Greatest Strokes of Luck ...

What have been your greatest strokes of luck during your time playing Football Manager?

Mine has to be on Championship Manager, actually, on CM4, when I was Liverpool. Steven Gerrard was about to sign for Lazio on a free transfer, when he picked up shin splints and was out for 18months or so. Although this was bad, it meant he failed his medical, and decided to sign a new contract with us.

So, what are your stories? Fortuitous own goals in Champions League finals? Injuries to opposition key players?

Under certain circumnstances, what you call "lucky" could be described as extremely UNlucky

My bit of luck came yesterday

http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=5126267&postcount=811

2nd leg of the league cup (1-0 to me 1st leg) and i'm playing arsenal at home,in the 1st half i get 3 injuries,one been my keeper,with no keepers on the bench i was force to put tom huddlestone in goal,i fully expected to get battered,but huddlestone did the job and we went through to the next round.

Screenies in link.

needed a point to guarantee to stay in the irish premier division with waterford united. played bohs in the final game and lost 2-1. got a penalty in injury time. longford, who were behind us in the league were playing cork and lost 2-0. i ended staying up on a goal difference of 1. would have gone down if it hadnt been for the penalty

needed a point to guarantee to stay in the irish premier division with waterford united. played bohs in the final game and lost 2-1. got a penalty in injury time. longford, who were behind us in the league were playing cork and lost 2-0. i ended staying up on a goal difference of 1. would have gone down if it hadnt been for the penalty

wow that was lucky there mate.

needed a point away at Roma to win Serie A against all the odds with Atalanta. I was getting completely outclassed, they hit the woodwork 3 times and missed an injury time penalty but I held on for 0-0! And the way the other results went meant had I conceded would have finished 3rd.

Once managed to stay in the prem league with Cambridge on goal difference at the expense of spurs (that was on FM09 I think), I lost 1-0, they lost 2-0 and went down having scored less goals.

On the unlucky side, again with Cambridge, lost a 122nd min goal in the conference play off final against mansfield. Even more annoying is I blew a ten point lead!!!

I needed 2 goals to break the league's goal record and was losing 2-1. In the last minute my striker scored an offside goal:D

It cost my opponents a shot at the play offs. The people who got into it won the play offs:D

Well i can`t actually remember anything like you guys have got.

scored in last min of extra time to get to champs league final then lost the final haha so luck and bad luck

when playing juventus in the CL 1/4 final (with rangers), after a 1-1 draw at home i needed to score, they went 2-0 up but i pulled one back and then a mistake by the DC passing back to the keeper who was miles off his line towards the corner flag, fleck popped up to score in an open goal and I went through!

This was back on CM. I was managing the Welsh International team in the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers. I needed a point from the final game to end up in 2nd place in the group, only problem was that I was playing number 1, Italy in that game at the Millennium Stadium. They scored early on and then went on to park the bus as it seems Italians are wont to do. Essentially we were allowed to play the ball around, but not get close to goal and every cross or shot was deflected straight back to us, after which we were allowed to play with it a bit more, without ever getting dangerous.

As all seemed lost in the 88th minute Jason Koumas took control of the ball in the centre circle after a Robbie Savage tackle. He ran forward with the ball towards the right flank, looking for an opportunity to pass the ball to Simon Davies who was surging forward along the line. However two Italians doubled up on Davies and with Gattuso quickly closing in on him, Koumas took the ball forward another meter or two and attempted a curling 35 meter shot. For the longest time the ball seemed to go wide of the goal, but at the end of it's long trajectory it swerved inside the goal posts where Buffon could only manage to deflect it onto the post and into goal.

1-1 and we were ready to go to a play-off for a World Cup spot, courtesy of a stroke of luck or a piece of genius depending on how you look at it. At the World Cup the team managed to go all the way to the semi-finals before being dismantled by Brazil in a 5-1 trouncing, which was pretty well done all things considered.

Montserrat winning the world cup on my game:eek:

I was manager of Nigeria in FM08, in the world cup semi finals losing 2 - 0 with 15 minutes to go, decided to go all out attack and put another two strikers on, fiddled with the tactics a bit and I ended up winning 3 - 2 and went on to win the world cup.

The luck of this? Penalties. All 3 goals were penalties, although I'd like to think that my tactics resulted in them having to kick crap out of my players in the box

I won the League Cup with Oxford when I was in League one on FM07. Got hammered against Man Utd in the quarter finals but got through when I scored on my only chance of the game 2 min from time.

Then got Preston in the semi's. Lucky draw since they were playing in the Championship at the time. actually both legs where quite even but I got lucky when I got a penalty that never should have been given.

I then get Tottenham in the final. Once again got a battering, but when they can't score it goes to penalties. And even though I miss my first two pens I still manage to win it 4-3. (Thank god Totteham couldn't put theirs away either!)

It's not only my luckiest games off all time, but it's also my greates achievement in FM ever!