FM12: Dorchester Town FC "The Magpies of Casterbridge"

DORCHESTER TOWN FC

Welcome to the FM12 thread for Dorchester Town FC.

The club's current badge is circular, with the words 'Dorchester Town F.C.' and 'The Magpies' on a white outer rim, in black text. The central area contains two magpies on a brown branch in front of a sky blue background. Above them is a design based upon the town's Coat of arms, a purple circle containing a castle, upon which is a shield.

The club have a long tradition of playing in black and white striped shirts with black shorts and socks at home. For the 2005–06 season, to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary the home club sported a black and white quartered shirt, similar to the original strip the club was founded in. The away kit is currently all yellow, the clubs traditional third colour; but has in the past been sky blue, white and red kits.

Brief history:

Founded in 1880, Dorchester Town Football Club were Dorset Senior Cup finalists in 1888 and 1890 before joining the Dorset League in 1896. Despite being founder members of the league, the club had little success before winning the championship in 1937/38 with a 2-0 victory at Sherborne on 25th April 1938.

The club joined the Western League in 1947, winning promotion from Division Two in 1950, and going on to take the league championship in 1954/55. The fifties proved to be a successful decade for the Magpies, winning the Dorset Senior Cup for the first time, and having a number of good runs in the FA Cup facing the likes of Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers, Port Vale and Plymouth Argyle. In 1954, Dorchester reached the 2nd Round before eventually losing out to York City in front of 5,500 fans at the old Avenue ground, in a season where York went on to reach the semi-finals.

Following four more victories in the Dorset Senior Cup, the club entered the Southern League (Division One South) in 1972. They first tasted success in this division when they finished runners-up to Margate in 1977/78, going unbeaten in the final 16 matches of the season, with manager David Best utilising his links with old club AFC Bournemouth to attract former first-teamers such as John O'Rourke, Jack Howarth and Harry Redknapp to the Avenue.

The formation of the Alliance League (now the Football Conference) unfortunately meant the Magpies ended up back in the reformed Southern Division a year later, but the club celebrated its centenary by winning the Southern Division in 1979/80 by a one point margin over Aylesbury. Stuart Bell succeeded David Best as manager during the season, and the Magpies went unbeaten in the last 14 games to clinch the title. A young Trevor Senior impressed alongside ever-present top scorer Paul Thorne, whilst Graham Roberts joined neighbours Weymouth early in the campaign for £6,000 before going on to star for Tottenham Hotspur and England.

Senior stayed with Dorchester for a further two seasons, before signing for Portsmouth during the 1981/82 season for £35,000, going on to play for Watford, Middlesbrough and Reading, where he broke the Berkshire club's all-time goalscoring record. Before leaving the Magpies, Senior helped the club reach the 2nd Round of the FA Cup again before losing out to AFC Bournemouth in a replay at Dean Court in front of a crowd of 8,700. A goal four minutes from the end of extra time was enough to end Dorchester's dreams of a place in the third round - a feat they have still yet to achieve.

Relegated at the end of the 1983/84 season following a severe financial crisis, the club only just avoided dropping out of the league altogether the following year. However, a remarkable turnaround followed, and Dorchester returned to the Premier Division as champions at the end of the 1986/87 season, taking the title following a goalless draw at runners-up Ashford on the final day of the season.

The return to the top southern division has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Dorchester fans. Having been a mid-table team for a number of years, a brush with relegation came at the start of the nineties, and Stuart Morgan was introduced as manager in 1993. In his first full season, Morgan took the club to sixth in the league, followed by the sale of Darren Garner to Rotherham United for £30,000 during the summer.

The following seasons were a mixture of highs-and-lows, flirting with relegation on a number of occasions, facing Oxford United in the 1st Round of the FA Cup, reaching the last 16 of the FA Trophy for only the second time, and finishing fourth in the Premier Division in 1997/98.

Unfortunately in the following seasons, the Magpies were unable to rekindle the same form, and following a number of close-shaves at the wrong end of the table, the club were relegated to the Eastern Division at the end of the 2000/01 season, despite a strong FA Cup run culminating in a 3-1 First Round defeat at Wigan Athletic's impressive 25,000 all-seater JJB Stadium.

Under the guidance of manager Mark Morris, Dorchester's young squad regained their Premier Division status within two years, defeating King's Lynn on the final day of the 2002/03 season to take the Eastern Division title ahead of Eastbourne Borough, having won 16 of their last 17 matches and scoring 114 goals in their 42 league games. A season earlier the Magpies had picked up the Southern League Cup for the first time, again defeating King's Lynn in a 4-0 aggregate victory in the final.

The first season back in the Premier Division was a difficult one but the club succeeded to reach the end-of-season play-offs, where two fine victories over Bath City and Tiverton Town saw Dorchester become a Conference club for the first time in the newly formed Conference South division. A season later the Magpies almost saw further play-off glory, but missed out on another promotion opportunity on the final day of the season, going down 7-3 at Bognor Regis Town.

A mid-table finish the following year ended with the resignation of Mark Morris - arguably the club's most successful manager in recent history - with Mick Jenkins taking charge of the first team. His reign, however, was short-lived. Despite the club's tenth success in the Dorset Senior Cup, the team narrowly avoided relegation by finishing 17th in the league, and Jenkins was sacked just a month later in the wake of Eddie Mitchell taking over the ownership of the club.

Mitchell's arrival at the helm saw former Dorchester midfielder Shaun Brooks installed as Director of Football, and the club announced it would be making the step up to full-time football ready for the 2007/08 season.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Avenue Stadium is located near to a branch of Tesco on the outskirts of Dorchester. Opened in 1990, it consists of one main stand, which is all-seated, and three small banks of terracing, which is all-standing. A railway line runs along the back of the stadium. Whilst the capacity of the stadium is 5,009, Dorchester tend to attract crowds of around 500–600. Although, during the 1990s the club regularly achieved 900/1000 strong attendances. The local derby against rivals Weymouth tends to attract crowds much nearer capacity. Indeed, the record attendance at the Avenue Stadium came in the 1999 derby, in front of a crowd of 4,159.

Dorchester Town FC in FM12:

**The Club is now structured on Semi-Professional basis.............**

Eddie Mitchell has gone down the road to AFC Bournemouth.....

[video=youtube;4rI1BAFVYHw]

"Mankini-Gate" has come and gone.......................................

[video=youtube;aOd8Su40H0M]

Weymouth have imploded.......................................... ..........

The rest is up to you............................................... .............

PS. Can fans of the club please be aware I am not especially a fan of Dorchester, but am relatively local and have had many recent associations with the town. So all my input relates to Dorchester FM12 not Dorchester FC IRL. And it looks like an interesting project.

THE PLAN:

Blue Square Regional - for me there can only be one plan......

Mission Statement: "To meet, and to try to improve upon, expectations (Board and Fans), and to protect the Club financially for the future"

If you have ever been to Dorchester (or even browse for any aerial view) you will see that Dorchester is relatively isolated, accessible mostly by typically straight (so of Roman origin) roads. In theory in footballing terms Dorchester are unlikey to break through a glass ceiling that will probably be no higher than the "Obscure" reputation rating that you start with - but isn't breaking accepted conventions part of the fun in life?

With "OK" finances and a modern-ish stadium that is rarely more than 10% full this going to be a rustic ride....

CLUB OVERVIEW:

The Staff (as inheritted):

The Squad (as inherrited)

What you see is what you get. The rest further down the list are not worth considering at this stage, but any with good prospects will be retained.

Dorchester? Up the Terras!

MUPPET MANAGEMENT:

Whilst I admire wwfan and all who made sense of sliders & slider theory, tweaking complex interlinked "controllers" is not for me. A couple of years ago I developed the basic Muppet Management ethos, it suits my way of playing the game:

*Trust your Assistant Manager, Coaches & Scouts, whoever they are - but always try to get the best you can afford.

This applies to player recruitment (though I will sometimes go with instinct though that is rare), pre-match/in-match tactical adjustments and training (don't understand it so leave it to defaults until enlightenment strikes!)

*Always talk football.

Use tactical tools (shouts, Opposition Instructions etc), based upon Assistant Manager feedback, to communicate with players. I only ever use Custom/Advanced old style slidere tweaking to adjust Target Man / Playmaker settings or (and this is very rare) to adjust a single slider by 1 or 2 points where I feel I need a unilateral adjustment because all other "tools" seem to be failing me.

TACTICAL PLAN:

Whilst it is accepted that there are no "blanket" tactics that can assure an enhanced end product and that tactics should be fully tailored to the club, the playing staff, the Manager's personal "style" and also the "current situation", I do believe that a few relatively diverse but consistant in key area tactics are the way to go. Consequently my back 4 will hardly change in any respect (including roles & duties) except maybe in-match as a response to an issue of some tactical concern. After much deliberation I now use 3 key tactics as detailed below - you should do as you believe. These tactics are Tactic Creator constructed with default settings everywhere except noted otherwise. Except in the instance noted below formational flexibility is sacrificed on the alter of Roles, Duties, Team Mentalities & Shouts. These I prefer to use to mix things up or capitalise on situations.

Tactic A - 4-1-3-2 Assymetric "Wingless Oneders"

Where used? - Where there is no clear favourite (the "default" tactic). Actually, by tweaking "Shouts" and adjusting Team Mentality to suit this tactic should cover most matches & most match situations, however there are 2 alternatives.....

The Winger can play either side depending on which Winger is selected at the time and his playing preferences, and depending on the match situation (exploiting a weak opponent flank etc), clearly if the AML is to be dragged across to AMR then the MCR is to be dragged across to MCL to keep symetrical strength & rigidity.

NB. It should be noted that the Winger can be dropped back to be the Wide Midfielder giving this tactic a little formational flexibility.

Tactic B - 4-5-1 "Mourinho"

Where used? - Where favourite and needing to attack and/or create - as an alternative to "Wingless Oneders".

Tactic C - 4-2-1-2-1 "Roman Orgy of Destruction (feat. Playbreaker)"

Where used?- Where playing as underdog to any degree and needing to defend and/or break up the play - as an alternative to "Wingless Oneders".

The "Playbreaker", the true DM in the squad who opperates slightly advanced of the Anchor Man, should be given instructions to Man Mark and nulify the key opposition player. Clearly the Anchor/DM need to swap over their DMC position if the opponent to be man marked is playing on the other side of the pitch, to keep sensible positional rigidity.

Role/Duty Note:

You may note that for the 451/42121 tactics I have adjusted the Roles/Duties to suit my exact preferred general starting set up (which is always dependent upon the player abilities). My preferences through any tactics are generally:

2 x DC's = Cover/Stopper

2 x Full Backs = Wing Backs (*requires a DMC to cover - essential!)

2 x MC = Ball winning Midfielder/AN Other to suit

Wingers= Inside Forward (I prefer a narrow 3 man spearhead to the attack)

2 x SC = Advanced Forward or Poacher/Deep Lying Forward or Target Man(very flexible to suit abilities but should have staggered shape)

SET PIECES:

There is always a lot of talk in the forums about set piece expolits.Rather than get in a rut about it I believe in using real life logical routines flavoured by what seems to work best in the FM world. For example, in real life at Blue Square Regional levels for attacking corners I would aim to edge of 6 yard box or a little deeper, have my full backs staying back and everyone else would be a cavalry charge (attack ball from deep). I have never found this to wok too well in Football manager, and maybe it would fail in real life but as a plan it would seem worth a try. However, for the sake of this Team thread more logical proven set ups will be used initially.

It should be noted that default settings will be used fully for any set piece set up (attacking or defending) if not detailed below.

Attacking Corners:

Defending Corners:

Attacking Free Kicks:

Defending Free Kicks:

The above are shown in relation to the 4-1-3-2 Assymetric "Wingless Oneders", allocating instructions for the 4-5-1 "Mourinho" and 4-2-1-2-1 "Roman Orgy of Destruction (feat. Playbreaker) is self explanitory. The key is keeping the same total number of players with the instructions shown, players with a paticular position in a formation generally have the same instructions throughout, a caveat here being that in the latter the "Playbreaker" may have the "Man Mark"detail so he can literally follow his man everywhere as he is set to in open play. Again, the instructions can be switched around a bit to suit the player abilities (eg. Strongest player=challenge Keeper, shortest attacking player=stand on far post).

FINANCES, FRIENDLIES AND REMOVING DEADWOOD:

These 3 factors are all very important to this save game so I shall address them together.

Finances:

Depending on many factors beyond your control you may be able to spend beyond your means and not suffer - the Board will bail you out. However I have been sacked once too often from a much loved save game to take that risk. So always try to improve your finances, never go into the red without a fast acting escape route. This leads into......

Friendlies:

How to stay in the black? Either dont spend, spend wisely and frugally or be creative. Creativity for me is arranging money spinning friendlies as often as needed to keep finances in check. You can earn £12K net easily from some friendlies, this makes a huge difference, especially if done regularly. This leads into.....

Removing the Deadwood:

Assess those Coach reports on everyone. Most reserves and nearly all Youths will be not worth keeping. They may only be on £5 per week, paying them up to leave may cost £500 but its worth it. Nobody in your squad should be significantly poor, and the Juniors (who will innevitable be poor now) must have the potential to play in the future. Otherwise its the highroad (in this case the A35) for them! This will cost a lot of money though so balance this with money spinning friendlies, aim to break even overall as soon as possible. This leads to.....

So many friendlies - so few players:

Not so. Again I will say trial everyone! It is a short cut to scouting a player effectively. A squad with 20-30 trialists can play a friendly every day if necessary without the first teamers having to leave the haven of their "Cribs". They need to save their energy for important encounters.

RECRUITMENT AND THE "WHICH? TRIALS".

Simply, with little money and a disappointing squad you can only aim to improve the squad on a restricted budget. But at Blue Square levels this not so hard. There are A LOT of players out there, unemployed and a lot better than those you have. Recruiting them is the tricky bit. Finding them can be hit or mis but here is a plan for an acceptable level of "hits".

*Use your scouts (send on regular assignments where possible and if they have a proposed player better than what you have then re-scout them, trial them or even just sign them. Must watch the pennies though.

*Scout by position (run searches for positional key attribute filters). I would trial anyone who will come at this stage, you dont have to sign them just because you trialed them.

*Scout by player templates (use your best squad members and AN Other teams squad members, pick any team that is a little better in all areas than yours)

*Scout the Community (do not be scared to take advice in the forums, there will be lists of players worth a second look, many of whom you would never have found by chance. I dont see this as cheating, I see it as evening up the odds!)

*Scout club releases (daily visit world/transfers/worldwide for recently released individuals & trial the lot of them if you can!)

*Scout EVERYONE (unconventional this but at lower levels it works, just takes some patience. Basically, search by name for every possible name combination. To manage this effectively you need to be organised. For example search <space>aaa, then <space>aab, aac, aad etc - including <space>etc (!) right the way to <space>zzz. You will find thousands of players who can be trialed and there are certain to be several amongst these who will be quality signings - it just needs a bit of organisation (note the searches you have made) and a bit of dedication, but anyone you find will be YOUR own gem, which is very satisfying).

For someone who suggested they might struggle doing the "detail" in a club thread, this is excellent!

For someone who suggested they might struggle doing the "detail" in a club thread, this is excellent!

Thank you Heath very kind. I may develop this thread as suggested to include my LLM take on Tactics Theory etc as suggested, but if you do decided to start your new T&TF thread as Cadiz, or whoever, I suspect to start a new thread myself would just be duplicating good work and diluting the focus on feed back but I may drop the odd link in to your thread where I experience something particularly relevant in here.

The Squad (start of August, Season 1):

We've scored how many.....?

We've signed now many.......?

Here are a couple of links for "further reading" which contain stuff that applies just as well to FM12.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/184003-Starting-Strategy-Discussion?highlight=combat+formations

(see post #31)

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/239319-FM-11-OFFICIAL-AFC-Wimbledon?p=6149998#post6149998

hey tiger... very comprehensive... but i might suggest you make the recruitment section etc a bit more relevent to dorchester itself? by that i mean suggest players to sell an buy maybe? rather than the broader way of playing the game you have given...

but like i said.. very comprehensive and very well written

hey tiger... very comprehensive... but i might suggest you make the recruitment section etc a bit more relevent to dorchester itself? by that i mean suggest players to sell an buy maybe? rather than the broader way of playing the game you have given...

but like i said.. very comprehensive and very well written

Thank you. Fair comments but in Dorchester's case you get rid of pretty much everyone and maybe use my listing of signings as a guide on who to bring in. Actually I have deliberately made the thread relatively universal to all BSS/BSN clubs, my rationale being there are probably less than 10 FM'ers playing as Dorchester (as a guess), however there must be many (in total) FM-ers playing as all BSS/BSN clubs combined. I rather hoped managers of these clubs may dip into my thread and find some ideas of use. Certainly I would check comparable clubs for ideas at whatever my level of choice was.

I've just started a game as eastwood in the bsn and used this thread to look for players that you might have got ... don't know if i can be bothered to sit for hours on end scrolling through europe for freebies.

I've just started a game as eastwood in the bsn and used this thread to look for players that you might have got ... don't know if i can be bothered to sit for hours on end scrolling through europe for freebies.

Glad to be of help. Check out the threads linked into post 14, there is a lot of good stuff from others that carries into FM12.

Hiya mate, took your advise. Playing better won a game in the league against league leaders Luton. and through to the next round of the FA trophy. the set piece creator is that only for FM12 or can you alter it the way you have on FM11? is worth my while doing this or is it better to just leave it as default?

Thanks tigerhgrrrrrr, ive managed to avoid relegation. JUST lol. came down to the last game. Im going to have a complete overhaul though. Sell most of the players and start again.

Where are you from tiger? This looks interesting, as a local I'll be following closely!

Tigerhgrrrrrr................Brilliant OP mate............i used to go and watch Dorchester alot before i moved to the States, and thought your information was spot on......thanks for the time you took to produce it!

Thanks tigerhgrrrrrr, ive managed to avoid relegation. JUST lol. came down to the last game. Im going to have a complete overhaul though. Sell most of the players and start again.

Scotty, glad the season worked out well. The whole set up I use is from work I did on the FM11 game so everying should work across both games.

Where are you from tiger? This looks interesting, as a local I'll be following closely!

Hi, Im from Christchurch but a few years back I used to visit the town of Dorchester regularly (not related to the FC tho!). The club jumped out at me when I was seeking a challenge! Has made me want to visit a game at the Avenue now though - maybe one day...

Tigerhgrrrrrr................Brilliant OP mate............i used to go and watch Dorchester alot before i moved to the States, and thought your information was spot on......thanks for the time you took to produce it!

Thanks Gazza, was mainly a copy & paste job to be honest. My idea to chuck in the local flavour photos/maps though. Was hoping it would be view as much as a BSS League thread as a Dorchester specific one.

Might have to give Dorchester a go, having scored at the Avenue Stadium back in April - ah, happy memories!

53 Players? damn

Just loading a new game, as Dorchester is the only team in the the BSS or BSN with a thread im going to give it a bash.

Just started a game with Dorchester, and it seems I didn't load as many leagues as I should have ... My computers power cable recently broke, so I'm using one that doesn't give very good performance, so it isn't so quick atm...

Anyway, I'm just starting my last pre-season friendly, against Wigan. Pre-season has been a mixed bag so far, with a few decent results and a couple of not so good ones. But I have been trying to bring the pennies in. The games have been:

Hull H - lost 4-1, but reasonably pleased with that.

Stevenage H - lost 3-0, not so happy...

Barnet H - 0-0, not too bad, though would have preferred a good win here

Walton & Hersham A - 3-0 win, happy with this, some good performances

Bournemouth H - 2-0 loss, OK, not great

Celtic H - 4-0 loss, happy enough, played well, they scored 2 late on

Northwood A - 2-3 loss, very unhappy, this is a game we should have won. well

Sunderland H - 1-3 loss, happy with that, gave them a good game.

Just lost 4-1 to Wigan. again with 2 late goals. Happy again. The good point is that our balance sheet is nicely into the black

I've found it difficult to bring in the staff and players I would have liked. I had work permits refused for Adam Street, Canadian GK and Dionatan Teixeira, which was disappointing. Instead, Gregory Hartley and Robert Hall have come in, although Hall is now injured .

So far, I've bought in 11 players, although I would like to raise that to 13 permanent and 2-3 loanees. I've also released 9 players to free up some wage or the incoming players.

My squad is 25 players strong atm. I want that to be 30 in total. One more GK and one more permanent midfielder, as well as a loanee in midfield and defence, and one other to cover injuries, I haven't decided where yet. I'm on my wage budget, though.

So, first real match is against Sutton. Here goes.

BTW, this game will be treated much like an career game without starting as unemployed. I will not just want to stay with one club like most of my games, I will want to move on... If I can build something good here, then I will, though

Well, my start wasn't as planned... Bought Tom Murray, an 18y/o CM with no pre-season behind him, straight into the starting 11. 45 seconds in, and he gets sent off. 89 minutes with 10 men... Safe to say, we lost, but only 2-1.

Luckily, we've been in form since, with 2-0 wins over Boreham Wood, Salisbury and Basingstoke, and a 1-1 draw with Truro seeing us 4th after 5 games with 10 points.

I couldn't find anyone good enough who would join me on loan, but I did bring in 3 more players permanently to strengthen the squad. Let's see how it goes

Nearly half way through my 2nd season things are going well sitting top of the BSP after winning the BSS after pretty much changing the whole squad.

My reccomended signings would be:

Stephen Stirling (MC)

Thomas Lyskov (DL/ML)

Medi Adilimba (DM/MC)

Gordon Reick (CB)

Falvio Paixiao (AM/RLC SC)

Phil Younghusband (SC)

and Chris Flood who is already at the club is pretty decent aswell.

Oh dear, a word of warning in relation to my OP's. Although I still kind of stand by my plan of daily Friendlies all season just to boost revenue certain assumptiona based on FM11 do not follow through to FM12. In short you do not earn the same levels of revenue which is OK because if you have a Friendly on every possible day total earnings will be good but it means a lot of matches / match days which slows down the season progress if like me you micro manage (Team management - not tactical tweaking!). Sadly with the BS Regional quirk of Sept 22 - Oct 22 where there are no scheduled League games - just Cup schedules this leaves (if like me you get knocked out of said cups early on) a frustratingly long period of non competitive matches (I played for a whole week of evenings without 1 League match). Consequently I have had to ditch my Dorchester save (Wrexham, with more pragmatism, here I come!).

But for Dorchester for me there is always FM13..........