shaunvamos Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 Hi guys, I've always been an advocate for youth challenges, but in this edition of the game I thought I'd go with something different. Why Guiseley? The first English football game I ever saw was an FA Cup qualifier in Guiseley last year when they played non-league Stourbridge. Guiseley won 3-1, but the highlight for me was a spectacular overhead goal from the Stourbridge striker. Those guys would easily walk into any A-League team, the gap in quality is ridiculous. But it was something about the atmosphere that really got me, a local club in a small town with 600 odd people there, that's really what football is all about, isn't it? But enough about that. Guiseley are a club in the lowest playable league of the English system, the Vanarama National League North. I believe they are the lowest rep side in Yorkshire that's playable from the beginning. I think there's 15 or 16 teams in the Football League in Yorkshire, a bit surprising considering the size of the region. Overall, the aim of this save will have a couple of targets (not necessarily in order): 1. Become the biggest club in Yorkshire 2. Become the biggest club in England 3. Win the English Premier League 4. Win the Champions League 5. Employ a transfer policy where only players born inside a 30 mile radius of Guiseley will be considered as viable options. Essentially having a squad (eventually) of locally sourced Yorkshiremen in the side. I already have a filter set up for this from experimenting with this last year. I believe someone a couple editions ago employed that transfer policy in Celtic and it worked to great effect, and I've drawn some inspiration for that. I think it was @mjaferrie? I understand it will be a long slog, and not just to become bigger than Leeds. There's Huddersfield and Sheffield United in the EPL to worry about! This new five year plan as part of the club vision will be interesting as well, hopefully we have similar philosophies. Next up I will post a quick overview of the club and its vision etc. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 Massive fan of this new layout. However, NOT a massive fan of my managers serial killer mugshot. Gotta change that currency to GBP too. Facilities are okay I guess, plenty of room for improvement though! I guess the expectations aren't too high. We will see I guess. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 5 hours ago, shaunvamos said: Overall, the aim ofI believe someone a couple editions ago employed that transfer policy in Celtic and it worked to great effect, and I've drawn some inspiration for that. I think it was @mjaferrie? Guilty as charged! Some local geography knowledge certainly helped but I definitely spent a lot of time on Google Maps Good luck with the challenge! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 6 hours ago, mjaferrie said: Guilty as charged! Some local geography knowledge certainly helped but I definitely spent a lot of time on Google Maps Good luck with the challenge! Being Australian, the only real knowledge I have about northern towns are the ones that have rugby league clubs 😂 Certainly a baptism of fire for me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 This looks like our best team for the tactic I want to implement. Our front three will hopefully be instrumental, and our keeper should keep things solid at the back. Might have to invest in some DMs and CBs though. It'd also a nice young squad, so plenty of potential. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinitelyTaylor Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 Good luck with Guiseley, I'll be following. They were destroyed by Paul Cox and continued to suffer with the consequences of his mismanagement last season, so this season is a great opportunity to turn the ship around! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 7 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said: Good luck with Guiseley, I'll be following. They were destroyed by Paul Cox and continued to suffer with the consequences of his mismanagement last season, so this season is a great opportunity to turn the ship around! Thanks mate, I don't know too much about the history but I do know they were nearly relegated, so I'm lucky I can even play as them first up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 Preseason 2019 An excellent preseason, quite possibly the best preseason I've had in a long time in any edition. We were comprehensive in most of our matches, the goal scoring potency bodes well for the season ahead. We actually did really well against Huddersfield, and even better against Bradford, coming from behind to draw. We ended on a bit of a negative though against non-league Westfields. Transfers Terry Kennedy (Barnsley) Didn't really get much signing done, my scouts have a big job trying to scout all 250+ players in my filter. But we did find this guy, he's unlikely to be starting for us immediately but he's a good depth piece in our 3 CB back line. He's fairly quick for this level too, another key attribute in our tactic. Preseason Prediction 8th sets expectations quite high, but given the way our preseason has gone it could be possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 For reference, here are the in-game towns that lie within a 30 mile radius of Guiseley: A few big towns here, which gives us plenty of layers to choose from as we move up the ranks. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 August 2019 A very good start to the season saw us capitalise on 2 keeping errors by the Farsley stopper (dwelt on the ball too long for the first goal, and then threw the ball straight to my striker). We outwore Spennymoor to grab the late winner there, before Gloucester City hot on the counter one too many times. We dominated Southport and Curzon Ashton, before Alfreton brought us back down to earth with a bang. We are still in a really strong position to start the league though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 (edited) September 2019 October consisted of a bore draw against our rivals from Bradford, then a big win against newly promoted Kettering, followed by a truly horrible run. An early exit in the FA Cup to a non-league side was embarrassing, then botching a home win against an inferior Boston side was just as bad, before a flogging by top team York may really force me to rethink the tactics away from home. At least we're still in a decent league position though. Edited November 9, 2019 by shaunvamos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 October 2019 The same tactic but with a defensive mentality netted us our second away victory of the season, and we went the rest of the month unbeaten until the last game, where we were flogged as is tradition. This season in competitive play we have gone 0-3 in the last game of the month, scoring 1 goal and conceding 11. Real weird. Table wise we are in a good position, and winning our game in hand could see us into 4th! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 (edited) November 2019 A mixed month that knocked us out of the FA Trophy and lose to one of the lowest teams in the league. But, 2 away wins and a good home win puts us into 5th. And, we finally ended our streak of getting flogged in the last game of the month! Edited November 10, 2019 by shaunvamos 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 December 2019 An unbeaten end to the year, and we are looking very strong heading into the second half of the year, with a 6 point gap on Curzon Ashton. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 January 2020 A spectacular month! We've extended our unbeaten run to 10 games and we are really looking strong. Credit to Marcus Dewhurst, our keeper as well. I've taken a leaf out of @Jimbokav1971's book and made my keeper take free kicks and penalties, and he has duly delivered. Both his goals this month were from free kicks, and he also has 3 goals from penalties bringing his total so far to 5 this year. We're in a really good position but it appears that York will stay ahead for a while. First award of the campaign as well 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 Another goal-scoring GK. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 1 minute ago, Jimbokav1971 said: Another goal-scoring GK. I'm not sure how many attaempts he's had, but I'm fairly certain that every time I've seen him take one he's scored (so twice). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 If you want to have a quick look at how many shots he has had, just look on player profile - reports - form, and you can have a quick glance at how many shots he has taken in each match all on 1 page. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 11 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said: If you want to have a quick look at how many shots he has had, just look on player profile - reports - form, and you can have a quick glance at how many shots he has taken in each match all on 1 page. Okay so it looks like he's had 4 goals in 11 shots in the last 20 games. I guess that's not too bad a strike rate. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 February 2020 Back to our old ways as we were smashed in our last game of the month, also ending our unbeaten streak at 14. We had a great win over league leaders York but this loss against Telford has set us back a bit. With 8 games to go we are 10 points behind the league leaders. Given our form, they may be caught, but realistically a playoff spot is the best we can hope for. Tough run of games coming too, with 3 of our 4 games in March being against teams in playoff positions (Gateshead away, Chester at home and Kidderminster away). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 March 2020 A very good month given how difficult our run was. The negative is that York have won the league, but we have secured a playoff spot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 4 hours ago, shaunvamos said: Okay so it looks like he's had 4 goals in 11 shots in the last 20 games. I guess that's not too bad a strike rate. That;s good. For some reason my GK's often tend to score in streaks and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's linked to morale, (so keep that in mind if he starts missing from the spot). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 2020 Youth Intake I didn't take a photo of the youth intake report because I incorrectly assumed it would still be available on the intake day. Lesson learned! At least with this intake we don't have to worry about any players being outside the 30 mile radius! Overall an average intake I think. Our top 2 prospects are FBs who we can wedge into a WB position. However there's too many wingers for my liking, they will have to be re-trained or unfortunately will be moved on. Paddy Martin 1A (Guiseley) - Ethan Baker 1B (Guiseley) - Adam Ager 1C (Guiseley) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 April 2020 We finished the regular season with an unbeaten month, though we left it really late against Darlington. We haven't beaten Chester or Gloucester City this season, so either team will be liking their chances against us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 (edited) 2019/20 End of Season Review We blew it Marcus Dewhurst Will Thornton (Leeds) - Scott Garner - Terry Kennedy (Barnsley) Reiss McNally - George Cantrill - Jamie Spencer (Halifax) - Brad Nicholson Aram Soleman Lee Shaw - Aaron Martin The players with their birthplace in brackets are the players that fit into my transfer policy. I won't look to actively sell those outside the 30 mile range, rather they will be phased out as players within the 30 mile radius will be brought in. Yorkshire Club Rankings Progress Edited November 15, 2019 by shaunvamos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillHoudini24 Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 I really like this idea. Unlucky in the playoffs, they're always tough to go through. Let's hope the 4 star kid from the Intake delivers soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 7 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said: I really like this idea. Unlucky in the playoffs, they're always tough to go through. Let's hope the 4 star kid from the Intake delivers soon. Glad to have you along! At least this season has built a base for growth, we know how good we can be, but clearly we can't do it in one off games, having lost all our knockout games this season. So we will just have to win the whole thing I guess! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Great first season at Guiseley. Playoffs are a pain in the arse. I share your losing experience. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinitelyTaylor Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Hard luck mate. A good season nonetheless! Hopefully something to build on for next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 10 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said: Great first season at Guiseley. Playoffs are a pain in the arse. I share your losing experience. 2 minutes ago, DefinitelyTaylor said: Hard luck mate. A good season nonetheless! Hopefully something to build on for next season. Thanks guys! I just wish they were over two legs to account for the choking, but we will just have to try our best to avoid even getting in that position. The two teams above us got promoted, so I'm pretty confident we can push for the title. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 Preseason 2020 Not a great preseason in all honesty. We did play against some tough opposition, but we really should've beaten Rhyl. Transfers We lost our front 3 to free transfers and loan returns, and our main keeper was returned back to his club. I'm in negotiations with a keeper right now, so hopefully we can get him to join. Josh Austerfield (Leeds) : Immediately slots into the void left by Soleman, who is now at League 2 Oldham. Dylan Cogill (Dewsbury): Seeing as we play with 3 at the back, he comes in as a cover option. Zak Armstrong (Oldham): This is the guy I'm most excited about. Released almost immediately from Accrington, I snapped him up and hopefully will develop into a fine WB. Akeel Francis (Leeds): Our first replacement striker. He's quick and has other decent attributes but will most likely feature from the bench this season. Rob Harker (Keighley): Rob's going to be our main man up front, I'm expecting big things from him this season. Kyle Hawley (Oldham): Hopefully should complement Harker up front. Season Prediction Predicted 11th I enjoy defying expectations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 August 2020 An excellent start to proceedings here in the 2020/21 season. These new guys are slotting in nicely. Transfers Jake Young (Huddersfield): Originally going to be brought in as a loan, then Sheffield Utd transfer listed him for free so I jumped on it. He will now lead our (all of a sudden) deep strikeforce. Marcel Wusiewicz (Burnley): Formally of Burnley FC, this Pole born in England will become our new starting keeper. He's already made his presence felt, scoring twice from the spot in August. Jordan Barnett (Penistone): Our backup WB after he was released from Barnsley. Given that WB seems to be the position that gets tired the easiest he is a must. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 September 2020 An extremely busy month, and one that didn't start real well, although the goals conceded in the first 2 games were penalties and an own goal. The win against Brackley was exceptional in the fact that Jordan Barrett scored 4 goals breaking the single game record and becoming our (then) top scorer in the process. We got our revenge in the FA Cup against the team that knocked us out last season, really showing what we should have done. We face non league Tamworth next, so hopefully we can win that one and progress. Pretty poor end to the month too, with a lack of points against teams in the relegation zone. We are still in a good position though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 13, 2019 Author Share Posted November 13, 2019 October 2020 Not a great month in the league. We end the month outside the playoff spots for the first time in a year. At least we won our 2 FA Cup qualifiers and are now in the 1st round against same tier Billericay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 November 2020 What an amazing month in response to our previous one! We won all our cup games and Young scored late to salvage a draw against Gainsborough. But the biggest story here is that we've made the 3rd Round of the FA Cup! Granted, we had a very lucky draw in Southport, a team we've never lost to, but we can only beat who is put in front of us. Our 3rd Round opponents are Shrewsbury, currently 18th in the Championship. It will be at home, so I think we might be raking in some good money. Amazingly, we actually seem to be profiting this season, despite me doing my best to cripple our finances by exceeding the wage budget. But this profit is doing some good for us, as I managed to get some youth upgrades: Our academy coaching is now at average and our recruitment is still poor at fairly basic. But we are taking steps in the right direction as a club, both on and off the field. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 This does not bode well for us. All of the positions we utilise are deemed to be of poor quality. It looks like we will have to do some re-training. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 December 2020 We lost for the first time to Hereford in a game that (kind of) mattered, but still unbeaten in the league this month. I'm really enjoying the new ME, no more ridiculous 35 yard screamers, 1 on 1 botches and switch play between wings for 5 consecutive passes. If we win our game in hand we go 4th. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 We interrupt our monthly updates to bring you this.... Utterly speechless. We had the better chances in the first half but nothing of note really happened. At half time I told them that they have just been unlucky so far, and every single player was demotivated and disinterested. I braced myself for the worst. But we scored just after half time and I battened down the hatches in order to see out the game with the win. But Jake Young had other ideas. An absolute belter of a goal put us up 2-0, and then he out the icing on the cake 2 minutes from time. What an amazing effort, we didn't really let them into the game! Plus our stadium was sold out Apparently there's no notification for breaking these records, but here they are! West Brom are 6th in the Championship and Blackburn are 7th. A bit of a step up in opponents, but we are on a good run of form and are due another big payday with the tie played at home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 January 2021 We started off the new year fantastically with that FA Cup win over Shrewsbury, but it really did go downhill from there. We did push Blackburn all the way though, going 2-0 up before we ran out of legs and they began to run rings around us. Somehow we're still in the playoffs, but the chasing pack are very close. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 February 2021 Apart from the poor effort against Hereford, a pretty good month. We seem to do a lot better when we have a nice space in between games. I guess it just shows the lack of depth we have. Probably due to the low wage budget. With 8 games to go it's really tight. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 I hope you can hang on to a playoff place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 15 minutes ago, deltablue said: I hope you can hang on to a playoff place. Thanks, but it's not looking good.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 March 2021 Two frustrating losses away and a draw with Altrincham in which we blew a lead. It doesn't seem t want to happen for us this season. Our last 4 games are against teams below us, so our fate is in our hands. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 2021 Youth Intake "Golden Generation" That being said, there is some decent potential here. Henry Cattermole 2A: Needs to gain experience as a striker if he wants a shot here. Elliot Atkinson 2B: A bit too early to see what he's made of, but at least he won't need retraining. Mitch Merris 2C: Decent prospect in a position we are desperate for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 April 2021 An unbeaten end to the season was much needed. We went into the last game one spot outside the playoffs, needing a win and other results to go our way to get into the playoffs. We did our part. But did everything else fall into place? Yes! Alfreton bottled it against Gainsborough and Coalville lost to Gloucester to see us finish 6th by the skin of our teeth. In the first round of the playoffs we face Darlington, a team we haven't lost to in our four matches, scoring 9 goals to their 2. I'm confident we can keep that run going, but because this game means something we will most likely botch this one too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 2020/21 End of Season Review Promoted! Maybe the key to the playoffs is to play away the whole time? That being said, we did get our share of luck, playing against two teams we've never lost to, but then we'd never beaten Boston United, except on the most important game of the season. I guess that's fate! It should be noted that Harker left the team on a free to Tranmere in early February, and he still scored plenty. Tranmere just got promoted to League One, so it was clear that we had an amazing player that was way too good for us. He's put 65k into the finances. Every little bit helps I suppose. Marcel Wusiewicz (Burnley) Scott Garner - Will Thornton (Leeds) - Terry Kennedy (Barnsley) Reiss McNally - George Cantrill - Jamie Spencer (Halifax) - Jordan Barnett (Penistone) Josh Austerfield (Leeds) Jake Young (Huddersfield) - Akeel Francis (Leeds) 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted November 16, 2019 Share Posted November 16, 2019 congrats on promotion Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 2021/22 Preseason Not a great preseason, but given our opposition we were probably expected to lose to 3 of those teams. The Cinderford game really should have been dealt with though. Transfers Not a busy transfer window, not too many players want to sign for us it seems. However, we are in negotiations for a CAM, a position in which we have a serious lack of depth. Robert Guilfoyle (York): He's fast and can finish. A temporary solution up front until we can find someone permanently. Isaac Marriott (Huddersfield): We are short in depth at DM so he's a lifesaver. Season Predictions Unsurprisingly, we are predicted to go straight back down. All I want is to avoid relegation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 16, 2019 Share Posted November 16, 2019 Well done on promotion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunvamos Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 August 2021 Look, a lot better start than I was expecting. The only result I wasn't happy with was the loss to Bromley, in which we took the lead only to blow it with two conceded penalties and other soft goals. The change in tactics may have helped too, I've set a lower defensive line and moved the DMs up into normal CM positions to try and give us some go forward. Transfers Will Longbottom (Leeds): Doncaster junior who is perfect for us in the number 10 spot. Kareem Hassan-Smith (Huddersfield): I brought him in just to add some depth to our wing back role and be on rotation with McNally. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now