wepj88 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 What position are the board expecting of you? I always struggled against Cardiff Met, 4-5-1 which I never was able to break down and they'd nick a goal or two. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 Prestatyn Town 24/25 - November/December What a massive turn in form this has been! 8 games in all competitions, 7 wins! It feels like we're back to the Prestatyn of last year and we're keeping a lot more clean sheets than earlier this season as well as scoring more goals. That leaves us in second place and 4 points clear of third meaning we currently occupy a European place. Whether we get Europe or not well only time will tell, but if we get there then I will not be the manager to take them into Europe for the first time in the club's history - as you can tell by the above screenshot I have left Prestatyn, but where have I gone? That's for the next post. I've loved every minute at Prestatyn and have developed quite a soft spot for them thanks to this save but the opportunity presented to me is one I can't say no to as I'm not only moving back home to Scotland, but I've got a rise as well. I'll still be working part time in the local supermarket, but it's a very nice contract I've got myself! Maybe one day I'll return to Prestatyn but for now it's goodbye Wales, hello Scotland! Prestatyn record Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 (edited) Annan Athletic 24/25 - New club! We've moved to Annan! I forgot to tell you about the interview but I was fairly confident I'd get the job and when I saw they'd be giving me £500 per week, I just couldn't say no. We currently sit 6th in Scottish League 2 and the board just want me to finish top half which I think should be doable, as you can see it's all very tight. The club had been in pretty good form as of late and didn't lose a league game until the old manager left since September. I'm putting the 3 defeats in a row down to not having a proper manager. I still haven't decided on a tactic but I'm leaning towards a 4-2-3-1 or the same 4-3-1-2 that worked really well at Prestatyn. Here is the whole squad for you to look at should you wish. Financially we're in a pretty good state and with plenty of wage budget still available for the upcoming January window I should hopefully be able to make a number of signings. The next time you hear from me will be after my first couple games and I'll hopefully have some new players to show you as well! Edited January 30, 2022 by BoxToBoxFM 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 c Annan Athletic 24/25 - January/February My first few months are over at Annan but before we get into the results there's a couple transfers to go over! Luke Donnelly - free transfer In order to play the formation I used at Prestatyn we had to sign an attacking midfielder and this was the best we could get. Most of the players available in this window were on the older side of the scale, but it's only on a one year deal so it's not too bad. In the summer I intend on bringing a lot more youth into this squad. Adam King - free transfer Another midfielder in and this time it's to play right at the base in the ball winning midfielder role. Again another one on the older side but he should do a job for the time that he's here. Tomas Brindley - loan from Kilmarnock You can tell the midfield was poor when I joined because this is the third we've signed. This time it's a mezzala and I have to say I look the like of this guy. He's only on loan but he has the right attributes in the right places, with the exception of dribbling. Brody Paterson - loan from Prestatyn When I saw my DOF told me this guy was available I just couldn't say no. I do feel slightly bad that we've taken a key player from Prestatyn but we're not managing them anymore and I know what I'm getting from him. Overall it's been a solid start at Annan. Our first game was a 2-0 defeat but we then went on to win three in a row including a massive win away at Edinburgh City. Dumbarton were disposed 5-0 but to round off the month we were beaten by second place Airdrie. That leaves us in 5th place just one point behind the playoffs. We've played like a mid table club so this is exactly where we should be and I'd definitely take a 5th place at the end of the season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 Annan Athletic 24/25 - March/April/May Largely, it's been quite a positive end to the season. We've looked very much like a mid-table side and that's exactly how the results have turned out, we win some, lose some and occasionally draw some. The 6-1 win was a definite highlight and seeing Darnel Mintus score 3 is one of my favourite moments of this save so far. That meant on the final day of the season we were able to sneak into the playoffs, which is very good for a first 6 months here especially considering it's not really my squad yet! We'll be playing league 1 side Clyde in the playoffs with the first leg taking place at home. I'm not expecting much, anything beyond this point is a bonus! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 Annan Athletic 24/25 - The playoffs As expected we will not be progressing any further in the playoffs. In the first leg quite frankly, we were terrible. We created nothing and generally looked lifeless, which is how you could sum up the whole tie to be honest. In the second leg we did play better and arguably deserved to win on the night. We scored two absolute screamers from midfield which sums up our season, we've struggled massively with getting goals out of the strikers and it has to be addressed in the summer. Looking ahead to next year I'm really looking forward to making the squad my own and getting rid of some of the poorer players in the team. I'd imagine their will be a lot of ins and outs and hopefully next season we can secure another playoff spot. And finally, here is the squad in full for you. It's a worrying sign that our two top goal-scorers were January signings! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Annan Athletic 24/25 - Budgets The final thing to show you this season, our budgets for the summer! I'm pretty happy with these, we've got an extra 1k in the wage budget and a nice transfer budget as well, although I doubt we'll be using much of it. Hopefully we can finally get onto signing some players ready for a playoff push next season hopefully! It's taken a while to play through this season and the reason for that is quite simple - I've enjoyed playing other games for once! It feels like it was ages ago I was at Prestatyn but hopefully this coming season I fully rediscover my love for the game. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next season! Follow me on Twitter! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - Summer transfers Season 5 is here and an abundance of signings have been made, so let's start with some familiar faces who have joined the club permanently for this season! Darnell Mintus - free transfer Where else to start other than Darnell Mintus! Our top goalscorer joins the club permanently and after ending last season as top goalscorer despite only joining in February I'm looking forward to seeing how he does over the course of the whole year. Brody Paterson - free transfer We signed him at Prestatyn and now we've signed him again! He was here last year for the second half of the season and like Darnell I've now made the loan signing permanently after his Prestatyn contract ran out. David Devine - free transfer Meet our new centre back! I'm very excited by this signing and hopefully he lives up to my hopes! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Zach Paris - free transfer I'd had my eye on this boy for a while and i've finally got my man, I hope that he'll be our backup goalkeeper this season but so far I've not found anyone better which is slightly worrying. Campbell Notley - free transfer Midfield was definitely a weakness last season so we've brought a couple players in to fix that and Notley is one of them. He'll be the DLP in our midfield three. Ben Williamson - free transfer Ben Williamson is our new starting right back, he's a decent all-round player but with 4.5 star potential I hope he can really push on and develop into a top quality player. Harry Gordon - free transfer Another one of the new midfield recruits and this time it's our mezzala. With 17 natural fitness and 5 star potential I can't wait to see how Harry gets on this season. Aidan Quinn - free transfer Striker or centre back, striker or centre back, striker or centre back...answers on a postcard! Only in Scotland do you find a centre back who can also play upfront. It may have played a slight part in the decision to sign him, but in all honesty he actually looks like a decent player! Just what position do we play him?! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wepj88 Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 How many subs do you get? Quinn looks like a perfect guy to have on the bench to cover two positions pretty well. Looks like he'll definitely have to be a target man when you use him up front. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 9 hours ago, wepj88 said: How many subs do you get? Quinn looks like a perfect guy to have on the bench to cover two positions pretty well. Looks like he'll definitely have to be a target man when you use him up front. 7 subs, I can use 3. And yeah I totally agree with you on Quinn; he's already made appearances for me both at centre back and upfront as a target man. Very useful player to have in and around the squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 16, 2022 Author Share Posted February 16, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - Summer transfers + August/September I'll start with a couple of loans from Kilmarnock and I'll be honest, both haven't worked out great so far (I've played the first 2 months of the season.) I'm not sure either of them are of good enough quality but at least they're only here on loan. Aidan Quinn - loan from Kilmarnock Lots of potential but so far he's been pretty ineffective. To be fair to him he's hardly had an opportunity but I've already loaned in a better option in that attacking midfielder position based on what I've seen this season from both McKenzie and Donnelly, who we signed in January last season. Aaron Brown - loan from Kilmarnock Signed to partner Mintus he's not really impressed so far, all he has to his name is one assist and a couple of goals in the cup. However with time I do think he could turn into a decent player for us. Robbie Thomson - free transfer We finally managed to resolve the goalkeeping problem. Robbie played a full season for the club I support Raith Rovers last season and in real life he is the second choice goalkeeper for them. Lewis Budinauckas still hasn't left his contract despite it expiring but whenever he does Robbie Thomson will be ready to take over as the full time no.1 goalkeeper. Charlie Cairns - loan from Hibs And finally, we have another attacking midfielder. He's only played two games because we've just recently signed him in the loan window but honestly he's been such a breath of fresh air, already getting a goal and playing at a 7.3 average rating across his two starts. Now, lets take a look at the results for the first 2 months of the season, the media predict us to finish third but can we life up to their expectation? August Well so far, the answer is no. We somehow managed to win our Premier Sports cup group which consisted of Premiership side Livingston and a couple teams from League 1 and the Championship and our reward was a home tie against Celtic. Of course, we were absolutely destroyed but did provide some memories that will last in these players' minds forever as we took the lead after 12 minutes through Darnell Mintus then saved a penalty. In the league though, it's not gone to plan at all. We started off with a win but then only managed one point from the next three games which is not good enough. We did however secure our place in the SPFL Trust Trophy second round after beating Brora Rangers 5-2. September September was a little bit better, but not much. We're through to the third round now of the SPFL Trust Trophy and did finally manage to win a league game again, albeit against bottom of the league Dumbarton - and it was our centre back who scored both goals, which tells you everything you need to know about this how this season has gone so far. The draw against East Fife is actually a decent one away from home as they are second in the league and it also consisted of Charlie Cairns' first goal for the club League table After 7 games we sit on 8 points, which isn't great but there's still a lot of time to turn things around. Hopefully next time I write on these forums we'll have had a much better few months and are up nearer the playoff places. We could do with actually scoring a few more goals as well, please! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - October/November Well I asked for a significant improvement and what an improvement this is! We've only gone and won every single game! The standout game was definitely the Airdrie one, they were top of the league at the time so to beat them was massive. We've also made good progress in the cups as well, we're into the quarter finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy quarter final where we'll be playing Championship side Ross County and we've also progressed into the fourth round of the Scottish Cup where we'll be playing Highland league side Brora Rangers. As expected this good run of form has sent us flying up the league, all the way up to first! We're two points ahead of Airdrie now but I'm not expecting our good run to last much longer, once Airdrie hit good form again I think we'll start drifting back down the league, which is fine because the board only want mid-table and I'd be happy with playoffs. I don't expect to have won every game again next time we meet but as long as we're still playing well and winning games then I'll be happy. We also have a massive game against Airdrie coming up so it will be interesting to see how we fair against them again! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 18, 2022 Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - December/January We've only lost one game but we have really fallen off the pace. The defeat against Forfar was embarrassing and we've not really played well at all across the two months. Goals has also been a massive problem, we're getting nothing out of our strikers. So, that's why on deadline day I decided to loan in another one! Gary Urquhart - loan from Rangers Normally whenever I make a January signing our form goes out the window for the rest of the season. However I fear it's already going down that route so what's the worst that can happen! Hopefully young Gary can come in and give us another route to goal because I feel like that's the missing piece of the puzzle; when Darnell Mintus is not scoring, we're not scoring. We've dropped down to second in the league but that's okay, we've still got time to go and at the end of the day we're not expecting to win the league. We've got massive games against Airdrie and East Fife coming up soon, I have a feeling they're going to play a massive part in where we finish this season! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted February 19, 2022 Author Share Posted February 19, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - February/March And just like that, things are going downhill again. Struggling to score, grinding out wins and now dropping stupid points in games we shouldn't. March is one of the worst months in terms of quality of football I've seen from us. We were 5 points clear a couple games ago. Airdrie haven't lost in ages. I'm going to be absolutely livid if we bottle this, we deserve to go up but as it always seems with me we're bottling it at the business end of the season. Furious. As you can probably tell. See you next time for the playoffs, no doubt. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wepj88 Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Squeaky bum time as Fergie would say. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 9, 2022 Author Share Posted March 9, 2022 On 23/02/2022 at 09:12, wepj88 said: Squeaky bum time as Fergie would say. 100% Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 9, 2022 Author Share Posted March 9, 2022 Annan Athletic 25/26 - April/May Here we go then, 5 games left of the season and it all comes down to this! Can we win the title? Let's find out! Well what a turn around this has been! We had to sort it out after the last couple months and oh we've looked like a different team. We even got a midweek friendly to boost the confidence of the players and that seems to have worked because for the rest of the month we learned how to score goals again. It all came down to the final game of the season, Annan against Airdrie and it was winner takes all; whoever won this game would win the league as we were both level on points. We basically had our own Aguero moment as in the 89th minute we scored the game's only goal and with that, crowned ourselves Champions of League 2. Wow! I'll be honest coming into the end of the season I really wanted to win the title and to be honest we've deserved to win it all along. Not too bad considering it's our first full year at the club! We finish the season on 77 points, 3 points ahead of runners up Airdrie. It's been a rollercoaster of a season but ultimately it's ended up in success, and my second trophy of my short career. I'm very happy with the budgets the board have given us, this summer is going to be massive and we have to get it right. We've got a massive transfer budget but considering we're only going into League 1 don't expect us to use much of it, if any at all. Sorry for delay in getting this update out, but thanks for reading all the way through. I'm looking forward to next season where it's a free hit really, and I hope you join me for it! Follow me on Twitter! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 18, 2022 Author Share Posted March 18, 2022 Annan Athletic 26/27 - Job interview Well this throws a spanner in the works! Clearly Hamilton were impressed with our success this season, we've hardly started the summer transfers and they've offered me an interview! I haven't even got through my first batch of trialists yet! Of course I'm going to the interview, Hamilton finished 7th in the Championship last season! I don't think I'll actually get the job, but you never know - we did have an impressive season with Annan! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 18, 2022 Author Share Posted March 18, 2022 Annan 26/27 - Moving on Well this didn't take long! Of course I'm going, they have a proper 5 year plan with a good club vision and I've managed to negotiate my contract up to £900 per week! I'm a professional now! Goodbye Annan, hello Hamilton! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 22, 2022 Author Share Posted March 22, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - Summer transfers When I arrived here we had a very old first team squad, but a very good crop of youth talent who came through the intake last season, it was very much a 'golden generation'. So, my job was to add more youth into the squad but add players who were young, but good enough to play now - I don't want to be starting a 15 year old every game, especially when they are league 2 standard and we play in the Championship. So, without further ado, let's meet the new players we've signed! So there's all our signings as of the first game of the season, and I think you'll agree with me when I say we met our target of bringing more youth into the squad. You'll notice I signed a lot of strikers, plus we have a young guy in the U18s. To be honest I didn't expect that William Cavalleri would sign for us, so I signed a few more strikers just in case! I'm really looking forward to seeing how they all turn out, but I am thinking I need to try and loan one of them out - probably Montgomery because at 19, being our third choice striker in a one striker system is not going to help him at all, he needs first team football. Tactic We're mixing it up tactically as well, going for a 4231 control possession as that's what they played last season (and finished 7th with). Playing with wingers suits us as some of our better players are out wide, but I do have the usual 4312 from Prestatyn and Annan being trained just in case it's needed. Season Preview Clearly the media think we've had a good summer because at the start of the window we were predicted 7th, but as of the first game of the season we're predicted to finish 5th which would be perfect as it matches what the board want in their 5 year plan. Pre-season Pre-season was interesting, we went on tour to England and ended up playing Spurs away from home - the less said about that the better. As for the Premier Sports Cup, that wasn't great either. The loss to Clyde we can ignore because I had half a squad really and we played a few days to go, so we were having to rely on youth players. We exit that competition in the group stage, but did manage to make it up to second in the end. And finally, here's the squad for this season. There may be a few more additions towards the end of the window but don't expect anything major, I've not got anything lined up at the moment but I will continue to look and see if there's any more good young talent we can bring in. That brings us to the end of today's very long post, there was a lot to cover! Nevertheless I hope you enjoyed it, make sure to hit that follow button so you get notified every time I update this thread. Next time out we will have played the first month or so of league football, I can't wait to get started! Follow me on Twitter! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wightyyyy Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 Great read this, can’t believe you didn’t showcase those sexy kits you got made Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 22, 2022 Author Share Posted March 22, 2022 10 minutes ago, Wightyyyy said: Great read this, can’t believe you didn’t showcase those sexy kits you got made Will get that in next time with the start of the season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - August Life in Glasgow started very well, in the first league game we would pick up our first win. We only scored one, and for the first few games of the month that was a recurring theme, but we controlled the game very well and deserved the points. Falkirk was an incredibly frustrating one, they went down to 10 men in the 48th minute and we were playing terrible and we never got any better. Yet another goal conceded from a set piece and we would come out our first home game with nothing. We certainly bounced back though, starting off with a win against St. Mirren which was very impressive considering they are the favourites to win the league. We then ended the month with 2 more wins both away against Dunfermline and at home against Ross County. In these last few games we started to score a few more goals and create more chances which was pleasing, we even got a goal from a striker which has been a rarity! After 5 games that leaves us joint top of the table but don't read too much into that because as you'd expect early on it's all very tight. New kits A huge thank you to @Wightyyyy for making a new home and away kit for this season, I have to say I am a massive fan - they are both definitely upgrades on the kits in real life! If you want to take a look at some more of the wonderful kits wightyyy has made and follow along with my save in even more detail with extra screenshots and discussions then make sure to join the FM-AP discord server by clicking here. Let me tell you, you won't regret it - I still maintain it's one of the best and most active FM servers around! Next time out we start off the month with a visit from my former side Annan, so you won't want to miss it! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - September The month started with a visit from our former employers Annan and it's fair to say they probably weren't best pleased to see me, we emerged 4-0 winners in what was a very routine game. We know play League 1 leaders Cove Rangers in the next round of the Challenge Cup. However after this we had a couple of very disappointing results in the league. After starting off our Championship campaign pretty well last time out we were held to a draw by Annan and then we were absolutely torn to pieces by Arbroath in the very next game. Arbroath is definitely a very tough place to go but we shouldn't be conceding 4 goals, especially to the team predicted to finish around about us in the league. But to give the team credit they absolutely bounced back in the next game beating Queen's Park 3-0 and this was a much better performance than the last few games, we managed to score 3 very nice goals and not concede any while we were at it. That means that after the first 8 games we sit third in the league, just 3 points behind the league leaders St. Mirren but 4 points ahead of Arbroath, in 5th. Despite our poor performances against Alloa and Arbroath the board are still happy with how we are doing in charge of The Accies. Next month we'll be hoping for more of the same, we have the next round of the Challenge Cup to play as well as 4 league games, including big games against Dundee United and St. Mirren. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - October Well this has been absolutely terrible. It actually started out alright, we beat Raith 1-0 for the second time this season in a game we controlled from start to finish, and we also beat Cove to progress in the Challenge Cup. This one was actually quite close, and Cove missed a massive chance right at the death as well. But then, it all went downhill. 3 defeats in a row for the first time this season and we didn't deserve to win any of them. The first two of the defeats we played very poor, particularly in the Falkirk one where our goalkeeper played at a 6.1. St. Mirren we at least looked competitive in, and on another day we would have got at least a point out of that game as they scored very late on. As expected we have slipped down the league table a little, but we are still clinging on to that final playoff spot at the moment. A massive improvement is going to be needed in November. A couple of things I've noticed over the last month or so; despite bringing in multiple young strikers, we can't seem to get any of them to score consistently. George Longmuir has played the most making 9 appearances but has only scored 1 goal in the league. Most of our goals are coming from elsewhere on the pitch. This is going to have to be something we need to improve on, but I doubt we'll sign another striker given the fact we signed 4 in the summer. Secondly, we are conceding a lot of goals through the middle of our two centre backs. They aren't marking their men quick enough and tight enough so as such we're giving the opposition lots of one on one opportunities. I also think our defensive line is too high as that's another way we are getting caught out, not all being in line. To try and fix this, I've dropped both our defensive and attacking lines so that we are still playing quite compact and trying to control possession and I've also got one of our centre backs, the one with the weaker marking working on his defensive positioning. Hopefully, these changes along with a successful team meeting will see a much more positive month next time out and we are able to pick up a couple more wins in the league. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 1, 2022 Author Share Posted April 1, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - November Much better! We started off with a draw against Ross County which I guess considering they are second isn't too bad, especially away from home. We then went on to win all three of the remaining games of the month beating Dunfermline, Alloa and then Airdrie in the league which is a local derby. We were able to keep a clean sheet in this game which was pleasing and grabbing three goals while we were at it, it was the perfect game to cap off a near perfect month. We sit third in the league table coming up to the half way point, it already seems pretty clear that we won't win the title because St. Mirren are creating quite a big gap but that's okay, we were never expected to win the league. If we are in a playoff position at the end of the season I'd be delighted, but there's a lot of football still to be played so we can't get ahead of ourselves just yet. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 2, 2022 Author Share Posted April 2, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - Youth Intake preview The youth intake last season at the club seems to have been a bit of a golden generation and this year's one looks very good as well! The fact we've got some good wingers coming through excites me greatly and it also looks like we'll have another young striker coming through to add to the conveyor belt. Maybe this striker will be the one that scores! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 2, 2022 Author Share Posted April 2, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - December What a month! Unbeaten in the league and 4 clean sheets while we were at it as well. The Challenge Cup game doesn't really matter too much, we rotated our squad about and it was a late goal we conceded as well. We bounced back excellently though, and actually scored some goals as well - across the 4 games we found the back of the net 11 times which is very impressive considering we struggled with it earlier on in the season. We're now up to second in the league just after the halfway stage which is excellent. It's clear we're not going to win the league but we are 10 points clear of 5th place which is brilliant. Hopefully we can carry this form into the new year and we have a massive game away against league leaders St. Mirren which will be a real test of our ability! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - January What a miserable sight. Miles off where we were last month! 4 defeats in a row and we didn't even score a goal in any of them. As you can see I tried switching to the 4312 game away against Premiership side Inverness in the Scottish Cup but even a change of formation didn't work. We did somehow manage to scrape a win in the final league game however away against Dunfermline, coming from a goal down and winning it in the very last minute. I have to say that game was particularly pleasing, we didn't even play that well until I went to a 424 formation which is definitely something to consider if things continue to get worse, I had a lot of success with it in last year's save. We're back down to third in the league now and a gap is starting to form between us and Ross County in second, but thankfully there's still a 5 point gap between us and Dundee United in 4th. New signings we did actually make a couple signings in January, both attacking midfielders and both on loan as well. I will be honest, I didn't want to sign the second player, it was a case of having two deals lined up with the intent of signing one of them, but I was playing on autopilot at this point and just ended up signing both of them, thinking that when the second player's conformation was coming through it was a trial offer! Nevertheless, here's the two latest additions to our squad: McGowan is definitely the better player but I'd imagine both will get game time, Garavito has some very nice attributes such as 17 flair and 19 determination - maybe a player who can make an impact off the bench. Anyways that's all for now, next time out we better have seen a massive improvement in the results on the pitch! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Ace Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 I've started my first ever journeyman save on FM so I dropped you a follow, it's great to see you progressing nicely I wanted to spend as little time in England as possible and I seem to have gone from Wales to England within 3 seasons already, I'm somewhat envious that you're in Scotland Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 9 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said: I've started my first ever journeyman save on FM so I dropped you a follow, it's great to see you progressing nicely I wanted to spend as little time in England as possible and I seem to have gone from Wales to England within 3 seasons already, I'm somewhat envious that you're in Scotland I’m the same to be honest, don’t really enjoy managing in the English lower leagues that much - there’s way too many games! The plan for me is definitely to manage in the premier league, may even take over a championship team if the right job becomes available. On last year’s save which wasn’t really a journeyman I took Swansea into the prem, so something like that again would be fun later down the line. As for the move to Scotland, I actually had a few interviews at English league 2 and league 1 clubs while I was in wales, but never got the job. Always felt like a job in Scotland would be the next step as it’s not too difficult to make progress in, so when I saw Annan weren’t in danger of relegation and the job was available I applied and got the job not long after. Thanks for following! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Ace Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 8 minutes ago, BoxToBoxFM said: I’m the same to be honest, don’t really enjoy managing in the English lower leagues that much - there’s way too many games! Exactly, the schedule gets pretty hectic at times 9 minutes ago, BoxToBoxFM said: As for the move to Scotland, I actually had a few interviews at English league 2 and league 1 clubs while I was in wales, but never got the job. Always felt like a job in Scotland would be the next step as it’s not too difficult to make progress in, so when I saw Annan weren’t in danger of relegation and the job was available I applied and got the job not long after. Thanks for following! Wish I'd done the same now myself, I went into England at Vanarama National level after being turned down abroad Look forward too seeing where the journey takes you 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Johnny Ace said: Exactly, the schedule gets pretty hectic at times Wish I'd done the same now myself, I went into England at Vanarama National level after being turned down abroad Look forward too seeing where the journey takes you Thank you, feel free to keep me updated with your save as well, I love following along with other people’s journeyman saves! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - February Well it's better, but still could be improved on. Away against Arbroath was a result that i'm okay with, for those who follow Scottish Football know it's a very difficult place to go, particularly in the winter. We then won our next two games, albeit against teams you'd expect us to beat. Garavito came off the bench and scored in the Alloa game, just as I said I wanted him to in the last post so that was nice to see. Finally the Dundee United game, now this was poor. We just never created anything really and didn't deserve anything from the match. In the league we remain third but actually have closed the gap to just 2 points behind Ross County which is nice to see. After being in the top 4 all season I'd be disappointed if we ended up outside the playoffs come the end of the season. I also came third in manager of the month for February which is nice to see, although probably undeserved. Given the fact the winner only had a 50% win ratio as well it seems like everyone had a pretty inconsistent month. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - Youth intake The youth intake has arrived, and I have to say it's pretty decent. There's a couple decent prospects at the top there who may find themselves in and around the first team squad in the coming years and also an Algerian in there which is nice to see. I've offered contracts to all the Elite and Top talents and I'll post the top two players below We've already got a pretty stacked U18's team and I'm excited to add a couple of players to that from this intake! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - March An unbeaten month! I can't remember the last time I said that! We've been back to our best this month and the wins over St. Mirren and Ross County show that in particular. The draw against Falkirk was slightly frustrating, we didn't play well at all. Beating Raith is pretty much a guarantee at this point, they sit rock bottom of the league and to be honest probably deserve to go down. The St. Mirren game is one that i'll remember for some time I think, we went 1-0 down but were still in the game, we were creating chances but just couldn't take them. I then brought on Andy Ryan and it's safe to say it changed the game, he grabbed our equaliser on the 84th minute then Fornah scored an absolute worldy to win us the game right at the death. Brilliant! The Ross County game was also an interesting one. At this point we were ruined by injuries yet again so our starting 11 and bench were very makeshift, so when 1 of only 2 centre backs available got sent off it meant Fornah had to step up yet again and drop back into centre back and to be fair to him he did a very good job. Luckily Ross County also got a man sent off which evened things out a bit but to be honest the result was never in doubt which considering we were a man down for a period of time, is pretty impressive in my eyes. It seems not to show the Ross County red card there, but I can assure you it did happen! I'm fed up talking about St. Mirren at this point and luckily enough for me I won't need to talk about them for much longer as not only have they secured a playoff spot, they've already won the league and it looks like they are going to do it at a landslide as well. Our win against Ross County means we leapfrog them in the league and jump up to second, but with the amount of injuries we have going into the final month of the regular season I'm not entirely confident we'll be in second come the end of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - April We ended the season very strongly, continuing our good form from the previous month or so. We only lost 1 game and that was against Arbroath, who I've struggled against all season to be honest. Otherwise it was a perfect month, picking up 4 wins against Alloa, Dunfermline, Queen's Park and Dundee United. We didn't actually play that well in the last two games which was a bit worrying, but I guess we'll have to see what the playoffs bring! Speaking of playoffs we don't know who we'll be playing yet, because we managed to finish second meaning we skip the first round and I believe play the winner of Ross County and Arbroath. The next update will be after the playoffs have concluded, and maybe just maybe we'll have gone all the way and secured an unlikely promotion to the Premiership! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Hamilton 26/27 - Playoffs Honestly, the playoffs actually went quite well. The first leg of the semi final against Ross County was poor from us I have to say, but at home we absolutely destroyed them with a hatrick from William Cavalleri. Maybe I should have given him a proper run in the team earlier! The final was pretty frustrating. We scored early in the first leg, after ten minutes in fact before Motherwell equalised with 12 minutes to go, which was a killer I can't lie. In the second leg we just never turned up, they scored an early penalty and it pretty much killed the mood. They are a Premiership side though so we can be happy that we got to the final, but to lose it to our local rivals makes it a little bit more disappointing. I'd have loved to relegate them! However I'm not really bothered that we didn't get promoted, if I'm honest I think it's at least a season too soon. Our squad isn't fully complete yet, there's still a couple older guys who I want to get rid of and I feel like we need to find a way to get more out of our strikers, but maybe Cavalleri is the answer - he'll definitely be the striker I start with next season. This is definitely an issue though, if you look at the squad our top goalscorer only has 14 goals, which is nowhere near enough. I don't think signing another striker is the answer though, we need to develop the young strikers we already have here. We're not even going to be able to sign anyone either, as the board have cut my wage budget massively and given me a small transfer budget. Brilliant! Will get cracking with this transfer window over the weekend, as you'll have probably noticed if you've followed this save sometimes transfer windows can take me ages, but I'm loving this save right now so I don't think that will be the case this season, I'll try get it finished for early next week at the latest. See you next season! Follow me on Twitter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 9, 2022 Author Share Posted April 9, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Premier Sports Cup draw It's now ticked over to the new season and so far I've not signed a single player, but I'm hoping that's not too big an issue. We made quite a few signings last season so I think this year it's just about making a few key additions, but I should probably get a move on. In the meantime we've had the Premier Sports Cup draw for the start of the season. It's actually pretty similar to last season's group, with Ayr and Clyde joining us in a group again with Kilmarnock and Queen's Park. I'm not entirely convinced by this season preview, they've predicted us to finish 4th which was the same as last time but to me it's definitely an indication that I need to go and bring some players in so we can push up there a bit. Also with the amount of injuries we've accumulated this season I'm going to need to make sure I have a relatively deep squad, because we were very lucky it didn't cost us more last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Premier Sports Cup We managed to win our group with ease, to set up a second round tie away against Rangers. The most impressive result of this group campaign is definitely beating Kilmarnock, even if it was only on penalties. We showed that we can compete with teams from the Premiership which is definitely a good sign for the season ahead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Summer transfers Well, this was wild. Or should I say, transfer deadline day was wild. It all started when Hibs activated the release clause for our only real right back, Brennan Camp. Then deals came flying in for our player of the season so far and also the top goalscorer last season, William Cavalleri. After a discussion with him I was left with the choice to either let him run his contract down, or sell him now which is what I chose to do. We signed him on a free and managed to make 300k profit just 2 years later which is nice. All this meant we had to replace them both on deadline day, so we resulted to loans and they are the last 2 players you'll see on this list of incoming players. Andy Campbell being 6"8 may have been the deciding factor in him being the Cavalleri replacement... Well, it's safe to say loans have come to our rescue this summer! I normally save most of my loan slots right to the end of the window/January incase something mental like this happens, and I'm so glad I did because I'm not sure what kind of squad we'd have without them going into September. The tactic remains the same, no reason to change it but I may tell the team to hit early crosses now we have a giant up front. Now for the season preview, we've moved up to 3rd in this which would be a decent season but a decrease from where we were last season when we finished 2nd. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - August For the second season in a row we start off with a 1-0 win which was nice. The second game against Raith was mental, they kept pegging us back once we took the lead again but fortunately Cavalleri won it for us late on. Oh, how I miss him already... Rangers away was the main highlight of the month, we took the lead early in extra time through that man Cavalleri again but in typical rangers fashion, they got a penalty in the 120th minute and went on to win it on penalties. Still though, there's a lot of positives to take from the game. The Ross County game was just terrible, we never turned up and didn't deserve to lose the game at all. We ended off the month by scraping a win away against Falkirk but we need to pick it up next month. In terms of the league table we sit second after 5 games but of course there's still loads of games to play so we won't read anything from it anytime soon. Note all these games were played before the two massive sales on deadline day, I'm genuinely a little bit worried at how we're going to cope going forward! This was not part of the plan at all for this summer!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - September I think it's very clear we're missing Cavalleri and the goals he brought. I've accidentally played one too many games before coming back to update here but that just makes our form look worse really. We got revenge on Rangers (kind of) by brushing past their under-21's at home but then went on to win just one of our next four league games. The draw at home to Dundee United was a decent result as was beating Dunfermline 2-0, but drawing at home to Arbroath, who've always seem to be able to get a result against me, then lose away to Queen Of The South was really just a terrible result. We're not getting enough shots on target and creating enough chances for ourselves, which of course is leading to a lack of goals that is costing us a lot of points. We're having to rely on goals from corners and the odd goal from a winger or midfielder at the moment which is not good at all, so I think I just need to pick a striker for a month and start him and every game, see if we can force him into some form like we did with Cavalleri at the end of last season. Lee McAleenan is the player I'm thinking of giving that opportunity to, he's made a couple of appearances off the bench this season but is yet to score, he's got the potential to turn into a very good player for the club so I'm hoping and thinking we've just got to be patient with him while he gets used to playing senior football because he's only just turned 17 and I promoted him from the under-18's when Cavalleri left so he's not really had anything in the way of opportunities yet. After 9 games we still sit second but what's frustrating is that if we'd have beaten Arbroath and Queen Of The South then we would have been top of the league as Dundee United seemed to have dropped some points this month as well. We're going to need to be a lot better next month, particularly when it comes to creating chances and scoring goals. Defensively we've looked good again so that's not really a concern, it's just the same problem we've had for pretty much my whole time at Hamilton - scoring goals. Hopefully McAleenan manages to start a few games and grab a couple goals, I'd absolutely love to develop him into one of the best players at the club! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 (edited) Hamilton 27/28 - October Well the plan was to give McAleenan a run of games in the team and it's worked! We won every single game we played in October bar the Queen Of The South game which I covered last time and kept clean sheets in 4 out of 5 games as well. He managed to pick up 3 goals and an assist in the 4 games we started him in, including scoring after 58 seconds in his first start against Dundee U21s! 12 games in now and we're still second, but we have closed the gap to Dundee United now so we're technically joint top AND, we play them in the very next game! Also, shoutout to young academy goalkeeper Scott Dunn who had to come in and make his debut for the injured Kieran Wright, keeping a cleansheet and playing a 7.5 match rating in the 3-0 win vs Raith Rovers! Edited April 12, 2022 by BoxToBoxFM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - November Absolutely terrible. The Dundee United result hurt a lot, we had played decent and conceded in the 89th minute after a defensive mistake. Ross County then beat us again and this is a game where I noticed we just aren't getting enough goals from our strikers now, McAleenan is definitely doing well with 4 goals from 7 starts but we can't rely on a 17 year old and the only other place we are getting goals from is our centre backs. Falkirk we did manage to scrape past but it was straight back down to earth as Ayr handed us an early exit in the Scottish Cup, dumping us out in the third round - the first round we entered. Not much has changed in the league other than Dundee United are starting to create a gap behind them due to us not winning games anymore. It's going to have to be a lot better in December otherwise my job could be in trouble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Job interview We've had our first job interview of our time at Hamilton and it comes from St. Mirren, who must have been impressed with how close we pushed them last season! After last season I can't say I'm a massive fan of the club and realism wise I don't think I'd take the job anyway, they sit in the relegation playoff spot in the Premiership so it's a very sidewards step given how we are doing at Hamilton and the abundance of young talents we have coming through, the future is bright. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - December Very inconsistent this month. We got revenge on Ayr after they dumped us out the Scottish Cup we booked a spot in the Challenge Cup semi finals at their expense so that was nice. It was actually an unbeaten month, but only 1 win in there againt Dunfermline. We picked up draws against Queen of The South, Arboath and Alloa, the latter of which was incredibly disappointing considering they are well below us in the league. STILL second in the league and still 6 points behind Dundee United, but we do still play them twice this season. McAleenan has been developing very nicely and has also made his Scotland U18's debut, which is very nice to see! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Job interview Now this is a job I'd absolutely love, definitely a rare job that is worth leaving Hamilton for! I doubt i'll get it, but at least we're being recognised by arguably the biggest club in the country and one of the most successful clubs in the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Hamilton 27/28 - Job interview Another one! This time it's from bottom of the Premiership side St. Johnstone so I will not be attending it, I'd rather stay at Hamilton where we are building something or go to Rangers, which is the only job I'm really interested in at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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