DaneBramage

There were definitely times I thought we were drifting into trouble, but then we'd pick up a win again just in time to stop it turning into too bad a run. I switch on and off between caring about personalities or not. At this stage there's not too much difference between someone being rubbish and someone being able to do a job, so I've accepted some lower determination stats than I normally would. But I think this summer I need to do a proper squad review and decide who to focus on. We currently have 52 players eligible to play (under 17s can't be selected), so really at least 20 of them should be cleared out.

NK Dornava - May 2038 2. SNL At the start of April we had a four point advantage over the teams in the relegation area, and a goalkeeper goal to secure victory at Videm increased that to seven points. Aluminij Kidricevo were too strong for us, and yet again we lost to a stoppage-time goal. This has been a real problem in recent months. Our next match was against bottom-placed Brinje-Grosuplje. We scored in the first minute, but conceded just before half-time (in stoppage-time of course). Luck was on our side in the second-half through. They missed a penalty, and we killed off the game late on. 36c Denis Kovac scored the final goal, and I don't recognise his name at all. Just too many players. Apparently he made 21 appearances this year, but 20 were from the bench. The wins during April saw our lead over the relegation threatened teams increase to eight points. We did our best to throw it away though, with three straight losses. Luckily, the teams below us couldn't quite do enough to catch up in this time. I think we were mathematically safe come the final day. We did concede first against Primorje Ajdovscina, but turned it around with a much better second-half performance to finish the season with a win. Lovely stuff. In the end there was a comfortable buffer between us and the bottom two. We went the whole season without ever being in the relegation places, though we were never far away either. ------------------------------------

NK Dornova - 2038 Youth Intake ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - March 2038 2. SNL Any suggestion that we're a one-man team would be completely accurate. 29k Thomas Brauner has 16 goals for the season, nobody else has more than four. This month alone his goals won us four points, and it would have been six if others could do their jobs properly. Against both Rogaska and Triglav Kranj we lost due to conceding stoppage-time goals, it could have been an unbeaten month otherwise. We're nowhere near being out of trouble, but we're keeping our heads above water at the moment. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - December 2037 2. SNL Our defensive record has improved, but we're still conceding goals at bad times. We could have been three points better off, but conceded in the 93rd minute against Primorje Ajdovscina, and at the end of both halves at our old enemies Rudar Velenje. We also didn't score enough. 29k Thomas Brauner is giving it his best effort, but not getting much support from his teammates. We're five points and four places clear of the relegation area. Judging by our goal difference we're overachieving at the minute, we're one of a group of teams that could still easily be dragged into trouble. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - October 2037 2. SNL This is what I feared, as we took some beatings in this period. Our defensive record is just horrendous, by far the worst in the division. I missed out on a league table screenshot, but I believe we were in 12th place at this stage. Only the bottom two get relegated so anything from 14th up will be seen as a success, but we're definitely trending downwards at the moment. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Ugh. A rotated side struggled past fourth tier opposition, then lost to a team from the third tier. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - August 2037 Departures The sponsorship bug has caught up with us. Being deep in the red means that when an offer for actual cash came in for a starting centre-back, the board took it upon themselves to accept it. 34g Ziga Lukac was sold a few games into the season to Krsko, who are in the same division as us. We're getting £13.75k upfront, which could rise to £20k if he makes 10 appearances, There's also a 40% of profit clause. He's been sent back to us for the year, which is good for our hopes of survival. ------------------------------------ 2. SNL I see this going either one of two ways. Either we're competent from the off and never look like being in relegation trouble, or we're absolute no-hopers getting tonked every week. A big win on the opening day was a great start to our time in the second tier, though a home defeat to Rudar Velenje, a team I was glad to see the back off when they were promoted from 3. SNL before us, brought us back to down to earth. 29k Thomas Brauner brought his goalscoring form over to the new season with a brace either side of half-time against Dob to give us another away win. We had our first disastrous defensive outing at Bistrica. We weren't completely outclassed though, we gave them plenty of problems at the other end, but conceding five times is just too many to come back from. I'm happy with this. Just as many wins as losses and a positive goal difference. Good start, ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2036/37 Season Review History, Finances and Facilities I was terrified over the final few games that we were going to throw it away, but we just about held on to clinch promotion. We spent nine years at this level, it's nice to finally see a flash of yellow on the board again. We had our best cup run in years too, a great year all round. The only issue is our finances, as we've again received only minimal sponsorship funds so we're losing money hand over fist. Even winning £38k in prize money hasn't kept us from being heavily in the red. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats A lot of good performances here. 29k Thomas Brauner came back to the fore as our main striker and managed a cracking 22 goals. There was a bit of a rotation with his strike partners, but the three players who filled in as the other striker scored a combined 19 goals. Our wingers also contributed a lot, 28f Rok Oblak and 33b Adrian Prsa having very similar records, double figures for both goals and assists and an average rating of just over 7.40. As always though, we know our squad will suffer losses in the summer when contracts expire. Left-back 34h Simon Horvat is off to Ilirija, rotation left-winger 33d Kristian Korosec is joining Triglav Kranj, and rotation striker 35i Marko Golob has signed with Maribor. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - May 2037 3. SNL Gameweek 22: We smashed bottom club Peca 6-3. Nafta Lendava also won, so we retained a five point lead. Gameweek 23: Ljutomer have given us plenty of trouble over the years, but a goal in each half set us up for a comfortable win. Nafta Lendava also won, so we retained a five point lead. Gameweek 24: Tehnotim Pesnica have also given us plenty of trouble over the years, and they added to it here. A humiliating 4-1 loss at home, they were clinical and we were wasteful. A win for Nafta Lendava saw them reduce the gap to two points. Gameweek 25: Crap. Crap crap crap. This is not the time to have our worst run of the season. Admittedly it's only two games without a win, but with Nafta Lendava flying we can't afford to be dropping points. Nafta Lendava won again, and suddenly we're equal on points. On the final day we have to equal or better Nafta Lendava's result. So it's in our hands, but could very easily go wrong. We missed out on promotion on the final day last season (as the underdogs mind), I don't want to go through that again. Gameweek 26: Get in! We needed an early goal to steady the nerves, and got three of them within the first seven minutes. Another goal just before the break killed off the game, job's a good 'un. CHAMPIONS! Nafta Lendava's only loss of the season was to us back in September. Didn't know it at the time, but that was the decider as we took the title on head-to-head record. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - April 2037 3. SNL We made a great return after the winter break, with three straight wins. Two clean sheets too. Nafta Lendava matched our results, so the gap at the top remained eight points. We managed two good wins at home during April, but couldn't produce the same on our away days. We were just well off the pace against Odranci, nowhere near our normal standard. A disappointment. I'm fine with the draw at Nafta Lendava though. I was dreading seeing the final result, so when it popped us a draw I was pleased they didn't make up any more ground on us. Nafta Lendava obviously dropped two points against us, but they went 100% for the rest of the period. Due to our loss they reduced the gap to five points, with five games left to play. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije The second-string were beaten by a 1. SNL side, but weren't embarrassed so I'm happy enough with this. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2037 Youth Intake I've signed everyone from this intake, but I don't like it. There are some truly terrible personalities here, and so many of the worst determination stats coming from the top rated players makes me want to cry. ------------------------------------

Could it be this one? If so, this is their new one for FM24.

NK Dornava - November 2036 3. SNL We just kept winning, so I just kept playing. I didn't want to stop and post about it, and give the FM Gods a chance to see what was happening and put an end to it. So we have four months of action in one go instead. The board want a top two finish this year. Given that we lost four key players in the summer, I thought it would be a struggle. I couldn't see us repeating last season's run. But somehow we've been even better. A win on the opening day started a streak of 13 games unbeaten, only dropping two points in this time. Other than the goalless draw with Posavje we were scoring at least twice every game, and often more than that. All good things come to an end of course, and in the final game before the winter break we lost to Dravinja Kostroj. An annoying loss as we led 3-1 at half-time, and they scored four times from an xG of just 1.13, but given how the last few months had gone I'm not going to complain too much. Since the start of September 29k Thomas Brauner has been in inspired form. He was sidelined a little bit last year, but he's bounced back in style with 14 goals in 13 games so far. I like the look of this. A four month gap break is annoying as I'd rather have just kept ploughing on with this momentum, but we've certainly given ourselves a good lead at the halfway stage. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije The second-string have been picked for our cup games, and they've passed these tests with flying colours. Radgona in the second round was the easiest task as they're in the tier below us, but Svoboda Ljubljana and Bela Krajina Crnomelj are both at the same level so beating them with our back-ups was especially pleasing. Admittedly they're not the strongest teams, both struggling near the bottom of their division, but it still counts. Other than our run to the quarter-finals in 2027/28, this is the furthest we've got in this competition. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2035/36 Season Review History, Finances and Facilities It was a cracking season, but the competition was just so strong. Gutted to miss out on the final day, even at that point we weren't favourites but we gave it a really good shot Our finances are a mess due to the sponsorship bug. Our reputation has finally popped to the next level, I wonder if that's what has caused it to go wrong. The sponsorship is really low for next season too, so it will only get worse. Going forward, I'm deciding that I don't care about finances. I've generally been cautious about not paying players too much for new contracts, but if we're going to be losing money anyway due to issues outside of my control then bring on the debt. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats We might be in serious trouble next year. Four of our starting XI won't be here any longer. Centre-back 32d Sasa Markic is off to Bilje when his contract runs out. Our midfield pairing of 31f Mitja Golob and 33c Alen Ribaljcenko will both be disappearing, the loan deal of the former coming to an end and the latter moving on a free transfer to Tabor Sezana. And top-scorer 34j Ziga Krivec is going to the 1. SNL with Mura. No transfer fees of course, so that's a bit of a blow but the money I've seen so far has generally been a pittance anyway. It was worth the gamble of keeping them for the whole season. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2035/36 Final Day 3. SNL First up, how did Ljutomer do? Are they playing spoiler? Nope, they could only draw. It all rests on our game. A win would make us champions. **** A 10th minute red card for 32o Tadej Hozjan ruined our chances. The defensive part of the team did an incredible job not allowing Labod Drava Ptuj to score, but when it went to 10 v 11 we didn't stand a chance of taking the victory. Am I pinning this all down to 32o Tadej Hozjan? Yes I am. Get out of my club, Highest points tally at this level, fewest losses, most goals scored, least conceded, best goal difference, but ultimately we came up just short. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - May 2036 3. SNL We've been whooping teams like it's going out of fashion, a pretty kind run of games allowing us to fill our boots. Oh my. Is it happening? The other teams have slipped up, and suddenly we are right back in it. Tehnotim Pesnica and Nafta Lendava imploded this month, only picking up two and four points respectively to crash out of the top two positions. Labod Drava Ptuj and Ljutomer won 10 points each, but as we went 100% the gap is now down to just one point. As fate would have it, we're away to Labod Drava Ptuj on the final day. They did beat us 6-3 in the reverse fixture, but that result was a bit of an aberration in that all of their shots on target turned into goals. Ljutomer host Nafta Lendava. We need to win and hope that Ljutomer don't. 1st v 3rd and 2nd v 4th, it couldn't have been scheduled much better. Slovenian Sky Sports is loving it. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - April 2036 3. SNL The loss to Nafta Lendava was a difficult one to take. It saw them to go top of the table with a seven point lead over us, and probably killed off any hope we had of the title. We recovered well from this disappointment though with three good wins. 35g Aljaz Pecovnik scored a hat-trick on his first start for the club. It's going down to the wire, but it's difficult to see us being the side that will emerge in top spot. The other teams just aren't slipping up, it requires too much to go in our favour. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - March 2036 3. SNL We made an excellent return to action after the winter break, turning around a deficit to beat league-leaders Ljutomer 3-2. All thee goals came from wingers, and were set up by the strikers. We followed this up with a comprehensive victory over struggling Sostanj. But with 34j Ziga Krivec on international duty with Slovenia U19s, we looked utterly clueless up front against Tehnotim Pesnica and suffered a tame loss. We had jumped up to 2nd, but the loss dumped us back down to 5th. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2036 Youth Intake A golden generation! 14 players signed, two not picked up. No new nationalities. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - February 2036 Ex-Player I've kept checking in on 28a Sasa Pirc since he was released by Sheffield United, but he'd never talk terms with us. He wanted to join a club with a better quality squad. After six months unattached he's found himself back in Slovenia, but not even in the top tier. He's joined Primorje Ajdovscina in 2. SNL, being paid £110 per week. He's still only 23, but his career has been a massive flop so far. Osijek and Ajax will laugh at the profits they made on him, Sheffield United are absolute mugs. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - November 2035 3. SNL 28f Rok Oblak had a really good spell of games from the left-wing, scoring in five of these six games. Two of them were goals that rescued us a point in a pair of away matches. I'm not sure how we lost so badly to Labod Drava Ptuj. We had more shots than them, and xG was nearly identical, but they scored from all six of their shots on target. It's all very close at the top. We're in 5th place, but that's only three points behind the leaders. With everyone competing for just one promotion place there's definitely a collection of good teams in this division now. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A rotated side gave a good account of themselves against a second tier team, but it wasn't enough to prevent a loss. Only once have we made it past this round, and that was eight years ago. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - September 2035 3. SNL The decision to keep 34j Ziga Krivec, despite his unhappiness, has been vindicated. He can be as stroppy as he wants as long as he keeps scoring goals. 11 in eight games so far, that will do nicely. Barring a massive turnaround we'll lose him for nothing at the end of the season, but he's the best chance we have of making it out of this division. We're in the mix at this early stage. The only games we haven't won so far are against the two teams above us in the table. Ljutomer are looking especially strong with a Croatian journeyman striker they've brought in banging in the goals (a quick Google tells me he's actually on the books of Juventus IRL). ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A rotated side beat a team two tiers below, but did make it more difficult than it needed to be by giving them the lead twice. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2035/36 Pre-Season Sponsorship What the heck! Who can I fire in Finance to sort this out?! Since the start we'd been getting £52k a year, now it's not even 10% of that amount. Why? How? This was vital to us being profitable, now we're receiving far less than anyone else in the division and will be running at a significant loss this year. ------------------------------------ Departures Quite a few players in-and-around the first team left this summer. I wanted to keep the top two, but their unhappiness was too much and as they were starting players, but also replaceable, I decided to let them go. 31f Mitja Golob is coming back on loan for the year though. ------------------------------------ Arrivals Two ex-players returned to the club when their contracts elsewhere expired. 30n David Oblak had been loaned back to us for 2034/35 anyway, so in a way he never left. And his new salary is much lower now. He'd be straight in between the sticks. 27m Nino Fink never made a senior appearance at Maribor (great use of £25k lads, thanks) and will take the right-back spot. 28a Sasa Pirc is also unattached at the moment (he of the £8.75 million transfer to Sheffield United (three appearances, great signing lads)), but he understandably wants to join a bigger club than us. ------------------------------------

Yeah, that stage was a pain. Are you allowed to play 17 year olds in Argentina? We can't, so we were losing prospects before they even had the chance to play for us. Mind you, even now we can offer contracts it's just as painful. As soon as clubs from the top two tiers make an approach for one of our players, normally for no fee of course, it unsettles the player and they want to leave. This summer could be painful with all the unhappy players, but I'm not going to accept zero for them.

NK Dornava - 2034/35 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities I'm happy with another 4th place finish, even if the board weren't. Maybe that's just recency bias though, due to how strong the end of the season was. If we play that way again next year we'll be in the mix at the top. We've been at this level seven years, so hopefully we've not met our ceiling. Youth recruitment is topped out, and that's probably it for improvements for now. I've still never seen an option to request an upgrade for youth facilities, and training facilities are too expensive at the moment. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats We had joint top scorers, 28f Rok Oblak and 29k Thomas Brauner both scoring 14 times. The former took home the fan's play of the year award. 33m Damjan Buzinel was just behind them with 12 strikes, and was also top creator with 7 assists. 34j Ziga Krivec would have challenged them if he'd played the whole season, scoring 8 times in 9 games after turning 17. ------------------------------------