First time I've ever been in a relegation fight

I'm playing a save in FM10, and just took Bath City from the BSS to the Premier League in 6 seasons. It was pretty smooth sailing the whole way up, but now that I'm in the Prem, it's a whole different story. I've never ever been involved in a relegation fight in all of my FM time - my worst finish previously was 8th in my first season with Sunderland earlier in this save. I don't need any advice on how to stay up, that's simple enough: sign better players, try to snatch away draws, and beat the teams around you in the table. What I'm having an awful time with is losing so frequently. My players keep making comical errors to allow goals, and it's the most frustrating thing ever. So, those that this applies to, how did you deal with your relegation battle without going mental?

just try and not get their hopes up as their morale will drop even lower. I know what it's like to be in a dogfight to stay in your current position :'(.

I'm playing a save in FM10, and just took Bath City from the BSS to the Premier League in 6 seasons. It was pretty smooth sailing the whole way up, but now that I'm in the Prem, it's a whole different story. I've never ever been involved in a relegation fight in all of my FM time - my worst finish previously was 8th in my first season with Sunderland earlier in this save. I don't need any advice on how to stay up, that's simple enough: sign better players, try to snatch away draws, and beat the teams around you in the table. What I'm having an awful time with is losing so frequently. My players keep making comical errors to allow goals, and it's the most frustrating thing ever. So, those that this applies to, how did you deal with your relegation battle without going mental?

Losing is part of life, football & FM.

You should be able to accept defeat and try and do better in the next match.

How do you deal with the comedy? In my case, switching to commentary only and maximum match speed if it's obvious that you're going to get beat helps preserve sanity. Just don't watch the replays then!!!

I'd agree that too many goals are comical. My recent favourite was my right back, who was marking the left winger. A long ball is played across field to the winger, and as the ball is about halfway to its destination, my full back decides to race upfield. The winger continues running forward as well, resulting in the winger having around 15 yards on the full back as he suddenly does an about turn the moment the ball touches the winger. Daft doesn't begin to describe the defending - it's obviously a glitch. It's much easier to deal with losing a match if it's not down to the ME hiccuping and players going AWOL for no reason (well there's probably a reason, but it just looks farcical the way it's presented).

Every now and then, the goals are so insane you just have to rage quit though. Like against Peterborough recently - conceded one of those goals caused by a defender standing and staring at the ball 2 yards in front of them for 5 seconds (I exaggerate) until an opposing player runs up and past the defender (at this point the defender looks like he's got whooping cough or something), picks up the ball and scores the 1-on-1. That absolutely irritates me because it's - well it's a bug, that's what it is; the defender made no attempt to actually get to the ball for several seconds (not an exaggeration) despite it being at his feet - it's like they get hung up in some loop or something. Yet I had no problem when I eventually lost the same match 4-1 to a far superior Peterborough upon reloading.

Basically, the less of the match you watch, the less it irritates you, but the less involved you feel. If you just let the match play while cooking in the kitchen and come back at half time to find you're 1-0 down, you just shrug and keep playing, because you didn't see the shambles of a goal.

Another good option is to post threads on here ranting and raving about how crap everything is But seriously, I do hope the match engine keeps on improving and the number of incidents of this type are reduced. It's a lot better than it used to be, but there's still too many players stuck in loops instead of reacting to the game as it changes. I'm assuming it's the match engine's way of showing you that a player has bottled it, but they could show players bottling it without them looking like they're re-enacting Germany vs Greece (this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1KfRX06kA).