CFuller

I really don't fancy England's chances. Reckon we narrowly beat Iran, lose to the USA, then contrive to draw with Wales and somehow get ourselves knocked out on goals scored.

DIVISION 2 TABLE (End of December 2005) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Wrexham 25 7 1 3 23 15 7 4 3 30 20 47 2nd Norwich 24 7 2 2 20 11 7 2 4 22 20 46 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Port Vale 24 7 3 3 27 13 5 3 3 10 9 42 4th Rochdale 25 8 4 0 26 13 4 0 9 13 26 40 5th Dag & Red 24 6 3 2 25 15 4 6 3 23 21 39 6th Swindon 24 6 2 5 20 19 5 4 2 28 21 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Shrewsbury 24 8 1 4 26 14 4 1 6 18 19 38 8th Cardiff 24 4 4 3 24 16 6 3 4 27 25 37 9th Northampton 24 7 2 2 20 13 4 2 7 21 30 37 10th Cambridge Utd 24 7 2 2 23 12 3 3 7 14 20 35 11th Carlisle 24 4 3 4 18 20 5 5 3 27 23 35 12th Huddersfield 24 5 6 2 31 26 4 2 5 16 20 35 13th Portsmouth 24 6 3 2 24 16 3 3 7 19 28 33 14th Reading 24 5 5 3 19 14 3 4 4 18 24 33 15th Peterborough 24 5 5 3 19 18 3 4 4 17 20 33 16th Oxford 24 7 1 5 27 21 3 0 8 19 25 31 17th Bristol City 24 5 1 6 25 26 4 3 5 26 30 31 18th Watford 24 6 4 3 19 15 1 3 7 13 21 28 19th Bristol Rovers 24 3 7 2 25 24 3 2 7 18 28 27 20th Hull 24 4 2 5 21 27 2 7 4 22 26 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21st Bournemouth 24 4 5 4 16 15 0 6 5 4 12 23 22nd Barnsley 25 5 2 6 23 25 1 3 8 7 19 23 23rd Tranmere 25 3 6 3 14 18 2 2 9 8 21 23 24th Wigan 24 4 0 9 18 23 0 2 9 9 25 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Arsenal crash out of the UEFA Cup with a 5-1 defeat at Saint-Etienne, lose six matches, and plummet to 11th in the Premiership. Oh, and their maniac German goalie Hans-Jörg Butt receives his THIRD red card of the season against Charlton. Gunners boss Arsène Wenger didn't see the incident because he was trying to zip his coat. While Bolton and Crystal Palace emerge as unlikely top-four contenders, Liverpool's campaign stutters after playmaker Pavel Nedved is sold to Barcelona for £2.8million. The Reds also lose defender André Ooijer to Valencia for £10.75million, but boss Eric Gerets swiftly replaces him with... Paul Ritchie from Manchester City. Ooijer is not the only big name to join Valencia's quest for La Liga glory. Rafa Benítez also signs up Zé Roberto from Inter for £10.75million, just five-and-a-half months after the Brazilian wing-back moved to the San Siro from Leverkusen. Meanwhile, Bayern München right-back Willy Sagnol makes a controversial £5.25million transfer to their Bundesliga title rivals 1.FC Köln. As Lille extend their Ligue 1 advantage to seven points, Paris Saint-Germain plummet into the relegation zone after five straight defeats. In unrelated news, everybody hates Nicolas Anelka. Andriy Shevchenko scores 16 goals in his first 16 league games for Ajax, who go top of the Eredivisie with 45 points and are still unbeaten. Unluckily for them, defending champions PSV - and their returning manager Dick Advocaat - also have 45 points and are also still unbeaten. Feyenoord fans can't believe it. IN OTHER NEWS... Gay and lesbian couples in the United Kingdom can now enter civil partnerships, granting them similar legal rights to married heterosexuals. One of the first British celebrities to take advantage of this is pop megastar Elton John, who marries his film producer partner David Furnish. Tony Blair has a new rival, as 39-year-old David Cameron is elected as leader of the Conservative Party. The old Etonian immediately tries to appeal to common folk by enthusiastically expressing his love for Aston Villa, the Arctic Monkeys, and West Ham. Thatcher wins a popular vote for the first time since 1987. Journalist Carol Thatcher - daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret - wins the fifth series of ITV reality show “I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!”. Nine plucky Brits are trained as space cadets at a Russian military base, and then blast off in a Shuttle for a five-day orbit of the Earth. Of course, it’s all an elaborate hoax by Channel 4; the contestants are never actually sent into space, and the whole series is filmed at a disused airbase near Ipswich.

DECEMBER 2005 We were approaching the halfway point of the Division 2 season, and it was still anyone’s guess where we would end up. A chastening 2-1 loss at home to Shrewsbury had just ended a nine-game unbeaten and left us in 10th place - three points off the play-off places, and yet only five clear of relegation. I was rather more concerned with our defensive record. By the time we arrived in South Yorkshire for the first game of a busy December schedule, it had been exactly three months since we last kept a clean sheet. A 2-0 shutout win over Wigan had been followed by 16 consecutive matches in which we shipped at least one goal. But if our leaky streak was to end any time soon, perhaps it would end at Oakwell against Barnsley. The Tykes were second-from-bottom and were still trying to find consistency under their new player-manager - the smiley and cuddly Roy Keane. 3 DECEMBER 2005: Barnsley vs Dagenham & Redbridge Benjani Mwaruwari was our greatest threat to the Barnsley defence in the first half. After firing Craig Winter's lobbed pass against the crossbar in the opening minute, our Zimbabwean marksman had better luck much later on. Six minutes before the break, Ryan Carter played Benjani through on goal, and a tidy finish saw us take the lead! Winter also hit the bar on the stroke of half-time, though he did double our lead six minutes after the restart. The midfielder's volley from Julian Alsop's flick-on brought him a 10th goal this season and made it 2-0! Unfortunately, Alsop then ruined his good work three minutes later with an unprovoked headbutt on Barnsley midfielder Dave Brammer - and a straight red card! We could have collapsed after going down to 10 men, but Roy Keane's Tykes were not playing well enough to threaten a comeback. Keane himself had two shots easily saved by Robert Green before his handball midway through the second half effectively killed the game off. Damien Lacey scored direct from the free-kick, and we were 3-0 ahead! The Tykes did have one last chance to get on the scoresheet, six minutes from full-time. Greek right-back Giorgos Kiriazis flicked the ball ahead of experienced frontman Bruce Dyer, who blazed it over the bar. Green had held onto his first Dagenham clean sheet - and our first in 91 days! Barnsley - 0 Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Mwaruwari 39, Winter 51, Lacey 67) Division 2, Attendance 6,207 - POSITIONS: Barnsley 3rd, Dag & Red 9th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins (McQuade), Matthews, Prior (Maher), Mayo; Carter, Lacey, Weekes; Winter; Alsop, Mwaruwari (Griffiths). SENT OFF: Alsop. A well-deserved win put us back to within one point of the play-off spots... but we would now face a lengthy run of matches without Julian Alsop. That stupid red card earned him a three-match ban and a one-week fine. Right-back Lee Gledhill's absence from the Daggers team would be more permanent. After two years at Victoria Road, he was released to Rushden on a free transfer. I then made a move for a new right-back, signing 28-year-old Michael Walsh from Port Vale for £55,000. Walsh is quick, strong and selfless - and his excellent positional awareness will no doubt bolster a Daggers defence that has often looked disorganised this season. Also joining us was Declan Brady - an 18-year-old Irish defender who is determined to fulfil his potential as either a right-back or a centre-half. I'll be tracking his progress in the reserve team closely. Walsh pulled on the Daggers jersey for the first time when we went to Yeovil for Round 2 of the FA Cup. Could we avoid a cup upset against the Conference mid-tablers - and set up a potential money-spiller in Round 3? 10 DECEMBER 2005: Yeovil Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge At first, it didn't look good. When Norwegian forward Petter Halvorsen headed Yeovil into a shock lead after just three minutes, some travelling Dagenhamites were probably fearing this would be Dulwich Hamlet 2002 all over again. However, this simply set up a redemption story for Sean Devine, who was making his first Daggers appearance in over two months. After 17 minutes, a killer cross from loanee winger William McQuade was driven in by Devine, whose equaliser put him straight back into my good books! That goal also spurred us on to power through the rest of the first half. 20-year-old midfielder Alan McLean fired us ahead after 24 minutes, with just his second ever competitive goal. That was followed 11 minutes later by a second assist for his fellow Scotsman McQuade, who set up Benjani Mwaruwari's 12th goal of the season. 3-1 to the Daggers at half-time! Yeovil started the second half strongly and almost pulled a goal back on 55 minutes, but Mike Pollitt got a glove to Glovers striker Micky Moore's shot. Five minutes later, Town midfielder Richard Walker saw his header intercepted by Devine, who powered home his second goal and effectively killed the tie off at 4-1! Though the hosts did get a second goal through a stunning Sean Hankin free-kick in the 71st minute, it looked like it was too late to mount a comeback. Four minutes later, our teenage substitute Chris Griffiths opened his account for the season, and closed the book on an impressive 5-2 away win. For the second time in three seasons, we had made it through to Round 3 of the FA Cup! Yeovil Town - 2 (Halvorsen 3, Hankin 71) Dagenham & Redbridge - 5 (Devine 17,60, McLean 24, Mwaruwari 35, Griffiths 75) FA Cup Round 2, Attendance 7,963 DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Pollitt; Walsh, Matthews, Maher (Prior), Sharps; McQuade, Carter, McLean (M Jones), Mayo; Devine, Mwaruwari (Griffiths). BOOKED: McLean, Maher. So... Manchester United? Arsenal? Liverpool? Leeds? Which big-name team would we get in the Round 3 draw? Cardiff, away. Darn it. The cup action continued in midweek, when we faced Oxford at the Kassam Stadium for Round 1 of the Football League Trophy. Our last trip there a couple of months ago ended in a crushing 3-1 defeat, so vengeance was very much on our minds. 13 DECEMBER 2005: Oxford United vs Dagenham & Redbridge After being dropped for our FA Cup tie, Julian Alsop returned to the fold for one more game before he was forced to sit out the next three. Big Jules made the most of his opportunity, heading in William McQuade's right-wing cross to open the scoring after 17 minutes. We had scored from our first shot on target, but Oxford would do the same six minutes later. Homegrown midfielder Dean Whitehead had recently reached 200 club appearances for the U's at the age of just 23, and he underlined his status as a Kassam Stadium favourite with a fantastic equalising long shot. At 1-1, it was anyone's guess which way this cup tie would turn. In the 54th minute, it was Alsop who made the decisive move for Dagenham. His second goal of the night was another header, this time provided by a surprise assist from Oxford defender Wayne Brown. The U's slipped again in the 70th minute, as goalkeeping captain Alan Fettis was caught out by a vicious Sean Devine strike, which booked our place in the next round! Oxford United - 1 (Whitehead 23) Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Alsop 17,54, Devine 70) Football League Trophy South Round 1, Attendance 3,734 DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Green; Walsh (Hawkins), Matthews, Prior, Sharps; McQuade, Weekes, Lacey, Mayo; Alsop (Griffiths), Devine (McLean). Tim and Helen on Soccer AM gave us a relatively kind draw for Round 2, where we were pitted at home to a struggling Reading side. Perhaps this would be the year we went on a long Football League Trophy run? While that draw was going on, we were heading to Staffordshire to face 5th-placed Port Vale in the league. Alsop began his three-match ban, but midfielder Des Hamilton was back from an ankle injury. 17 DECEMBER 2005: Port Vale vs Dagenham & Redbridge The first half was basically the Robert Green show. Port Vale mounted their first attack in the 15th minute, but Green sprung into action to save a header from midfielder Matthew Spring. He then made another critical save just before half-time from Valiants captain Stephen McPhee, who had unluckily struck the crossbar earlier on. We'd barely threatened the hosts at all in the first period, so I fired the players up to attack them early in the second. We got our reward after 51 minutes, when a rejuvenated Sean Devine broke the deadlock with a lethal volley from Benjani Mwaruwari's lob. However, Port Vale responded just two minutes later, with McPhee's third attempt on goal being the lucky one that finally beat Green. The Valiants had their tails up, and with McPhee's pace proving too hot for our veteran captain Spencer Prior to handle, Scottish striker would get three more shots on target over the final half-hour. Once again, though, Green was in fine fettle, routinely frustrating McPhee with some blinding saves. We were now having to defend very deep, and then hope that a counter-attacking opportunity would arise. In stoppage time, with the scoreline still at 1-1, opportunity knocked. William McQuade picked up the ball on the right wing and spurred us forward against a tiring Vale team. We quickly moved the ball from one flank to the other until Benjani's lay-off found left-winger Kerry Mayo, whose last-gasp winner silenced Vale Park - apart from the few hundred travelling Daggers fans who roared with delight! Port Vale - 1 (McPhee 53) Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Devine 51, Mayo 90) Division 2, Attendance 7,896 - POSITIONS: Port Vale 6th, Dag & Red 5th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Green; Walsh (McLean), Matthews, Prior, Sharps (Maher); McQuade, Hamilton (Winter), Lacey, Mayo; Devine, Mwaruwari. What a way to propel yourselves back into the top six! Another Dagger said his goodbyes, as Victor Renner headed to Spanish third-tier club Ejido on a free transfer. Big things were expected of the powerful striker when he signed from Peterborough in January 2004, but he never really lived up to the billing, scoring 12 goals in 40 games. The last match of our pre-Christmas five-game road trip was at Dean Court, against a Bournemouth team who were just above the relegation zone. 21 DECEMBER 2005: AFC Bournemouth vs Dagenham & Redbridge A miserable first half saw very little attacking action from either team. The one big moment came after 26 minutes, when Damien Lacey's corner was headed home by his midfield team-mate Ryan Carter to give Dagenham the lead! And 1-0 was how the game finished. Frankly, Bournemouth's attacking threat was pitifully weak. Strikers Warren Feeney and Jason Sherlock had a shot apiece at the end of either half, but neither effort came close to threatening Robert Green in the Dagenham goal. We basically had no need to get too far out of our half, and we ground out a boring 1-0 win with the utmost ease! AFC Bournemouth - 0 Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Carter 26) Division 2, Attendance 3,847 - POSITIONS: Bournemouth 21st, Dag & Red 4th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Green; Walsh (Sharps), Matthews, Maher, Hawkins; McQuade (Hamilton), Carter, Lacey, Mayo (McLean); Devine, Mwaruwari. Five away games, five wins! We'd cured our away-day blues - and that augured well for our return to Victoria Road! Christmas Day might have been a no-go, but Boxing Day was alright for fighting when Watford came to town. We would do well to keep their in-form striker Heidar Helguson quiet, especially as our star defender Lee Matthews was sidelined with a shoulder injury. 26 DECEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Watford Frankly, this was almost as bad as our last match - but while our trip to Dean Court was lacking in quantity of shots, this game was lacking in quality. Both sides were dreadful in front of goal throughout the first half, when Dagenham's Sean Devine and Watford's Heidar Helguson in particular looked nothing like the efficient machines they had been in earlier fixtures. The main issue was that both us and Watford were trying to play through the midfield, and then resorting to low-quality shots either from too far out or - more often - when there was not enough space. As the match wore on, it seemed like it would come down to which team would up the ante first - and I wanted that team to be us. In the 76th minute, Peter Hawkins came into play on the left wing, and then chipped the ball into space for Ryan Carter. After a quick one-two with Damien Lacey, Carter then sought out substitute striker Chris Griffiths, whose low shot slipped underneath Hornets keeper Noel Mooney to extend our winning run to six games! Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Griffiths 76) Watford - 0 Division 2, Attendance 5,977 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 4th, Watford 18th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Walsh, Maher, Prior, Hawkins; Carter, Lacey, Weekes (Sharps); Winter (McQuade); Devine (Griffiths), Mwaruwari. Back-to-back 1-0 wins were nice... but I couldn't blame some Daggers fans from wanting a return to our usual free-scoring way. Thankfully, we now had Alsop and his regular strike partner Junior McDougald back from suspension and injury respectively for our final match of 2005. On New Year's Eve, we faced a play-off six-pointer against Swindon at the County Ground. In our 2-2 home draw with the Robins back in August, we were up against a 39-year-old Nigel Martyn enjoying a late-career renaissance. Martyn had since hung up his gloves and joined Bristol Rovers as a coach, so perhaps we would have better luck against his successor? 31 DECEMBER 2005: Swindon Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge Before we could put Stephen Robertson's shotstopping abilities to the test, though, we had to try and stave off a couple of early Swindon attacks. Right-back Paul Connolly's header in the 5th minute was parried by Robert Green, but a similar effort from striker James Hogg 10 minutes later did beat the keeper. First blood to the Robins. James continued to Hogg the headlines at the County Ground by doubling Swindon's advantage just before half-time. The 21-year-old's quick turn of pace caught out our left-back Peter Hawkins, who clumsily brought him down for a penalty that was easily converted. If we were to come back from 2-0 down and win a seventh game on the bounce, we would need to do something pretty special in the second half. My solution was to go for broke, make all three subs at once, and switch to a 4-3-3. My biggest change saw the fit-again Junior McDouglad joined Julian Alsop and Benjani Mwaruwari up front. All three men combined beautifully in the 65th minute. Benjani swung the ball towards Alsop, whose flick-on to McDougald was taken past the last defender before being blasted home! That was the first shot on target Robertson faced, and it had pulled us back to 2-1! 14 minutes later, the game saw its decisive fourth goal. Unfortunately, it came at our end, where the brilliant Swindon playmaker John Newton skinned Des Hamilton - another of our half-time subs - and set up a third Robins goal for his midfield partner Paul McAreavey. A fantastic year for the Daggers had ended on a rather disappointing note. Swindon Town - 3 (Hogg 15,pen45, McAreavey 79) Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (McDougald 65) Division 2, Attendance 7,201 - POSITIONS: Swindon 6th, Dag & Red 5th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Green; Walsh, Maher, Prior, Hawkins (Hamilton); McQuade (Winter), Carter, Lacey (McDougald), Mayo; Alsop, Mwaruwari. BOOKED: Lacey. That was awful - possibly our worst performance this season. It also arguably cost me the Manager of the Month award, which went to David Kemp at Port Vale instead. I’m sure Martin and Gary are proud of him.

After doing some more research and collecting some more data from my English holiday save, I've now submitted a bug report. It's a pretty long post, but there still seem to be major issues with player reputations that I hope SI will look closer at.

Yes, that might actually be another part of the problem. On my Arsenal save on FM22 (where I focussed heavily on developing youth players), I had no problem loaning out PL/Championship-level players for reasonable fees - but those League One/League Two quality players who needed gametime were much more difficult to loan out. I wasn't expecting lower-league clubs to stump up full wages for a loanee, but I struggled to get anyone to pay 50% wages - even for someone who was on £1k a week - and those who were willing to pay that much would typically use them as Squad Players. Even negotiating a small increase in the wage contribution would go something like this: "We'd like to take Player X on loan, and we'll pay 10% of his wages." "Sure, but only if you pay 20%." "No, 10%. Take it or leave it." "Come on, it's only an extra hundred quid a week..." "Ah, forget it." As far as I can tell, these negotiations are a little better on FM23, but I've only a very small sample size to go on.

DIVISION 2 TABLE (End of November 2005) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Wrexham 19 6 1 2 21 13 5 3 2 24 18 37 2nd Norwich 19 6 2 2 17 10 4 1 4 15 18 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Port Vale 19 5 2 2 16 8 4 3 3 8 8 32 4th Rochdale 19 6 4 0 23 13 3 0 6 10 18 31 5th Swindon 19 4 2 3 12 11 4 4 2 27 21 30 6th Cambridge Utd 19 6 2 2 21 11 3 1 5 11 15 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Portsmouth 19 6 3 1 24 15 3 0 6 14 19 30 8th Huddersfield 19 4 4 1 22 17 4 2 4 15 18 30 9th Northampton 19 6 2 2 18 12 3 1 5 16 22 30 10th Dag & Red 19 5 3 2 24 15 1 6 2 16 17 27 11th Cardiff 19 4 4 2 24 15 3 2 4 17 19 27 12th Bristol City 19 4 0 5 19 21 4 3 3 20 20 27 13th Shrewsbury 19 4 1 4 15 10 4 1 5 17 16 26 14th Peterborough 19 4 4 1 15 12 2 4 4 14 19 26 15th Carlisle 19 3 3 4 16 19 3 4 2 20 17 25 16th Oxford 19 5 0 5 22 18 3 0 6 15 19 24 17th Reading 19 4 2 3 14 11 2 4 4 16 24 24 18th Watford 19 4 3 2 14 10 1 3 6 13 20 21 19th Bournemouth 19 4 3 2 12 9 0 6 4 4 11 21 20th Tranmere 19 3 5 1 13 11 2 1 7 7 16 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21st Bristol Rovers 19 2 7 1 21 21 2 1 6 14 24 20 22nd Hull 19 3 2 5 17 24 1 6 2 15 18 20 23rd Barnsley 19 4 1 4 19 19 1 2 7 7 17 18 24th Wigan 19 4 0 6 15 16 0 2 7 6 20 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Manchester United suffer their first defeats under new manager Hélio dos Anjos, losing to 10-man Liverpool at Anfield before being ostracised from the League Cup by Coventry. Hélio comes under increasing pressure after dropping Old Trafford favourites Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke - and falling out with Ruud van Nistelrooy. Arsenal narrowly avoid a shock Round 2 exit from the UEFA Cup, only beating Legia Warszawa on penalties after losing the first leg 3-1 in Poland. Leeds aren't so lucky in the Champions League, crashing out at the first group stage for a third straight year after Barcelona exact their revenge at Elland Road. There are wild celebrations in Cardiff, as Wales defeat Scotland in a Playoff to qualify for their first World Cup since 1958. Mark Hughes' Red Dragons overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit to win 4-3 on aggregate, with Craig Bellamy scoring twice in the second half. Meanwhile, 20-year-old wonderkid Cristiano Ronaldo nets a brace of his own as Portugal overcome Turkey to book their tickets to Germany. Having fallen to 7th in Serie A, Lazio's bid to retain the scudetto suffers a huge blow when captain Alessandro Nesta tears his ankle ligaments in training. Biancocelesti fans burn down the training ground in protest. Atlético Madrid are leapfrogged at the top of La Liga by Barcelona, who recover from 2-0 behind to win 3-2 at the Vicente Calderón. Carles Puyol's 90th-minute winner comes as a huge shock - not least to Carles Puyol, who didn't realise he was allowed to score goals instead of just preventing them! IN OTHER NEWS... Football mourns the death of the legendary and mercurial former Manchester United forward George Best. The 59-year-old Northern Irishman passes away from multiple organ failure in a London hospital after losing a three-decade battle with alcohol addiction. The professional wrestling world is shocked by the sudden death of former WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero at the age of just 38. One of World Wrestling Entertainment’s most popular ‘heels’, Guerrero struggled with substance abuse before passing away from heart failure at a hotel in Minneapolis. It's a big month for women in politics. Angela Merkel is sworn in as Germany's first woman Chancellor, while Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state. A 38-year-old woman from France becomes the first human to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire undergoes a five-hour operation in Amiens after being attacked by her dog, losing her nose, lips and chin.

NOVEMBER 2005 After the early cancellation of Glynn Thompson's loan spell from Fulham, I was in the lookout for another goalkeeper. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long or look far to find one. Taking over Dagenham & Redbridge's number 1 jersey is 25-year-old Robert Green, who joins us from Millwall on loan until the end of February. Though he has never fulfilled the potential he had as a youngster at Norwich, Rob is still a pretty solid and very agile Football League shotstopper. Green hoped to make an explosive start to his Daggers career when we went to Tranmere on Bonfire Night. The Merseyside club were level on points with us, only trailing on goal difference. Though their recent form under John King had been disappointing, we still needed to be prepared for a battle at Prenton Park. 5 NOVEMBER 2005: Tranmere Rovers vs Dagenham & Redbridge Robert Green immediately made the Daggers goal his own, making several saves to keep various Tranmere players off the scoresheet in the first half. Centre-back Lee Matthews also deserved some credit for winning many key tackles and headers, but our attack was struggling to get going... ...until the fourth minute of the second half. We caught Tranmere on the hop, and when midfielder Ryan Carter's shot was spilled by goalkeeper Darren Trigg, the rebound was calmly finished by Craig Winter! Craig then struck again four minutes later, with a low shot bypassing Trigg to double our lead. Rovers gave us a scare in the 58th minute, when ex-Chelsea right-back Leslie Hughes blasted in a superb shot that cut our advantage back down to one goal. Fortunately, Winter allayed any fears by completing his hat-trick in the 68th minute. A bullet header from Julian Alsop's cross rounded off an outstanding solo performance by the flying Scotsman! Tranmere Rovers - 1 (Hughes 58) Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Winter 49,53,68) Division 2, Attendance 8,169 - POSITIONS: Tranmere 17th, Dag & Red 9th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins, Prior (Gledhill), Matthews, Sharps (Mayo); Weekes, McLean, Carter; Winter (Hamilton); Alsop, Walsh. BOOKED: Prior, Sharps. That was our first away win this season. Had we turned a corner? A week later, we were at home to the team who were just one place and two points ahead of us. Bristol City had just come back down from Division 1, having been relegated after a single season back in the top flight. In former German international Paulo Roberto Rink, they had one of the division's form strikers. 12 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Bristol City A mishap in the Bristol City defence gifted us the opening goal after 18 minutes. Centre-back Nicky Hunt almost headed a wayward clearance onto his own net, and was thankful to goalkeeper John Karelse for pushing it out for a corner. Hunt didn't feel so grateful just moments later, when Dagenham captain Spencer Prior rose highest to head in Nick Weekes' corner and sent Victoria Road rocking! The Robins' defence managed to hold firm for the rest of the first half, but they lost their way again after the break. Weekes latched onto a killer through-ball from midfield colleague Craig Winter to make it 2-0 after 62 minutes. Benjani Mwaruwari then struck in the 79th minute to put the seal on what looked like a comfortable 3-0 win. Unfortunately, the Daggers aren't allowed to keep clean sheets anymore. Prior's centre-back partner Lee Matthews gave away a totally unnecessary penalty in the 88th minute after tripping Tony Thorpe. Though Ian Kilford's spot-kick was well saved by Green, the former Wigan midfielder drove in the rebound, giving Bristol City a consolation. Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Prior 18, Weekes 62, Mwaruwari 79) Bristol City - 1 (Kilford 88) Division 2, Attendance 5,976 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 8th, Bristol City 12th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins (Gledhill), Prior, Matthews, Mayo; Weekes, McLean (Lacey), Carter; Winter; Mwaruwari (Alsop), Walsh. BOOKED: Matthews. That match marked the end of Jocky Scott's tenure as Bristol City manager, as he was sacked the following afternoon. I'll admit that the prospect of managing a club with City's resources - not to mention talent - was a tempting one. However, I wasn't desperate to leave the Daggers just yet, so if the Robins wanted me, they would need to make me a very attractive offer. I also wasn't desperate to sell our in-demand starlet Robbie Walsh. We'd turned down a couple more offers from Coventry and Dundee United for the 18-year-old striker, whose dozen appearances so far this season had yielded two goals and three assists. Now it was time to look ahead to the cup competitions. The Football League Trophy Round 1 draw had given us a tough away trip to Oxford in December... but the FA Cup draw had been much more generous. Our FA Cup campaign began with what looked like a straightforward away game against Conference side Chester. Then again, City were captained by my old nemesis - 38-year-old Craig Forrest, who was the most unstoppable Canadian since Bryan Adams’ reign of chart terror in 1991. Would the former Rotherham goalkeeper haunt us once again? 19 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Chester City I named a strong team for this match, but a combination of Craig Forrest and his woodwork kept us goalless for just over half an hour. The breakthrough finally came in the 32nd minute from our form man Craig Winter, who skipped past City midfielders Aaron Skelton and Stuart Taylor before driving home an unstoppable shot. Though we were largely dominating the match, Forrest was still saving almost everything we fired at him. At times, it felt like he should have been goaltending for the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL, and not Chester in the Conference. However, there was nothing he could do about our second goal in the 59th minute, which Benjani Mwaruwari smashed in off the crossbar to effectively book our place in Round 2. Chester's attackers finally showed up for the final half-hour. Shots from midfielders Sean McClare and Graham Thorpe kept our goalie Mike Pollitt on his toes, and striker Stephen Grant fared even better with a stunning free-kick in the 73rd minute. The final scoreline of 2-1 did perhaps flatter our visitors, but we'd still done enough to progress. Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Winter 32, Mwaruwari 59) Chester City - 1 (Grant 73) FA Cup Round 1, Attendance 2,824 DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins, Matthews, Maher, Mayo; Carter, McLean (M Jones), Hamilton; Winter (McQuade); Alsop (Griffiths), Mwaruwari. BOOKED: McLean. We could look forward to playing Conference opposition again in Round 2. This time, though, we faced a journey west to Somerset, to take on Garry Hill's Yeovil side. A few days later, Dundee United came back in for Robbie Walsh - and this time, Jim Leishman was deadly serious. Before long, we had agreed a sale worth £200,000, plus 25% of Robbie's next transfer fee. I was sad to be losing a talented youngster before he'd become a first-team regular, but at least we had made some substantial money through developing him. Walsh's departure also opened the door for fellow striker Chris Griffiths to come back into the Daggers fold. The 19-year-old's cameo against Chester was his first competitive game for us since the Division 3 play-off against Lincoln 18 months ago. If Chris wanted to establish himself in the senior squad, now was his time to step up. We hoped to complete a perfect November with a fourth consecutive win. The latest visitors to Victoria Road were 15th-placed Shrewsbury, whom we would have to face without midfielder Des Hamilton, who'd sprained his ankle in training. 26 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury's goalkeeper Justin Bray is not Canadian, but he may as well have been another Craig Forrest. Craig Winter, Benjani Mwaruwari and Julian Alsop were all over the Shrews attack in the first half, but Bray's superhuman reflexes frequently kept them at bay. The only shot that beat him in the first half was a piledriver in the 42nd minute from left-back Kerry Mayo, who unfortunately hit the wrong side of the crossbar. For the second half, we tried to crank up the pressure and increase the tempo. Against an unflappable Shrewsbury side with a high-pressing game, that was a mistake. After 62 minutes, they struck on the counter, with Ryan Lowe breaking through the defence to tap in Chris McConville's left-wing cross. Things went from bad to worse for Rob Green in the 74th minute. McConville outjumped the Daggers goalkeeper to head in a quick free-kick from Craig Taylor, and we were facing a second home league defeat this season. Though Alsop did get a shot past the virtually unbeatable Bray eight minutes later, his consolation goal was too little, too late. Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Alsop 82) Shrewsbury Town - 2 (Lowe 62, McConville 74) Division 2, Attendance 5,989 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 10th, Shrewsbury 13th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins (Gledhill), Matthews, Prior, Mayo; Carter (Lacey), McLean (Griffiths), Weekes; Winter; Alsop, Mwaruwari. This is what frustrates me about this Daggers team right now. We're entertaining, sure, but 16 matches have passed now since we last kept a clean sheet. We've been on long runs like this before, but something about this feels deeply worrying. You can only make so many signings or tweak your tactics so much before you run out of ideas. For the first time, I'm seriously feeling that I've taken this team as far as I can. Unfortunately, Bristol City isn't an option for me now. They gave the job to Frank Yallop instead. Bloody Canadians.

I'm sure SI are still looking at it. I hope they are anyway. I've just reached July 2037 in my holiday save with just the English leagues loaded, and I'll be honest - the early signs are not good. For starters, here is how the England squad looks: Just three players under the age of 25, and quite a few oldies. Bukayo Saka is still playing well enough to justify his place, but Jude Bellingham is barely clinging on after a modest half-season at a Southampton team who finished 14th last season. Bellingham's now on 151 caps - he's still 37 shy of the record held by Declan Rice, who was still playing for England right up until the Euro 2036 Final aged 37. It's a bit late in the day, so I'm not going to go into too much detail right now. I'm happy to upload the save file and leave the in-depth research to you guys if you're interested... but I thought I'd give you a sense of just how bad this problem is, particularly at international level. At the start of FM23, there are 88 active players aged 33 or under who have at least one senior cap for England. I won't list them all, because otherwise we'd be here all night, but here's a list of all the players who made their England debuts before the age of 21: That's 29 England debutants under the age of 21, all but one of which were within the last 13 years (Walcott being such an extreme case that he made his England debut before some real players in FM23 were even born ). We sure do love to give youth a chance in this country. Now, let's fast-forward to 2037 and see how things have changed. As of June 2037, here are all the players under the age of 33 - thus being born after the current youngest Three Lions international Jude Bellingham - who have at least ONE cap for England: That's 29 England debutants, total. TWO of them made their debuts before they turned 21. It will probably not surprise you that Jon Bastable and Richard Duncan are two of the best players in the world, and perhaps the two best English players. Reputation on Football Manager is so utterly borked that you literally have to be an elite-level wonderkid in order to make your England debut at the same age as Carl Jenkinson! To use Bellingham once again, you might have spotted that it took SEVEN YEARS before a player younger than Jude won their first England cap. To put it another way, Jude was 26 years old when he was dethroned as the baby of the England team. That, to me, doesn't feel right at all. Anyway, here is the link to my save file from July 2037, so you can have a look for yourselves and perhaps compile some more data. Have at it.

Yeah... I'm not a huge fan of the new draws. Some good ideas, but poorly executed. Automatic draws are far too slow, I'm sure many people agree with that. But I'm someone who likes to manually draw each team one by one, and it's annoying that you need to click on the "Advance to Next Team" button TWICE for each team. I know that the host has a lot to say and only so much time to say it in - and in the European draws, you need to move seamlessly from one group to the next. But surely there's a better way of executing this, rather than expecting us to make double the clicks for the same result? On the subject of the hosts, I find it rather strange that the draws are hosted by unemployed managers - typically managers who have strong ties with at least one of the clubs involved. In my save, the Europa League draw was hosted by Slavoljub Muslin - a popular figure at Crvena Zvezda amongst others, but hardly the charismatic presenter you'd expect in this role. It kinda breaks the immersion for me. In reality (at least in UEFA and English competitions), these draws are usually hosted by journalists - think Pedro Pinto or Reshmin Chowdhury. Obviously, you can't have real journos in the game for licencing reasons. But surely having one of the top game-generated journalists present the Champions League draw would make more sense than having a Joël Bats or a Roy Keane present it? You might expect a legend like Roy Keane to be one of the draw assistant, but not to be the compère!

I wouldn't start any long-term save on the beta (but that's just my preference) - and absolutely not while this is still an issue. I'm also considering a non-league save. The last time I did one on FM13, it took me 17 years to get a team to the Championship, and the AI squads were pretty well-balanced with mostly newgens. I don't want to get to that point in 2039, where I'm managing in the Premier League or Championship, and most of my opponents' squads are dominated by 30-somethings that I recognise. I'll run a holiday save over the next few days (with just the English leagues loaded) and see how things are looking.

Yes, I used Dave's files on my FM22 save. They helped a little by boosting the reputations of some young player awards, but modders can only do so much.

This was the main thing that put me off a long-term save on FM22. Big teams and nations over-reliant on older players, and hardly bringing any youngsters through other than the odd generational talent. If it's still like this on FM23, then what's the point in playing on beyond the first 5 seasons? I'm convinced that it's (at least partly) related to player reputations not growing fast enough. On FM22, there were very few high-reputation youngsters in 2030 compared to at the start of the game, but the reduction of high-CA youngsters wasn't quite as bad. I've not had time to run any tests on FM23, but I fear this might still be a problem.

I think that's something a bit different. The "similar player to Player X" description doesn't consider the nationalities of the players. Benjamin Sesko was also described as a "similar player to Christian Benteke", hence he would always be called the "Slovenian Benteke" on those NxGn lists. The "could be the next Player Y" description, on the other hand, does require both players to be from the same nation. As far as I know.