A Manager's Tale (FM 14)

[Tom Ashley]

Before I begin my story, I'd like to take a few moments to introduce myself.

Compared to many of you, I am a Football Manager novice.  I'm American, and I began playing FM in 2012, soon after I discovered the joys of following English football.  Since then, with every passing year, I find myself paying less attention to the NFL and more to the Premier League.  I recently started following other European leagues, too.  I'm married, with a son and a daughter, and all four of us have discovered a common interest in the beautiful game.

I'm still playing FM 14.  I'll eventually buy a new version of the game, but I'm still enjoying this one for now.  I figure I still have enough to learn about the sport itself to keep myself occupied, without having to also learn the intricacies of a new game, too.  

I first discovered this forum when I was searching for some tactical advice, and I confess to being overwhelmed by the knowledge of some of the regular posters here.  I felt like a Grade 7 student who stumbled into a graduate seminar.  I decided I'd come back once I'd learned a bit more on my own.  

Upon my return, about six months ago, I found myself in this portion of the forum.  I began reading a few of the stories, and that's when I decided I'd give it a try myself.  

This is my first attempt at something like this, although I've always enjoyed putting words together.  My story won't be anything fancy.   For now, I'll stick to describing what's happening on and around the pitch, and if I find myself with the urge to flesh a few of the characters out more fully, I'll give it a go.  

I hope at least a few of you will take the time to read it.  Any suggestions or feedback you might offer would be received gratefully.  

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back tomorrow with the first chapter of my tale.

TA

[tenthreeleader]

Looking forward to seeing what you have in mind. Welcome to FMS and as a Yank, you will earn bonus points from the American contingent here, of which I am a proud member. We'll do our best to shield you from the rest of the lot here

Write on!

[Tom Ashley]

17 hours ago, tenthreeleader said:

Looking forward to seeing what you have in mind. Welcome to FMS and as a Yank, you will earn bonus points from the American contingent here, of which I am a proud member. We'll do our best to shield you from the rest of the lot here

Write on!

Thanks very much for the welcome, tenthreeleader.  I'm still feeling a convert's zeal when it comes to world football.  As for what I have in mind, I'm going to start with something very basic.  I've loaded up a database that extends English football down to the county leagues, and I'll be taking over a team that's well down the pyramid.  I will use the "random names" feature.  Most of the real players who ply their trade that far down the pyramid aren't well-known anyway, and I like seeing faces on players' pages rather than generic black silhouettes.  This way, my characters don't come with predetermined histories or expectations, and they can take shape any way the game directs them.

I doubt there will be much of an original nature here.  I know lots of stories here have taken place in England, but it's the football world I know best and the one I think will best keep my interest now.  Hopefully, I'll make the story compelling enough to keep you readers' interest, too.

[neilhoskins77]

Welcome to the Boards Tom. I think your start sounds like a good one, everyone loves a good underdog story, and if you can start gathering a few wins with a lower division side, you'll soon gain a captive audience here. Best of luck, looking forward to seeing where the game takes you.

[Tom Ashley]

3 hours ago, neilhoskins77 said:

Welcome to the Boards Tom. I think your start sounds like a good one, everyone loves a good underdog story, and if you can start gathering a few wins with a lower division side, you'll soon gain a captive audience here. Best of luck, looking forward to seeing where the game takes you.

Thanks, Neil.  I've chosen my team, and they fit the description of "lower division side" to a T.

Or, perhaps I should say my team chose me.   I let the game choose my club when I set up my game, and I went with the first small club that was selected.  

 As for the wins, I'll see what I can do.  

 

17 August 2013

As our story begins, I'm 32 years old, and beginning my managerial career at Eton Manor Football Club.  We play in the Essex Senior League, in the ninth tier of English football.  We don't have a stadium of our own; we share the Capershotts ground with Waltham Abbey, a considerably bigger club.  Everything about us screams out "bare bones."  

My backroom staff consists of assistant manager Gary Wiltshire and  Head of Youth Development Alan Barker.  Our physio is Michael Webster, and our two-man scouting team includes Jamie Jenkinson and Stuart Turnbull.  I hired Stuart a week ago.  He's an Aussie, and he has a fairly comprehensive knowledge of football in Spain, too...which isn't helping us much, since we can't hop across to the continent to scout players anyway.

Neither Gary nor Alan seem to be particularly skilled at evaluating players, so their perception of their skill might be wildly inaccurate.  Truth be told, mine might not be any better.  For better or for worse, then, here are my notes on the lads as we begin league play.

Between the posts, I can choose between Simon Kitchener and Russell Stares.  Kitchener is young (age 19) and very athletic, but he's got a lot to learn about the mental aspects of his craft.  Stares is tough, good in the air, and smart...most of the time.  He does have a tendency to roam from his area, which might lead to more than a few highlights (or lowlights, if he's unlucky).

My usual tactic is a bog-standard English 4-4-2.  In the back, I'll start Barrie Burns on the left and Elliott Ludlam on the right, flanking James Snape and Grant Pack.  Burns can dribble and hit a well-placed cross, so he should pose some threat going forward.  He also strikes a pretty dead ball.  Ludlam has a good feel for the game, especially given his age (21).  Pack is our vice captain.  As long as we don't ask him to do more than the bare requirements for a center half, he'll be fine.  He's a big lad (6'3") and he's good in the air.  Snape, whom I'm tempted to nickname Severus, is slower than Christmas, but he is brave and determined, and he'll give his all for the shirt.  He didn't play well during the preseason, but I'm still going to give him a real shot.  On paper, he's our best center back.  Young Ben Chart can deputize anywhere along the back line.

I don't understand why my staff like Ellis Attwood and think James Crocker is rubbish.  They are basically the same player--quite young (21), very fast, and somewhat skilled.  Attwood plays on the left wing, Crocker on the right.  

I enjoy having several central midfielders whom I can mix and match, depending on the opponent and the state of the contest.  The best of the offensively-minded players is a veteran, Frankie McMahon.  I've awarded him the captain's armband.  Steve Gleeson has the best all-round set of skills, able to do all kinds of things fairly well and none of them spectacularly.  The most defensively responsible of the lot is Rhys Greenway.  I just realized how little pace these players have.  Greenway is 25, and he runs like he's 52.  McMahon is fit, but he's not much quicker than Greenway.  The others aren't much speedier.  

We have several players who are fairly comfortable in several positions:  Tim Bowman, Alfie Murray, Mark Irving, and Jonny Wood.  Their versatility is their primary asset, but they are all positive influences in the changing room.  All but Murray are in their early 30s.  If I stick around at Eton Manor for very long, I can envision these fellows joining my staff one day.

The strike partnership that worked the best during the preseason featured Ben Fish and Henry Gillespie.  Fish is the more skilled player, while Gillespie is tougher and cooler under pressure.  They're both big lads.  Dean Griggs, who can play as a striker or on either wing, scored a brace in our last friendly, forcing me to take a longer look at him.  

In general, we are quite good technically, compared to other teams in our league.  We pass the ball well for our level.  On the other hand, we are the slowest team in our division, completely lacking both pace and acceleration, especially among our forwards.  

 

[Tom Ashley]

12 September 2013

Our Essex Senior League opener saw us away to Greenhouse London on 17 August.  We faced both a feisty opponent and blustery weather, and it took a late penalty from Ben Fish to salvage a 2-2 draw at Coles Park.  The Greenhouse side exposed the lack of pace on our back line, as a quick striker called Dave Drummy gashed us for a brace.  We also lost forward Henry Gillespie to a bad thigh strain, and we won't see him back on the pitch until early next month.  

I hoped we'd be able to take three points on our home debut, eight days later.  The opponent , Tower Hamlets, were predicted to finish in the middle of the table, just like we were. A half hour in, a pacey forward, Jack Labadie, ran past Grant Pack like Grant's feet were encased in cement and easily beat Simon Kitchener.  Then, as left back Barrie Burns and Pack scampered to beat Labadie to Kitchener's far post before the striker could get to a cross, Burns inadvertently knocked the ball into our net.  Twice more, our lack of speed hurt us.  

The bright spots of this match were provided by substitute Jon Taylor, a 31-year-old veteran who came on in the 70th minute.  He scored a goal, had another waved off for offside, and hit the bar with a third shot.

Taylor thereby earned a spot in the eleven for our next match, against Sporting Bengal at Mile End Park.  There were two more new faces in the club that day, too.  I'd decided to add some pace to our squad, and I signed two free agents that promised to help remedy that deficiency. 

Mark Tierney is an athletic center back with a commendable work rate and a willingness to get stuck in.  The very day he signed with us, James Snape came up lame in training and pulled a hamstring, so Tierney's arrival was well-timed indeed.  Mark is 22 years old, so he also injects a bit of youth into our defensive corps.

We also added a striker, Ben Cunningham.  The injury to Gillespie offered him an opportunity to show us what he can do right away, and the 21-year-old was very active in 30 minutes of duty off the bench against Bengal.  The big star, however, was Fish, who hit a brace as we won, 3-2.

I don't like seeing us let in two goals a match, so I sent the boys out with a more defensive mentality against a good Clapton side on the 7th.  A crowd of 24--a good one for the Essex Senior--greeted us at Clapton's ground, delightfully named The Spotted Dog.  There was a new man in goal for us, too.  I decided to give the shaky Kitchener a break, and since our other first team 'keeper (Russell Stares) was home recovering from the flu, I gave the number one shirt to youth teamer Danny Goff.

Goff, a lad of sixteen, responded with a clean sheet, and Cunningham, getting his first start, rattled one home in the 87th minute to send us off 1-0 winners.  

Today we'll travel up to Manchester to face Abbey Hey in the Second Round of the FA Vase.  The board doesn't expect us to go any farther, so if we can keep up our recent form, we should get a nice little lift.

[Tom Ashley]

10 October 2013

Our journey to the Gorton area of Manchester for the Second Round tie in the FA Vase was an inspiring success.  Rather than rotating the squad, I elected to go with our first eleven.  The FA Vase competition  is open to teams in the ninth level of the English system and below, so it’s a trophy we could conceivably put our hands on.  I’d like to see if we can make a nice, long run.

We took command of the match quickly with goals from Ben Fish and Dean Griggs, but we threw Abbey Hey a lifeline when Simon Kitchener failed to collect a looping Callum Roberts header cleanly and instead batted it into his own goal. 

Center half Grant Pack, who had come forward for a free kick, knocked in a pass from Jon Taylor to give us back our two-goal advantage, but Kitchener allowed a soft goal later on to once again put the outcome in doubt.  Still, we rode back to London with a berth in the Third Round.

We faced London Bari next, at Capershotts on Sunday, the 15^th.  I replaced the wobbly Kitchener with Russell Stares, recently recovered from the flu, and the ‘keeper rewarded my confidence with a clean sheet.  Alfie Murray, getting the start in the midfield, scored the game’s only goal on the half hour mark.  

Still, the match was not without its low points.  Right back Elliot Ludlum came up lame, with a pulled hamstring that might keep him out of action for a month.  I pulled a promising youngster called James Palmer from the under 21s to fill in while Elliot is healing.   Ben Chart will also have a chance to see what he can do.

A week later, a tough Enfield side came to town.  Our ten points on the season had us fifth in the table, with Enfield just above us on 12.  I’d have to return to Kitchener in goal, as Stares banged his head in training and was unable to dress.  Simon allowed another soft goal, but it didn’t matter much—not with a rampant Jon Taylor storming up the right side, bedeviling the Enfield defense and scoring a hat trick.  Taylor’s first goal was in the books before most of the (small) crowd had settled onto the terraces, coming only 31 seconds into the match.  Our 3-1 victory enabled us to swap spots with Enfield, moving into fourth.

We ran our unbeaten streak to six games with a 1-0 decision away to Southend Manor, with Taylor doing the honors once again.  However, we lost our new forward, Ben Cunningham, to a twisted knee. Fortunately Henry Gillespie had just returned to training. 

Gillespie and his fellow convalescent, James Snape, were both back in the eleven for a tricky away fixture at Barking.  The Blues entered the match third in the league, while we stood second.  Their defense has been imperious; they allowed only two goals in their first seven league matches.

I perused their scouting report, and noticed the Blues had been eating teams alive when they played 4-4-2 against them.  I decided to employ our second tactic, a 4-1-2-2-1 with a defensive midfielder.   In retrospect, it might not have been a good idea. 

Barking’s defense was as good as advertised.  We got off only one shot all day, and it wasn’t on target.  Meanwhile, Kitchener let in another goal he shouldn’t have—a Barking winger got on the end of a long goal kick and belted it toward the area, only to watch in surprised delight as Kitchener lurched out to capture it, missed it, and watched it skip merrily into the net.  Barking got another goal (a legit goal this time) and ran off 2-0 winners.

The pundits had a go at me for changing my formation, but I’m not sure it would have made a bit of difference. 

Still, our season is off to a bright start, 

[Tom Ashley]

10 November 2013

There's not much good to be said for our play in the Essex Senior League the past few weeks.  A month ago, I might well have considered us among the group of teams that had a chance to win the league.  Now, after taking only three points from four league contests, we're looking more and more like a mid-table club.  

We lost a tough match to Takeley at home on 12 October.  It's fair to say we were the better team almost all day long, but they scored twice and we scored once, and that's what matters.  Russell Stares was in goal for us, and he looked fairly good.

Three nights later, we were off to Hampshire to meet Blackfield & Langley for an FA Vase tie.  Dean Griggs was the hero, firing in a hat trick, while Ellis Attwood and Ben Fish also found the net.  It was a happy bunch of Braves who boarded the coach for the ride back home.

Unfortunately, our form didn't carry over to the league.  We lost at home to London APSA (0-2), and at  Basildon, skipper Frankie McMahon's brace gave us a two-goal advantage we promptly tossed away in a 2-2 draw.  Ben Cunningham marked his return to action with a late equalizer at home to Stansted (1-1).

Today, we hosted Bowers & Pitsea, another of the better clubs in the league.  They looked like it for first hour, too, and scored three times.  Then Dean Griggs took the match by the throat; within ten minutes, he'd put in three himself and pulled us level.  That's how it ended, and I had to compliment the lads on how bravely they clawed their way back into the match.

Still, we're twelfth in the 20-team league, one of a group of four teams on 19 points.  We've scored 19 and conceded 19 in 13 matches, which puts us last in that group of four.  There's work to be done here.