FM16 - Super Challenge: Local Lad to Hero

Welcome to what I am calling the Super Challenge. This challenge involves quite a bit of recordkeeping but essentially is a pretty simple prospect to understand. The main premise involved is trying to win as many trophies as possible and getting points as reward. The challenge can be broken down into two real stages.

The first stage is to start at the closest lowest division club in your country of residence. You must remain at the club for at least 3 years at the start of the game. After the 3 or more years at the club you can then proceed on to your career, which is the second stage.

The whole challenge ends when your original club drops out of the bottom division. So at the start of the game you need to make sure you bolster that club to the point where you are in no danger of the challenge ending early because the next manager drives your club into the dirt.

You are allowed to load lower custom databases such as the lower English divisions so that you can play with your most local club. Without custom database you could start for example in the Vanarama North/South in England, or Campeonato Nacional in Portugal. If you choose a team in this division you are not allowed to load divisions below it. The challenge is based around playing with a team in lowest division loaded.

If you are in the US or Australia and therefore have to play with a team in MLS or A-League or any other country that only has one division, the challenge ends when that team finishes bottom of the division. If there are divisional splits, then the team with the worst record can be replaced for the team that is outright bottom of a specific conference.

You win points for each competition and I have provided score for pretty much every competition across around 100+ countries that you can find on the spreadsheet. I will also provide the list below for reference of what you leagues and competitions you can win.

Your effective job is to do well enough with your initial club to make sure that you give yourself time to win trophies at all your other clubs. You are able to return to the local club if they are in problems, but you may suffer penalties especially if you are under pressure at your current club.

Table of Competitions that you can win:-

Rules

• Your manager must have no coaching qualifications and be of Sunday League Footballer. Attribute your points as you like.

• Insert your date of birth, but set your age to be no more than 30 years old. Assign your actual nationality and dual nationality. Only add additional languages if you are fluent in them.

• You can either play with or without attribute masking, although massive kudos will be given to managers who work with masking on. Although as mentioned, this is a hard challenge in general so I will leave it to the manager to decide.

• Add your local club as a favoured club to help you keep tabs on what they are doing.

• Start by managing the club closest to you that is the lowest division in the country of you residence. You can add custom databases as you like and indeed it would be required to play in many of the countries above. You can add lower league divisions to your country of residence so that you can manage the closest club to you.

• You are not allowed to load any division below the bottom division that you begin to manage i.e. if you start in the Vanarama South, then you should not load any lower divisions below that of the club you start at

• You must manage the local club for 3 years, before you are allowed to move on. Only if you are sacked or your contract is not renewed are you allowed to leave earlier for pastures new.

• The challenge lasts as long as your local club is in not relegated from the bottom playable division. Giving you somewhat of an incentive to make sure that they will be alright when you are managing them.

• If your local club finds itself in a position where they are looking perilously close to dropping out of the playable leagues, you are allowed to go back, presuming the board wants you back at all.

• You collect points for every competition won, as well “Other Points” for generic things such as sackings, promotions etc. In this list “leaving under pressure” is whereby you leave the club before you are pushed. Effectively you take this penalty, when in the press there are musing that your job is on the line, or if your job is listed as insecure. If you get a contract offer from another club, at this specific point, then it is not considered “leaving under pressure” and therefore you do not pick up the penalty points.

• There are also special achievements with specific criteria attached to them, explaining how you can achieve them. Some of them are relatively simple, others are extremely hard, you can treat some of these as long terms goals if you want to bet on getting these big points.

• The challenge has incentives for you to continually move on to get as many points as possible. This is accomplished by you attaining fewer points for each consecutive competition win with that club that you have already won. In the spreadsheet as you win competitions, insert against the “Times Won at Club”, the amount of times that you have won that competition with that club. To give you an example, if you are managing at Real Madrid and have won La Liga in season 1 of your reign, you would receive 38,680 points. Winning it again the next season would give you 29,010 points (effectively 75% of the original win), this would continue to drop as you continue to win that trophy, incentivizing you to look for pastures new when you have been successful at a specific club, or to target specific tournaments). However if the next season you took over Valencia, you would start again by winning the full points if you won the league with them. The key is to put amount of titles won in the “Summary Page” for the competition wins.

• Each season you should plot how the local club is doing. The challenge ends when they are relegated from the bottom division as mentioned. You should put down their rank in the areas provided to track their progress.

• You are not allowed to manipulate the transfer market, by using a club to finance your local club by buying one of their terrible players for millions of pounds. Act honourably!

Potential Strategies

A) Do as well as you can with your local club, but move on as quick as possible and build your reputation to get as many points quickly as possible. The drawback is that your local club may well be an early candidate for relegation and you may need to monitor them closely.

B) Do enough to take your club up a few divisions, and improve their squad so that they are not in danger. Medium term option, the club should be okay in the medium term allowing you to get on and build up, however there is the potential for them to always slip back, especially if the infrastructure of the club is not up to par with other clubs in the division.

C) Really prioritise your local club, but stop short of big success. You will forgo early points, but can then hit the ground running and you give yourself plenty of room for the club to fall, but not eliminate your challenge.

D) Turn them into World Beaters – You get points along the way, but it is a tough slog. The danger is you may well end up creating a behemoth that you have trouble competing with for major honours.

Anyway the choice is yours.

If you want to participate then please download the spreadsheet and load up the game as you like. You can search custom database both in this forum and many of the other popular ones such as Susie.

Let me know who you are starting with and how far it is from your dwelling, and if you want to give me updates I will record a leaderboard of challengers as we go through the seasons.

In the next few days I will start my challenge up and hopefully I won’t lose early on, although you never know.

Let me know your thoughts on the challenge too and perhaps any things you would like to see. There is still the potential to add further special challenges.

Pick up the spreadsheet here to collate your points - https://www.sendspace.com/file/jt4bps

In India, the lowest national league is I-League 2nd division. As of now, teams do not get relegated from it. So basically, I can take Mohameddan, control them for 3 years and leave them, knowing that they will never get relegted, so the challenge goes on till the end of time! Similarly for some other countries, like Belgium!

For the I League or any other league where there ia no relegation in the bottom division, you would lose the challenge if the club finished bottom of the bottom division much like I mentioned in the opening post for competitions such as the MLS or the A-League. Hopefully that clarifies that the challenge would not go on forever, in fact in that situation you might arguably have a harder time long term.

Anyway cheers for the query and let me know if there is anything else that is ambiguous.

Its a very ambitious challenge Terminal, and though I like it a lot, I fear people might get discouraged to join. I hope for the best though.

There is also quite important where in the world you live for real, which might discourage even more people from trying this. But I say: lets give it a go.

However, I downloaded the spreadsheet and not quite sure how to fill in all the columns here.

Hey mate, I agree it can be perceived as ambitious, but I see it more as open ended, there is not directly a final goal like a pentagon challenge it is more a challenge that gives you reasons to keep moving around, as you begin to earn less points the more you achieve at the same club.

I think some countries are harder, but that's not necessarily a problem, if you are American your task might be harder overall in the challenge, but you will start with a relatively reputable team and the chance to get some big early points.

I would ask people to not think of it as a win this tournament to win the challenge kind of challenge and therefore something else and complicated, it's actually a very simple challenge, make sure your local club stay in the league structure and win as many trophies as you can elsewhere when you are not there. That's all it boils down to in effect.

The added dynamic is when do you go back to the local club, when do you move on from the current club, do you give it one more year at Real Madrid trying to win the European Cup for big points, knowing that having won the league three times you are not getting as many points as you could get elsewhere.

It should be a challenge that forces people to make there own decisions about the next career move rather than anything that is overly forced like perhaps a pentagon challenge, I reckon. With the added dynamic that you have to keep an eye on the club where you started and perhaps intervene when it looks like it's going south, even if you are on the cusp of European glory.

Anyway I know it won't be for everyone, but I reckon there is one or two that might enjoy it. I should be starting my game off this evening.

With regards to spreadsheet, in the summary table there are 4 tables, the first is where you record competition wins. When you win a competition fill in the year and the club and select the league or cup you won and insert the number of career wins that you have had of the competition and how many at that club, the spreadsheet should automatically work out your points scored.

In other points you record promotions, relegations, sackings etc. When these events happen simply select it to receive points or penalties.

Special points are specific challenges generally historic, in another tab named Special Points you can read he description of how you can get these points. They are often historic, such as restore Torino to win the Serie

a or be the first manager to win the next Premier League title for Liverpool and many others. When you achieve these get these from the select it from the drop down and the spreadsheet will give you then points,

The final tab in the summary is simply so you can record the progress of the local club, for your record. Also to help you plan when you might need to intervene or be worried.

Anyway if you still need help let me know.

Cheers.

why now, I have an essay to do...

I actually really like the look of this challenge, and I shall give it a go soon. One question though, the nearest team to me (Luton Town) play in League 2. Is it okay for me to load League 2 as the lowest league and just not include the Conference and N/S leagues? I don't see this making it much easier really as it just means the lowest league is higher than before. Let me know your ruling on this, and then I can hopefully get started!

To be honest I think that is fair that you play as Luton Town in League Two, probably would rule against you if they were in League One. However if you start with them you cannot load anything below League 2. So challenge would end if Luton Town ever found themselves relegated from League 2.

Anyway enjoy and looking forward to the updates.

Okay, I will do that then! Thanks, I just wanted to make sure. I'll be ready with my first post sometime tonight hopefully.

And so it begins with...

Here are the nations I chose to start with, and here is proof that League 2 is my lowest active league in England.

Meet Steve Randall, a 21 year old man who lives 8.5 miles away from Luton, and has finally achieved his dream of becoming their manager. He has Italian grandparents on his mums side, which is why the English name, but the Italian second nationality.

I'll update again at the end of the transfer window.

And so it begins with...

Luton Town

Here are the nations I chose to start with, and here is proof that League 2 is my lowest active league in England.

Meet Steve Randall, a 21 year old man who lives 8.5 miles away from Luton, and has finally achieved his dream of becoming their manager. He has Italian grandparents on his mums side, which is why the English name, but the Italian second nationality.

I'll update again at the end of the transfer window.

Good luck mate for the coming season, looking forward to seeing how you do!

HILLINGDON BOROUGH FC

I decided to load up almost all the league (most at this stage view only) - actually playable are England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Qatar, DR Congo, Guatemala, Vietnam, Tunisia, Portugal, Nigeria and New Zealand for now.

Nicco Varela (28 years old), the new manager of Hillingdon Borough playing in the Spartan South Midlands Division One (10th tier of English football). Nicco is a Portuguese and English national, on account of Portuguese parentage and being born in the UK. Nicco lives about 1 miles from Hillingdon's home ground, the Middlesex Stadium.

Full update on proceedings coming. So the task will be for now to make sure Hillingdon do finish bottom of the division or it is challenge over. The predictions tell us that Hillingdon Borough are expected to finish 6th in a league of 20 teams, with odds of 80/1 to win the division. Only the top team is promoted, no relegation for the bottom team.

| Results | Transfers | Tactics | League Table | Competitions |

Pre-Season

We didn't put a foot wrong throughout the whole of pre-season, although the hardest team we had to face was only Sheffield Wednesday, so we were expected to win most of the games.

League

Our first 3 league games were all very close wins; I can't seem to get the team scoring, but at the same time I'm not conceding very many. The next two games against Yeovil and Portsmouth I was not so fortunate though, and a loss and a draw were added to our tally. This leaves us in 7th place for the moment, but we are only 2 points off of leaders Bristol. Oh, and the team that is cut off of the picture in 24th place is AFC Wimbledon for anyone that is interested.

Cups

We have so far only participated in the first round of the Capital One Cup, in which we were really no match for Ipswich. In our next game we're playing Wycombe Wanderers in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy South 1st Round, but that update will have to wait until my next (probably around Christmas).

Transfers

There was no one who I thought had to leave just yet - I'm willing to give everyone a chance - so there are no transfers out.

On the whole, the team was looking quite good, it was just perhaps lacking depth in some areas, and Mark Tyler perhaps isn't quite up to the standard, especially in his old age. So we have brought in some new faces:

Kean Bryan: A youngster on loan from Man City, he is mainly a backup DM, however he can also play in CM.

Dominic Gape: Another youngster, but this time on loan from Southampton. He is currently our best CM, and has put in a few good performances.

Jamal Blackman: A loanee GK as a result of our newly made affiliation with Chelsea, he seems much better than Tyler.

Luke Simpson: Looking more to the future with this signing. He is a young GK acquired on a free, with a decent potential ability by the looks of things.

Marvin Elliot: This Jamaican international was looking to be a great free signing as a starting DM, until he picked up an injury on the last game of pre-season, and is only just about to come back to full fitness now. I have high hopes for him this season though, even as a 30 year old.

Edouard Schoenecker: Another DM, but this one looking to the future also. I'm just trying to make sure there is enough quality to keep them in the Football League once I leave.

That's all for this update. If you want to know anything more, just ask.

HILLINGDON BOROUGH FC

So we embarked with Hillingdon Borough on our first season. It was quite clear early on that I needed to bring in better quality, especially in the spine of the team. I decided that I wanted to play a 4-1-2-1-1-1, employing a shadow striker to just float in the space in between the striker and the attacking midfielder and also a ball winning midfielder to keep things solid in front of the back four.

Transfers

Lee Boylan - 37 years old (Irish) - Lee came as a free agent much like every other transfer and he had something we were lacking, a genuine clinical edge in front of goal. I was banking on the fact that his lack of pace would not betray us but that we could get him the ball in the box, giving him opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net.

Byron Brown - 30 years old (English) - We needed a guy to come in at the full back position, especially at left back and while he did not set the world on fire looking at him, he was a significant enough improvement to bring him in.

Richard Munday - 28 years old (English) - Our centre back pairing was not good enough for me, so I wanted to bring in to guys to be first teamers. Richard possessed a lot of quality especially in his positioning and his ability to keep track of opposition strikers. He also struck me as a leader on the pitch which is always important in every team.

Lee Crockett - 28 years old (English) - He came in to solve a big problem in terms of a complete lack of quality at goalkeeper. It is an important piece of the puzzle and a crucial position on the pitch. I expect Lee to be able to guide us to plenty of clean sheets.

Danny Gordon - 33 years old (English) - Danny is a veteran centre back, and really improved on our quality. I expect him to form a good partnership with Munday. He also joins as club captain as his personality exudes the type of leader we need.

Chris Logan - 27 years old (English) - Chris was probably the best signing of the summer. We had no one who could play the anchor well, which is a crucial role for us to protect the defence. He as all the quality to play above this level and it is a coup for us to get his services

A few squad players left, but are not at all really important. I would have liked to have brought in a little bit more depth, but the budget would not allow it, so it was really a matter of hoping that we were not injury plagued and certainly that we would not pick up injuries in key positions.

Pre-Season

I elongated pre-season to allow us to get more accustomed with the way I wanted us to play football. In the end we played 8 friendlies and were very impressive, winning 6 games and drawing two, although even in those games I felt we were the better team.

Spartan South Midlands Division One

We started the season with a draw but were rock hard in defence and although there have been a few blips, we have generally been good at the back this season. We are currently at the half way point in the season having played 19 games, and we lie top of the table, three points clear of Baldock Town and six points clear of Broadfields United in 3rd place. We have managed 13 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses. Chris Logan has been very impressive in the league and probably been our best player. Alfie Wells our right winger is the top scorer always getting on the end of things this season so far. Boylan our striker has been in good form also getting 10 goals, just in front of Anthony Adams playing Shadow Striker who has 8 goals this season. We have occassionaly gone on a few winning streaks, but it always seems to end at around 5 games and has been followed by a couple of losses, so I am trying to cut that out of our game, and hopefully getting the boys to kick on to put some space between us and Baldock Town.

FA Vase

We exited the competition in the 1st Round to Parkgate, a team from the North of England. We went to replay after unluckily drawing 1-1 in the first game. We should have put the game to bed having taken the lead, but didn't score and allowed them to score late on. In the Replay we looked good until we were reduced to 10 men (we have had issues this season with red cards and general lack of discipline), and Parkgate punished us winning 2-0 at our ground.

Spartan South Midlands League Challenge Trophy

This trophy is not worth anything in the challenge, so its not really a priority to me, although we are still in the competition, waiting to face off against Hertford in the Quarter Finals. One the way we beat Crawley Green 3-1, followed by Biggleswade United 3-0 and Baldock Town in the last round 1-0. Could be an opportunity for silverware, but the league remains the priority for us.

Anyway I will be back with the end of season round-up, and I am hoping that we manage to win the league, but I expect plenty of ups and downs up until then.

Luton Town

| Results | Transfers | Tactics | League Table | Competitions |

Pre-Season

We didn't put a foot wrong throughout the whole of pre-season, although the hardest team we had to face was only Sheffield Wednesday, so we were expected to win most of the games.

League

Our first 3 league games were all very close wins; I can't seem to get the team scoring, but at the same time I'm not conceding very many. The next two games against Yeovil and Portsmouth I was not so fortunate though, and a loss and a draw were added to our tally. This leaves us in 7th place for the moment, but we are only 2 points off of leaders Bristol. Oh, and the team that is cut off of the picture in 24th place is AFC Wimbledon for anyone that is interested.

Cups

We have so far only participated in the first round of the Capital One Cup, in which we were really no match for Ipswich. In our next game we're playing Wycombe Wanderers in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy South 1st Round, but that update will have to wait until my next (probably around Christmas).

Transfers

There was no one who I thought had to leave just yet - I'm willing to give everyone a chance - so there are no transfers out.

On the whole, the team was looking quite good, it was just perhaps lacking depth in some areas, and Mark Tyler perhaps isn't quite up to the standard, especially in his old age. So we have brought in some new faces:

Kean Bryan: A youngster on loan from Man City, he is mainly a backup DM, however he can also play in CM.

Dominic Gape: Another youngster, but this time on loan from Southampton. He is currently our best CM, and has put in a few good performances.

Jamal Blackman: A loanee GK as a result of our newly made affiliation with Chelsea, he seems much better than Tyler.

Luke Simpson: Looking more to the future with this signing. He is a young GK acquired on a free, with a decent potential ability by the looks of things.

Marvin Elliot: This Jamaican international was looking to be a great free signing as a starting DM, until he picked up an injury on the last game of pre-season, and is only just about to come back to full fitness now. I have high hopes for him this season though, even as a 30 year old.

Edouard Schoenecker: Another DM, but this one looking to the future also. I'm just trying to make sure there is enough quality to keep them in the Football League once I leave.

That's all for this update. If you want to know anything more, just ask.

Nice update mate! Marvin Elliot looks like a good signing for you. Pretty good form so far. I think I would rather keep a clean sheet, than score a lot of goals, but hopefully more of the goals will come in time as the players get used to things.

HILLINGDON BOROUGH FC

League

The season has finally over and I will just say this now, we massively blew it. From a position of being top at the half way points, we ended up finishing fourth, which was very disappointing. A major catalyst for the drop in the form was the sudden retirement of Lee Boylan, who was in good form for us at the start of the season. For whatever reason he decided that he was too old, and £70 a week was not worth turning up to Hillingdon anymore and he decide to call time on his career. Earlier I mentioned that we lacked depth and this suddenly came back to bite me in my arse, as the replacements perhaps did not perform as well, and it required some juggling of the match day squad into different positions. Our second half of the season form bares stark contrast to our early season form with, 7 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats as we finished very average.

Spartan Cup

Perhaps the most annoying part of it all was that we stayed top for quite a while in the league, but 3 straight defeats put us down the table to fourth and you could just tell that we were not going to get over the line to clinch the championship and promotion spot.

In the Spartan Cup we progressed to the final with impressive wins wins over Hertford by 4-1 and Welwyn Garden City by 2-0, but the final against London Tigers came at the ebb of our form and we lost out by 3-1. A wasted opportunity for silverware.

The Future

Going into the next season I am not entirely hopeful that we will get promoted, looking around at potential transfer targets does not reveal a lot of stars and this is a major problem. I am also thinking that perhaps we need to see if we can modify the way we are currently playing. There seemed to be a big contrast between our home and away form in general. With our home ground being quite the fortress for us, but the away form very patchy.

In general, as far as the challenge goes, it is not ideal. A season 1 promotion would have given me confidence that I could leave Hillingdon after season 3, with a nice safety net of league between me losing the challenge. Now it is not so clear, promotion next season would rectify things largely, but if we do not go up, it leaves me in a dilemma as to what I should do in season 3, because the goal is to start earning some points.

Overall Season Points Tally: 0

I think I have a bit of an issue as the new season has not fired, presume it is related to the custom database that I am using. I will probably need to start again with my local club in the Vanarama North/South.

It is a bit of shame as Hillingdon was proving quite a challenge which I like, but I will be back with in the next few days with my new game for this challenge, presuming that I can't actually resolve this problem.

I think I have a bit of an issue as the new season has not fired, presume it is related to the custom database that I am using. I will probably need to start again with my local club in the Vanarama North/South.

It is a bit of shame as Hillingdon was proving quite a challenge which I like, but I will be back with in the next few days with my new game for this challenge, presuming that I can't actually resolve this problem.

Oh no! That's annoying :/ at least you were only a season in though. Good luck with fixing it or starting a new challenge! I probably won't get another update in before next week as I have very busy with uni work and then I am going away this weekend. But expect something next week!

WEALDSTONE FC

So restarting my game, due to the issues that I had with the custom database, I will be restarting with Wealdstone FC in the Vanarama Conference South.

Nicco Varela (28 years old) will be taking the reigns at Wealdstone FC. Nicco is a Portuguese and English national, on account of Portuguese parentage and being born in the UK. Nicco lives about 1 miles from Wealdstones's home ground, the Middlesex Stadium.

Full update on proceedings coming. The task of course is to ensure we are not relegated, but hopefully we can push on further than that. The predictions tell us that Wealdstone are expected to finish 13th in a league of 22 teams, with odds of 50/1 to win the division. Two teams are promoted, the champion and a playoff for the second.

| Results | 2 | Transfers | Tactics | League Table | Competitions |

League

As you might be able to tell from the results we haven't been doing too badly in the league, and have notched up a good few wins. It's now 31st December, and we're sitting in 3rd place. Cambridge United are running away with the league a bit, as they are 8 points clear of 2nd place, and 9 points ahead of us. We had a slight slump in the league in the beginning of October with 3 losses out of 4 games, and no wins, but we rectified that with a win over Leyton Orient and we've have a good record since. Our top scorer, Craig Mackail-Smith, is 3rd top scorer in the league with 11 goals, and was actually first for a while but he hasn't scored in a few games. Overall, we're on track to gain our target of automatic promotion this season.

Cups

Bad news first: we're out of both the Capital One Cup and the FA Cup after only the first round. The league cup we've talked about, but the FA Cup loss was poor from us. We should have been able to beat York (even though we had drawn to them earlier in the season during our slump) but we couldn't quite manage it and lost 2-1.

The good news however, is that we are in the final of the Johnstones Paint Trophy S, away to Southend. If we can win across 2 legs, we'll be in the final at Wembley, and in with a chance of winning the trophy again, just as in 2009. If nothing else, this should help increase my managers reputation, and hopefully play a part in securing me a better job when I eventually leave Luton Town.

Tranfers

We had an injury problem on the right wing in mid September so I brought in an extra face on loan from Milton Keynes Dons:

Carl Baker: He came straight into the team to fill a Josh McQuoid shaped hole, and did very well in the 6 games he played for us. He picked up 3 assists, and an average rating of 7.05, so it's fair to say he had a positive impact. However on 17th October, he broke his leg and was going to be out for 3-4 months, so we terminated his loan and let him get specialist treatment back at his own club. I'm very grateful for the help he gave us though.

What's Next?

We're about to head into the January transfer window, although I'm not particularly looking to pick up any players right now; I'm happy with my squad. If someone catches my eye though, who knows. The next update will probably come at the end of the window just to show any comings or goings, as well as to see if I made it into the JPT Final. If you would like any more information or statistics let me know and I'll be happy to oblige.

| Results | Transfers | Tactics | League Table | Competitions |

League

We started off January with 3 fairly comfortable wins - I was especially pleased with the 4-1 win over Cambridge! However, we then rounded off the month with a 1-0 loss against bottom of the table, Macclesfield, and another 1-0 loss against Notts County, which wasn't so great. Overall though, we've moved up another place into 2nd! Although we're still 8 points behind Cambridge, and catching them is looking harder and harder. But I am fairly confident in our chances of getting promoted (without jinxing myself I hope).

Unfortunately though, Jamal Blackman is out for 2-3 months with a damaged spine, so we're having to use Mark Tyler until he's back - it would be youngster Luke Simpson, but literally the day Jamal was injured Mark wanted to talk about first team football and it just seemed the easiest way.

Cups

In the biggest talking point of this update, we're into the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy! We had a surprisingly comfortable 2-0 victory away at Southend, which set us up nicely for the home leg where we won 1-0. The final is against Bradford City, who are a very good team, but not unbeatable. I have faith in my lads, and so when we travel to Wembley on April 3rd, I have high hopes of bringing home my first trophy!

Transfers

We only made one transfer in, and one out during this window, both of them being loans. It wasn't a very exciting transfer window, but I'm very happy with my team, and my depth for the time being.

Shane Cansdell-Sherriff: I saw this experienced centre-back and thought he looked worth picking up as a backup player on loan, and in fact he helps provide cover for my right back in the form of being cover for my starting centre backs who are also natural right backs. He's had a few good performances so far, so I'm tempted to make good on the future fee agreement of £4000. For now though, we'll see how he copes, and let him compete for a starting place.

Pelly Ruddock: There's not really much of a story here. Cheltenham wanted him on loan, I wasn't playing him, so I let him go. Saves me paying his wages, and he might even develop a little while he's there!

What's Next?

The next update will come at the beginning of March around my favourite date - Youth Intake Day. I'm not expecting any world beaters, but hopefully seeing as we just improved the Junior Coaching, we'll see a few players who we will soon blood into the team, and help them develop into players who can keep the club in the football league. Until then, it's get through February and try to close the gap with Cambridge, whilst widening it with everyone else. Or more simply: try to win as many games as possible.

I hope the restart is going well for you TerminalPortugal, I look forward to your next update!

Nice update, some really good opportunities to earn some good points at the start of your game.

Yeah I will be continuing my save, hopefully next week I should have an update with Wealdstone.

Good luck for the end of the season! Looking very interesting.

| Results | Transfers | Tactics | League Table | Competitions |

First things first, apologies, I forgot to take a screenshot of the actual Youth Intake, but I will provide screenshots of my best prospects. First though:

League

We had a pretty poor start to February, 2 draws and a loss meant we were 5 games with a win, and that certainty of promotion was starting to be questioned. We were in 3rd, only a point above Oxford. We were due to face York, away, and the last time they'd played us, they knocked us out the FA Cup. We desperately needed a win to end our bad form, and win back our fans, but the future was looking a little dim. This may have been the make it or break it of the season, so I'll talk you through the game.

25 minutes went by, and whilst we looked mostly in control, we were struggling to find that goal, and York were occasionally looking dangerous. We get a throw in on the right hand side in our own half, thrown to Mackail-Smith who plays a lovely 1-2 with O'Donnell and bombs down the line, after the through ball. He crosses it, and it looks like McGeehan has put it in, but it hits the bar! Both McGeehan and McCourt rush towards it, trying to put the ball in the empty net, but York defender McCombe makes it first... and puts it into his own net! 1-0 to the Hatters! Half time comes, and it's still 1-0, so they're told to not get complacent and to keep going as they are. 57 minutes in, Paddy McCourt floats a ball over the defence which Mackail-Smith gets on to and calmly tucks away into the bottom right. 2-0. At 71 minutes, Hall (who is on in place of McCourt) is fouled just in front on the halfway line, on the left. He takes the free kick, a floated ball almost directly onto the penalty spot, and Mackail-Smith gets his head on it, beats the keeper, but it bounces off the bar! Luckily he's still there to follow up and finish off his 2nd goal of the game, 3-0. It all looks to be safe. It gets to almost 90 minutes, it looks like Luton have dug themselves out of this rut, surely there's no coming back now? You'd be right. As if to add insult to injury, McCombe makes his second mistake of the game, passing it straight to McGeehan, who threads it through for Danny Green cutting inside from the right wing, who finishes it off at the near post. A 4-0 thrashing felt great after the winless last couple of weeks, and we went home happy, having managed to win a game in February, and have since won the only 2 in March so far. This sees us sitting 7 points behind Cambridge in 2nd.

Youth Intake

There is one real stand-out talent in my intake, and only really one other who I consider to be good, the others will either be average squad players, or may not quite make the grade. First we have:

Phill Roberts: He is already a 1 star player for the team, and seems to have a lot of potential. His natural position is AMC, but according to Terry Harris, his best position is AMR, where he is accomplished. I will try to integrate him into the team soon, and I am more likely to use him on the wing due to the fact that I actually use that position in my current tactic. He's one for the future definitely, I just hope we can hang onto him.

Our other potential star is:

Paul Gardner: Central midfielder Paul Gardner is very young at only 15, which is a good thing seeing as his current ability looks to be a long way away from his potential. I have a suspicion he may not reach the very top of what he could be, but I see him being a good player for the team in the future. He has great physical stats for his age, and his first touch and passing are impressive too. Everything else may need some work though. We'll see how he turns out.

What's Next?

With 11 games to go of the season - plus a trip to Wembley - it's time to get a move on with season 1, and see if we can get ourselves promoted. In a perfect world we can do well enough to win the league (and gain some more manager points for me!) but my main goal is to stay within these 3 automatic promotion spots. Play-offs leave a little too much pressure for me, so I'd like to stay above those. Mostly, I'm just going to try and win every game, especially the one against Bradford City, and get as much out of my players as I can. See you at the end of the season!

Yeah I will be continuing my save, hopefully next week I should have an update with Wealdstone.

Glad to hear it!

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League

We did it! We achieved promotion! A 3rd place finish gained us that final automatic promotion spot so we didn't have to rely on that pot luck that is the play-offs, although it was very close towards the end. But look how much money we got for our troubles! After YI day, there were a few dodgy results in the league, as well as a confident 3-1 thrashing of Plymouth, in which our up and coming star got his first goal for the club. Notts County were never far behind us in 4th place, and thankfully they didn't overtake us when we lost to Newport, and we managed to grind out the wins that would take us to League 1. The last game in particular was one of the most tense games I've had, both my game and Notts County's were 0-0 until very late on, which would have been enough to see us through. In the 79th minute, we got a corner and and own goal put us in the lead, which seemed to clinch it, albeit being very lucky. Then a minute later, Notts County's oppenents, Carlisle, had a man sent off, which meant it was imperative that we keep this lead. Exeter were attacking far more in those last 10 minutes than they had the whole game, and in the 87 minute Notts County scored, so I told my team to concentrate, moved our mentality a step down, and just hoped we could carry out the game. And we did. So on the whole, a happy affair.

Cup

A wonderful goal from Mark O'Brien in the 79th minute (that seems to be our lucky time) saw us winners at Wembley, and new holders of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy! The second time Luton have won this, the last time being in 2009.

What's Next?

Next year I'm hoping to at least secure a mid-table position, although I'm not really too sure what to expect. There are a few players I'm looking to pick up on pre-contract agreements once they become available, and hopefully I can strengthen the squad in other ways. We're going to have to work on being more consistent, and coping better under pressure I feel. Also, I'm going to ask to be allowed to start a coaching course. I was refused earlier in the season as they wanted me at training, but over the summer break, there is no need for me to be there, so I'm hopeful.

Overall Manager Points: 5,768.00

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So the second season is underway, and here we are on September 1st, right after the transfer window has closed. Let's see how the first season in League 1 is going so far.

Pre Season

It's not really worth talking about pre-season, it was fairly average as they go. I let my assistant manage them, and they were really just to get my boys back into fitness. The most impressive result was a 4-2 against Southend -or perhaps the fact we managed to draw with Leicester - but other than that it was fairly uneventful.

League

7th is by no means a bad place to be after 5 games, especially as it's our first season. Unfortunately, our star striker, Craig Mackail-Smith (from henceforth to be shortened to Craig MS) was injured in our second game - a cup game - and so Nathan Delfouneso has had to fill in, and hasn't done too badly so far scoring 2 goals. Cameron McGeehan has been our best player though so far with 3 goals and an average rating of 7.96. As you can see from the results, we've been much better at home than we have been away, and in fact home has been a little bit of a fortress. For both the Peterborough and Bristol City game we tried a bit of a change in tactic, but it obviously didn't work that well, so I think we'll use it sparingly.

Cup

So far we've only been in the Capital One Cup, in which we lost the first round to Championship side, Bristol City. We went ahead, but unfortunately couldn't keep our lead, and conceded just before half time, and again in the 63rd minute after Blackman couldn't keep hold of the ball, which ultimately sealed our fate.

Transfers

Lots of players were let go (for a list, view my transfers tab above) as I felt they were no longer necessary, and so a few new faces have been brought in to both enhance the team, as well as to bring a bit of depth.

In the biggest talking point of the window though, we have sold future prospect Phill Roberts for £5 Million + 50% Next Sale to Southampton. This is a massive fee for the club. It tripled our bank balance, as well as breaking all club transfer records and I feel it was the right decision for us. It was a very last minute deal, so as of yet we have not invested any of that money into anything, but I'm sure I shall find something soon.

Major Transfers (read 'First Team') include:

Tom Eastman: Seeing as our captain Steve McNulty retired at the end of last season, we needed a new face in the centre of defence. That man is Tom Eastman. The 4 year old is first team quality, and so now I have 3 first team quality centre backs, and 2 backups in Wilkinson and Okuonghae.

Nathan Delfouneso: I felt that a better backup striker than Jack Marriott was needed, especially with a new trial tactic involving 2 strikers, and Delfouneso looked like the perfect candidate for the job. He is the highest paid player right now as he wanted big wages (£4000/w) to drop down a level, but I think he suits both our style and the league. He has scored 2 goals in all competitions already, so he's got off to a decent start. He'll definitely give Craig MS something to think about when he's fit again.

Donal McDermott: We're lacking a bit of quality on the wings, and whilst Josh McQuoid has been inspirational so far on the right wing, the left wing could really use some work, and McQuoid would probably like an able backup. I though Demetri Mitchell and Mendez-Laing were going to be the solution to my problems, but unfortunately Sunderland beat us to United reject Mitchell's signing, and Mendez-Laing both isn't looking as good as I'd hoped, nor is he going to be enough. So late into the window, McDermott was spotted, and snapped up quickly. He will hopefully give us a bit more going for us on the wing, and get us some assists and goals.

Minor Transfers:

Danilo Pantic: Although he is a fantastic player in his own right, and on loan from Chelsea will probably develop into someone great, he was going to be the lynch pin on the tactic that just didn't quite work out, and wasn't quite as good in central midfield (as opposed to AMC) as promised. Therefore, he is sidelined for the moment as a player to be used whenever I feel my 3rd tactic might work, which definitely won't be until Craig MS is back.

Rory Watson: Another young, prospective goalkeeper. As Luke Simpson is currently on loan to Macclesfield, I needed someone to be a backup. And Rory Watson is just the man. He's got a fair bit of potential, and whichever of him and Simpson don't end up being my first choice, will definitely be a great backup.

Ilias Chatzitheodoridis - A.K.A, the boy with the unpronounceable name. Released on a free from Arsenal this year, he is expected to become a good left back in the future. At the moment though, this Greek youngster is very much a backup to Dan Potts, and is unlikely to see much gametime in the league. I'll see where I can squeeze him in though.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing: I spoke about the winger problem earlier, and I pursued him at the same time as Mitchell. If I could only have one, I would have much preferred Mitchell, but alas, it wasn't to be. He'll be good enough though, and has already made 2 assists (1 in the league, and for the only goal in the cup) so he may not be as disappointing as I suspected.

What's Next?

Given our mid-table prediction, my target is to finish as close to the playoffs as possible, so we will work our way there over the course of the season, winning as many games as possible. I'll try to make Kenilworth Road the fortress it should be, and then pick up points on the road as often as I can. I would like to retain the JPT if possible, but that's obviously a big ask from the team, so I'll just try to make it as far as I can. It would also be nice to have a bit of an FA Cup run, but that's a lot easier said that done if we're honest. The next update will be at Christmas.

| Results | 2 | Transfers | League Table | Competitions |

League

Results have been very mixed, and it can be seen that this years opposition is definitely more difficult than last years. We didn't win a game in September, 3 draws and 2 losses were all we could manage, but form marginally improved in October and we picked up 3 wins in 6. Given our target is only top-half (and only mid-table to satisfy the board), this is probably acceptable. November and December have seen a lot of cup action, so there haven't been as many league games, but it was going fine until the back end of December where we managed to lose 2 in a row and draw at home to Scunthorpe. Overall though, 12th place is acceptable, and given were only 2 points off of 7th I would say we're doing pretty well for ourselves. A couple of better results and not falling apart in the last few minutes and we could be sitting in the playoff places, and what an achievement that would be!

Cup

So again, we haven't managed any sort of cup run outside of the JPT. Capital one cup we were out first round, and FA cup we lost in the second round to Oldham in the replay after a 0-0 draw at home. The game went to extra time after it finished 2-2 at 90 minutes, but only 6 minutes into the first half they scored to make it 3-2 and we never recovered from there. I'm quite frustrated at that to be honest. Perhaps next year we'll do better. For now though, we've got a trophy to retain! We're in the Southern Final once again, this time against Birmingham. They are also our next game, as well as the only team we haven't yet played. Hopefully, after this January window I'll have a national final set in my sights.

Transfers

There have been none since September, but with the January window imminent, I've had my eye on a couple of players, so we'll see what we can do there!

What's Next?

We'll try to maintain our position in the league, perhaps even sneak up a few places, and really just win as many games as we can. Despite the board not placing very much importance on the JPT, I'd very much like some more silverware so I'm quite focused on winning this thing for a second time, so these games against Birmingham are crucial. Also, there are a couple of players I want to sign, so I'll try and get their signatures before it's too late. I'll update you when I reach the end of the window. It could be a little while because I also have an essay to do, but I'll try to balance my time.