[FM14] Look at him, son. He is the man who made all of Northern Ireland cry.

[Brucehum]

This is a career started in beta. So not sure how far can one get!

Countries loaded:

England, Scotland, Ireland and North Ireland, all leagues (15) playable and with Large database.

The manager

Humphrey was a promising soccer player, but he never got over amateurish sunday soccer as he loved (and still loves) the bottle too much. Some people think that makes him an unreliable drunken *******, he thinks it makes him a creative coach.

Nationality:

Canadian / Spanish

Reputation:

sunday footballer

Start unemployed

Favourite team: Crusaders

The objectives of this save are:

1- make N. Ireland national team a powerful international team.

2- coach a N. Ireland team into european glory, preferably from the lowest division.

3- prioritize youth (thus helping national team)

4- learn FM2014

5- survive the bugs

[spoiler]
Season              Country     League                  Team	        Pos.   Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2013-X/2014-II      England     Skrill South            Eastleigh       ---    Resigned being 1st. Team went up
2014-II /           N.Ireland   Belfast Telegraph C2	Ballymoney Utd  14th   avoided relegation
2014 / 2015         N.Ireland   Belfast Telegraph C2	Ballymoney Utd   1st   promoted to BT1, won Steel&Son cup, won Irish Intermediate cup,
                                                                              semifinal Northern Irish Cup
2015 / 2016         N.Ireland   Belfast Telegraph C1	Ballymoney Utd

[/spoiler]

[Brucehum]

EASTLEIGH

October 2013

After near to 4 months unemployed, having been rejected previously by a Sky Bet 2 team, I got an offer from Eastleigh. Eager to prove my abilities, and also happy to move to a city that has a party named The Beer, Baccy and Crumpet party. What's better in this life than that?

The objective is to finish in promotion places (so 1st to 5th)

The team

Previous to 1980 they where known as Swaythling Athletic, which then changed to Swaythling. In 1980 they changed to Eastleigh.

They are owned by Bridle Insurance, who also own Oxford City (which was a great one club save for me in FM2013, curiously enough).

They play at Silverlake Stadium, which can hold 2300 people, 175 seated.

The City

Eastleigh is a railway town in Hampshire, southern England. The borough holds 116.000 people (2001), which means it is more densely populated than south eastern England.

Results so far

Team is doing well, 3rd. Previous manager was sacked after 3 games lost which meant the team dropped from 1st to 3rd position.

The team doesn't seem to score much... lets see if we can change that.

Objectives

My objectives are just to learn the ropes. If we get promotion, great. If not, no worries. If I'm sacked, I'm sure there are more teams out there with good beer.

[WarroOxford]

Wow, manager fired for dropping to 3rd? Have fun with that.

[Brucehum]

FM2014: first impressions

The beta seems to be working quite well. I've had one or two high scoring games which where a surprise (lost 6-2 against last team in my division, but I had 5 substitutes playing, including future star goalie who now is quite weak)

The UI is super fast (at least on Mac). In fact, scroll is too fast if you use track pad gesture scrolling instead of clicking on the bar and dragging.

The match engine doesn't seem to need much more hardware than FM2013, as it is working quite well on my same laptop.

Memory wise, I have to check it more carefully, but I seem to be running out of memory less than with previous version. But it could be I have less leagues loaded. By running out of memory I mean taking up all the memory on the computer with the associated slowness.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Your objectives are all Northern Ireland based, so why did you take a job in England?

[Brucehum]

Took the first job that appeared to see the new game, and get a bit of experience with it. Now I'm waiting for a N.Ireland team to offer.

[Brucehum]

EASTLEIGH

December 26th, 2013

So far, so good

Games

The team is playing fairly well. We are not scoring much, but we are very solid behind. Save exceptions. For example, we lost 6-2 against the last qualified team in the league at that moment (it was playing the FA Cup). I had half the team as substitutes, amongst them, goalkeeper. Poor kid got hammered.

We are first, which is not a bad position. But, depends of the next 2 games of super mare, if they score a lot, they can pass us, as they are 2 games under.

Thoughts

If second part of season the team plays as it has been playing so far, we will surely be in a promotion place.

Of course, that will be if no N.Ireland team sacks its manager, or if they do and don't want me.

[B.W.G]

Excellent start to the season

[deltablue]

We are first, which is not a bad position.

Can't argue with that

[SRL88]

Brilliant first half to the season.

[Brucehum]

So now, this good position makes me rethink my idea of immediately jumping ship the moment a 3rd tier N.Ireland team comes free. Another option is to try and get this promotion with Eastleigh, and that would rise my manager status a bit. That would give me a bit more chances of landing a team in N.Ireland.

I chose N.Ireland because of the countries with active league in the game (not counting San Marino and Luxembourg) it is the lowest national team in europe.

[Jason the Yank]

I'd probably jump ship, so I'd advise you stay and get the promotion to improve your reputation.

[Brucehum]

EASTLEIGH

February 1st, 2014

The Games

So the team is doing quite well. Our loss came yet again when playing one of the lower table teams. Put 5-6 substitutes, amongst them poor young future main goalie, and again lost. But anyway, we are still first.

Evil Pays

8th of January:

The staff meeting gives Humphrey an evil idea... they suggest adding a new coach, N.Ireland U20s coach. With an evil grin he contracts the man, even if he is a bit more expensive than the rest of the staff. Of course, it is because he'll bring international experience... yeeeeesssss... Now we only need to wait until the right moment.

Time passes and Eastleigh is doing quite well, except for some idiotic players who start complaining for small things. One is angry at how he was spoken to after a bad game. He becomes abysmal in morale, and keeps low morale the rest of the month. The other one wants a bigger team, and when said that we are promoting, he says it is not ambitious enough. He is out of the team on a mutual, as no one wants to buy him, not even free.

30th of January:

Humphrey applies for N.Ireland U20 when the option appears, for the French Invitational. He'll be considered. Eastleigh board is unhappy with him.

31st of January:

Armagh, last qualified in N.Ireland Belfast Telegraph C2, sacks its coach! This is surely a sign from Humphrey's god... Bacchus.

1st of February:

Still intoxicated from the previous night's partying Humphrey resigns from Eastleigh and applies for Armagh. Such team is never going to be able to pay compensation.

4th if February:

Armagh offers job interview. It goes very well, agreeing with the board in all points.

7h of February:

Ups! Trouble ahead!!! It seems another long jobless period may be approaching (it took 131 days to land the first job). Armagh hires Robinson, an ex-player from the team.

8th of February:

This is probably a miracle... He's been making a lot of sacrifices to Bacchus lately, drinking wine and of course the usual beer drinking, thinking that he would be jobless for a long time. Ballymoney Utd, 15th qualified in N.Ireland Belfast Telegraph C2, sacks its coach!

11th of February:

He quickly applies for Ballymoney Utd.

14th of February:

Ballymoney Utd offer a job interview.

17th of February:

Offered the Ballymoney Utd job. Objective mid table (it was not to descend, but wanted to make sure I got the job so upped the ante). Another objective, this one personal, to finish above Armagh. And if they go down, all the better. That will show them to prefer one of their players before a complete unknown drunk! Pity I was contracted 2 days AFTER the game against them (0-0). Humphrey, resentful? Never, it is divine justice.

Eastleigh results: +13-2=3

gf: 33 ga: 20

time employed: 99 days (out of 230 days)

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

February 17th, 2014

The Town

From wikipedia:

Ballymoney (from Irish: Baile Monaidh, meaning "homestead on the peatland"). It is a small town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,021 people (2001 census)

Riada Stadium

Riada Stadium is shared between Ballymore and local rivals Glebe Rangers (in the same division! in the game currently 2nd. Curiously, in real life, after 8 games, Ballymore is 5th, 3 points away from the top, and Glebe Rangers are 15th). It has a 2000 capacity, with 800 seated.

Facilities:

As it is shared by two teams, I wonder what happens if Glebe Rangers goes up and decides they need a bigger stadium.

The Team

The team is known as The Toon.

The team urgently needs a goalkeeper. Also an M© or 2, an extra DM, and AML and AMR. Let's see if we manage.

The economy is in red, but it is manageable. Eastleigh was getting completely out of control.

Down at 15th position, one point ahead of the last team. We surely could be doing better.

As it can be seen, the team was doing quite well but of late they are doing horrendously.

Thoughts

I'm quite happy with this team, it is a challenge. Lets see if I can make this club big.

[deltablue]

Good luck breaking that bad form.

[Brucehum]

Thanks delta, going to need it. The first few games we are not scoring and opponents are scoring almost every time they get near us. It has forced me to tinker with individual players tactics to slowly improve.

Also, no money to get new players, as the team is 25% over wage when I get it. Getting lots of kids as youth contract, then moving them up to first team, but that does not count as the board promise 'contract youth for first team'. Of my 3 promises, contract youth, play direct football and end in mid table it seems only direct football will be achieved. If we are lucky we won't go down.

Lets hope that if we don't go down, board renews me! Then the next season will be a stabilising one financially and getting the kids to play better, so another not go down season, then we can think of bigger things in 2-3 years.

[Jay-Eff]

Haha, Ballymoney is my home town and the stadium is just up the road from me. A couple of the players are former neighbours.

All the best with this, it's the kind of thing I'd like to try and do but don't have the patience for it!

[Brucehum]

@mikenevo: that's a good team for your challenge. I hope it goes well!

@Jay-Eff: Any idea why Ballymoney Utd is called The Toon? With a friend you could do a double manager in one computer and be Ballymone Utd and Glebe Rangers!!!

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

April 17th, 2014

The Games

4 games left to go, and there is hope. But it is going to be very close, and tough!

This is tough. Many of the games, we have dominated (such as Tobermore Utd), but the opponent scores every time they get near our area. As you can see, we have gotten many goals against! The 0-5 agains Annagh Utd was playing a new version of my succesful 4-1DM-4-1 tactic in FM13. It was a complete disaster. We had no chances, and the 5 chances Annagh had where goal. So we are now playing a 4-5V-1 sometimes, and mainly a 4-1DM-3MC-2ST, with middle play. That went very well in our local derby against Glebe Rangers, not so well in other matches.

Can we survive? One game ago, after losing against revelation Newington, an Amateur team (that would have been a great team to manage! But, they are doing well, so no sacking of manager when I got Ballymoney), I would have said no. We had played 6 games, and where +2-2=2, average results which I had hoped would have taken us out of the low end, but it didn't!

Now, one more victory and we are in safe terrain for the first time in a long time, but we need to outscore the opposition. We have a very important upcoming match against 15th qualified Moyola Park. In this division, goal difference is the main method to decide classification if even at points.

The Future

Same plans as in previous update, try to survive in this division, get renewed even if not keeping up promises, and start developing with youth. 2-3 years at least until we can achieve something, I guess. The team youth setting is quite poor, and there is no money to improve it. So I'll have to buy.

But our youth intake was quite good! Maybe we are so low the soccer world feeding chain that any player is a future 5 star.

[Jason the Yank]

Squeaky bum time.

[GazTheDoood]

Good luck for the run in!

[deltablue]

Looks like a tense finish coming up.

[AK22]

Well done on doing so well with my local team (Eastleigh) Need to hold your nerve for the remaining games with Ballymoney!

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

July 10th, 2014

Saved by the bell

We had 2 very tough opponents in our last 4 games. We scored 4 points (we only beat our direct rivals, Moyola Park, which was all that was needed).

As it can be seen, it was a long arid road to keep division. Luckily we managed.

I got renewed. There is a bug in sign youth objective, it will be corrected in Fm14.0.4. That's why it kept telling me I was doing very badly even if I had signed many youth. Luckily, it was not enough to make them not renew me.

So, we achieved Play Direct Football. We did not manage to achieve Sign Youth (bugged). We did not end mid table (but did not go down). And, personal objective, end ahead of Amagh for daring not contract me.

Thoughts

Objective this season is not to go down, and keep building the team. Lots of older players left (I let them go to get a bit of transfer budget, and also as part of my career objectives is to play with youth). Some of them didn't want to stay at our club. So, the team is very young now. I need some key reinforcements (GK, for one)

[withnail316]

Well done staying up.

[B.W.G]

A brilliant effort in staying up after only a short time at the club.

[Nobby_McDonald]

We are first, which is not a bad position.

Understatement of the year.

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

July 10th, 2014

Friendlies

We have been scoring quite well in friendlies, but we still are getting many goals against. Not sure if it is us, or the goal friendly beta, but except for Coleraine, our parent club, the rest are quite weak. Once regular season starts I'll be able to see if the small tweaks to our tactics (4-1DM-3MC-2), such as having the FB play wider, rest of team in middle, etc.

This have been our (meager) transfers, as renewing our 3 best players cost us most of our wages. Many more outs than ins, as we are using our youth. Basically, cutting old wood.

These are my top guys:

Darren Coyle, 22, ***** M©/AM©/ST. Our star midfielder, although I play him mostly as star striker. I had to pay 1/5th of my wage to keep him on the team.

Joseph Bell, 16, D®/WB®. ** promising right full back.

Andrew Cahoon, 16, ****- M©/D©. As you can see, I like players who play in more than one position, allows me to cope with the (relatively) short teams fielded in N.Ireland 3rd tier, with only 5 men on the bench.

Jack Duffin, 22, **** GK. Because you DO need a good goalkeeper, specially in this goal feast. He was amateur, contracted to Queens University, and was the player to watch for them, so I just stole him.

Micky Paul, 16, **** M©/DM/AML. The second wonder kid we have.

As a result, we are the youngest team (average) in the league, with 22.28. This, as it was to be expected, makes us last in the decisions department, and first in speed (our kids run faster than them oldies!). But they will learn.

World Championship

Interesting result in the world championship, proving what many where saying already in FM 2013, that Belgium has a very interesting generation.

[James_W]

Haha, your new keeper Jack Duffin was in my year in school. Enjoying the read., keep it up.

[Brucehum]

@James_W: nice to hear. For 3rd tier N.Ireland he is very good.

[Dan BHTFC]

Anyone notice the spelling mistake on the Ballymoney logo?

[Brucehum]

@Dan BHTFC: Not me!!!

[Jay-Eff]

@mikenevo: that's a good team for your challenge. I hope it goes well!

@Jay-Eff: Any idea why Ballymoney Utd is called The Toon? With a friend you could do a double manager in one computer and be Ballymone Utd and Glebe Rangers!!!

I think it's just a local pronunciation thing, where Town became Toon

[Brucehum]

@Jay-Eff: thanks!!

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

October 1st, 2014

Games

So far so good. The kids are doing very well. Our small changes in our tactics seem to be doing quite well. We are completely dominating most games, generating many attacks, and quite a few good attacks on target. But of course it is not always easy, most of the cup matches have been quite tough. And of course, some games our opponents get 3 good attacks on goal and score twice... and we get 10 and score only 3. But, as long as we outscore the opposition, I'm not complaining.

So, only 4 games have been league games, but we are doing very well. It is going to be very difficult to keep this form, as our team is a bit limited and a few injuries could do us, but we do seem on our way to at least finish in a good position.

Thoughts

The new tactics system means that you can work more with the individual players, and small changes in tactics make a big change in results.

We are going to play in the cup against first division teams, that will show us how well we can do. In our only game so far, against Coleraine during friendlies, we did quite well.

[Brucehum]

Here was a repeated post.

I'll use this space just to say that the first game after previous post 2 injuries, 1-1. Then another injury. So, it is starting to be tougher already!

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

December 17th, 2014

The kids are back in town

Wonderful play from my team, which is mainly kids. We are completely dominating almost every single game, a standard game of us has us with 54% possession, and we get something like 20 shots and 8 shots on target against 8 shots and 3-4 on target from the opponent. Save exceptions, such as Newington, which was a completely even match. And of course, Portadown, 1st division team, beat us quite easily. But, playing against BT1 teams (we are in BT2), we are doing very well. As a matter of fact, my best game ever in any FM was against Institute. Even better for our form is that said BT1 teams where teams doing well a league above us. Warrenpoint was 1st in BT1. Institute was 6th in BT1.

Half the league gone, we are 8 points ahead, highest scoring team and lest conceding one by far.

Thoughts

In one week we play our toughest rivals so far, Newington, for the final of the Steel & Sons cup. The 8k pounds of the price could help us clean a bit of red.

Unless disaster strikes, we are almost surely going up to BT1. That is 2 seasons before I thought we could even fight for promotion. Seeing our games against BT1 teams so far, we shouldn't have much trouble staying there. I won't go so far as to say we'll be fighting for promotion the first year.

On another front, Crusaders coach is very near being sacked. I'm afraid that if that happens, and I don't take the post, Crusaders will go down and we will meet next year. This career I'm a Crusaders supporter. If that happens, decisions! Should I stay at Ballymoney, the kids are doing well, or save Crusaders?

I should have loaded more players in the custom database, that way, I could try and coach Aruba or similar international teams to get a bit of experience. What I loaded, all teams are top 100 in the world, so no one wants a sunday footballer such as me (for now, I hope to win some points this year by going up, maybe a cup)

[Jason the Yank]

Think you'd have to save your favorite club, wouldn't you?

[Brucehum]

@Jason the Yank: indeed, true. But so far, it is managing to win a few games. So some 8-10 games later, still no sacking, and Crusaders is 2 points ahead of relegation. Only 10 games left until the end of the season.

[deltablue]

Should definitely stay as things are going so well at Ballymoney.

[B.W.G]

Excellent season so far

[Brucehum]

@deltablue: they are playing marvelously. Also, Crusaders seem to be doing better and the coach hasn't been sacked (even if we kicked them out of irish cup quarterfinals)

@B.W.G: too good to be true! I sometimes think the game may still be bugged, as we are winning almost every single game, or maybe Northern Ireland teams are much closer in strength between themselves than what we have in Spain.

[Brucehum]

BALLYMONEY UTD.

December 17th, 2014

Fantastic!

The Games

The team played wonderfully. We smashed most 3rd tier teams, beat 2nd tear teams and played mano a mano with the 3 1st tier teams we played (1 win 2 loses). And those 2 loses where against 1st Linfield and 3rd Portadown. Also against Linfield, Northern Ireland kingpins, was the only game we did not score.

We also won 3 titles:

Belfast Telegraph Championship C2

Steel&Sons Cup

Intermediate Cup

We have a new points total record for BT2.

This was my renewal offer:

The team's monetary situation, thanks to all those prizes (we won some 18.000 pounds in all), is still in the red, but hasn't become worse.

Thoughts

During the league we scored 99 goals, that's the worst possible number for me... so close to 100!!! In all, we scored 170 goals and conceded 54 in 54 competitive matches. An average of 3-1, which is wonderful for our 20.5 year old (in average) team.

We won 45 games, drew 7 and lost 2. A whooping +83.3% -3.7% =13%. Its going to be very difficult to get those numbers again.

Attendance we had an average of 179 (up from 118). Our best attendance was 367 when we beat Crusaders 3-1, a great result.

So what are the goals for next year? Considering we beat or drawn the BT1 teams we played this year, we shouldn't have much trouble staying up. I'm thinking a top mid table finish is to be expected, maybe even fight for promotion, but back to back promotions are very difficult, and also, our oldest players are leaving, so we hope the youth will be regular. Seen how the season has gone, I have a feeling we would even survive in premier division.

So with the big earners in our team gone, we will have wage to give new contracts to our youth, and to get someone interesting. We probably will only get 2-3 players at most.

[deltablue]

Great year!

[B.W.G]

Unbeaten league campaign.....brilliant

[Reinoud]

Great results! To bad that you wasn't able to get Linfield down in the cup. Good luck with Ballymoney!

[duffy89]

Walked it

[SRL88]

Very easy indeed.

[Brucehum]

@deltablue: incredible year.

@B.W.G: aye, I got many steam achievements I thought it would take years to get.

@reinoud: I think that the winners of that cup (won by Linfield) play in Europe. That would have been something, it would have brought us lots of money.

@duffy89: yes, at a brisk pace!

@SRL88: too easy. Makes my paranoid self wonder if there is some bug somewhere.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Dominant season. Well done.