phnompenhandy

Season review: Hold up, Shane just called me in to inform me he's spending the TV money already! Shane couldn't offer further upgrades or coaching courses in the latter part of the season due to our finances, but hopefully TV money at the start of next season will put us in the black and we can improve our coaching and facilities further. This is how we lined up for most of the season. We changed our formation later on, Cunningham left us and Kelly faded, but most of this lot will be starters at the beginning of our next adventure in Tier 8.

Whitby – a tough place to go. We were up against it and did well to come away with appoint in a 1-1 draw. A bitter-sweet result, we reflected on the journey home. Sweet in that the point guaranteed us a play-off spot; bitter in that we lost first place to Matlock and probably wouldn’t get it back. An excellent performance from our front three including Harkiss who returned from his three-match ban to score a brace, ably supplied by Innes Smith from wingback, saw us beat Ashton United 3-1. With Matlock losing at home, we were back in the driver’s seat. If all the stars had aligned, we could have won the league down at Gretna. As it was, they defended resolutely, and despite them needing a win to have a chance of securing a play-off berth, the game ended 0-0. That allowed Matlock to overtake us again, but the point does bag us automatic promotion barring a 13-goal turn-around in the last round of fixtures. The coaching staff have expressed great pleasure in recent training performances. Not a single player is shirking their efforts in training. A combination of enticing facilities, carefully nurtured and selected characters and a ruthless pruning of bad eggs in the squad has put us in a very good place indeed. Right, on to face Buxton to see if we can grab a trophy after all. The pressure got to the boys a bit and too many chances were spurned. In the end, our 1-1 draw was immaterial as Matlock beat King’s Lynn so we finish promoted as runners-up for the second time. No trophy, but the process progresses apace. I'm convinced we'd have won the title if Cunningham had stayed with us until the end of the season, but there you go. He's got off to a good start in Port Vale's first team, but he won't get any awards this season. final league table

A heads up. Flut doesn't appear to post here, but he has the best skin going, in my opinion. Now he's released a version 3.0 which adds the one option I was waiting for - hide attributes. It's an extremely customisable skin and allows all background pictures.

The run commenced away to King’s Lynn, still the bookies favourites for the title despite lying in 6th place before kick-off. Having tweaked our training sessions in this final run to focusing heavily on the upcoming games, we dug in and battled hard; it was a slugfest with no quarter given. Then, in the 88th minute Rostock bagged the only goal of the game in a crucial 1-0 victory. We noted FC United had put five past Glenafton. We’d be hosting them next. That was a cracking game – we had to be at our best and we were. We won 3-1 and we were starting to get our belief back, If we'd won the toughest two games of the run-in, we still had the hardest set of fixtures amongst our rivals. Don't let this slip!

I get my information from sources like this: Ross#

Here are our newest recruits who have already made first team appearances: I probably won't post player overview shots too often - I know it's the attributes you guys like to scrutinise - I just like to play the game .... differently.

Fourth wall breaker ahoy! I'm delighted to see Flut has released a 3.0 version of his brilliant skin that includes a mod to hide attributes. I can show you player screens now in the way I want to play the game. Here's an example: For myself, I'll default to this screen

Yes. SI and Leo himself don't have the time or resources to find out the identities of every player in every team at this level, Plus it's the nature of players to be very nomadic anyway.

By the end of the month we’d signed 18 youth players (15 from our academy and 5 from Royal). That necessitated ruthless pruning and we arranged with Royal to take 19 of our own and try to find them new homes. This included a few old stalwarts, here with us since the beginning but who lacked either drive or talent – lads like Willie McGlynn, Gordon spence, Brian Severin, Jack Callaghan (finally) and our two back-up keepers. That last move turned out to be a bit foolish when Andy Boyle was subsequently called up to not play for the Scotland Under 18s again and I found myself having to put that promising academy kid in goal for the first team. Amidst the chaos a match did take place – Basingstoke came to the KGV. The Starting XI, perhaps aware of the new competition, put in enough of a shift to scrape home 1-0. We then beat Enfield 3-1 with Stuart Reid superb between the sticks as he stood in for Boylan a mere two weeks since leaving school. I couldn't resist oone last tactical change. I'm convinced we wouldn't succeed against the strongest sides unless we reverted to our main tactic from last season - the 4-3-3- with attacking wingbacks and inside forwards. I’m aware that it didn’t work terribly well then, but we have players better suited to it. I decided to trial it away to virtually-relegated Glenafton before heading into our key final six match sequence. We won 2-0 even with Harkiss getting sent off. here we go - six games and with our rivals hitting form, we can't afford any slip ups

At level 10 I'm not interested in what the big boys are up to. I turn off news about the England team, internationals etc. I just load up England and customise the small database to have all players based in England. If I somehow qualify for Europe I can always add other nations later on after I've removed low levels in England. What I'd really love to do is a UK & Ireland lower league save where I include the lowest league databases for Scotland, Wales, Rep Ireland and Norn Ireland, and hop around the nations - but my 10 year old rig can't handle that.

The problem with our current formation is our midfielders are not getting games and are starting to stagnate. I won’t change again right now, but at some point, I need to reintegrate them. We were relieved to learn that Andy Boyle has ceased sulking over St. Mirren. He felt that if I myself had turned them down, it was fair enough that he would too. They’re rock bottom of their league anyway. I turned Bristol City down too. We made a disastrous start to March by losing 0-1 to Gala Fairydean. Harkiss got himself sent off in the first half. He only started because Rostock was sent off in the previous game. With eleven men we demolished Hurlford 3-0 with a brace from Rostock. The same eleven started in Glasgow against Pollock but could only manage a 2-2 draw. On March 16th, after than game our intake from Fortrose Academy arrived. Muir has one word for this lot - potential. In two words - high potential. He reckons a few might make the first team next season, and he's of a mind that some could be important when we inevitably lose key first team players in the close season. He tells to keep a close eye on John Brown who can do numerous jobs in midfield. The new kids beat our Under 18s (who are a bit depleted by now) 3-0 ina display had had us convinced to sign up at least a dozen of them immediately.

Liam Macangus has taken to the captaincy like a duck to the proverbial wet stuff, leading by example on the training ground if not always all that on the pitch. I don’t like the new trend of all these impressionable young boys getting themselves agents – we can’t stop them, but I don’t think these agents have their welfare at heart like Muir and I do. Again, it a price we pay for ambition, I suppose. Should I hire one for myself? Maybe just as well I haven’t. St. Mirren, having failed to nab our brightest in the transfer window, are after me now! We lost 0-1 away to Matlock, and 0-2 at Warrington, dropping to third and out of the automatic promotion spots. The loss of Cunningham was beginning to bite. We spoiled the hat-trick by beating Bognor in a titanic battle 1-0, with Rostock scoring the only goal and getting himself sent off. With Matlock losing at FC United, we went back top. It’s nip ‘n’ tuck up there, but if we can maintain our flat-track bully record, we ought to pull away now with the next four games against bottom-half sides. Indeed, the last six fixtures are really horrible, so we need a safety margin from these next six. Sometime in the midst of this, Muir will bring our new intake from his school. Here we go!

which one - the small file or the big folder?

I was utterly unenthusiastic about this World Cup. I intended to have the games on my wall-mounted TV muted as wallpaper while I faffed on my PC. But a ludicrous amount of the games turned out to be ridiculously entertaining, so I ended up enjoying it hugely despite myself. Contra GunmaN, I rate the officiating highly. Unlike in the PL, the refs let the players kick seven hells out of each other without stopping the flow of games which resulted in a great reduction in injury antics as players soon realised they'd be ignored. We didn't have every goal checked for VAR, and we had time-wasting eliminated by adding it to the clock. I'd like to see all that introduced to England now.

IIRC when Queen’s Park were amateur, they paid the players petrol money, or travelling expenses. I think in the game, you can consider appearance money in that light.

That's my assumption. I get a bit dismayed at all these lower league mods with semi-pro clubs at that level.

I offered the captaincy to Liam Macangus, partly to entice him not to defect to Sheffield Wednesday who’d just pitched a derisory offer even though Ewan Bell is older and probably the better option. That decision might have backfired when bids came in for Bell. Jason Kelly was preferred as the attacking playmaker with striker Danny Taylor noted as an alternative. I pointed out to these boys that whilst Sam Culbert is a first team regular for Elgin City, Darragh Neilson is in Gateshead’s reserves and hasn’t made a single first-team appearance. The visit of East Thurrock gave us a good opportunity to get our post-Cunningham phase of to a winning start. Their defender earned an early red card, so although we sailed to a 4-1 win, Kelly wasn’t under any pressure. But with Rostock coming on as substitute and scoring two goals, with Harkiss the other two, if I restore them as a striking partnership, it would make Taylor sitting behind them viable. Troon was up next, giving us an ideal opportunity to trial the starting line-up before we hit tough fixtures through February. Before that, St. Mirren came in with offers for Boylan and Macangus. Boylan was angry that we didn’t cave in to their ridiculous offer. I’m spending far too much time throwing my arm over boys’ shoulders and flattering them to death in line with the personal skills the courses have taught me. It’s nauseating! The effort did pay off, with Macangus signing a new deal and pledging his future to us. We drew 3-3 with Troon. We were by far the better side, but Taylor as playmaker didn’t work, and although Bell has turned down offers from lower tier sides, he’s not been focussed over the last few matches. I should have spotted that. On February 4th at 4 pm the staff gathered together to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne. Sheffield Wednesday had lodged another bid for Boylan in the morning, but we saw it off. I’ll deal with the repercussions later. The transfer window had closed! I've been telling the boys there was NO Vember. It didn't happen! It was a bad dream. Let's take the form of December and January forward and smash this league! (Don't look to closely at the fixtur list - you'll see our opponents in February are on a par with those in November)

We saw the new year in by cruising past Auchinleck Talbot 3-0 but were then caught out a bit down in Brighton, playing at Whitehawk. We didn't play badly at all, but the opposition belied their lowly place in the league and gave us a right good game, flying into a 3-0 lead. A 95th minute equaliser from substitute Rostock gave us an undeserved point in a 3-3 humdinger. We got back to winning ways at Kilwinning - another 3-0 stroll with a brace from Cunningham, who showed his professionalism in the light of Port Vale and Birmingham City snooping around him. Shane has given him a part-time contract with hefty appearance and goal bonuses to entice him to stay - was that Scott's motivation? I also gave a debut to Adam Graham as we need more cover at centre back now we're starting three. He did okay. Disaster struck. As we were distracted by a derisory bid from Sheffield Wednesday for Liam Macangus, Scott Cunningham dismayed us by taking up the offer to join Port Vale. We can't blame him for taking the opportunity, and he'll have a great future, but I was deeply disappointed as we were building the team around him and I felt he was indispensable to our success. It's a hard lesson I have to take - no player is indispensable, we will lose our best and I always have to have a ready-made replacement able to step in at short notice. Bye bye Captain Marvel, we wouldn't be here without you. By the way, look at that sale value - we didn't get a penny

Three months after our Youth Facilities were upgraded and available, I had an interesting conversation with Muir, who presides over it. I'm not sure if I explained that the upgraded Youth Facilities are at Fortrose Academy. With Muir liaising, the football club and Academy joint financed it, and it does commit the club to Fortrose indefinitely, so Shane needs to think on that if he has plans to relocate to Inverness. He'd have to recompense the school half the cost of the upgrade. I never know with Shane when he discusses such matters with me whether they're passing whimsical thoughts or serious plans. I don't think he does either, but as this project has segued into something quite serious, he's better not turn out to be the Elon Musk of part-time Highland football! The younger schoolboys (and girls) use the new facilities in Fortrose but still go to Dingwall on Sunday - it keeps motivation high with the best ones having realistic dreams of playing professionally one day. The kids at our club still studying at the school use the facilities too, as do the non-Fortrose graduates with special permission. It's particularly popular when it's raining or when the golf course we used to jog on is out of bounds. To put it another way, it's in constant use. Shane discussed with me and Muir about our 'roadmap', as he called it. Consolidation after promotion is fine for one season, but we've got to keep moving forward. So long as we are, we're the talk of the Highlands and further afield. We'll attract high quality youths so long as they can dream of professional football with us. If we get bogged down at part-time level (kids aren't going to move here and seek part-time jobs for long) or can't only offer professional contracts for low wages with little realistic chance of progression, the sheen will wear off, and we'll enter a death spiral. The pressure is on, and we all have to be 100% committed. He assured me good contracts for myself will come along when he is able to offer good contracts for all. Might need to wait until we turn professional, but it will be worth it. Shane told us to keep the plans hush-hush as he needs to present a more conservative 5-year plan to stockholders such as the Inverness Royal Academy and Ross County - he doesn't want them to get spooked at our ambition and obstruct us. As an example, Shane had asked Ross County board if they could send better youths to be on loan with us, but the request got rejected as being too presumptuous. He wonders (to me privately) if one day we might affiliate with ICT to combine youth facilities, but I wondered if the Staggies might see that as duplicitous. 'True', said Shane – 'Well it’s a long term idea. Maybe with Rangers or Celtic one day'. He does make me nervous, but Mum's the word. None of these aspirations will be realised if we blow up this second half of the season, so we needed to get back on track and ensure we get promoted. With this run of facing the poorer teams in the league, I couldn't really tell if our results were down to the change in tactics or the quality of the opposition, but be that as it may, it was the results that were all-important at this stage. We smashed Benburb 4-0 – Cunningham was back to his best and Callaghan converted two penalties. 'Bring on 2025' I cried in the post-match team talk, 'We’re ready!' A propos of nothing, what's going on here? We don't have a mentoring system - no one is old enough to be a mentor. I'm looking at Ross himself, as his character fits the profile!

Just gently upping this thread to keep such an exciting prospect at the forefront of our hopes and wishes

You have to keep pausing the match to change the panels, I find. Bit fiddly.

I love starting at amateur level. It's a whole special challenge to have players and staff just walk in and out of your club at any time.

With it being an academy challenge, I'm focusing all my efforts (and the club's income) on developing infrastructure. It's a fine line - the improved facilities produce better intakes, but every promotion puts you with opponents who are further from the level of your kids. I suspect when I get to a league with a lot of professional sides, I'll come unstuck.

It's a mod I got off Steam Workshop. A United British Pyramid of 10 tiers. I started in the 10th and came 2nd. Then I finished 16th after a long losing streak. In my 3rd season now. The English teams in the 9th tier are mostly Vanarama N/S. All divisions have 24 teams and the pyramid includes Scottish, Welsh, N. Irish and Rep of Ireland sides, which is why the sides in tier 6 in real life and in tier 9 here.

I like to imagine scouting being me and Fat Dave the AssMan hopping in my Ford Fiesta and driving 10 miles to the neighbouring village.