dafuge's FM08 small club to big club challenge

[sergent21]

A historic day for Mangotsfield Town as they turn professional

Hopefully this will enable me to sign some better players

[sergent21]

Every year we get a new batch of youth players, and the Ass Man singles out the best one of them. (I'm assuming they have the best P.A of the group.)

My aim is to take this player, give them some first team football, and track their career, be it at Mangotsfield, or should they move on. Each season I will add a new player to the reports, (naturally) and just think it could be fun, interesting and informative of what happens with them.

Youth Project 6 - Rory Howarth

Rory Howarth

Intially the first thing to notice is how good physically he already is. The rest of his stats leave a lot to be desired, but will start the season in the reerves for regular football and we will see how he progresses.

[Azeryk-]

Dwight Yorke now plays for Tiverton Town in the BS Prem :-)

Going to be a long ahrd season but have seveal players from Plymouth on loan again and a couple signings and the new youth players coming through means I have a proper squad to play around with.

[Kazpeer]

Originally posted by sergent21:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kazpeer:

My new club

Gateshead

Good luck mate </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Marine - Premier League 2029/30

After mixed success last season winning the Champions League for the second season in a row, but throwing the title on the last day, and losing the FA Cup final. The board demanded this season that I win the League.

The season didn't get off to the best of starts off the field - my Maltese left-back Julian Gregory and Vice-Captain Kevin Neill both wanted new challenges, and in light of their service for the club (both been here since the Championship), and with several promising youngsters in the ranks I let them leave. On the plus side I did manage to get my Keeper Vermeir to reconsider his demands for a new challenge by offering him a new contract.

After that things started to fall apart off the field, Liverpool tapped up my Portuguese Left Back Antonio Silva who was actually going to be my new first choice left back, but he was unhappy I turned down Liverpool's bid and demanded a transfer under the guise of wanting a new challenge, and after underperforming after demanding a transfer he was dropped and sold to Betis for £9m in the Winter Window.

Arsenal then decided to get in on the tapping up making offers for two of my Brazilian Youngsters Centre-Back Marcio who'd become a wonderkid for a little while out on loan last season and right winger Souza, both of who wanted to join an Arsenal side who haven't finished above me since I gained promotion to the Premiership, and have only snuck into the UEFA Cup due to the teams I lost to in the FA Cup Final already being in Europe. Lookily they wouldn't meet my demands for Marcio (they also didn't have the advantage of my chairman accepting the bids over my head), but eventually they offered me £10m plus 50% for Souza and he'll join them at the end of the season. Other transfers out including English Centre-Back Paul Higginbotham who was sold to Spurs for £5m after some awful performances and somehow managed to play even worse at Spurs. The rest of the transfers out was just me loaning out my reserve and youth players.

Transfers in wise I initialy signed a couple of promising youngsters - Italian Midfielder Davide Gherardi arrived from Atlanta for £2.5m, Promising English Centre-Back Martin Johnson finally arrived from Portsmouth for £6.75m after I spent nearly all last season chasing him (Though they'll be due £2.5m after an England appearance and 35% of next sale, but it's less than the £15m+ they intialy wanted - it appears the computer will accept a lower bid if its offered in installements). I also signed a couple of promising Dutch Keepers on free's and a promising right-back from Leyton Orient for £1m (I'll come back to the other two signings later).

On the pitch we started the season well with a 2-0 home win over Newcastle and a 3-1 home win over MBoro, though our away form was still patchy - we went down 2-1 to Soton and could only draw 0-0 to Southend who we dominated but just couldn't score against.

The season then hit a high point when Eduardo Lasarte scored five goals against Arsenal in a 7-0 hammering - though that 7-0 hammering seemed to inspire Arsenal as they'd go on to beat Portsmouth 5-0, Spurs 6-1, Liverpool 4-2 and Man Utd 5-0 sending them to the top of the table, though they then started to collapse after that, needing 3 goals in the last 10mins to get a 4-4 draw against Sunderland and then crashing 6-0 to Newcastle. They never recovered from that and quickly fell away from the title chase.

We however followed up the Arsenal game with our first away win of the season with a 3-0 win over WBA, but Man City caused us to drop our first home points of the season, with their Keeper yet again performing herioc's against us to enable City to walk away with a 1-1 draw.

That game seemd to demoralize us and after that we struggled to get shots on target let alone score, but luckily we managed to scrape a 1-0 win away to Chelsea - Left Winger Rocchi robbed a defender in the box and squared the ball for Lasarte to place the ball into an empty net, though we did nearly throw the game in injury time - left back Coppola shoved a Chelsea striker in the box and my right back decided to get involved getting himself sent off for arguing having already been booked, luckily my Keeper saved the pen and we held out.

After that my Striker Lasarte just collasped, he couldn't get a shot on target to save his life, I was also still trying to find a tactic that would work away from home.

With Lasarte dropped and a change in tactics we managed to score 3 goals away to Liverpool, however they got 5 and it could have been a rout if not for my Keeper, something wrong when your Keeper gets an 8 rating after conceeding 5 (well they did have 15 shots on target). Upto this point we had only conceeded 5 league goals this season.

With Lasarte dropped to the reserves to get him some self-belief back, my other striker Jose Carlos Vargas stepped up and a double against Bolton and Spurs gave us two wins, before my Welsh Midfielder McIntosh scored a first half hat-trick against Wolves which put him onto the clubs Favoured Personnel.

After that game we went to Tokoyo to retain our World Club Cup Title, and succesfully defended our title with a 3-0 win over MLS side Real Salt Lake and a 2-0 final win over Japanese side Gamba.

Whilst before the Wolves game we completed the group stage of the Champions League. Even after winning the Champions League twice in a row we still weren't favourites, and this season we'd have a difficult group that included FC Porto who we'd beaten in last seasons final, Ajax who we'd met in the last seasons group stages and the whipping boys Israeli side H. Tel-Aviv who'd go home without a point.

We didn't get off to the best of starts, as I was concentrating on the league this season, my second string could only draw 0-0 at home to Porto in an even game, we then went to Ajax and lost 2-1, luckily 4-0 and 2-0 wins over Tel-Aviv combined with Porto beating Ajax twice would leave us 1 point above Ajax, but an away draw to Porto and Ajax's win over Tel-Aviv left us requiring a win over Ajax at home in the last game to go through ahead of them as Porto's draw had already put them through. Fielding my first team we strolled past Ajax with a 3-0 win, without them getting a shot on target.

In England things weren't going to well we needed a pen from right back Constanzo to grap a 1-1 draw away to Huddersfield, before going to Old Trafford on boxing day where my players obviousily got lost in the Trafford centre sales as we didn't turn up and were 3-0 down within 25mins, Utd adding a fourth in the 71st minute finally woke my team up and Vargas grabbed a double, before Costanzo missed a last minute penalty to make it look like we competed. It was also Higginbotham's last game for the club as he was on a 3 for most of the game, and finished with a 4 rating. Though a underperforming strikeforce wasn't a problem against Sunderland as we beat them 4-1 thanks to goals from my midfield and defence.

So with next to no cover upfront for Vargas (Brazilian Ricardo has yet to impress and had been loaned back to Brazil), I went out an spent a club record £19.75m on young English Striker Luke Rowlands from Huddersfield (again offering installements seemed to bring the price down - they were initialy wanting £30m upfront).

On Jan 1st we took a big step towards the title beating Newcastle 2-1 at St.James' Park, taking us above them on goal difference.

Whilst Rowland scored on his debut with a 2nd minute goal against Plymouth in the FA Cup Third Round.

With a 3-0 home win over Soton we climbed to the top of the table, but it proved to be a short time at the summit as we would go on to lose our next three away games 1-0 to 10men MBoro, Arsenal and Man City and drawing 2-2 at home to Southend, and in the course of all that we lost new signing Rowland to injury for 2 months, so I went out and spent £7.5m on Birmingham's 32yo English Striker Darren Maththews, I'd been tracking for several years and had been scoring for fun for Birmingham and England, and whilst £7.5m is a fair bit for a 32yo his aerial ability and experience could prove vital.

Though Matthews wasn't in the end actually needed as Lasarte returned with a revenge, whilst he picked up an injury in our 3-0 FA Cup 4th Round win over Swansea where Italian Radice impressed as a makeshift Striker grabbing a double, Lasarte's time in the reserves seemed to have done him good and he annoucned his return with a double against Newcastle in the FA Cup 5th Round.

His returned was timed well - as our Champions League campaign was restarting with a Knockout Round Tie against Barcelona, a cagy first leg saw us come out on top at home thanks to a first half injury time pen from Costanzo.

Going into the Second leg we were confident having beaten WBA 3-1 and snatched a 1-0 home win over Chelsea in the league to reboot our flagging title hopes.

we started well in the Nou Camp, Vargas scoring an important away goal in the 2nd minute before going off injured in the second half, Barcelona struck either side of half-time to set up a tense second half, but they couldn't find a third and we went through on away goals.

Our return to England was via London to play Arsenal in the 6th round of the FA Cup and a fine performance saw my second string win 3-0, with Rowland grabbing his second goal for the club.

We then started to restake our claim for the title, with three wins in a row to close the gap on Man Utd (who had to pick this season to mount a title challenge, and left me the unsavoury feeling of hoping they'd lose to Chelsea), then my second string could only draw away to Leeds 1-1, as I rested my first string for the Champions League Quarter Final that would see us make the trip back to Spain to take on Real Madrid.

Resting my players didn't do much good as we didn't turn up in the first half and Madrid ripped us to shreds and were 3-0 by half-time, we started the second half well Lasarte got his head onto a cross from Volkov from the restart to claim a valuble away goal, and that was now it would end 3-1 to Madrid, all we'd need was a 2-0 win to go through in the second leg.

But first we had the small matter of an FA Cup Semi-Final against Leeds (Anyone notice that you nearly always at least once a season would be drawn against someone in a cup, so you play them twice in quick succession in different comps?), and yet again we struggled against Leeds/in the FA Cup Semi-Final. Leeds took a first half lead before Vargas equalised just after the hour, and that's how it stayed going into extra-time, and towards the end of extra-time we finally made the breakthrough, a loose ball in area was pounched upon by about half a dozen players and the ball managed to find it's way into the goal, with the final touch coming from a Leeds player. So we'd made it to our Third FA Cup Final in Three Seasons.

So with our FA Cup Final place booked, next we hoped to book our place in the UCL Semi-Finals, however things didn't start well and mid way through the first half Madrid carved open my team with a wonderful short passing move, which left their Brazilian Striker Carvalho with the relatively easy task of beating my Keeper, and in the process wiping out my away goal, we responded quickly with a goal from Lasarte and he added a second on the hour, but we couldn't find a third as Madrid controlled the game, and we'd crash out of Europe 4-3 on agg, and rather surprisingly dispite Madrid having 57% of the possession, they only managed that one shot on goal.

Then the morning after being knocked out of Europe my Keeper Vermeir demanded a transfer as he wanted a new challenge, but so far not a single side have been interested in him.

Rather fittingly Real Madrid would end up losing in the Final to FC Porto.

Being knocked out of Europe, proved to be a blessing in disguise otherwise as we comfortable won our remaining 7 league games, including a bizare game against Wolves, where we won 5-2 with all the goals coming in the first half, we also got revenge on Liverpool crushing them 5-0 at home thanks to two pens from Costanzo and a double from the inform Lasarte, on Easter weekend a second string held on to beat Bolton 1-0 away before we crushed a 9man Spurs side 4-1.

Next up would be the possible title decider, we'd play Man Utd at home, whilst 4th placed Man City would entertain 3rd placed Newcastle, interestingly neither game was actually on TV. Our recent good form had put us just one point behind leaders Man Utd, victory would take us top of the league and put our destiny in our own hands, whilst defeat would put Utd 4pts clear with just two games left.

In a quiet first half neither side could make a breakthrough, but in the second half Utd couldn't deal with my Wingers Volkov and Rocchi, and in the 53rd minute we broke the deadlock Richard played Volkov in behind the defence and he fired home. 5 minutes later it was 2-0, Rocchi was brought down in the area and Costanzo scored his fifth penalty of the season, encourging my players to run with the ball seemed to result in more pens being given, then Sambade made it 3-0 not long after with a low 25 yarder into the corner, and that's now it ended putting us top of the league for the third time this season, and the first since the turn of the year.

Our last away game of the season would see us make the trip upto Sunderland, but three goals in the first half hour, including a double from Lasarte settled any nerves as we won 3-1, but with Man Utd winning, we'd need at least a draw in our final game at home to Huddersfield.

But with another slow start, things weren't looking good we were dominating but couldn't get a clean shot on goal, with Utd leading at Leeds a goal for Huddersfield would give Utd the title, luckily Huddersfield seemed more interested in picking up yellow cards than scoring (ending up with 7 yellows).

Then in the 51st minute my rightback Costanzo was brought down in the area by Huddersfield Striker Burridge (who I very nearly signed before noticing his teammate Rowland, who was similar but cheaper), then I nearly had a heart-attack instead of my normal pen taker Costanzo stepping up, my captain and centre-back Bonomi took the ball and placed it on the spot (memories of Terry's recent miss in the UCL Final were going through my head, and Bonomi only has a 4 rating for pens) but he confidently stepped up and sent the Keeper the wrong way to make it Marine 1-0 Huddersfield. Sub Vargas then made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute 2mins after coming on, after a fine throughball from Richard. Left Winger Rocchi then made it 3-0 two minutes later, when his free kick was charged down by the wall, he was somehow the first person to get to the lose ball in the area (free kick was a good 30 yards out) and tucked the ball away into the far corner. And with it staying that way we claimed our second Premier League Title.

Though the board weren't impressed - which is a joke, this is only our second Premier League title, we weren't even favourties, and from the attitude of some of my players we are not even the biggest club in England. Though the leage win did just about push me into the English Hall of Fame - with the same amount of points as Brian Clough, Sir Alf Ramsey and David Moyes (who'd lead Spurs to 3 titles a while back now)

Leage Table - We had the best strike force and (by a long way) the best defence this season, whilst at home we again only drew 2 games and our now unbeaten for two seasons at home in the league, though Man Utd did have a better home record only drawing once, whilst we only conceeded 9 goals at home. We were also second on away form, but had managed to win the most away games this season (8). Whilst at various points this season it was looking like we'd struggle to qualify for the Champions League, but winning 12 of our last 13 league games propelled us to the title. Success was also largely down to the pass rate of my three first choice midfielders gaining 89/88% each.

But the season was finished yet, we still had the FA Cup Final to play, this would be our fourth final and hopefully it would be fourth time lucky, and I was confident for a change, we'd be up against a midtable Middlesbrough side, and we'd previously knocked out both Arsenal and Newcastle away from home. I even fielded first teamers bar the centre of midfield and Vargas upfront to make sure of victory.

But yet again we failed to perform in the Final and we fell down due to a first half goal from Mboro in a rather dissapointing performance. We now have the dubious honour of being the first team to lose the final three seasons in a row

I will win the FA Cup eventually even if it takes 100 years

Squad - Success in the league was rather remarkable considering the disloyalty of some of my players, Keeper Simon Vermeir again managed to keep 16 clean sheets in the league, but again still managed to conceed 30+ goals in the other games, it also doesn't help that he demanded a transfer the day after we were knocked out of Europe, he also pretty much played every game after I loaned out my other Keepers to get them some appearance, so I was rather lucky he never got injured.

In defence right-back Tom Darby got himself injured for 4 months playing for England, this allowed Lee Knowles to come into the team as second choice, and he took his chance becoming the first Marine Academy player to break into my team, he was also the first academy player to have a premiership potential and we'll see if he can oust Constanzo from the #2 jersey. Whilst at left-back Italian Giorgio Coppola was given a chance after the sale of Gregory and then Silva moaning, and the ex-Juventus youngster had a solid season at the back, and means my defence is now made up of 3 Italians. In the centre of defence Rowe and Bonomi were rocks in most games, whilst providing cover was Brazilan Marcio and Russian Solovjov, Alexander Solovjov had a fantastic debut season after he finally got a Work Permit gaining 8 ratings in his last 5 games. I've also got a couple of promising English Centre-backs Flanagan and new signing Johnson, who were both loaned to Scottish sides to gain some match experience, so the future is looking good defensively.

Midfield is another matter - the first choices Romeo, Sambade and Richard are as strong as ever, though Sambade is struggling to make it through some games fitness wise, cover is a problem, I just cannot seem to keep the backup/rotation players happy, Greek DM Pavlidis was given the chance as my second choice DM, but despite the fact he started 17 games he still spent most of the season moaning about first team football, the same thing happened to Welsh Midfielder Geoffrey McIntosh he was given the nod ahead of Ndlovu early in the season as second choice midfielder and impressed when called upon, but then halfway through the season he started moaning whenever he didn't play, alright he was playing well, but this was he first season in the first team and first choice Emmanuel Richard has been the heart of my midfield for several seasons and is more reliable in the big games, you'd think players would be happy playing about half your games when they sign a contract on rotation terms. Though the form of McIntosh meant Ndlovu was unhappy and he'll be joining Espanyol for £10m at the end of the season. On the wings whilst Volkov struggled to score he at least learnt how to assist, whilst on the left Rocchi had a quiet season, with Petrov and young Italian Radice providing cover, right winger may be a problem next season as Brazilian Souza will be joining Arsenal for £10m at the end of the season.

Up front Eduardo Lasarte and Jose Carlos Vargas both managed to grap nearly a goal a game, mainly because they'd either play badly or score more than once in a game. Lasarte was on fire in the first quarter of the season, and when he went off the boil Vargas stepped, and in the last quarter of the season Lasarte came back with a revenge, this then meant that new siging Rowlands didn't play as much as he likes, with both his goals coming in the FA Cup. The main problem I have is that neither Vargas nor Lasarte are able to perform throughout the entire season, and I end up losing points/games wondering whether it's a one off bad game, or they are on a bad streak. Hopefully Rowlands will provide the competition to spur them on. Though I do have to praise Lasarte as unlike certain other players he has not once complained about being dropped or even being put into the reserves.

Despite Lasartes poor form through the middle of the season he still managed to claim Runner-up in the English Footballer of the Year award, whilst Jose Carlos Vargas won English Players' Player of the year award. And in March Lasarte broke Danny Naylors' goals record of 176 league goals for Marine, and becomes only the third player to hold the record after Ameobi and Naylor, he's also played the most league games of my current squad with 217 appearances.

Snapshot - We also claimed the Super Cup with a 4-2 win over HSV, whilst we went out of the Carling Cup at the Third Round stage - which completes an amazing record in the Carling Cup - for the first 4 seasons we lost in the First Round, then the next 6 seasons we'd make it through the first round only to lose in the Second Round, we then had two seasons of making it to the Third Round, before 2023 spoilt it with us making the Fourth Round for the first time, before going back to a Third Round defeat. Then in 25/26 we made the final and since then we have gone out a round earlier each season, so I wonder what next season will bring?

Manager Profile - Apparently we now play defensively, whilst Domestic Bias hits rock bottom, I'll come back to the Brazil job later, though it did give me knowledge of the Portuguese Language.

Club Information - Ground is upto 65K, whilst Volkov gets added to the Favoured Personnel for being fans player of the year, whilst Welsh Midfielder McIntosh dropped off at the update, after being their since scoring a hat-trick against Wolves earlier in the season. Reputation is still only Continental.

Whilst Championship side Blackburn became my newest Feeder club, after they lost in the playoffs.

International Management

With the challenge completed a couple of seasons ago, I decided to accept the Brazil job at the beginning of the season when they offered it me, to see what the much touted improvements are like (well they are mentioned on the back of the box anyhow).

On the plus side I didn't get the old message about how I'd struggle to manage both Marine and Brazil. The scouting to be honest is rather useless - you cannot employ scouts, so you are left with coaches, and it appears they can only scout matches, not get a report, so if the player doesn't play any real matches you don't seem able to scout them, and with only 30 days until my first game I ended up using my club scouts and excel to narrow the national pool down to 100 odd players, and then to pick a team, which was not fun.

I actually joined Brazil with just 4 of the 16 World Cup Qualifying games left and we were nice and comfortable sitting in second place, just a couple of points from qualification, I started off with a 2-2 draw with Chile, and then beat Colombia 3-2, after we'd taken a 3-0 first half lead, we then qualified for the World Cup 2030 with a 1-0 win over Venezuela. Our final game would be away to Argentina who were top by 3 points, but they had +25 GD to our +10 so they were assured top spot, we took the lead midway through the first half, but by half-time Argentina were 2-1 up, they then made it 3-1 in the 75th, but we made it 3-2 2mins later, before in the 86th my Brazilian Striker Ricardo, only playing due to injuries scored his first goal for Brazil and then midfielder Saulo scored the winner in the 90th minute making it 4-3 Brazil, but Arg still finished top.

World Cup 2030 would be hosted by Uruguay, whilst England were the holders, and our group would consist of the USA, Iran and Portugual. We just about got off to a winning start in a sub-zero Montevideo, with winger Joao scoring on his debut in the 90th minute to give us a 2-1 win. Next up was Portugual and things didn't go well, in the 40th minute my Man City right-back pushed a portuguese player over and got a second yellow, even worse was that the ball was several yards away and harmlessly going out for a goal-kick. Then somehow just before half-time we took the lead through a deflection, but Portugual struck back straight away. We then spent the second half holding on, which we managed to claim a 1-1 draw, which the fans were very disapointed with.

Though worse was to follow against Iran, as we failed to break them down and could only manage a 0-0 draw, however it didn't matter as Portugual could only draw to the USA, and we somehow went through top with just 1 win, whilst Iran also went through second. Whilst we made it through England, Argentina and Uruguay couldn't.

The Second Round would see us play the Ivory Coast, who qualifed ahead of Saudi Arabia and Serbia on Goal Difference, second to a Spanish Side that won all 3 games. Again we were on top but struggled to break down a stuborn Ivory Coast side, before we won and converted a 51st minute penalty, after that Ivory Coast were in control, but poor finishing cost them and we held on to win 1-0.

In the Quarter Finals we'd meet France, and the less said about this game the better, we just didn't turn up in the first half and were 4-0 down by half-time, we made a slightly better showing in the second half but it finished France 5-1 Brazil, and it's likely to be my last game as the FA wanted a Semi-Final place. Though to be fair France are by a long way the best team in the World, whilst Brazil are third in the World Rankings (England are currently second). France then destroyed Italy 5-1 aswell in the Semi-Final before crashing to Spain 6-3 in the Final.

Somehow the Brazilian FA didn't fire me, whilst England appointed the Newcastle manager to wipe out another one of my title rivals

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Just signed a new 5 year contract on £200,000 a week wages

At £10m compensation a year it'll be interesting to know if anyone will offer me a job, or if Marine will sack me in the next couple of seasons.

[bermybhoy]

Inspired by finally getting some success in the Wallace v Roberts game, I have finally decided to formally give this a go.

For a variety of reasons I decided to go with fictional players. I trust this isn't against the rules. Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot of my profile at the start, here it is after a season though. Attracted to them by little more than a 1000 reputation and green and yellow colours, Hitchin are fortunate enough to find me as their boss.

My time available to play is pretty limited so no idea how long it will take me to get anywhere. I have already finished the first season, did start it a couple of weeks ago though. Will write up a first report and post it some time tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

[NepentheZ]

Good luck Bermybhoy..!!

[bermybhoy]

Hitchin Season 08/09 review - Blue Squre South

As a veteran of many such campaigns in previous versions of the game, I'm looking forward to trying my hand out and taking unheralded Hitchin storming up through the divisions. Sadly this version is very very tough, so we'll see how it goes.

Like most people, I had a blank canvas to work from. This is good because you tend to find players at this level are over-paid and underperform. It was a double edged sword, as I initially found it very tough to find anyone who looked remotely capable of keeping us in the division and played the first few games with quite a few of the promoted youth players I inherited. Signings came slowly through the season, 17 in total, looking a bit like this.

Despite that, we made a surprisingly decent start, picking up points here and there, the odd win, and avoiding too many morale damaging hidings. Clearly though, our problem was a chronic lack of goals. I had been sent a decent keeper on loan from our parent club, Luton, so there wasn't much going in at the other end either: result - a lot of dull, low scoring games. At it's worst, we suffered a run of 6 games without hitting the net, due to the one player who knew where the goal was, John Acton, on loan from Leyton Orient, picking up one of many injuries he suffered.

The other major problem was the other teams - no-one was becoming cut adrift, meaning we kept bobbing in and out of the relegation zone. It was worrying, and it was not until February that I finally managed to bring in two strikers who could not only find the net, but stay fit. Michael Radcliffe and Andy Pearson, both on free transfers from other clubs. Pearson made quite the debut, banging home all 4 away to a Basingstoke side then sitting 3rd.

And from there, we barely looked back. An incredible end to the season saw us becoming the form team of the division. Inclduing that game we won 10, drew 1 and lost just twice. But it was just a bit too late, and Hitchin finished 7th, 8 points off the play offs. With those two strikers in maybe a month earlier, it could have been so different. Even with that, our scoring rate of 1.2 per game for the season is abysmal, but amazingly our defensive record was better, at just 1.1 per game.

Results and tables

Results 1

Results 2

Results 3

Final league table

League progress graph - This is incredible - from a relegation spot to 7th in the last 11 games. If only the season had continued...

Top players

A few candidates as the squad list shows. My assistant seems to think we have a core of decent players already as this squad list shows.

Cream of the crop were the two forwards mentioned. I picked up some decent youngster, mainly the left winger Sarvari and right back Keeley. Of the players promoted, top of the class was Woodward, who was often pitched in early in the season when we lacked numbers. It's doubtful he'll get many run outs in future, truth be told.

Club overview

Season summary - evidence of our narcolepsy-inducing scoring form and ho-hum cup performances.

Wages summary - these are well under control, in large part due to a complete lack of suitable players

Finances - looking good, turning a profit for the season on the back of those low wages

Club info screen at the end of the first season

Records - nothing to get excited about yet, although that 4 goals in a game haul might take some beating

Board confidence - they love me, and indeed offered a new contract while still half way through the first

So, first season out of the way. We have a solid base of players. If I can get a decent keeper back in and make a few more signings of the kind of quality of the top guys already there, I seriously think promotion in the second season is a possibility.

[padmore_001]

Chippenham Town - Blue Square South - Season 3 (2010/11)

League

Media Prediction: 11th

Actual Position: 4th

Table

Graph

Playoffs: Semi Final Leg 1 Semi Final Leg 2

Cups

FA Cup: 3rd Qualifying Round

Setanta Shield: 2nd Round

FA Trophy: 2nd Round

Other Info

Season Overviw

Transfers

Squad

Club Info

Manager Profile

Finances

Closest we have come to promotion yet. Few good runs in the league secured us a playoff spot, we had the 2nd best away record in the league but the 11th best home record and that just isn't good enough really. Felt confident going into the playoffs, we were to play Solihull Moors who I had beaten 4-1 away on the penultimate day of the season. We were unlucky in both games, they were both close I felt and perhaps we were the best team over 2 legs. The 6-3 aggregate victory flattered Solihull.

Dax Hoogerwerf was on fire, hitting 42 goals in all competitions.

Aims for next season, obviously get promoted to the BSP, starting to get a bit annoyed of the BSS. But anyhow I have finished uni for the summer so I will have plenty of time on my hands to complete this challenge.

[bermybhoy]

Mini-update:

In terms of the league, this season is even more boring than the last. Record of 7-7-7 and until game 16 the goals for/against was 17-17. Yawn. Those two strikers I thought were great have had a nightmare, one going EIGHTEEN HOURS without a goal. Clown.

I have since however had a 7-1 win and 4-1 defeat, so at least it's got more interesting, the board aren't happy after I promised them a promotion challenge though.

However, what has been interesting is my FA Cup run. Starting in the second qualifying round, I knocked out a succession of tricky 'grey'. The first and second rounds proper have seen me beat football league opposition 3-1 at home then 3-2 away, with a stirring second half comeback from 20 down. Awesome stuff.

Got a third round tie to look forward to, away to a championship side. Certain to get gubbed, but should be a nice payday.

Just wondering what is the furthest anyone's taken a BSN/S side in the cup?

[3Sixty]

Nice to see this still going, just restarted playing my Chippenham save, feeling very nostalgic about the whole thing.

[thezogsageordie]

Originally posted by 3Sixty:

Nice to see this still going, just restarted playing my Chippenham save, feeling very nostalgic about the whole thing.

I keep getting tempted to reload my Gateshead save, but I'm doing crap so it's boring but the thought of taking them to the Premiership and beyond is just undescribable (is that a word?) I just realised I'm getting addicted to FM! 07 was the reason I only got 2 a-c's last year

[thezogsageordie]

Originally posted by bermybhoy:

Mini-update:

In terms of the league, this season is even more boring than the last. Record of 7-7-7 and until game 16 the goals for/against was 17-17. Yawn. Those two strikers I thought were great have had a nightmare, one going EIGHTEEN HOURS without a goal. Clown.

I have since however had a 7-1 win and 4-1 defeat, so at least it's got more interesting, the board aren't happy after I promised them a promotion challenge though.

However, what has been interesting is my FA Cup run. Starting in the second qualifying round, I knocked out a succession of tricky 'grey'. The first and second rounds proper have seen me beat football league opposition 3-1 at home then 3-2 away, with a stirring second half comeback from 20 down. Awesome stuff.

Got a third round tie to look forward to, away to a championship side. Certain to get gubbed, but should be a nice payday.

Just wondering what is the furthest anyone's taken a BSN/S side in the cup?

As Gateshead, I took my team to Plymouth. Shoddy weather that Saturday just joking mate!

[bermybhoy]

Yeah beats me, I only need to go to Millwall

What a fantastically vague post that was of mine.

FA Cup run:

2Q Banbury (h) 3-1

3Q Hemel Hempstead (a) 1-0

4Q Arlesey (a) 2-1

1st Wycombe (League 2) (h) 3-1

2nd Grimsby (League 2) (a) 3-2

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Just had my Keeper sent off in the 96th minute of an FA Cup tie, luckily he took the player out just outside the area, which is good considering I only had a gray Keeper on the bench (my other Keeper is Cup-Tied).

Fortuantley my Gray Keeper didn't touch the ball as the ref seemed to boew the whistle the second he got on the pitch, and we held on for a 1-0 win.

I think it's only the second time I've had my Keeper sent off, and I know at least one computer Keeper has been sent off against me.

[ejthegreat]

Never seen this injury before, especially given he's only 23.

Muller injury

It's not a long injury but obviously I'm worried that it will be a constant re-occurance. Anyone had this and know how it works out?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Originally posted by ejthegreat:

Never seen this injury before, especially given he's only 23.

Muller injury

It's not a long injury but obviously I'm worried that it will be a constant re-occurance. Anyone had this and know how it works out?

Yep, my Centre-Back Moore got it aswell, I think he was younger than that aswell, it never reoccured though (I'll check his history at Milan if I remember when I load the game)

[thezogsageordie]

Originally posted by ejthegreat:

Never seen this injury before, especially given he's only 23.

Muller injury

It's not a long injury but obviously I'm worried that it will be a constant re-occurance. Anyone had this and know how it works out?

LOL!!

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Originally posted by michaeltmurrayuk:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ejthegreat:

Never seen this injury before, especially given he's only 23.

Muller injury

It's not a long injury but obviously I'm worried that it will be a constant re-occurance. Anyone had this and know how it works out?

Yep, my Centre-Back Moore got it aswell, I think he was younger than that aswell, it never reoccured though (I'll check his history at Milan if I remember when I load the game) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Checked his history, and he only suffered from it once when he was 25 (thought he was younger than that, but it was a good 7 seasons ago), he has suffered from it again (he's only been injured twice since then) he's 31 now I'll try and keep an eye on him to see if it affects him again.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Marine - Premier League 2030/31

After claiming the Premier League Title for only the second time last season, the board went a little crazy and demanded the Premier League Title aswell as the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, luckily they only wanted to reach the semi-finals of the UCL, they also decided to reduce my transfer budget from £170m to £150m (doesn't really matter, its the principal).

Though they did offer me a new contract on £200K a week that I got extended out to 5 years.

Things also started to fall apart abit this season first the council decided to block my expansion (looks like someone is finaly unhappy about me knocking everyone's houses down - it would be nice to get a new stadium, as long as it's not named after my chairman this time.

I also started to cull my squad with over 20 players leaving (I still have 63 players on full-time training) - I sold on most of my academy players who won't make it the Premiership, also sold off some youth players who hadn't developed or didn't have much chance of breaking into my first team, I also got rid of some moaning squad players and let Peruvian Midfielder Sambade join Juventus for £22.5m - at 30 he'd struggled to finish some games last season and I had at the time plently of promising young central midfielders.

Then in January my chairman decided it would be fun to make me win the league whilst selling players on me - He accepted a £10m bid from Real for my Promising German Midfielder Marius Kraus, even worse I'd just turned down a £30m bid from Real for him, he became unhappy I offered him out for £40m and my chairman goes and accepts bids of £10m for him, the only silver lining was that he didn't go to a title rival.

Transfers in wise I spent £3m trying to help out some of the challenge teams by loaning one of their players for £1m (as the first option seems to have disappeared), but it proved to be a diaster - Billercay finished bottom of League Two whilst Prescot went back down the the BSN.

Other than that I spent £500K on a promising 15yo Argentine Midfielder from Lazio and £12m on an English Keeper from Liverpool to replace Vermeir if he ever leaves. Attempts to bring in more players failed as no-one seems willing to sell me anyone, they just up the price whenever I bid.

My Academy also produced it's first promising youngster since Knowles - Striker Daniel Henderson is reckoned to have the potential to be a good Prem player.

On the pitch things started well, we claimed the Community Shield with 3-2 win over MBoro thanks to a last minute goal from Bonomi.

We started well in the league winning 5 of our opening 7 games - only conceeding twice to Man City in a 2-2 away draw, though we also could only manage a 0-0 home draw with Bolton, before we crashed 3-0 to Liverpool at New Anfield - a Liverpool team now managed by Alex Ferguson's son - Darren Ferguson.

We recovered from the Liverpool game by beating Chelsea 2-1 at home, before November came around and we started to struggle - drawing three games in a row to my title rivals Man Utd, Arsenal and Newcastle, we recovered through December until Christmas when we could only manage draws against MBoro and Huddersfield, and after 20 games we were only top of the league thanks to Goal Difference, that disappointed my board (it didn't help that we fell down to second several times due to Arsenal playing the day before, or earlier in the day).

Also around Christmas my players lack of loyalty started to show - My Keeper Vermeir had been listed by request all season with no interest, when some teams are finally interested he decides he wants to stay, then a couple of days later demands a transfer again and then nobody is willing to pay from him. Newcatle then tapped up my English Midfielder Clayton and he demanded that I let him talk to Newcastle, and would spend the next three months demanding a transfer each month - compared to my French Midfielder Richard who declared he had no intention of joining Newcastle when they bidded £25m for him.

With my team falling apart at the seams, we'd somehow made it through a tough UCL Group containing Lyon, Lazio and Kiev, with only an away defeat to Lyon to put us through top.

We'd also made it to the Semi-Final of the Carling Cup for the first time in years having beaten Burnley, Bolton and Birminghham with one goal wins, but we somehow managed to lose to Leeds despite spending near enough both legs assualting Leeds goal we just couldn't score, whilst Leeds scored a scrapy goal with about their only chance of both legs.

Our Carling Cup exit then started to affect our league form, as we'd lose away games to Spurs, Southend and Bolton, before throwing a 2-0 lead at home to Liverpool ending up drawing 2-2 that saw us drop to third in the league, behind Arsenal and Newcastle as neither would lose.

A couple of wins against relagated sides brought us back into contention, but a 4 week period in March/April would determine the course of our season - we'd play Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal in the league that could determine the course of the title, a disappointing away performance (well it wasn't even a performance as we didn't turn up) saw us crash 2-0 to Chelsea, but we picked our spirits up with a 2-0 home win over Man Utd, to put some distance between us and 4th placed Man Utd, but three clamitous mistakes at the Emirates gifted Arsenal a 3-1 win - two awful passes by my defence across the face of goal went straight to an Arsenal foot, whilst a poor clearance by my Keeper was returned straight to him by Arsenal to see us lose 3-1 and effectively end our title chances.

Next up was the Champions League Quarter Finals, after we'd beaten Romanian side Rapid in the Knockout Round 3-0 on agg, we'd play Spanish Side Sevilla, and fresh from our defeat to Arsenal we just didn't perform in Spain and lost 2-1, with Lasarte managing to fire all 7 of his shots wide of goal

We geared ourselves up for the Second Leg by taking Man Utd apart in the FA Cup Semi-Final - Rowlands grapped a first half trick to put us on the way to a 4-2 victory our a woeful Utd side.

So back to Europe and a 1-0 win would put us into the Semis for the first time in two years, but again our shooting let us down when we managed to break down Sevilla's defence, and whilst Lasarte gave us hope in the 68th minute we'd be again undone by a defensive mistake - in the 86th minute Russian CentreBack Solovjov decided to pass the ball across the goal pressumly to my Keeper but instead it landed at the feet of a Sevilla attacker and he easily beat my Keeper to dump us out of Europe.

Then more of my players showed their true colours by demanding a transfer the day we are knocked out of Europe - Three Midfielders and a Keeper who's currently out on loan, so it looks like my midfield next season will be reduced to Richard and Volkov plus youth players

Even worse was that whilst we were out of Europe we still had a chance to win the league and a FA Cup final to look forward to, not that the players seemed to care about this. (I doubt IRL half the Arsenal or Liverpool squads demanded a transfer after they went out of Europe).

At least some of my players were willing to fight for the club, and we got over our European heart-break by beating Newcastle 3-0 to show we weren't out of the title race yet, but we then proceeded to shoot ourselves in foot by losing to a 96th minute goal at Leeds (when there should have only been 5mins of added time, not 6). We followed the Leeds game up with 3-0 wins over Soton and Portsmouth, with Lasarte picking up a double in both games, but an injury in the Portsmouth game would rule him out for the rest of the season.

In the end we blew our chances of the title with a 1-1 draw to MBoro.

With the league lost we had to pick ourselves up for our fourth FA Cup Final in a row, and hopefully we'd finaly win it, but we were up against Man City for the Third time in the Final so I wasn't hopeful.

But I needn't have worried as we finaly turned up for a final and controlled the game throughout comfortably winning 3-0, with City not even getting a shot on target.

Not that the board were too impressed with our first ever FA Cup win.

League Table - Third place is rather disappointing considering the start we had, but the inability to finish teams off really cost us. Player Stats - just missed out on the Top Scorer, whilst RB Costanzo gets 17 assists, mainly from corners.

Squad - New Keeper Kevin Barton, had a slow start but has started to impress in recent games, whilst in defence Right Back Costanzo's 19 assists is the highest since the second season, but he won't be with me for much longer as he wants a new challenge, whilst in Centre of Defence Young Englishman James Flanagan was impressive when he was recalled from his two year loan at Rangers late in the season to cover injury and was briefly a Wonderkid.

In Midfield Ollie Clayton had an outstanding debut season partnering Richard in the middle of the field, well when he wasn't demanding a transfer that is. On the Left Winger Italian Radice continued to impress even getting an Italy callup and will likely be frist choice next season with Petrov and Rocchi both wanting out.

Whilst Upfront Eduardo Lasarte was again unstoppable when on form, grabbing nearly a goal a game yet again, and becomes the first player to score over 200 league goals from Marine (he's currently got 207 in just 245 games). He also claimed European Striker of the Year, though not sure what they are on about regarding his World Cup performances - all 37 of his Spain appearances have been from the bench and he didn't even play in the Final, he made 5 sub appearances in the World Cup, scoring once getting 4 6's and one 7 rating.

Providing cover this season was English Striker Luke Rowlands, who had a fine first full season. Jose Carlos Vargas' appearances were limited due to him missing half the season due to injury, whilst French Youngster Duveau grabbed his second goal for the club with his third sub appearance, but is on his way out as he hasn't developed as I'd have liked.

It also appears that my chairman may be trying to get me fired, as he is now accepting offers from my league rivals for the players who want to leave

Club Infomation - Traitors McIntosh and Petrov get added to the favoured list, whilst we manage to sneak an extra 3000 seats onto the ground for next season, and our value of £857m means we are worth three times that of second richest Barcelona and worth more than half of the rest of the Premier League combined, yet I cannot keep hold of my players.

Manager Profile - No real change apart from the contract, though I did finish runner-up in Manager of the Year.

Snapshot screen and end of season Confidence - the board not best pleased with me, and it looked like my Marine career would come to an end sometime in the near future, with the boards stupid demands, however for the new season they have lowed their demands, so looks like the demands soely depend on how well you did last season.

So the plan for next season is to rebuild the squad with some loyal hardworking players. At least I finaly won the FA Cup

[Swindon69]

Sod it - was in 2020/21 when I suffered total hard drive/stem failure. Now have a new PC and will be restarting.

[Swindon69]

Am starting again as Kings Lynn - does anybody know where I can get their badge from ?

[rangers85]

Ilkeston Town - 2013/14 - Blue Square Premier - Season 2

Season 2 was a good season on the whole, but featured a few rough patches. The team ranged anywhere from 7th to 21st through the season, however finished at 10th which I considered pretty good for the first season in the Blue Square Premier League. As far as the cup competitions they were a mixed bag as well. In the FA Cup, Ilkeston Town beat Hinckley 2-0 in the 4th Qualifying Round before drawing League 1 side Petersborough in the 1st round. At home they drew them 2-2, but in the replay got trounced 3-0. The FA Trophy did not go much better. The 1st round started with a 1-1 draw at home to Shrewsbury, but the replay on the road was a 3-2 loss meaning another early cup exit. However, this was kind of salvaged in the Setanta Shield where in the 4th round we beat Braintree 2-1. That was followed by a 2-0 win on TV at Hayes & Yeading. However, the run ended in the quarter final in a goal-fest at home vs Brentford that ended in a 5-3 loss.

As for the season itself, the team won 18, lost 16, and drew 12 finishing with a +3 goal differential. In all 84 were scored with 81 conceded. Lee Charlton was the leading goal scorer on the season with 31 in 53 games missing only 1 game on the season between all competitions. He also led the team with 12 man of the match awards. Sam MacPherson got the team's only red card of the season. Most assists was Paul Kellaway who manned my right wing position.

As far as the financial side of things, they went very well. Even though the team had a 5,000 p/w wage budget, only 3,860 was used. The budget side of things was great as well. The team earned nearly a 300,000 pound proit which isn't too bad for a Blue Square Premier side. In all the bank balance is up to 386,000. Hopefully this means I'll be able to get either an improvement in training facilities, improved transfer budget, or at least something since I got practically nothing or moving up to the premier league.

The bad part of this season though is that Leicester, my parent club, was relegated from the Championship. Hopefully their stay down isn't too long or I may have to seek a new parent club.

As for the premiership this season:

Champions: Sunderland by 5 points

Champions League: Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton

UEFA Cup: Arsenal, West Ham (League Cup), Tottenham (FA Cup)

Intertoto Cup: Chelsea

Relegation: Birmingham, Middlesbrough, West Brom

Promotion: Bristol City, Fulham, Wigan

World Cup 2014 Live from Brazil is upon us. Group of Death is Group G including Italy, England, USA, and Uruguay. Scotland also qualified and put in a group with France, Paraguay, and Tunisia.

I'll focus on the Group of Death with me being American, and most of y'all English. The opening games paired the US vs Italy, and Uruguay vs England. The first game had US beating Italy 1-0 on an own goal by Lorenzo De Silvestri in teh 84th minute, with man of the match honors going to young Brek Shea for the US. The England match ended with a 2-0 win for England on goals from James Vaughan in the 44th and Wayne Rooney in the 81st.

Match day 2 matched US vs Uruguay. In this one, it ended as a 1-1 draw with Carlos Diogo opening the scoring in the 22nd minute for Uruguay, however Freddy Adu equalized in the 77th minute to make the 1-1 scoreline. Meanwhile that means England played Italy. This one was a wild game. Giampaolo Pazzini opened the scoring in the 17th minute but Rooney quickly equalized in the 23rd minute and put them ahead in the 31st. Giuseppe Rossi equalized just before halftime. James Vaughan re-opened scoring in the 61st minute, but Sebastian Giovinco equalized in the 86 minute. However, in injury time Jermaine Jenas scored the go ahead goal for a 4-3 England win which clinches them a spot in the next round.

In the final match day, England beat US 2-1. The first goal was scored in the 18th by Eddie Johnson for the US, however, James Vaughan scored in his 3rd game in the 26th minute and Theo Walcott added the go ahead in the 39th minute to see out the game who also got man of the match honors. However, with the 2-1 scoreline, that put the US on a 0 goal differential which meant in order for the US to advance, they either needed an Italy win, or Uruguay to win by less than 2 to go through. Italy however obliged them by getting their only win of the tournament in the same way the US got their only win so far over Italy with an own goal by Martin Rodriguez to win 1-0. Thus, the US is largely advancing two to being on the beneficial end of 2 own goals this tournament. In the second round, England gets mighty Argentina while the USA gets Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal side. Scotland also advanced and drew Holland.

The second round kicked off with mostly the expected sides winning, Germany over Nigeria, Sweden over Greece, Spain over Mexico, Brazil over Croatia, France over Ivory Coast, and a semi-shocker Scotland over Holland. That left the 2 group of death teams in the final games of the round. Would they live up to their hype? The answer was simply, no. Hugo Almeida was too much for the USA scoring in the 12th and 47th minutes to advance 2-0 on a windy afternoon. England similarly didn't live up to it after seeing Argentina jump out to a 2-0 lead thnaks to Sergio Aguero in the 5th and Carlos Tevez in the 45th. Rooney did get them closer with a goal in the 78th minute, but Argentina prevailed.

In the quarter final, Germany beat Brazil on penalty kicks, Spain over Sweden in extra time. Argentina slays it's second british isles team in as many rounds and Portugal beats France. The semi-finals will be in a later entry as I've now hit a point of going after free transfers, since I love signing some of the players that get free transferred by the premier league power houses.

[ReclaimTheKop]

MichaelMurry would you be able to upload your game so i could play it. i dont live far from crosby and your game looks class!!

[Azeryk-]

I've never been so happy to lose in the FA Cup Third round - as Tiverton in the BSP I faced Liverpool at Anfield, list 4-0 but got £500,000 from gate receipts :-D

[bermybhoy]

Hitchin Season 09/10 review - Blue Squre South

Going into my second season in charge of Hitchin, I was feeling pretty confident that I could steer them to a play-off place. Unfortunately it proved almost as difficult as the first season. With mis-firing strikers, I struggled to settle on my best line up. Both Pearson and Radcliffe played ok, but they just didn't find the net the same way as they did after coming in at the end of the first season. It was left to the youngster, Mohsen Sarvari who I had earmarked for a left wing role, to lead the line, which he did incredibly well, finishing the season with a respectable haul of 24 in 44 games. The kid could go far.

The league season was a real slog - we remained tight at the back despite struggling at the other end, the excellent on loan keeper Tommy Grieve providing a reliable last line behind the promising looking talents of Steve Bell and Brian Milsom, both of whom are attracting a lot of attention from League 1 and 2 sides, and may be difficult to retain. What it all meant was that for a second season, we didn't score many more than we conceded, generally drew, or won or lost by the odd goal.

The deja vu of season 1 was replicated in our end to the season. From mediocrity and inconsistency, we suddenly won 5 and drew 1 of the last 6 games, including an impressive 4-1 hammering of Wimbledon away, who would go on to be promoted. In terms of the league, the other bright spot was a 7-1 thrashing of Eastleigh on their own ground, for once everything hitting the net.

As already reported, the main highlight of the season was the FA Cup run. The third round brought Millwall to visit Hitchin, and what a fright we gave them. After losing an early goal, Sarvari pegged them back, before Millwall raced to a 3-1 lead. With 15 minutes left, Sarvari again netted, setting up a grandstand finsh. Despite chances to force a replay, our Cup luck ran out, and we crashed out 3-2. The prize money from that run, together with player sales, has done wonders for the finances though. Hopefully that will feed through into next season's budgets.

Results and tables

Results 1

Results 2

Results 3

League table

League progress graph - again, the season ended too soon, with us hitting top form when it was all too late.

Top players

Some decent performers over the season, as the squad average ratings screen shows. Despite making a number of signings, it improved our depth but didn't seem to do much to improve the quality of the squad, as the assistant reports shows. Improving the midfield and up front will be a priority next season, to compliment Jon Griggs, our best player there other than the on-loan Muggleton.

Club overview

Season summary - again nothing very exciting happened, although the scoring rate has shot up to a less than impressive 1.5 per game. You pity the 499 virtual punters who watch this dross.

Wages summary - still well nder control, and I'm expecting more to play with next season on the back of...

Very solid finances, which were boosted by £84k of player sales and...what was it again - oh yeah - have I mentioned the cup run yet?

Club info screen

Club records

Board confidence - they are not at all impressed after I claimed I'd get them promoted. Must do better.

Manager profile

Second season gone, and it was very poor. We still have a good core of players, but it's evidently not sufficient to see us dominate the division. More quality required, no doubt about it.

Again, I'll stick my neck out and predict promotion next season, at the third time of asking.

[Azeryk-]

Season 2 - 09/10 - Blue Square Premiership - Tiverton Town

League: 2nd (promoted via play-offs)

FA Cup: 3rd Round (v Liverpool!)

FA Trophy: 4th Round

Setanta Shield: Winners

League Table: http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8134/tiv2vo1.jpg

Well what a season, back to back promotions really helping start this challenge with a bang. The league was a little rocky and I never really looked like winner unfortunatly. My attack was superb with Yorke and Barnes scoring 78 between eachother - will hope to sign Barnes next season as I've loaned him for 2 seasons in a row (and coincidently the PC loaned him to Tiverton in the holiday season). My defense/goalie was the main problem, I think I conceeded as many as teams in the relegation zone, thus making it a priorty next season to fix before the football league 2 season begins.

The FA cup went well, yes a 3rd round knockout isn't impressive but the £500,000 from the Anfield game will help out with transfer money to build a full sized squad.

The FA Trophy went bad, only reaching the 4th round

The Setanta Shield went well, brining in our first proper cup victory and adding more silverwear to the cabinet.

We also had our first international player as well. Smith, my youth graduate from last season, became a Scottish U21 player aged just 17 :-)

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Originally posted by RecliamTheKop:

MichaelMurry would you be able to upload your game so i could play it. i dont live far from crosby and your game looks class!!

Here you go and for anyone else who wants it: http://rapidshare.com/files/119592952/Marineu.rar.html (You'll need to unrar it and then just copy it into the folder where your existing save games are, you'll also need to be running 8.0.2 and it's about 50mb compressed, if you save uncompressed it's over 200mb).

It should be at the start of season 2031/32 you can either continue on as my manager, or retire him and take charge yourself (Though if someone does retire me and take charge, can you let me know if you have to put up with the boards high demands?)

Also just noticed that my club is now worth over £1bn

[thezogsageordie]

Originally posted by michaeltmurrayuk:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RecliamTheKop:

MichaelMurry would you be able to upload your game so i could play it. i dont live far from crosby and your game looks class!!

Here you go and for anyone else who wants it: http://rapidshare.com/files/119592952/Marineu.rar.html (You'll need to unrar it and then just copy it into the folder where your existing save games are, you'll also need to be running 8.0.2 and it's about 50mb compressed, if you save uncompressed it's over 200mb).

It should be at the start of season 2031/32 you can either continue on as my manager, or retire him and take charge yourself (Though if someone does retire me and take charge, can you let me know if you have to put up with the boards high demands?)

Also just noticed that my club is now worth over £1bn </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I was you I wouldn't stop bragging about that save.

[Azeryk-]

Anyone else here currently playing the challenge as Tiverton

[1873Chris]

Finding this much harder than any other challenges.

I'm stuck in league 1 with no money and only really an average team made up of 3 star players. if any of them get injured i struggle badly

Roll on next season and hopefully i'll get off to a good start

[gillianchung]

Originally posted by NepentheZ:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by matty_8:

Could it have happened on a worse day?

Probably the sign off

believe it if you want nepenthez.

and Dafuge, I know i used the FMM to check on my youths, but i didnt not know this was stated as a rule. Yes I know im stupid but would appreciate if you could add this to my update

I'm not really bothered if you did or didn't use FMM. Some people use FMM and its quite obvious (those that complete the challenge by like, 2015/2016) - and then others use it as a scouting tool - and don't edit at all. Either way, I'm not a big fan of them, but if thats how you wish to play your game, I'm not here to tell you otherwise. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

i did it legit. there's no reason to use anything because it defeats the idea of the challenge. i did it not to show off, but to show i could do it. it takes a lot of time before actually pressing "continue" on the first day of the new seasons, just to make sure all the players i have work with my tactics. i keep my squad to a bare minimum so no one complains about not having first-team experience, and they must all gel together (meaning similar personalities AND long term contracts). i've never had a problem with signing players for the longest contracts, and quickly extending them before they want more money. good professional players don't complain for more money, and bad players just get sold.

playing fm is taking a lot of commitment to , not only scouting, but enjoying creating a team from scratch.

[gillianchung]

the key is signing long term contracts for cheap though, since if the player is too good, he won't resign when he does get good. having to keep a consistent team for 2-3 years does wonders since it solidifies the team. the team feedback report by the assistant manager is under appreciated...

both morale and squad communication is important, as well as the tactics.

[ejthegreat]

AFC Wimbledon 1/2 season review.

Played 19 matches so far in the 21/22 season. Yes, after 37 days actual game time it proves 1 thing, i'm a slow player

2 things have stood out this season for us.

1. Respect. That's right, we're no longer the Rodney Dangerfield of the Premiership, we're getting respect. The way I can best explain it is that at half time now, opposition teams aren't automatically putting long foward arrows on their wingers. In the past 2 seasons this has happened no matter the ladder position, the score or who is at home.

2. I think there might be a new contender for worst Premierhip team ever.

Table (bottom 3)

This shows the bottom 3 teams in the Premiership currently.

Last season, Burnley only got 12 points which is the lowest in this current game but they might not hold that record for long.

[ejthegreat]

I meant long foward arrows on their wingers if they're behind at 1/2 time.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Originally posted by ejthegreat:

AFC Wimbledon 1/2 season review.

Played 19 matches so far in the 21/22 season. Yes, after 37 days actual game time it proves 1 thing, i'm a slow player

2 things have stood out this season for us.

1. Respect. That's right, we're no longer the Rodney Dangerfield of the Premiership, we're getting respect. The way I can best explain it is that at half time now, opposition teams aren't automatically putting long foward arrows on their wingers. In the past 2 seasons this has happened no matter the ladder position, the score or who is at home.

2. I think there might be a new contender for worst Premierhip team ever.

Table (bottom 3)

This shows the bottom 3 teams in the Premiership currently.

Last season, Burnley only got 12 points which is the lowest in this current game but they might not hold that record for long.

It's always nice when teams start taking you seriously especially when the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool start fielding two DM's against you or when teams start time wasting in the first half

The lowest points in my game was the 17 Sunderland managed last season, whilst Derby of all teams finished bottom with the most points - 40 in the First Season!

[michaeltmurrayuk]

My Spanish Striker Lasarte finally started a game for Spain in his 39th cap (took him 6 1/2 years to make it from the bench to the starting XI) grabbing an hat-trick when he was finally given a chance.

[numero_uno_gunner]

Sorry to be a pain in the arse, but could someone tell me how to get a game I've downloaded from dafuge's website into my football manager game, as I can figure out how to do it. I want to have a go with one of the sub 1000 rep sides, and as none are coming up, I'd thought I'd download one. However, now I'm stumped. All help much appreciated.

[bermybhoy]

Move the file to My document/sports interactive/fm2008/games (something like that...the 'games' file anyway) then it should appear on the list of saved games when you next open FM up. Hope that worlks.

[1873Chris]

Feeling a lot more confident after a good close season

I've built a much better squad with a few class additions.

Had a pretty good pre-season and now apart from my left winger getting injured am ready to get another season started that will hopefully end with promotion to the championship

[thenamesfang]

My exams are ending on Friday and I will finally be able to start my summer holidays. Yeah, baby, yeah!

Anyway I was thinking of starting this challenge, but instead of starting with an existing team, I thought of creating a new team: the upcoming AFC Liverpool =) To make things as realistic as possible I will use FC United's stats when it comes to fan support, finances etc. They are as similar as they can get I reckon. Technically, this breaks the rules of the challenge, but well since I'm already at the lowest tier in the English league I don't think it makes a difference. =)

What do you guys think?

Going to start the challenge on Friday right after my paper! Can't wait!

[1873Chris]

Early season optimism has taken a serious dent

The first couple of league games i've won but my new centre defensive partnership are struggling badly against any sort of pace

Looks like its going to be yet another long season

[canvey!!]

thenamesfang, I'm afraid you can't use your edited AFC Liverpool, you'll have to use one of the teams given in the list at the start.

[kaNovi]

hey guys, its been very long since i last posted here..

i havent played FM in a while but started again a couple of weeks ago.

Heres what is happening:

As you may not remember i won the Premier League (15 times) with Boreham wood... and i was pretty much stuck.

So i resigned and took over newly promoted gateshead with my original manager.

Just a few days ago i got promoted to the Premier!

I got promoted every year except one year.

Its all good, now i just have to get boreham down from its trown. its won the premier league the last 26 years, so its gonna be hard, but very fun i believe.

Well just a little update

Im not gonna write to much in here, but ill get in here a couple times a week

[Wrighty2008]

I've got a bit of time on my hands at the moment with only 2 tests left so I thought that I might aswell start this challenge. I'll post up which team I've decided to start the game with once my holiday period is over. I'll try and start the challenge with a team of a reputation below 1000 but we'll see who gets promoted.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

I've just lost a 92 Home game unbeaten run to a Huddersfield side who look likely to get relagated to the Championship

The only plus side is that it has kept Chelsea in a relagation spot.

[Frazza Pee]

Hi I'm starting this and the team I have is Hendon. I will register on your site and I will update.

[Mattphillips]

I'll play as Tiverton....

[Kazpeer]

Im restarting once again :/

I hope this will be the last game i start in FM!