think I'm not starting Campbell

9 - Free kick goal by Gomez-Pico! 1-0

33 - Campbell passes to Ogbonna but it's tackled away. No problem because Campbell goes forth and gets it back, then sends it to Talbot for the score! Fuck yeah! Eat my shit, 100-1 oddsmakers! 2-0

Spittlehouse for Campbell at the half, due to tiredness.

75 - Petrucci for Ogbonna, and I need to do a better job of picking out subs because we didn't have enough midfield coverage for this one when we needed it.

7.7 for PotM Pelayo Gomez-Pico and 7.5 for Jeffrey Green, validating my choice to promote him to the starting lineup. Not the best game, but it's a season opening win over Carl McEachran and his annually shitty band.

Media has us picked 16th of 17 teams, FWIW.

[b]5th @Walsham-le-Willows (17th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Nas Foreman/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Lewis Smith
M: George Coy/Dil Spittlehouse/Will Forbes/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

9 - Flawless goal kick from Malek to Talbot, flawless pass to Ogbonna, and flawless shot for the score 1-0

48 - This is a team we should be able to handle without issues. Ugh. Petrucci for Talbot, Asllani for Smith 1-1

A game we should have been able to win easily.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Greyfriars Bobby

A U18 striker with 2 Pace, who isn't a steaming pile of suck in general? He's even a fairly athletic dude, by other measures.

I look at the Grey Ghosts on my youth team, too. I've never seen one as intriguing as Sugarman, but I've signed two or three of them. One is developing into a young boss with our U19 side.

He'll have a tough time cracking the senior lineup, though. Our starters are set and we've seen enough out of our two reserves to keep them the rotation guys.. then again, at this level, if you're not a clearly defined starter, there's always someone who can beat you out.

[Izulde]

5th vs Gorleston FC (2nd)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Lewis Smith
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Luke Smithson
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

Boring first half for the most part with neither team having all that real an opportunity. This is our real chance to go out and do something early in the season, too. Petrucci on for Talbot at the half.

70 - Asllani for Smith, Twomey for Muldowney

92 - FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!! FUCK YOU WINSPER! 0-1

vs Great Yarmouth Town (Chell Trophy 1st Round)
G: James Hambridge
D: Calvin Powell/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Will Forbes/Luke Muldowney/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

12 - Sigh. Ogbonna sets Talbot up perfectly and he shanks the shot.

21 - GO AFTER THE FUCKING BALL, YOU REJECTS! 0-1

Smith for Asllani, Campbell to ML and Hough at MR at the half. I don't know WTF our team captain is off to such a shit start this year.

49 - Flawless bounce on the Hambridge goal kick to land at Talbot's feet for the easy 1 v 1 1-1

70 - Twomey for Muldowney but before that happens, Hawkins loses the ball and I'm throwing shit and wigging out when they score... and then I see it's offsides, heh.

78 - Sure. Have another fuck up why don't you, Talbot? What is that now, 900 fucking easy goals you've assfucked us on?

Transfer In - MR/ST Ben Cohen (22)
12 Pace, 11 Acceleration, 10 Determination, 10 Workrate, 8 Crossing. Able to play both wing midfield spots and will be a depth guy.

(6th) @Diss Town (12th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/D.J. Spittlehouse/Luke Smithson
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

15 - One thing I will say... it's hilarious to watch slow ass Sugarman lumber down the right wing before stops and crosses to Hann in the half-circle for the beautiful go-ahead screamer 1-0

Petrucci for Talbot at the break and a backline shuffling that sees Asllani at DC, Green at DR, and Foreman at DL for a tiring Hawkins

46 - 1-1

62 - Hough in for Smithson

75 - I slam my keyboard as Wells misses a rare header. FUCK.THIS.GAME! 1-2

85 - Hough drops it back to Spittlehouse, who angles it out to Hann for his second just out of the box goal this game. I'm busy angrily pounding the water of Lake DGAF and don't care. 2-2

91 - Petrucci kicks a ridiculously high and long cross to the far right wing and I'm thinking WTH when Hough chases it down and crosses to the middle. Sugarman muscles everyone out of the way for the short kick in. Fucking sweet, Sugarman. 3-2

7.5 for Jake Wells, 8.8 for PotM Ollie Hann, and 8.1 for Tod Sugarman. Our tactics continue not to budge one bit despite Tactics Only match training and only formation being worked on. I have no fucking idea why and it's pissing me off.

Transfer In - ST Lasse Weber (26)
Danish striker with 10 Pace, 10 Natural Fitness, 11 Composure, 14 Influence, 10 Off Ball, 8 Finishing. Depth signing, naturally, just in case.

5th @Haverhill Rovers (1st)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Lewis Smith
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Dubi Ogbonna

Win this one and we can firmly declare ourselves as serious players in the league this year.

10 - Talbot hits the corner and Hann kicks it in... but the ref is saying no goal as it bounces off the post. Wells settles the issue by hammering the short rebound with a pleasing ferocity 1-0

37 - DICK ASS FUCKING FLUKE GOALS 1-1

50 - DOUBLE YELLOW! FUCK YEAH! LET'S GO, BOYS! But Smith to DC, Green to DR, Foreman at ML and Sugarman at ST for Talbot first.

84 - They score a goal but it's called offsides.

85 - Sugarman gets crushed in the box and they don't call a fucking penalty because of fucking homecooking bullshit.

So naturally it's another god damned fucking draw like we always hae every fucking year ever.

@Great Yarmouth Town (Chell Trophy 1st Round 2nd Leg)
G: James Hambridge
D: Nas Foreman/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: George Coy/Will Forbes/Dil Spittlehouse/Josh Hough
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

4 - Wide open shot and Sugarman misses.

6 - 0-1

12 - Talbot heads the pass from Spittlehouse to Hough, who slips it forward to Sugarman. A short dribble inside the box, and a kick that's slow and ponderous as Eeyore, but somehow it crosses the line for the tie 1-1

30 - They're in the middle of setting up a play and pass it back to midfield, only Sugarman is calmly standing there and he takes it, kicking a gorgeous pass for Talbot, who outruns everyone and hits the go-ahead with authority 2-1

42 - Talbot gets the ball back with an interception after losing and starts a move whose finisher is Talbot playing it back and forth with Forbes a couple times before the center midfielder short-passes it to Sugarman. An even shorter side pass back to Talbot and the outside box shot goes in! 3-1

Twomey for Spittlehouse at the half.

47 - And of course Talbot misses the easy hat-trick header.

71 - Absolutely flawless tackle by Asllani not only saves a goal, but gives it to Hough who runs down the right flank before passing to Twomey in the box. Dribbling forward, spot picked, and *BAM*! First.ever.senior.goal. Powell comes on DL 4-1

81 - Hambridge with the goal kick to Hough and it's on to Sugarman. 'Tis but a sweet second ere sending to Talbot, who crushes it like a Capulet inside the box for the motherfucking hat trick! 5-1

85 - Twomey-Sugarman-Talbot triangle = Goal #4! Montague! 6-1

9.8 for Spencer Talbot, 9.5 for Tod Sugarman, 8.1 for Will Forbes, 8.8 for Joshua Hough, 8.0 for Tom Hawkins, and 7.8 for Egzon Asllani.

Yeah. We showed up pissed off and ready to completely ruin Greater Yarmouth's day on their own home pitch. Fucking beautiful. Now if only we can start doing that in league play.

[Izulde]

Spencer Talbot's 4 goals broke the 3 goal record for both Thetford Town and the Chell Trophy.

Good Trains
Tom Hawkins

Bad Trains
Danny Nti
Gary Dowridge

$942 lost last month. Board's pleased.

Lewis Smith leaves for Diss Town

5th vs Wisbech Town (12th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Dil Spittlehouse/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

32 - Gomez-Pico to Hann to Sugarman to Talbot just inside the half-circle and the boomer is in like a Sooner! 1-0

36 - Campbell intercepts and gets it to Hann for the header to Talbot, but the defense tackles the ball away. No worries as Hann crosses to Sugarman for the smooth, silky score! 2-0

48 - Asllani is knocked, so Green shifts to DR and Powell comes in at DL.

67 - Muldowney in for Gomez-Pico

Matching 8.2s for Jake Wells and Tod Sugarman, but it's the former of the two who wins PotM. Really glad I scheduled that U18 friendly now, as that's what allowed me to discover him.

Egzon Asllani is out for a week, further depleting our defensive right back situation.

@Gorleston FC (Eastern Counties Senior Cup 1st Round)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Calvin Powell/Tom Hawkins/Kurt Twomey/Jeffrey Green
M: George Coy/Will Forbes/Luke Muldowney/Matty Campbell
S: Ricky Clarke/Dubi Ogbonna

Don't care too much about this match, except more matches allegedly helps our tactic familiarity go up, though I've yet to see it.

3 - Lot of tackles and dispossessions made in this run, but the most beautiful is Ogbonna slide tackling the ball away from the defense and then running to beat the keeper and everyone for a sliding tackle shot that goes in the net. Oh so pretty! 1-0



33 - Twomey launches a rocket over literally everyone to drop a ball at Ogbonna's feet. The Nigerian draws two defenders on to him on the right side of the goal before kicking it back into the wide open middle space for a streaking Muldowney to score 2-0

37 - Free kick goal, bleh. 2-1

62 - Smithson for Campbell, Petrucci for Clarke.

66 - Way to fuck up by not getting to the ball you should have Muldowney 2-2

91 - Smithson plays a good ball for Ogbonna, who does have to juggle a bit and trap it before powering past the defense for a 1 on 1 that he wins 3-2

9.3 for PotM Dubi Ogbonna, 8.3 for Calvin Powell, and 7.6 for Luke Muldowney despite the goal giveaway error. Nice to beat Rheo Josephs, but our mortal enemy, Nathan Winsper, was nowhere to be found.

4th vs FC Clacton (16th)
G: Matthew Malek
D: Nas Foreman/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Tim Pitt
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Dil Spittlehouse/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

7 - Fucking own goal by Wells. WHY?! 0-1

28 - 0-2

44 - OH FOR FUCK'S SAKES! 0-3

I read the whole team the riot act at half and at the end of the game, as our second half is just as useless as our first. So yeah, we're probably going to be back stuck in that uncomfortable as fuck upper tier but not challenging thing again. Our tactical familiarity continues to show zero improvement, and in fact keeps regressing, so I'm about ready to give up on this, because it's probably bugged

[Izulde]

vs Basildon United (FA Vase Qualifying Round)
G: James Hambridge
D: Nas Foreman/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Tim Pitt
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Dil Spittlehouse/Matty Campbell
S: Spencer Talbot/Tod Sugarman

1 - Why am I playing this fucking game again? 0-1

3 - So I can watch Sugarman screw up easy goals.

7 - Opposing goalie slips in the mud and Talbot runs up to kick in the loose ball 1-1

12 - Campbell crosses to Talbot and after a quick exchange of passes with Sugarman, Talbot hammers in the half-circle shot. For all his struggles last year, he's really stepped it up this season 2-1

20 - Beautiful pass by Gomez-Pico to Spittlehouse for the 1 v 1.. and he shanks it in to the upright.

27 - Gomez-Pico again with a lofting pass, and Sugarman's the recipient this time, only he heads it up close to the six yard box where a speedy Talbot roars home his hat trick goal. Dude just goes into beast mode in Cup matches 3-1

30 - Yeah that defending sucked 3-2

47 - Yeah that just happened. Foreman is officially out for Powell and will never play another game for us if I can help it. Dude keeps fucking up every shot he gets.

56 - Campbell to ML, Smithson at MR, Muldowney replacing Spittelhouse

@Basildown United (FA Vase Qualifying Round Second Leg
G: James Hambridge
D: Cavlin Powell/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: Ollie Hann/Pelayo Gomez-Pico/Luke Muldowney/Matty Campbell
S: Tod Sugarman/Dubi Ogbonna

4 - Same shit, different game. 0-1

5 - Ogbonna gets the ball from Campbell and short passes to Sugarman, who does a slow but merry tapdance on the box boundary before firing in the immediate answer 1-1

15 - Great bounce on Hambridge's goal kick allows Ogbonna to be free of the defense and dribble to the half-circle for the go-ahead. Yeah, looking way eerily similar 2-1

28 - Knock for Muldowney, but he'll keep going.

42 - That's what you get when you elbow Campbell in the face on a goal kick, fucker. You get the red card you deserve.

48 - Muldowney delivers a nice ball to Sugarman, who immediately gift-wraps a perfect pass in box space for Ogbonna, and the Nigerian picks up that package and blasts it right in the net 3-1

60 - Forbes in for Muldowney

63 - Poor header by Wells, worse defense by Hawkins. Ugh. Rayhan on for the latter 3-2

86 - Hann hamfists what should have been a win guarantee goal on a corner after Wells puts him in the perfect spot.

We still grind it out though, and move on. 7.9 for James Hambridge, 8.8 for PotM Dubi Ogbonna and 8.0 for grey ghost claimant Tod Sugarman. Luke Muldowney's out 4-5 weeks.

I like Basildon United's head coach. He flips his shit about the red card even though it was totally well-deserved.

And this is why I fucking HATE being in a league with semipro teams. Spencer Talbot gets $4.2k from Norwich United and he's still in our division. I'm almost ready to rage quit over that.

9th @Cambridge Regional College (12th)
G: James Hambridge
D: Jeffrey Green/Tom Hawkins/Jake Wells/Egzon Asllani
M: Ollie Hann/Will Forbes/Dil Spittlehouse/Matty Campbell
S: Danny Nti/Dubi Ogbonna

Can't believe I forgot about Green the last few games.

Ben Cohen and Lasse Weber in for Campbell and Ogbonna at halftime.

53 - First non-starter highlight we've seen all game, and of course it's of Nti shanking a sitter.

57 - Fuck this. I'm looking for a semipro gig after this game 0-1

So I apply for a job, and I receive this notice:



Fuck you. I fake apologize. It asks me if I want to apologize for my recent actions. ...If I do, does that mean my name gets shredded in the job application? Hmm. Let's try it.

The board forgives me, but now the fans are angry. Oh well.

And then...



So there you have it. Should I actually go through with taking this job after being in the midst of my fifth season with little hope of finally promoting (this job would promote me up to the next level in addition to being the manager of a semipro team), or should I stay in Thetford Town and continue bravely fighting the brave fight as an amateur side, knowing damn well the semipro teams can steal our players at will, in hopes that some day we might finally break through and promote to semipro sweetness?

What say you, readers of the fucking Izulde rants?

[Portiere]

I would say take it. Its not like your current employers have been greatly loyal to you--they just asked you to resign, and after tilting at the windmill, you're just really taking a better lance--its not like you've been approached by a league 2 team.

[Brian Swartz]

I say take it as well. I think you've modestly outperformed expectations where you are at, and a disappointing club one level above is the kind of job that I would expect you to be able to jump to, so it's not a gamey or unrealistic move in my opinion. You've given your current club a good effort, and one could say you're at a point where maybe the best thing for them in a fresh face who will try new things(for better or worse). Leaving gives them the chance to bring someone in who might be a better fit.

[bbgunn]

Do it!

[Izulde]

Thanks, folks. They were the job I applied to, so it's not like a bolt out of blue approaching (should have made that more clear, I suppose).





Yeah they nearly did the double-promotion, but lost in the playoffs. They were also in the playoffs last year as the 5th place team, but lost. Cupwise you can see they've won two cups, but they also went to the Final of the Southern League Cup two years ago, which is also when they finished 11th in the league, their worst showing here.

As to why this job is open, today is September 27th. On September 19th, a new chairman took over and fired Rudy Funk, a 57 year old Romanian who took over the team in 2010 and led the Seadogs to the level of success they enjoy now. So I've some pretty big shoes to fill.



The Scarborough Athletic FC badge. Why the Seadogs have a bird, I don't know. Interesting history - this club is actually a renaissance of Scarborough FC, which fell apart due to politics and finances. Wikipedia's article on Athletic is pretty interesting:

Scarborough Athletic F.C - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Soo that Bridlington thing means...



Yep. Having to rent. Wikipedia says the club is hoping to move back to Scarborough by 2016, but obviously that hasn't happened in this universe. Finances to build one or move? The club has a $500k loan debt. Granted, that's much smaller than Thetford Town's $725k one, but still...

At first blush, the talent level on this team is atrocious, and it's only their familiarity levels with the 4-4-2 that's kept them up this high. There's also been a rash of injuries that have decimated the squad.

First thing I do is piss off our best player, DR Mark Lynch, by demoting the 35 year old from captain to vice-captain. He agrees to suck it up, but he's not happy because he's already been transfer listed by the previous regime.

Fans have been staying away in droves - the last match drew just 65 attendees. Granted, it was a Cup match, but still... lowest in team history. I've got a lot of work to do.

The scouting range is upgraded, but I'm not sure where to. I do wish the game would tell you where.

The introductory press conference has just one journalist, and he's shocked that I would leave one debt-ridden club for another, especially one that doesn't even own its own stadium, and he really questions my ambition. I'm tempted to tell him to go fuck himself, but I'm trying to behave for once.

I try to bring in my former staff and some former players, but they all want way too much money, or aren't suited for this level. Egzon Asllani breaks his cheekbone and is out 4-5 weeks as the team loses their next match 0-1.

Weaknesses According To My Super New Assman
The entire backline
ML

Transfer In - MC Sam Jones (25) - From Whitby Town
10 passing, 11 Technique, 15 Teamwork, 11 Workrate, 11 Acceleration, 11 Agility, 10 Balance, 12 Pace, and yet Sam Austin hates him. No wonder he was willing to sign a $2,2k per year contract through 2019. Whatever. I'm going to give him a shot in the lineup anyway.

Transfer In - DC Jack Fisher (22) - From Bishop Auckland
Currently dealing with a sports hernia that'll have him out another couple weeks, but 12 Tackling, 11 Bravery, 10 Workrate, 10 Jumping, 11 Natural Fitness, 12 Strength. Rated 1.5/4* by the assman and signed on a one year, $6.5k contract

Transfer In - ST Dubi Ogbonna (24) - From Duh
A one year, $6.25k contract and because there's injuries in the striker department, he'll be a starter right off the bat to prove himself in our setup. We saw how well he did with us in Thetford Town. My assman actually rates him as our third best striker, so it appears to have been a decent pickup.

15th vs Uxbridge FC (4th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Harry Palmer/Lloyd Laycock/Craig Gott/Mark Lynch
M: Henry Sibenge/Sam Jones*/Adam Forster/Tony Stimpson
S: George Maris/Mike Hands

Ignore most of these names - a lot of U18 and reserve call-ups because everyone is so damned exhausted. Fortunately, the first half is a no-highlight show, so maybe we can scrape a draw out of this yet.

49 - Forster with a great pass to Stimpson, who despite his awful game so far runs past the defense on the wing and crosses to Maris, who hits home like Roger. 1-0

60 - Fabio Snow on for Jones, whose debut has been puke-worthy.

Yes, yes it was a poor match, but we just stole 3 points in my debut. Craig Gott gets an 8.1 and PotM. 7.7 for Lloyd Laycock

DR Reece Keeling (18)
Former Middlesborough prospect who never got a shot. An absolute physical beast in terms of Acceleration, Agility, and Balance all at 14, Natural Fitness at 11, and Pace at 12. Needs to work on Stamina (4) and Strength (1), but he signs a $2.5k/year contract through 2019 and my assman loves the shit out of him.

DC/DM Andy Draper (18)
Scunthorpe United prospect who never got a shot. 5 strength is lowest Physical attribute - everything else is 8 or higher. Solid all-around mental attributes including 19 Aggression (For its negatives as well) 12 Concentration, 10 Positioning and 15 Workrate. Decent Technical attributes but he needs to build those up. Still, at $4.7k a year through 2019, he's a bargain find, and my assman (11 Player Ab/9 Player Pot BTW) considers him our best DC right now.

A couple of managers in the league get fired, but I'm still safe, obviously.

12th @Crowborough Athletic (13th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper*/Craig Gott/Mark Lynch
M: Henry Sibenge/Sam Jones*/Adam Forster/Ross Gardner
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna*

I'm ever so slowly starting to get a sense for how this team looks. Frankly, I think my assman's scathing indictment of the defense is somewhat wrongheaded, as is his praise of the strikers. He's right about the wingers needing upgrades, though.

7 - Ugh. We really should have scored there, but Sibenge was called offsides anyway.

38 - I'm thinking there's not much difference after all in the levels after they flub their own easy shot.

Zac Cowling, who is considered Key Player by old regime, in for Jones and Hands in for Sibenge at the half.

72 - Old man Gardner takes the goal kick from Burke, strides forward to the half-circle, and fires the 20 yard shot in! 1-0

Peter Burke, 21 year old goalie, is considered a star keeper by my assman, and so far it's 2 games, 2 shutouts, as he delivers a 7.9 here for PotM honors, Ross Gardner's 7.3 the only other rating for us 7.1 or higher.

It's another scrappy, ugly win, but we'll darn sure take it. And despite all the changes I've been making, the team's gone from Fluid/Accomplished in a lot of areas to Fluid/Fluid, just in the two weeks I've been here. The joys of having a semi-pro team

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Izulde

The scouting range is upgraded, but I'm not sure where to. I do wish the game would tell you where.

Boardroom --> Scouting in every version I've ever played, FYI.

[mrtourette]

Ah Scarbrough, used to have my family holidays there every year as a child. Enjoy your fish and chips on the seafront.

[Izulde]

For those wondering what the hell our setup looks like...



As you can see, it looks very similar to the 4-4-2 I ran at Thetford Town, only the DLP has been replaced by an ordinary CM, and the winngers are now attacking instead of support. Both those things were accidental - I meant to make it a DLP and have the wingers to support when I designed the formation, but my brain took a short vacation.

Hard to argue with the two wins, though, so we'll keep going with it. The rigid counter play is in effect still of course.

Transfer Out - DR Mark Lynch (35) - To Pickering Town
The fans are sad to see him go, but the fact is, we have his replacement, who we're eager to get started, and he was making $12,000. We needed to free up more money to bring in other players, as we were already bumping up against the wage budget.

Transfer In - MC Will Summerfield (21) - From Duh
Okay so he's still out 2-3 weeks with his hamstring injury and he never played a competitive game for me in Thetford Town. But I still believe this kid can be worth something someday. He's on a one year, $4.7k deal to prove himself.

Transfer In - MLR Rheo Josephs (20) - From Gorleston FC
He struggled in Gorleston's setup, but in terms of his pure physical talent, Josephs rates as one of the best wingers for our level in my opinion. The reason he had difficulty? He was forced into the AML/R and MC roles, which aren't his game. Here, he can flourish and earn $4.1k a year through 2019 while doing it. Of course he only had one truly good season for us, but oh well.

Transfer In - MR/AMR Nathan Hudson (20) - From Armthorpe Welfare
11 Crossing, 10 Determination, 10 Teamwork, 12 Workrate, 11 Acceleration, 14 Natural Fitness, 11 Pace. Grades out as our best right midfielder by the assman's lights and I'll pay $3.8k/year through 2019 for that and his upside.

Transfer In - ST Ali Amiri (20) - From Armthorpe Welfare
Wow, AW must *really* hate us after stealing two of their players in one day. 10 Finishing, 11 First Touch, 10 Aggression, 10 Off Ball, 12 Teamwork, 10 Acceleration, 10 Agility, 12 Jumping, 10 Natural Fitness, 10 Pace. Iranian striker with 3 U21 caps already, he'll continue my long-running trend of international strikers by being the Target Man to Ogbonna's Poacher. $4.1k a year through 2019.

Those signings put us $600 over the annual wage budget so we'll look to move someone out.

Thetford Town Hire Andy Procter
33 year old rookie manager with 17 Attacking, 14 Mental, 12 Working with Youngsters, 10 Adaptability, 15 Determination. His Tactical Knowledge is 1, though. LOL.

10th @Potters Bar Town (1st)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Lee Molyneaux/Craig Gott/Reece Keeling*
M: Rheo Josephs*/Jimmy Beadle/Adam Forster/Nathan Hudson*
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna*

Still some of our new signings getting their fitness up enough to play, but we're almost set in terms of our ideal lineup for the rest of the year, and a foundation for the next few seasons, I think.

20 - Laycock makes a great interception and sends it to Josephs, who dribbles before passing to Maris. The pass to Ogbonna is tackled away, but [b]Maris[/] calmly crosses it farther to a suddenly there Forster and the shot is easy 1-0

33 - It occurs to me that I haven't established my set pieces yet, but after Hudson's corner flies in for Gott's smart dart forward and header in, maybe I don't need to worry about that yet 2-0

47 - I see Ogbonna brought the post frustrations with him.

54 - We're unexpectedly awarded a penalty, and it's Josephs who's picked to take the shot... and he has no trouble converting the debut goal! 3-0

65 - Kelvin Lola in for Keeling. The 18 year old DRC is a very quality player and should probably be in the starting lineup - he's got legit all-around skills.

73 - Eh, it's only one goal. Jones on for Beadle. 3-1

89 - Forster steals the ball and passes to Ogbonna, who plays a beautiful ball for Maris. The shot nearly goes over the bar, but slides *just* under! 4-1

8.2 - Craig Gott, Nathan Hudson, George Maris (PotM)
8.1 - Adam Forster
7.6 - Lloyd Laycock, Rheo Josephs
7.5 - Lee Molyneaux

Holy shit! Did we really just upset the #1 team league on their own turf, and not only beat them, but embarrass the ever-living nightlights out of them?! Hell yes and HELL FUCKING YEAH!!!

Since our movement is more or less settled, let's do a review of the positions. Note that I'm only marking the 8+ in Key Areas for the Roles they're to play

Goalkeeper
Peter Burke (21) - 13 Aerial, 8 Handling, 8 1v1, 9 Reflexes, 9 Decisions, 10 Agility
Charles Rudd (19) - 8 Command, 8 Handling, 12 Reflexes, 8 Composure, 9 Agility

Both solid young keepers, but the Irishman Burke is clearly the better of the two. He's making $7.75k, Rudd $4.2k, but Burke wants a huge payraise before he'll discuss an extension, and financially we're not in the business of being able to do that.

Defender
DL Lloyd Laycock (20) - 8 Marking, 10 Tackling, 10 Anticipation, 10 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 8 Acceleration, 10 Stamina (Able to play DC/DR)
DC Jack Fisher (22) - 9 Heading, 8 Marking, 12 Tackling, 8 Determination, 10 Jumping, 12 Strength
DC Craig Gott (22) - 8 Heading, 8 Marking, 8 Tackling, 9 Decisions, 10 Determination, 8 Positioning, 14 Jumping (Can also play DR and one other, which gets covered later
DC Lee Molyneaux (33) - 9 Heading, 9 Marking, 8 Tackling, 8 Determination, 8 Positioning, 11 Jumping, 10 Strength (Can also play DR)
DC Andy Draper (18) - 8 Heading, 9 Tackling, 12 Determination, 10 Positioning, 10 Jumping (Can also play DM)
DC Andrew Milne (26) - 12 Marking, 8 Tackling, 8 Decisions, 9 Determination, 9 Positioning, 12 Jumping
DCR Kelvin Lola (18) - 9 Marking, 9 Tackling, 9 Concentration, 12 Determination, 8 Positioning, 8 Jumping, 8 Strength, 14 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 8 Acceleration, 10 Stamina
DR Reece Keeling (18) - 8 Tackling, 9 Anticipation, 9 Concentration, 8 Positioning, 8 Workrate, 14 Acceleration

Obviously we need more coverage in the DL area, but we're over wage budget. Funny... by the key ratings Lola should probably be starting over Keeling, but one is under contract for the next several years and the other isn't. Basically, we have a ton of DC guys who are all really close together. I tried shipping out Molyneaux but nobody was interested. Milne's still coming back from injury. I should probably see if I can sell off Milne for $2k (he's worth $7k). Laycock was an August trialist who signed a one year deal after his tryout, so he won't talk extension.

Midfielders
MCLR/AMC Ross Gardner (31) - 9 Crossing, 10 Technique, 8 Decisions, 10 Flair, 9 Off Ball, 9 Balance, 10 Passing, 9 Determination, 12 Teamwork, 8 Workrate, 8 Anticipation, 8 Stamina
MLR Rheo Josephs (20) - 11 Crossing, 11 Flair, 11 Acceleration, 9 Agility, 11 Balance, 11 Pace
ML/ST Mike Hands (18) - 15 Flair, 10 Acceleration, 8 Agility, 9 Balance, 10 Pace
MCR/ST Grant Darley (24) - 12 Determination, 9 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 9 Longshots, 10 Acceleration, 10 Stamina
MC Jimmy Beadle (28) - 9 Heading, 12 Determination, 15 Teamwork, 14 Workrate, 9 Finishing, 9 Longshots, 15 Bravery, 11 Stamina, 14 Strength (B2B MC his strongest role by far)
MC Adam Forster (23) - 8 Passing, 11 Determination, 8 Teamwork, 10 Dribbling, 9 Finishing, 8 Technique, 10 Bravery
MC Zac Cowling (21) - 8 First Touch, 8 Decisions, 10 Determination, 12 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 10 Technique, 9 Off Ball, 11 Acceleration (Can also play DR)
MC Craig Gott - 8 Heading, 8 Marking, 9 Passing, 8 Tackling, 9 Decisions, 10 Determination, 8 Positioning, 9 Teamwork, 10 Workrate - So many 1s in B2B I'm not even going to look
MC Will Summerfield (21) - Needs to buildup Marking and Strength (1 and 2) before seriously considered for selection
MC Fabio Snow and MCR/ST Tony Stimpson - Need to work on Passing before seriously considered, and I'm getting fatigue
MC Sam Jones (25) - 10 Passing, 8 Tackling, 9 Determination, 15 Teamwork, 11 Workrate, 11 Technique, 11 Acceleration
MR Nathan Hudson (20) - 11 Crossing, 11 Acceleration, 9 Agility, 9 Balance, 11 Pace

Because crossing and pace on the wings are so critical to the type of 4-4-2 I'm running, it's safe to say that Rheo Josephs and Nathan Hudson will be starting and that Ross Gardner will be a supersub. Craig Gott has 8s in every category for CM - Defend, but Sam Jones has some wow ratings, but also some awful ones. B2B is clearly going to be Jimmy Beadle after the review, which means I can move out somebody like Zac Cowling or Fabio Snow to get under wage budget again.

Strikers
Grant Darley - 12 Determination, 9 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 10 Acceleration, 10 Agility, 10 Balance, 11 Pace
Dubi Ogbonna (24) - 11 Finishing, 9 First Touch, 8 Determination, 8 Workrate, 9 Jumping, 9 Dribbling, 8 Composure, 11 Off Ball, 9 Acceleration
George Maris (20) - 9 Finishing, 9 Determination, 9 Workrate, 9 Offball, 11 Acceleration, 8 Agility, 10 Pace
Ali Amiri (20) - 10 Finishing, 11 First Touch, 8 Bravery, 8 Determination, 12 Teamwork, 9 Workrate, 12 Jumping, 9 Composure, 10 Off Ball, 10 Acceleration, 10 Agility, 9 Balance, 10 Pace
Tony Stimpson (17) - 1 Bravery won't cut it
Mike Hands - I'm not going to consider 6 Finishing.

I wish Grant Darley didn't have a 2-3 month sports hernia injury. Dude can not finish, relative to the others (7), which negates his value in my eyes. Ali Amiri is our best all-around striker, and so far ahead of everyone else as a Target Man, it's ridiculous. Dubi Ogbonna's technical accomplishments and proven value in my system have him well over Darley's physical prowess, and Maris will be the third striker.

Whew. I'm tired and hungry now, so food hunting I go.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Boardroom --> Scouting in every version I've ever played, FYI.

Just says in this nation. So maybe the mileage within the country has increased? Not sure.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by mrtourette

Ah Scarbrough, used to have my family holidays there every year as a child. Enjoy your fish and chips on the seafront.

Even better - I love living in a city that's on the water, and fish and chips is always great. Best I've ever eaten was at Beschoff's in Dublin.

[Izulde]

6th vs Three Bridges FC (8th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Jack Fisher/Kelvin Lola
M: Rheo Josephs/Craig Gott/Jimmy Beadle/Ross Gardner
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

Fitness/conditioning still preventing our ultimate ideal lineup, but that's okay.

30 - Mumble. 25 yard strike. 0-1

44 - Fucking ref. Maris was not offsides.

Molyneaux for Fisher and Gardner to MC for Hudson at MR at the break as I tell the team to knock that shit off. I'm just firm, though, not screaming.

68 - Beadle takes a knock.

It's a dull half with only Hudson's crossbar robbery of a fluke kick for excitement (Other teams get that shit all the time... why can't mine?)

Not going to yell, though. They picked up their play in the second half but just couldn't break past the defenses. Jimmy Beadle is out 2-3 weeks.

Aaaand I get suspended a game for cursing out the ref for that disallowed goal. Fuck you, FA.

8th vs Heybridge Swifts (17th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Jack Fisher/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Adam Forster/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

This may end up as our favored lineup the rest of the year, so it'll be interesting to see how they do without me.

18 - Was our three straight wins all just a dream? 0-1

24 - Knock for Josephs

25 - Knock for Jones

54 - Draper makes a sliding tackle but then loses the ball on a counter tackle. Josephs gets the loose ball and passes it to Amiri, who sends a breathtaking rainbow for Ogbonna, who runs it down and fires a half-volley from just inside the box for the tie 1-1

I'm stunned my assman made no subs. Lloyd Laycock has really struggled these last couple games, and that's worrying as he's the only one on the senior team able to play DL without having to dip into the youth squad.

Rheo Josephs is out 2 weeks, as is Sam Jones.

The training news is so bad all around I don't even want to remark it.

11th @Leiston FC (13th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Andrew Milne/Rees Keeling
M: Ross Gardner/Craig Gott/Adam Forster/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

14 - Their goalie drops the ball but Ogbonna isn't fast enough to take advantage

33 - They should've scored on that free kick.

50 - Molyneaux replaces Draper

70 - Maris in for Amiri

87 - Should've scored there, too.

All in all, we'll take this result. Time to work on Team Cohesion, I think.

11th @Hemel Hempstead Town (17th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Kelvin Lola
M: Ross Gardner/Craig Gott/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

17 - ....I still haven't set my set piece guys. Gardner's corner kick's deflected, but Beadle catches the clearance and wings it out to Gardner, who curls it round the near post, where Ogbonna is in the perfect spot to jam in the follow-through 1-0

66 - Forster for Beadle and Maris for Amiri

82 - Mein Gott! Forster intercepts a ferocious header, arcs it down to Maris, who jogs all the way down the left side of the pitch before dribbling into the box, and just when I think he's going to shoot, he centers to Gott for the insurance score! 2-0

No 7.5s, but 7.4 for Lloyd Laycock, Craig Gott, and Dubi Ogbonna and 7.3 for Andy Draper and Lee Molyneaux. I have to single Gott out in particular for making interception after interception in the closing minutes as they fought furiously to close the gap.

I've had a lot of teams ask to loan Zac Cowlings, but nobody's willing to pay more than 50% of his salary for 3 months. I am, however, intensely amused to see Thetford Town make a loan offer. Problem is they won't contribute anything to his salary. If they'll offer 50%, I'll accept it.

9th vs AFC Hayes (13th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Andrew Milne/Rees Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Craig Gott/Lee Molyneaux/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

Gardner for Josephs and Forster for Gott at the half, as they're not doing very well.

66 - Gardner makes a beaut of a pickoff of a throw-in, starting a move that sees its last part Hudson on the River Wing (it's raining like a bitch), center to Amiri. The Iranian striker is tackled, but he recovers to put a big foot on the wet ball and *finally* get his first goal! His Nigerian counterpart goes out for Maris 1-0

73 - Amiri should have scored again, but I should have set my set piece takers, so hey. Hudson runs down his own cleared corner, but nothing comes of it.

83 - Terrible throw-in by Laycock almost results in a goal but Beadle bails us out. Gardner and Hudson exchange 90 million corner kicks that do nothing. Okay I get the point, FM!

90 - Aaaand the post denies Amiri. I really thought it was in. Sigh.

Still, we grind out the ugly win. I tell them they need to play better in other matches, and I get some baaad reactions, and it gets even worse when I try to tell Amiri he did a good job and rip Draper for his shit 5.9 performance. Oops.

But let's end with some good news, eh?

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Just says in this nation. So maybe the mileage within the country has increased? Not sure.

Was it 'scouting' or 'youth scouting' range that increased?

[Izulde]

Scouting range

[Brian Swartz]

Ok I'm out of answers then -- every time that's expanded I've been able to see exactly what regions/countries(it's always been at least countries, never a 'mileage' distance) were added, going back to at least FM10 which is the first one I played.

So, I dunno.

[bbgunn]

Wow... I never thought about having the Target Man on Attack duty, but you can't argue with the wins.

[Izulde]

@Ilford FC (Isthmian Ryman League Cup 2nd Round)
G: Peter Burke
D: Harry Palmer/Jack Fisher/Andrew Milne/Kelvin Lola
M: Rheo Josephs/Will Summerfield/Adam Forster/Ross Gardner
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

Don't care about Cup matches much with how we're situated in league play, so we'll give lots of rest to guys and give some kids a shot to show something.

37 - Finally, fluke luck, as Gardner's 25 yard free kick bounces off the crossbar and goes in 1-0

Ilford FC are unfortunate to go in behind. Meh. Whatevs.

50 - The post blocks them and then they shank an easy goal. Of course if Gardner hadn't run pell-mell for the goal instead of waiting for the goal kick, this never would have even been an issue. Josephs to MR and Paul Grugel, a U18 DL callup who's competent across the midfield, at ML.

53 - Forster makes a nice little steal after an eh pass by Josephs and puts it a touch forward for Ogbonna, and as he's done so many times in this system, the Nigerian feeds his running mate a perfect line, and Maris converts. 2-0

74 - That was a completely bogus penalty. Wow. Unreal. Summerfield sits for Jones to try and save this game 2-1

78 - Knocked out is Fisher. In comes Molyneaux

Another scrappy win. Dubi Ogbonna's 7.4 nets PotM with 7.3s for Kelvin Lola and George Maris.

Hey, how about that? We actually get money! Granted, it's only $1.32k, but still, every little bit helps. Screw the media who calls us lucky. Bullshit. We owned that game because Seadogs be balla, yo!

7th vs Chertsey Town (20th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

16 - Beadle continues to show he's worth being on this team, high salary be damned by making a great interception at midfield to kill a counter attack. Then in our counter to the counter, he exchanges passes with Hudson on the right wing before merrily dribbling in to the box from the right wing where I never expected him to be and crossing the ball to the far post where Josephs hoofs it in. 1-0

41 - If I had a dollar for all the times Amiri got robbed by the post, I'd be able to move to San Diego tomorrow.

Molyneaux moves to DR and Gott comes in at DC because I don't trust Keeling to rebound from his 6.1 in the second half.

50 - The Amiri curse continues as he's knocked, and it's severe enough that I pull him for Maris anyway.

80 - Gardner for Jones

It gets scary in the waning minutes but we manage to hang on for the 3 points. Jimmy Beadle was a rockstar today, racking up an 8.3 for PotM honors. Andy Draper grabbed a 7.4, and a 7.3 was the result of Rheo Josephs' game. Not the kind of narrow victory you want over the last place team on your own home field, but shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.. our field's rented, so yeah.



Funny thing is... I like lots of goals scored, so it's kind of weird that I've built this balla D. Not complaining tho! Ali Amiri is out 5-6 weeks, which I *will* grumble about.

Loan In - MC/MR/AMC/AMR Elliot King (20) - From Stamford FC
3 months - 10 Dribbling, 9 Decisions, 12 Flair, 9 Off Ball, 8 Agility, 8 Balance, 8 Pace. Basically a trial run to see if he's worth giving a contract to at the end of the year. 8 First Touch, 9 Passing, 10 Decisions, 9 Determination, 10 Workrate, 9 Long Shots, 8 Acceleration.

Loan Out - MC Fabian Snow (22) - To Salford City
Til the end of the season and they're paying 50% of his salary, which comes to $1.75k and gets us below the wage budget.

Loan Out - MC Zac Cowling (21) - To Harrogate Railway Athletic
Like Snow, it's a 50% salary paid til end of season loan. In this case, that comes to $3.25k.

That puts us $4.41k under budget, which is enough to bring someone cheap in if I want, but I'm going to wait and see. No need to fuck with what's doing okay, right? Right.

5th @Ware FC (16th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

4 - Post robbed them. There *is* some justice.

King for Jones and Lola for Molyneaux at the break, as we're playing like ass.

82 - Hands in for Maris. It's been a second half with literally no highlights.

I'm going to put this down to just not being lucky as most people picked up their play in the second half and our not getting a PK when we should have. Still would have been nice to pick up the win. It's a crowded race for the 4th and 5th playoff spots, and two teams within range have a game in hand.

[Brian Swartz]

I don't know what to root for here. It'd be fantastic to see you get promoted and start building some traction in your career, making their decision to fire the previous guy look justified. On the other hand, if you just missed it(say in a playoff final or something), the resulting expletive explosion might be highly entertaining ...

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by bbgunn

Wow... I never thought about having the Target Man on Attack duty, but you can't argue with the wins.

I just looked back at my old 4-4-2, and you're right... that's an accidental change, too. But like you say, not going to argue with it, given our relative success.

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I don't know what to root for here. It'd be fantastic to see you get promoted and start building some traction in your career, making their decision to fire the previous guy look justified. On the other hand, if you just missed it(say in a playoff final or something), the resulting expletive explosion might be highly entertaining ...

I'm actually fine with not promoting. It'll allow me an opportunity to really get the wage budget under control and a long-term vision/team established without the pressures of avoiding the drop.

[Izulde]

[b]Good Trains[/b
Will Summerfield
Nathan Hudson
Henry Sibenge
Steve Worsfold

Board's pleased but we lost $13.95k last month. Ouch. The board really wants to see players sold.

6th vs Flackwell Heath (2nd)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

They have a shot in the first half, but that's the only highlight.

55 - Gardner and King on for Jones and Beadle

60 - Knock on King

73 - Another knock on King

81 - Hudson blasts one down the field trying to find Ogbonna, but the keeper gets there first... but he can't hang on to it! Our Nigerian has just enough speed to sideswipe the ball and shoot in as the hordes close in on him! 1-0

93 - Always tough to see a player have to leave at the very last second due to injury, but that's what happens to Keeling. Lola in.

Lloyd Laycock with PotM on his 7.6, but let's applaud Lee Molyneaux 7.5 and of course Dubi Ogbonna's 7.3. Yet another narrow victory although it costs us Elliot King for almost 2 months. Hard to get a read on him now.

Peter Burke's development is praised by our coaches, but our contract negotiations break down, with the promotion salary raise percentage the sticking point. He wanted 25% raise if we promoted, and we were only willing to offer 15 on an $11,000 base contract.

Andrew Milne is out 4-5 weeks after a training injury.

6th @Tring Athletic (7th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Kelvin Lola
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

Big game here in terms of helping separate out the log-jam in the borderline playoff promotion range. We're tied on points but just ahead in goal differential.

4 - Clammy rain and our shutout streak is over 0-1

43 - That may have been the most beautiful drop shot pass I've ever seen from Maris over 5 defenders to set up Ogbonna with a 1 on 1, but he unforgivably shanks the shot

I tell them off royally in classic Izulde Jestor screaming at the half, and put in Grugel at DL and Grant Darley in for Ogbonna'

52 - Off goes Jones with injury and in comes Gardner

Everyone's feeling lousy after this one, as well they should. No excuse to be losing like this. Lee Molyneaux is out 4-5 weeks. Our first loss in 8 games.

So then this happens.



Transfer In - DC Jake Wells (20) - From Duh
A lot of teams were swarming around him, so I just *had* to make the offer, expensive though he was at $7,750 for a partial season rental. Gotta see how my boy does up here. I probably should have just gone ahead and signed him through 2019, but we'll see.

8th vs Waltham Abbey (7th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Chris Gott/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

....So at halftime I tell George Maris I'm not happy with his performance, and he looks delighted?! What the hell kind of demon spawn are you, kid?



60 - Gardner comes on at MR, and Darley gets a shot at MC.

They should have scored in the second half but flub it. Jake Wells gets a 7.4 and PotM in his debut. I'm just saying, he's the diggity diggity bomb. I think it's time we worked on our attacking, as it's been quite poor these last several games.

Transfer Out - MR/MC/ST Grant Darley - To Bridlington Town
Well, he doesn't have to move addresses at all. He also gets a pay raise to $14.25k, so it ended up a really sweet deal for him, particularly since our co-hosts are 2nd in the league right now. We shed $12,000 in salary and are $8.65k under budget

Contract Extension - GK Peter Burke (21) - $11,250 base - Through 2019
$25 appearance fee and 25% promotion raise. I was able to talk him out of the $80 shutout fee, 10% yearly raises and down from $14,000 a year. Is it still more than I wanted to pay? Yeah. But good young goalies are so damn hard to find, it's worth it to lock one up when you get one. It also makes him our highest paid player. In fact, once everyone who's in the last year of their contract leaves (if not extended), the next highest wage earner is Andy Draper, making $4,700 a year. But like I said... great young keepers are hard to find, and he's had 13 shutouts in 23 games this year. Admittedly many of them were under my 4-4-2 counter setup, but still.

8th @Horsham YMCA (12th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Chris Gott/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

7 - Oh Wells. Why didn't you tackle him? 0-1

20 Ugh. Corner kick fuckery. Time to overload 0-2

42 - Dafuq? 0-3

Wells and his 4.8 gets yanked, as does Amiri's 5.7. But considering the whole fucking team is lower than 6.6 and numerous sub-6s, they getting yelled at

49 - Amiri is giving me an earful about getting benched, and here's Gott passing to Ogbonna for the Nigerian's calm dribble through the defense and center to Maris, the replacement scoring the goal. Fuck off, Ali. 3-1

Morale's pretty low after that one, so I'm gentle. Definitely some people getting benched for next game though. Contract negotiations are a nightmare. *Everyone* wants 25% promotion raise and not a single one of them will accept anything less. Really irritating.

Feeling tired now. Think I'll go nap.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Izulde

So at halftime I tell George Maris I'm not happy with his performance, and he looks delighted?! What the hell kind of demon spawn are you, kid?

Some players want to be criticized if they didn't just give you an 8.8 with a hat trick. Perfectionism I guess. I had a guy in my team(Yogi) that I talked to and praised him after a 5 goals, 3 ass in 4 matches stretch, and he was a little turned off because he didn't think he'd been playing all that well and should be doing better. Said we had different ideas on what a top performance is. Others get ticked if you pull them when they are playing uber-crap. Definitely helps me to look at them as individuals.

[mrtourette]

Everyone knows that young men crave discipline.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Some players want to be criticized if they didn't just give you an 8.8 with a hat trick. Perfectionism I guess. I had a guy in my team(Yogi) that I talked to and praised him after a 5 goals, 3 ass in 4 matches stretch, and he was a little turned off because he didn't think he'd been playing all that well and should be doing better. Said we had different ideas on what a top performance is. Others get ticked if you pull them when they are playing uber-crap. Definitely helps me to look at them as individuals.

Yeah I'm seeing that and I try to make note of it but sometimes forget to.

Originally Posted by mrtourette

Everyone knows that young men crave discipline.

You mean like this?

[Izulde]

Good Trains
Dubi Ogbonna
Gary Sheridan

Bad Trains
Mike Hands
Jack Fisher
Will Summerfield
Tony Griffiths

Board satisfied, but we keep bleeding money - $22.22k last month, and that can't be blamed on the $10.6k salary - we're just not generating any income. When $2.61k fundraising is your highest source of money, you know you've got problems.

Players Signed Past This Year So Far
GK Peter Burke (21) - $11,250 - 2019 - 6.99
DC/DM Andy Draper (18) - $4,700 - 2019 - 6.73
MLR Rheo Josephs (20) - $4,100 - 2019 - 6.84
ST Ali Amiri (21) - $4,100 - 2019 - 6.65
MR Nathan Hudson (20) - $3,800 - 2019 - 6.98
DR Reece Keeling (18) - $2,500 - 2019 - 6.81
MC Sam Jones (25) - $2,200 - 2019 - 6.31
DL/ML/MC/MR Paul Grugel - Youth contract - 2018 - 6.45
DL Harry Palmer - Youth contract - 2018 - 6.18
Plus whoever else has a youth contract with us

So bar the Sam Jones signing and maybe the Ali Amiri transfer, the kids I brought in have been good to great for us so far. Peter Burke is the only hold-over we've committed long-term to, and he's probably going to be the only one. So that means going into next year we have:

GK
DC
DR
ML
MC (eh)
MR
ST

set in terms of a starting lineup, or 7 of 11 players, plus the youth backups. That's a pretty good position to be in, particularly given how cheap a lot of these guys are, with Burke the only expensive one.

9th @Harlow Town (7th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Andy Draper/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Craig Gott/Adam Forster/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

30 - Phenomenal interception by Wells and from there it's a straight line pass to Amiri, then Ogbonna for the half-circle score 1-0

45 - Literally fucking SECONDS before the half is over, they fucking score 1-1

Draper and Gott with 5.9s at the half. I'll keep an eye on them, as both respond favorably to being told off.

50 - Yeah, I've seen enough. Fisher at DC, Gardner at MC.

55 - Fuckass debut goals 1-2

86 - Keeling intercepts and gives to Forster, who plays a pristine ball to Ogbonna. Literally four defenders crowd around the Nigerian and tackle the ball away, but it moves to the right-hand side, where a completely unmarked Amiri puts it away 2-2

Not pretty but we'll take it.

Gary Sheridan has learned much from Ross Gardner, a tutoring relationship established before I got here. That's nice, but the center midfielder still has a long way to go before he gets consideration.

We're now fully fluid in the 4-4-2, yay! That means it's time to work on another tactic, one that we might unveil next year. It'll combine elements of the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 I've enjoyed having in this career.



So yeah, a blend of the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 creates a shiny 4-1-4-1 with some different roles I haven't tried before (Anchor Man and Complete Forward), or at least in this universe. Still the More Direct passing with everything else at default. This is wholly my thoughts and invention except the CF, which idea I got from a review of another 4-1-4-1 tactic which suggested a CF instead of Poacher up front. So this feels a lot like *I* personally designed this tactic.

And oh look, perfect time to try it out.

[b]@Romford (Isthmian Ryman League Cup Third Round)
See above for formation and starting lineup

This match has been postponed *twice* due to poor field conditions, and I was beginning to think we were never going to be able to play, but the game is finally here.

2 - Ooof. 0-1

30 - Okay so this was a really, really bad idea 0-2

40 - REALLY BAD IDEA 0-3

Switching to the 4-4-2 at half, with Draper swapped out for Amiri.

77 - Subs. Doesn't matter who. I spend 2.

86 - Wells goes off. Oh so awesome.

90 - Well, we didn't get shutout 1-3

This one's on me. Our play picked up a lot in the second half.

Moral of the Story: Make sure your team knows the formation fluidly, stupid

Oh and we lose Jake Wells 5-6 weeks. That's just swell.

There's a young striker I really really want to sign, and he wants to come here too, but we can't afford the $8k compensation cost. Boo. I'll keep an eye on him, though.

With that in mind, I tell the board we need to find a parent club who will give us lots of cash. They agree.

10th vs Wroxham FC (18th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Lee Molyneaux/Andy Draper/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Jimmy Beadle/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

So before this game I publicly expressed interest in the hot young striker, and now Ogbonna is feeling pressured. Oops.

44 - Completely inexcusable. 0-1

We switch to attacking at the half and Josephs is off for Gardner.

58 - WTF? Draper goes off for Gott. So sick of this fucking stupid ass sudden ability to play anything but assfuckery these last few games 0-2

Absolutely fucking pathetic. I don't give a shit if Andy Draper is out 2 weeks. We're dragging more ass out there than a fucking donkey pulling competition.

Five league games since we've won. We're now as cold as we were once hot.

Transfer In - DM/MC/AMC Bobby Armstrong (20) - From South Shields
$4.8k per year deal through 2019. Can play either of our MC requirements at a 4* level according to my coaches and scouts. Absolutely thrilled to get this kid and make him part of the long term future.

Transfer In - GK Shayne Cooper (21) - From Harborough Town
$4.1k a year may be a bit pricey for a backup keeper, but this way I can just set it and forget about it the next few years (Through 2019). Plus, his greatest area of strength is Important Matches, so he'll get his time with the first time in cup plays.

The signings put us $3.74k in the whole again, though I don't know how - We had over $8k in available space.

10th vs Maldon & Tiptree Town (4th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Lloyd Laycock/Chris Gott/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Elliott King/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris/Dubi Ogbonna

13 - Got a little bar help on that header from Gott via Hudson's corner kick, but we'll take it. 1-0

14 - Can you say immediate answer? Of course you fucking can 1-1

58 - Gardner and Grugel go in at ML and DL because I'm tired of shit play from the left wing.

92 - BURKE YOU FUCKING ASSFARMER!!! WE ARE NOT FUCKING PAYING YOU THAT FUCKING MUCH MONEY TO COME OUT EARLY AND GETTING FUCKING BUGGERED ON THE GOD DAMNED TAIL END OF THE MOTHERFUCKING GAME!!!!!! YOU KNOW WHAT?! YOU'VE BEEN FUCKING HORRID SINCE YOU SIGNED THAT FAT FUCKING EXTENSION. YOU'RE GONE, ASSHOLE! 1-2

Craig Gott is out 4-5 weeks.

Transfer In - DL/ML Evan Finnegan (21) - From Bishop Auckland
Despite being under an immense wage budget crunch, we're able to steal this guy for $3.3k a year through 2019. 11 Tackling, 9 Teamwork, 10 Workrate, 13 Acceleration. We're doing really, really well with our transfer signings as far as the cost goes.

11th vs Bridlington Town (4th)
G: Peter Burke
D: Evan Finnegan/Kelvin Lola/Lee Molyneaux/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Will Summerfield/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

Our landlords come to our mutually shared place. Now I know how the Clippers feel. Anyway, Grant Darley gets some choice words from me about how how much he sucks in the run-up.

Laycock and Gardner for Molyneaux and Josephs respectively at the half. My coaches keep telling me I need to dump Josephs, and maybe they're right.

53 - At least it wasn't Darley Heh 0-1

66 - Seriously WTF is wrong with this team all of a sudden?! 0-2

Yeah, that was just awful. On the off chance it's our newcomers, I'm going to switch our training focus back to Team Cohesion.

Good Trans
Henry Sibenge
Luke Knott
Mickey Brough

$18.5k lost *and* the board thinks I should be doing better. Well shit. They also tell me it's not worth it to get a parent club after all. I'm really starting to hate you guys, you know.

Transfer Out - GK Peter Burke - Bridlington Town - $0
Nobody would give me any money for him, but our landlords once again snapped up our expensive salary player. Truth is, they actually wanted this deal before we played them but I was like fuck that. Maybe I should have let him go after all... fucker probably deliberately lost just to spite us. Asshole. He also signs a shorter contract with them - only through 2018.



Hey, assholes. Did you not see I had you up to 5th place earlier this season? Even if we are fucking 14th right now, we were 15th when I joined you guys. Still an improvement! Y'all are just pissed I sold off Mark Lynch on a free. Get over your butthurt, fuckwads.

[Izulde]

So we're back to $4.16k under budget, which I do not understand because we were $4.37k over budget and yet we just got rid of an $11,250 contract, so we should be $7k under budget. Math is not adding up AT ALL.

14th @Worthing FC (2nd)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Andy Draper/Reece Keeling
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri/Dubi Ogbonna

30 - The decimation of our backline continues as Keeling is forced off with injury. Molyneaux moves to DR and Laycock comes in at DC.

31 - Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ! Now Josephs gets knocked out with an injury. Gardner in for him.

38 - Yeah fuck you, whatever. 0-1

49 - Wonder if I'll be fired after this game 0-2

66 - Considering how many first goals we're giving up, teams are beating us with their B sides 0-3

Reece Keeling out 2 weeks and Rheo Josephs 5-6 weeks. Our injury luck has been abysmal.

The three week break comes at just the right time to try and rebuild our shattered morale, as we've gone eight straight games without a win.

Transfer Out - MC Adam Forster - Winterton Rangers
Just clearing out more wage budget.

Awesome. Ali Amiri breaks his shoulder and is out 5-6 weeks.



Wow. Talk about an impatient board.

14th @ Uxbridge FC
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Ross Gardner/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

It's partly the injury to Amiri, partly our being 100% fluid in it now, and partly my saying fuck you, gonna live or die by my handcrafted 4-1-4-1.

3 - I'm dreaming in pink 0-1

31 - We're denied a penalty.

35 - The crossbar denies Hudson

72 - They're given a bullshit penalty kick. Fucking fixing refs. 0-2

Six losses in a row is a new futility record.

14th vs Crowborough Athletic (11th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Ross Gardner/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: George Maris

25 - These guys are playing like someone hit the turbo button 0-1

Ogbonna at half and Lola at DR.

I can't remember the last time we scored.

Maldon & Tiptree Town fire their manager. I'm still around.

14th @Three Bridges FC (11th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Ross Gardner/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

28 - Robbed by the crossbar, as our spell of dominance still = no goal.

30 - Keeling charges like a boss down the middle of the field to recover a cleared corner, kick-starting a move that caps in Hudson on the left wing of the box crossing to Ogbonna, who finally breaks the drought 1-0

Summerfield for Jones at the break.

56 - Lola for Molyneaux

73 - Gardner with the perfect free kick to Ogbonna for the Nigerian's second goal of the game 2-0

8.8 and PotM for Ogbonna, 7.7 for Hudson, and 7.5 for Cooper. Despite the string of losses, I feel like we've played better with the 4-1-4-1, and now we finally have the win to prove it.

Maldon & Tiptree Town hire none other than Rudy Funk to take their vacancy. Funny.

14th @Heybridge Swifts (17th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

9 - Sigh. Molyneaux gets busted for that one. 0-1

12 - Hilariously, my assman tells me our play has been impressive 0-2

I make a couple subs in the second half but it doesn't matter. I'm just counting down the days until I'm fired at this point. Not that it's so bad. I mean, this is a club that can't even make enough per month to pay players' salaries - $6.51k to $9.88k, as an example.

14th vs Potters Bar Town
Same as it ever was.

33 - Yeah cuz we're really gonna beat the #1 team in the league 0-1

40 - We're gifted a penalty and Jones converts 1-1

45 - And of course they score right before half 1-2

I burn all my subs at half because why not?

55 - Yep, let's add on that 20 yard fluke goal 1-3

57 - Post-robbed again? Of course!

65 - They're gifted a penalty, but Cooper stops it

86 - Own goal by Gardner. Think he wants me gone. 1-4

We drop another place, but I'm still not fired.

15th vs Leiston FC (13th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

6 - It's like we're not even trying anymore 0-1

52 - Lalala 0-2

88 - 30 yard fluke by Ogbonna. Also, we've been denied two penalties this half 1-2

We actually played really well today and didn't deserve to lose. Just how cookie crumbles.

15th @AFC Hayes (18th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Ross Gardner/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

I was actually going to go with a 4-4-2, but Ali Amiri got hurt again, so yeah.

4 - Hudson should've crushed that cross from Josephs

Gardner for Josephs at half.

48 - ZOMG so much passing, the last of which is [b]Gardner[/b taking the cross from Hudson, dribbling inside the box, and firing away 1-0

54 - Absolutely incredible pass from Armstrong to Ogbonna and we've got this wrapped up 2-0

59 - ....Maybe. Damn corners 2-1

70 - *Two* goals given up on corner kicks? What does this mean? Lola at DR 2-2

92 - Nice little Wells to Armstrong to Gardner triangle there for the late steal 3-2

7.6 for Nathan Hudson, and of course, Ross Gardner's balla 8.7 PotM on 2 goals off the bench.

With two games left in the season, Potters Bar Town clinches the promotion and Chertsey Town is officially relegated. With 41 points on our tally and 34 points the dropline, there's no way we can be relegated. There's also no way we can promote playoffs, but that's just fine.

15th vs Hemel Hempstead (18th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Ross Gardner/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Dubi Ogbonna

So that win against AFC Hayes last time? All but doomed them to the drop, and if we can beat HH here, we'll officially send them down.

10 - Aaand that's why they're on the dropline. Totally derpy miss.

30 - Beautiful run, dribble and shoot by Ogbonna there to put us up. Our season is ruined, so we'll ruin the year of everyone else. 1-0

33 - Another hilariously awful finish by them. Wow, they must be playing all nervy not to get it done.

53 - Cooper gives them a present of an own goal. Must have felt sorry for them 1-1

61 - Much fluke goal. Wow. 1-2

They had more to play for today, but it didn't matter because they got relegated anyway when Ware FC won.

15th @Chertsey Town (20th)
G: Shayne Cooper
D: Evan Finnegan/Lee Molyneaux/Jake Wells/Reece Keeling
DM: Andy Draper
M: Rheo Josephs/Sam Jones/Bobby Armstrong/Nathan Hudson
S: Ali Amiri

Everyone but Lee Molyneaux and Jake Wells is signed under contract through next year. Call this the All-Izulde lineup or something, even though I'm probably fired after this game.

51 - LOL. How fitting if we lose to the fucking LAST PLACE team in the league? 0-1

77 - WTFE 0-2



Rudy Funk took his new team to the promotion playoffs. Thetford Town got up to 6th, further proving that I'm a really, really shitty manager. Oh well, time to see what openings are out there.

[bbgunn]

Ugh... whatever could have went wrong, went wrong.

Ah well, third time's the charm, right?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by bbgunn

Ugh... whatever could have went wrong, went wrong.

Ah well, third time's the charm, right?

One would hope so. That 4-1-4-1 didn't work at all, though in terms of generating offense, so I learned that much.

[Brian Swartz]

Boo . So looks like you got real great advice from your fans here :P.

[Qwikshot]

Keep at it...love reading this.

[Izulde]

I opt to go on vacation and instruct my personal assistant to apply for every manager opening that comes up, and to notify me when I have a job offer.

Job Offers - Just Some Of Them
1. Camberley Town - Krooners for a nickname? No. Rejected
2. Alton Town - Ugly black and white logo? No.
3. Wellingborough Town - Garish logo and boring cup names for their league. Rejected.
4. Tilbury - Just not feeling it, despite the ample $40k contract and being demoted. Also well over wage budget.
5. AFC Kempston Rovers - Ugly logo.[/b]
6. Ilkeston FC - Very, very close... but has Legends. Screw that. I want to build something.
7. Hednesford Town - Booooring.
8. Cray Wanderers - I only like that much yellow on blonde girls.
9. Stansted - Why do so many football clubs have ugly or boring logos?
10. Merstham - Who made *that* logo? A 2 year old?
11. Sporting Bengal United - Is that supposed to be a Bengal? It looks like a dog holding a breadstick.
12. Burscough - I was all set to take this job until I saw they have Icons and Legends already.
13. Halesowen Town - Stuffed with Legend
14. Wakefield - They disbanded in 2014 IRL, so no. Too bad because they're awesome otherwise
15. Stocksbridge Park Steels - Logo is too busy
16. Hungerford Town - So close, but they have an Icon and are Insecure financially

Worthing FC beats Maldon & Tiptree Town 3-1 on aggregate in the final to promote up. Close but no cigar, Rudy Funk.

Finally, at long last, I find a club worth signing on to.


London Colney FC Blueboys
They promoted from the South Midlands Premier Division once, back in 2002, but they're still considered an Amateur club. Financially they're considered okay, carrying only a $28k loan debt. $110k value and they have $111,000 in the bank. I'm not sure why their loan is listed as Company Voluntary Agreement, but I'm not complaining.

Even better, they consistently finish in the lower portion of the enormous 24 team South Midlands Premier Division. The bad part? It's Level 9, so only one way to promotion.

To save money, we're not going to have a Reserves team next year, though the board insists on a U18 league participation.

We're in the midst of losing our best player, but I'm amused to note our old friend Kwasi "Frogpond" Frempong is on the roster. At 35 he's still got game.

So if we lose our top player, a striker, that means we're really going to be hurting for talent (except for our 19 year old goalie, who was the Fans' Player of the Year last season).

And the browser just crashed, so post and go again it will be.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Boo . So looks like you got real great advice from your fans here :P.

I don't mind it much, though. Like I said, I think the training was bugged for Thetford Town given we kept declining in Tactical Familiarity.

Originally Posted by Qwikshot

Keep at it...love reading this.

Awesome. And I certainly will keep going... because I'm a glutton for text-sim punishment or something.

[Izulde]

Transfer In - ML/AML Earl Sterling (30) - From Sidley United
Veteran depth signing. Currently rated as our best ML at 0.5 gold *. Yeah.

Tranfer In - GK Lance Pierce (24) - From Lancing FC
Probably shouldn't have signed him. Another 0.5 * guy, with 2* upside after my assman looks at him. Oh well. Immediately released.

Transfer In - ST Antwon Bonnick (30) - From Boston Town
I thought this guy was going to be a find, but nope. 2* by my 10/10 Assman in Player Ability/Potential. Time to sort out the trash, by the way.

Cuts
Almost the whole damn team except the U18 squad.

Transfer In - MC Richie Harwood (20) - From Hartley Wintney
3.5* silver stars/5 gold stars. Finally someone whose upside my assman approves of at least. He wouldn't have survived the purge that just happened, but oh well.

Transfer In - GK Richie Stroud (28) - From Lingfield
Yeah he's a veteran. He's also rated our team's #1 goalkeeper by my assman, so he was a very thrilling pickup. I'm not saying we're going to contend for the title this season or anything, but this is a huge get. (4.5/4.5*)

Senior Squad So Far
Goalkeeper
Richard Stroud (28) - 4.5/4.5
Andy McGrath (19) - 4.5/5
Shane Chadwick (17) - 2.5/5

DL
DC/DM/MC/DL Luke Saxby (17) - 5 silver/4.5

DC
DC/DM/MC/DL Luke Saxby (17) - 2/4.5
DC/MC/ST Philip Riley (20) - 4/5

DR
None

DMC
DC/DM/MC/DL Luke Saxby (17) - 2/5
DM/MC Richie Harwood (20) - 3.5 silver/5

ML
ML/AML Earl Sterling (30) - 0.5/0.5
MLRC Nigel Stockwell (20) - 4 silver/5

MC
DC/DM/MC/DL Luke Saxby (17) - 2.5/5
MCR/AMR Kwasi Frempong (35) - 2.5/2.5
DC/MC/ST Philip Riley (20) - 1.5/4.5
MLRC Nigel Stockwell (20) - 4.5 silver/5
DM/MC Richie Harwood (20) - 3.5 silver/5

MR
MCR/AMR Kwasi Frempong (35) - 2.5/2.5
AML/MR/ST Kenny Potter (19) - 1/4.5
MLRC Nigel Stockwell (20) - 4 silver/5

AML
AML/MR/ST Kenny Potter (19) - 2.5/4.5
AMLR/ST Stuart Horgan (16) - 2/5
ML/AML Earl Sterling (30) - 0.5/0.5

AMC
None

AMR
AMLR/ST Stuart Horgan (16) - 4/5
MCR/AMR Kwasi Frempong (35) - 1/1

ST
AMLR/ST Stuart Horgan (16) - 4.5/5
DC/MC/ST Philip Riley (20) - 4.5/5
AML/MR/ST Kenny Potter (19) - 4/5
ST Antwon Bonnick (30) - 2/2

So... yeah. Need to get a lot more signings in after the hatchet job I just did.

Transfer In - DR Nathan Speed (27) - From London Bari
Remember him from Thetford Town? He was pretty good for us, so he'll get another shot here. Rates as our best DR by default.

Transfer In - DC Kyle Craig (20) - From Stotfold FC
6'6, 216. I may try rebuilding my team around tall dudes and junk a lot of these signings - I don't know yet. Or I may purely look at physical attributes from now on. Not sure. 0.5 silver/3.5* so a prospect.

Transfer In - MR/AMR Keith Browett (21) - From Ampthill Town
2 silver/3.5* but I love his 14 First Touch and Technique.

Transfer In - DLCR Lyndon Jefford (21) - From Holmesdale AFC
6'8, 222 with 14 Jumping. 2 silver/5. I love that he's a tall glass of water we can put at any of the defensive spots.

Transfer In - ST Jay McGregor (20) - From Newbury FC
6'9, 229 with 10 Finishing, 13 Aggression, 18 Bravery, 14 Determination, 10 Flair, 10 Off Ball, 15 Jumping, 10 Natural Fitness. 5 silver/5, but I do not give a fuck. This big, beautiful, brave bastard will be a starter from Day 1.

Transfer In - MC/AMC Will Summerfield (21) - From Duh
I just can't resist. I love his talent too much. So does my assman, giving him the coveted 5/5 rating. He should be our best player on the entire team next year.

Transfer In - ST Jordan Merriman (22) - From Hemel Hempstead Town
4/5 by assman. Beautiful all around ratings - 12 Finishing, 10 First Touch, 11 Determination, 14 Flair, 10 Influence, 11 Teamwork, 12 Workrate, 11 Acceleration, 10 Natural Fitness

Transfer In - MR/AMR Alex Britton (29) - From Continental Star
Strictly a flier and a meh one at that.

Transfer In - ML/AML Jason Gadsby (20)
Pure physical - 13 Acceleration, 10 Agility, 12 Pace. My assman rates him 1.5/5 and our best ML. Well there's that.

Transfer In - ST/MC/MR/AML Jordan Payne (19) - From Worksop Paramore
6'2, 191 - 10 Penalty Kick, 10 Concentration, 13 Flair, 12 Teamwork, 11 Workrate, 12 Jumping, 11 Natural Fitness, 11 Stamina, 10 Strength. Assman says 5/5 as ST, 4.5 as MC. Wow, this is really starting to open my eyes to how useless technical attributes are at this level, and why I kept getting my ass kicked.

Transfer In - DM/MC Andy Mogwo (24) - From Ashington
Democratic Republic of Congo. 10 Long Shots, 10 Determination, 12 Acceleration, 13 Natural Fitness, 13 Pace, 11 Stamina, 12 Strength. A 6'1, 192 physical god. 5/5 in both MC and DM

Transfer In - DM/MC Thomas Nunn (19) - From Goole AFC
8 Passing, 13 Aggression, 18 Bravery, 16 Determination, 10 Positioning, 10 Teamwork, 13 Workrate, 11 Balance, 13 Natural Fitness, 10 Stamina, 12 Strength. Can you say another star player? I knew you could. Holy shit this is getting crazy.

Transfer In - DLC George Gould (21) - From Parkgate FC
11 Teamwork, 15 Workrate, 10 Jumping, 12 Natural Fitness, 10 Stamina, 11 Strength. The weakest of the newcomers thus far at 1/5. Figures, because the backline is our new weakest area.

I think I just discovered a bug, by the way.



This was the exact same time. I literally only looked at a player's card and then backed out, and suddenly there were huge jumps

[Izulde]

We lost one or two players along the way, but I missed it because I was being flooded with notices about players on my giant shortlist.

Prior To First Preseason Game

GK
Richard Stroud - 3*/3*
Andy McGrath - 3*/5*
Shane Chadwick - 1.5*/5*

Seriously? I think that's another one of the Amateur team related bugs. Not only is the Tactical Knowledge screwed up, but you never know from one day to the next what your staff is going to evaluate players.

DL
George Gould - 1*/5*
Luke Saxby - 4 silver/3.5*
Nathan Speed - 0.5/0.5
Lyndon Jefford - 0.5 silver/3.5
Kyle Craig - 0.5 silver/0.5

DC
Luke Saxby - 1/5*
George Gould - 1*/5*
Lyndon Jefford - 1.5 silver/3.5
Kyle Craig - 0.5 silver/2

DR
Nathan Speed - 1/1
Lyndon Jefford - 1.5 silver/3.5
Kyle Craig - 0.5 silver/0.5

ML
Jason Gadsby - 5 silver/5
Earl Sterling - 0.5/0.5
Nigel Stockwell - 2.5 silver/5
Jay McGregor - 1.5/silver/1.5

MC
Will Summerfield - 5/5
Thomas Nunn - 4.5/5
Andy Mogwo - 4/5
Jordan Payne - 3.5/5
Luke Saxby - 1.5/5*
Kwasi Frempong - 1.5/1.5
Nigel Stockwell - 3.5 silver/5
Richie Harwood - 2.5 silver/5
Jay McGregor - 1.5/silver/1.5

MR
Jordan Payne - 1.5/4.5
Kwasi Frempong - 1.5/1.5
Alex Britton - 1/1
Kenny Potter - 4.5 silver/2.5
Nigel Stockwell - 2.5 silver/5
Keith Browett - 1.5 silver/2.5

ST
Jordan Payne - 4/5
Stuart Horgan - 3/5
Jordan Merriman - 2.5/5
Kenny Potter - 2/5
Antwon Bonnick - 1/1
Jay McGregor - 4 silver/4.5

So in this re-evaluation, we're pretty well set at striker and overloaded at MC, with weakness all along the backline and both outside midfield spots.

vs Oxford City Nomads (Friendly)
G: Richard Stroud
D: George Gould/Luke Saxby/Lyndon Jefford/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Jordan Payne
S: Stuart Horgan/Jordan Merriman

18 - Heh 0-1

38 - ... 0-2

40 - Forgot who got him the ball, but nice dribble into the box by Merriman before passing to Horgan for the score 1-2

Our backline has been precisely as bad as advertised.

50 - Mogwo scores on a PK 2-2

73 - Own goal by Speed. FFS 2-3

Transfer In - DR Martin Dynan (28) - From Hamworthy United
FFS 0.5/0.5. Why do I bother anymore?

Transfer In - DL Geoff Mustoe (20) - From Rochester United
3.5 silver/5. There's actual a U18 prospect we have who's better than him it turns out, so I'll call that dude up.

Transfer In - DL Ashley Johnson (20) - From Yaxley FC
1.5 silver/4.5. Whatever.

Transfer In - DL Liam Bostock (19)
4 silver/5. Eh.

@ St Francis Rangers (Friendly)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Elliott Burns/Kyle Craig/Lyndon Jefford/Martin Dynan
M: Nigel Stockwell/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Jordan Payne
S: Stuart Horgan/Jordan Merriman

41 - The more I play this fucking irritating game, the less I fucking understand it 0-1

63 - How the fuck are these cocksmacks going HEHEHEHEHEHEHE I FUCKING WIN EVERYTHING AND IF YOU CAN'T WIN U R A DERPY FAG. 0-2

80 - We score. I don't give a fuck 1-2

90 - My 1/1* veteran striker just scored his second goal to get us level. Do not fucking get this game at all nope, nope, nope 2-2

Oh look we're 50-1 promotion odds. Why the fuck do I even bother with this fucking stupid as fuck game that needs a god damned fucking PhD in fucking everything to god damned fucking do JACK FUCKING SHIT IN IT?!?!

vs Ware FC (Friendly)
G: Andy McGrath
D: Luke Craig/Luke Saxby/George Gould/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Andy Mogwo/Will Summerfield/Kwasi Frempong
S: Antwon Bonnick/Jordan Payne

Fuck it. Let my assman pick the lineups from now on. We'll get donkeyfucked by this semipro team anyway.

26 - Gadsby with a great pass to Payne in the box, who fights off the defender and fires it in. 1-0

65 - Speed intercepts the ball and it's an all-Izulde players row as it goes to Frogpond and then to Summerfield, who pushes aside the defender for a 25 yard strike and I'm like what the fuck is this demon magic? 2-0

I tell everyone if they play that way when it really matters, things are looking really great, and everyone looks at me like I'm a fucking idiot with the exception of Saxby. Yeah, fuck you guys then.

vs Waltham Abbey (Friendly)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Lyndon Jefford/George Gould/Luke Saxby/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Keith Browett
S: Stuart Horgan/Jordan Payne

I'm just going to accept that my assman knows more about how to rotate guys than I do and leave it at that.

4 - Or maybe he doesn't 0-1

13 - You know, I read a few places that FM pre-determines game results. I'm starting to believe that 0-2

77 - LOL 0-3

86 - You think I give a fuck we scored? Because I don't 1-3

Nathan Speed is named Captain for the year, Jordan Merriman as Vice-Captain.

I'm getting really fucking sick of the shortlist offers spam and the fact that FM never fucking goes to my inbox and stays there when I tell it to. It says fuck you asshole, we're going to keep fucking continuing and you're going to keep fucking losing because you fucking suck. Happily, for the shortlist, I can just X out everything and save what little is left of my fucking FM sanity.

vs Hertford Town
G: Andy McGrath
D: Elliott Burns/Luke Saxby/Kyle Craig/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Kwasi Frempong
S: Jordan Payne/Jordan Merriman

I've decided, for the early part of the season anyway, to just go with what the assman says for the lineups.. only fixing his stupid mistakes like putting red and yellow dot players in.

3 - Nunn gets a cleared out ball and passes to Summerfield, who makes a brills pass to Payne in the box. A little adjustment to set up his shot and *bam* in it goes! 1-0

23 - No defense and McGrath falls over before the shot gets there 1-1

39 - I fucking quit 1-2

Craig to DR and Gould in at DC. Not that it fucking matters because this game fucking won't let me win anyway. Fuck you FM.

I'm done wasting my time on this bullshit. No matter what I do, nothing ever fucking works. Doesn't fucking matter how much reading I do, what the fuck I try... it's all fucking bullshit.

[Qwikshot]

Yowch, very discouraging.

Can I ask? Why go so far down in the leagues? (You might have answered this already) Because I would think you'd need to really know setting up tactics to deal with the lack of technique and you'd probably do better with more physically skilled players with high determination and stamina, and a few ringers to focus the offense.

I just fired up a game last night, and took the helm of York, granted its League 2 but they're expected to finish 23rd and the owner wants to consolidate so you get a little leverage to work the roster.

Good luck...it can be a frustrating game

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Qwikshot

Yowch, very discouraging.

Can I ask? Why go so far down in the leagues? (You might have answered this already) Because I would think you'd need to really know setting up tactics to deal with the lack of technique and you'd probably do better with more physically skilled players with high determination and stamina, and a few ringers to focus the offense.

I just fired up a game last night, and took the helm of York, granted its League 2 but they're expected to finish 23rd and the owner wants to consolidate so you get a little leverage to work the roster.

Good luck...it can be a frustrating game

Masochism, I suppose? And it's what I've always done because I don't know how to tell who's good and who isn't when you get high up the leagues. I've kept going though, as you'll see with the next post.

[Brian Swartz]

If you like, I can throw out a few ideas. Don't want to push it though as some people like to figure things out for themselves.

[Izulde]

Stuff We Rank Top 10 At
First Touch - 6th
Passing - 8th
Strength - 7th

Stuff We Rank Low At
Decisions - 19th
Leadership - 21st
Aggression - 18th

Goalkeeping we rank no worse than 16th in the league in any category (next lowest is 12th, and 10th is lowest after that) and are 2nd in Handling and 4th in Throwing.

We have some of the worst Tackling/Heading/Marking for defenders in the league but the best Acceleration and #9 in Pace.

Midfield ranks in Top 10 or close to it in every category but Teamwork (19th) and Tackling (21st).

Attacking we're 3rd in Finishing and 2nd in Jumping, with our worst ratings 18th in Long Shots

Given our comparative strength in Acceleration, Pace, and Strength, it seems like we should be using the following shouts:

Pass Into Space
Effect: Instructs the team to play the ball in front of the receiving player so that he can run on to it and create space for attacks.
Action: Increases try through balls.
Useful: When not penetrating the oppositions; when having high possession and/or pass completion rates but few good shots; when playing against a side with far less acceleration or pace than your own

Pump Ball Into Box
Effect: Instructs the team to play long balls in to the opposition penalty area to try to get an advantage.
Action: Large increase in passing length but decrease in try through balls for defenders and defensive midfielders, tells players to play with less wide play, makes full backs and wingers hold up the ball, increases forward runs for forwards, sets maximum crossing for full backs, focus passing through the centre.
Useful: When needing a goal late on in the game; when possessing taller and/or stronger forwards than the opposition defenders.

Work Ball Into Box
Effect: Instructs the team to only shoot once they get close to the goal.
Action: Decreases try long shots.
Useful: When shooting far too much from range; when creating a lot of shots but few clear cut chances; when playing with a team who are poor at shooting from range.

After that abysmal effort in the opener, Andy McGrath signs with Hungerford Town.

Given our strength in Acceleration

16th @Leverstock Green (8th)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Lyndon Jefford/Luke Saxby/George Gould/Nathan Speed
M: Nigel Stockwell/Thomas Nunn/Andy Mogwo/Alex Britton
S: Jordan Payne/Antwon Bonnick

My own starting lineup this time.

15 - Fuck you. Bonnick was not offsides.

21 - Of course they fucking score 0-1

24 - FUCK THIS FUCKING GAME 0-2

Browett for Britton, but it's not like it's going to fucking matter.

63 - Sterling for Stockwell

70 - Fuck it 0-3

75 - FUCK YOU, CONSOLATION GOAL 1-3

77 - FUCK YOU FOR INJURING MOGWO AND ONLY FUCKING GIVE THE FUCKING DIPSTICK FUCKING FUCKWAD A FUCKING TELLING OFF

80 - Fuck this game so very fucking much 1-4

The whole team switches off red after the game. Fuck you guys too.

24th vs FC Stockfold (2nd)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Elliott Burns/Kyle Craig/George Gould/Martin Dynan
M: Jason Gadsby/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Kwasi Frempong
S: Stuart Horgan/Jordan Merriman

Still using the shouts combo, but going to have the backline play very deep to try and cut down on the goals we've been giving up.

Speed at DR, Stockwell for Nunn at half, as there's zero highlights to speak of in the first half. At least we're not giving up a ton of goals.

47 - Brilliant interception by Craig, and a low bullet to the feet of Merriman, who passes back and forth with Horgan in the face of a rough and tumble defense before Horgan blasts in a shot from the half-circle for our first second half lead of the year 1-0

77 - Way to shank the shot, Horgan. You should have nailed that.

Poor match? Fuck you. We get the win. Great redemption game for George Gould, getting 7.9 and PotM. Stuart Horgan just misses the 7.5 mark with 7.4.

20th @Wingate and Finchley (16th)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Elliott Burns/Kyle Craig/George Gould/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Thomas Nunn/Will Summerfield/Kwasi Frempong
S: Jordan Payne/Jordan Merriman

1 - Fuck the fluke dribble goal 0-1

4 - Gadsby dribbles out to the far sideline where he crosses. Payne rises up above everyone to knock the header down to Merriman for the easy goal 1-1

11 - Nunn with a free kick and the defense heads it away all wrong. Merriman's there to kick in the go-ahead! 2-1

29 - Nunn wins a physical challenge just past midfield in their territory and that starts a move ending in Payne popping a perfect pass to Merriman. But the defense tackles him and the ball sits by the touchline... Until Merriman darts forward and angles the shot in for the hat trick! 3-1



I'm trying to remember the last time we had that amazing a first half, and I can't.

57 - Of course Payne gets knocked. Rule #7 of FM 2013 - Whenever my team starts doing something great, something bad happens. Jay McGregor on.

66 - CUNTFUCKER 30 YARD STRIKE!!!!! THIS IS WHERE FM FUCKING SCREWS ME OVER 3-2

75 - Stockwell for Frogpond, who's retiring end of season BTW.

78 - What did I fucking tell you? 3-3

Fucking FM. I fucking hate how this game has fucking MAGIC COMEBACK MODE FOR ALL OPPONENTS!

Good Trains
Earl Sterling
Antwon Bonnick
Alex Britton

Bad Trains
Kwasi Frempong

Board's satisfied, and we turn $1.96k profit. Very nice.

Transfer In - DC Tom Kemp (27) - From Cray Valley Paper Mills
Just trying to increase the quality of the defense, and at 2.5*, Kemp is very much that.

19th @Haringey Borough (5th)
G: Richard Stroud
D: Elliott Burns/Kyle Craig/Tom Kemp/Nathan Speed
M: Jason Gadsby/Andy Mogwo/Will Summerfield/Kwasi Frempong
S: Jordan Payne/Jordan Merriman

18 - Amazing interception by new guy Kemp and Gadsby takes the clearance. His pass to Payne is tackled away, but like he's done so often this year, Merriman is in prime position to sink it 1-0

28 - The defense just STANDS THERE 1-1

36 - Summerfield outhustles the defense and we get the fluke goal. That'll do pig, that'll do. 2-1

47 - Seconds before the half, a knock for Burns.

Okay, so let's also Retain Possession in the second half, so as not to blow it like we did last time. Gould is in for Burns

60 - Disallowed goal for them. Got lucky there. Nunn in for tired Summerfield

78 - Ribbit. Frempong off injured. Stockwell on for him.

81 - MAGIC COMEBACK CODE ACTIVATED! 2-2

Oh and Elliott Burns is out 3 weeks. Fuck this game.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

If you like, I can throw out a few ideas. Don't want to push it though as some people like to figure things out for themselves.

Considering how many literal weeks I've spent trying to crack this damn game, I'll take any suggestions.

[mrtourette]

I found these extremely helpful, just saved me from relegation in my game:

How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager

Tactical Guide: Pairs and Combinations

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Seriously? I think that's another one of the Amateur team related bugs. Not only is the Tactical Knowledge screwed up, but you never know from one day to the next what your staff is going to evaluate players.

I don't know what happened on the Tactic thing as I've never seen that before. This however I am certain is not a bug. The star rating of your players is relative to the best players on the roster. That is, your best players will have a 4-5 star rating, and the others will be scaled based on that.

So, when you get new talent(which is exactly what you did), it makes sense for the star rating to get adjusted for the existing players, because they are no longer as good as they were relative to the new best players on your roster. You bring in guys like Summerfield, your keepers look worse by comparison -- but it doesn't mean they actually are worse or that your coaches are on drugs. There are also adjustments as players age/improve/you get to know better(esp. for those in their first year with you or the club), but those tend to be less drastic most of the time.

Originally Posted by Izulde

So in this re-evaluation, we're pretty well set at striker and overloaded at MC, with weakness all along the backline and both outside midfield spots.

I think this is the #1 thing right here. I completely agree with your assessment here, as far as it goes. I think you would have done well to adjust your tactical formation and setup based on this though. Here's how I look at it:

Keepers -- solid
Defense -- Sucks as you noted. Can't do a whole lot about this in terms of the formation, you need quality defenders, you don't have them, it's going to be a big weakness and that's just the way it is
Midfield -- You are playing four here with wide players that you know aren't going to be any good, while quality central players sit
Strikers -- Looks like three decent players

At higher levels which is what most 'supertactics' are written for, you can get at least fair-quality players everywhere. You don't have that option. Because of that, I think probably the most important thing with a drek club is to make the most of what you do have. Maximize the strengths, minimize the weaknesses. Adapt your tactic to your players, not the other way around. It's hard to overemphasize how important I think this is. Another thing you've done well in that vein is using shouts based on the team comparison.

Based on the information presented, at the point you made the roster evaluation above(first preseason game), I would have thrown the 4-4-2 in the garbage. Harder to do now that the season is started, but I'd still recommend it. I would suggest a 4-3-1-2, which incidentally I've used to good effect in my game but that's not why it's a good idea. You want to get your best players on the pitch. Hand ML McGregor and MRs Payne/Frempong a nicy shiny invitation to sit their butts on the bench, that is if you even bother to dress them . Go with triple MCs and an AMC:

AMC Summerfield
MCs Nunn/Mogwo/Payne

Now you've got your best players out there in the starting lineup. You'll have to shuffle things with injuries and stuff, but your 'first choice' lineup is much better.

With this 4-3-1-2 you can use Play Through the Middle to emphasize keeping the ball where you are strong, and Play Wider to give yourself a little better spacing and minimize the weakness of having no wide midfielders. You can also try training an MC or two in the wide positions, but that's takes a lot longer and they may just not be any good at it, definitely a slower solution esp. for an amateur club where it's probably just not doable at all.

The 4-3-1-2 is somewhat aggressive by nature, and with your defense being horrible the deep defensive line as you mentioned more recently is an excellent idea which I must enthusiastically salute. You are also correct in using the Work Ball Into Box with the long shots weakness.

Mentality will be important as well. I would additionally play a more conservative mentality, I'd probably try Counter at home and Defensive on the road to start out, to keep more players behind the ball when you don't have possession, having them push forward when you do. This is best done with More Direct Passing to get the ball forward quickly. If you were able to upgrade the defense to being even decent, I'd switch this to Control/Standard and change the passing shout which would take more advantage of your passing skills, but right now I think the defense is the most important concern.

Finally, as it relates to Fluidity and the roles for your players, I recommend an excellent guide on the SI Forums for the last couple of versions. How to Play FM14: A Twelve Step Guide I couldn't find the FM13 one which may not be there anymore, but almost everything should translate. Specifically, I recommend two things from it: base your Fluidity on the Specialist/Generic roles breakdown there(#1 of the 12 Steps) and make sure you have 'overlap' between defense/midfield and midfield/attack as mentioned in #4. Read the rest if you want, and of course there's more complicated stuff stickied there in the forum, but a lot of it really does get into being ridiculous territory IMO and much of it I don't understand. The 12-step guide and particularly #1 and #4 as I mentioned should give a base from which to find an intelligently based tactic for any club.

I'm sure I'll have a lot more challenges with my career, but I've also gotten to a point where I'm pretty confident I can tackle whatever comes semi-intelligently. I hope you get there as well .

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by mrtourette

I found these extremely helpful, just saved me from relegation in my game:

How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager

Tactical Guide: Pairs and Combinations

Thanks. I may have seen that before in a different format, but that appears to be presented more cleanly.

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Awesome analysis

Makes a lot of sense there, and I'll try it out to see how it goes. I hated not being able to use all my great central midfielders.