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

[BrixtonFC]

Introduction
“When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come?”
That is the opening line to the song “Guns Of Brixton” by The Clash. I bet the writer, The Clash’s bassist Paul Simonon, never imagined that the line could be interpreted the way I have. “Kick” could be a reference to kicking the football and “front door” could mean football being played professionally right there in Brixton, on the former ground of HM Prison Brixton. And I hope the fans “come” in droves.

What is this all about?
This a Football Manager 2018 Dynasty Report inspired by my love of English music. I’ll discuss Football Manager later on.

Eh?
My long fascination with England is rooted in my love of bands from there. My two favorite bands are New Model Army and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Other English acts that I love are XTC, The Clash, Pop Will Eat Itself, Queen, Gary Numan, Billy Bragg, and The Streets.

There are many connections between Brixton and the music I listen to. First and foremost, the song I mentioned above, “Guns of Brixton.” Another reference you might be familiar with is Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue.” Many Carter USM songs make reference to areas like Tulse Hill, Clapham, Peckham, New Cross, and of course Brixton itself. Several musicians were born there (David Bowie, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon), lived there (Mike Skinner, Jimbob, Fruitbat) or spent time in Brixton Prison (Glenn Danzig, Mick Jagger).

Speaking of Brixton Prison, in the fictional story (in my head) of the team’s origin, their future massive stadium will be on the former site of the prison spreading up into Windmill Gardens, its name sake. (Brixton Prison was closed due to its upkeep becoming too expensive for the local government and the Brixton club owners agreeing to build a new facility outside the city.) Windmill Gardens is scheduled to open on 1 July 2022 and thus the club built a small stadium on the westside of Brockwell Park; it also functions as the training ground/reserve stadium and will remain so after the move in 2022. City Heights Academy in the real-world is where the Brixton Youth Academy is.

I’m not being too original but the nicknames for Brixton will be Mortars and Guns. I made Guns the second nickname because those bastards at Arsenal are already the Gunners and I don’t want too much confusion.

Other Inspiration
This Dynasty Report was directly inspired by three people:

Jim Gindin Of course it starts with him. In the late 90s he took sports simming to a new level. I guess over the years I spent around $150 on his products. From around Christmas 1998 to Halloween 2007 I played FOF or FOF:TCY (mostly TCY) just about every day. For 2 to 12 hours per day. Money very well spent. You’re a legend, Jim!

Scott Brown When I finally got my act together and stayed with FM for more than a month, I was struggling to understand position combinations. While researching I found this wonderful Let’s Play by accident and learned some stuff. More importantly, I was entertained. I’ve read it in full probably four or five times since October 2019. The style of this blog is an homage to Scott’s LP. I wonder how he feels about Wrexham getting two Sugar Daddies.

Loki Doki A YouTube personality (and what a personality!) who lives a simple life of playing Football Manager for profit and rescuing animals. Not a lot of profit, mind you. He’s always entertaining and keeps me out of the FM doldrums; I watch him to get a good laugh and get inspired to get back into the game.

[BrixtonFC]

Football Manager 2018
Welcome to Football Manager 2018. If you don’t know what Football Manager is, read the next paragraph. If you already have devoted your life and soul to Football Manager, skip the next paragraph.

Football Manager is THE premier sports simulation computer game for managing football clubs. Clubs not teams, I’m talking association football, or as us ‘mericans call it, soccer. You can choose to manage a club in your nation of choice, though for some of the smaller nations you have to download custom databases from Steam Workshop. Everywhere in the world except ‘merica the football leagues have a promotion/regulation pyramid structure meaning that bad teams get dropped to a level below and the good teams get elevated to a level above. To put it in U.S. terms, the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears would have been dropped down to Division 1 and Alabama and Michigan would be in the NFL.

Let’s Talk Pyramid Schemes
For this story I am playing in England in the 9th level of the English football league system. Essentially, at that level it’s a bunch of guys in their late 20s and early 30s trying to (re)capture that glory that eluded them. FM doesn’t come stocked with that many leagues for England (you can go down to the 6th level) so I had to download a databased called “England Level 10 and Cup Competitions” by danseakin. Mad props, dude!

Game Setup
However, because Brixton is a fictional club, I’ve had to add them to the database. The scenario I’ve chosen is that Brixton is owned by a Sugar Daddy who has pumped loads of money into the team, built a highest-quality Youth Academy, built a 7,000-seat Reserve Stadium (that will act as the Senior stadium for now), and is building a 25,000-seat stadium, which will lie on the grounds of real-world Windmill Gardens and HM Prison Brixton, set to open on 1 July 2022.

I’ve also granted Brixton a full complement of coaches because despite loving the endless scouting for players, I just cannot stand scouting for staff. I’ve got an assistant manager (hereafter known forever and ever as an AssMan), a head of youth development, two goalkeeping coaches, two fitness coaches, and five regular coaches.

I added Brixton to the Southern Counties East League, swapping out Rusthall because they had the lowest Reputation (150). I’ve given Brixton a reputation of 1 (out of 10,000) to make things somewhat realistic.

I added 17 players to the database for Brixton but all of them are 15 or 16 years old to simulate a new beginning of players graduating from the Youth Academy.

As far as other playable leagues, I added Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I also added Belorussia so I could have a mid-March start in order to have enough time to find some slightly older players to act as mentors before the start of the season. So with a start date of 13 March 2017, it’s time to start the fun.

The Write Stuff
A note about my writing style: I’m a professional writer and editor. It’s hard work and taxes one’s brain agonizing over some of the smallest details. Sometimes I need to let my hair down and unwind. Therefore I’m not putting a lot of effort into editing, and I'm writing like I speak, all stream-of-conscious like. So if there is bad grammar, misspelled words, or weird sentence structures…well, I’m not gonna worry about it. :-) I hope it doesn’t detract from your experience.

[BrixtonFC]

First Update: Kids Are People Too

Let us meet the “Senior” team of Brixton’s first squad. These are the 17 players I mentioned earlier in the Game Setup section of the Introduction page.

GK

I added two goalkeepers as I wanted to make sure an injury to the best keeper doesn’t hamstring us.





Neither one is great and there is very little difference to the naked eye but my AssMan thinks Webb is currently better. At this point I have no idea which one will be better.

[BrixtonFC]

DR

I also added two right fullbacks.





Okay, so technically Peter Maguire isn’t a right fullback, he’s a centreback. But at only 178 cm I’m not too sure he’ll grow enough to ever be an effective central defender, even if he is only 14. (I’ll be keeping track of his growth to see how tall he gets. I want my DCs to be 182 cm tall at a bare minimum but 185 is the realistic bottom end.) Considering he has world class Acceleration (16 is considered world class in FM) and a 14 Pace, his future is only the wings, even if his Crossing is abysmal. He’s clearly better and I don’t need my AssMan to tell me that. (Can you believe his Stamina?!?)

Note: I capitalize certain FM terms to highlight that I’m referring to elements of the game.

[BrixtonFC]

DL

The real second DR is Kevin Parker whose Preferred Foot is Either so I’ll be working on getting his DL up to Natural.





Jefcoate is clearly the better player and I’m not even counting his 16 Pace. But of course Parker is going to get plenty of opportunities so he can be my utility fullback as at this level of the pyramid I will only be able to suit up 5 substitutes.

[BrixtonFC]

DC

I set up the database so I’d have one left-footed and one right-footed centreback. I didn’t set their heights so I’m glad both are tall for their ages.





I suppose they are alright for this level but Carroll’s Strength is a bit of concern.

[BrixtonFC]

DMC

I love playing with DMCs as I love the Regista role. FM2014 didn’t really institute the role well as it was the first year of its availability in the game; I’m hoping it’s instituted properly in FM2018.





Smith is my first choice and it has nothing to do with his tremendous height for a lad of only 15. He’s six-foot-five, for you Americans in the audience. If I can’t find some more centrebacks to relieve Spearing and Carroll then Smith can drop back and McAdam can fill his role.

I’ll be starting the season training the 4-4-2 formation with Standard mentality, which should get Smith ample time to get his MC up to Natural.

[BrixtonFC]

MC

I’ve got three MCs to choose from with Terry Barlow being the best option.







Barlow is the better MC so I’ll pair him with Smith in the 4-4-2, with Smith as the defensive-minded one and Barlow as the creator.

[BrixtonFC]

MR

I only have one right midfielder.



He’s not that good except his speed and Teamwork. I’ll look to find a better winger soon. I eventually will be using Wingers exclusively so I’ll start Pearson on improving his position there.

[BrixtonFC]

ML

Similarly, I only have one left midfielder.



Daniel is going to be around for quite a while. I’m sure he’ll get a new large contact in the future so he can get the duckets. (Anybody? Remember slang from ’87, ’88? Just me? Drat.)

[BrixtonFC]

ST

Finally, I have two strikers.





We’re in good shape with these two strikers. Obviously Ben is going to be an absolute beast this far down the pyramid and it’ll be a challenge to keep him. I imagine he’ll be gone before we make it to the Conference South, the sixth level of the pyramid. He’ll probably get unsettled by a lower-level Premier team and become extra pouty and start playing horribly. Hopefully not.

I plan on using Ben as a Target Man and I hope to bring in a captain who is also a striker and can mentor Ben, then Paul, to get their Determination higher.

[BrixtonFC]

Searching for a Captain and Vice Captain
I need a captain who is not only as a strong leader on the pitch but also a mentor. Initially I thought I would use one of the youths as a vice captain but quickly realized that might be foolish if the captain goes down to an injury for a lengthy amount of time.

While looking for that captain I ran across one of the funniest names I’ve ever seen in Football Manager: Chick Legg. Hahahaha. So much funny there. He’s a GK and I don’t need him so I don’t sign him though the temptation alone was almost enough.

I do find two good candidates for captains. Eddie Macey would be a great Advanced Forward but he wants at least £2,100 per week. The second candidate is a DC named Chris Day. He’d be better as our Vice and he would be cheap, at most £230 per week.

On 29 March I’ve still not found my captains but I did get notice of major clubs fixing to release youth players so I scout the hell out of them. Turns out all of them are either too expensive, most of them are in the £2,000 per week range, or have no desire to join us.

So on 2 April I offer a contract to Macey only to learn that my chief scout completely misjudged his wage demands. He asked for £900 p/w and I bumped it up to £1,000, and he signed immediately. Maybe the promise to make him Captain helped? Sadly, that Heading and Strength are going to be a major hindrance but he’ll be our chief penalty taker.



On 4 April I scout Chris Day again just to make sure I know everything I can about him. Like that he’s Inconsistent. :-( Whomp, whomp. I offered him a contract a week later and it took a week for him to make up his mind. The pleasure of his services will cost us £500 per week. That’s twice my scouts have been inaccurate on player wage demand assessments. I’ll have to keep an eye on this.

[BrixtonFC]

I made some more signings too. I picked up AMC Scott Thompson for some additional MC rotation but also I think I’ll eventually switch from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 so I’ll need someone who can play Shadow Striker.



On 21 April I offer a bunch of young players trial contracts. I got 17 to accept but 27 rejected. Oh well. One of the rejectors is Chick Legg. And after all the work I put into writing poultry jokes!

Staff
Four of our coaches are given an opportunity to better themselves by working on coaching licenses; the club will cover the costs. Coaching courses are how the game determines if a staff member will narrow the gap between the Current Ability and Potential Ability.
I also added three scouts. I’ll have one chief scout who scouts Next Opponent and the other three will cycle through England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. None of the scouts are particularly outstanding but what can you expect for a club with a Reputation of 1?
I added a Physio too as I somehow forgot to add one when building the database.

Finances
On 1 April I get an email saying that we have a new main kit sponsor. This company lucked out as it will only cost them a staggering amount of £4,700 per ANNUM. Another ramification of having a 1 Reputation. At this time I looked at some more financial matters and discovered that our average ticket price is only £2. I foresee financial follies ahead.

Pre-Pre-Season
I dump the trialists into the U23s and hold scrimmages on 24 and 27 April. The “Seniors” won the first match but lost the second.

One of the weird artefacts of starting the pre-season so early is that I had to have an End of Season Team Meeting on 28 April and decide when the real pre-season begins, which will be 26 June.

Before everyone headed out, I signed three of the trialists: DC Joe Clark, MR Robbie Jones, and ST Alex Rae. I’ll post their Player Cards at the start of the pre-season. After Rae signed, Macey came complaining to me that he was worried I was trying to replace him. Dude, I made you Captain. Is your ego really that fragile? Kids these days…

On 5 May I get an email noting that Joe Clark is now considered “home-grown.” That will matter at some point I guess. Oddly, while looking at his Player Card to see if he had a second nationality I notice that his “Place of Birth” is “Unknown.” What the deuce?!

Also comes news that we were granted a lower youth category, from 1 to 2. I set up the database to have our Youth Facilities at 20, Junior Coaching at 12, and Youth Recruitment at 12. I thought these values would put us straight into a lower youth category but I suppose the game uses just the Youth Facilities number. I’m quite glad because I don’t need to see our youngins smacked about the pitch by the likes of Liverpool and the Manchesters.

[BrixtonFC]

From the Funny Names File
One of the great things about Football Manager is the random name combinations. Like the aforementioned Chick Legg. And Dick Pring. :-D It did not sign him.



Scouting
I of course continue scouting, looking for some cheap, good players.
Case in point: Sam Martin, AM (L). I’ll get his M (L) up to Natural then work on AM (R) as he’s already Competent there. A bit slow and can’t really cross but he is cheap!



Dynamics
On 13 June I get an email notifying me that Eddie Macey has moved up a rung in the team Hierarchy to “Influential Player.” You’d hope your Team Captain was influential! Squad Dynamics is a new facet of Football Manager that I’ve not had to deal with before. I like it though, adds to the realism. Not so keen on the Social Groups part of it though. At this point all 24 players support me.

Season Expectations
I meet with the board on 16 June to discuss season expectations. I tell them I will win the league and they give me a transfer budget of £843,000 and a weekly wage of £12,420. We are currently spending £4,288 per week. I think we’ll be alright.

New Arrivals
DC Joe Clark, MR Robbie Jones, and ST Alex Rae arrive.
Clark isn’t much to write home about but he does provide depth at DC and DR, which I’ll try to get up to Natural.



Jones won’t supplant Pearson but he’ll get plenty of game time even though he’s short for a Stormtrooper. I mean, he’s slow for a Winger. I’ll get his AMR and ML up to Natural, hopefully.



I needed some ST depth still so I signed Rae. He’s not an outstanding striker but I think he’ll make a fine Target Man. Except for the Bravery. And Strength. Why did I sign him?!



World Cup 2022
Well this is certainly interesting (it came in on 30 June 2017). I guess crime doesn’t pay:



Friendlies
On 31 May I set up 11 Friendly matches against teams that are in leagues below us as I want to build confidence as well as fitness so I chose a bunch of patsies. I won’t be making the Chairman money but that’s not my concern yet.

[BrixtonFC]

The Boys Are Back In Town

The Youths of Brixton return in good shape, raring to go.

I continue to work the lads learning the 4-4-2 Standard formation but also add the 4-1-2-3 DM Wide Standard. (In FM14 this formation was called the 4-5-1. I don’t understand the name change but I don’t think it’s an FM thing, it’s a global football thing.)

Trial Day
When you are in the lower leagues you will get invitations to Trial Days. We got such and I sent our chief scout to pick over the squads on 14 July.

There are some tasty morsels in there so I had my AssMan scout some of the more luscious treats.

One of Trialists is Captain Slow but he has no desire to play for us. Much like everyone else.



Cup Draws
The football gods are kind to us as we draw a team from one level below us for the FA Cup, March Town United. I go to look at their roster and that’s when I realize why we’ve been having an easy walk through the pre-season; all their player are The Greys; fake players auto-generated by the program to fill in empty slots on teams. This goes back to when I set up the game and did not select the “Add Players to Teams” option. Well drat.

For the FA Trophy, we host AFC Mansfield, a team at the same level of the pyramid as us. However, they are predicted to finish 18th in their league (of 22 teams) so I’m confident of this match too.

For the Southern League Cup, we travel to fellow Southern Counties East League crew Cray Valley Paper Mills. A company team? That’s interesting! I know that Airbus have a team in Wales. Back in FM2014 I managed to poach two good players from them.

Our FA Vase opponent, Loxwood, will visit us and again they are from the same pyramid level as Brixton.

Pre-Season Matches
• 1 July vs. Chinnor: 5-0. Macey and O’Donnell score before I sub everyone at 60’. Spearing gets one and Taylor gets a brace. Good stuff.

• 4 July vs. Penn: 5-0. Paul Taylor is the maestro in this match setting up goals and making key passes but Duckie gets Player of the Match (POM) for 2 goals in 30 minutes of action.

• 7 July at Farleigh: 3-0. Carroll gets a goal off a corner just 3’ in. O’Donnell and Rae get goals too but we are inefficient, going 9 of 20 shots on target.

• 10 July vs. Letcombe: 3-0. Our strikers are really clicking with Taylor, Rae, and Macey all scoring. Smith has been excellent in all matches stealing several balls.

• 13 July at Rayners Lane: 2-0. Macey gets two goals, coming at 28’ and 60’ after the team generally looked lazy.

• 16 July at Sheerwater: 5-1. Our first 4-5-1 usage. First goal was 7’ in and the second at 63’ after I did a full outfield swap. Our opponents got their goal off a Spearing penalty. Three of our goals came from our MCs.

• 19 July vs. Woodstock: 6-0. Macey gets his hat trick in 31 minutes and Smith continues his mid-field dominance. We are a budding juggernaut. Surprisingly, the game was not played in mud.

• 22 July at South Park Reserves: 4-1. We went on down to South Park, had ourselves a time. There were not friendly faces everywhere, especially as we were silky smooth in moving the ball and only slightly less so shooting the ball. We finally allowed a goal from open play but I’m fine with it. (Apologies to Les Claypool, and Stan and Kyle and Cartman and Kenny.)

• 25 July vs. Wallingford: 13-0. What can I saw about this ass-whooping? Four goals from Taylor, 3 from O’Donnell, 2 from Macey, and 2 from Rae. We are ready for the real games.

• 28 July at FCD Galicia: 2-1. They actually score first on a B.S. penalty. The team is putrid, especially Duckett, and the second team finally scores at 82’ and 42 seconds into 2 minutes of extra time. Hubris is a bad, bad thing.

• 31 July vs. Tring Corinthians: 5-0. A good bounce-back with mostly everyone playing well.

Well that was a successful pre-season. Our tactical familiarity isn’t wonderful but I think we’ll be alright. Everyone is Match Fit or better. Aside from Joe Clark missing two matches from a gashed head he picked up in the Penn bout, we escape the pre-season relatively unscathed. I have 24 fine players and no real gaps to fill. I’m feeling confident about the season.

[BrixtonFC]

It’s time to kick off the season FOR REALZ! I’m very confident of winning the league and the Southern League Cup. (Maybe. If I read the info tab on it correctly, all the 58 teams are either at our level or one higher. Maybe that’s hubris but if the teams above us are also just a bunch of Greys…) We aren’t going to last long in the FA Cup. Or FA Trophy. FA Vase should be ours too as the teams are at or below the 9^th level of the English pyramid.

Let’s get to those games!

The first match that matters is an FA Cup meeting. I quickly realize that something is fishy. I’m allowed 12 subs. This is peculiar. I should only be allowed 7 for an FA Cup match. I wonder if the England Level 10 database creator upped the numbers for shits and giggles. I take this opportunity to check the league rules and they too allow for 12 subs. It seems that all the leagues at level 6 and above are setup correctly, thankfully.

FA Cup First Preliminary Round
vs. March Town United, 5 August 2017




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

We start fast with a goal at 2:04 after some lovely clearance play and fancy passing. I knew O’Donnell would be our first scorer due to his massive talent for this level. It takes him less than 2 minutes go get his brace, both assists are by Duckett. At 15’, a long kick from Carroll finds O’Donnell alone on the left flanks and as he charges towards the goal he spies an advancing Macey who polishes his run off with a hard shot into the lower left corner. A counter-attack after a set piece sees more lovely movement from the left side culminating in a lovely low Pearson cross to the feet of Macey and we’re up 4-0 before 25 minutes. Barlow takes us to five because March forgot he was sitting on the far side after a corner and nobody was close enough to prevent him from blasting a shot in. I then switch to Defensive and nothing happens until 88’ when a surprising long kick reaches sub Rae entering the box and as he drives to goal he feeds Macey for a hat trick. Game. Set. Match.

POM: Eddie Macey (3 goals, 1 key pass)




The Week Between
We draw Whitley Bay for the next round of the FA Cup. It’s a very good draw as we are at home and they are at the same level of the pyramid as us. Unlike March, they actually have players. We also have the FA Trophy draw and will be playing at Haverhill, also at the same pyramid level as us.

I got an email on 8 August from my Press Officer, letting me know that the bookmakers think we’re an absolute shoe-in to win the league at 1-5 odds. Nearest competitor is Chatham at 7-2 odds. I feel confident.

[BrixtonFC]

Next we have another cup match but unlike our first match, this one should just be the beginning of our run to a cup title.

FA Vase First Round
vs. Loxwood, 12 August 2017



Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day, Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell
Subs: Friend, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Parker, Jones, Thompson, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Rae

Again with the long passes! SI still can’t get their programming right. Short passing means short passing! But at least this time when Maguire sends forward from deep in our territory, O’Donnell out runs the defense and we’re up just after 6 minutes. Ten minutes later we are up two after another long pass, this time from Pearson to Macey and uncharacteristically he gets it past the GK after shooting it right at him. Just before in 71’ Thompson steals the ball, feeds it to Pearson, who sees a streaking O’Donnell. Ben takes the ball into the left side of the box and as the defense flocks to him, fresh sub Taylor is alone near the far post and gets a goal on his debut. Less than a minute later, another steal and some fancy passing leads to a brace for Taylor. I switch to Defensive and see the game out

POM: Steve Pearson (2 assists, 5 key passes, 2 chances created)



The Week Between
The Southern League Cup draw comes in and we’ll be heading to Braintree, a Conference South team. I think we’re boned. And the FA Vase Cup draw too, we host Chasetown who are a league above us. We might have a chance.

[BrixtonFC]

Before this match I get an email that says 700 of the 900 people expected to show up at Cray Valley are traveling Brixton fans. Interesting… It’s our first mid-week game and first away game. Their roster is old with 8 non-Grey players whose average age is almost 32. All this considered, I’m feeling confident in this one.

Southern League Cup First Round
At Cray Valley Paper Mills, 16 August 2017 (almost exactly 10 km almost exactly due east of Brockwell Park)



Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Parker, Jones, Cullen, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Rae
Subs: Friend, Day, Maguire, Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson, Donaldson, Smith, Duckett, Macey, O'Donnell

Well, our streak continues. Our streak of not scoring from a free kick! Not a single one even through pre-season. We had two wasted opportunities and its nada-nada at half. I Calmly tell the team I’m not happy and up the Tempo and switch to Attacking. Rae and Taylor have multiple opportunities but they botch them. And of course the wasted free kicks continue.

At 60’ I swap out some player, notably Taylor and Rae for Macey and O’Donnell. Or so I thought so. I brought in Duckett instead of Macey and he promptly crosses to Martin, who get’s his first goal of the season. I correct my error and send Duckett to MR. In the 78’ Cray-Cray get a free kick about 25 yards out and can’t convert so on the counter O’Donnell runs the ball down to the byline and sends a slow, low cross to the far corner for an easy Macey clean up. I switch us to Control and then Defensive at 80’. Ninety seconds into extra time we get some more O’Donnell cross to Macey to absolutely shut the door on Crazy Valley.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (2 assists, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)



History was made in this match. Because of Maguire’s appearance, he now holds the record for the youngest player ever in this cup at 15 years and 48 days. (Because no real records were brought over in the database, these are false histories really.)

FA Cup Second Preliminary Round
vs. Whitley Bay, 19 August 2017



Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day, Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell
Subs: Friend, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Parker, Jones, Thompson, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Rae

Despite having plenty of goals off corners in the pre-season, we’ve yet to score one this season. This trend continues today. Nothing much happens until 26’ when a lovely smooth attack begins from a throw-in deep in our territory. Jefcoate lobs it forward to O’Donnell, who dribbles almost to the 18-yard box and then sends in another low cross to the near post where Macey beats his man and sends in a low shot to the left. Our captain is awesome! Nothing really happens until just after 71’ when Whitley get a goal off a corner. I switch to Attacking and two and a half minutes later a right-side thrown in to Pearson gets booted ahead to Rae on a breakaway. His shot hits the crossbar and ricochets right to a trailing Macey who doesn’t miss. I quickly change things to Control to try to close the match out. There are some butt-clenching moments especially when Macey fouls a guy in our end with 10 second left in extra time but the ensuing kick gets booted up-field and we win our first close match.

POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals)



I took another look at finances before and after the match. Seems that the fans are spending around £9 on the concessions; we’re making £11 when you add in the ticket prices. That is not sustainable. Prices better go up next season significantly. I guess this is what I get for setting Reputation to 1.

The Week Between
It’s FA Cup First Qualifying Round draw time! We get to host Tonbridge, who are two leagues above us and predicted to finish 7th out of 24 teams. Hopefully we don’t let them play like we did Whitley Bay.

[BrixtonFC]

At this stage of the save I finally get my first prediction of future potential other than “A Lot”. Rae is predicted to be good enough for Conference South, the sixth level of the FA pyramid. I think he’ll be better but if by the time we get to Conference South his Pace is 11 or lower I’ll jettison him. Maybe I’ll keep him longer if he can get his Jumping Reach and Strength up to be a good Target Man.

(Pennington’s Judge Player Ability and Judge Player Potential are 13 (out of 20), hence my reluctance to fully believe him.)



For our Mansfield match I do some rotation to a) get Parker experience at DL, and b) Friend has yet to start a match.

FA Trophy First Round
vs. AFC Mansfield, 23 August 2017



Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Friend, Maguire, Day, Carroll, Parker, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell
Subs: Webb, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Jefcoate, Jones, Cullen, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Rae

O’Donnell has a chance to put us in the lead at 14 seconds but his header goes wide. That would have been epic. Twelve minutes later he redeems himself as he and Duckett combine on a breakaway. Four minutes later Mansfield ties it up with a beautiful header off a lovely cross. Damnit. The scorer out-jumped Day, which is not a good sign. I swear the crosser’s name was Duffus. (rofl) At 31’ Pearson lobs a long-ball to Macey who is one-on-one with the keeper and manages not to screw things up. Phew! At 40’ Duckett sends in a prayer from the left corner that flies over everyone, but as it was a sky-high lob it gave Pearson enough time to fly in and get his second goal of the season. (Some luck was involved because Pearson crossed the field to Duckett and Doofus had a chance to head it but missed.)

My half-time speech is met with mixed review as I told the team to not be complacent and Duckett and O’Donnell give me the red thumbs down. Luckily six players including our captains respond positively so hopefully they don’t screw the pooch. I switch to Control and make the necessary adjustments. In the 68’ Cullen sends in a free kick way to the left almost at the byline. In the resulting melee the ball finds Jones near the top of the arc and he sends in a high, fast ball and the game is ours. Two minutes later another free kick from Cullen, this time from the right mid-area. It goes to the far post where Jones sends a header to the post but gets a rebound for an even tighter shot that goes in. I switch us to Defensive but in 86’ Parker hoofs it forward from deep to Taylor who waltzes on in for an easy goal.

POM: Eddie Macey (1 goal, 2 key passes)



The Days Between
For the Second Round we travel to Haverhill Rovers who are at the same pyramid level as Brixton and are predicted to finish 20th (of 23 clubs) in their league.
First league match today! Let’s go Guns of Brixton!

Southern Counties East
At Hollands & Blair, 26 August 2017



Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day, Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson, Barlow, Smith, Duckett, Macey, O’Donnell
Subs: Friend, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Parker, Jones, Donaldson, McAdam, Martin, Taylor, Rae

I actually manage to get a reaction from the squad from a pre-match pep-talk. About freakin’ time! Smith continues to be a dominant force and steals the ball at 6:00 just in front of our area. He boots it forward to a streaking O’Donnell who is alone, he rounds the keeper and our league campaign is off to a flying start. Just over three minutes later, history repeats but this time it’s Pearson and Macey, and Macey nutmegs the goalie. Just before half Jefcoate sends in a cross to the near post and Macey scoots past their DR to get us a trio.

Smith is hella tired so I pull him at half for McAdam. At 56’ Macey gets his hat trick with a power shot from the top of the arc. I bring in Spearing and Donaldson immediately thereafter to get them some Sharpness. At 65’ I take off Maguire and Macey for Johnstone and Rae. However, before the changes take effect we move the ball up the field methodically and Macey heads over to the right corner, sends in a low cross to the near post, and O’Donnell back-heels the ball in from a tight angle. Amazing! Should be the goal of the month. A few minutes later O’Donnell get his hat trick from a cross from Rae. Though I don’t like to take advantage of the 12 subs rule, I do bring Benny off for Taylor, and swap Rae to the left side. In the 79’ their left DC gets his second yellow; I maintain the Defensive game play. Needless to say, at a +6 Goal Differential, we are top of the league. Correction. Three teams have played two games already and won both. So we are “6th” for now.

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

[BrixtonFC]

The Days Between
I gotta figure out a way to make it not so easy to win. And I think it’s time to introduce a new formation. We’re starting to really click in the 4-4-2 Standard.



So I switched things up, adding the 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 Wide or as I call it, Spade. As part of this, to have my best players on the pitch, I’ve started training Ben O’Donnell on learning AMC, focusing on the Shadow Striker role.



Southern Counties East
vs. Erith Town, 30 August 2017



Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day, Carroll, Jefcoate, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O’Donnell, Duckett, Macey
Subs: Friend, Johnstone, Clark, Spearing, Parker, Thompson, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae

It takes a while for the lads to settle in to the Spade but I’m not too concerned. At 34’ Erith get a free kick but mishandle the ball and O’Donnell steals it, sending it forward to Macey who dribbles it all the way to the byline to the left of the goal. His cross is errant but Pearson tracks it down and sends it to O’Donnell to the right of the penalty spot and his aim is true. Not three minutes later O’Donnell steals another ball which eventually ends up with Pearson on the far right flank. His cross meets Macey’s head just a few yards out and we’re up 2-0

At half I sub out Jefcoate not because he has a yellow, though that doesn’t help, but he’s a bit knackered. I also sub out Carroll because Clark is in serious need of match fitness. O’Donnell scores again at 56’ off some more great winger play, this time courtesy of Parker. Duckett and Pearson combine to take us to 4-0 just before 60’. I then make a giant sub fest with all five mid-fielders coming out. That doesn’t lessen our dangerousness though as we flood the box on a counter culminating with Jones sending a cross to the goalie who fails to handle the ball, letting it fall to a defender-less Taylor who blasts one in. At 70’ I swap out the rest of the outfield players and switch up to Defensive. But in the aftermath of a corner Clark feeds Jones who hits a long shot that had no right to go in but it does.
I’m disappointed that our home opener only drew 945 fans. But it was enough to make us £5,094 so I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much.

POM: Steve Pearson (1 goal, 2 assists, 3 key passes)



The Days Between
Just before the end of the month the report for Tonbridge comes in. They have a lot of good players, some as good as us. We might not win that match. The board expects me to make it to the Second Qualifying Round for the FA Cup and I might fail.

In Summary
We are off to an amazing start of the season! We’ve outscored our opponents 33-2 and have yet to concede a goal in league play. The easy lesson is that setting up the database to have 17 youths with high Potential Ability (PA) and great Youth Facilities is overkill. When setting up a database you can set a player to have a PA between 1 and 200. If you set it to 0 then the PA is random but confined by certain parameter related to your club (Reputation, League, Facilities, Coaching, etc.) You can also give them a value from -1 to -10 which will keep the randomness of the PA within certain ranges. -10 is the best and the PA will be between 170 and 200. Well, I did not give myself any players that good but I have all of them at -5 or better. Overkill. Lesson learned.

I think we’ll have a fine campaign so long as we don’t get hit by any major injury bugs. Also we’ll have to make it through the January transfer window. None of our players drew any interest in the August window. I’ve seen some indications that the game plays differently when you have four additional levels in England and I believe that means none of my players will draw interest from the top three levels of the pyramid as the game won’t have the top teams looking that low.

Stay tuned!