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@optimusprimal82 Oh no, too late mate I've only gone and done it. I've got to work for the next three days so won't be able to get much game time in anyway, plus I've got pre-season rebuilding for the mighty Vanarama North to get through. So hopefully by the time all that's taken care of they'll have created the perfect match engine. Here's hoping.

Good, the intent was to amuse. Hence the grinning emoji .

Yep hard coded, always has been. At least from my personal experience .

Uh finally. Those last six seasons have been such a slog. Well, many thanks for your version of TIME 442 (with a few tweaks of my own ). I'm off to update to patch 19.3 which will surely ruin this tactic, but hopefully make the game a bit more fun.

I may well do that actually though I'm always a bit wary of updating to the latest patch too quickly because more often that not it makes my current tactic less effective. I've eight games left of the season and seven points clear (fortunately the teams below me are equally inconsistent) so will definitely try the new patch after that. It's good to hear it's made the match engine 'more forgiving' to be honest I've found 19.2 a bit of a frustration fest. I was a bit miffed at 19.1 feeling like it lacked a challenge so hopefully they've managed to get the 'difficulty' bang on for 19.3. Interesting my so called 'great' striker got injured and we scored four in the next match, his replacement getting two of them. Weird game, but don't we love its quirks? That's still damn impressive. Are you going for the champions league now? How close have you got so far?

I'm certainly struggling for a goal scoring tactic. Two goals in four games, we'll never win promotion at this rate. I've even got one 'great' striker but having seen him play he couldn't hit the broad side of a cow's arse. If you can remember far back enough, when you were in the low low leagues what roles you played your forwards in? My main problem this season has been very poor chance conversion.......oh, and conceding too many goals, that too.

There are no silver linings to brexit my friend, just abject misery and despair. Um, did you actually read that statement from Dave Woodward? I sounds like he doesn't hold a very high opinion of the premier league as he refers your moving into that league a 'relegation'.

@optimusprimal82 Bloody hell mate! So that's straight promotions all the way then. You feeling confident about winning the Premiership next season then?

Incredible work sir! Can't wait to get stuck into this.

@optimusprimal82 It sure feels like work sometimes. Yeah, nice work with the diagram presentation, it's handy to have this information put on in such a jazzy layout. I will look forward to seeing one on mentality it's something I'm still not sure I really get and more information about when to use which one under different circumstances would be cool. Perhaps you could do one on what to do when your team keeps insisting on losing early goals or when the opposition's keeper turns out to be Neuer in disguise. I mean seriously the saves he was pulling off were ridiculous. I think next season I'm going to be going with your version of time, I replayed the game with it as a test and it seemed to produce a more stable performance, not so many chances created but it always felt like we were in charge of the game. And sixth times a charm and all that. Discipline might be a problem though. I presume get stuck in was turned on, that might have to change.

I actually can't believe it! All we had to do was not lose at home to a team ten places below us: Two nil down after six minutes and absolutely no fight in us. Players were anxious or nervous bunch of spineless b'stards. And of course Marine won their match, I guess they just wanted it more. I even beat them 7-0 earlier in the season. This bloody game is so ridiculously frustrating!!! I don't know if I can face another season in this league after coming so close. Guilfoyle is out for the playoffs so they're a write-off. Football Manager I bid you farewell! (for a day or two)

Let's not bottle it now. *UPDATE* One game to go and it's squeaky erse time ...me too!

But what do you do in these situations? Go more attacking if they go more attacking or more defensive? Sometimes it just feels like a lottery.

@optimusprimal82 That is absolutely nuts! I really don't know how you do it. I know you try to explain, but to achieve that sort of form seems so far away from my (current at least) playing experience. I take it SI have included the winter world cup in Qatar? It always used to get moved to Australia or somewhere to keep it in the summer. Just checked my game, I'm actually a few weeks ahead of you on world cup final day (Argentina vs France incidentally). Oh, and have managed a total of 0 promotions so far . Hopefully that will change this season here's how it's shaping up at the halfway point: So our best performance in the league so far but it's tight at the top and although we are dominating some matches (we just beat promotion rivals Frickley 5-1) there are too many worrying performances for my liking for example: The game we just played although we won we did not deserve it, it was only a last minute direct free kick that won it for us. I feel that we were due some luck in this department, seemed to lose so many points last season from last minute free kicks. Then there are games like this were the highlights are just the opposition getting chance after chance and you know they're going to score eventually. I play cautious mentality but other than that I'm not sure what changes to make when being bombarded like that. Go more defensive or go more attacking or change formation, sometimes nothing works. The stats look pretty even but watching the highlights was like one way traffic. Also inexplicably got knocked out the FA trophy by Pontefract, I was playing a rotated squad but we should have easily beat them (they are a league below). Never mind the league is the priority this season. Anyway enough moaning, you can't win them all! Hopefully we can continue the good form and get out of this league at last.

I am extremely impressed. Well done for digging in during the dip in form and turning things around. That must have been a very frustrating period indeed! Is that four back to back promotions now? Inspiring stuff. It might not be such a bad thing to have a few seasons in the championship to make the length of said bridge less. But promotion every season would be a pretty cool achievement. Yeah I hope so, I've never succeeded in taking a team from bottom to top, I usually get bored after a few seasons but I'm feeling quite determined this time, a least for now. Yeah it's far too early to start getting confident about going up but we are playing with a fire in our belly this season which I haven't seen before. I pay little attention to what my coaches think of a player, at this level I take anything they say with a pinch of salt! I prefer to judge them on how they play and will also likely give games to players I feel an affection for or a youngster I want to see develop. Cieslewicz does appear to have horrible stats (below 5 for most things) but I signed him for his 15 pace and he does have more good games than not. Hunter was someone I wanted to sign last season but was demanding a grand a week, this season he agreed to come on a non contract, nice when things like that work out in the end. I wanted him for his 15 acceleration and 16 pace, also 18 flair and who doesn't like a bit of flair? 10 goals in 12 ain't bad for a winger. How are you able to check consistency? I thought it was a hidden stat (I know there are ways to see them but I like to think they're hidden for a reason). I can't see anything in the coach report about him be inconsistent, maybe he got over it?