[FM23] Nessie Awakes!

[phnompenhandy]

So we gave youth contract to eight new boys and didn't sign seven after trying them in games against Fochabers and Elgin Thistle. We set four boys from last year for release, and we'll be saying goodbye to Innes, Mainland and Fraser.

To retain the title we just needed to beat Clachnacuddin Reserves - any score would do and St. Duthus wouldn't catch us. With no injuries or suspensions, our strongest side was available.

DISASTER. Gallacher's first half red card put us off our stride; I'll leave the match report to account for how we were cheated - I'll get into trouble if I say anything. Mind you, Rab, whose last match this is, didn't hold back! We drew, St. Duthus won with a brace from Bruce who pips Seago - who was denied a perfectly good goal - to the Golden Boot to boot. We're runners-up this season, so no play-off humiliation.

 

Shocking decision

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

[phnompenhandy]

I decided to keep Mainland on for one more year as an impact sub to give a bit more breathing space to the central defenders out of the academy. The relationship between Shane and I was under severe strain over my contract. He wouldn't budge in pushes the same terms at me despite me bringing thousands in prize money into the coffers bringing the wage bill drastically down and about o take on extra workload with Rab Mulheron's imminent retirement.

Remember these names - they're the hope of tomorrow

 

[phnompenhandy]

Broughty Athletic won the regional play-off as usual, but this time they beat the bottom team from the Highland League, Keith to gain promotion. Spartans from Edinburgh defeated Brechin City in the Highland-Lowland play-off, and went on to defeat Bonnyrigg Thistle, who drop back into non-league football. Whilst Ross County won the Championship to make an immediate return to the Premier League, Inverness Caledonian Thistle failed to negotiate the play-offs and will stay put. Inverness Athletic were still marooned down south and appealing to get back into our league. In the end they were successful and this season the North Caledonian League has an equal number of teams, 14. We now have two rivals to excite the fans - Athletic and St. Duthus.

As Rab retired, Ross agreed to a new contract as my assistant manager. Other player and staff contracts were quickly signed and everything was settled and prepared for the new season except ... me. Shane and I went back and forth, it must have been twenty times. I found myself out of contract and bluffing interest in vacancies at Golspie and Orkney, and even Turriff United in the Highland League to twist his arm. I made sure he was aware that I'd attended an interview at Turriff, that it went very well, and that I was the favourite for the job. I was offered the job and asked to delay. All this time I heard not a word from Shane.

Pre-season commenced - the staff and players returned, meetings were scheduled. I went into Shane's office to remind him that I wasn't currently employed by the club. He looked blank and asked me if I thought the Director of Football should get a pay rise or if the money should be invested elsewhere. I stated that it should be invested in giving me a dignified contract. Whilst we were haggling yet again, Turriff's chairman gave me a call to ask for my final decision. Shane could hear. As I turned to leave the room to talk privately, Shane held up his hand and acknowledged my request. I got my deal. I don't think our relationship will be as close going forward, though.

EDIT: this is a bit awkward. Months later, away on a coaching course, I met a bigwig in the Scottish FA. He informed me that I was not just the highest-paid manager in the NCL, but no one in the Highland League earns more than me. In fact, only three managers in the entire Highlands - at Premier League Ross County, Championship Inverness CT and League One Cove Rangers have bigger pay cheques. Maybe I won't be pushing it over the next few contract negotiations so long as we're outside the SFL.

 

Here's the whole squad for the upcoming season

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[anagain]

Finally caught up. Commiserations on being nipped in the bud for the title. 

 

*pipped to the post might be a better saying. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by anagain

[phnompenhandy]

On 23/11/2022 at 04:58, anagain said:

Finally caught up. Commiserations on being nipped in the bud for the title. 

 

*pipped to the post might be a better saying. 

It is MONSTER hard to get out of this league. I'd be in trouble if I made it to the next level with my academy kids. I need better quality incomers, which means upgrading facilities, which is nigh-on impossible. Well, will take time. But that's our focus now.

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Is it just me? This 'Squad Planner' makes NO sense! Last time I'll be popping into this screen 

 

Whereas I can have an intelligent conversation with our new assistant manager - I'd just query which MacPhee plays where and finer points like that.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Indulge me if you will - this is how I spend pre-season fine-tuning my selection choices and tactical instructions. I put A LOT of time into this every June-July. While I'm still waiting for my skin of choice (Flet) to have a no-attribute option, I don't look at players' attributes - but I do closely examine the league comparison reports - not the numbers, but the bars. This year they're compiled by Ross Tokely who knows the league so well - why I was determined to promote from within when Rab retired. We sit down with wee Clarke the data analyst and crunch the data.

First up:

 

What we immediately see is that our extremely young squad can be easily bullied off the ball - so we need to move the ball around nippy-like. Also, we can't expect much from set pieces.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Here we note that in the first season, leadership and aggressiveness were the best in the North Caley. Workrate was very low, however. Now, with a malleable bunch of kids well prepared by Fortrose Academy, there's a far better team ethic to work with.

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

 

Except goalkeeper. The goalkeeper situation is extremely worrying, but we have no alternative to persisting with an inconsistent and declining Michael Miele. We've extended his contract another two years as there's no way our new academy keeper, Mike Liddell will be suitable as a first choice before then.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

 

We've got some big boys at the back. They can deal with crosses, but you can see where the problem lies. Shockingly, the only reason I kept on Martin Mainland for another year despite his age and declining ability is due to his pace. I know it will decline sharply over the season, but he's still far quicker than any of the young lads. This is why we need to sit so deep and block low.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

 

Midfield is our great strength. This is where Muir Morton excels himself. This is why we like to express ourselves and out-pass, out-think our bigger, burlier opponents.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

You can see the patterns clearly enough. No pace, so we don't use a counter-attacking tactic so beloved at this level, and poor finishing - i.e. Luke Seago is brilliant but has his ups and downs, and when he's down we can't rely on anyone else to produce the goals. Luke is better suited to be the deep-lying forward, but I need him close to the goal and employ him as an attacking forward or poacher as no one else can step up. We are over-reliant on him - if he were to get injured, we'd be in real trouble.

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

 

With such a small squad, we focus on fitness and looking after yourselves. My training regimes and on-field tactics are designed to not wear out players, and as a result our injury record is exemplary. I can't do anything about the lack of pace though except manage the severe limitation as best I can by keeping them unit tight on the pitch and passing to feet, tiki-taka like, ha ha.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

This is our secret sauce. It's through their footballing intelligence that we dominate games, by passing through and around opposition, finding spaces, being one step ahead of slow-witted thugs who try to bully us off the ball. Marvellous stuff.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

And finally, you can see our impressive technical skills, one glaring exception admitted. You can see now why we believe we CAN win things with kids, if they're smart and skilful enough. And being such a young squad who have no history, they bond as a team so well and respect their elders, not least of all myself. I was  never going to leave them - the future is so bright (but never tell stingy Shane that!).

 

Sorry for the long lecture, but these charts tell an extensive story. It's from here that all the foundations are laid for the season ahead, and are an integral part of my Academy Challenge philosophy.

 

Right, with eleven friendlies scheduled, and with new rivals St. Duthus up first in competitive football, let's get to work!

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

I forgot to mention that during the summer, the annual income for the shirt sales over the previous year arrived. Shane kept it quiet from me as we were in contract negotiations. Now that’s all done and dusted, he’s relaxed the purse strings. He allowed me to hire two new staff – a second, part-time physio, and far more crucially, an attacking coach. We found a guy way too good for our level and had to pay him a king’s ransom, but he’s here part-time until he’s inevitably spotted and head-hunted by bigger fish. I’m also pitching for improved youth facilities, as I always do. My hard lobbying and appealing to his ambition got me an upgrade to junior coaching again, but not youth recruitment.

 

I organised our pre-season around friendlies with Highland League opposition for our first team, and local village amateur outfits for the youngsters. Our first match was with newly-relegated Keith. I made very minor tweaks at this point – trying Allan Mac as an attacking central midfielder and Conor Mac on the right as a mezzala on support, and I switched Williamson to the left of central defence with Gallacher on the right. I’m also trialling slightly short passing on an average tempo whilst pushing opposition to the flanks rather than centrally, as we did last season. It was a decent run-out; there were no particular problems apart from being flat up top – the new coach Richard Wilson hasn’t arrived yet. I know what you’re thinking – “I don’t believe it!”

I’m intrigued with one of our new boys, the forward Scott Grant. He’s seems to be exactly what Josh Race isn’t – Grant is slow but strong and good in the air as well as a decent finisher– potentially a target man foil for Seago. Worth exploring, I though. So we tried it against Lossiemouth. The lad laid on a ton of chances for Luke Seago, but the latter wasn’t on the right wave-length. That’s fine; that’s what these friendlies are for.

The senior team didn’t score a goal in the first three games – partly Luke not over-exerting himself, partly the new passing instructions were taking time to become effective – not enough balls were reaching the front quickly enough. Tweaking was required.

When we finally broke our duck, it was against amateur opposition – I’d messed up the schedule. Nevertheless, goals are goals, and it was Grant who got both of them.

Honestly, the pre-season didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. As we prepared to face St. Duthus in the first round of the North of Scotland Cup, a game that always comes a week too early for our preparations, I reverted to the mezzala-carrilero combo in midfield and medium passing, although I kept Grant as first-choice striker with Seago, still believing the target man-striker double act would come good.

[phnompenhandy]

FC Edinburgh in League One have unsettled Dean Boyce, our vice-captain. I hate that big clubs assume they’re entitled to pick off our best players for free. A week later Stirling Albion came to poach him and now we’ve got four of his mates lobbying us to let him walk out on his contract. I’ve stripped him of the vice-captaincy and handed it to Luke Seago. I subsequently had a deputation of four 16-yeaqr-olds in my office telling me how to do my job. This is escalating to a ridiculous degree. I dropped all four from the match squad and called them to account over their conduct. On their own they were all more humble and apologised. Hopefully we can move on, but only time will tell. Spartans made an approach, and there are strong rumours of a few League Two sides being after him. I can see we’ll have to let him go, leaving a gaping hole in our midfield.

Finally, we kicked a ball in anger. St. Duthus looked as under-prepared as we were and it was a dour start. Ben Bruce fluffed a few chances before Luke Seago finally got a clean run on goal to open the scoring. It proved enough. I doubt Saints will feel any worse about going out at the first hurdle of this competition than we’ve been over the last two seasons. If we get caught up in twice-weekly matches, I’ll regret it. But for now, we got a win over our rivals and that’s never a bad thing.

The first league game would be away to Invergordon. With Boyce’s head turned and departure imminent, I left him and the four cheerleaders out of the squad leaving us sparse. I’m returning Conor MacPhee to deep-lying midfielder as I don’t think Hain is ready to start. But it does mean Forrest is first choice at Carrilero and we are desperately short of midfield cover if injuries, suspensions or fatigue trouble us.

I’d clearly been overly introspective over the Boyce crisis and it took me by great surprise when the lads put in a phenomenal performance – every single one of them in a touching demonstration of support for me. Just when I thought I was losing the dressing room and was feeling severely stressed, this. Thank you, my boys, thank you so much!

3-0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how the two new 15-year-old centre backs put the rebellious 16-year-old pair to shame, and how another 15-year-old debutant kept his composure in midfield. It brought a tear to my eye.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Boyce bogged off to Dumbarton. I’m still fuming at the ease players and outside clubs can disrespect our contracts and grab our best player for free.

My mood still a little affected, I might have been less than 100% present over the next few days when a couple of games of football broke out. We went to Fort William and drew 1-1, and then straight away we had a midweek game to prepare for – against Highland League opposition in that cup. That was just what we couldn’t cope with at this point, and I chucked the kids in, not caring about the outcome.

You might be wondering about the point of all these cups with so few competitors and next to no income. Until very recently there was no pyramid in Scotland below the level of League Two. The possibility of relegation from the SPFL only began in 2015 with an onerous play-off system. Relegation from the Highland League was only initiated in 2022, with Fort William becoming the first side to fall into the North Caledonian League the summer we joined Loch Ness. No team has ever been promoted from the NCL to the Highland League. Now Loch Ness is a young club with no real heritage, so we can bend with modern winds and regard promotion and relegation as integral to football, but for many of our rivals, their history is steeped in competitive local trophies which carried far more weight than closed leagues that not infrequently were not completed as clubs would simply pull out of they were doing badly. The pyramid system is changing the nature of non-league football in Scotland, where the ancient tradition of Junior clubs is going by the wayside. But we're still in a period of transition here, and until the play-off system is made fairer, whereby a team that wins the NCL has a realistic chance of promotion - or relegation, many of the clubs with long, proud histories, will continue to value the local cups over the league fixtures.

 

Nothing to see here - this is fine

 

Is the first team moving on without Boyce? Another 3-0 victory, home to Clach A takes us top on goals scored. We now have a bewildering four week break!

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Ever seen a relationship turn so toxic? This 16-year-old piece of **** has totally downed tools and gives me endless gob. Shame as he had real potential. Frozen out until he bogs off.

 

 

edit: He bogged off.

Williamson left us for the first offer that came in. He’s now playing in the tenth tier of Scottish football and has thrown his future away for absolutely no reason at all.

I suppose if you manage a club conventionally, and bring in players via the transfer market, most of these toxic personalities will have been weeded out and left the game. With academy kids, you bring them in and hope mentors will mould them into rounded personalities if they lack any qualities. But you're liable to be landed with the odd psycho. Maybe Muir should have given me a fuller report. Then again, this boy has been at our club over a year now and no one picked up any signs. Muir's off doing his Cert B Continental licence, but when he gets back, I'll stress the importance of doing full character studies of these kids in future.

Edited November 23, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

I’m feeling a little disappointed in Scott Grant. My instincts tell me in time he’ll be a terrific target man, but he does need time. In the upcoming tougher games, such as at Fort and Orkney, I’ll revert to the Seago-Race combo of last season, and bring Grant in for less tricky games. Seventeen-year-old Hammel and sixteen-year-old Forrest are my only options in their midfield berths, my central defence options are Mainland, two sixteen-year-olds and a fifteen-year-old. I’m retraining Kodi Buckley as a midfield mezzala or carrilo as we have a Boyce-shaped hole in midfield cover. It will probably take the better part of a year to get him up to speed, if at all. This season might be a matter of taking a step backwards in order to move forwards. Having said that, I don't know how much having a second upgrade in junior coaching will affect matters. It did allow Muir to bring in an extra part-time PE teacher who looks handy, so maybe the next intake will have more lads who be ready to jump into the first team.

The Fort William match was in the Football Times Cup, so I probably should have put out our Second XI. I can’t be that cynical though, not with impressionable young charges to nurture. We lost anyway, 1-2, so it was the best outcome, really. We don’t have another cup tie until February, so we can focus our threadbare squad on winning league matches.

By taking a cautious approach to matches, we’re keeping things tight while being dangerous when the opportunities arise, providing Seago is looking sharp. He certainly was against Golspie where he bagged a brace, and young defender Chris Crawford, who came on late for Mainland, nabbed a confidence-building goal in injury time to become our youngest-ever scorer.

That 4-1 victory was a morale-booster ahead of sailing up to Kirkwall, we were intrigued to note that Orkney were actually at the foot of the table, albeit after only four matches. Same team, same tactics, same result! We beat them on their turf – we even kept Liam Delday quiet for the first time. Admittedly, our 2-1 victory was assisted by some atrocious defending. I don’t know what’s got into the Orcadians, but it isn’t our problem. St. Duthus are pushing us all the way, though, as we close out October top of the league.

 

Breaking News - I repeated my request to improve youth recruitment - more forcefully this time, and the board agreed. We have to do all we can to increase the quality of our youth intakes, after all, that's why Shane recruited me and Muir and I have to remind him of that.

Edited November 24, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[deltablue]

Missing out on top on the last day sounds tough!

[phnompenhandy]

3 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Missing out on top on the last day sounds tough!

The WAY it happened was a little bit 'different'. Also means we don't qualify for the SFA Cup, which would have been useful for the money. Oh well, we go again.

[phnompenhandy]

October opened with a narrow 2-1 win over Halkirk tainted by a damaged kneecap sustained by Jacob Kerr. In an astonishing game with Thurso, with Lowe and Grant starting and Seago scoring four goals in a perfect 10 performance, we managed to lose 5-6! We smashed them for xG, but it was one of those days when Miele had a nightmare in goal.

Scott Grant finally hit the jackpot in a friendly against Bonar Bridge where he and Luke combined to share five goals. We had that weekend off as St. Duthus took top spot from us with an easy 4-1 win at Nairn Co., the opponents we closed October with. We took the same personnel and lessons learned from the friendly to Nairn and thrashed them by an even bigger margin, 5-1. We have a youthful front three that is really starting to purr - Scottie Grant is now our youngest-ever goalscorer.

 

Six feet two

Eyes of blue

Scottie Grant

We love you!

Edited November 24, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Luke Seago won October's Play of the Month. It's worth reflecting on just how much this boy has grown in his time here. I just hope he keeps the vultures at bay.

 

And yet, in many ways, the most important person at our club, in my opinion, is Muir Morton. He’s the highest paid person at the club after myself, and rightly so (our wage bill for staff exceeds that of the whole playing squad; the staff are, in my view, more important than individual players – plus, I can go out and select the best I can get). He’s the most talented. If he were to leave us – and his reputation is rising as he travels around in pursuit of his Continental A licence, the long-term prospects of this club would die.

One key aspect of studying for these international courses is that we meet up with other coaches and heads of youth development. Muir and I are in discussions about how we might take advantage of that; he’s thinking about whether was can institute a Caledonian Braves/Edusport kind of system whereby promising kids who aren’t good enough for their local, higher reputation academies are nonetheless able to come to Fortrose Academy to study for their highers. He’s exploring the possibility of persuading the head teacher to hire a new French teacher, for example, so that his or her son could relocate. It’s a legal minefield and unlikely to come to anything, but if you don’t look, you don’t find, and Muir seems to know what he’s about. Shane is, of course, part of these conversations, and he’s decided a contribution he can make is to seek a suitable senior affiliate club to link with. He’s doing his research and will report back when he comes up with something.

In the meantime, the rapid evolution of the coaching at his school is drawing admiration from far afield. Heads of Sport from schools in the smokies are coming up north to have a gander.

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

We let ourselves down a bit in the first match in November, drawing 1-1 home to Alness. The problem was Seago’s foot got trodden on and he had to go off. Despite Race coming on and scoring within two minutes, our dominance lacked Seago’s cutting edge, whilst Miele let in another soft goal. St. Duthus took advantage to go five points clear of us, and Sara informed us Luke would be out for two weeks. The good news was we only had one match in the next fortnight. The bad news is it was away to St. Duthus.

 

Shane came back to us with excitement plastered all over his face. “We’ve got our affiliate!” he hollered. ‘Where?’ Muir and I wondered, ‘France, Belgium, Holland?’ “Dingwall” continued Shane. Of course it was. Ross County, historic kings of the highland county of Ross-shire, our home.

I mean, that’s good, but it was evident Shane wasn’t on the same wave-length as us. We’d get a pre-season friendly out of it, and we’d use their marketing department to reach more customers for our shirts. We’d have permission to use their training facilities when we could nab a slot which is obviously a huge upgrade on Fortrose Academy, and to be fair, the facilities are impressive - arguably now in the top ten in Scotland. “Er, what about enhancing our youth intake, Shane?” ‘Aye, the kids can do summer training camps at Dingwall, and the extra income from the friendly and shirt sales will be invested into upgrading our facilities!” When did Shane become such a bean-counter? He’s got a point though, I suppose.

Ross, being an ex-Staggie, led the first deputation of players the 15 miles to Dingwall to have a shufty. We were all suitably impressed. I’ve put him and Cole Caves our fitness coach in charge of organising a roster. Muir will take his schoolboys down during school holidays.

I had to focus laser-sharp on our upcoming match in Tain versus St. Duthus as I felt our season could be over if we lost it. Luke hobbled into sign a two-year extension to his contract, along with Martin mainland to announce his retirement at the end of the season, and they stayed to watch on as we paired Josh Race with Scott Grant in our practice match.

Both Luke and Jacob Kerr had recovered enough to make the bench. We played well enough and Grant scored, but that man Ben Bruce destroyed us again with a hat-trick. We went down 4-2. There’s no stopping the Saints.

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

We had our strongest squad back for the next games, against Bonar Bridge and hapless old-time rivals Inverness Athletic, who were languishing in last place and had just sacked their manager. Our fans chanted in slightly less than polite tones that Athletic might like to return back down south. We chalked up a pair of routine 2-0 wins to show we’re back in business, so long as St. Duthus slip up, which they’re showing few signs of doing at the moment.

 

Take care. Mr. Caretaker 

[phnompenhandy]

This is how our affiliation with The Staggies has enhanced the facilities we have access to. I hope it makes a salient difference on the pitch because we do need to improve in the present as well as in the future. Junior coaching isn't shown here, but that should also get a boost when Muir takes his schoolboys into the fitness suite of the Global Energy Stadium and they mingle with the Dingwall juniors.

 

One clear and immediate result of this is that everyone without exception was keen to sign contract extensions. Shane is grumbling that I've gone slightly over the wage budget, but I did point out Mainland will be off the wage bill next season. Okay, not really a satisfactory response given that there's likely to be no prize money to off-set the extra expense this season.

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Into December and yet more sloppiness late on from Miele had us held to a 2-2 draw at home to Invergordon, undoing Seago’s brace and good work from the attacking players. His understudy Liddell is training well, but we don’t think he’s anywhere near first team material, although we might throw him in anyway if Miele continues like this.

It therefore comes as a huge relief for Muir to bring a group of lads to visit the ground and focus on a great goalkeeping prospect for April. Other positions that we need quality in look enticing too. You can see how he's moulding his boys to excel in central positions. Will they have pace to boot?

[phnompenhandy]

Seago rescued a point for us with a last-minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw at vastly improved Nairn St. Ninian. We were by far the better team, but Mainland is starting to creak, and Josh Kerr isn’t the same player since returning from his serious injury. It’s not so much his lessened fitness – that can be managed by the medical staff and early substitutions. The problem is his habit of pulling out of challenges, putting our defence under pressure at times. It cost us this time.

 

Two years from now they put sensors in jumpers - future shock!

 

Despite Forrest’s goal in the last game, overall his performances have been underwhelming, so I rested him and gave Buckley, retraining as a midfielder for months now, a run out. I also dropped Kerr and Mainland. That made it seven academy kids in our starting line-up. Buckley’s been preparing to be the mezzala understudy, but I wasn’t going to drop Allan Mac, so young Kodi took on the carrilero role. He was our best player on the day, scoring our only goal from a free kick in yet another draw, 1-1 with Fort William.

We finally bagged a win in December against bottom-feeders, the Clach lads in a 3-0 victory, closing 2024 on a high note.

 

League table as we segue into 2025

Edited November 25, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[meter]

Following, this is great.  Can you please tell me the skin and background packs you use?

Edited November 25, 2022 by meter

[phnompenhandy]

5 minutes ago, meter said:

Following, this is great.  Can you please tell me the skin and background packs you use?

 Yeah, Flutskin and the MegaBackground pack. Can't name the site I got it all from, but I'm sure you can sort it out.

[phnompenhandy]

Major developments. I've discovered how to navigate Steam Workshop after all these years. In terms of lower league databases, it's like being a 5-yeaar-old under the Christmas tree. I'm now trying to run two saves concurrently, maybe alternating days. I've made a thread for my journeyman save here:

The Tallest Dwarf - a tiny nation career

The other save is this one-man-club academy challenge. Taking notes from others who are managing in the North Caledonian League and finding the experience similar to me, I can see that you can win the title year after year and still never get promoted. It's quite realistic - no team in history ever has won promotion from the NCL to the Highland League (as opposed to being elected as the HL has swollen in numbers), but man, is it frustrating.

On Steam Workshop I found a fantasy 'United Leagues Of Britain - 10 Tiers - 9 Cups' file and added my Loch Ness edit to the lowest tier. Back in the days of FM17-19 I used to make my own 'all Britain and Ireland' pyramids, and I was delighted to find one as I'm too tired to put all the time in myself. So I'm starting my save over again with Loch Ness at level 9. 2-4 teams get promoted from every division, and with me starting in the lowest Scottish level (only the lowest levels are regional), there's no relegation - although I holidayed it overnight to test the database and found I'd been sacked after two miserable seasons! I'm still doing it as an academy challenge.

I don't know if anyone wants to read about a new version of this thread - if you do, please indicate in this thread. I think I'd want to play a couple of seasons to get to where I left off before posting again - that is, if you want me to.

Cheers all

 

[anagain]

5 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Major developments. I've discovered how to navigate Steam Workshop after all these years. In terms of lower league databases, it's like being a 5-yeaar-old under the Christmas tree. I'm now trying to run two saves concurrently, maybe alternating days. I've made a thread for my journeyman save here:

The Tallest Dwarf - a tiny nation career

The other save is this one-man-club academy challenge. Taking notes from others who are managing in the North Caledonian League and finding the experience similar to me, I can see that you can win the title year after year and still never get promoted. It's quite realistic - no team in history ever has won promotion from the NCL to the Highland League (as opposed to being elected as the HL has swollen in numbers), but man, is it frustrating.

On Steam Workshop I found a fantasy 'United Leagues Of Britain - 10 Tiers - 9 Cups' file and added my Loch Ness edit to the lowest tier. Back in the days of FM17-19 I used to make my own 'all Britain and Ireland' pyramids, and I was delighted to find one as I'm too tired to put all the time in myself. So I'm starting my save over again with Loch Ness at level 9. 2-4 teams get promoted from every division, and with me starting in the lowest Scottish level (only the lowest levels are regional), there's no relegation - although I holidayed it overnight to test the database and found I'd been sacked after two miserable seasons! I'm still doing it as an academy challenge.

I don't know if anyone wants to read about a new version of this thread - if you do, please indicate in this thread. I think I'd want to play a couple of seasons to get to where I left off before posting again - that is, if you want me to.

Cheers all

 

I firmly believe it is whatever makes you the happiest. The more the writer enjoys themselves then the more interesting the writing.

Its your game, too. Whatever you enjoy.

When I was on a little slump with MTK I really seriously thought I should have started somewhere else. Norway was my second choice, with xaw's database. I'd already restarted once. 

[vara]

what's in the water at St. Duthus this season, blowing the league away!

hard luck on the previous attempts getting out, this one looks to be heading out of reach too.

excellent thread tho, enjoyed catching up on it today

[phnompenhandy]

Thanks guys - I'll probably update in a while then once I've made serious headway. I thought second time around it would be easier - benefit of hindsight and all that - actually it's much harder. I can see why - the fantasy division I find myself in is full of teams from the lower half of the highland and Lowland Leagues together with the better sides from other Tier 6 leagues in Scotland. It's becoming increasingly clear why North Caledonian champions never get through the play-offs - we're nowhere near the level of the 6th tier in the East, West and South of Scotland. Loving the challenge though!

[phnompenhandy]

Rebrand:

THE WEE MONSTERS

 

In an alternate history, the long shutdown caused by covid led to a wholesale restructuring of league and cup football in Great Britain and Ireland. A new ten-tier league (with tiers 8-10 being regionalised) system together with nine new cups was created, with each division containing 24 teams and English-style promotion and relegation was introduced for all. Some of the smaller clubs that didn't close down permanently (such as our nomadic rivals, Athletic), reformed as youth teams, including Loch Ness Youth led by myself. We are an amateur club now, with all our initial squad of 31 - all recruited via Shane and Ross' network along with the Fortrose Academy school-leavers, being 15 and 16-year-old youths. With life getting back to normal post-covid, we will maintain our previous policy of bringing in players solely from our academy, still overseen by Muir Morton.

We start in the tenth tier in a league of amateur teams with the sole exception of Thurso, who maintained semi-professional status. As you can see, the board, fans and bookies are putting quite unfair pressure on me, expecting automatic promotion - which effectively means finishing runners-up to Thurso and not in the play-off places.

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Allow me to introduce you to the worst manager in the history of world football, and his by now familiar team (the ones who stayed on without a wage) -

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

I'm trying to manage without seeing attributes or stars here

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

The boys are good characters, but slow, weak and lacking stamina, as expected of 15-16 year olds. Our first impressions are that Culbert, Severin and McGlynn stand out.

We have a lot of central defenders and defensive and attacking midfielders, but no central midfielders. There's nothing on the flanks except a possible pair of inverted wingbacks. Other than McGlynn, we have a clutch of poor strikers. So we’ve gone with a 3-4-1-2 with 2 DMs and those wingbacks. A few players have to play out of their preferred positions, but that’s par for the course at this level - the coaches and I know better than young kids where they will perform best.

It doesn't surprise me that we've gotten off to a slow start - the young kids get tired quickly, and it takes time to inculcate my tactical philosophy. We have just pulled off the biggest shock result in Loch Ness' history by beating Kettering Town in a cup - they proved even more unfit and underprepared than we were, and that sets up a tie with a professional club in Galway in the next round. Realistically, it's all about the league and a relentless two-games-a-week schedule, starting away to the big boys of Thurso.

And what a manic game that was. Thurso raced into a two-goal lead and completely outclassed us in the first half. Then they somehow thugged themselves into THREE RED CARDS! We still construed to miss a penalty and left it until the last kick of added time to salvage a point.

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Here's a picture of crowd scenes in the cupset:

 

 

And here is Thurso, a Highland megacity with a population of over 7000 !! I mean, can you even count them?

 

They're so semi-pro and fancy, they have a PAVILION!

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

After some deliberation, Shane agreed I shouldn't have to live in a beach hut, and in lieu of an actual salary, has found me a space for a camp bed in the club house (it doubles up as the away changing room)

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[anagain]

Best of luck, gonna be a real underdog story. Hope you don't mind the ferry. Lewis and Shetland in the winter gonna be fun. 

Greenest smiley I could see...

Nice start beating Kettering, congrats. 

Edited December 2, 2022 by anagain

[phnompenhandy]

2 minutes ago, anagain said:

Best of luck, gonna be a real underdog story. Hope you don't mind the ferry. Lewis and Shetland in the winter gonna be fun. 

Greenest smiley I could see...

Nice start beating Kettering, congrats. 

Actually the game covers this well - travelling expenses is a real killer. In this format, you get cash money for winning and drawing games, which just about covers the costs, but woe betide the team that goes on a losing streak!

[phnompenhandy]

Inverted wingbacks were proving a step too far, so I pulled them back into a 5-2-1-2 formation but with the full-backs still inverting. To add more attacking intent, I tried Sam Culbert out as a Segundo Volante with attacking instructions. That in turn allowed out best player, Brian Severin to turn his attacking midfield role into playmaker. With further tweaks to the back line, we were ready to drive down the length of Loch Ness on a six-hour trip to Skye.

I say we were ready – we were but we never made the journey. The Highland FA made a ruling on the financial and temporal strains of travelling for matches and gave a number of clubs special dispensation to play their home games at more viable venues. The Skye and Lochalshe teams were to play their home games at Ferry Brae, which last hosted our defunct rivals Inverness Athletic (Shetland will play at Thurso, and the Western Islanders at Ullapool). With other venues in Inverness hosting teams in our league for this season then, we have a dozen or more local derbies, which should be great news for attendances. It also involves jiggling about with fixtures due to the amount of ground sharing (we ourselves share with Fortrose now) but we’ll leave that to the abacus brigade.

Portree is the sort of opponent we should be dominating and we …. didn’t really, although the defence was solid now we have full backs, and the midfield solid and creative enough. Tellingly, our goalkeeper earned player of the match. Struan Eadie’s persuaded me to go against my instincts and retain him as first-choice keeper.

However, as I identified in pre-season, the forwards are going to be extremely wasteful until they gain some composure in front of goal. To be fair, if Portree are anything to go by, most of our opponents will be even worse. It’s not optimal though, when a really good midfielder is sat on the bench watching these profligate forwards, so I’m going to revert to the formation I used with Loch Ness seniors, the 4-4-2 narrow diamond. It does mean McGlynn trying as an attacking targetman. We’ll go up to Caithness and try it out at Staxigoe.

It’s maybe just as well our training facilities amount to no more than a bench press and some dumbbells in the changing room, a jog around the golf course and knock-about on the pitch when enough players and staff are free – with the relentless two-games-a-week schedule, all we can do is play and rest in the short breaks between games.

 

 

Something like this, I reckon. It'll take a bit of trial-and-error to get the points of the diamond right as there's little opportunity to practise it in training other than watching powerpoint slides, but no time like now to make a start.

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

Staxigoe is a wee former fishing village with a current population of 90 just outside Wick. It used to be big in herring but they went away a century ago. The club recruits local farmers and fishermen. There’s no football ground – we make a rapid return to Thurso’s Sir George’s Park and crowd into that wee pavilion. By the time we reached our destination after a 170 km slog through driving rain, the referee informed us the pitch was waterlogged and the game was off. It’s a common frustration up here – no good blaming anyone.

Instead, our next match would be opening our home account with a visit from local rivals Avoch, just five minutes down the road on the Black Isle (fun fact - it’s neither black nor an isle). It was an ideal game to trial our new and slightly unorthodox tactic – a team we should be swatting but would be motivated by their supporters in what for them is their biggest game of the season.

The diamond and the pointy bit worked very smoothly with goals from our targetman and mezzala, and I felt we could have chalked up a proper score before a massive crowd of 139 if Gordon Spence hadn’t got himself stupidly sent off and put us under pressure. The 3-1 victory took us to 7^th with a game in hand over most.

A reckless challenge by Spence

 

[phnompenhandy]

Kirkwall Hotspurs came down to the KGV next. Liam Crichton, my new 15-year-old geeky analyst had taken soundings and was certain that they were the opposite to us – more potent in attack than in defence. They were hard working though, and we’d struggle to evade their press. Sitting back and waiting for them to tire was a viable strategy, but not in front of our supporters. We decided to go again with our 5-4-1 spearhead and trust in our quality.

We didn’t really need the assistance of another red card – we were comfortably controlling the game – and yet again we needed Struan Eadie to pull off three superb saves including a second penalty save to keep his sheet blank. Barclay was at fault twice – he’ll be dropped. At the other end Severin supplied two assists for McGlynn to bag a brace in a fast-blooming playmaker-targetman relationship. 2-0. As Mosset Tavern maintain a 100% record, we rise to 5^th.

On the Saturday we were in the second round of the United British Cup, having seen off Kettering Town. We were to host Galway United, a fully professional outfit from a city that could contain the entire population of the Highlands. The team plays three tiers above Kettering and Chippenham in the sixth tier, competing with the likes of Crawley, Chesterfield, Wrexham and Alloa. They're over eighty league places above us.

A record crowd of 265 attended the game at Fortrose. At worst, we'd gain great experience pitting our selves and our tactics against a professional opponent; at best maybe we could dig in and earn a miracle draw with a replay taking us to Ireland. Could we do it?

 

No.

In truth, the young lads were totally overwhelmed by the occasion and shouldn't perhaps have been put under so much pressure. I was grateful to the Galway team for going easy on us and not humiliating the kids. Shane took delivery of a cheque for £5000. The dream is over. We will never be here:

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

As September rolled around, we barely had time to catch our breath before we took the coach up to Thurso and boarded the ferry to cross the Pentland Firth. We faced the other Kirkwall side in our league, Thorfinn. The boys were in good spirits, seemingly over their disappointment, but they were clearly tired and struggled to put the game to bed. Severin and McGlynn scored the goals in a tight 2-1 win. But we were 4^th with two games in hand.

MV Thorfinn

 

The voyage back to the mainland was rough, and with the delays we could almost have picked up our next opponents, Pentland, denizens of Dunnet Head, and given them a lift to our ground. When we assessed the boys on the morning of the game, wee found half were too fatigued to start, so we went with a weakened starting XI.

We were flat – really really flat as the exhaustion of the schedule caught up with the boys. We had one shot on target in the whole game and deserved our 0-2 defeat.

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[phnompenhandy]

We left nearly all the regular first team at home when we made the long journey cross-country to Ullapool, where we met our Lewis & Harris opponents off the ferry from Stornoway. Only Eadie in goal and the superhuman Brian Severin started as fringe players took their chance to show me their worth on Ullapool's 'Perfect' 3G plastic monstrosity, none more so than man of the match Rob Fergus and Mohican wielding scorer Ruari Leiper. I was grateful to bag the three points in a dour 1-0 win while we reassessed and recovered.

Where we could have played:

 

Where we played:

 

Match-winner and all-round eejit, Ruari Leiper

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by phnompenhandy

[GIMN]

Ruari Leiper is a phenomenal name - I wonder if there's an element of nominative determinism in having a 5'8" player called leaper!  Also, completely unrelated to this save, I recently tried to convince work that I should be allowed to move to Thurso and just travel down for 1 week per month (as opposed to 1 day a week).  Sadly it fell on deaf ears.