MrKane17 Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Foreword I'm the guy who had the Plymouth Argyle save going on. I had to prematurely end it because I'm dumb (look at my profile to find the explanation, if you'd like). I do, however, really enjoy contributing here and didn't want to stop doing that because of my mistake, which is why I'm starting a new adventure in the English Non-Leagues. I have installed a "name fix", which changed the name of the league we play in to just the "National League", where we will start with Notts County, who had been relegated to the National League for the first time in their 157-year history. On July 26, 2019, the club was also sold to Danish businessmen. They ended up being third in the National League when its remaining games were cancelled, so our immediate challenge will be to do better than them in our first season and hopefully using that momentum to make our way to the Premier League and beyond. I thought it would be a good idea to also make this save very "goal-focused". I will outline a bunch of different goals in this post, whether it's in domestic competitions, continental competitions, player-based goals, club-based goals and much more. Throughout this save, we will have a section called "Objective Watch", where I will let you know whenever we hit a specific objective. Once we do, I will mark that objective as "Beat" and also note the in game date of when we passed that specific objective. This will be a long term save with short term goals, long term goals, easy goals, hard goals and a few weird goals here and there as well. I will make sure to triple save this time in order to prevent what happened with the Plymouth save and I hope you will follow me on this journey. I am done with my finals, which means I have a lot of time in my hands for the coming weeks and will therefore be able to give you frequent updates. Expect an update for every in-game month, where I will continue on the tradition of my Plymouth save of highlighting the Best Match, Best Player and Worst Player of the Month. I will now introduce you to the club and list all of the goals I have set for this save. There will be A LOT of goals to work towards. I'm very excited! Let's get on with the club introduction: Notts County club logo Basic Club Information Club Name: Notts County F.C. Based In: Nottingham Nickname: The Magpies Founded In: 1862 Rivals: Nottingham Forest (local), Mansfield (local), Chesterfield (local), Lincoln City (local), Peterborough (local) Stadium: Meadow Lane (19.841 capacity) Club Value: £1.91M (first season) -> £14.64M (last season) -> £20.55M (start of Season 4) Last Season's Finish (21/22): 1st (Sky Bet League One - Promoted) Facilities/Youth Setup Training Facilities: Basic Youth Facilities: Basic Data Analysis Facilities: Poor Youth Recruitment: Average -> Exceptional (Upgraded: July 7th, 2021) Junior Coaching: Average -> Exceptional (Upgraded: July 7th, 2021) Youth Level: 3 -> 4 (Downgraded: June 29th, 2020) Trophy Cabinet Sky Bet Championship: 3x (1897, 1914, 1923) Sky Bet League One: 1x (2022) Sky Bet League Two: 3x (1971, 1998, 2010) National League: 1x (2020) FA Cup: 1x (1894) Anglo-Italian Cup: 1x (1994) English Third Division South: 2x (1931, 1950) Goals/Objectives Domestic - League Wins/Promotions (5/15) - 1 failed Win Promotion from the National League -> Goal reached on: April 10th, 2020 √ Win the National League -> Goal reached on: April 10th, 2020 √ Win Promotion from the Sky Bet League Two -> Goal reached on: May 16th, 2021 √ Win the Sky Bet League Two -> Goal failed X Win Promotion from the Sky Bet League One -> Goal reached on: April 2nd, 2022 √ Win the Sky Bet League One -> Goal reached on: April 16th, 2022 √ Win Promotion from the Sky Bet Championship Win the Sky Bet Championship Avoid Relegation in 1st Premier League Season Win the Premier League Win the Double (Premier League/FA Cup) Win the Treble (Premier League/FA Cup/European Competition) Win the Quadruple (PL/FA Cup/European Comp./Carabao Cup) Win the Quintuple (PL/FAC/EC/CC/Community Shield) Win the Quintuple (PL/FAC/EC/CC/Community Shield) Win the Sextuple (PL/FAC/EC/CC/CS/European Super Cup) Domestic - League Achievements (5/18) - 3 failed Break the National League Points Record (105) -> Goal reached on: April 13th, 2020 √ Break the National League Wins Record (31) -> Goal reached on: April 4th, 2020 √ Break the National League Goals Record (103) -> Goal reached on: March 21st, 2020 √ Break the Sky Bet League Two Points Record (102) -> Goal failed X Break the Sky Bet League Two Wins Record (32) -> Goal failed X Break the Sky Bet League Two Goals Record (134) -> Goal failed X Break the Sky Bet League One Points Record (103) -> Goal reached on: April 16th, 2022 √ Break the Sky Bet League One Wins Record (32) -> Goal reached on: April 16th, 2022 √ Break the Sky Bet League One Goals Record (111) Break the Sky Bet Championship Points Record (106) Break the Sky Bet Championship Wins Record (32) Break the Sky Bet Championship Goals Record (122) Break the Premier League Points Record (100) Break the Premier League Wins Record (32) Break the Premier League Goals Record (128) Score 10 goals in a League Game Have an Unbeaten Season Have an Unbeaten Season in the Premier League Continental (0/11) Qualify for the Europa League II Group Stage Qualify for the Europa League II Knockout Stages Win the Europa League II Qualify for the Europa League Group Stage Qualify for the Europa League Knockout Stages Win the Europa League Qualify for the Champions League Group Stage Qualify for the Champions League Knockout Stages Win the Champions League Win the European Super Cup Win the Club World Cup Player Goals (3/28) Have a Player score 35+ Goals in a League Season (any Division) Have a Player score 40+ Overall Goals in a Season (any Division) Have a Player score 6+ Goals in a Single Game (any Division/Cup) Have a Player break the "Most Goals in a League Season" record (any Division) Have a Player break the "Most Goals in a League Season" record (Premier League) Have a Player win "Player of the Season" (any Division) -> Goal reached on: May 17th, 2021 √ Have a Player win "Player of the Season" (Premier League) Have a Player win "England Player of the Year" Have a Player win "Best Player in Europe" Have a Player win "European Golden Boy" Have a Player win "Golden Shoe" Have a Player win "FIFA Ballon d'Or" Have a Player win "FIFA Best Men's Goalkeeper" Have a Player win "FIFA Best U21 Men's Player" Have a Player in the "FIFA FIFPro Team of the Year" Have a Player in the "European Championship Dream Team" Have a Player in the European Championship winning team Have a Player in the "World Cup Dream Team" Have a Player in the World Cup winning team Sell a Player for £5M -> Goal reached on: August 9th, 2022 √ Sell a Player for £10M Sell a Player for £25M Sell a Player for £50M Sell a Player for £100M Have a Player become a Club Icon -> Goal reached on: May 17th, 2021 √ Have an Academy Player become a Club Icon Have a Player become a Club Legend Have an Academy Player become a Club Legend Club Goals/Records (9/36) Become a Top 50 Team based on Reputation in England START: 78th LAST SEASON: 69th NOW: 49th -> Goal reached: August 6th, 2022 √ Become a Top 25 Team based on Reputation in England Become a Top 10 Team based on Reputation in England Become a Top 5 Team based on Reputation in England Become the Top Team based on Reputation in England Enter the Top 150 Team Reputation list in the World Become a Top 100 Team based on Reputation in the World Become a Top 75 Team based on Reputation in the World Become a Top 50 Team based on Reputation in the World Become a Top 25 Team based on Reputation in the World Become a Top 10 Team based on Reputation in the World Become a Top 5 Team based on Reputation in the World Become the Top Team based on Reputation in the World Break the "Most Points in a Season" Record (99) -> Goal reached on: April 4th, 2020 √ Break the "Most League Wins in a Season" Record (30) -> Goal reached on: March 21st, 2020 √ Break the "Most League Goals Scored in a Season" Record (107) -> Goal reached on: March 28th, 2020 √ Break the "Most League Goals by a Player in a Season" Record (Tom Keetley, 39 in 1930-31) Break the "Most Overall Goals by a Player in a Season" Record (Tom Keetley, 39 in 1930-31) Break the "Most League Goals by a Player" Record (Les Bradd, 125) Break the "Most League Appearances by a Player" Record (Albert Iremonger, 564) Break the "Most Wins in a Row" Record (10) -> Goal reached on: Dec 29th, 2019 √ Break the "Most Games without Losing" Record (19) Break the "Highest Fee Received" Record (£2.5M for Craig Short, 1992) -> Goal reached on: August 9th, 2022 √ Break Highest Attendance Record (47.310 vs York City, 1955) Expand Stadium/Build a New Stadium (25.000+ seats) Expand Stadium/Build a New Stadium (50.000+ seats) Max out Training Facilities Max out Youth Facilities Max out Data Analysis Facilities Max out Youth Recruitment -> Goal reached on: July 7th, 2021 √ Max out Junior Coaching -> Goal reached on: July 7th, 2021 √ Reach Youth Level 1 Have a Balance of £10M -> Goal reached on: August 12th, 2022 √ Have a Balance of £50M Have a Balance of £100M Have a Balance of £1B Save Goals (0/20) Reach the Premier League within 4 Seasons Reach the Premier League within 5 Seasons Reach the Premier League within 10 Seasons Win the Premier League 3x [0/3] Win the Premier League 5x [0/5] Win the FA Cup 3x [0/3] Win the FA Cup 5x [0/5] Win a Continental Competition within 6 Seasons Win a Continental Competition within 10 Seasons Win a Continental Competition within 20 Seasons Win the Champions League 3x [0/3] England wins the European Championship LOST IN EC2020 QF v Spain England win the World Cup England is #1 on World Nation Rankings (Currently: 5th) England is #1 on Nation Club Coefficients list (Currently: 2nd) Premier League is #1 on European Competitions list (Currently: 2nd) Complete 5 Seasons Complete 10 Seasons Complete 15 Seasons Complete 20 Seasons Manager Goals (6/26) Reach Continental Pro Licence -> Goal reached on: October 18th, 2021 √ Become a Club Icon Become a Club Legend Win a League Trophy -> Goal reached on: April 10th, 2020 √ Win a Cup Trophy Win Manager of the Month Award 5x -> Goal reached on: March 1st, 2020 √ Win Manager of the Month Award 10x -> Goal reached on: November 1st, 2021 √ Win Manager of the Month Award 20x [12/20] Win Manager of the Month Award 50x [12/50] Win Manager of the Year Award -> Goal reached on: May 17th, 2021 √ Win Manager of the Year Award 3x [2/3] Win Manager of the Year Award 5x [2/5] Win England Manager of the Year Reach 100 Games in Management -> Goal reached on: March 27th, 2021 √ Reach 200 Games in Management Reach 300 Games in Management Reach 500 Games in Management Reach 1000 Games in Management Enter "English Nationality" Hall of Fame Ranking Reach #1 in "English Nationality" Hall of Fame Ranking Enter "English Nation" Hall of Fame Ranking Reach #1 in "English Nation" Hall of Fame Ranking Enter "Worldwide" Hall of Fame Ranking Reach #10 in "Worldwide" Hall of Fame Ranking Reach #5 in "Worldwide" Hall of Fame Ranking Reach #1 in "Worldwide" Hall of Fame Ranking TOTAL GOALS/OBJECTIVES: 28/154 (4 failed) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ So yeah, as you can see, I went absolutely crazy. I DON'T EXPECT TO REACH ALL OF THESE GOALS! I have never even achieved most of these in any of my saves in any FM ever but I just wanted to list everything that we could potentially see happening during this save. For example, I have never scored 10 goals in a competitive match but did score 9 multiple times, so that was a goal I really wanted to list and hopefully tick at some point because I want to see, if scoring 10 in a competitive match is even possible. From these 154 objectives, I wouldn't be surprised if we barely manage 50 but I think having this focus on objectives could make the save more fun and reaching one could always become this big occasion we celebrate. I will strike through every objective we beat and list the date of completion next to it. I might even link the completion to the specific post where I mention it but that might be we'll see. Let me know, if you have any questions or suggestions and I hope that at least some of you will follow me on this journey. I will make sure that I don't f up this save again by overwriting the save file or anything like that and I hope we'll have a long, successful journey ahead of us. Edited June 10, 2020 by MrKane17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 Good luck with the team that used to be the oldest club in the Football League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 3 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said: Good luck with the team that used to be the oldest club in the Football League. Thank you We'll be back in League Two in no time hopefully. Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Squad | Club Vision | Club Info | Manager Profile | Pre-Season | Finances Some club information to start our career here with Notts County. I'm going to guess that we're paying the most wages in our league at £2M, so obviously the goal is to get promoted, preferably by winning the league.The preseason wasn't great but we did mostly play teams better than us, so all those draws weren't bad at all. Transfers IN | OUT The INs: As you can see, we made a lot of signings. 12 in total but as with my Plymouth save, I focused on signing youth players mostly. I mentioned this then as well but I really enjoy building my own academy with players that are mostly punts and could potentially be sold for a slight profit or develop into first team players. So yeah, 6 signings were those kind of young prospects while the other 6 are players who will feature in the first team. Also, we're paying £500/month for Matej Majka because Brentford wanted a loan contribution of £13.000 while I was only able to offer £10.000 due to being over our wage budget, so I had to add a small monthly fee. One of the players we added, Anthony Spyrou, is someone we added to honor the fallen Plymouth save, as he was one of our summer signings there as well. It helps that he immediately becomes a starter for us. The OUTs: Not much to say here, two players sent out on loan. KEY ADDITIONS Anthony Spyrou: Was a useful option in my Plymouth save, who are in League Two, so I expect him to do a good job for us in the National League as our #1 striker. Matej Majka: Our backup RW, who looks pretty good and is someone I might sign after the season, when his contract with Brentford might expire. Luca Navarro: He will slot in as our #2 striker for now, as he has a lot of potential. Might drop down to third striker with poor performances but I hope not. Jordan Gibson: Our backup LW, who slots in as our starter for now because McDermott immediately got injured for 2 months. Matt O'Riley: He is in the Dream Eleven in our competition but will be on the bench to start the season. Hope his performances will be Dream Eleven-worthy. Donal McDermott: The injury is unfortunate but he could do a solid job for us this season once he returns. OTHER KEY PLAYERS Ben Turner: Great physicals and mentals but his physicals are poor. Hope that doesn't matter in the end. Enzio Boldewijn: Wanted by Rochdale out of League One, Boldewijn is a good player for most League Two sides and will be crucial in our push for the title and promotion. Damien McCrory: Probably the most well-rounded non-league player I've ever seen. Will play LB. Could play BBM or even as a striker. Tactics #1 | #2 Both pretty offensive but I expect us to dominate every league game and I'll have to still figure out, if we look for something more defensive against better teams in the FA Cup or if we play our game and hope that an attacking approach helps us upset a few teams. Also, I'm using the Plymouth tactic for now because I've had a lot of success with it, so I hope our start to our first season will be as successful. I will be back after our August fixtures, 5 games in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt The perfect start? 5 games, 5 wins. Doesn't get any better than that. We're always looking for ways to improve though, so what's been apparent so far is that we're not winning convincingly. Apart from the Boreham Wood game, we could have drawn or even lost any other game. We didn't though, so I love the fight in our team so far. What I've realized is that our biggest weakness is something that I'm very much relying on: Pace. Ben Turner, our CB, is as slow as a snail and the same goes for Jim O'Brien, our DLP. O'Brien is playing on a 7.14 avg. rating so far but from my experience, any DLP gets good ratings and a 7.14 is pretty low for his position. Turner got a 6.76 avg. rating for his performances and has already been dropped for a new loan signing. Do remember that I highlighted Turner as one of our key players, so having to replace one of the three is not particularly great but I believe we'll be better for it in the future. Match of the Month I don't know what it is with me and season openers but just like in the Plymouth save, we start off with a 3:2 win where we score a winner in injury time. This one saw us take the lead in the 88th minute, lose it in the 89th minute and win it back and hold on to it after a goal in the 91st minute by none other than Matt O'Riley, who won himself a starting role with that performance of the bench. Got lucky here and used the momentum to win the rest of our games in August. Best Player of the Month Matt O'Riley: 5 apps (4 starts) | 2 goals | 2 assists | 7.20 avg. rating Our loan signing won us three points in his debut off the bench and continued to impress throughout the month. He's playing in a BBM role and might perform even better if he takes over as DLP, which is something I'm considering. Worst Player of the Month Enzio Boldewijn: 5 apps (5 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 6.56 avg. rating This could have gone to either Enzio or Ben Turner, two of our three "key players". Unlike Turner, Enzio has the tools to succeed in my tactic but he's playing like garbage, which makes me very sad. Can he pick it up? I sure hope so. New Signings Ben Cabango: Apart from having a great name, Cabango has very good attributes and, most importantly, HE CAN ACTUALLY RUN! Will immediately slot in as a starting center back. Rayhaan Tulloch: This guy can run as well. Like, really fast! He made it into the Dream Eleven of the National League and will be our #1 player off the bench, if we need to add some more pace to our attacks. Objective Watch Achievable Soon: 1) National League Points Record: 91 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 27 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 93 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 85 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 26 wins left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 97 goals left 7) Club "Wins in a Row" Record: 6 wins left 8) Club "Most Games without Losing" Record: 15 games left 9) Manager of the Month Award 5x: 1/5 These are the 9 awards that are possible to be achieved this season. We will play six games in September, so if everyone works out well, we might complete our first goal after just two months into the save. Edited June 2, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Already upped our Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching to Adequate. I'll request improvements as soon as I can and we might max these two out sooner than I would have thought. We definitely have the financial means for it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Two Team Race After another superb month, we're already 10 points clear of 3rd placed Hartlepool. Barrow are keeping up though and with there being a huge difference in finishing 1st or 2nd, we gotta make sure that we distance ourselves from them. Match of the Month Not the craziest of matches but we did manage to win against a team that was in 7th place when we played them. Winning away from home with 10 men for the final 10+ minutes was crucial and again showed the determination in my guys. Best Player of the Month Wes Thomas: 6 apps (6 starts) | 6 goals | 0 assists | 7.52 avg. rating We had so many good but not great performances this month, so I went the easy route and chose our top goalscorer, Wes Thomas, who scored our only 4 goals against Wrexham and Barnet, two teams in the Top 5. So he is establishing himself as a man for the big occasion and I'm glad that we have someone we can rely on in those types of matches. Worst Player of the Month Donal McDermott: 5 apps (4 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 6.56 avg. rating Our new signing achieved the impressive feat of doing absolutely nothing in his career for us so far. Apart from our RW Matej Majka, who has 2 assists to his name (but still didn't play well so far), none of our other RW made any type of contribution. I might have to rethink how I'm going to make more effective use of that position in my tactics. Injury Worry This is the most notable injury of the month but we had a bunch of players out injured for multiple weeks already. We have 2 physios, 2 fitness coaches and average training facilities and yet, we are a professional club. This mix might be the reason for all the injuries and I can't wait to request more of a Physio and Coaching Staff to prevent and/or reduce the length of injuries. Objective Watch Achievable "Soon": 1) National League Points Record: 75 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 22 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 81 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 69 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 21 wins left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 85 goals left 7) Club "Most Games without Losing" Record: 9 games left 8) Manager of the Month Award 5x: 2/5 Unfortunately we drew one match and didn't reach our goal of breaking the club record for most wins in a row (10). With our recent performances however, I wouldn't rule it out that we might still reach that goal this season. On to October, where six matches and our first FA Cup tie await us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Parkinson's Disease I don't know which result was more infuriating. Actually, I do know but for the sake of it, let's go through our three bad results. We lost 0:1 to Boston United in the FA Cup because all but one of my five wingers were injured, so I had to play a slightly injured Rayhaan Tulloch on LW for the first 60 minutes on 77% condition due to not having a wingerless tactic. In the 60th min, I switched to a diamond, we conceded and couldn't score ourselves, even though we had 20 shots and 10 on targets with 2 clear cut and 2 half chances. Then, we played 2nd placed Barrow, a must win or at least must not lose game. They had 3 shots and 2 on target all game, one of those shots being a penalty given away by Ben Cabango in the 79th minute. Now the highlight. We lead 3-0 (!) against Stockport County and ****ing scores his 1st, 2nd and 3rd goals of the season in the last 10 minutes of the game. 2 of them bangers. We draw 3-3. **** off. This leaves us 4 points clear of Barrow but I'm not happy. We couldn't catch a break those final three games. Match of the Month Here are the stats of this game. Three of their 4 shots on goal came in the 81st minute or later, all three went in, two from 20 yards out. I don't understand. Parkinson has 6 long shots, 5 finishing. 9 stamina, he dreads big matches and he hadn't scored all season. I've never been FM'd like this before. It's ******** but we'll move on. Can't wait to play him next time, I'll send the vultures at him. Tight marking. Always pressing. Hard tackling. Show on weaker foot. He'll get the special treatment. But yeah, good performance by the lad. Best Player of the Month He'll probably appear in my dreams tonight so he might as well appear here, too. Worst Player of the Month Meet the 11 fools who couldn't stop a man with 5 finishing from scoring 3 goals in 12 minutes. Yes I'm mad. I've added a new objective: Stop Jack Parkinson from scoring against us in the rematch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 We're planning on buying Meadow Lane after the season. I've never had a team that needed to buy its stadium, so I have no idea how much it will cost and if it will even be going through at the end but it's exciting times for Notts County supporters regardless. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Responding like true contenders What. A. Month. After our shocking draw against Stockport at the end of October, we absolutely dominated our 5 opponents this month. We scored an astonishing 23 goals in 5 games. Not only does this mean that we're at least 7 points clear of Barrow, who have 2 games in hand but we've also now given us a chance to break the National League goals record. Fantastic set of results with the only criticism I have being that we conceded 2 goals against both Dag & Red and Eastleigh. Also, we had so many goalscorers against Eastleigh that not all of them fit on my screen. The final scorer was Matt O'Riley. Match of the Month Take your pick between all five matches. We've scored 4+ in all but one and in that match against Woking, we even dominated to the tune of 37 shots. In this match against Eastleigh, we scored 7 (!), our season high and came pretty close to our objective of scoring 10 goals in a match. Soon.. Best Player of the Month Regan Booty: 5 apps (5 starts) | 3 goals | 2 assists | 7.94 avg. rating The combination of his name and his performances make Regan Booty my favorite player currently playing for our team. I didn't play him much for the first 2 months but since then he has been setting the world alight and I'm looking foolish to not have been starting him sooner. He is also constantly great in Training and developing quicker than anybody else so far. Worst Player of the Month Sam Slocombe: 5 apps | 5 goals conceded | 6.84 avg. rating It's hard to name someone the "Worst Player of the Month" when we dominate 5/5 matches but Slocombe didn't have to deal with many shots, especially on target but consistently found a way to concede in the first 3 matches of the month. We would build 5 or 6 goal leads and feeling great until he would concede through terrible shots from distance. 8 clean sheets out of 21 total league games isn't too bad but we're dominating the league, so I would have liked to see a bit more from him so far. He's also 31, which means we'll probably look to upgrade the position next summer. Objective Watch Achievable "Soon": 1) National League Points Record: 50 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 14 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 47 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 44 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 13 wins left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 51 goals left 7) Manager of the Month Award 5x: 3/5 Edited June 3, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Ugh. Underwhelming youth intake preview. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #1 COMPLETED Club Goals/Records -> Break the "Most Wins in a Row" Record (10) Let's gooooo! The way we broke this record, my god! Just check out my next update post. Unreal scenes for an objective that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things but does represent a very special moment, as we've now reached our first goal. 153 to go! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Our first goal reached under the most stressful circumstances Probably our best month yet. We had another big win, this time a 6-1 thumping of Dover Athletic. Next, we beat 2nd placed Barrow 2-0, which resulted in us being comfortably 1st. It's our title to lose now. The highlight was our final game against Chorley. Bottom of the league!!! We just needed a win to break our consecutive wins record and reach our first goal. We did it but man, why did we have to do it like that? Match of the Month We took a 2-0 lead. It was looking good. Chorley, the team with a total of 13 points, then got it to 2-2 after 58 minutes. Despite us dominating the match, we needed a lot of luck in the final minute of the game, as Chorley defender Matt Challoner's pass back to his keeper was too short and ended up with our young striker Anthony Spyrou, who finished calmly but celebrated wildly as we broke the first of hopefully many club records during our time here. Never celebrated a win against bottom of the league as much as this one. Best Player of the Month Anthony Spyrou: 5 apps (5 starts) | 5 goals | 1 assists | 7.84 avg. rating He deserves this award solely for his Chorley performance but he's had a good month in general and helped us win all of our matches. Worst Player of the Month X No bad performances this month. Apart from a few average performances by the likes of Sam Slocombe and Rayhaan Tulloch, no one was close to playing "poorly". Objective Watch Achievable "Soon": 1) National League Points Record: 35 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 9 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 34 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 29 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 8 wins left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 38 goals left 7) Club "Most Matches without Losing" Record: 8 games left 8) Manager of the Month Award 5x: 4/5 1 down. After our next month, the Manager of the Month Award 5x objective is waiting to be completed. Another very good month is needed for that. We're not playing a single team in the Top 7, so it's definitely possible. Edited June 3, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Playing proper football on a fortnightly basis We're out of the FA Trophy, which in itself is disappointing enough, even though we rotated heavily. More worrying was our 0:1 loss to Bromley and 0:0 draw with Wrexham, where we had 2 goals disallowed, one of those was definitely not offside but moving on. What's annoying about that is that we seem to be playing like worldbeaters in every second fixture and just not showing up in the ones in between. 6-0 against Fylde and 4-1 against Maidenhead doesn't really fit into a month where we scored a total of 1 goal in our other three matches. Luckily, Barrow dropped the same amount of points, so the lead is now at 12 points after they've played their games in hand as well. Match of the Month We dominated Fylde from the start, scoring our first of six total goals in the 3rd minute. We had 5 goals at half time but couldn't replicate that in the second half to reach the desired 10 goals. Best Player of the Month Regan Booty: 4 apps (4 starts) | 1 goal | 1 assist | 8.00 avg. rating Regan wins the award again after another great month. He's playing on a "League One" level according to our scouts, so I'm very excited to have him for the foreseeable future. I did offer him a new contract but we didn't agree on a couple things and now he doesn't want to talk. Once he does, we'll come to an agreement I'm sure. Worst Player of the Month Jim O'Brien: 5 apps (2 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 6.66 avg. rating We lost one and drew one of the games Jim O'Brien started. He didn't play well in any of his 5 appearances and our offense seems to consistently stall when I have him on. Definitely someone who'll leave us after this season, as I will let his contract run out. No Brexit Yes! The work permit rules at the start of the game are my favorite, so I'm excited about the news. New Contract We'll be here for at least another season, folks! Objective Watch Achievable "Soon": 1) National League Points Record: 28 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 7 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 24 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 22 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 6 wins left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 28 goals left 7) Manager of the Month Award 5x: 4/5 Unfortunate to not get the Manager of the Month objective done but we'll try again in February, where we will play 5 league games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #2 COMPLETED Manager Goals -> Win "Manager of the Month" Award 5x 2 goals reached now. As you can see, I won February's award, which tells you how well we've performed this month and you can also see on my manager profile that I have now won a total of 5 awards. Great stuff, next goal is to try and get to 10, maybe by next season? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt Setting us up for a record-breaking year Another perfect month, which is amazing stuff. I'm having a blast with this save so far. We've scored 3+ goals in each match and have won each and every month, which has now set us up for breaking a bunch of club and league records and thereby allowing us to complete a few more of our objectives. Of course, with me setting "breaking a leagues goals/wins/points record" as objectives, there is the chance that we will be unable to complete them, if we get promoted and never play in a specific league again. So to be very close to every single objective so far is a great start to this save. With us now 20 points clear of Barrow, who seem to be focusing more on their FA Trophy run then on the league, I'm confident that we'll see this through and win our first piece of silverware as manager. Match of the Month 8 goals were scored in this one and we've seen the score get to 3:3 at some point, which gave me immediate flashbacks to our Stockport game. Luckily, we managed to score twice in the final 11 minutes of regular time and came out with all three points. The highlight of the game was a hattrick scored by our young striker Luca Navarro. Best Player of the Month Luca Navarro: 5 apps (5 starts) | 4 goals | 1 assist | 7.80 avg. rating Anthony Spyrou picked up two 4-week injuries IN A ROW, so we'll be seeing Luca Navarro for a while as a starter and he's taken full advantage. He's scored 4 goals (including a hattrick against Harrogate) in just 5 matches after scoring just once in his previous 24 league appearances. Navarro is stepping up at a time where he has to because we don't really have another striker we could realistically rely on. Worst Player of the Month X No player performed poorly this month as we played fantastic football in all five of our games, even though the three goals conceded against Harrogate weren't great. Ben Cabango extends his loan One of our best players extends his loan for another season. This is fantastic news as he will definitely be one of our 11 starters next season, whether we get promoted or (somehow) don't. Objective Watch Achievable "Soon": 1) National League Points Record: 13 points left 2) National League Wins Record: 2 wins left 3) National League Goals Record: 5 goals left 4) Club "Points in a Season" Record: 7 points left 5) Club "Wins in a Season" Record: 1 win left 6) Club "Goals in a Season" Record: 9 goals left If we play like we have up to this point, expect ALL SIX of the objectives above to be completed. We just might complete all 154 you know. (kidding. I think.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 Youth Intake Nothing to see here. Our two players with some potential don't look like they'll ever make it into the first team, either due to a lack of potential (Emmanuel) or determination (Nelson). I don't expect Nelson to go far with that determination and personality but I'll at least try with him through mentoring. Still, disappointing for our first intake but I didn't expect much due to our youth recruitment/junior coaching. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #3 COMPLETED Club Goals/Records -> Break the "Most League Wins in a Season" Record (30) The fact that I am sharing this with you after the youth intake, which typically happens mid-to-late March, should tell you how our month has been going. We do finally however win that one match that we had to in March to break the record. One more win and we'll break the National League record as well. Expect there to be more objectives to be completed this month, as long as we can find some damn form again (more on that soon). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #4 COMPLETED Domestic - League Achievements -> Break the National League Goals Record (103) Oh yeah, we broke the National League goals record in the same game as well. 4 done, 150 to go Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt WHAT THE **** HAPPENED? 1 win out of 5 games!!! WHAT THE **** HAPPENED? The league was looking like it was wrapped up and we thought we'd have a nice party of breaking several records but we ended up completely ******** the bed and coming away with 5 total points. The only team we beat was 4th placed Barnet, the "best" opposition. So we're still chasing after all those records, which I don't mind that much but we're also now giving Barrow every opportunity to re-open the title race. Ridiculous. Match of the Month Easily the most infuriating game of them all, we lost to Halifax after not only leading 1:0 after 7 minutes but we also conceded twice to them even though they had 4 total shots. Terrible performance. Best Player of the Month X No player was even close to being worthy of consideration for this award. Poor performances all around. Worst Player of the Month Damien McCrory: 5 apps (4 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | infinite number of mistakes made | 6.54 avg. rating Terrible month for McCrory. The entire team seems to be running out of gas but it seems to have hit McCrory worst of all. With that, we're still waiting to complete a few objectives in the coming month but we also now have a title race to focus on again. Ugh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #5 COMPLETED Club Goals/Records -> Break the "Most Goals scored in a Season" Record (107) Disgustingly, we beat our club points record in the 1-1 draw against Yeovil Town. Yey? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #6 COMPLETED Club Goals/Records -> Break the "Most Points in a Season" Record (99) After a 2:0 win against Aldershot, we manage to beat our club points record. Now we just need 5 more out of our final four matches to break the National League record as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #7 COMPLETED Domestic - League Achievements -> Break the National League Wins Record (31) Another record broken as we win our 32nd game of the season against Aldershot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) We have won the National League!!! In the most satisfying of circumstances, we have beaten Stockport 3:0. You know, the Stockport team that we drew 3:3 with in our first encounter this season. The match where Jack Parkinson scored 3 goals in the final 12 minutes? So to get a 3:0 lead again and hold on to it this time was pretty nice. Also, the board set our budgets for next season. An increase of about £800K over this season's wage budget. That's enough for me to work with to build a team that can contend for promotion again next year I believe but we'll have to wait and see how the summer shakes out. WE'RE CHAMPIONS! EDIT: This also means that the following three goals were reached. OBJECTIVE #8/9/10 COMPLETED 1) Domestic - League Wins/Promotions -> Win Promotion from the National League 2) Domestic - League Wins/Promotions -> Win the National League 3) Manager Goals -> Win a League Trophy Edited June 3, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 OBJECTIVE #11 COMPLETED Domestic - League Achievements -> Break the National League Points Record (105) Unless I win Manager of the Year, this will be the final objective for our first season with Notts County. A nice way to finish off a successful season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northernpilgrim Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Great first season. Glad to see you back mate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 12 minutes ago, Northernpilgrim said: Great first season. Glad to see you back mate Thank you Glad to be back! Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt The perfect finish A 100% win percentage again after a shockingly poor March. We are now officially National League 2019/20 champions and ended up 16 points clear of 2nd placed Barrow. We could've lost every match this month and still would've been champions but it's comforting to have done it in such convincing fashion. The highlight of the month for me was the Stockport match (more on that in a bit) but also our final two games. We played 4 youngsters in those games and out of them, our academy prospect Ash Nelson scored a goal in his debut, right back Dwight Pascal got 2 assists and CM Brendan O'Brien scored a goal as well. Didn't expect to win those matches, very happy that we did. Especially our 4-3 win against our rivals, Chesterfield, even though we were leading 4-0 after 77 minutes. Match of the Month I've mentioned this in my previous post but we've done what we were promising as we beat Stockport County comfortably after drawing 3:3 with them in the most infuriating match of our season. Remember Jack Parkinson, who scored 3 goals in 12 minutes? Remember how I promised to pressure the bejesus out of him? Well... Tight marking. Pressure always. Tackle hard. Show on weaker foot. All that. And well, as you can see, he got subbed off after 64 minutes, having looked frustrating the entire match. Job jobbed. Best Player of the Month Enzio Boldewijn: 4 apps (4 starts, injured in 4th game after 42 min) | 4 goals | 1 assist | 7.75 avg. rating Very happy with his performances, as he continuously picked up his form over the season. I'm counting on him to play consistently better next year, so this month was a good sign. Worst Player of the Month X We're celebrating, there is no space for negativity right now. Attendance Record This wasn't one of our goals but nice to break yet another National League record as we leave the league behind. Season in Review coming up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #1: 2019/20 | Division: National League | Manager: Fergus Hunt SEASON #1: REVIEW League Table | League Stats | Fixtures | Club Vision | Finances | Dynamics We end the season with a B in Manager Performance, which is worse than you'd think for three reasons. 1) We didn't stick within the wage budget for most of the season. 2) We were eliminated early in the FA Cup. 3) We had a terrible run of form in March. Also, the finances are now looking terrible because we've had to make loan payments of £130K each month. The only reason we're not in the red is thanks to our attendances, which were #1 in the league. But what you can also see is that we have a crazy amount of our wage budget left to spend with most of our team already set. With a few key additions the squad will easily be able to fight for promotion I think. End of Season Awards As you can see, we got a hold of that first spot early on and never looked back. New in-game goalscoring record for Wes Thomas, though the real record for a player is at 39 for the club. Booty picked up 17 assists, a record that might stand a couple years. "New" POTM record for Wes Thomas "New" clean sheet record for Sam Slocombe Some good news... and some bad news. Save Progress And with that, our first season with Notts County is done! A very successful season overall and I'm already looking forward to what Season #2 will bring. Hope you've been enjoying this journey so far. If you did, let me know and if you have any suggestions for improving the way I do all of this, let me know of that as well I'll see you all for Season #2! Edited June 3, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northernpilgrim Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Fantastic first season! All the best in League 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) 44 minutes ago, Northernpilgrim said: Fantastic first season! All the best in League 2 Thank you! Our 10 first team signings will surely help us do well Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt First Team, U23 and U18 Squads| Club Vision | Club Info | Manager Profile | Pre-Season | Finances | Dynamics As you can see, we have been VERY active in the summer transfer window, so the first team squad looks very different to last year. Our board wanted us to avoid relegation at the start of the season but after all the transfers we've the 2nd highest odds to get promoted, so we should easily exceed the boards expectations. We had a £12M jump in club value after one season, which surprised me but I guess it's because we bought the stadium, which cost us about £14M and put us in big debt. Worth it, though. And finally, our preseason. We won 5:0 and 5:1 against two Premier League teams while losing every match against Championship sides 1:2. Weird preseason to say the least. Transfers IN | OUT The INs: Where do I begin? I've never made this many transfers but all these quality players were staring me in the face with contracts expiring, so I had to pick them up. Last years freebies Luca Navarro and Marley Blair both got £75K+ offers, so my plan of buying cheap and selling for profit is definitely working. With the amount of young prospects we've been able to pick up, we should make a bunch of money of them in the coming years. Some of them will even be first-team players, so their values should jump up quite considerably. Out of our 23 signings, 10 will be inserted into the first team squad with six of them getting starting roles to begin the season. I'll focus on those and link to the other three players (the remaining player is Matej Majka, who had been with us last year on loan). The OUTs: Marley Blair sold for a good fee and we put a 50% on profit clause on there as well. Don't expect him to develop much, so I'm happy to make a small profit on him. If you look at our finances, £75K does make a difference. Wootton and and McDonell, two players who barely played last year, brought in £40K as well, so we made a bit of money on sales while also sending out a bunch of our new youngsters on loan. KEY ADDITIONS Admiral Muskwe, Josh Grant and Di'Shon Bernard: Any of these three might start at some point depending on their form. Josh Grant is a player I had with Plymouth and I know he's going to be able to play and play well in the Sky Bet League Two. Di'Shon Bernard just looks like a great prospect who, worst case, can be sold for profit. Muskwe looks like a fine striker and could take the job from one of our two strikers easily. Juan Camillo Becerra: Will start next to Anthony Spyrou this season. Had an eye on him for much of the first season and got him for free. Great technicals and mentals, so I'm having high hopes for him. Can still develop as well, albeit not much probably. Ethan Galbraith: VERY excited to have this kid on my team. 19 years old. 19 determination. Fantastic long shots, solid attributes for a BBM as well. Might find himself in the starting line-up soon but I will give Regan Booty the start for now. Melih Altikulac: Tried to sign him but he decided to renew with Lyon instead, so I decided to loan him in instead. Will start at LB, has amazing attributes for this level, especially defensively and mentally. George Tanner: Yet another young prospect from Man Utd, this time a RB who will provide competition for Richard Brindley. Starting spot up for grabs. Connor Johnson: Potentially our best signing, Connor Johnson is a very good CB who has all the tools to be a shut-down CB for us. Unfortunately, he's out for two weeks to start the season.. Jordan Smith: I tried to find an upgrade in goal over Sam Slocombe all offseason and had to settle for Jordan Smith as all the better options were asking for unreasonable wages. OTHER KEY PLAYERS Ben Cabango: Great heading and tackling and very solid pace as well. Cabango will continue to be a force at CB for us I hope. Enzio Boldewijn: Had a great preseason, so I'm hoping that he has a better start to this season than last. Is wanted by clubs for a rumored amount of £175K and I'd have to think about moving him on, if he doesn't perform. Regan Booty: Has developed rapidly over our first season and is looking really well-rounded now. Will be one of our two starting CMs. Matt O'Riley: Galbraith is breathing down his neck for that starting job of his but O'Riley played well last year and I'm confident in his abilities to help us win football matches. Tactics No changes here, I will be going with the same two tactics as in Season #1. I've changed player roles very slightly but overall the tactics remain the same. We'll be starting the season against Southend at home. Can't wait! Edited June 3, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
turlo100 Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 I started a Notts County Save last week and really enjoying it so far. I managed to get promoted in the first two seasons and have kept the wage bill as low as possible with free transfers and loans - i was very lucky to get Touaizi on a free after loaning him in League two where he banged in 23 goals! I'm wondering whether its worthwhile buying the Stadium out so we can expand in the future or wait until we've progressed far enough to build a new stadium - we got hit with a 1.2mill ground maintenance bill at the end of the second season so was wondering if this would be reduced if we purchased the stadium? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 15 hours ago, turlo100 said: I started a Notts County Save last week and really enjoying it so far. I managed to get promoted in the first two seasons and have kept the wage bill as low as possible with free transfers and loans - i was very lucky to get Touaizi on a free after loaning him in League two where he banged in 23 goals! I'm wondering whether its worthwhile buying the Stadium out so we can expand in the future or wait until we've progressed far enough to build a new stadium - we got hit with a 1.2mill ground maintenance bill at the end of the second season so was wondering if this would be reduced if we purchased the stadium? Glad you're enjoying your Notts County save as well I'm also at the start of my 2nd season, so I can't answer your question yet. If you ask me though, I would say don't buy the stadium until you're in the Premier League. I don't remember being hit with any sort of ground maintenance bill after purchasing the stadium but it cost us £14M, so if all you're paying is about £1M/year, I would just wait with the purchase until the PL TV money starts coming in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 We will be playing our first competitive match against a Premier League side as Notts County Manager. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 (edited) Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt Capitalizing on an easy month We've played an incredible 9 games this month and managed win 6 of them. We won 5:1 against Rotherham in the EFL Cup (Carabao Cup), which was nice to see considering they're a tier above us but then lost to Sheffield 3:2 after being 3:0 down, which was tough. We missed 2 clear cut chances in the final 10 minutes to maybe have a chance to win the game on penalties but it wasn't to be. In the league, we mostly played teams who are expected to finish in the lower half of the table apart from Scunthorpe and we managed to end the month top of the league. The win against Scunthorpe was particularly pleasing considering that the winner (us) ended up first and the loser (them) are now fifth. Plymouth are 2nd, which I find funny as I've managed them previously, especially since they're predicted to finish 11th. They finished 7th last year and lost in the playoff semi-final against Bradford City, who ultimately got promoted. Match of the Month As you can see, we came all the way back but our young guys weren't composed enough to finish their chances in the end. Great determination by the lads, though! Best Player of the Month Adrià Bernabé: 6 apps (4 starts) | 4 goals | 1 assist | 2x POTM | 7.63 avg. rating Our new guy played very well when given the chance. More on him in a bit. Very happy we got him, though and he'll be one of our two starters at CM for the rest of the season. Worst Player of the Month Juan Camilo Becerra: 6 apps (4 starts) | 2 goals | 0 assists | 7.22 avg. rating The avg. rating for all of our players is high because we won big so often and Becerra's rating is misleading. He scored twice in our opener and I had high hopes for him going forward but he went invisible in all of his other performances. I hope his form picks up soon. One more addition In what I'd consider to be a coup, we signed Adrià Bernabé from Man City on loan. This gives us four good options in the center of midfield and I'm currently still figuring out who are starters are going to be, though Matt O'Riley is the only one not performing that well. As you can see, Bernabé already is playing very well for us. Six games in September, 5 in the league and 1 in the EFL Trophy, which I'll use my full second lineup for. Let's see if we can break away from Plymouth after it's all set and done. Edited June 4, 2020 by FurkanE17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 It happened again. Thanks to our great form, the board agreed to up both to "Good". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Aaand we're here for one more year at least Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 We've got a new senior affiliate as well. It's the Spurs! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt A terrible month As you can see we played terribly this month and only got four points in the league. We're somehow still third but Plymouth are slowly but surely separating themselves from the rest by only dropping two points this month. We're dominating every game and missing most of our clear cut chances, only to concede a banger from 20 yards out. It's infuriating. Regan Booty missed all but one game (the last one) and it just proved how important he is to our team. And we really need an upgrade at GK. Their play this month was atrocious. I say "their" because Slocombe played in the final game after I benched Smith and even he conceded whatever the opposite of a bullet is of a long shot to Tranmere. Best Player of the Month Adrià Bernabé: 5 apps | 2 goals | 1 assist | 7.70 avg. rating He's trying but the same can't be said for the rest of the squad. Our wingers are especially terrible and apart from Spyrou none of our strikers seem to be able to score, so because of them his assist numbers are nowhere near where they should be. Worst Player of the Month Enzio Boldewijn: 4 apps (2 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 6.50 avg. rating It's happening again. Boldewijn has been trash the entire season and this month convinced me that it's time to move on. The only issue is that Matej Majka, his replacement, is playing almost as badly, so I don't know what to do. Six league games and 1 EFL Trophy game in October and it's our hardest month in terms of opposition yet. We need to play better and soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt In the promotion hunt After a poor September, we've played really well in all but one game and solidified our spot in the Top 3. There's a slight gap emerging between Grimsby, Plymouth, ourselves and the rest of the promotion contenders but we need to keep up the good form to have it stay that way. Also, Grimsby are playing incredible football right now. They're supposed to finish 14th but somehow they're top. Their key player is James McKeown, their goalkeeper and while he has fantastic attributes (16 one on ones, 18 reflexes), he isn't the one scoring the goals for them and their manager Ian Holloway is doing a fantastic job there. Back to us though and to our match against Oldham. We really sucked in that one. Oldham should have beaten us at least 5:1, as my players just didn't care AT ALL. In each of their dozen highlights, they were jogging after the ball, didn't get stuck in and were invisible offensively. Slocombe kept a bunch of clear cut chances out to save us from embarassment. Match of the Month I got one over the team I've managed last, Plymouth Argyle. In a comfortable win against then 1st placed Plymouth we announced ourselves as title contenders. We get them in the FA Cup 1st Round as well. Best Player of the Month Adrià Bernabé: 6 apps (6 starts) | 3 goals | 1 assist | 7.70 avg. rating Bernabé continue to be our MVP. Unfortunately he picked up an injury as you can see. He'll be out for a month, so we need Regan Booty and Ethan Galbraith to step up now. Worst Player of the Month Alex Lacey: 5 apps (5 starts) | 0 goals | 1 assist | 7.20 avg. rating He's got a good avg. rating thanks to our big wins and also playing well against Plymouth but he's been worse than it seems in the other games, making mistakes regularly and letting players walk past them at times. He's got Slocombe to thank for keeping most of those shots out. 2 Objectives in Reach It's been a while but we're on the hunt for our 12th objective. We've just finished our Continental A qualification and just need 12 more months to get the Continental Pro Licence. I also now have won 9 Manager of the Month Awards and just need one more to get the "x10" objective done. We're playing 4 matches in November, which I'm very grateful for since Bernabé will be injured for at least three of them. 2 league matches, one FA Cup match against Plymouth and Oldham again, in the EFL Trophy this time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolph11 Posted June 4, 2020 Share Posted June 4, 2020 Good work, fella. Hopefully you can gain back-to-back promotions! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 12 minutes ago, dolph11 said: Good work, fella. Hopefully you can gain back-to-back promotions! Thank you It's looking good so far! Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt FA Cup run? After two FA Cup wins (including a beatdown of Plymouth, again, and a 1:0 win over League One side Fleetwood, we're in the 3rd round. I'll share the draw in the next update but obviously I'm hoping to play a big PL team away in order to get us out of the red financially. Apart from that, we move on to the second round in the EFL Trophy and dropped two points in the league. Still, we've gotten closer to the top as both Plymouth and, finally, Grimsby dropped some as well. Our Top 3 stop isn't as secure anymore though. Match of the Month In this one, we were at our peak in terms of chance creation, with 24 shots on target and 8 half chances but we only barely managed to get out of that one with three points. Come on now. Best Player of the Month Ben Cabango: 3 apps (3 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 7.33 avg. rating A solid month for Ben Cabango. None of our other players were as consistent as him in November, even though he's only played in 3/5 matces. Worst Player of the Month Luca Navarro: 5 apps (5 starts) | 1 goal | 0 assists | 6.76 avg. rating He averaged 6.5 in his final three matches of the month, turning completely invisible. A female Manager? I've never seen this before, so I wanted to share this. Emma Hayes is managing Mansfield. Or was. She's been sacked. Do women become managers often in FM because I've never seen it before. Anyway, six games in December and a youth intake preview to look forward to. We'll be playing Carlisle in the EFL Trophy 2nd round and 5 league games, one against 1st placed Grimsby Town. It's going to be an exciting month! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Aaand we're playing Aston Villa at home. It's another PL team after we've played Sheffield United in the cup but I would've liked a bigger team. Aston Villa are 13th, so I'm not expecting an upset. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Oh wow, didn't expect that at all. A golden generation, let's see what we'll get. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt Losing our spot in the Top 3 Possibly our worst overall month yet in 18 months with the club. 2 wins and 3 losses in the league left us on the outside looking in to the promotion spots. We've got one game in hand over Bolton though and our next game is against Plymouth, so we could potentially start January (at least) second with another win against them (we've beaten them 3:0 and 4:0 so far this season). Match of the Month This is happening in most of our losses. More shots and most importantly, more clear cut/half chances and disappointing draws/losses, even against teams in the relegation spots like Morecambe. We're creating a lot of shots for our wingers but none of them have good finishing, so I guess it's not too much of a surprise that they don't score? I'll have to bring better finishers in for sure. Best Player of the Month Admiral Muskwe: 6 apps (5 starts) | 5 goals | 0 assists | 7.47 avg. rating Not many good performances this month but Muskwe scored over half of our goals and solidified his spot as our #1 striker. Worst Player of the Month Juan Camilo Becerra: 3 apps (3 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists | 6.47 avg. rating It's Becerra again. He's struggling with inconsistency this season and with our recent run of form he's not someone I am able to rely on. Youth Recruitment/Junior Coaching improved yet again We're improving our youth setup fast, as our recruitment is now at excellent. Junior coaching is still being shown as "good" but that should upgrade over time. Seven games in January, starting with an FA Cup match against Aston Villa, who we've beaten 5:1 in preseason, so that result should repeat. Right? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 LET'S GOOOO! We're on to the 4th round in the FA Cup after beating PL side Aston Villa. As you can see, we were 4:0 up at one point. Suffice to say, I was panicking in the final 10+ minutes after we conceded 3 goals in 10 minutes. Luckily, we held on and the money has almost put us back into the black financially. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 We draw QPR in the 4th round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt Promotion race heating up As you can see, our FA Cup run came to an end against QPR unfortunately. After beating Aston Villa, I thought we would have been more competitive in the 4th Round but the QPR match was not as close as it looks. We failed to create chances and are now out of all cup competitions. In the league, it was a solid month but two draws against Plymouth and Bolton meant that Grimsby could capitalize and increase their lead over everyone else. If they win their game in hand, winning the title could become very difficult. Still, we're back in the Top 3 and right in the middle of the promotion race. Match of the Month What a win for us. Not only financially but also because it showed the potential this squad already has. We were 4-0 up and conceded 3 goals in 10 minutes (Parkinson, is that you?), at which point I just went very defensive and completely shut up shop. They missed on their one remaining highlight and we came away with the win. As you can imagine, conceding another would have been crushing and easily my worst bottle job ever. Anyway, Muskwe became a club hero after that performance but the rest of his month was very inconsistent. Best Player of the Month Regan Booty: 7 apps (7 starts) | 1 goal | 2 assists | 7.40 avg. rating A solid month for Booty over 7 matches. He was terrible against Southend, just like everyone else on the team but other than that, he remained consistent in his performances. Worst Player of the Month Melih Altikulac: 6 apps (6 starts) | 0 goals | 0 assists |6.78 avg. rating Poor month by Melih. He's made a few key mistakes and didn't really offer us anything offensively. Transfers The INs: Only one transfer in the January window. We needed a new goalkeeper because I got fed up with our current ones, so we signed Christoffer Mafoumbi. The OUTs: Four players who didn't develop as hoped out on a free. None of them were paid much to begin with so they aren't any big losses. Only five matches in February. We're playing Salford (who've beaten us last time) and Grimsby Town, so February could potentially already decide, if we'll be competing for the title or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
withnail316 Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Best of luck. Look after my club, man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 One more quick sale before the end of the deadline actually. Jordan Smith played terribly in goal and was dropped a few months back, so he was just chilling in our youth squad. We'll be playing him about £22K of his wages for the next 1 1/2 years in total but that's still better than paying all of his wages. We got him for free half a year ago remember, so we've made a tiny profit on him, which is more than I would've expected to get for him at this point. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 1 hour ago, withnail316 said: Best of luck. Look after my club, man. Thank you, will do Notts County F.C | Season #2: 2020/21 | Division: Sky Bet League Two | Manager: Fergus Hunt A tough loss Ten more games to go and we had an alright month with a 3-1-1 record. We had a ton of highlights in the draw and just couldn't score and the loss to Grimsby is obviously terrible. We had probably our second worst performance of the season in that game, looking tired and not focused at all. Still, we were 0:1 down after 87 minutes and conceded two more goals after going for it. Grimsby continue to be the biggest overachievers of this season. We've now only got 2 points out of 3 second half games against the teams around us (Bolton, Grimsby, Plymouth), so there's the difference between being 1st and being 3rd. Match of the Month Our best game of the month. Everything seemed to be clicking and Rayhaan Tulloch played his game of the season with 2 goals and 1 assist. Best Player of the Month Anthony Spyrou; 5 apps (5 starts) | 2 goals | 1 assist | 7.50 avg. rating I switched Spyrou's role from Poacher to Pressing Forward after the Northampton match (6.8 avg) and he played much better for the rest of the month. Worst Player of the Month Matej Majka: 4 apps (1 start) | 0 goals | 0 assist | 6.68 avg. rating Majka has been consistently poor recently, whether he's starting or not, which is a shame. Two months left. Another five matches in March and our 2nd youth intake to look forward to, which apparently is a "golden generation". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKane17 Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 Look at this intake!!! Six players who could become pretty good with the highlight being 17 year old Mark Draper, who could already make it into the first team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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