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Has the save reached an early end?

Congrats on a successful first season on Shetland and enjoy your break! At least there a guarantee of good weather over there, the UK seems to be getting storm after storm after storm, stuck in an indefinite loop of 7 degrees, high winds and non - stop f*cking rain, as you can imagine, the non leagues are going weeks without playing many games.

I too am still holding out for this! Really have dragged your side over the line here, and definitely gives food for thought over your early season planning (that worked so well at Kirkwall too? But never this many injuries). I suppose as ultimately it is a journeyman, and if you get promoted again next year you'll be off anyway, the dilemma is how much you focus on yourself and getting yourself up the ladder by focusing on short term winning and league improvements than winning cups and getting prize to help fund the club.

I understand your decision to can it @phnompenhandy, but you had a hell of a ride and I completely get what you mean. You step away from a save for a few days and all of a sudden you can't get back into it, its happened more times to me then I care to mention. Me? I'm still waiting on Mozza's final DB release (my guess being the xmas break has put that on hold sadly), so without losing this period of free time without playing some serious FM, I'm exploring alternative saves that I can keep on the back burner through the rest of the cycle. I have experimented with a Yorkshire independent nation database with its own footballing pyramid, but I think the fantasy element of the save is putting me off completely committing to a save in it. I would recommend anyone taking a look at it, its a fine piece of work and worth simming through a few years to see how they would get on. Its on the steam workshop. Hope you've had a fab christmas!

Wow, 2 nail biting last day promotions! I'm not sure I would be able to handle it! You're really flying up the leagues now, seems as if each year you don't seemingly weaken with the departures and the arrivals of some sub-par youths. One question, as you're in the West of Scotland setup, in real life this would be a nightmare, but how is the club coping with the travel? Do you notice it effect the players? I'm not actually sure how much the game takes travel into consideration. And the costs - I know you have a healthy balance now thanks to your cup exploits, but what sort of costs are you getting each month for the countless times you have to go down south and back?

That brings me hope of bringing my barren run to an end!

Fantastic job @Makoto Nakamura About time to see a North Caley team FINALLY get the promotion! Very inspirational and proves to me that it can be done!

This is it now! The BIG game. Don't want to add any extra pressure but this arguably your biggest game(s) of the save so far, well, until you reach the Highland/Lowland playoffs and the SPFL playoffs! You're bound to smash it! You couldn't be entering in any better form.

In my saves they were always known as Lugar BT, and my mind would think they had some relation to British Telecom... In fact I think I believed it for a while before I decided to actually check

Fantastic thread @Makoto Nakamura - I'm new to the forums but am familiar with the Scottish non-league journey having managed Orkney over the past 3 FMs, and not once got out the North Caley League! I know just how frustrating this league can be. I will be giving it another go this year, but I think you've got it in you to crack this league (and the horrible playoffs that come along with it). If I could lend a piece of advice it would be to perhaps abandon prioritising the cups (you may be doing so already) apart from the Scottish Cup obviously! From my experience post Christmas the fixture list does dry up a little and as it becomes such a short league season, the emphasis and pressure on each league game heightens, so if I had spare weeks I would stick a friendly in just to keep up the sharpness. Really enjoying the amateur starting point you and others have done this year, despite restricting yourself to Highland only players you've done well hoovering up talent from higher tiers, putting you a class above pretty much everyone. I don't think this will be your ceiling, as long as you can stay consistent, keep up momentum and morale, and stay lucky (we all need a bit of luck), you'll get there in the end. I will definitely be loading in the amateur leagues for my save to keep an eye on all the teams you and the others have discussed above - might even find some players to pinch! Will be following along the journey.

It sounds like Mozza is making a fantasy version where amateur clubs do have a route through the pyramid, alongside a real life version, which I will be sticking with for Orkney FC - but @phnompenhandy's route has definitely peaked my interest into considering an amateur club journey like this!

Ah, I appreciate the thought! I am along for the ride now! Unfortunately no, the closest we got was the Highland League Playoff, and then after we began to tail off so I put it back to bed for FM23. However, I feel I cannot move onto another save without succeeding on this one first so I will be giving it a FOURTH attempt once Mozza finalises his DB for FM 24. This time I hope to take a slightly more patient approach, utilising the existing players and making worthwhile additions here and there instead of rebuilding the entire squad straight away. I will definitely be taking some inspiration from this storyline of yours and working more on tactics rather than blowing our budget on players because of their career history and stats. I am debating doing a thread on here so you and others can follow along.

Wow, first time I've sat down and read through all of one of your FM soap operas and I am HOOKED. Good to see your enthusiasm hasn't waned! I am captivated by the story, although I obviously already knew you had a keen interest in Highlands amateur football, I didn't expect to see such a story unfold over the first 5 seasons and the twist in the latest season just makes it even more gripping. Salute to your hard work on the narrative as well, Andy. PS. It's brilliant to see Orkney FC painted as the massive talent vacuum playing at such a high level in comparison and no surprise to hear them slipping up in the NCL playoffs! (Don't I know the feeling!). I will still be giving them a good crack once Mozza's DB is fully released - just no stream this time - maybe a forum thread though, you've inspired me!