Coxie84 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Prologue.... The Football Manager Regional Challenge... First, I have to say it's not a challenge that I have come up with but it was MaddFM. He came up the idea on FM22, when he took over The Toon Army, pre-Saudi owned and turned them into a North-East only side. To be known as 'The Football Manager Regional Challenge' (England) aka "The Regionnaire Save". What it is that you take a club of your choice and implement the regional/local squad and transfer policy, meaning you can only sign players that were born/raised within that region where the club is located. So, all players and staff had to be born and in the North-East of England. Basically the same as the well-known Athletic Club de Bilbao setup in Northern Spain where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. There is more information on The Football Manager Regional Challenge over on his webpage regarding this challenge. The concept evolved slightly (again, by MaddFM) for his AC Milan save, where as well as players born within 50km of the San Siro being eligible, players who came through the academy at clubs within this catchment area were also eligible. What this does is alleviate an issue in FM where a lot of academy players in nations which are less well researched are given ‘Unknown’ for a place of birth. 'Born & Bred'... Ever since I read the first blog of Northern Boys the thought of doing a Regionnaire save has appealed to me, but at the time I held off as I wanted to do it with a lower league side. As someone who has played FM for 15+ years, and often plays the same way, it seemed a great way to freshen things up. There was West Midlands region filter available, which I took as a baseline as that were not all places on there. However, It didn't take me long to updated and now there is up to 70-ish places of Birth on it. Before, starting any news series/challenge I did run two tests with the player search tab. The first test was with Man City and the second test with the non-league club in tier 11, I am going to play as. The Premier club had over 1300 players and Gornal Athletic returned over 200 players. This is likely due to scouting and probably a lot more players would like to play at the Emptihad instead of the Garden Walk Stadium. But still 200 players is still a good number to start with. As for staff, I will just bring in who I can at the moment but will try and stick to that part of the challenge at a later date. The list below is the places of birth in the West Midlands area. The Club... Gornal Athletic FC, a tier 11 non-league, who in fact are the closet non-league football club to my doorstep, only being 1.5 miles away. The football club are based in Lower Gornal, Dudley, in the West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One and play at the Garden Walk Stadium. The club were established in 1945 under the name Lower Gornal Athletic and joined the Worcestershire Combination. They finished bottom of the league back in 1954–55 season. In 1963, the club transferred to the West Midlands (Regional) League, although their reserve team at the time remained in Division Two of the Worcestershire Combination. When the West Midlands (Regional) League gained a second division in 1965 and the club became members of the Premier Division. In 1972, the club were renamed Gornal Athletic. Although they finished bottom of the Premier Division in 1978–79 season, they avoided being relegated. However, the 1979–80 season saw them finish second-from-bottom of the division, resulting in relegation to Division One. The club were Division One runners-up in 1983–84 season, and after finishing as runners-up again in 1993–94, they were promoted back to the Premier Division. Gornal Athletic finished bottom of the Premier Division in 2002–03 season and were relegated to Division One South. However, they won that division at the first attempt, earning an immediate promotion back to the Premier Division. They went on to finish second in the Premier Division in 2005–06 season. The club were Premier Division champions in 2011–12 season and were promoted to the Midland Alliance. However, they were relegated back to the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division at the end of the 2013–14 season. In 2016–17 season, they finished bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. In the 2019-20 season was abandoned and we all know why... Last time I went down to the Garden Walk was not to watch 'The Peacocks' play it was a club called Black Country Rangers who at the time shared the ground with them in the 2018-19 season. I did manage that club on FM18 and I saw them beat Pershore 6-1 that day and also got a cheeky signed shirt from the club too. I actually went on the play two or three games for their over 35 Sunday league team before COVID messed up our lives for a short while. CoxieFM Signs… I have arrived at The Garden Walk Stadium for the first time as the new Peacocks manager and the board only give me a one year deal. Hopefully I can earn a new contract midseason or otherwise this will be a quick save, lol…I start the series off with No badges and Sunday league footballing experience. The media predicts us to finish 3rd and our fierce rivals are Dudley Town. The challenge starts now as that I have 60 days before the season starts, that's excluding preseason fixtures and have no players in our squads. 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Coxie84 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 (edited) So I have started to assemble the squad to stay in the rules of the challenge... *Probably didn't need to add the club they started at but still good to see where they have come from... Name Age Position Place of Birth Club Started at Joe Brown 23 DEF Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Jamie Chisholm 22 DEF Birmingham Mansfield Town Rhys Thompson 30 DEF Stoke-on-Trent Leek Jayden Allamby-John 20 MID Birmingham Walsall Regan Upton 26 DEF Burton-upon-Trent Burton Albion Lewys McCafferty 18 DEF Coventry Coventry City Seb Thompson 20 MID Worcester Liverpool Charlie Manners 18 FOR Solihull Coventry Will Byers 23 DEF Stafford Stone OA Aidan Jeynes 22 GK Birmingham Tamworth Matt Coton 29 GK Sutton Coldfield Aston Villa James Harrison 23 FOR Burton-upon-Trent Burton Albion Owen Bennett 21 DEF Birmingham Aston Villa Lewis Hayden 29 MID Solihull Solihull Moors Riley Davoile 22 DEF Coventry Gresley Harry Jackson 21 FOR Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Jamie Smith 27 DEF Worcester Worcester City Ryan Grosvenor 21 MID Wolverhampton Shrewsbury Town Sufyan Zia 25 DEF Birmingham Bilston Town Lewis Redding 21 MID Shrewsbury Shrewsbury Town Ben Stokes 25 MID Coventry Tamworth Devon King 19 FOR Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Shilo Waldo 19 MID Birmingham West Brom Edited March 24 by Coxie84 Update 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Given the large number of clubs with good facilities in the area (Villa, Wolves, WBA, Coventry or Birmingham etc) you will have no problem with new quality players being generated each year. Question is if you will be able to attract them. I have already played this before numerous times in FM20 and FM21 (Tuscany, Lombardy, Lisbon or Bretagne) but never started this low in the league, its going to be a real slog. Good luck, will be following. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 2 hours ago, Muttley84 said: Given the large number of clubs with good facilities in the area (Villa, Wolves, WBA, Coventry or Birmingham etc) you will have no problem with new quality players being generated each year. Question is if you will be able to attract them. I have already played this before numerous times in FM20 and FM21 (Tuscany, Lombardy, Lisbon or Bretagne) but never started this low in the league, its going to be a real slog. Good luck, will be following. As long as the players are born in the West Midlands region then it's all good. It will be a slog, that's why I decided to go this lowdown for that reason...Thank you for being the first to comment! much appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Preseason '23 Has not even started yet and we are getting injuries already... Maybe, not signing players that might be prone to injuries next time but this time I needed to get players into the Garden Walk... But for now, I turn my attention to preseason games... The hunters were hunted as the Peacocks came back from behind to win our first preseason game 2-1. We blew the Dynamos of Cannock away in a 4-0 win before the KING scored a hat-trick that melted the chocolate man. The final game of preseason we won 6-0. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 September '23... Goals galore as we start of the league season with four wins out of four including some massive win's. But, it doesn't mean that the Peacocks are top of the table though. Bromyard Town who also won four games in a row are on top by a two goal difference as it's still early days but with only one place to play for then all them goals will have to count later on it the season. Two Birmingham born players that led the charts in goals scored and assists in the month of September. Shilo Waldo has scored six goals in three appearances and Jayden Allamby-John (former Saddlers youth player) has got three goals and four assists in four appearances. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick87 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Good luck, always interesting to see regional stuff like this, especially as it's not that far from where I grew up (Sutton Coldfield) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 ctober '23... Only two games were played in this month and both finishing with the Peacocks hitting both clubs for six without reply. Solihull born Charlie Manners got the first hat-trick of the league season in the win over Saltley Stallions. In the other 6-0 win over the Sikh Hunters, Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John got four assists in this match and now has nine assists in the league. Shilo Waldo got himself a brace in that victory and is the clubs top goal scorer with eight goals. However, we remain in second place in the league on goal difference behind Bromyard Town by three goals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 3 hours ago, Rick87 said: Good luck, always interesting to see regional stuff like this, especially as it's not that far from where I grew up (Sutton Coldfield) Cheers buddy. I thought about it for a while now. I enjoyed MaddFM Northern Boys but I fancied going down the footballing pyramid and starting off with a club with no players to ease my way into it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 November '23... The Peacocks continued their good run of form and notched up nine straight wins and now have moved into 1st place in the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One. What a mouth full saying that every single time, lol. We saw another hat-trick this month by Solihull born Charlie Manners in the 7-2 victory over Dudley Sports who are probably the second closest side to me as they play on the college grounds in Dudley. It was in the script but Tipton Town were the first side in this series to score first in the league but we finally found our scoring boots and won 3-1 before ending the month with a 4-0 win against rock bottom side Wyrley United. Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John getting three assists in that match and now his tally is at 14 assists in nine appearances. Charlie Manners and Shilo Waldo both have 11 goals each. West Midlands (Regional) League Division One... It's still early days but we have managed to move above Bromyard Town but only by goal difference with both sides looking at that single promotion place into the next league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick87 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 (edited) 1 hour ago, Coxie84 said: Cheers buddy. I thought about it for a while now. I enjoyed MaddFM Northern Boys but I fancied going down the footballing pyramid and starting off with a club with no players to ease my way into it. Good idea, but I'm surprised that if your a Saddlers fan your not playing as Pelsall Used to go Walsall games quite a bit with a mate who supported them, when they had Jimmy Walker, Daz Byfield, Jon Macken and Emmanuel Ledesma under Dean Smith. Got quite a soft spot for them. Good start to your season though, keep it going! Edited March 23 by Rick87 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 1 hour ago, Rick87 said: Good idea, but I'm surprised that if your a Saddlers fan your not playing as Pelsall Used to go Walsall games quite a bit with a mate who supported them, when they had Jimmy Walker, Daz Byfield, Jon Macken and Emmanuel Ledesma under Dean Smith. Got quite a soft spot for them. Good start to your season though, keep it going! I live in Sedgley that's why I went for Gornal...Otherwise I think I would have gone up a league maybe and played as Cadbury Athletic... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Nice to see someone so local( I am from Dudley) to me on here. Lovely club colors as well. Glad you are doing well. I did a brief save with Black Country Rangers but got bored of it. Might give it a go with Dudley's football club sometime soon. I will be keeping an eye on this one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shep1920 Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Deffo be following this one mate I'm Halesowen born I think ill be doing a Halesowen save soon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 13 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said: Nice to see someone so local( I am from Dudley) to me on here. Lovely club colors as well. Glad you are doing well. I did a brief save with Black Country Rangers but got bored of it. Might give it a go with Dudley's football club sometime soon. I will be keeping an eye on this one. Sedgley me!! I was Black Country Rangers previously before I was blogging saves in 2018. Got a signed shirt and even played for there over 35s. I have got a set of kits for the save I will post later but having them redone. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 9 hours ago, Shep1920 said: Deffo be following this one mate I'm Halesowen born I think ill be doing a Halesowen save soon It's fun playing as your local side!! Also, having this twist makes it more fun... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 However, if you are following on here then it's just a recap of so far that's happened. But any reaction with my WordPress site is muchly appreciated. 🚨NEW BLOG POST🚨 Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ - Part 1 is out now... Blog includes; - Preseason - Sept - Nov '23 Also, a link to the prologue for information about this challenge... All likes & RTs appreciated #FM24 #WeNotMe 🦚 https://coxiefm.wordpress.com/2024/03/25/fm24-born-bred-the-regionnaire-challenge-part-1/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 (edited) Welcome back! We are now on Part 2 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last chapter, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to 'The Regionnaire Challenge', then here is a link to the introduction. Having left you at the end of November '23 with us at the top of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One only by goal difference. This post will cover December '23, January '24 results and some off the pitch news. Before we get into it, here is a quick reminder of the restrictions that have been opposed upon me as Peacock manager. I can only sign players that were born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. December '23... It was the battle for 1st place as that we played 2nd place Bromyard Town with us only being on top by a better goal difference ahead of this fixture. However, we defeated the Town by 2-0 to notch up our 10th straight win and go ahead by three points. The next match, Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John added to his assists tally with two more assists in the 4-1 win over rivals Wrens Nest. A final score of 7-0 was deserved as the Peacocks bullied Warstones Wanderers with Jayden Allamby-John scored a brace this time and making it 12 straight wins in a row. But wait, Gornal drop off the top of the table after drawing 1-1 against Gornal Colts....Yes, you read it right, we dropped points but still remain unbeaten in 13, following that draw. However, back to winning ways days later by beating FC Darlaston at the Garden Walk 4-1. Yes, my guy and former Walsall player Jayden Allamby-John scored twice. We end the year off by beating the divisions worst defence Dudley Athletic by 3-0, but remain in 2nd place in the league and remain 15 games unbeaten. Edited March 26 by Coxie84 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 January '24... We return back to the top of the league following a 6-1 win over Pelsall Villa and then remained there for the rest of the month too. Our unbeaten streak continued to 19 games following victories over the likes of Wellington Amateurs who played like a bunch of lol, Stourport u21s and then finally Bustleholme. Also, 19 is the magic number at the Garden Walk as Jayden Allamby-John has that in assists so far in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 West Midlands (Regional) League Division One… We are 1st in the league, however we are still being hunted down by Bromyard Town as they are only one point behind us in the league following their defeat to us in December. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 28 Author Share Posted March 28 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 3 Welcome back! We are now on Part 2 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last chapter, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. Having left you at the end of January ’24 with us at the top of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One by only one point. This post will cover February '24, March '24, league table and also see the start of the vultures circling for our players. Before we get into it, here is a quick reminder of the restrictions that have been opposed upon me as Peacock manager. I can only sign players that were born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. February '24... Before I start getting into the games, I am going to mention that being this far down the footballing pyramid players will come and go. If your performing well like we are at the moment then, Jesus clubs starting circling around your players will vultures and I have managed to go until Feb before they have. The first to be looked at was Worcester-born winger, Seb Thompson, a former Liverpool youth, who played 11 times, scored 4 and assisted 7 was snapped up by Fleet Spurs. Oh, one point he had 100 offers from different clubs and that's the most I have ever seen too. Goals, goals, goals were seen at the Garden Walk Stadium in the tie against Saltley Stallions, well, 13 of them with Wolverhampton-born midfielder Ryan Grosvenor scored four goals in this victory. We dropped points for the second time in the league as we drew against Dudley Sports and we actually had to come back from behind twice. Was that a sign that our unbeaten run may end? Of course not, as Ryan Grosvenor was on hand with his scoring boots on in the 5-0 win over Sikh Hunters. We make it 23 matches unbeaten in the league and remain in 1st place following a 3-2 win against Tipton Town. March '24... Yet again, we smash bottom of the league Wyrley United 6-2, but during that match Birmingham-born defender Jamie Chisholm suffered a broken lower leg and could be out for up to 10 months. He had only featured about a handful of times for the Peacocks, however we don't pay any wages for these players as we are an amateur club so I will pop him into the reserves and wait until he's fit again. At this point of time, I had 11 players all being headhunted by other teams and the only thing I could do is try and make them stay by offering them an amateur contract with the promise we get promoted again next season as that we can't offer wages. However, we lost two first choice players as they departed us. The first to go was Matt Coton, our number 1 goalkeeper who had played in every single match so far in the league and one of our main forwards Charlie Manners who had scored 21 times in 23 matches as they joined the likes of Ludlow Town Colts and London Tigers respectively. There are still a few players being chased by other clubs at the moment but fingers crossed I don't lose anymore. It was that time again in the league when it's 1st v 2nd who both are performing well above expected and chasing that one promotion place. So, we welcomed Bromyard Town to the Garden Walk and it was so nearly our first defeat of the season, I kid you not...Before Charlie Manners depart he scored two goals in this game before we somehow went three two down and it wasn't until the 95th minute, Ryan Grosvenor tap home to seal us a point to keep the unbeaten run alive. The very next game, newly signed Luke Keen, a 34 year old Tamworth-born forward scores a hat-trick on his debut as well as Jayden Allamby-John getting a three assists to make it 25 so far this season. Yes, Jayden is another player I am trying to hold on to. West Midlands (Regional) League Division One... We have opened up a three point gap between us and 2nd place Bromyard Town, but with four games to go its still to early to get the promotion banners out... Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 4 Welcome back! We are now on Part 4 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. The vultures have circled around my best players during the last four games of the season but how many departed? Did we managed to secure the title of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One unbeaten... Before we get into it, here is a quick reminder of the restrictions that have been opposed upon me as Peacock manager. I can only sign players that were born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. Youth Intake... There were 16 players in the youth intake and out of them, only 10 were born in the West Midlands region. All 10 players below were born in Dudley and all signed youth contracts until the end of next season. So, at least I have players some players for the end of run in and for next season too... April '24... In the final four games we won all four of them. The Peacocks won against Pelsall Villa 4-1, with Nuneaton-born Harry Jackson getting a brace before he departed the club. Then, an away tie against Warstones Wanderers 5-2 with Birmingham-born Jayden Allamby-John scoring a brace. The Gornal Colts game was not int he script in the first half as that we were two nil down and looking like we were going to lose our first game of the season. However, a few strong words and we hit four in the second half to win 4-2. In the final game of the season saw us lift the league title following a 3-2 win over FC Darlaston. West Midlands (Regional) League Division One... Champions of the WMRL Division One because it's a mouthful saying it every time. We won the league by going unbeaten winning 27 and drawing the other three games. Credit to Bromyard Town who hunted us down all season and us beating them earlier in the season was key as that we finished first by three points. Squad... The Peacocks had 28 players in during this first season and as per usual the vultures circled and ended up picking off 11 players near the end of the season. Stats... Two Birmingham-born players top the clubs charts and I managed to keep hold of both of them until the end of the season. Shilo Waldo scored 23 goals, who started life out at the Baggies and Jayden Allamby-John assisted 28 times and was a former Saddler. End of Season Review... Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 Building The Squad For The Upcoming Season... So where do I start following by the end of last season we had lost up to 11 first team players from the vulture clubs circling and taking our players away. I did think that would have been the end of it, however I was wrong as that another SEVEN players went including our best player of last season Birmingham-born and former Walsall player Jayden Allamby-John who I am gutted to see leave. His stats were class, played 26, scored 17, assisted 28 and got the PoM award 8 times. All the best at Warrington pal. It was eight player actually that left, but one of them Luke Keen retired. So, the others that left are highlighted in red below and players in bold black are going into their second season with the Peacocks. The normal black and brown are newly signed for the upcoming season. I will try not to get to attached to players this season but let's hope we have the next Jayden in this squad to help us with survival... Also, our u18s team will be in the National u18 League North West for this upcoming season. The Pre-Season Fixtures... I decided this preseason to test ourselves against clubs below us, in the same league and also teams in the league above us and the Peacocks performed above the standard required and won all six of the fixtures that we played. We casually brushed aside the club form Wolves before melting the Chocolate men again for the second preseason running. Then beating Billy's Town before making it sporting win over another Wolves club. The final two games saw us beat Smethwick before beating former league rivals FC Darlaston with a youthful side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 4 Author Share Posted April 4 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 6 Welcome back! We are now on Part 6 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. Before We Start... The board expectation is for us to attempt to avoid relegation from the Midlands Football League Division One but I think even though the squad has been gutted of late. We still have good enough players to push further up the table at least a top half finish. August '24... Our first month since promotion into the Midlands Football League Division One has gone better than expected as we top of the league after winning our opening six games. On the opening day saw us run out a 3-0 win at the Garden Walk against Lichfield City with Shilo Waldo grabbing a brace. It then followed by just simple 1-0 victories over Kirby Muxloe and Brocton. We then came back from one nil down to beat Smethwick Rangers with a thunderous strike by Shilo Waldo getting the winner. Two highly polished 3-1 victories over Chelmsley Town and Wednesfield to make it six wins out of six. September '24... So after 429 days in charge of the Peacocks and on the 37th game we faced an in-form Ingles away from home. This wasn't scripted as we lost 3-2 with former Walsall and Birmingham-born Ade Francis assisting twice in the defeat. It was so nearly two defeats in a row as we came back from behind to rescue a point very late on in the 3-3 draw against Hinckley. But we did lose the third and final match of this month and making it the first month in this series we did win a game losing to FC Stratford 1-0. October '24... The Peacocks mean business as we are back to winning ways in the league by winning the next five in the league. One of the highlights was our Dudley-born and last season's youth intake player Selcuk Aydemir getting his first ha-trick and Gornal's of this season in the 5-3 win over Coventry Copsewood. Our first adventure in cup competition ended very quickly and will have to wait until next season to get into third round as that we exited out of the Midlands Football League Cup to Boldmere Sports & Social Falcons 4-2 in the second round. I was gutted but soon forgot about it as that we won the final two league games to move into 2nd place in the league. The League Table... Well, we are second in the league behind Wolves Sporting as club that I once saw play against Birmingham Tigers as that I met both managers whilst they both were at Black Country Rangers a few years back now. Anyway, back to FM and I am happy that we are not in a relegation battle and performing better then expected by many.... Final Words... All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 7 Welcome back! We are now on Part 7 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. Our Current Squad List... Three players have since departed, well poached by other clubs in the non-league world. I am still happy that somehow we have managed to keep hold of Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo, who has been linked and turned down loads of clubs to stay with the Peacocks. Our squad looks slightly small below, however this doesn't include our youth intake last season, so I might add them on for the next update... Youth Intake Preview... There's 16 players again in the next potential youth intake, so I am hoping again at least 10 are born in the West Midlands region like before or even all of them. I defo would like the GK to be in our region as I need/could do with one. November & December '24... During the cold winter month's in Gornal and away from home saw the Peacock's play eight league games with our form up and down like a mini-roller coaster. Started off brightly in the 5-2 victory over Southam United before it was 1st against 2nd place in the league as we travelled over to Wolverhampton. The in-form Wolves Sporting side came back from two nil down to beat us 3-2 in the cold November rain...We did manage to pick up another four points in this month as we dropped down to 3rd place in the table. In the 4-4 draw against Nuneaton Griff, Coventry-born Sonny Parsons scored twice and assisted twice too. Three games in the festival period of December saw the Peacock end 2024 with a win, a defeat and a draw. The League Table... Dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the league, which to be honest I not that fussed about as that we are still in the playoff places and by 11 points too. So, can we in the last 17 league games in the campaign secure a playoff place... Wanted... A Surrey based club, Badshot Lea were the first club to offer me a job interview in this series and I declined straight away as that the Garden Walk is my home... Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 8... January '25 - March '25 On The Pitch We started off life in the New Year with a win against a competitive Smethwick Rangers side with Stoke-on-Trent born Tom Urwin getting all three of the Peacocks assists in the 3-2 victory. Then, we lost to Chelmsley Town 3-1 which then helped us kick started our run of eight game winning streak that included a 5-1, couple of 4-1's (Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo scored a hat-trick in the match against Heather St. John's) and the 8-3 victory over FC Stratford in February. I think Shilo Waldo may have grabbed himself a brace in the 11 goal thriller too. I am really surprised that I have managed to keep hold of him and he's currently the only player left from last season. Of course, we all know what happens when you are top of the league and you have to play the team at the time who were sitting bottom. Yep, you guessed right we lost 3-2 to AFC Bridgnorth, however that result didn't change anything as we remained top. In the following 3-2 win against Coton Green at the Garden Walk we secured a playoff place with five games to go. We ended the month of March with a 2-2 draw against Southam United. Results League Going into the last four games of the season with automatic promotion hopes in our hands. We actually face Wolves Sporting in the very next game who we are three points ahead off in 2nd place and also face Heather St. John's on the final day of the season. Off The Pitch We said goodbye to Birmingham-born Ade Francis. The former Walsall youth player had played 29 times, scored 9 and assisted 11 before Cribbs took him away from me. Like I said, this far down the pyramid you try not to get to attached to players. With this and I knew what happened at the end of last season when I struggled to hold onto players. I decided to go into the loan market and ended up bringing six more players in on loan including two former Peacock players. I have overloaded on defenders put I needed to tighten up the backline. Billy Spink - GK - Birmingham-born and will play as back up GK. Jamie Chisholm - DEF - Birmingham-born and a former player who played only 3 times last season. Jamie Smith - DEF - Worcester-born and also a former player who played 11 times and scored 4 goals last season. Jordan Darlington - DEF - Newcastle-under-Lyme. Kieran Westwood - DEF - Birmingham-born and a former Cambridge City youth player. Saif Mukadam - MID - Birmingham-born and a former Walsall youth player. He's a player since the first season I have tried to bring in and happy I got him as that we was a natural replacement for Ade Francis. Better Squad List Yet again, I was headhunted for mangers jobs. This time during this period five offers came in from other nonleague clubs. No thank you!! Thank you for reading... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sizeman21 Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Enjoying your club in the lower leagues of the English pyramid. Keep it up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 On 09/04/2024 at 14:46, Sizeman21 said: Enjoying your club in the lower leagues of the English pyramid. Keep it up! Thank you for reading...Seriously it's truly appreciated... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 9 *****SPOILER ALERT, AS ITS NOT EVEN OUT YET ON WORDPRESS/DISCORD****** Welcome back! We are now on Part 9 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. The final four games of the season... In the hunt to become even champions of the Midland Football League Division One or even a playoff place took a slight wrong turn as that we faced fellow promotion chasing Wolves Sporting at the Garden Walk. They beat us 2-1, however we remained in 1st place but our three point gap was reduced to nothing so we had to fight on our hands in the final three games. It was helped with a cheeky 1-0 win over Paget Rangers and then a 4-2 win at home against Nuneaton Griff which but us in a good place going into the final game of the season. So, on the 26th April, we welcomed another promotion chasing side to the Garden Walk, this time it was Heather St. John's. I knew that we needed to win to be crowned champions of this division...And the boys delivered it on the final day beating them 3-1 in a thrilling game on home turf!! Results... As below. League standing... Back to Back promotions, however this one the toughest season so far. Even though its only our second season as that we lost seven times but managed to win 27 times out of the 38 league fixtures. Roll on season three... Gornal's star boy... Birmingham-born forward Shilo Waldo, Gornal's very own star boy...He was released from West Brom and Stoke City without even playing for them before joining the Peacocks in my first season and somehow managed to be the only player I have kept during this second season. Also, during this season he's opted to stay every single time a club has come in for him. Scored 54 in 64 appearances... Final Words All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 15 Author Share Posted April 15 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 10 Posted on 15 Apr 2024 by CoxieFM Welcome back! We are now on Part 10 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club… A Recap… So, the Peacocks made it back to back promotions having won the Midland Football League Division One last season. We go into season three of this series in the Midland Football League Premier Division and also get the opportunity to play in the FA Cup prelim rounds for the first time too. Also, at the Garden Walk we have our very own Star Boy in Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo, who has 54 goals in 64 apps. Can we keep him for season three? A Squad Update… We have now got 38 players on the books at the Garden Walk going into our third season. This does include 16 NewGen players that are in our u18s squad. Some familiar faces have returned to the club during the off season who have either played for me in the last two seasons or have actually played for Gornal in the past in real life. They were in Defence see’s Stafford-born Will Byers, Worcester-born Jamie Smith and Birmingham-born Kieren Westwood & Jamie Chisholm played for me. Also, Walsall-born Bekir Halil who played for the Peacocks in the 2010/11 and then again in the 2011/2021 seasons. Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY Also, new faces that joined during the summer were; Alfie Toland, Raajan Gill, Aaron Cole, Lee Grady, Kyle Carey, Kalum Hemmingway, Josh Hunt and Edilson Panzo-Antonio. A special mention for the last player Edilson as he was born in Walsall and started out as a Walsall youth. Started the season 2025/26 Name Age Position Place of Birth Club Started at Raajan Gill 32 GK Birmingham Leicester City Billy Spink 28 GK Birmingham Coleshill Will Byers 25 DEF Stafford Stone OA Aaron Cole 32 DEF Burton-upon-Trent Derby County J’cee Abraham 25 DEF Birmingham Rotherham Jamie Smith 28 DEF Worcester Worcester City Jordan Till 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Brad Dorrington 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Michael Wells 15 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Alfie Toland 22 DEF Sutton Coldfield Dorchester Bekir Halil 34 DEF Walsall Dudley Town Kieran Westwood 29 DEF Birmingham Cambridge City Michael Franks 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Mpho Nene 17 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Jamie Chisholm 24 DEF Birmingham Mansfield Town Tom Urwin 32 MID Stoke-on-Trent Stoke City Sam Belcher 32 MID Nuneaton Coventry City Dior Leese 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Sonny Parsons 21 MID Coventry Nuneaton Craig Harris 28 MID Shrewsbury Bishops Castle Jarrod Cadwallader 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Jamey Bald 17 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Haden Creaney 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Glenn Dodd 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Paul Piper 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Jack Bloom 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Shilo Waldo 19 MID Birmingham West Brom Ashanti Ziglam 19 MID Birmingham CPA Gregor Walwyn 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Selcuk Aydemir 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Kalum Hemmingway 23 MID Sutton Coldfield Sutton United Kyle Carey 28 MID Coventry Coventry Sphinx Lee Grady 28 MID Shrewsbury Carno Josh Hunt 31 FOR Hereford Hereford Connor Collins 29 FOR Birmingham Tividale Paul Barker 15 FOR Dudley Gornal Athletic Edilson Panzo-Antonio 29 FOR Walsall Walsall Alex Maycock 15 FOR Dudley Gornal Athletic *Players in BOLD BLACK are NewGen players. Preseason… We saw an invasion of Welsh clubs come across the border to the Garden Walk. They all left empty handed and sent back to Wales. It was also a mixture of nonleague and football league sides too and getting results like some below, I have to say I am well impressed to say the least in these. Let’s hope we continue this into the upcoming season… The Expectations… Midland Football League Premier Division We are mid-table after five games which includes two wins, two defeats and one draw. Our first game of the season ended in a 4-1 defeat to Chasetown at the Garden Walk and I thought it’s going to be this season we will struggle in the league in. But then in the next three games we draw against a tough Atherstone Town 1-1 before beating Wolves Casuals 4-2 and then demolishing Coleshill Town 7-0 with star-boy Shilo Waldo getting a brace in our biggest win so far this season. In the fifth league game saw us come up against our fierce rivals Dudley Town for the first time in this series and they bullied us despite us being the dominant side in much of that fixture. We lost 5-1 to The Robins, so I will be looking for revenge when they visit the Garden Walk later on in the season… The FA Cup Run… Our journey in this season’s FA Cup, sees us start it in the Extra Prelim Round and would have to win six games to even think about being drawn into the First round proper of this iconic competition. So, in the Extra Prelim Round we played Romulus at the Garden Walk. The club is in the league above us I think and we bullied them and won with ease 6-1 to set up another against a club who play in a higher league and see the match at home against Bromsgrove Sporting in Prelim Round. We went on to win that match 2-0 and then beat Ludlow 2-0 at the Ludlow Stadium in the First Qualifying Round to set up a Second Qualifying Round match against Highgate United at home. That’s three down, three to go and fingers crossed we can do it to bring in some funds for the club. The Kits… Shout-Out to Gerald Vella of SS style Fantasy kits and originals over on Facebook for doing this kits. These kits featured in one of my old FM20 saves, before I even blogged and found them in my emails and buzzing to import them in. However, I have looking to freshen these up in the future… Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 11 Welcome back! We are now on Part 10 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club… September to October '25 Midlands Football League Premier Division Not much to cover in the league as that most of it was made up of the cup runs below. However played four times over the two month period and won all four of the fixtures. Won against Highgate United 6-1 (Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo scored a hat-trick), Market Drayton 4-1, Stone OA 3-1 and finally Ludlow 4-0. However, Shilo Waldo will be out of action for up to 9 weeks due to injury, so will that affect us in the long run, who knows... So, we currently sit in 6th place and have two games in hand over the teams above us due to our cup run. Only four points off 1st place...Dare to dream Peacock fans?? FA Vase We have to progress through one qualifying round before entering the competition for real and we started with a 9-1 win over Wednesfield in the second qualifying round with Sutton Coldfield-born Kalum Hemmingway getting his first hat-trick for the club. I believe to date that is the Peacocks biggest win in the series too. In the first round of the FA Vase would be the furthest we go in our maiden season in this competition after being well beaten by Kidsgrove 3-0. A old familiar name scored twice against us, Anthony Malbon, who I know I have signed this player beforehand on previous nonleague saves on FM. The 34 year-old haunted the Peacocks. Maybe, might add him to the list as he's a local lad too. FA Cup We had already played in three rounds in this competition and had to play another three just to get into the first round proper of the FA Cup. Guess what...We have only gone and done it but it was a tough ask as that we needed replays in the second and third qualifying rounds. First up, Highgate United, our league rivals and after a 1-1 draw at the Garden Walk we went to their ground and won 5-3, thanks to a brace from Shrewsbury-born midfielder Craig Harris. In the next round, we played the Yeltz aka Halesowen Town who play in the division above I believe. That was also a 3-3 draw at our ground before beating them 4-0 at their which I was shocked by, but I'll take it for defo. However, I did think it was going to be the end of our journey when we were drawn against National League side Buxton in the fourth qualifying round. But a cheeky 3-0 win over the side a few league above us, I will take all day!!! Gotta love the FA Cup!! In the first round proper we will face the railwaymen away from home...Is there another giant killing to take place or will we get bullied? Final Words... All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 New Kits for the series... Made by someone from the FM Library Discord Channel...I have both 2D & 3D kits in the game... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 12 Welcome back! We are now on Part 12 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club… November - December '25 First up, it was our FA Cup 1st round proper match against league opposition in Crewe Alexandra and the outcome was to be expected. On a wet afternoon at the Mornflake Stadium the Peacocks lost 4-0 which ended our awesome cup run of six games we had to play to get into this competition and probably for the first time in Gornal's history. The next game was another cup fixture. This time in the Midland Football League Cup 3rd round home tie against Coton Green. In a game we dominated from the get go saw us run out 5-2 win to set-up a 4th round fixture against Wolves Sporting which will be covered in the next update. In the Midland Football League Premier Division, we played nine matches as we looked to move up the in search for another promotion. We drew against Stourport Swifts 1-1 to start a run of unbeaten league games. We beat the likes of AFC Wulfrunians 2-1, Shawbury United 4-2, OJM Black Country 3-2 (The team in real life, I played for in their over35s Sunday team before COVID), Hereford Lads Club 1-0 and Market Drayton 3-0. The highest league position we got to during this time was 2nd place in the league as many tipped us to be in a relegation battle like for previous two seasons. Haven't they learnt yet, I know do relegation battles with lower league clubs, I'll save that until the football league divisions lol... Lost to top of the league Heanor Town and to playoff chasing Tividale 2-1 and 3-1 respectively during this period. Stone OA, somehow managed to draw by scoring in the bloody 94th minute of the match, lol. They were poor as but that we only hit the barn door once in like 15 shots on target. In that draw brought up my 100th game in charge of the Peacocks... League & Player Stats We used our two games advantage to get into the playoffs and only four points from top spot. There are a few tough sides in this division but I think at least we have enough to finish in the top 5 and push for that third promotion in a row. NEW KITS The kits were design by DZanetti93 over on The FM Library discord channel. I absolutely love them... What do you think Peacock fans Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted Tuesday at 18:59 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 18:59 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 13 January - February '26... We start off with your boy, CoxieFM signing another one year deal with the Peacock and still not getting paid. It's all good as that I'll probably working in the Sainsbury in Lower Gornal anyways...Enough of chatting rubbish, let's get into the league action... However, before we start with the league, it was the Midlands Football League Cup 4th round tie against Wolves Sporting . The Wolverhampton based side went on to beat us 2-0 just two days after signing on for another year. They were the better side as we didn't take our chances. So, now we get into the Midland Football League Premier Division action and I have to say this has been the worst two months so far in the series in terms of results not going our way. We drew the first match 2-2 against Billy's Town (Well, Bilston if you ain't local), which wasn't a bad result as it meant we kept our 2nd place spot in the table. It was more the next six games, where we had won the same amount we lost which was three a piece and at one point we dropped out of the playoffs places. I did think, is this the league we might struggle to get out of? Beat Chasetown, happy days...Lost 1-0 to Tividale which will please @TheFootiePost, who is a blogger of non league football, mainly Tividale. Then, back to winning ways beating OJM Black Country before back to back defeats which included Dudley Town our fierce rivals in FM doing the double over us, meaning we dropped to 6th place!!! FUMING, I WAS!!! But, calm CoxieFM as I ended February with back to back wins to get us into 3rd place. The League Standings... There are only 8 games remaining in the league and there is still a lot to play for...I had won back to back promotion as champions the last two season and I think if we are going to get it this time and make it three in a row, it will have to get via the playoff because I think Heanor Town being 12 points ahead are likely to win the league. Well, there is still a chance I might not end the season in the playoffs...All to play for before the next update!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted Wednesday at 19:58 Author Share Posted Wednesday at 19:58 (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 14 March - April '26 So we head into the final eight games of the Midlands Football League Premier Division with a chance of promotion in our hands. A slim chance of automatic or the most likely outcome the playoff lottery... Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo who had an awesome two season before this banging in goals scored a brace on his return from injury which has hampered his goal scoring form of late. He goals helped the Peacocks beat Wolves Casuals 5-0 away from home. Craig Harris came off the bench and his impact delighted the fans with a late goal to give us all three points in the 1-0 victory over Shawbury United. At the Garden Walk, we made it three wins out of three with our form coming at the right time with other teams losing as we moved into 3rd place in the league table following a 4-2 win over Ludlow, thanks to Hereford-born Josh Hunt adding to his mass of goals, I think he's near 30 this season...March ended with another victory, now that's four out of four so far with Shilo Waldo getting a brace in the 4-1 win over AFC Wulfrunians meaning we still occupy 3rd place in the table. Also, in March saw Birmingham-born Kieren Westwood, Stafford-born and our captain Will Byers and Birmingham-born Jordan Wilson recalled to Mildenhall Town depart Gornal. This meant our Star-Boy Shilo Waldo is now the Peacocks captain. Our first red card of the season....Sutton-Coldfield born Alfie Toland saw red after his two footed challenge in the 12th minute and being the last man of course saw him walk off the Garden Walk pitch. However, the boys rallied together and came away with all three points in the 3-1 win over Atherstone. It was top versus third place in the league, the Peacocks against the Lions and we surprised a lot of media and myself as we secured all three points against Heanor Town who have been in bloody good form all season. They is still a very slim chance now of automatic put that win secured us at least a playoff place... The Peacocks were in control as Hereford Lads Club were brushed aside in a 3-2 victory before drawing against Bilston Town at home in a 2-2 draw. This meant we finished in 3rd place in the league on the final day of the season. And unfortunately that is where our story ends in the promotion playoff semi-finals....and the chance of making in three promotions in a row as that we bow out on penalties following 2-2 after 90 minutes. I am slightly gutted in a way that we have lost but in a way secretly happy so people don't think it's too easier or say I am cheating for getting three promotions in a row. Also below is how the league finished... End of season review... The Squad... Started the season 2025/26 Name Age Position Place of Birth Club Started at Raajan Gill 32 GK Birmingham Leicester City Dave Doherty 25 GK Droitwich Spa Droitwich Spa Lewis Fenney 32 GK Birmingham Cambridge City J’cee Abraham 25 DEF Birmingham Rotherham Jamie Smith 28 DEF Worcester Worcester City Jordan Till 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Brad Dorrington 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Michael Wells 15 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Alfie Toland 22 DEF Sutton Coldfield Dorchester Michael Franks 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Jamie Chisholm 24 DEF Birmingham Mansfield Town Tom Urwin 32 MID Stoke-on-Trent Stoke City Sam Belcher 32 MID Nuneaton Coventry City Dior Leese 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Sonny Parsons 21 MID Coventry Nuneaton Craig Harris 28 MID Shrewsbury Bishops Castle Jarrod Cadwallader 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Haden Creaney 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Glenn Dodd 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Paul Piper 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Jack Bloom 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Shilo Waldo 19 MID Birmingham West Brom Ashanti Ziglam 19 MID Birmingham CPA Gregor Walwyn 15 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Selcuk Aydemir 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Kalum Hemmingway 23 MID Sutton Coldfield Sutton United Kyle Carey 28 MID Coventry Coventry Sphinx Josh Hunt 31 FOR Hereford Hereford Edilson Panzo-Antonio 29 FOR Walsall Walsall Alex Maycock 15 FOR Dudley Gornal Athletic Signed during the 2025/26 Season Luke Downes 29 MID Coventry Coventry Sphinx Owen Bennett 24 DEF Birmingham Aston Villa Sufyan Zia 27 DEF Birmingham Bilston Town Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted 5 hours ago Author Share Posted 5 hours ago (FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 15 Posted on 28 Apr 2024 by CoxieFM Welcome back! We are now on Part 15 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club… Last season recap… We have had a very decent season three in the series, which saw us enter the FA Cup for the first time in this save and managed to get into the first round proper after six games. In the league though, we failed to make it three promotions in a row losing in the semi-final of the playoffs to Bilston Town… During the off season… Buzzing to announce that I managed to tie down last season’s Hereford-born forward Josh Hunt for the upcoming season on a one year deal and Birmingham-born and the Peacocks Star-Boy Shilo Waldo on a appearance fee non-contract. Shilo Waldo is the club’s longest serving player and has scored 76 times (71 of them league goals & holds the club record) in 96 apps in all competitions and is also the clubs captain too. Josh Hunt maiden season, he scored 31 times in 43 apps in all competitions and currently holds the record for most goals in a season by a player. Has that I’m talking about records, former player Jayden Allamby-John still holds three records at the Garden Walk during his time at the club in first season of this series. They are the most assists in a season, that total of 28, Most PoM awards in a season = 8 and the highest average rating in 26 apps = 8.25. The former Saddler youth player was a class act for the Peacocks. The expectations… Be competitive in Cup competitions, how boring!!! But I want to try to win the Midland Football League Cup and also reach the first round proper of the FA Cup again. In the league, avoid relegation which will be easy after we have the same last season and we narrowly missed out on promotion losing in the playoffs. Also, I was yet again headhunted by several clubs during this period too including the likes of Biggleswade United, Harrow and Leek. Of course, I said NOOOOOOOOOO…. Preseason… Mixed it up a little and decided to play three u20s sides which two of the three worked in our favour, however in the final game, MK Dons truly beat us. That was our only defeat as we won the other three matches which included a 3-1 win over Welsh side Airbus UK. The FA Cup draw… For the extra preliminary round has been made and it will be against local rivals Tividale. This will please @TheFootiePost, who is a blogger of non league football, mainly Tividale. We have only met them twice so far in this series and both times they haven’t beaten us (3-1 & 1-0) so need to sort that out if we want to get to the first round proper of this competition this series. Also, if you are reading this pal. Next season in real life, we will have to meet up at a non-league at Tividale or Gornal pal… The Squad… We have roughly 40-ish players on the books at the Garden Walk with roughly at the moment in time about 20-25 are newgens. That’s a high number of newgens then the previous three seasons as I have tried to bring in real players mainly but at this moment of time that’s all I can attract. To be honest, I’d say 15 of them have come through the youth intake which makes in happy. Anyway, stop waffling and #GornalAyWe… Started the season 2025/26 Name Age Position Place of Birth Club Started at Raajan Gill 32 GK Birmingham Leicester City Alex Hodgin 19 GK Kidderminster AFC Mansfield Lewis Fenney 32 GK Birmingham Cambridge City Jordan Beddows 17 GK Kingswinford Moreton Rangers Matty Franks 16 GK Dudley Gornal Athletic Owen Bennett 24 DEF Birmingham Aston Villa Jamie Smith 28 DEF Worcester Worcester City Jordan Till 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Michael Wells 15 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Alfie Toland 22 DEF Sutton Coldfield Dorchester Jamie Chisholm 24 DEF Birmingham Mansfield Town Adam Walker 18 DEF Telford AFC Telford United Neil Shannon 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Ashanti Stearman 18 DEF Stourbridge Stourbridge Lewis Downes 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Jamie Parkes 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Jamie Dorrington 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Michael Wells 17 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Gawayne Eastmond 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Sam Leckie 16 DEF Dudley Gornal Athletic Sam Melhado 18 DEF Stoke-on-Trent Port Vale Andy Stockbridge 18 DEF Birmingham Bolton Sam Belcher 34 MID Nuneaton Coventry City Paul Piper 17 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Sonny Parsons 23 MID Coventry Nuneaton Haden Creaney 17 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Kalum Hemmingway 24 MID Sutton Coldfield Sutton United Paddy McKenna 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Akeem Vacianna 18 MID Telford AFC Telford United Akeem Carnall 18 MID Telford Wrockwardine Wood Gregor Walwyn 17 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Paul Martin 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Aaron Bell 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Chris Osborne 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Shilo Waldo 22 MID Birmingham West Brom David King 18 MID Halesowen Halesowen Town Dave Winterbottom 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Haden Truslove 16 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Jack Bloom 17 MID Dudley Gornal Athletic Alex Maycock 17 FOR Dudley Gornal Athletic Josh Hunt 31 FOR Hereford Hereford Gary Edwards 18 FOR Birmingham Wrens Nest PLAYERS IN BOLD ARE NEWGEN’S Final words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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