Ri916's FM 12 Youth Academy Challenge!

[Avramski]

Finally finished my first season with Northwich!

I finished 6th in the end, but I'm disappointed with that. 8 games to go, and we go top, and the team is flying. A draw away to Stockport means we drop a place back to second, then cam the highly contraversial match against Hyde. Not only did they injure 4 of my players, my goalkeeper was sent off for handball, which even the match report and ref overview after the game said was wrong. Red card still not rescinded though! To cover for the unavailable players, I had to call up 4 players from my youth team, and the season fell apart basically....

Anyway, despite getting a couple of decent prospects in my youth intake, I wasn't impressed overall. The positions I desperately needed cover for didn't produce, so I've got to retrain my best prospects. I just hope it doesn't affect them.

Ben Ryan is the youth player with the highest potential (report card), so accordingly, he gets the YP tag.

Last but not least, transfers ....

Edit :: In the cups, we didn't do that good, but everything matched the boards expectations. We needed a replay to beat Stourbridge Town in Q2 of the FA cup, before beating Vauxhall 3-0 at home. In Q4, we drew at home to Hyde, before losing the replay 4-1. We didn't have a run at all in the FAT, as Telford spanked us 5-1. However, with only having 17 players, I wasn't too concerned as it meant we had less games to play, so I was able to keep the players rested a bit more.

[Tactic Master]

End Of Season Report 2013/2014

This season, we would be challenging in the Blue Square Premier, after a successfull Play-Off Final in the Blue Square North against Darlington! The BSP would definately provide us with a huge challenge and it's down to the players to prove that we deserve to be here...

Squad Stats

We were inconsistent all season really, with only one or two players with consistent form and the rest picked up AVMR's between 6.60 and 6.80! Gary Beckford YPO1 was arguably one of our best players, despite his awfull AVMR, picking up 15 goals to become the top goalscorer for the club this season, whilst assisting 9 goals, which was the second best after Matt McGinn. Ryan James was our star at Centre Back and when he got injured, the squad fell to pieces and we couldn't win matches, so he's been very important and the best player in the squad by far. Manuele De Petrillo YP02 stepped in late on in the season to provide 4 assists in just 5 games! If he can hit that sort of form next season, we might just better ourselves!

Squad Training

Just a quick note on our training. We have brought in 2 new coaches during the season, after the board allowed us 2 extra. This has allowed us to bring fantastic training to our players and i'm sure you would agree if you have a look at the star ratings for coaching above.

Squad Tactics

Here are the tactics I used in April and what I intend to use next season. I'm hoping that with a few tweaks to player instructions, I might be able to get something better out of the squad. At times it was painfull to watch the team, so this is why I made swift action to change things tactics wise.

Transfers

The "Transfer Proof" for the season!

Finance Summary

Overall, for the season, we've struggled with outgoings, but we've ended with £77k in the bank on the 1st June. Hopefully this will improve next season, but I wouldn't put a bet on it!

Blue Square Bet Premier

17 wins, 13 draws and 16 losses... We can't complain at our 13th place this season as we were very much expected to be in a relegation dog fight! An amazing finish to the season, saw us keep the spot that we have rarely vacated all season! The only thing that has worried me a lot this season is the amount of goals we concede and i'll be looking to rectify that for next season.

FA Cup

4th Qual Round: Southport 1 - 2 Chester

1st Round: Chester 3 - 1 Gloucester

2nd Round: Chester 1 - 1 Swindon

2nd Round Replay: Swindon 3 - 1 Chester

Overall, very pleased to have reached the second round and pushed Swindon right till the end. They are a League 1 side, so we can be very proud of our draw and we weren't bad in the replay either! It definately brought in some money and is key to the fact that we still have money at the end of the season.

FA Trophy

1st Round: Chester 1 - 1 FC United

1st Round Replay: FC United 1 - 1p Chester

2nd Round: Northwich 1 - 2 Chester

3rd Round: Chester 0 - 2 Macclesfield

I was hoping for a longer run, but we came up against an extremely strong Macclesfield side and we were never expected to beat them! Hopefully next season we can go a bit further...

Verdict: A fantastic season for Chester really and I couldn't find much fault, especially for a team that has brought 0 players in and relied on youth intake. As shocked as I was, I have been voted 2nd for Manager Of The Year!

Goal Of The Season - Wes Baynes

[Nottingham Forest]

Baynesy . He scored a great free-kick from central about 35 yards out. Matty McGinn is good and Mackin likes the occasional rocket that flies into the top corner.

[Welsh Wizard]

Love a challenge and this is a massive one. Normally rely on transfers to complete small club to big club challenges so this will be a nice change. Hope to get a feel for it before giving it a good go on 13.

Gone to the dark side and decided to go Chester(I know I should be shot along with the other Wrexham players here). Wanted Chippenham but did not come up after many reloads.

Manager Profile
General Info
Facilities
Current Squad
Backroom Staff
Finances

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Drew. Lowestoft Town. 2012/2013

Managed to finish a very respectable 9th, never had a chance at making the play-offs, but never in any danger of getting embroilled in a relegation battle.

Here is the Squad, quite a few players will be leaving which will free up a lot of wages, so hopefully I won't be losing too much money during the season; lower wages > more income > improve Junior Coaching/Youth Facilities > Profit.

My Finances took a pummeling over the season, but a lot of money spinning friendlies have sorted that right out.

Youth Player Number One had an impressive two games, keeping two clean sheets in the process, will be one to keep an eye on imo.

My best player

Proof that I'm not cheating

Junior Youth Coaching has already been improved this season, will try and do the same next season.

[Tactic Master]

Welcome Welsh Wizard and good luck

[ri916]

wow- so much activity over the day! will start replying now and updating the table.

Welsh Wizard- Welcome to the challenge! good luck with chester and maybe you can get them promoted.

Forest- Good season making the playoffs. You were unlucky to fall in the semi-final but you should be proud of what you have done. Good luck for next season.

Avramski- Unlucky just missing out on the playoffs. However, it was still a great effort despite being top of the league. Playoffs next season .

Tactic Master- In your first 2 seasons what you have done is nothing short of incredible. If I'm honest, I thought you were going to go straight back down so a midtable finish is great

Drew- A nice safe season with a respectable 9th place. The future looks bright for Lowestoft.

[Tactic Master]

Forest, very unlucky to fall just near the end Hopefully next season you can push for the title maybe and bring those youngsters through to be regular 1st teamers! Best of luck!

Slich, keep on going mate Keep the focus! Drill it into your teams heads!

Avramski, that is so annoying, you were so close aswell! Unlucky mate, now you need to do the same again but make sure they don't become complacent, I think this will be your season

Welsh Wizard, glad you chose Chester, my favourite team for this sign up! If you need any advice on the team, just ask.

Drew The Cookie Eater, fantastic first season, keep up the good work mate

[Nottingham Forest]

Jamie Rainford has broke his ankle . He was key for this season.

[Tactic Master]

wow- so much activity over the day! will start replying now and updating the table.

Tactic Master- In your first 2 seasons what you have done is nothing short of incredible. If I'm honest, I thought you were going to go straight back down so a midtable finish is great

Thanks I never believed we would get relegated, but I never believed we'd fight for mid-table either and the annoying thing is, we could have done so much better aswell. We got too many draws in the end.

One fact for you: I've never been relegated with a team since I started playing football manager in 2007

[Avramski]

Second game into the new season, and I'm already in a lot of trouble, despite beating Boston Utd 4-0 and title favourites Tamworth 1-0

The reason is, both strikers got injured in the Tamworth match, 1 is out for 6 weeks, the other for 8 months with a broken leg, this is going to be fun ....

[ri916]

FC United of Manchester- Season 3 2014-2015

Welcome to an update on the goings on of my third season in charge of FC United.

Finances- Very good with 350k in the bank. This is down to having a large stadium that i can pack by organising a high profile friendly.

Facilities- No improvements but I havent posted them in a while. Junior coaching is up to average.

League Table- An Average Season in the BSN, but it brought us our highest ever finish! Only an improvement of 1 point on last season and scoring even fewer goals led to us being nowhere near the playoffs and 11th place was flattering.

Squad - Wolfenden still got top scorer by playing fewer games but walcott ( who it turns out has some pace :P) pushed him all the way. The big shock is Billy Smith, who didnt even get a YP tag. I had him tutored which increased his determination to 18! He has since made rapid progress and pushed up to 4.5 stars CA. This is more than his inital PA. He will be a regular starter next season and i think he can develop into a star for us.

Youth Squad- Some decent prospects in there but none deserved the YP tags. I gave tags to 2 players this season. Conor Deasy YP06 is a left back and Ryan Lovell YP07 is a Centre Midfielder. Still no strikers have gained a YP tag but Billy Smith should have one.

Transfers- Im clean!

YP Watch

Joseph White YP01- Has Progressed nicely making quite a few league appearances. His improvement in tackling is definately the stand out increase.

David Roberts YP02- Has also done well making plenty of appearances and has improved well.

Kristian Colbourne YP03- Has made great strides despite no first team action and he will be starting next season

Jordan Ling YP04- Has Played but hasnt improved much

Louis Jordan YP05- Not had as many games a Ling but has still got better


Player of the season- Greg Stones. Solid at Centre back and has led to us only conceding 33 league goals.


Targets for next season

- Get into the playoffs

- Score more goals

- Improve Youth Facilities/coaching

Decided I would put more effort into my updates in an attempt to drag the standard up .

P.S please remember to include all the things stated in the OP in your updates

[Tactic Master]

I thought I was already setting the standard Ri Good season and I wish I had your defensive capabilities haha. Good luck for next season.

[Braumiller]

I have very much enjoyed reading through this challenge thread so far, and now that I have entered that 'comfort zone' with my career save I am ready to take on the ultimate FM challenge myself!

June 24th 2012, Weymouth FC announce that they have hired Ben Talbott.

Some notable screenshots at the start of the game;

General Information
Starting Finances
Starting Facilities

A starting squad of just 20 players and a media prediction of dead last (22nd) make this a sizeable task.

My long term goals for this game break down as such;

A four year plan per league:
* Year 1, survive
* Year 2, mid table
* Year 3, challenge
* Year 4, promotion

Looking at the squad, I think I am going to be playing narrow and block up the middle, but going very attacking when I have the ball. Conceding goals will happen regardless, so we are going to try and go out and put a few on the scoreboard ourselves.

I couldn't resist the lure of Weymouth when they popped up, their reputation isn't complete challenge suicide and the town is where we vacationed when I was a kid back in the day

*fingers crossed* and here goes

[Avramski]

Good luck!

[Welsh Wizard]

Thanks guys and good luck Braumiller.

[slich]

Bury Town: Mid-Season Cup Update

So far, we've had some success in the FA cup, as we managed to work our way into the first round proper to face a BSP side Forest Green. We lucked out big time when we faced lincoln in the 4th qualifying round because 3 of their best attackers couldn't play because they were on loan and not cup eligible. Managed to squeak out a 1-0 result because of it
Fixtures

Amusing thing is that Bury Town managed to actually reach the same round last year while they were still in the Isthman premier before losing to the League 1 side Huddersfield
2011 Fixtures

Should be interesting to see if we can advance any further

[Tactic Master]

It's good to see that we keep getting new people in here, best of luck to Braumiller! Should be interesting as we haven't had that team yet

Slich, it's all money spinners from now on, so hopefully you can go far in the FA Cup! It will be worth it.

AS FOR ME! It's been an interesting start to the season for sure, with Petrillo YP02 squeezing us past Hayes and Yeading, who we couldn't even get close to last season, then a massive and impressive defensive display against York to grab a 1 - 1 draw (nice corner ) and then the only result that baffled me was a 2 - 2 against Blyth, who I would have expected to beat.

[ri916]

Tactic Master- You are setting the standard. Your career thread is looking great!

Braumiller- Welcome to the challenge! I have a feeling that weymouth are going to be a very hard challenge. Dont dismiss trying to be tight at the back, I had my team concede just 33 goals in my third season! It's a good way to go if you have crap strikers because otherwise you may struggle to score and still concede. I'm changing to a more attacking tactic next season because I have learnt my team and I'm fed up of scoring less goals then the amount of games we have played . sorry for the rant on the value of defence

What are your policies with players you tag? I immeadiately put them in the first team and give them games. Not sure if this is the right approach but my players seem to develop well.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

I've managed to convince the board to upgrade our Junior Coaching to Adequate, hopefully we should see some decent youngsters come through now.

[Tactic Master]

Ri, giving your YP's games only makes them get better faster and gives them more of a chance to develop to their potential. so basically its a good thing My Sammarinese guy is amazing at 16!

[ri916]

Billy Smith is now rated 5 stars CA by my assistant. I'm gutted I didnt give him a YP tag. they also say he has the potential to be a leading BSP striker.

[Braumiller]

Braumiller- Welcome to the challenge! I have a feeling that weymouth are going to be a very hard challenge. Dont dismiss trying to be tight at the back, I had my team concede just 33 goals in my third season! It's a good way to go if you have crap strikers because otherwise you may struggle to score and still concede. I'm changing to a more attacking tactic next season because I have learnt my team and I'm fed up of scoring less goals then the amount of games we have played . sorry for the rant on the value of defence

Heh, thank you for the welcome.
Isn't that the beauty of this game, the many different approaches that can be taken?

Well, I got hooked and stayed up way too late last night and I am 22 games into my Weymouth career now, and it is fair to say we should be called 'The Entertainers'! We have only kept 3 clean sheets, but we have only failed to score in 1 game. Only 1 DR, playing a DC at DM full time, no true MC cover and a 1 star FC scores for fun while the slightly better option refuses too..... The beauty of non-league

What are your policies with players you tag? I immeadiately put them in the first team and give them games. Not sure if this is the right approach but my players seem to develop well.

Once I get mine, the youths with the potential will be in the first team squad immediately. First team action = development

[Ant]

Going to give this another crack after my Hendon relegation, reloaded a few times as I wanted a team that nobody else was using.

Bedford Town F.C

24th June 2012 - Bedford Town have appointed rookie manager Ant Fletcher by giving him a 2 year deal worth £325 p/w.

Bedford Information
Facilities

First Team

We have a tiny squad, of which we have 2 goalkeepers, 4 defenders in total, 5 midfielders and 7 strikers..

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

We've drawn just under a third of our league games this season so far, which could cost us a shot at the play-offs.

Massive positive this season is Youth Player No.1 the amount of clean sheets he's kept so far

I hope he keeps on improving well into next season.

[ri916]

Ant- Good to see you back having another crack and Bedford look to be a massive challenge. Only 18 Players at your disposal is worrying but I'm sure you can steer them clear of relegation.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Youth Intake

Delighted with that, 5 potential first teamers, including a back-up keeper, and This kid, with the potential to Be a good League Two striker, excellent!

[ri916]

Drew- Callum Foulkes looks great but unfortunately the 'big heading target man' (like andy carroll) are quite ineffective in fm. This is because of its nearly impossible to score headed goals from crosses with strikers set to target man. he could still play that role and score with his feet, but headed goals will be few. Still looks well above this level so he will be effective.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Meh, scored and got an assist on his debut, I think he might do well for us with a half decent partner

[Charlie_B]

I'm in!

Having just won the Premier League with Droylsden I'm looking to put aside my main game and try something else so a bit. Ramping up the difficulty I'm going to give a shot at running this challenge alongside jimbowmanuk's
Big Club, Small Country - Challenge. Erm, perhaps that should be Small Club, Small Country then.

I initially holidayed to 2013 and reloaded a few times hoping to get Sheffield FC, but then I decided that I wasn't sure if that would even work and I was getting tired of reloading so I went back to 2012 and picked Carshalton . Didn't realise that a number of other people had chosen them as well! Ah well, at least we can compare notes.

I won't post the club details as others have done so already, but step forward Charlie Nguyen.

I loaded up all the game's Vietnamese players, all players in the Vietnamese league and all the Asian leagues in addition to the challenge's required database.
And here's the Carshalton squad.

I expet its going to take a very long time before there's anything even approaching success in this game, and the inability to sign players makes it difficult for me to really engage with my team at present, so I'm going to hammer through the early seasons pretty quickly.

p.s. Imo it would be a big improvement if people posted the stats of their AM when posting youth intakes. There's not much point getting excited about a YP with 5 start for ability and potential if your AM only has 1 in JPA/JPP, is there? My AM has 14 for both stats.

Edit: By the time I've won the Premier League I hope I'll be spelling my team's name correctly...

[ri916]

Charlie- Welcome to the challenge and it's an interesting twist to do a 2in1 combo! Good luck with carshalton. You may find you dont get any vietnamese players for ages and this is because of the low youth recruitment of clubs at this level. You may still get lucky as I think Tactic Master got a Sammarinese player through in his second season. As for assistants, I think most people get an assistant with good stats (mine has 13 for CA and 19 for PA) but the stars are only a rough guideline. Thats why people post the players stats so you can see if they are really good or not

Edit: saw your edit. If you win the premier league I wont care how you spell your teams name! I'll be two busy inducting you into the hall of fame

[ri916]

I have spiced things up a bit check the second post out.

[Charlie_B]

The HoF looks good!

I know that VN players will be extremely scarce - it may be that the two challenges end up running one after the other, as I doubt anything will happen with VN until Carshalton are extremely well established. Well, it'll be fun finding out.

[Tactic Master]

I have spiced things up a bit check the second post out.

I like it, we could add more aswell

Most Goals By Youth Player In A Match (Competitive Match)
Most Clean Sheets By A Youth Goalkeeper In A Season

And much more, if you want to take it that far

[Tactic Master]

The HoF looks good!

I know that VN players will be extremely scarce - it may be that the two challenges end up running one after the other, as I doubt anything will happen with VN until Carshalton are extremely well established. Well, it'll be fun finding out.

I'm doing the same First season we didn't get any Sammarinese players, but second season we got a really good one, who could probably become a legend for San Marino, playing for U21's at 16 years old

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Play-off time!

[ri916]

Play-off time!

Well Jealous! In my fourth season and we are only flirting 3 points outside the playoffs!

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Ah well

Maybe next season, with Foulkes being given more game time, we should be able to find the net more and try and get out of this division.

[ri916]

Tactic master- Added your ideas, let me know if you have anymore . Was thinking all the most goals and appearances awards would be decided just before the next version comes out with everyone entering their youth player with the most appearances and goals and seeing which player has the most.

P.S- did you see who the first member of the HoF is?

[Tactic Master]

Tactic master- Added your ideas, let me know if you have anymore . Was thinking all the most goals and appearances awards would be decided just before the next version comes out with everyone entering their youth player with the most appearances and goals and seeing which player has the most.

P.S- did you see who the first member of the HoF is?

Yeah I saw Hopefully I can get my name in other places too I'm confident of a better finish than 13th this season, we seem stronger at the back with the new tactic, just still struggling for goals.

First Youth Player In World Team Of The Year

First Youth Player To Win Golden Ball

Most Golden Ball

First Youth Player To Win World Player Of The Year

Most World Player Of The Year

Most Team Of The Year

Biggest Sale Of Youth Player (meaning how much you received for selling a youth player you brought up)

Most FA Cup's

Most League Cup's

Most Champions Leagues

Most Premier Leagues

Most Community Shields

Most Super Cups

Most Club World Championships

First to win Community Shield

First to win World Club Cup

First to Win Super Cup

Most Capped Youth Player

I Could go on

[ri916]

TM- WOW. When you say most capped, do you mean international? Theres so many ideas, not sure which ones to put in? I probably wont include the 'most' (insert competition) because the challenge is only to win the Pl and CL once. Will include the others though

[Tactic Master]

TM- WOW. When you say most capped, do you mean international? Theres so many ideas, not sure which ones to put in? I probably wont include the 'most' (insert competition) because the challenge is only to win the Pl and CL once. Will include the others though

Yeah, most Internation Caps Thats fine, was just throwing around ideas

[ri916]

done. The hall of fame is looking quite big, might have to make it a hangar of fame!

Is there a way to see how many posts someone has had in a thread? was thinking of doing 'most active poster' award?

[Tactic Master]

done. The hall of fame is looking quite big, might have to make it a hangar of fame!

Is there a way to see how many posts someone has had in a thread? was thinking of doing 'most active poster' award?

Wouldn't have thought so, without counting, but theres me, you and a few others close enough.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Drew. Lowestoft Town. Blue Square South. 2013/2014

An improvement on last season, this time, instead of finishing outside of the play-offs, we were able to Finish 4th, not bad really, Truro were just too strong for us in the play-offs, but next season we should come back stronger.

The Squad, we will be losing a few deadwood in the summer, saving us about £900 a week in wages, which is improtant for us.

Aradavan Dobinson YP1 was fantastic at the back for us, 23 clean sheets in total, wow.

Callum Foulkes YP2 came in during the newest batch, he along with four others will by fighting for starting places in the side, he has already shown he has a killer touch in front of goal already.

To prove I'm not cheating

Pre season friendlies helped us to a healthy balance over the course of the season, we've already made £300k in the summer for next season, so improving our Junior Coaching is a must.

Junior Coaching is at Adequate at the moment, I'll try and improve that over the course of next season.

[ri916]

Drew- Great season making the playoffs. Dobinson and Foulkes look useful. Hopefully next season you will gain promotion

[Tactic Master]

Pre-Season & August Update

In the above link is my entire update for Pre-Season and August in the BSP Fantastic stuff from the lads and Manuele De Petrillo is running the show!

[the_greyham]

Hendon march intake update 2018

Intake

Glen Hamsher YP06 / Report

fed up of giving strikers yp tags so went on a DRC instead. has potential to be better than my current DC

[Charlie_B]

I'm doing the same First season we didn't get any Sammarinese players, but second season we got a really good one, who could probably become a legend for San Marino, playing for U21's at 16 years old

That's awesome news! I can't wait for my first Viet.

[the_greyham]

That's awesome news! I can't wait for my first Viet.

dont get too excited, i chose to be andorran as my main nationality for the same reasons, and currently in 2018 without having a single andorran come through

[Tactic Master]

dont get too excited, i chose to be andorran as my main nationality for the same reasons, and currently in 2018 without having a single andorran come through

I think reputation has a lot to do with it, with me being in the BSP.

[the_greyham]

Most Goals By Youth Player In A Match (Competitive Match)

FM 2012-

Samuel Wood YP04 - 4 goals. Proof

i know this will be beaten by others easy enough but for now it stands i spose?

[slich]

Looks like we've had a several more people join up, so welcome and good luck!

There sure is a lot of categories in the HoF, should be fun to shoot for those marks, especially the 100 league goals. I play pretty slow though since I like to watch the game in key highlights mode so not sure if I have much chance of reaching it

[ri916]

greyham- thats quite impressive! have added it to the hall of fame.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Eastleigh have this kid on loan from Southampton

'Tis not fair sometimes.

[the_greyham]

Hendon 2017/18 - Blue Square South
End of Season Update

League Table : delighted with the progress made as the season went on finishing very respectively. i feel we can no longer be classed as a mid table side and i will be pushing for the playoffs for sure next time

Fa Cup : not too bad this season out in the 4Qrnd to better opposition

Fa Trophy : out in the 2nd round

Squad : a much improved side, few injuries all season. 4 or 5 more players were brought in from the youth squad after some had reached 2-3.5star ca i promoted em.

U18's : looking good. looking good.


Key Player

Leke Ndah : after noticing he had 3.5st CA in the u 18's come november he was brought into the squad for sub appearances but scoring at the rate he did he was the first player on the team sheet every game

Finances: steady


And of course TRANSFERS



Next season
looking through the squad im hoping that some of the u18s can make the grade yet again and come the end off the season i can see the team have only 1-2 original players the rest will be all youth products. as i have said earlier i hope we challenge for the promotion. i will also look to increase he junior coaching aswell as and when i can, its still on good atm

[Avramski]

'Tis not fair sometimes.

I know that feeling .... We have somehow just lost to Vauxhall ....

I'm desperately hoping for a good striker in my next Youth intake, as you can see in that screenshot, goals are somewhat hard to come by ....

[Braumiller]

Ooof, I do not like 2013!

Won my last game of 2012, and then a run of 5 straight defeats to start of 2013! Add in one botched team meeting, a suspension, a couple of injuries and no players to switch in with better morale and things are starting to look bleak.

Roll on youth intake and some fresh blood!

[ri916]

greyham- I think your update should say 2017-2018 season a great year for hendon, just missing out on the playoffs and i think you can make them next year

Braumiller-You should love 2013! it means you survived 2012

[Braumiller]

Although I did just go a weekend without losing! (game was snowed off.........)

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Junior Coaching has just been upgraded to average

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Eastleigh have this kid on loan from Southampton

'Tis not fair sometimes.

He's out for 6 months with a broken leg.

That should see their goals dry up a bit.

[the_greyham]

greyham- I think your update should say 2017-2018 season a great year for hendon, just missing out on the playoffs and i think you can make them next year

haha forgot to change that from my template. fixed now thanks mate. first game played of the new season and a 3-0 win over afchornchurch.

[Tactic Master]

Junior Coaching Upgrade

Talks With The Board

This is just what we needed! It's taken a while, but finally the option was made available and despite a set back in talks at first, I managed to win the board round on the idea! This is fantastic news for me, as we need to start producing more quality players.

[TWFL]

Season 2015/16 - Carshalton Atheltic

So it was a GREAT season. Not good enough to win the league but we secured a play-off spot. We were put up against Forest Green who we managed to scrape past. It was tight and very nerve-wracking in the last few minutes but we got through and went up against Ebbsfleet. They were tough but we had gone up against them recently with it ending in a draw. So here it came: The Final. It was a tight and nervy affair. Much worse than the semi and Anthony Freeman managed to further cement his place in Carshalton history.

So the League Table ended up like this with us being promoted. This was the squad that lead me to glory and a special shoutout to Ross Hale YP03 who managed a mammoth 37 assists in the season.

Our Finances were absolutely great so much so that, at the start of the season, we got over the £1million mark in the black. So with that I pushed the board for better Junior Coaching which they accepted. They are now excellent. I also managed to get better youth facilities and the board decided that it was time to expand the stadium as well.

This excellent Junior Coaching really helped the intake with the Youth coming through being great. Ibrahim Tran was given the YP tag and has already been given a U20 cap by Morocco.

Couple of other milestones: Paudi Kavanagh (who hasn't even got a YP tag) was the first one to be called up to a national squad of any kind.
Thanks to the Youth Intake I fielded a full team of Youth Players for the first ever time. A good moment.

Onwards and upwards! Bring it on BSP!!

[slich]

Great job on the promotion, and Ibrahim Tran does look rather amazing. Was he an English/Morocco player that chose to play for Morocco, or was his original nationality Morocco already? Must have been a fun season looking at your goals scored in the league, good luck in the BSP!

[Avramski]

I'm desperately hoping for a good striker in my next Youth intake

My prayers were not answered

[Trusler]

Loving this challenge. Will post a full first season report later when I finish it. Frustrating but enjoyable!

[TWFL]

Great job on the promotion, and Ibrahim Tran does look rather amazing. Was he an English/Morocco player that chose to play for Morocco, or was his original nationality Morocco already? Must have been a fun season looking at your goals scored in the league, good luck in the BSP!

Yeah exactly. He still hasn't completely decided but good to see him playing some international stuff. And the League was great but we could have done better if it weren't for our ridiculously slow defenders! Going to be tough next season, looking like we might lose our best striker, Freeman.

[Tactic Master]

Season 2015/16 - Carshalton Atheltic

So it was a GREAT season. Not good enough to win the league but we secured a play-off spot. We were put up against Forest Green who we managed to scrape past. It was tight and very nerve-wracking in the last few minutes but we got through and went up against Ebbsfleet. They were tough but we had gone up against them recently with it ending in a draw. So here it came: The Final. It was a tight and nervy affair. Much worse than the semi and Anthony Freeman managed to further cement his place in Carshalton history.

So the League Table ended up like this with us being promoted. This was the squad that lead me to glory and a special shoutout to Ross Hale YP03 who managed a mammoth 37 assists in the season.

Our Finances were absolutely great so much so that, at the start of the season, we got over the £1million mark in the black. So with that I pushed the board for better Junior Coaching which they accepted. They are now excellent. I also managed to get better youth facilities and the board decided that it was time to expand the stadium as well.

This excellent Junior Coaching really helped the intake with the Youth coming through being great. Ibrahim Tran was given the YP tag and has already been given a U20 cap by Morocco.

Couple of other milestones: Paudi Kavanagh (who hasn't even got a YP tag) was the first one to be called up to a national squad of any kind.
Thanks to the Youth Intake I fielded a full team of Youth Players for the first ever time. A good moment.

Onwards and upwards! Bring it on BSP!!

Good to see someone else reach the BSP, fantastic stuff and I bet that final was nail biting!

[TWFL]

Good to see someone else reach the BSP, fantastic stuff and I bet that final was nail biting!

Yeah it was. 28 minutes was far too early to score, I was ready for the whistle as soon as it went in!

[Welsh Wizard]

Season 2015/16 - Carshalton Atheltic

So it was a GREAT season. Not good enough to win the league but we secured a play-off spot. We were put up against Forest Green who we managed to scrape past. It was tight and very nerve-wracking in the last few minutes but we got through and went up against Ebbsfleet. They were tough but we had gone up against them recently with it ending in a draw. So here it came: The Final. It was a tight and nervy affair. Much worse than the semi and Anthony Freeman managed to further cement his place in Carshalton history.

So the League Table ended up like this with us being promoted. This was the squad that lead me to glory and a special shoutout to Ross Hale YP03 who managed a mammoth 37 assists in the season.

Our Finances were absolutely great so much so that, at the start of the season, we got over the £1million mark in the black. So with that I pushed the board for better Junior Coaching which they accepted. They are now excellent. I also managed to get better youth facilities and the board decided that it was time to expand the stadium as well.

This excellent Junior Coaching really helped the intake with the Youth coming through being great. Ibrahim Tran was given the YP tag and has already been given a U20 cap by Morocco.

Couple of other milestones: Paudi Kavanagh (who hasn't even got a YP tag) was the first one to be called up to a national squad of any kind.
Thanks to the Youth Intake I fielded a full team of Youth Players for the first ever time. A good moment.

Onwards and upwards! Bring it on BSP!!

Bet it was the longest game that season Finances looking great and got loads of decent YPs. Good luck in BSP.

[Conman14]

So I've decided to dive into this challenge. I dabbled with it previously by taking over Cambridge City, and despite our best attempts, it wasn't enough to avoid relegation. So in that sense I've failed before I started...

Anyways, I've decided to start this again and make I sure I take a better approach to it. So after the first season of holidaying, I was left to choose the following teams:


I have decided to base myself in Carshalton Athletic. Hopefully over time I can tap into the player base in South London and move up the ladder. The club itself has decent facilities, and crucially owns its youth system and stadium.


Staff-wise, it's pretty threadbare. The backroom consists only of me and my assistant, so coaches and physios will need to be brought in. Squad-wise, it's also pretty thin, but compared to my Cambridge City team there's a bit more depth to it. Here we see the Carshalton crazy gang...


It's a team full of determination, and hopefully that should be enough to at least keep us in the hunt for staying up.

[edit] Screenie of my manager, not in June 2012 unfortunately, but start of September. Hope it's all okay.

[slich]

Welcome to the challenge Conman, and good luck with Carshalton!

A quick little mid-season update for me before I make the final push. I have a fighting chance for a playoff spot largely due to Sam Reed and his ridiculous goal scoring. Hes scored 22 out of 41 team goals (16 out of 33 league goals) so far. I'm debating whether I should call him a monster, or Van Persie, or a combination of the two, something like Vamon Perster. I'm thinking Vamon Perster, but we'll see. I actually managed to get to 2nd at one point but the last couple months have been a bit up and down, with the worst time in Late November/Early December where I managed to get knocked out of both cups and post my worst league loss in 3 straight games. It should be a fun last few months to see if we can get promotion.

In addition, some amusing screenshots that I picked up, somehow managing to hit the post without a shot, and the first time I saw this comment where both goalkeepers had a good old time. Only had 3 shots each, and the only shot on target was the goal, so essentially the goalies never made a save

[toonbalmy87]

So we had the usual Friendly get the biggest clubs possible to the rope the crowds in which we did and managed to beat Bradford City !! so things were looking good indeed s on to the first half of the season we go the team was playing well creeping into the playoffs at mid November until started to get a couple of injury's to key players which saw us go onto a awful run as we got into mid January players started to come back and the lad grouped together and started piling the results to push us back up to the table and closer to end of the season we went on a run of 8 games unbeaten and it came down to the final three games which if we won them all we would of won the league but we drew 2 and won 1 so we got into the play offs. played Welling beat them then we are into the Final against Truro


Finances
Finances were ok until now!!!!

Transfers - sick of getting players on loan from feeder clubs i don't want they don't even pay my club arghhhh!! I hope he liked the reserves haha!!

League Table - Need to score more goals - but my team is set to defensive so that's maybe my problem

Youth Player intake - players from last year got released without any warning

Gage
Gage Report

Enzanga
Enzanga Report

Key players

Mcintosh - My key striker whenever he plays the other strikers play better

Jamal Henry - to play over 50 games in a season and still get a rating of 6.98 is awesome
U18s - Still looking good considering they lost there best players at the start of the season
FA Cup beaten in the 1st proper round by York
FA Trophy beaten in 3rd round by Guisley

Play Off Final

[Welsh Wizard]

Mini mid-season update

Currently sitting top with 2 games in hand over 2nd and 3rd. Defensive play has really played it part with only 15 goals let in even with having to play my back up GK double the games than my 1st choice who has been hit hard with injuries. In terms of the cups only left in the F.A Trophy

I think I have my own "Vamon Perster" in the form of Jamie Rainford who just pours goals from all directions. Has played a few AML when needed and still finds the net.

Junior Coaching and Youth Recuritment have been improved.

[Charlie_B]

Most depressing January ever! Fixture congestion, loads of injuries, and I can't bring anyone in to bolster the team? This no-signing lark is taking some getting used to. We're doing quite well in the league but I doubt it's going to last...

[Trusler]

FC United of Manchester: Season 1 - 2012/2013



The 'Just Survive' Season

Saw this thread a few days ago and thought I had to get in on the act. You may know the starting stats of FC United already so I wont bother posting all that.

So, a quick season round-up:

League: BSN
League Position: 19th
Points: 50
FA Cup: 3rd Round Qual
FA Trophy: 3rd Round Qual
Top Goalscorer: Wolfenden (13)
Top Assists: Grimshaw (18)
Star Man: Dean Stott
I'm not a crook: Transferes

Fixtures Pt1 (sorry for the Steam chat!)
Pt2

Squad that ended the season

What a great idea. Love this challenge so far, despite its frustrating nature.

I picked FC United just because I liked the idea of taking them to the Prem. Squad was OK, facilities also, and the Stadium is good. So, off we went.

I thought this challenge was so easy at first. Started the season like a house on fire! In our first ten games we had amassed six wins, three draws and only one defeat, and we sat proudly on top of the Blue Square North table. Not bad, or so I thought. My start was so good, I finished runner-up in the September MotM! I started with a simple 4-4-2 and it was effective. Then we started our cup campaign. I wanted a decent cup run and when we were drawn against Chester I thought it was very doable. We drew the first game and then won the replay to progress. From here it was all downhill.

Our first game of October was a draw with Histon that left us joint top. It would be the start of a twelve game winless streak in the league, fifteen if you count cup comps. In October we fell out of the FA Cup to Bradford PA, and in November we were pushed out of the FA Trophy by Droylsden. We slid down the table picking up the odd point here and there. To be honest, I never thought we'd be relegated. We had a big total of points and all we needed to do was go on a mini-run and we'd be fine.

The mini-run never happened.

We started 2013 with a good win away at Darlington, but followed this with a loss to Hyde. Then another win, followed by a five game winless run. A win vs. Droylsden, a loss vs Histon and a win against Hinckley at the start of March left is around seven points cleat of the drop zone with 40 points. But then another five game winless run caused panic as we slipped back towards the relegation zone.

April was a huge month. We started it only four points clear of the relegation zone. A draw vs. high flying Lowestoft was a good start, but yet again we followed it up with a defeat. However, we finished the season strongly with two wins - vs Altrincham & Harrogate - and a draw vs Chester left us six points clear with a game to play. Safe.

Youth Intake

Martin Fowler : I like the look of this fella. He was the highest rated regen and stats look 'OK'. He was one of four that I instantly made part of my first team squad and he didn't do to badly at all!

Wayne Cope : Another promising player. He also went into the first team and played quite well in his few apparences.

Warren Pollard: Didn't play a huge part, but my assistant rates him. One to watch.

Next Season:

I now have four decent strikers and four decent central midfielders. With this in mind, I'm thinking of using 4-3-3 next season. As you can see, we didn't lose many goals last season, but I think we need to score more. A cup run and a told half finish would suit me...

[Conman14]

August went well. Three wins and a draw sees me 4th in the table! Scored some cracking goals too.

[Avramski]

That's season 2 in the book with Northwich. Despite losing my best striker to a long term injury very early on in the season, we managed to finish 5th, even after a horrific run in January, February and early March where we only gained 9 points in 13 matches, scoring a paltry 7 goals in the process. Before that, we were looking good for a title challenge, as the team was keeping within 5 points (usually closer) of then leaders, and eventual champions Darlington. However, our form improved drastically from mid March with 6 wins and a draw in the last 8 matches, including 6 clean sheets in the final 6 games of the season. Into the playoffs we go then, and we're drawn against Telford. 1-1 in the first leg, before they get a 118th minute winner in the second leg to go through 2-1 on aggregate. I'm not that disappointed though, as Telford were the toughest team to be drawn against in the playoffs, plus with the squad I have, I doubt I would have been able to survive in the BSP anyway.

In the FA Cup, we made it through to the 1st round, beating Vauxhall 4-0 in Q2, Colwyn Bay 2-1 in Q3, before dumping rivals Crewe out 2-1 But .... Brackley (who?) beat us 3-2 (after a replay) in the 1st round proper!

In the FA Trophy, we comfortably beat Cammell Laird 4-0 in Q3, before Telford (I hate that team!) beat us 4-3 in the 1st round.

March 13th rolled round, and following an increase in my junior coaching several weeks previously, I had high hopes about the quality. Although I didn't quite get what I wanted (a striker with a good PA), I did have several good prospects, with 3 players having 5 stars for PA. However, 2 of those are goalkeepers! On looking at the report cards, Frank Lenders (report card) just shades it, so accordingly, he gets the YP tag, although I'm tempted to give 1 of the goalies a YP tag as well.

Last but not least, my transfer history for the season. The only player to depart was my former backup goalie, and at £400/week I wasn't that sad to see him leave.

[Charlie_B]

Your updates were interesting Conman14 (surely no need to delete them), but I think you'd burn out before even getting into the League. So far I've found Vines andd McDonald to be my main men - indeed I played 28 games before failing to find the net!

[Conman14]

Your updates were interesting Conman14 (surely no need to delete them), but I think you'd burn out before even getting into the League. So far I've found Vines andd McDonald to be my main men - indeed I played 28 games before failing to find the net!

I didn't see that the updates should be seasonal. Plus I don't think I'd keep up with them anyway!

[Donaldoholic]

After many hours of trying to get Ashton Utd (having managed them in fm11) I've settled with Tooting & Mitcham Utd.


It took many reloads to get a team I even liked because I grew to dislike most of them during my reign as Ashton manager in previous said game.

Profile
Information

[ri916]

just finished trekking through the thread. There has been so much activity!

It has been a great day for this challenge, with two people leading Carshalton to promotion after a few years sitting in midtable.

TWFL- a great season for you there! Ibrahim tran looks immense. He is certainly no BSP player, so watch out for the poachers! I reckon you can survive in the BSP with the extra experience you have had.

Conman- Good luck with carshalton. As you can see, there has been some positive news from fellow challengers recently hopefully you can replicate their success. When you post screenshots could you post them as direct links please. The intructions on this are in the opening post if you dont know how to do them, we do it to stop the thread taking ages to load and because it clogs it up.

Trusler- Finally I have someone to compare notes with! good season with FC United and keeping them up is the main aim in S1 and you maanaged that so well done. It will be interesting to see who takes the most seasons to get promoted

Avramski- Could you give your updates a bold title please, it makes it a bit easier to pick out A breakthrough season for Northwich with you getting them into the playoff spots. Hopefully next season I will have to update the table to say you are in the BSP

Donaldoholic- Welcome to the challenge mate and I think tooting and mitcham is probably the hardest team that has been taken so far. If you can keep them up, It will be a great achievement and the start of a great save!

[Donaldoholic]

Thanks a lot ri.

I probably shouldn't have ended the pre-season with a game against Barnet...

Lost 6-0. My assistant was in charge like. I got sick of waiting after the first two games.

I think I'm going to struggle. Ah well, should be fun while it lasts...bring on magical March.

[Welsh Wizard]

Chester - BSN - 2012/13 End Of Season Report

League Table | Squad Stats | Transfers | Finances | Facilities

Great season finishing as Champions and going up but could it be too soon? Strange season! Some games we would dominate and smash teams where as others we would find it hard to get a shot and would look like a different team. Rainford finished as our top scorer as well as the leagues seemed to slow way down after I mentioned him (Forum jinx at work again?) But still got a very decent amount and we will need his goals next season if we are to stay up. Finances not looking too good. Think there was only one month were we made something other than the Big money friendlies.

F.A Cup

2ndQR Chorley (H) 4-1
3rdQR Ashton Utd (H) 4-0
4thQR Wrexham (A) 0-1

Decent run but stopped by major rivals Wrexham and should of been more than 1-0

F.A Trophy

3rdQR Vauxhall (A) 1-3
1stR Workington (A) 0-0
1stR Replay Workington (H) 1-0
2ndR Braintree (H) 4-0
3rdR Droylsden (A) 1-2
4thR Mansfield (A) 1-0

Another Great run but got well out played vs Mansfield and 1-0 was very bad for them as we rarely touched the ball

Season   League   Position   Achivements 
12/13    BSN      1st        BSN Champions & Manager of the Year

Youth Intake

Youth Candidates

Decent in quality rather than quantity.
Just the two players signed up and given the YP tag. Plan to retain Hoskins to AMR and Collis will likely get in to the starting line-up long term quite soon.

Lee Hoskins - Report
George Collis - Report

YP Watch

YP1 - Lee Hoskins - ST
Initial Profile - Coach Report

Season      Games    Goals    Assists       Average Rating
12/13       0(7)       2        2                    6.88
13/14

YP2 - George Collis - CB
Initial Profile - Coach Report

Season      Games    Goals    Assists       Average Rating
12/13       9        0        0                    7.07
13/14

[Tactic Master]

Thats brilliant Welsh Wizard, congratulations mate I don't think its too soon at all, but trust me when I say this league is hard!

[ri916]

Welsh Wizard- Well done on the promotion! some decent youth prospects and I think you can guide Chester to a safe position in the BSP. How do you do the 'code' thing, that shows your previous league positions and achievements ect.?

[Welsh Wizard]

Welsh Wizard- Well done on the promotion! some decent youth prospects and I think you can guide Chester to a safe position in the BSP. How do you do the 'code' thing, that shows your previous league positions and achievements ect.?

Thanks. hopefully can

For code it's the # icon in the advance reply. Set the text up in Notepad or something similar to get the spacing right.

[ri916]

Test

Season  Division  League Position        Achievement
   1       BSN        16th            Avoiding relegation

nice! will be using it to track my progress and I would recommend other people use it as it is really good. Set it out in notepad how you want it to look and then paste inbetween the [CODE] signs. It doesnt look right but when you send it it will appear right in the thread.

[ri916]

Just a prior warning to you guys that I wont be around much tomorrow because its my birthday hopefully I wont miss to much

also, an Interesting piece of news.

I have also just had a message in my inbox saying we are in takeover talks and a transfer embargo has been enforced.

[Tactic Master]

Its fantastic see we keep getting new people in here and the post counts have been brilliant! Although I can't remember everyone who's new, I'd just like to say, welcome to the challenge

Ri, don't worry, i'm sure you will catch up! Have a good birthday. Also that news could be bad or it could be good, you will have to wait and see what type of chairman you get!

Finally, if anybody is interested, take a look at my FA Cup Action, with a full post on my career thread which can be found here!

[Donaldoholic]

Well done Welsh Wizard and Tactic Master.

I'm a little envious. First season, 10 games down, 5 points...4 month injury to my best player/captain... :/

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Looks like we're on course for another season in the BSS.

[Tactic Master]

Donaldoholic, stick to it and it will eventually come good, but that injury is very unfortunate! I believe you can steer clear of relegation.

Drew, whats your current league position and how many games left?

[Tactic Master]

[Edit] For the images update visit my career updates thread!

Season 2014/2015 - 3 Month Update

As you all know, we started the season in brilliant fashion, with several good results. I have since played on for another 3 months and it's time to see where we are at! You may have already noticed my FA Cup update, which I intend to update as we go along, if we get further. We have since played against Cray in the 2nd round, so you will find the result in the Novemeber update below.

September Update

September Fixtures

After a fantastic August, we moved into September with high hopes, but knew we had to play against some very difficult teams. Dag & Red, Dartford, Gateshead and Bath were 4 extremely difficult matches to tackle and was made worse as they were one after the other! This could have caused problems with morale, but luckily we some how came out with 2 wins out of 4. We expected our victories over Boreham Wood and Welling, so it was fantastic to pick up maximum points from those matches, to put us in good stead in the league!

October Update

October Fixtures

October saw us go unbeaten, probably for the first time ever in an entire month (I think i'm right!), which we can be very pleased with considering the opposition yet again, on par with last month! This month also saw us go face to face with self made rivals Alfreton (self made, meaning I believe them to be rivals!), dipping out toes into the FA Cup for the first time this season and beating them in the replay in their own back yard! Unfortunately, we found out on the 30th that we would play League 1 opposition in the 1st round...

November Update

November Fixtures

This month was devastating for our Blue Square Bet Premier charge, with a defeat to Stockport and 3 draws! I would like to say, I think that we have had the toughest start to the season out of any clubs and I believe December could possibly be an easy month after getting all these difficult matches out of the way. Despite the heartache in the BSP, we found ourselves in the FA Cup! An abolsute cracking and shocking match against Port Vale, beating them with 10 men over 80 minutes (3-1) and then moving on to non-league Cray, budging ourselves into the 3rd round for the first time ever!

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw - Interesting Matches

Chelsea Vs Man Utd
Fulham Vs Aldershot
Reading Vs Dag & Red
Middlesbrough Vs Man City
Plymouth Vs Arsenal
Newcastle Vs Gateshead
Chester Vs Fleetwood or Bath City!!! (Both BSP)
Chesterfield Vs Derby

We got the easiest draw in the entire FA Cup draw!!! There will only be 4 lower league teams and none are lower than the BSP, with all 4 being from the BSP, (Ourselves) Chester, Dag & Red, Gateshead, & Fleetwood or Bath City! If we can manage to get into the 4th Round and we get a decent draw from League 1 or below, I believe we could be in with a good chance!

League Table

Blue Square Bet Premier

Despite a difficult month in November, we have only played 20 games, compared to some teams above us who have played 21 and 22 games and our league position might be 11th, but there are only 4 points between 11th and 4th! I think if we can start scoring and winning these games that we keep drawing, then we could push for a play-off position!

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Donaldoholic, stick to it and it will eventually come good, but that injury is very unfortunate! I believe you can steer clear of relegation.

Drew, whats your current league position and how many games left?

We're 3rd, with 15 games left, but we're constantly drawing games.

Just need someone who will put the ball into the back of the net.

[Tactic Master]

We're 3rd, with 15 games left, but we're constantly drawing games.

Just need someone who will put the ball into the back of the net.

I know the feeling trust me! We are obsessed with drawing!

[TWFL]

[Edit] For the images update visit my career updates thread!

Season 2014/2015 - 3 Month Update

As you all know, we started the season in brilliant fashion, with several good results. I have since played on for another 3 months and it's time to see where we are at! You may have already noticed my FA Cup update, which I intend to update as we go along, if we get further. We have since played against Cray in the 2nd round, so you will find the result in the Novemeber update below.

September Update

September Fixtures

After a fantastic August, we moved into September with high hopes, but knew we had to play against some very difficult teams. Dag & Red, Dartford, Gateshead and Bath were 4 extremely difficult matches to tackle and was made worse as they were one after the other! This could have caused problems with morale, but luckily we some how came out with 2 wins out of 4. We expected our victories over Boreham Wood and Welling, so it was fantastic to pick up maximum points from those matches, to put us in good stead in the league!

October Update

October Fixtures

October saw us go unbeaten, probably for the first time ever in an entire month (I think i'm right!), which we can be very pleased with considering the opposition yet again, on par with last month! This month also saw us go face to face with self made rivals Alfreton (self made, meaning I believe them to be rivals!), dipping out toes into the FA Cup for the first time this season and beating them in the replay in their own back yard! Unfortunately, we found out on the 30th that we would play League 1 opposition in the 1st round...

November Update

November Fixtures

This month was devastating for our Blue Square Bet Premier charge, with a defeat to Stockport and 3 draws! I would like to say, I think that we have had the toughest start to the season out of any clubs and I believe December could possibly be an easy month after getting all these difficult matches out of the way. Despite the heartache in the BSP, we found ourselves in the FA Cup! An abolsute cracking and shocking match against Port Vale, beating them with 10 men over 80 minutes (3-1) and then moving on to non-league Cray, budging ourselves into the 3rd round for the first time ever!

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw - Interesting Matches

Chelsea Vs Man Utd
Fulham Vs Aldershot
Reading Vs Dag & Red
Middlesbrough Vs Man City
Plymouth Vs Arsenal
Newcastle Vs Gateshead
Chester Vs Fleetwood or Bath City!!! (Both BSP)
Chesterfield Vs Derby

We got the easiest draw in the entire FA Cup draw!!! There will only be 4 lower league teams and none are lower than the BSP, with all 4 being from the BSP, (Ourselves) Chester, Dag & Red, Gateshead, & Fleetwood or Bath City! If we can manage to get into the 4th Round and we get a decent draw from League 1 or below, I believe we could be in with a good chance!

League Table

Blue Square Bet Premier

Despite a difficult month in November, we have only played 20 games, compared to some teams above us who have played 21 and 22 games and our league position might be 11th, but there are only 4 points between 11th and 4th! I think if we can start scoring and winning these games that we keep drawing, then we could push for a play-off position!

Wow great stuff in the FA Cup. Must really be helping the coffers!

[Tactic Master]

We did already have around 400k in the coffers, but this is boosting it even further! I'm hoping the board recognise this and allow me an upgrade before march!