FM14: The Skrill Premier, North & South thread

[CityAndColour]

This thread massively makes me want to start a save with my home town team, the (not so) mighty Bath City!

Might boot up a save tonight and give it a go. I literally know NOTHING about these leagues (currently Sheff Utd in one of my save and that's as low as i dare go at the moment ) though so would be signing players blind and hoping for luck! But would be an epic challenge and this thread is good for reference.

First thing i would try and do is sign Hogg back from Gloucester City, when i actually went to watch Bath a few years back now he was an animal. Would either score or get sent off, nothing in between . Would love him to be a midfield terrier for my save.

I'm pretty damn awful at FM though so would be stuck in the Skill South for a good few years but love a challenge.

I find taking a team in the lowest division (in any country) and taking them all the way to the top is about the most satisfying FM experience.

Happy to recommend you some players!

[c.ronaldo7]

Right guys, after struggling to settle with a save thus far in FM14 i've decided to have a crack at a save with Cambridge United. Never managed this low down before, any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

[Sammuthegreat]

Right guys, after struggling to settle with a save thus far in FM14 i've decided to have a crack at a save with Cambridge United. Never managed this low down before, any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

Best advice I can give - buy Elliot Durrell.

Otherwise, I'd say don't worry too much about conceding a few goals, clean sheets are much harder to come by down in the bottom tiers since the defenders pretty much all have at least one glaring flaw, and their mental stats don't lend themselves particularly well to having a consistent and well-disciplined backline.

I also find that on all my low-league saves I chop and change the team quite a lot, especially my forwards. I know other people don't necessarily do the same thing but my forwards always have dips in form; I tend to have a backup for each striking position so I can be ruthless about switching players in and out from one game to the next when they have a bad game. It also means all my strikers are always ready to step in when form dips and I tend to end up with more than 2 strikers with 10-15 goals for the season, which is nice. Not a bad thing for sure but it does lead to a bit of inconsistency in my strikeforce since I'm rarely clear on my standout first choice striker(s).

Also bear in mind it's rare (in my experience) to have players average much above 7 for a whole season. Inconsistency is rife in the lower leagues so you'll get a good few sub-6.5s quite often. It comes with the territory so don't be alarmed - after all if players were capable of averaging 8s for the season they'd probably be in a higher tier!

[Mingus]

I am still plodding along on my Stalybridge Celtic game, a few weeks away from 2032, after the recent steam sale reduced my FM time somewhat.

A few good youth intakes in a row have left me with a team good enough to challenge for the top 6 in EPL each season, hopefully my first CL qualification is on the cards this year. I am currently sat in 5th, 7 points behind Spurs in 4th, but hopefully I can close the gap.

This Guy is the best player I have had come through the academy so far, he is a joy to watch on the highlights, especially with the current ME seeming to make defenders close down really high up the pitch, loads of room for him to exploit.

My first season in the UEFA cup is going better than expected, it was not a competition i was looking forward too, but all those games are the perfect place to get my other youngsters some game time.

[c.ronaldo7]

Best advice I can give - buy Elliot Durrell.

Otherwise, I'd say don't worry too much about conceding a few goals, clean sheets are much harder to come by down in the bottom tiers since the defenders pretty much all have at least one glaring flaw, and their mental stats don't lend themselves particularly well to having a consistent and well-disciplined backline.

I also find that on all my low-league saves I chop and change the team quite a lot, especially my forwards. I know other people don't necessarily do the same thing but my forwards always have dips in form; I tend to have a backup for each striking position so I can be ruthless about switching players in and out from one game to the next when they have a bad game. It also means all my strikers are always ready to step in when form dips and I tend to end up with more than 2 strikers with 10-15 goals for the season, which is nice. Not a bad thing for sure but it does lead to a bit of inconsistency in my strikeforce since I'm rarely clear on my standout first choice striker(s).

Also bear in mind it's rare (in my experience) to have players average much above 7 for a whole season. Inconsistency is rife in the lower leagues so you'll get a good few sub-6.5s quite often. It comes with the territory so don't be alarmed - after all if players were capable of averaging 8s for the season they'd probably be in a higher tier!

Thanks for that, I played about an hour or so after starting the save and I'm still in the transfer window. Brought in Johnny Herd and Harry Baker from Bishops Stortford, both on free transfers along with Matthew Fletcher who's a 20 year old Australian striker with decent stats for this level.

It's taking a lot of getting used to as I'm having to look at stats differently but I'm hoping this is my first "long-term" save on FM14.

[CityAndColour]

Excellent.

[matts]

So first season with Dorchester, won the skrill south with 2 games to spare over Havant and Waterlooville who got promoted, and won the FA Trophy, including a semi final win over Luton, into the Skrill Premier still as a Semi Professinal club and a wage budget of 6k which is poor, and can barely attract any decent players, so im up for the challenge of the Skrill premier, League 2 here we come

[CityAndColour]

That's a fine effort with Dorchester.

I remember having an epic save with them last year, when my director of football somehow managed to sign me Delron Buckley in the Conference South! Needless to say he absolute tore up non league football for the three seasons I had him before retirement.

[CityAndColour]

Heading into January and it's been more of a grind this season...

We're in and around the chasing pack, but it's been a struggle with our play a lot less fluid than last season, and goals harder to come by. Our defensive record looks reasonable on paper but we've been all over the shop, constantly being torn apart by long balls.

We're also out of the FA Cup in the second round, missing out on a home tie against Sunderland in the third round, while our FA Trophy defence ended in the second round at Salisbury.

I've focused on youth this season too, with some of our younger stars below...

Stefan Allen

Unfortunately this is probably as good as he's going to get without full time training, but he remains an integral part of the team in the DLP role.

Tim Surey

Have started giving him games due to his attributes really blossoming. Somehow hasn't been sent off, despite looking aggressive in every half time team talk. Personality is 'determined'.

Dom Voss

Started in the u18s and got his chance after performing there, which he has taken with 10 goals in 13 first team starts. My coaches feel he could be a leading League One striker.

[dinthead]

After watching their FA Cup match, I've decided to give Cambridge a go. Currently only signed Kyle Connolly to cover the left back position and Michael Coulson on loan from York, to play at right midfield.

I had an unbeaten pre-season, which included a 3-0 win over Preston and I have currently played 3 games of the season, winning 3-0 at home to Halifax, 1-0 away at Welling and 2-0 away at Aldershot.

[dinthead]

August Update

Just a little update for my first month.

Kyle Connolly and Michael Coulson I mentioned in my previous post. Jack Thomas has come in on a season-long loan from Mansfield to bulk up the central midfield. I had a look at Elliott Durrell, but I have no transfer money available to get him, I will keep an eye on him though.

The Bobby-Joe Taylor and Luke Allen loans are only short-term as they may feature in the first team this season. All the others are season-long deals.

A season doesn't start much better than that, I'm still disappointed with the draw with Tamworth though, we dominated but we just couldn't get a goal.

Our unbeaten start sees us top the league by a point over Wrexham. Hopefully we can continue our great start and open up a bigger gap.

[CityAndColour]

Cracking start - hope you weren't too harsh after the Tamworth game as in my experience that can kick off a poor run.

Six clean sheets is fantastic - what does your set up look like?

Cambridge seem to be a popular save this year.

[Sammuthegreat]

I'm now top of League 2 at the beginning of January 2016! I've had some rough patches where goals were hard to come by but I've conceded fewer than half as many goals as the next tightest defence. I still need some extra muscle and creativity in midfield - that's the priority in January - but I've been pretty lucky with injuries so far.

In fact I've been so lucky I've had to loan out a few youngsters to get them more game time and to take a tiny bit off my wage bill. I'm also looking to move Mark Randall on since he's one of my top earners yet doesn't have a single goal or assist in 15 games. Utterly useless. I need to free up some wages for 2 new CMs, and preferably some cover for the wonderful Charles Banya on the left wing.

All things considered it's going remarkably well so far, I'm just waiting for the inevitable dip in form (although usually my teams go through incredible purple patches between January and April so who knows!).

Top scorer thus far is Tom Elliot with 11 (plus 6 assists) in about 23 games. Elliot Durrell still leads the way, average rating around 7.4 with 4 goals and 9 assists. Also, Aaron McCarey is a beast.

[Sammuthegreat]

I should also add that I've been using a 4-5-1 more often recently and it's tightened up the defence even further, plus Charles Banya has become much more of a goal threat since changing formation. The tactic is as follows:

GK: Keeper, defend

RB: Fullback, support

RCB: Centre back, defend

LCB: Centre back, defend

LB: Fullback, support

DM: Defensive midfielder, defend

RCM: Box-to-box midfielder, support

LCM: Advanced playmaker, attack

AMR: Winger, attack

AML: Winger, attack

CF: Deep-lying forward, support

I also have a more defensive variant trained up for tough away games where LCM becomes another BBM and the AMR and AML drop back to become wingers on the normal midfield stratum. I've kept my old 4-4-2 but I won't be using it so much until my central midfield is stronger.

[Guest El Payaso]

After last season got promoted to Skrill Premier with Boston United. Started the season brilliantly and this has been my best run of form:

After that, like in every three seasons so far, I got some kind of mid-season slump in terms of form and quality of play:

Luckily I was finally able to get a victory against poor Staines-side. But what's strange is the fact that we're still sitting in second place in the table:

Only Cambridge seems to be performing evenly. Really not even looking for a promotion but we'll see... With this kind of defensive record that we've had recently, really don't see us even fighting for places in League-2.

[CityAndColour]

I've always found if you're too harsh after a loss when you're on a good streak (which I am often guilty of), it turns into a poor run.

Anyway three to go for me and it's extremely tight again...

We have a fairly good run home, with 21st Sutton United at home, before trips to already relegated Aldershot (24th) and Cambridge who are 19th.

Also managed to line this guy up on a free from Cambridge in the summer...

He looks promising and I'll look to groom him to take over from Tom Soares in central midfield.

[Guest El Payaso]

I've always found if you're too harsh after a loss when you're on a good streak (which I am often guilty of), it turns into a poor run.

Yeah, it's kinda odd especially when you start conceding goals that you never should concede with the style of play you're using. My main problem seems to be that set-pieces start to cost me games, players start making stupid marking errors and even start passing opponents to easy chances and at the other end of the pitch quality of finishing just drops. Seems to me that it makes a huge difference also whether my defenders clear the balls to my own players or the opponents' and also the quality of my keeper's long kicks is making a big difference... Well sometimes you win games with these "small" things and sometimes you lose. Generally the match engine just isn't for me at the moment and that's why I will wait before I start my real LLM challenge. <- And yes, it is a bit off-topic but that's my vision of my own mid-season slumps.

After that Staines-win I won Kidderminster away 4-1 and was amazed on how easily their defence opened from the middle. Got 7(!) chances from my players being through on goal and even though Palmer once again snatched some chances, he managed to get two easy ones inside.

Next match was even more epic and I managed to pull back from two behind in 25 minutes after I changed my tactics to 3-4-3, the passing after that was absolute fantastic. Don't like that Sam Smith guy though, he scored 3 against me at our first meeting and now he managed to score twice and that guy only has 12 in the whole season. Must be enjoying playing against us.

[matts]

That's a fine effort with Dorchester.

I remember having an epic save with them last year, when my director of football somehow managed to sign me Delron Buckley in the Conference South! Needless to say he absolute tore up non league football for the three seasons I had him before retirement.

well atm im sitting after 5 games in 6th place with 9 points, and i dunno how, im still semi pro, not been able to sign decent players got one regean which i will get a screenshot up a 16 year old striker played him in the last few games of last year 6 games 4 goals, and 2 in 5 this season, need to find a good training regime for him, atm he is part time

[CityAndColour]

I can probably recommend some good tutors for him. One thing I've noticed is it's not necessarily position-based this version, so you may be able to get a midfielder with excellent mental attributes to tutor him.

I believe Mark Jermyn is one of the best tutors available in the lower leagues, so might be worth going into private chat, selecting tutoring and seeing if your strikers comes under the list of eligible players?

Playoffs achieved and we get Stockport in the semis, to play the winner of Hereford and Fleetwood. Delighted to see Wrexham miss out on the final day, as ever since the FA Trophy final they have had about 25 shots a game on average against us, and have by far the best striker in the division.

[CityAndColour]

Fleetwood in the final. Not confident given how much fire power they have in their squad, however we've had some fantastic contests with them over the past three seasons so you never know.

[CityAndColour]

Fantastic game and in the end it was us who held their nerves in the shootout.

After they had 22 shots the last time we played, I was really pleased with how our defenders applied themselves in this one, limiting them to five shots (zero CCC) to half time, with a Dom Voss goal enough to give us the edge.

We started the second half in much the same way, having three excellent chances to double our lead. I then made a tactical blunder, taking off Charlie O'Loughlin due to him being on a yellow and having a habit of getting sent off, however this freed up Mattias Pogba who started to dominate us aerially.

1-0 quickly became 1-2, and it took another Voss goal after a goalmouth scramble to get us to extra time, where I expected the superior fitness of full time Fleetwood to show. However we had the best chance of the extra half hour, as Danny Mills hit our 5th CCC straight at the 'keeper.

I didn't hold out much hope for penalties, as I had earlier substituted our regular taker Mario Noto (12 from 12 in a Havant shirt) and we only had one available player with 10+ for taking penalties, but in the end we went a perfect five for five.

[CityAndColour]

And goodbye finances...

[CityAndColour]

2017/18 review - Havant & Waterlooville - Skrill Premier

League table

Graph

Squad

Transfers

After the heart break of last season's playoff semi final, we set out this campaign with a mission. Unfortunately this wasn't really supported by the media, who predicted us to finish 23rds, and the board, who were happy for us to aim to avoid relegation. The wonders of reputation it seems.

We made the second round of the FA Cup, losing at Ebbsfleet before we could try and get a money-spinning third round tie, and our FA Trophy defence ended fairly tamely at Salisbury in the second round. In the league we continued to keep in touch with the playoff spots, and while we drew to within a few points of top spot later in the season, we never really looked likely to go on the run needed to be champions.

An ugly 1-6 loss to Kidderminster on matchday 31 seemed to provide the spark we needed, as we won nine and drew five of our remaining 15 fixtures, to secure a playoff spot and the platform for promotion.

---

Key players

Dominic Voss - The club's crown jewel. He started the season in the u18s, and finished it with a playoff final brace, 23 goals and a nomination for the divisional player of the season award - all before he turns 17. He is a physical beast that can also beat a man, and full time training will help him reach his potential (currently rated as potentially a good Championship striker). SPL side St Johnstone came to me after the final with a - wait for it - £4.6K bid. Err...

Danny Mills - Also grabbed 23 strikes to share the club golden boot. He has fairly average attributes but had a real knack for being in the right place at the right time. I plan to use him off the bench in League Two.

Mario Noto - Probably the club's greatest ever signing, and once again defied father time with 21 assists and a 7+ rating. His physical attributes are shocking and he clearly won't be able to start games at the next level, but if his wage demands are reasonable I may give him another year and look to use him in bursts.

Tim Surey - Straight out of the club's youth system, he took a little while to adapt to senior football but was clearly the club's standout defender in the last two months of the season. A fantastic prospect who should only benefit from full time football and training.

Stefan Allen - His average rating really doesn't reflect his importance to the team. Playing every minute of every match, he again had a passing completion rate of 86%, and has not dipped below 84% in his four seasons at the club. He has already made 164 appearances by the age of 20.

---

We also say good bye to two outstanding servants of the club. Nathan Elder has retired from professional football, and leaves the club with 83 goals and 56 assists in 166 appearances, while Sekani Simpson will retire after making 210 appearances. I am hoping to sign the latter as a coach once my staff allowances are (hopefully) increased.

[Sammuthegreat]

Well done City, I bet that feels good after last season's heartbreak (damn Wrexham). Voss and Allen definitely look ready for the step up, I just wish I had a midfield enforcer of Allen's quality! He's exactly what my Stockport team needs.

As for my League 2 campaign, I haven't had a chance to play since my last post so no change there. I'll do a full update with screenshots as soon as I can but that won't be for a few days yet, probably Friday.

[dinthead]

Well done City, how big is that stadium going to be?

Although I started a game with Cambridge, I decided I wanted to go for the 'English Hero' achievement and I've gone with Solihull Moors. They're the team that I've got the achievement with in the last two years.

---

Pre-season went pretty poorly overall, but the performances against the 3 bigger teams were good. On the other hand, the performances in the other 2 games were poor, so a mixed bag.

Once the season started though we were on fire, with just 1 defeat in our first 18 games in all competitions. The hard part is keeping this form up through the season and I'm not expecting us to do it.

That great start to the season sees us top the league by 6 points, having also scored the most goals and conceded the least in the division.

[CityAndColour]

Well done City, I bet that feels good after last season's heartbreak (damn Wrexham). Voss and Allen definitely look ready for the step up, I just wish I had a midfield enforcer of Allen's quality! He's exactly what my Stockport team needs.

I've been very lucky with my youth intakes but have also made a point of development on this save - I've never had so many players tutored before and actively look to recruit players just to tutor.

As I type, another youth product Phil Scott has just scored the club's first ever Football League goal.

[Guest El Payaso]

Well my boys picked up a bad time to go shy on scoring goals. Have to say that my strikers Liam Hearn and Ollie Palmer were two biggest reasons why we aren't playing in League-2 in next season. Last three games of the season against Barnet; first one absolute rubbish because of my statements for the media didn't really hit the bull's eye and my team didn't even try to play, just gifted away the possession. Second two in the promotion semi-finals were our domination but we didn't manage to score from our several half chances and few clear cuts, and it only took one mistake in our own box to concede in the home game. After that goal in 68 minutes, Barnet defended bravely and with that kinda deserved to go through to the final where they were hammered by Ebbsfleet.

Cambridge lost their form even worse than we did in start of the year as you can see:

Yet they were steal easily able to gain promotion.

I found a really good tactical setups at the end of the season with 3 man defence line and we dominated even Walsall in away game even though their team was superior for this level.

A little bit of tweaking for next season's tactics should really do the trick and if Palmer decides to finally finish some chances, it should be a smooth drive to the next level. We'll see about that soon...

Here's the table (top-14):

[CityAndColour]

Tough luck - form can really seem scripted at times and it can be really difficult to get out of a bad spell.

Anyway, just approaching halfway of our first League Two season and while it's been a battle, we've established a gap between us and the relegation spots...

While we've really had to graft for results and have been outclassed the majority of the time, the key has been not going on any long losing runs, so we're always consistently picking up points. Looking at previous seasons, 46-48 points is usually enough to stay up so we're more than halfway there.

Transfers-wise, I maybe went a bit overboard with trying to bring in experience, picking up Fraizer Campbell, Bradley Wright-Phillips, John Baird, Sean Clohessy and Andrew Davies on frees, however none has really had the impact I'd hoped for.

On the other hand, I'm delighted with our record given two of our starting centre-halves are teenagers from our youth system. In fact, with Phil Scott establishing himself at AMC, four of our regular starting XI are from youth intakes - five if you count Voss who was signed at 15.

[Guest El Payaso]

Tough luck - form can really seem scripted at times and it can be really difficult to get out of a bad spell.

Yeah. Not too gutted though as I really wasn't even looking for a promotion in my first season in Skrill Premier. Was actually quite surprised of how well we did.

Started the new season with this:

It's a shame that we lost the possession a bit in the end when I substituted my best midfielders. We seem to be the low league version of Barcelona when playing at our best. I have almost £2k available in my wage budget of £12,0k in week, might just try to find a little better and experienced advanced playmaker to replace Michael Clunan in the starting 11. That guy has improved but he's not gonna make it even in the League-2 and really isn't doing anything creative in the pitch... Luckily Ollie Palmer was finally able to finish those good chances that he had and I hope that he can do it more often this season. I'm looking to get atleast 25-30 goals out of him.

Carl Piergianni, Ben Milnes and Clunan are the only ones left from the Boston United team that I started with. Accidentally I let Sam Vince go in the summer and he decided to move to Bradford instead of making an immediate return to York Street. Such a shame as that guy seemed to have a good potential to be atleast a back-up keeper for me.

Milnes has been solid for me as a box to box midfielder two seasons in a row voted as the fans player of the year and managed to score 7 goals last season.

[Guest El Payaso]

Start of the new season has been decent but once again really odd things keep happening. First of all I made a huge mistake by making our home pitch too narrow (only 55 meters) and I'm really struggling to create good enough chances to score goals. Well the opponents haven't had basically any chances against me when playing at home but somehow they always seem to get that one goal just to annoy me and add some more pressure. Luckily I've been able to escape two of these 'tight' homegames with a late winner both from Ollie Palmer who now seems to much more confident in front of the goal, scored 8 in his first 6 games. But the fact is that my strikers have been effective at the start of every season and the end has been terrible... Both of the conceded home goals have been own goals from set pieces so I'm not too worried about our defence at home, opponents don't seem to get any chances there.

Away games have really been unpleasant even though our first half against strong Scunthorpe was best performance of the season so far. Even though I told my team to stay on feet and ease tackles everyone of my 5 man midfield were able to get yellow cards in the first half and captain Ben Milnes got himself sent off. Once again we struggled in set pieces and the home team got all of their 7 shots from corner kicks but luckily they didn't convert any. Lee Croft got his first goal in Boston United shirt from the penalty spot.

Other two away games just awful besic examples of the games where the doesn't even try to play. We gifted away the possession most of the time and Walsall truly punished us. Tom Chamberlain has been the only one that has scored against us from open play, other two were scored from a penalty and from a corner.

Halifax managed to score three times from set pieces and they really should have won that game because we were really really bad, even worse than we were against Walsall. I started with the old 4-5-1 in this game and it clearly didn't work and I was able to get the control back for the last 15 minutes with 3-5-2 and Palmer netted the equalizer with a fine header in the second minute of stoppage time. We had the lead after first half but we really didn't improve our performance in the second half even though I told that I was looking for something better.

Here's the table. Nothing lost yet:

[CityAndColour]

Do you use hassle opponents? I'm fairly sure that causes excessive cards and sendings off, even when paired with 'stay on feet' which is a combination I use.

Hopefully you have more luck with O'Loughlin than I did - he managed to get six red cards (and 27 games total suspension) in a single season for me.

[ScottGooner]

Just starting a save as Wrexham9No idea why). Loaded the Welsh league(for the first ever time) and there are some decent young players there who could do a job not only in the Skrill Premier but could be decent players in the Championship, provided you had good enough youth facilities.

[Guest El Payaso]

Do you use hassle opponents? I'm fairly sure that causes excessive cards and sendings off, even when paired with 'stay on feet' which is a combination I use.

Not in tough away games. Also can't really see what kind of fouls those were because I'm using 2D classic and it really doesn't tell you much. Luckily it didn't cost me a victory though.

Hopefully you have more luck with O'Loughlin than I did - he managed to get six red cards (and 27 games total suspension) in a single season for me.

Well he was my best centreback in his first season because of his aerial power and he is also a great tutor. Scored twice in first seven games and one own goal also my record is 4 goals for a defender in one season so he is on his way to break that.

Had a tough home game once again against Woking and had to settle for a draw. Was leading with Palmer's ninth goal of the season untill my keeper had a poor goalkick that didn't even reach the half way line and there he was 39-year-old Gary Jones through on goal with pace and accelaration of 4. My defenders must have been having a coffee or something there. 2 minutes later and first direct freekick goal of the season... for them. Palmer once again saved us with a late equalizer but were certainly not making this easy for ourselves. Might just make a tweak to my tactics and play without keeper as he isn't doing anything but harming my team and get one more man to the forward.

[CityAndColour]

Well he was my best centreback in his first season because of his aerial power and he is also a great tutor.

Amen to that. I had him tutor one of my promising academy centre-halves, who picked up both his determination attribute (20) and his personality type (driven), and is developing at a rapid pace now.

[CityAndColour]

Five matches to go and we've secured another season in L2. It got a little tight as four losses in a row in February left us only six points above the bottom two, but employing the "drop deeper" shout (I hate to do this as it goes against everything my tactic is designed to do, but it just results in ludicrous amounts of long through-balls on this update) has allowed us to pick up the required points with a nice little run.

[Guest El Payaso]

I had to go back to my old three tactics instead of those three men backlines. It just didn't please me how we played; centrebacks drifted to the wings and even though having lots of men in my box to defend crosses, they often managed to lose their markers. Also my line made some very odd marking errors. Yes, it's boring but I'm playing now with 4-5-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1. I know this is a tactical question but it's also related to my save; has anyone found a good way to defend corners? I've conceded loads from them and my team is always in big trouble 'cause they can't clear the ball properly even if they win those first balls.

[Sammuthegreat]

I had to go back to my old three tactics instead of those three men backlines. It just didn't please me how we played; centrebacks drifted to the wings and even though having lots of men in my box to defend crosses, they often managed to lose their markers. Also my line made some very odd marking errors. Yes, it's boring but I'm playing now with 4-5-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1. I know this is a tactical question but it's also related to my save; has anyone found a good way to defend corners? I've conceded loads from them and my team is always in big trouble 'cause they can't clear the ball properly even if they win those first balls.

As soon as my 3 tactics are fully trained, which is in late October with my current training facilities, I put my match training on tactics only for the rest of the season with the general/match training level bar pushed one away from the max match training.

I still concede some silly goals from set pieces - and I still groan when every opposition highlight starts from a corner - but fewer than before. It certainly seems to have a more noticeable effect than any of the other match training options.

[Guest El Payaso]

The red line shows you where I went back to my old tactics and it really has made a difference. Torquay are once again one more super team added to the Skrill Premier and they managed to score against us from a corner. Then against Macclesfield I dominated the first half just to see James Constable score an equalizer at the end of the first half. Second half we tried to attack and became more and more frustrated and in the 81st minute our old player Scott Gardner scored... from a corner kick.

Forest green basically dominated us and managed to score yet another set-pieces goal from a direct free-kick. We created all of our chances from open play and managed to take the lead twice. Palmer had started his run of 5 games without scoring and this was the game number three.

Against Eastleigh I already threw my towel to the ring and thought about resigning after the match as we conceded two from corners and lost our lead. Luckily they had a really bad discipline in that match and got a red card which allowed us to score twice through loanee Mathias Pogba.

After that I didn't resign; changed back to the old tactics and even though we didn't have luck in front of goal against Kidderminster we have been good in these last few games. And Palmer is back on track with his scoring; 13 goals in 16 games.

It's not a surprise that those two are at the top. Walsall aren't as strong as they were in last season but with the help of their parent club Aston Villa, they sure are a team to be feared.

[CityAndColour]

2018/19 review - Havant & Waterlooville - League Two

League table

Graph

Squad

Transfers

Survival was the aim and it was achieved, despite a few dodgy moments. In fact in the end it was quite comfortable, as despite finishing 20th, we remarkably finished closer to 10th than 21st. We also finished the season on a seven match unbeaten run (one win and six draws) and were promptly rewarded with our lowest position all season on the final day.

We also did well in the cups, although it could have been so much more. In the FA Cup we needed a replay to see off League One side Plymouth, before going out 0-1 at home to Walsall in a match we absolutely dominated. The third round was a very winnable home tie against Northampton too, so that was an opportunity missed.

In the Johnstone's Paint, we made it to the quarter final, where a 0-0 with Kidderminster turned into a 13-12 penalty shoot-out which we were unfortunately on the wrong end of.

The board were in my ear all season about gaining income from player sales (I didn't choose to build a new stadium you jerks) and I managed to sell the inconsistent Krystian McGinn to newly promoted SPL side St Mirren for £87K + 25% of any future sale, which wasn't bad as I signed him for nothing.

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Key players

Dominic Voss - Just superb, and still only 17. In his first season as a full time professional, he returned 19 goals, 16 assists, an incredible 16 MotM awards and the second highest average rating in the league.

Phil Scott - Came through in our second intake, and has had to bide his time behind Mario Noto in the AMC slot. He certainly took his chance however, bagging 16 goals before a broken arm ended his season in March.

Tim Surey - 36 starts at only 18, he was probably our most consistent defender and will only improve. Remarkably is still to be sent off.

Kevin Povey - Not as consistent as Surey, but he is more promising and this was his first real season of senior football as he didn't really play in the Conference. My coaches rate him as having Championship potential.

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This season we say goodbye to Mario Noto, who has been immense for the club but found this season a step too far. He leaves after 193 appearances, scoring 52 goals and providing 77 assists. He also never missed a penalty for the club, going a perfect 13 for 13.

[larsson-is-god]

Always enjoyed playing from the bottom leagues and building up - current save sees me looking to lead Dartford to glory however my squad is small (21 players incl. 3 GK's)

What size of a squad is seen as 'ideal' for the demands of Skrill Premier?

[CityAndColour]

It's only five subs at that level, so I'd say a first team squad of 22 (two players for each position) is more than enough, with some u18s who can fill gaps. I never play with both an u21s squad and an u18s squad as I don't see the point financially, so I usually just have u18s and a senior team.

It's been a frustrating off-season for me as we look to strengthen for a second season in League Two. The board have sliced the wage budget by some £4K, making it difficult to sign players after all the yearly wage rises for existing players had been factored.

Signings as follows:

Matt Green (FC)

Jamie Turley (DC)

Abu Ogogo (MC/DR)

Gunnar Nielsen (GK)

Jens Jäger - (MC/AMC/FC) a US/German newgen on loan from DC United, recommended by my American scout

Trying to tie up a free transfer deal for Clovis Kamdjo too, but the board won't let me offer any wages despite being (albeit slightly) under my allowed budget.

Key midfield cog Stef Allen will miss the first two months of the season too with a dislocated shoulder suffered in training, which is very annoying.

[Guest El Payaso]

Despite the good run of results, we've been playing very poorly recently. But only in the Chester match we've been punished and the punisher was my re-gen left back that gifted them two goals in the first half. I think that we were decently in the game but three mistakes really do cost sometimes.

The FA-cup was a battle and I really don't know how we survived from that first tie against Hartlepool:

The second one, especially second half was great and they didn't produce anything and with those chances we had, we really should have won with a bigger margin. Next up is a home game against Gateshead so we do have a great chance to make it to the next round.

The match against Stalybridge in Skrill Premier was even more lucky than the first one against Hartlepool, we got three shots (two on target) and scored two. They absolutely dominated us and I wasn't really able to stop their attacks even though I tweaked with the opposition instructions all game long.

Against Lincoln they scored in the first half even though we were in control. At the start of the second half we scored twice in space of 5 minutes through brilliance of re-gen Rico Neal. After that we completely lost the control and were lucky that our marking errors didn't cost us the game.

The last game of the screenshot was a total domination and really good performance against a smaller club. Luckily I can get my back-ups some game time in the Fa Trophy.

I just noticed that I really haven't told too much about my players. So I start with my two best re-gens (I think). My coaches really don't seem to have any trust in Titterton's ability but as long as he plays well (and also is the only option to the left side), he has my trust:

Connor Titterton, AML

Rico Neal instead will be a star:

Rico Neal, AMC

Any ideas for preferred moves I should teach him?

[CityAndColour]

I usually just put a player's training on the role he plays (ie - advanced forward) and put it onto heavy. I haven't trained a preferred move in a long time.

[Guest El Payaso]

I usually just put a player's training on the role he plays (ie - advanced forward) and put it onto heavy. I haven't trained a preferred move in a long time.

Well they are progressing well so I'm not doing anything wrong there but was just looking for some tips on how I could get more out of Neal in the future. He's currently playing behind big target-man Ollie Palmer as an attacking midfielder support. I've been thinking that he might be good as a shadow striker but really don't know how that works out with a target man...

[Guest El Payaso]

Well the mid-season slump is here again for the fourth consecutive year. This time it's a "keeper's long kick"-edition. Always in trouble with those long balls, either my player doesn't challenge for the ball or misses it when going for it. Nothing else really has changed in the games, cannot score goals and concede from stupid errors and corner kicks. Palmer has been able to smash our one season goalscoring record already with 24 goals in all competitions.

[CityAndColour]

I've had to employ the "drop deeper" shout as otherwise every punt forward puts a striker through.

Decent start to the league season though...

We're still getting outplayed fairly regularly, but we seem to be able to grind out a lot of close wins. Voss has been electric, with 15 goals and a 7.81 average rating, while Surey has also enjoyed a breakout season at centre half with a 7.21 average rating.

Have also drawn Conference North side AFC Telford at home in the second round of the FA Cup, so hopefully that will lead to a money-spinner in the third round.

[Guest El Payaso]

Managed to turn that form around soon after that. Won Forest Green at home 2-0 and after that; four wins in a row, latest was a turnaround against Gateshead in the last 15 minutes. They got ahead from a corner kick but I was able to get deserved victory through goals from Mathias Pogba and Lee Croft. I've been fairly disappointed with Croft even though his lack of assists is much down to fact that my attacking players seem to be unable to score headed goals. 3 goals and 10 assists in ~35 games is quite poor no matter what.

By the way, am I supposed to get some money from that FA-cup third round game against Arsenal? Really don't know the rules about that.

E: Just noticed that the money is there.

Yet another horrible youth intake for us. Best players are with two star potential.

[CityAndColour]

FA Cup gates are split 50/50, so if you get a good away tie you can make quite a bit of cash.

[Guest El Payaso]

FA Cup gates are split 50/50, so if you get a good away tie you can make quite a bit of cash.

Thanks for the info.

After losing to Wrexham in FA-Trophy we finally started to wake up slowly. After that a bit of lucky draw against Newport, we've been absolutely diamond on the pitch, even though we had one accident against Sutton. Palmer has found his form again and with basically every player in my team performing at the moment I've been able to rotate the squad very well. That Stalybridge game once again wasn't a good performance but luckily we managed to get one goal that night and they basically just decided to take shots from range. Conor Mitchell has been superb between the pipes lately and even my central defenders are fighting for the balls now, such a huge difference in terms of aggression compared to that bad run of form. And when I told that I'm been disappointed with Croft... not anymore, that guy is on fire at the moment.

It seems that Walsall are not dealing with the pressure at the moment and they've opened us a backdoor to challenge for the title. It's gonna be interesting end to the season. We're playing against Nuneaton and Barnet at home and Hereford away. Hoping to get full points from those. Walsall are in poor form and they're playing two tough away games against Torquay and Scunthorpe and have also an easy home game against Woking who are last in the Skrill Premier.

[Guest El Payaso]

I managed to gain the promotion through Skrill Premier victory. Walsall continued with their poor form and lost to both Torquay and Scunthorpe, also drew at home against Woking. We struggled badly with our finishing especially Palmer managed to miss everywhere. Still 1-0 victory against Nuneaton with back-ups, 2-0 victory against Hareford and home draw 1-1 against Barnet was enough. I really symphatized with Walsall as they were easily the best team in the league and they ended up falling in the end. Luckily they were able to gain Promotion through play-offs.

I compeletely mistaked the whole contracts thing. Never noticed that loads of my players had 30% promotion raise and some of them also 10% yearly raise, really a rookie-like mistake from me but it will make the first League-2 season tough for us. The budget has been exceeded without really getting any signings and I can't even offer full-time contracts to my current players. Well played me. Hopefully I am able to sell some of those more useless players and get some money to fix things just a little bit. Otherwise it might just be a road back to lower leagues.