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2017/18

Table | Transfers | Squad

This was a shambles of a season as at the start the team managed to outscore the opposition and although i tried tweaking the instructions i could not seem to stop the flow of goals against. The team was midtable by dec but seemed to give up. Only 15 points from 21 games put the team in a relegation battle. I changed to using a 4-1-2-3DM from a 4-2-4 formationa and got 5 points from the next 3 games to avoid relegation with a game to go. Lost to Witton in the fa cup 3rd Qf rd and to Arsley in the FA trophy 3rd Qf rd.

Finances are still poor but ended with only a slight loss as the board put in about 60K.

Player performances were poor although the 2nd striker Flint did well alongside Clark. The wingers did not contribute as much this season. Stenning did well although the midfield seems unbalanced.

The defence was generally poor with seemingly one player every game playing at 5.5 with terrible errors, even Johnson who is a leading VCN standard player. Gomes was injured in nov for 5 months which let Nutter in who was awful and started the slide. Smyth was also appalling.

Season            League             Position       FA cup     FA Trophy   League cup    Europe       Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016/17        Conference North        12th       2nd Qf Rd    3rd Qf Rd       N/A          N/A          None
2017/18        Conference North        17th       3rd Qf Rd    3rd Qf Rd       N/A          N/A          None

Next Season:

- Get in a midfielder with good tackling and strength, current ones are too lightweight.

- Change GK, McDermott is a good shotstopper but i think his communication of 2 is contributing to the poor defence.

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That made a huge difference for me when I was lucky enough to pick up a quality DM.

i'm a few games into the new season and haven't found that player yet. I'm also got loads of injuries to midfielders and clark for 3 months. I have changed the goalie though and signed Quintero the ex chelsea player after a year of trying.

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Evertonblokes Margate 18/19 Season

So obviously I got the job, who wouldn't want me? Cheeky board gave me a warning about spending to much on wages following my ignoring the wage cap at Billericay, another great touch!

Someone asked how come Margate had so much cash, I'm afraid I don't know, I had a look but couldn't find any takeovers. Then less than a week after I took over there was a takeover! I survives and a further £575,000 was pumped into the club. No improvement to transfer budget or wages though.

I signed a couple of players for real money, £17.75k on Jamie Fox (he lives in the box!) as a back up poacher with lots of potential for this level and Kane Rose for £30k as a starting centre back. The rest were all free transfers. I was very stingy with the wages this time round, after the warning from the board, its only for a season after all!

We romped the first 2 games with easy wins and I thought: Great this will be a nice easy season, get promoted and go pro next season because we've got so much money! Oh how wrong I was! The next 8 games brought in a total of 0 points, that's right zero! Oh F**k!

The following 12 leagues games weren't much better, we also went out of both cups. I got called into the board room twice! First time was just a general do better, which after a month they decided I had done, no idea what this was measured on though, the second time was a clear you must improve the league standing.

By now I was struggling with what to do, nothing seemed to work, but I wasn't going to change tactics randomly like at 'ricay. I went about 2 months expecting the sack any moment before the second board meeting. Then the turning point....

I got a message that Zac Keeley was unhappy he hadn't had enough first team football, so what? Who the hell was Zac Keeley? Turns out I had signed him and the game moved him right to the u21s and I hadn't noticed so left him there and cracked on. By now as you can imagine every player hates me for doing so badly so I don't want yet another whinger so I tell him he can have a run in the first team, I'm about to be sacked anyway so why not? I have to change my formation to accommodate him, a 19 year old cackfooted right mid, but by now I'm ready to go and wondering who will come up and give me another chance in June.

So I drop the AMR/Ls back to MR/L and drop my best player for this kid, and ..... It. Just. Worked!

15 games and only 1 loss, and we are looking at an outside chance of the playoffs! Sadly didn't make it taking just 3 points from the final 5 games, but what a comeback. Now I'm not naïve enough to think it was down to this Zac Keeley, but he embodied it as accommodating him changed the formation.

Finished the season on 57 points, 1 more than I got with Billericay so a step in the right direction. At some point all the players realised it was all part of my grand plan and we finished exactly as expected in 11th. I signed the best players to new 2 year contracts which would never have happened in midseason!

Going into season 5 and I have only 2 spaces missing in my first XI, but 9 players needed for back up. Got a cheeky £45k to spend and a £9k a week wage budget

Summary:

15/16 Billericay - Conf South - 13th

16/17 Billericay - Conf South - 9th

17/18 Billericay - Conf South - 20th - Relegated

18/19 Margate - Conf South - 11th

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Like I sais in my previous post, we only needed 250 extra seats to fulfill the rules, and the option of expanding wasn't greyed out before this news.

Due to this new stadium and the loan needed for this, my wagebudget keeps the same. Only €4800/week. Will be a very tough season.

Could be worse Whitehawk have been promoted to the Conference National in my game and have been forced to waste money expanding their ground when their attendances for the last two games have been ~150 - their attendance figures are shocking last year they averaged 127 as they won the Conference South, this year they have at least increased it to a massive 227 :D (Actually it seems all of the South teams have poor attendances the highest average in each year has been under 1,000 whilst the highest average in the North has been 2,000-3,000?)

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Well, we survived but just barely and despite the worst defense in the league, giving up almost 100 goals

We started running out a 4-2-4, which probably didn't help our defensive issues, before transitioning to a 4-2-3-1 with defensive midfielders. My two priorities this offseason will be finding help on defense, particularly center back, and a creative force at AMC.

Not much to say about the cups. We won one game against lower level competition before losing to leaguemate Leamington and we lost our first game of the FA Trophy to another leaguemate, Stalybridge.

Elliott Chamberlain was our top offensive producer, scoring 16 goals with 8 assist from the striker and AMR positions. Unfortunately, he's not willing to sign a new contract.

Morgan Ferrier should give us a decent replacement for Chamberlain next season after scoring 13 goals as my second striker.

Jamie Yates was our top assist man with 14 and third in scoring as well as I used him on both sides of the pitch. Should be playing full time at AML next season.

Djair Parfitt-Williams is a young Bermudan I picked up on a free before the season and I played him all over up front. Scored a little bit, should be playing a bigger role as my starting AMR next season.

Lee Sawyer is my main midfielder and was one of the leading tacklers in the league but his aggression also led to 3 red cards. But the fans chose him as our player of the year.

James Campbell is the one quality defender I have currently. Had him play center back most of the year but I'd like to move him to left fullback next season.

Pretty good youth intake for us. Particularly excited by our young targetman, Richard Gordon. He should make losing Chamberlain a bit easier to handle.

So yeah, top priority is to fix our defense, pure and simple. We allowed far too many shots. A bit more steel in the midfield may help as well.

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Okay, getting ready to start this challenge and have a good feeling about it already, as I got exactly the club I wanted at the first attempt.

For the first time in any FM, I'm finally managing the glaringly beautiful design of the one and only Dulwich Hamlet

CUtHJXS.png

Canny wait to get going with this.

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Are you allowed to utilise the 'get team report' function on other clubs to check on the availability of loan players, or is that against the spirit of the thing?

I've never used it before, but I can't see anything wrong in using it. Looks fine to me.

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Maidstone United Football Club - Vanarama South - 2015/16

This is definately the final attempt at the challenge. Been struggling to get into it before this save. We started on fire and led the table nicely up to the mid way point. We then suffered a shocking dip in form and dropped down the table and out of the playoffs. I tried a couple of things to turn it around but we didnt pick up again until the very end of the season and it was too late. Slightly dissapointed to fall away so much but gives me plenty of optimism for next season if I can improve the squad enough and avoid a big winter slump!

League Table

Past Positions

Cups - Nothing special.

Squad - I brought in plenty of players and signed some gems. Thankfully most have decided to renew contracts and if i can add to it the playoffs are a reasonable shout for next season.

Finances - £280k in the bank.

Key Player Profiles:

Lyle Della Verde - Player of the season. Thankfully renewed his contract. Plays in CM or RM. 19 assists and 9 goals.

Daniel Bowers - Good season from the young loanee. Hopefully can bring him back next season. More goals required though.

Jack Parkinson - Best defender. Need to find a suitable defensive partner for him.

Next Season

The playoffs would be nice next season. Hopefully we can make a real push towards them.

Career Overview

Season          League                      League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16         Vanarama South             8th               

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Evertonblokes Margate 19/20 Season

Well this was a very short season for me.

Got 13 league games into it and got sacked on just 13 points. I bit harsh in my opinion but there you go.

I had an issue with one of the players I thought would be a star at AMC for me, he had a strop after I lost it in the dressing room after a 4-0 defeat at home to some no-bodys.

Although I don't think that was the issue that got me sacked it certainly didn't help.

I think my issue may have been the amount of kids I was fielding, perhaps some experienced heads would have helps keep things on course better, I will have to keep this in mind with my next club.

So now on to holidaying to June to see whos going to get promoted, and hoping they will give me another shot!

Summary:

15/16 Billericay - Conf South - 13th

16/17 Billericay - Conf South - 9th

17/18 Billericay - Conf South - 20th - Relegated

18/19 Margate - Conf South - 11th

19/20 Margate - Conf South - Sacked in October

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Evertonblokes Margate 19/20 Season

Well this was a very short season for me.

Got 13 league games into it and got sacked on just 13 points. I bit harsh in my opinion but there you go.

I had an issue with one of the players I thought would be a star at AMC for me, he had a strop after I lost it in the dressing room after a 4-0 defeat at home to some no-bodys.

Although I don't think that was the issue that got me sacked it certainly didn't help.

I think my issue may have been the amount of kids I was fielding, perhaps some experienced heads would have helps keep things on course better, I will have to keep this in mind with my next club.

So now on to holidaying to June to see whos going to get promoted, and hoping they will give me another shot!

Summary:

15/16 Billericay - Conf South - 13th

16/17 Billericay - Conf South - 9th

17/18 Billericay - Conf South - 20th - Relegated

18/19 Margate - Conf South - 11th

19/20 Margate - Conf South - Sacked in October

Unlucky there. You really aren't having much luck.

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Great.

Lost my season opener 4-0, and was just putting the ball in the net for the opener in the 2nd game when I got my first FM15 crash dump.

Of course, because I disabled autosave during the opening season on holiday, none of my work in pre-season has been saved. I've literally spent the last 2.5 hours of my life trawling through pre-season, spending ages bringing the right people in and trying to develop a tactic.

And now it's all gone.

I don't have the heart to start this again. :(

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Great.

Lost my season opener 4-0, and was just putting the ball in the net for the opener in the 2nd game when I got my first FM15 crash dump.

Of course, because I disabled autosave during the opening season on holiday, none of my work in pre-season has been saved. I've literally spent the last 2.5 hours of my life trawling through pre-season, spending ages bringing the right people in and trying to develop a tactic.

And now it's all gone.

I don't have the heart to start this again. :(

You did all that in 2.5 hours?!? It takes me a good 8 hours to get through my first pre-season!

Don't be disheartened by a crashdump. Just make sure you set your next attempt to do rolling autosaves.

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I think its because I am not very good!!!!

Atleast you score +points for determination!

For the players you sign, try work around finding 2-3 main stats for each position and from there just stick to 1 formation and sign/sack players until you are happy.

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Atleast you score +points for determination!

For the players you sign, try work around finding 2-3 main stats for each position and from there just stick to 1 formation and sign/sack players until you are happy.

Hahaha, cheers, I'll see if I can get my manager stats updated!! ;)

I was planning on sticking to one formation, do you recommend changing mentality according to the oppo, or just leaving it as is for everyone?

You will be glad to know I am back in the game and returning to Essex.......

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Hahaha, cheers, I'll see if I can get my manager stats updated!! ;)

I was planning on sticking to one formation, do you recommend changing mentality according to the oppo, or just leaving it as is for everyone?

You will be glad to know I am back in the game and returning to Essex.......

I have two tactics, one for home and one for away/higher league teams/defending a lead. The home tactic is more offensive, and the other one is more defensive. Both are 4-4-2.

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Canvey Island - Sky Bet Championship - 2022/23

After three successive promotions, the squad needed rebuilding to make that final push to the top flight.

League Table - we had a brilliant start finding ourselves top after eight games, but we faded badly as the season went on.

Capital One Cup - it was a decent run that ended badly at the hands of Newcastle.

FA Cup - favourable draws took us all the way to Wembley, where we lost badly to Chelsea.

Transfers - a new scouting range meant I had busy year bringing in new players from Europe.

Squad - we are a few decent players short of having a decent squad.

Finances - the money worries are a thing of the past.

Key Player Profiles:

Frankie Murphy - joint top scorer, from the supporting striker role.

Christian Brogger - the other top scorer.

Arnaud Gautier - a stylish winger.

Ourdy Landu - a solid defensive midfielder.

Max Schonfeld - one of my best signings.

Career Overview

Season    League                       Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South    9th       
2016/17   Vanarama Conference South    1st         Promoted as champions
2017/18   Vanarama Conference Premier  20th        FA Trophy finalists
2018/19   Vanarama Conference Premier  13th        FA Trophy finalists
2019/20   Vanarama Conference Premier  1st         Promoted as champions
2020/21   Sky Bet League 2             2nd         Promoted
2021/22   Sky Bet League 1             2nd         Promoted
2022/23   Sky Bet Championship         10th        

Next Season

I think we can make the playoffs with a few new players. If I can get a quality goalscorer we might stand a chance of promotion.

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Any one got any really odd loan signings from the same division? Just got a striker on loan from AFC Telford who had 18 in 19 for them in the league for them this season. We're 20 games in so he's basically played every game for them this season.

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Right then, I've started again.

Gutted that Dulwich Hamlet not available this time, but I've now taken over as manager of Hereford. Had a wee play around with the (limited) manager attributes, and I've shifted mostly across to 'tactical manager' for this save. Hopefully I can find a decent coach to take up the slack in terms of the training ground.

EkXNSbl.png

Here we go again then, regular saves at the ready this time!!

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Well, I can't see this lasting long. I was shocked and delighted when I saw the depth of my wage and transfer budget. Should survive comfortably with that I thought. And then came the season expectations.

mSNclFS.png

Really FM? Really? Just came up and the only expectation is to win the league?

See you soon with my 3rd attempt, I expect. :lol:

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Marine AFC

Season Summary 18/19

Conference

Final Position 19th

My guiding light, shining beacon, my Gareth Bale, my Luis Suarez the last three seasons Michael Crank left me in the summer. Didnt even get 30 silver coins for him as the ******* sat out the contract, then signed for Burnley the next day. Panic of course broke out and I signed way, way, way too many players. I think at one point of the season I had 5 leftwings all about of the same sub-standard. One of them (Darren Diver) mainly because of the name, but still!

The season started really rough with two heavy 2-5 defeats, where we were totally slaughtered and lucky not to lose more. At that point made a decision to switch to an ultra-defensive 5-4-1 system, which i pretty much used for the rest of the campaign, with mixed success it must be said. A great run of games at the turn of the year saved my season. We won 7/14 games before falling totally apart towards the end of the season again.

Still - very happy to survive this season and hope to recruit well in the summer. Also hope to make more of a cup run next season as that has been totally non-existant so far. Could use all financial bonus from extra games as we're soon £300k in the red.

KEY PLAYERS:

Sam Hillhouse: 43 games - 28 goals, 2 assists. Judas' replacement actually had an amazing season. Ended up joint 2nd in the topscoring charts which is pretty great in a struggling side. Thankfully signed up also for next season!

Danny Beaverstock: 38 games - 3 goals, 5 assists. Been with me since the start and have really flourished this season. Versatile and reliable performer and had the best average rating of my players.

Wayne Page: 34 games - 6 goals, 5 assists. I said earlier I was stuck with 5 mediocre left wings, but this one turned out to be pretty good.

Year	League	Pos.	Champ.L	Uefa	FA.Cup	Cap.One	JPT	FAT 	Achievement
15/16	Van N	19th	None	None	2ndQual	None	None	3rd Rnd	None
16/17	Van N	5th	None	None	4thQual	None	None	3rd Rnd	Lost play-off semifinal
17/18	Van N	4th	None	None	4thQual	None	None	1st Rnd	Promoted through play-off
18/19	Conf  	19th	None	None	4thQual	None	None	1st Rnd	None

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Good luck Dagenham_Dave. Hereford really should be a team you can win the Conference North with in the first season. They have a high rep, and those budgets are massive.

Yeah, I wasn't aware that would be the case, it almost feels like cheating. I'd thought of starting again, then remembered how rubbish I am at this game, so that option will likely be enforced upon me anyway. :p

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See if your Youth Level is '0' on this game, does that mean you don't get any sort of youth intake? I remember I didn't have one at Droylsden last year, and it really hampered my development.

You still get players but I think you are limited to really local players (i.e. rubbish players), if one of your Youth Recruitment/Junior Coaching levels are at none then you don't get any youth intake.

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Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama Conference South - 2016/17

League - we struggled in many games and switched tactics more than once, not being able to ever pull a decent string of results.

FA Cup - a good run.

FA Trophy - another good run.

Squad - there's a screaming lack of quality in some positions but we can't attract many quality players.

Transfers - we need to find a handful of good players to improve the squad.

Finances - both cup runs helped steady the finances.

Career overview

Season    Division                    Position   Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16   Vanarama Conference South   6th
2016/17   Vanarama Conference South   8th

Next season

We need to work hard in the transfer market or else next season will be similar to this one, with so-so performances.

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Maidstone United - Vanarama South - 2015/16

0pkAs0N.png

Club Information | Facilities | Manager Profile | Board Overview | Confidence

We did the double!

League Table

Past Positions

Results 1 / Results 2

We were predicted to finish 12th, but started off great with 4 wins and 1 loss in our first 5 matches. This got us up and around the top of the table. We then started playing like a team predicted to finish mid-table, not really able to get a good run of results. I thought we'd drop out of the top 5 at this point, but the other teams around the top also struggled for good form so we never dropped out lower that 4th. After we received a 6-1 hammering against Welling, I decided to tweak the tactics a bit. These small tweaks paid off big time, as we didn't lose a match from that point on. We spent the second half of the season in 1st place, and not once looked like giving up our position.

FA Cup - We had a good run to in the FA Cup, even beating Wycombe on the way to the 2nd round. League 1 Millwall were just too good for us though.

FA Trophy - We did a fantastic job, winning the whole thing. I'm up for defending the trophy next season.

Squad - The team played great, and morale remained high all season.

Staff - I brought a completely new set of staff members, some of which have already completed coaching courses.

Transfers - Got rid of a lot of deadwood, and brought in some really good free players and loanees. I did spend a lot on one player, but he was worth every penny.

Finances - I'm in the red, but only because the chairman spend just over £1M in May on expansions and upgrades.

Key Players

Zane Banton - The teams top scorer, Banton was deadly up front in the league and the FA Trophy. He also set up a fair few goals.

James Roberts - Joined on loan from Oxford, and scored the second most goals for the team. I'd love to sign him perminantly, or loan him again next season.

Lloyd Harrington - Was already at the club when I took over, and I'm glad I gave him a chance. He ran up and down the wing tirelessly, and set up the most goals for the team.

Jack Parkinson - Defended abmirably all season.

Awards and Achievements

Vanarama South top scorer - Zane Banton

FA Trophy Overachievers

FA Trophy Top Scorer - James Roberts

Aims For Next Season

I think a mid-table finish is achievable, but I'd love to push for a playoff spot. Retaining the FA Trophy and getting to the FA Cup 3rd round would be fantastic.

Quite a lot of club records broken this season.

Other News

We have a new chairman, and he seems like a rather ambitious one. He's allowed us to sign a fair few more staff, among other things which will really improve the clubs standing.

Lots of upgrades and expansions happening. We're getting a 1774 stadium expansion, and we'll be playing in an 8K capacity stadium in Sittingbourne until it's completed. At the same time at the stadium expansion was announced, the chairman also announced youth facility upgrades. A few weeks later, a second youth facility upgrade was announced to maybe raise our youth level.

Career Overview

Season          League                League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/400804-dafuge-s-FM15-challenge?p=10014249&viewfull=1#post10014249"]2015/16[/url]         Vanarama South        1st               Vanarama South winners, FA Trophy winners

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HEREFORD

2015/2016

1st - Vanarama Conference North

Profile | Finances | Transfers | Squad | Table | Fixtures (League pt. 1, pt.2, Cups

What can i say apart from the obvious. It was absolutely brilliant season. Definitely easiest start i had so far to this challenge (last year i failed miserably for example). Squad i got was brilliant with great wingers (Gnahore, Vetier plus good signing Mahon) good midfield (young Rutherford, Harding plus great signing Healy who made a difference with his passing) and solid defenders (O'Reilly, Onyeike plus solid McDonald, although i dont think i should spend money on him). So really i just added good replacements for the people that were already there (apart from mentioned Healy, and left back Habergham - key signings).

Toward end of the season we had more slip ups (4 draws in a row), but 1st place was never really in danger. 1st half of the season most of the matches i conceded first and came back, at the end, i was leading to lose goals in closing minutes. I will have to address that. Also, number of conceded goals in total is a worry.

For next season i definitely have to get myself a good striker. I have doubts whether my current one Tomlison is good enough, and second one, Diop, has just terrible stamina. Rest can stay in 1st Team, i think they're good enough. Its a young team overall, so still can evolve. But more or less i plan to fight for promotion, judging that winning the FA Trophy wasnt also very hard.

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I see no one is yet to take on building a legacy over at Top Field, so I think it's time for Mark Burke to step aside and for Hitchin Town to welcome in a new age of success. :)

Especially as I'm in the process of buying a house approximately 200ft from their ground, season ticket for 2014-15 here we come. :cool:

Thanks for setting this challenge up for a 10th year Dafuge, always seen it...never tried it, until now.

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I see no one is yet to take on building a legacy over at Top Field, so I think it's time for Mark Burke to step aside and for Hitchin Town to welcome in a new age of success. :)

Especially as I'm in the process of buying a house approximately 200ft from their ground, season ticket for 2014-15 he we come. :cool:

Thanks for setting this challenge up for a 10th year Dafuge, always seen it...never tried it, until now.

Good luck in your first ever attempt at this challenge. It's not easy, but it's well worth giving a go.

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