[FM12] - The long and winding road...

This is my first post in this part of the forums, and will hopefully be the first of many. I've been playing the CM/FM series since way back in 1997 and have had many different games with many different clubs, with some great memories along the way - winning my the '97 League Cup with Liverpool (my first ever trophy) taking Gravesend to Champions League glory and losing the CL Final with Watford despite being 1-0 up in the 119th minute to name but a few.

Most of my games are exclusively with Premier League teams (outside of the top four) or Conference N/S teams with the aim of taking them to the Premiership. I very rarely manage outside of England but, with the option to add and remove leagues on FM12, I can see myself doing this as and when I feel like it.

I see that most people give themselves set goals or targets but I don't really have any - just to enjoy the game and get to grips with FM's new features. Obviously, I'd like to win things but that's down to me I guess.

With that - brief yet necessary - introduction it's down to business.

I've opted to go with the following leagues, as is usually the case when I start a new game. As I said earlier, I pretty much stick to England but like to have others loaded just incase.

And this is my starting profile.

Sunday League footballer and a Lincoln fan - just like in real life. Will say now though that I do have immediate plans for the future...I want a job. Watch this space...!

Sounds like a good game you could have going on. Good luck in your career .

Good luck dude

*Many thanks SRL88, Deisler26!*

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And so it was a waiting game. I wanted to start my career in England but, right off the bat, there were no jobs available. Makes sense - what with it being the start of the season and all. So, like I said, a waiting game. A few managers were put under pressure and 'threatened' that they might lose their jobs if they didn't improve.

Then, on October 8th 2011, came this...

The opportunity looked like it might have arrived...after all, it couldn't hurt to apply. I sent my application off and, five days later, got the response I was looking for. An offer which I accepted. A one-year contact on just short of £600 p/w. Contracted until the end of the season works fine for me. Puts me under enough pressure to perform for the team in order to earn a new contract. I take over the Blue Square South club with the table looking like this...

So it came to assessing the squad. With just two members of backroom staff (one of whom is a physio) second opinion isn't much to go on. My assistant manager rates the squad as follows, with the three stand out players being Newton, Sole and Hammond.

Looks like a got a tough ask with the current crop but I'll do my best in order to, first, find a bit of consistency in the results and then see where we can go from there. First up is a trip to high-flying Salisbury City in the FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round. Could do with winning that as we all know that a cup run can be vital for a team of this size. Finances aren't too bad, with £78K in the bank. We are, however, a couple of hundred over the wage budget and that's something I'll look to rectify as soon as I can.

Here we go then..

Good luck with this, very informative posts

Cup runs can be fantastic at lower league for boosting finances.

Good luck at Woking

Other then your keeper,you seem to have a good squad.Hope you can improve their morale and rise up the table

Now, to start rising up.

Nice place to start. Good luck with Woking.

*Dejay - cups runs can indeed be fantastic at this level. Having managed at this level many a time before I find that a good cup run can, more often than not, lead to a real promotion push either in the same season or the season after*

*B.W.G - Correct, the squad in itself is decent, although I brought in some of my own additions as you will notice from the following post*

*deltablue, SRL88 - Many thanks!*

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Mid-Season Report

So, as you may have seen in my previous post, the squad report (aside from the goalkeepers) wasn't too bad. Having reviewed the squad myself however, I set about finding my own recruits in order to further improve or strengthen. Below are the stats for the best 8 players I brought in, all recommended by my the two scouts I hired. I now have a decent goalkeeper in Brain and a very strong back line with Camano, Khalis and Cruise all bound to be stars at this level. They weren't all brought in immediately but are now all in board in order us to push from January onwards.

With these players coming in, others had to leave and I set about getting rid of the players who were either a) simply not good enough to get in the squad or b) knocked down the pecking order by the better quality of player coming in. Again, this was done over time rather than in one go so some did see a few games before they were culled.

Speaking of games, I started out with a couple of cup ties (after a draw in the first one) which unfortunately led to a very early exit from the FA Cup, meaning no potentially money-spinning run, which is something that can help greatly as a club at this level. It was the same story in the FA Trophy (athough the 4-0 defeat to lowly Horsham was a disgrace, espcially considering our good league form at the time.

In terms of the league, things couldn't really have gone much better. It turns out Woking were being predicted to finish first at the start of the season (quite probably the reason for the previous manager's sacking) so I had a lot of work to do to make my way back up the table. I've gone for a very standard 4-4-2 formation, with a very direct and aggressive nature. It has seen some good results - 6 wins, 2 draw and just the 1 loss with just over half those games ending in clean sheets for ourselves as well. Goals have come from all over with Hammond and Newton the main contributors.

When I arrived at the club we sat way down in the table, ten points off the playoffs, but if we win our game in hand against fierce rivals Farnborough (postponed and rearranged due to a frozen pitch just before the turn of the year) then we can actually propel ourselves in to a playoff spot. We may be out of both cups but a concerted effort in the second half of the season could see the promotion push the board and fans are clearly looking for.

That all being said...roll on 2012!

doing welll keep it up

Sorted the keeper weak spot out then.

Not a bad start!

I had Jonny Brian in my save - he was adequate for me in the one season he was starter, hows he doing for you?