dafuge's FM17 challenge

[Sheep]

I have also started this challenge very recently as Workington. Every year I like reading these but never do one myself.

 

[Soviet]

1 hour ago, Champfan10 said:

Joining as the new Ashton United manager

Great hair mate.

[Scab]

When the Team Meeting about poor form actually works. 

[b3nn3h]

Decided to give this challenge a go this year.

Only took me about 300 refresh attempts to get Marine, a club i used to train with a long time ago.

http://imgur.com/a/rjX4f

During the many attempts to get Marine i picked up a few saves of rarer teams.  All the saves have a Large DB and all UK and Ireland players (about 40k players).

Teams in saves are: Staines, Skelmersdale, Barwell, Enfield, Stourbridge, Nantwich, Chippenham, Buxton, Marine, Grays and Harrow.

If anyone is interested in any of these saves let me know and i'll find somewhere to host them for download.

[Balahara]

BARWELL

Season 18/19

 

League Table - Had a disastrous start to the league and I was battling it out in the relegation zone for a significant portion of the season, even reaching bottom of the table in gameweek 11 after a 4-0 drubbing by Dulwich. My over eager transfer policy definitely harms my early season cohesion, but it works out in the end I feel. I think a journalist told me I was on my 62nd signing of the season . I should have won the Playoff Final but I bottled it so I get to do this all again next season. I don't particularly mind though, I like the non-contract aspect of semi-pro teams, and no loan restrictions means I can form a very cheap side for next years attempt at the title.

Squad - Standout player was goalscoring sensation Billy McKay. I was keeping an eye on him for ages and he finally agreed terms on 27th of January. So to get nearly 18 goals from then is outstanding work. Axel Prohouly should also be mentioned as my team clicked much better when with him as a lethal inside forward. Thankfully his loan lasts another season.

Cups - I was excited at the prospect of a premier league team with their premier league attendance in the FA Cup 3rd round. So at half time and 3-0 down it was an extra kick in the teeth when I got the news that only 4,617 fans had bothered to show up. Not the moneymaker I was looking for. FA Trophy ended prematurely with an abject defeat to bottom of the table Boston Utd.

Finances - This was right after the Wembley final, so things are looking pretty good there. The Wembley money mostly went on another small Stadium Expansion and an upgrade to the training facilities. I had the drama of a potential tycoon takeover, but in the end it was just a consortium who invested a whopping 50k into the club.

 

I've already got the goals from the board for next season and they know the quality of my side. They want first place, along with the FA Trophy. As long as I can avoid a bad start to the season that should be achievable.

 

 

 

Season	|       League	      | Position |    Europe	  |        Top Scorer          |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|   Vanarama North    |  1st	 |      N/A 	  |Williams,Driessen,Duffus(12)|   Promoted as champions, VNN Manager of season
2018/19 |   Vanarama National |  4th     |      N/A       |        McKay(18)           |   Playoff finalist

 

[Scab]

Season 2023/24 Review - Burgess Hill Town in Sky Bet League One

League Table | Squad | Transfers | Season Review

It all started so well - then we couldn't last the distance.   I had a hard time convincing good players to sign so I'm not too displeased with what is essentially last season's team proving competitive at 9th, but we were lining ourselves up for the playoffs until mid-season when the form dipped hard. Without the squad depth to rotate out the underperformers and unmotivated, we never truly got back on track. While grinding out a whole lotta hard-earned draws proved there's still some backbone to this side, 3 wins from the last 11 matches wasn't going to be enough to avoid dropping places.

Small tweaks now with a few strong signings and I'd feel good about this team. Given how Max Ryan - my only proper target man - spent most of the season out injured (again!), I may need to reconsider my attacking play. We can scout Europe now, so hopefully there are some hidden gems out there!

Finances | Commercial Summary | Solidarity Payment

I think we'll be fine.

Aim for next season: Strengthen the squad.

Season    League               Finish   Achievements
2023/24   Sky Bet League One   9th      -
2022/23   Sky Bet League Two   1st      League winners!
2021/22   Vanarama National    1st      League winners
2020/21   Vanarama National    8th      FA Trophy runner-ups
2019/20   Vanarama South       1st      League winners
2018/19   Vanarama South       4th      Playoff semi-finalists
2017/18   Vanarama South       6th      -

 

[LeProfIamNot]

Dulwich Hamlet - 2017/2018 - Vanarama National League South

League Table - Transfers - Season Review - Injuries - Finances - Players - Attendance

 

Expectations

Media - 4th

Board - Playoffs

Actual finish - 1st

 

Overview

Managing this club was a gift.  The talent on the first team was amazing.  I had probably the best year I've ever had in regards to injuries, which helped immensely.  I purchased numerous players to fill the squad in the very beginning, based solely upon my scouts recommendations, and was rewarded well.  Just viewing my player sheet shows the level of depth used throughout the campaign, which kept my boys fresh and competing for spots.  On only a few occasions did they seem to switch off, and even when they did, they were able to scrape some ugly wins and draws to keep their place at the top of the league, which we held for most of the season.  These fantastic lads allowed me to win three manager of the month awards and Manager of the Season runner up (yes I'm still a bit annoyed at this but hey, they were predicted 21st and won promotion so I guess I can understand.

Players

This squad was handed to me with a ridiculous amount of quality.  I grew attached to quite a few players but the standouts are easy to give.

Charlie Kendall

This was an early, blind signing to fill the squad.  My staff liked this 19 year old a lot.  His favored role was Target man but the few attributes I could see said he was a good passer with vision.  I felt I would need a backup to Daniel Carr so I took a chance and hoped he could play DLF.  I was quite happy when I saw has attributes.  I slowly worked him into the setup but it was clear very early that he was something special.  I kept playing him and he kept rewarding me for it.  Then moved Carr to the inside forward role on the wing and that's when we really started to get the machine moving.  Charlie was on a non-contract and I signed him to a year extension which kicked in at the end of the season.  My staff is telling me that he's already well suited for National football with potential for League 2.  I hope he can find success next year in National.  His attributes have been jumping up with playing time so I have high expectations for him.

Daniel Carr

I started this guy playing the DLF role in my 4-3-3 wide and he was making things happen for sure.  He didn't hit his stride, however, until Kendall made a case to lead the line, which caused me to move Carr out on the right wing.  I played him as a winger for a while and then tried him as an inside forward, which he seemed to do better with.  He was more "electric" than Kendall, however, and I kept putting Carr at striker for that extra something special.  That was until I tried him on the left wing, which he had no experience playing.  Once he started cutting inside on his good food, he hit another level.  I signed him to an extension before the new year.  My staff says he's a decent player for most National sides but we shouldn't see much improvement despite him being only 23 years old.  I hope he proves to be just as fantastic playing in National.  We'll see.

Levi Rowley

This 19 year old was on the squad when I showed up.  He was my midfield runner and also played some playmaker.  After a quarter of the season was done, I started studying the stats and noticed that he was leading the team in shots on target percentage, by a large margin.  I have never seen a midfielder hitting the target 70% of the time through 10 games.  I decided to teach him to shoot with power, as he just wasn't putting his mark on the game like I felt he could.  This guy learned to shoot and he started to hit the net, finally.  His shooting percentage ended up at 38% by the end of the season, but to give an idea of the impact he had at the end of the season, of his 7 league goals, he hit 6 of them in his last 14 games, which fantastic from central midfield.  I debated on resigning him for most of the season, and finally decided to do so when it became apparent he could be that midfield threat I felt I was lacking.  I firmly believe that I may not have won the league without him.  Our attack was getting a bit stale by the end of the campaign and he kept finding ways to blast the ball into the net when it was imperative we score to keep our promotion bid going.

FA Cup

We cruised to victory in the 2nd qualifying round against lower league Chalfont St. Peter, as expected.  It was a home match so the attendance boost was nice for the financial situation.  The 3rd qualifying round put us up against same league opponent Eastbourne Boro at their grounds.  Tough game but we came through winners.  The 4th qualifying round put us up against National side Bromly as the away side again.  We were favored to beat them, as they were sitting bottom of National, with us at the top of National South.  Not our best showing and were down 3-1 at halftime.  Rowley got one back on 78 minutes but that was it.  Our cup campaign was dead one victory short of what the board was expecting.  Such is life.

FA Trophy

We overachieved for this one, making it to the 3rd round, one further than expected.  Every game had us away so we couldn't cash in on attendance at all.  The first match was a blowout, 5-1 against lower league Herne Bay.  The rest of the matches were against tough competition.  1st round had us up against Oxford City who was at the bottom of National South pretty much the whole season, and eventually relegated.  We smoked them 4-0 to move into the 2nd round where we faced National side Woking.  They were in the bottom half of National and ended up finishing 17th there, so we'll be competing against them next season.  We put on another show and it the boys were playing like it was the training pitch, 6-0.  The 3rd round saw us up against AFC Telford, who were in the top 3 of National North at the time, and eventually went on to win that division.  This was a battle between two obviously even clubs.  It went into extra time and they won 2-1 with 5 minutes left.  I was pretty upset but after it was said and done, it was a great match between two very equal sides.  We both would go on to win our divisions so I got beaten by a great club.

Finances

We're in the red a bit but not by much.  We have a great following and that put us 8th in attendance averaging 855 per game.  We just started an expansion project due to Vanarama National grounds restrictions but I expected that.  My wage budget should be relatively close to what it was last year since I am only expecting to bring in a few new faces and the rest of the core unit is signed through next year.  Sometimes attendance goes bad after promotion so we'll see if the fans are still dedicated to watch us.  I've managed in National before and believe this squad has the quality to go mid-table or top half, especially if I can sign the 3 targets I'm currently looking at.

Season by Season Results

Season		League							Position	Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2017/18		Vanarama National League South	1st			Division Champion. Manager of the Season runner-up. 3 Manager of the Month awards.

 

[Swindon69]

Just wondering if anyone's had a worse play-off final result then my 1-6 capitulation to Bath.

[Kaiserwatman]

Stafford Rangers

Season Report 23-24

League  Finances  Best XI  FA Cup  FA Trophy

Small steps towards League Status , small steps as The Local Club for the Local People rose a couple of positions within the division this season .  Keeper James Hart was signed from Solihull Moors for a fee of £8K, a fee which has been questioned by fans and the board though I believe him to be a more solid option than Brad House who has been a stalwart over the years.   Tim Woodford also came from Solihull Moors to replace the ageing Havern who's days were numbered and has now retired from football.  Summerfield and Bowen will be the two I shall be looking to upgrading in the upcoming season especially. It will be a slow process but The Boro will hopefully rise and hopefully before getting league status will have a side capable of maintaining its position without financial burden and within the core recruitment area.

Ex Walsall man Cameron Peters is now the clubs record goal scorer having surpassed Harvey Knibbs from the early years  and it was his goals which brought Silverware to Stafford as having squeezed through several ties , replays and penalty shoot out dramas, Stafford lined up against Lincoln City in the FA Trophy, a side who we had done the double in the league. The game pretty much went to plan as Stafford lifted the Cup for first time since 1979. Only Barrow were above me in the league throughout and I 'll admit to be pretty lucky to win that game but a cup is a cup.

 

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer        |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|  Vanarama North     |       16th	   |      N/A 	  |  Harvey Knibbs  (15)   |   Avoided Relegation
2018/19 |  Vanarama North     |       16th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (11)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2019/20 |  Vanarama North     |       11th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (27)   |   Mid-table
2020/21 |  Vanarama North     |        5th         |      N/A     |  John Sampson   (29)   |   Lost in Playoffs     
2021/22 |  Vanarama North     |        1st         |      N/A     |  Jason Davidson (25)   |   FA Trophy Finalists
2022/23 |  Vanarama National  |       14th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (33)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2023/24 |  Vanarama National  |       10th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (22)   |   FA Trophy Winners

[Warhawk]

I have to admit I'm completely stunned at how well my first season in League 2 is going.  Through 25 games I'm in the lead by 8 points, a few games ago I beat Championship team Bolton 3-0 in the FA Cup, and now I just destroyed the top team in League One, Milwall, 4-0 in the Checkatrade Trophy.  Including cup competitions were on an 11-1-1 run right now.

Just looking at our attributes, there's no reason we should be this good.  We have some of the lowest attributes in the league (we have the lightest team in the league, are worst in 7 attributes, and are above average only in fitness and leadership).  We're also the youngest team in the league, without a single player over 26.  And for all that, we've been doing this playing a possession game with a control mentality - our best team stats in league play are 2nd in average possession, 3rd in pass completion rate (worst passing attributes in the league, by the way), and 3rd in shots on target ratio.

I honestly have no idea how this is happening.

[Sheep]

23 minutes ago, Warhawk said:

I have to admit I'm completely stunned at how well my first season in League 2 is going.  Through 25 games I'm in the lead by 8 points, a few games ago I beat Championship team Bolton 3-0 in the FA Cup, and now I just destroyed the top team in League One, Milwall, 4-0 in the Checkatrade Trophy.  Including cup competitions were on an 11-1-1 run right now.

Just looking at our attributes, there's no reason we should be this good.  We have some of the lowest attributes in the league (we have the lightest team in the league, are worst in 7 attributes, and are above average only in fitness and leadership).  We're also the youngest team in the league, without a single player over 26.  And for all that, we've been doing this playing a possession game with a control mentality - our best team stats in league play are 2nd in average possession, 3rd in pass completion rate (worst passing attributes in the league, by the way), and 3rd in shots on target ratio.

I honestly have no idea how this is happening.

Team Cohesiveness and Morale are huge factors in FM. Your team can be sub-par but if they have been playing together for a long time then they 'out perform' their attributes because they know the tactics and each other to a very high standard. Also you have to consider the stability of the length of your management vs. other teams in the league who may have had at least 2 or 3 managers by this point with different tactics and ideas. Just my 2 pence.

[G_D_K]

12 hours ago, b3nn3h said:

When the Team Meeting about poor form actually works. 

Yeah....had a team talk after going 0 points in first 7....responded w/ back to back wins.  Had another team talk 5-6 weeks later....responded w/ 6 points in 3 matches.  Just can't keep a run going atm....

[XaW]

My youth team are playing well!

[Thebaker]

58 minutes ago, XaW said:

My youth team are playing well!

 

The lack of CCC's must have disappointed you along with those players who couldn't even manage a match rating of 10

[Balahara]

BARWELL

Season 19/20 - Vanarama National

 

League Table - As the board expected, this ended up a walkover. Tranmere provided a challenge for most of the season but couldn't keep up the pace at the tail end of the season. I went attacking for the season and it shows in the goals scored and conceded.

Cups - No good here. Need to improve in big cup games in future

Transfers -Not that many this season compared to usual

Squad - Was very fortunate to get so many loans full of quality young players for no wage contribution. My favourite of these being Vanarama National player of the year Jonathan Johnson, a tall hardworking target man who I am lucky to also have for next season. Simon Thompson ended up as top scorer and is also here for another season, so I'm hoping the Johnson-Thompson partnership can handle League Two football.

My first marquee signing of the season was Sone Aluko, who I was very excited to see play in the Vanarama National League. So excited that I dismissed the physios warning about his injury proneness and laughed at the journalist who questioned whether this was a risky signing due to his medical history. Well that journalist had the last laugh when he suffered knee tendonitis three weeks later that put him out for 7 months, ending his season. His attribute loss is significant in that picture compared to when he signed and I'm not sure he will be that effective next season. Total dud I'm afraid.

Was surprised to see Prince Oniangué willing to discuss terms with me, having had a handful of appearances at premier league Hull last season. He didn't get much playing time this season due to injury, but he should be an important player for my first League Two season. 

I didn't utilize an AMC but when a player like Maddison becomes available, you change your tactics to suit them. Can't say I particularly enjoyed his performances though, I thought he would be banging them in from distance but I haven't seen one so far. Wouldn't mind cashing in on that value he has if I'm being honest.

Prohouly had another fine season and I would like to sign him up as his contract at QPR ends as it can be tough finding a decent inside forward.

Finances are pretty healthy but I know that is coming to an end as I switch to being a professional side. Average attendance this year was 892 so money is always gonna be tight.  More Stadium works are planned to comply with minimum league regulations and even with that the requirements aren't met. Will have another bill for it this time next season too.

Season	|       League	      | Position |    Europe	  |        Top Scorer          |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|   Vanarama North    |  1st	 |      N/A 	  |Williams,Driessen,Duffus(12)|   Promoted as champions, VNN Manager of season
2018/19 |   Vanarama National |  4th     |      N/A       |        McKay(18)           |   Playoff finalist
2019/20 |   Vanarama National |  1st     |      N/A       |        Thompson (20)       |   Promoted as champions

[Upside Down]

Well done Balahara, making great progress quickly

[IainWhite]

So after forgetting to save my Dulwich save to the cloud i reinstalled my laptop and lost the save. I've decided to start with a different team this time so introducing the new manager of Harrow Borough

[Dons]

Basingstoke Town Season Update 2017/18

National League South
Position 8th

Squad - Table - Graph - Transfers - Finances - Profile - Man. stats - Conf. Review - Season Review - Basingstoke Awards

Short update, as there really wasn't too much exciting things happening. The Cup runs were over before they really started, with exits in 4th qual and 1st rnd. The final league position of 8th was pleasing though. 

Only James Difford was really worth mentioning, did a great job scoring 16 goals in 26 matches.

The injuries in this season was painful though - especially the length. At one point, even lost both keepers and had to panic sign a third.

Ended up overspending the budget, but the board kept adding new finances  4 times! 1st 2nd 3d 4th

Am pretty content with the squad, and with a few new signings should be a good season to come.
 

Season	League	Position	Dom. Cups					Euro Cups	Achievements
17/18	NLS	8th       	FA: 4th qual FAT: 1st rnd 			NA		None

 

[IainWhite]

Harrow Borough Football Club - Season 2017/18

Vanarama National South

Media Prediction - 20th

Final Position - 12th

League: So after taking over i decided to stick with the current squad for the first season only bringing in one player during pre season Eric Brady a youngster from Cambridge City. Although being written off by the media in preseason expecting us to finish 20th and relegated we got off to a great start with the record of 5 wins 3 draws and 2 losses after 10 games we sat in the play off places where we hovered around for the majority of the season. Then late February hit and we got that message through in our inbox that we were safe from relegation. I thought great and told the media we can now maybe push for a playoff spot. Then i lost the spine of my team in the space of 2 games Tom Rigby my centre back, George Doyle my centre midfielder and Kyle King my top scorer all out for 6-8 weeks. I brought in a few replacements but they failed to make an impact. Its safe to say our season ended there! We were on the beach! Safe from relegation. Our final 10 games ended with 1 win 1 draw and 8 losses 7 in a row making a unwanted new Harrow record.
Cup: We done okay in the cups reaching the 4th qualifying round of the FA cup losing to National league Dover Athletic. Lost to Dartford in the FA trophy First round.

Screenshots

Squad - Tactic - Schedule 1 / 2 - Vanarama National South - Comps - Transfers - Finances

Seasons Awards

Fans Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season - Ronaldo Jones

Top Goalscorer - Kyle King 23 goals

Managers Player of the Year - Eric Brady(The youngster i brought in played more than i wanted him to but looks good for the future!)

Next Season

 

 

* Improve squad

* Push for Playoffs

 

season	competition						pos		achievements														
2018/19	VNS							12th	

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

AFC Sudbury - 2018/19

Vanarama South| League Table | FA Cup | FA Trophy | Transfers | Squad| Finances

So I did end up getting relegated my first season with Weymouth, so I decided to take the reigns at AFC Sudbury who had been newly promoted the next year.  It was a bit of an inconsistent season, we had spells of wins and spells of losses, but couldn't really find any form for an extended period of time. After trying different tactics at the beginning of the season, I settled on a narrow 4-3-3. So mid season, I brought in a couple of pacey strikers to build my 3 man attack up. We started to have a bit more success and ended up finishing safely in mid-table much to the chagrin of our supporters and the board. The only problem we have right now is finances. We're leaking money and next year I'm going to have to get rid of all of our players on a part-time contract and build up a team of younger players on non-contract deals. So goals for next season are to stabilize the club financially and match our mid-table position with a younger side.

Team of the Season

Chris Marques

Callum Webb             Ioan Evans             Kevin Healy              Louis Moss

Pelayo Gomez-Pico      Shane Byrne       Reece Hands

Andre Johnson       Thomas Knowles      Ibrahim Kargbo

 

Career Overview

Season    League                       Position    FA Cup          Capital One Cup     Johnston's Paint Trophy  FA Trophy       Achievements/Notes           Top Scorer             Most Assists            Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Vanarama Conference North    12th        3rd Q Round     N/A                 N/A                      2nd Round       N/A                          Ibrahim Kargbo (16)    Andre Johnson (8)       Ibrahim Kargbo (7.16)  

[Hypanimz]

Just sold a midfielder I picked up for a free in the summer for £500k. Unfortunately in the middle of a takeover (no tycoon) so under embargo and cannot replace him. 

[Balahara]

Funnily enough I just sold a midfielder of mine for 500k on transfer deadline day then loaned him back immediately. Don't see him making it with Crystal Palace but I'm glad for the money.

[Hypanimz]

4 minutes ago, Balahara said:

Funnily enough I just sold a midfielder of mine for 500k on transfer deadline day then loaned him back immediately. Don't see him making it with Crystal Palace but I'm glad for the money.

I tried to get them to take the transfer at the end of the season but they wouldn't. I am having possibly the toughest season I have ever had in any save of FM or CM. After being relegated last season half my squad want out and are at low morale and keep unsettling the rest of the team. I also bought a lot of wingers in the summer to try a new system which was awful as we didn't win in our first 8 games. I then switched to a winger-less formation and we are now in 4th after 29 games but with no squad depth and a bunch of unhappy players who all go out of contract in 6 months time. 

[XaW]

Season Summary - XaW - Folkestone Invicta - 2025/26

Table | Past Positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

After last seasons great promotion to the Championship I had some transfers lined up. Even though a couple of players who have been with us for some seasons are worth keeping, our rapid progression through the leagues have left us with a bunch of poorer players. Those are mostly fringe players, but they still needed to be replaced. I managed to get in most of those I wanted, while at the same time we shipped out a bunch of players not cut out for this level. As the season started I was rather confident in my squad, and did they ever deliver! We won our first 4 matches in the league, and from that moment on we were part of the top. After a quarter of the season Newcastle and ourselves had gotten a little ahead of the rest and it looked like we were a serious contender for promotion. A little after Christmas we hit our regular "New year slump", but Newcastle struggled as well. Wolverhampton took advantage of this and caught up with us, while Brentford, Cardiff and QPR gained a lot. We managed to turn the slump after a while and it was very narrow going into the final matches. With only one match left to play the top was extremely close! We knew we would get promoted if we won away against already relegatied Preston North End. Newcastle had a tough away game against Cardiff. while Wolves had a home tie against MK Dons. Our match started very poorly as we fell behind after just 3 minutes. After 39 minutes we got hit again, and we were 2 goals down. At this point Newcastle was ahead of Cardiff and past us while the Wolves game was still tied 0-0.  Just before the break we hit one back when striker Tommy Dougill slottet it into the top corner from 30 yards. After half time we continued to try to get more goals and we got the equalizer after Jonathan Roberts picked up a lose ball and hit the net. Only 7 minutes later he was at the right place again and scored our 3rd goal of the game to give us the lead. We managed to hold on and gain promotion! After the game I checked the other matches again. Newcastle had gotten another goal in injury time to win their game 0-2. Wolves on the other had hadn't managed to break the deadlock and their match ended 0-0. A quick look at the table showed that we had won the entire thing! On goal difference with Newcastle, and a single point ahead of Wolves. Premier League here we come!

In other news, our tycoon owner have withdrawn his backing of us. Still, being in the Premier League next season we should hopefully get enough money to keep the bill collectors at bay. Our stadium, that should be finished this summer have been delayed. The new date is in November.

In the FA Cup we got drawn against Tottenham at home in the 3rd round. We managed a very good 2-2 result to get a rematch away at the New White Hart Lane. In the rematch we somehow managed to beat them 2-0 to progress! In the 4th round we got another tough match as we drew Manchester City away. We gave it all we had, but lost 2-4 against them. In the EFL Cup we beat Luton before we lost away to Swansea in the 2nd round.

The best players this season were striker Tommy Dougill, right back Mark Townrow and the heart in the defense Mike Winter.

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer       |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|   Vanarama South    |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (17)     |   Mid-table
2018/19	|   Vanarama South    |       4th	   |      N/A 	  |     Ben Pattie (24)     |   Promoted through playoffs
2019/20	|  Vanarama National  |       17th	   |      N/A 	  |     Harry Smith (22)    |   Survived relegation
2020/21	|  Vanarama National  |       11th	   |      N/A 	  |     Euan Sahadow (20)   |   Mid-table
2021/22	|  Vanarama National  |       10th	   |      N/A 	  | Daniel Butterworth (20) |   Tycoon takeover! Mid-table
2022/23	|  Vanarama National  |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Leon Okubuyejo (23)   |   Promoted as champions
2023/24	|    League Two       |       5th	   |      N/A 	  |  Jonathan Benteke (29)  |   Promoted through playoff
2024/25	|    League One       |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |   Tommy Dougill (33)    |   Promoted as champions, Won JPT
2025/26	|    Championship     |       1st	   |      N/A 	  |    Lee O'Neill (27)     |   Promoted as champions

[Hypanimz]

@XaW Great work on making the Premier League, shame about the owner withdrawing his finances but at least you made it to the Premier League before that happened. 

[Kaiserwatman]

Stafford Rangers

Season Report 24-25

League  Finances  Best XI  FA Cup  FA Trophy

Defence was a problem pretty evident in last season's 10th place finish and it was time to say goodbye to loyal servants who have grafted throughout the years to get club to where it is but their time was up . Keeper Bradley House (284 appearances) and left back James Bowen (257 appearances) both left the club and with Gianluca Havern (242 appearances) now retired it was time to make drastic changes in this area.  Sam Earls (Notts Co) , Don Cowlishaw (Derby) and Stuart Graham (Crewe) all came in and their effect was immediately seen as  Stafford now have of the better defences within the division and broke the club record with 20 clean sheets.

Following a great start to the campaign Stafford lead the league from Bury by two points with an eight point gap back to Forest Green Rovers on New Year's Day . Whilst Bury fell a few places , it wasn't plain sailing for the Boro either as wins became draws and draws defeats as the gap was slowly whittled down and as we faced Southport in the second last game of the season it was just a solitary point . Stafford drew whilst Forest Green lost and others close the gap. Stafford were choking . The Top 5 were all within 3 points of each other though only Barrow , Forest Green and Stafford realistically could win the league due to goal difference.

#Game 46  - away to Cheltenham Town

Half Time - 0-0  Poor First Half , not much creativity as Cheltenham held firm and trying to generate attacks on the counter .  News that Barrow were 4 up and hammering Tamworth and that Forest Green were beating Dulwich Hamlet.  

53 Mins - Forest Green Rovers fans who are celebrating been top of the league hear that Simon Allen has put Stafford in front , The Boro back on top

81 Mins - Its Party Time as substitute Izale John makes it 2-0 ,  88 mins nervous times as Cheltenham pull one back . Its over Stafford are promoted  -  Forest Green defeated Barrow in the playoff to also claim promotion to League Status.

Its taken 2884 days and 408 games to get to this point and the club has now turned professional so that will help though I foresee a pretty harsh introduction to league status given my results in cup competitions and my annual friendly against Port Vale who I will come up against next season in League Two.  A swift return expected

 

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer        |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	|  Vanarama North     |       16th	   |      N/A 	  |  Harvey Knibbs  (15)   |   Avoided Relegation
2018/19 |  Vanarama North     |       16th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (11)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2019/20 |  Vanarama North     |       11th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (27)   |   Mid-table
2020/21 |  Vanarama North     |        5th         |      N/A     |  John Sampson   (29)   |   Lost in Playoffs     
2021/22 |  Vanarama North     |        1st         |      N/A     |  Jason Davidson (25)   |   FA Trophy Finalists
2022/23 |  Vanarama National  |       14th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (33)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2023/24 |  Vanarama National  |       10th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (22)   |   FA Trophy Winners
2024/25 |  Vanarama National  |        1st         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (29)   |   Champions

[XaW]

Team Summary - XaW - Folkestone Invicta

I though I'd present my team. At least the most important ones, and the ones who have been with us for a while.

Goalkeeper:

Dan Ormerod - First choice goalkeeper and the only one worth mentioning. Bought from Burton before this season for £475k. A great season where he sat a new record clean sheet.

Defenders:

Mike Winter - Bought for close to £1M before the season to bolster the defense. Had a great season.
Mark Townrow - Continuing the trend of good right backs. His second season with us after he joined halfway into last season on free from Crystal Palace.
Ricardo Fernando - Former Man Utd youth player. Bought him from Vanarama National outfit Doncaster before the season. An amazing talent.
Saman Eslami - Iranian left back I got for free. Will be playing in the World Cup this summer.

Midfielders:

Andrew Stubbings - Bought him from Wrexham before last season. Have played amazingly since he joined us.
Jack Chambers - Got him for free when we was in the Vanarama National, so he have been with us the whole way up. Got capped for Northern Ireland along the way,
Robbie McKenzie - Got him from Hull for pocket change. Have been great for us the whole way, and I expect him to be a main part next season as well.
Kingsley Tetteh - Our attacking midfielder of choice. Picked him up from Fulham before the season for free.

Attackers:

Lee O'Neill - Top scorer this season. Arrived for free from Leicester.
Tommy Dougill - 3rd season for us and once again did great. Free transfer from Swansea.

These are the main players this season, and most of them will play next as well. Though I think I need some more quality if I'm to survive the Premier League next season.

[Balahara]

It doesn't seem like you used much money to get where you are Xaw. I guess it was just an underwriter type tycoon rather than one that pumped in money all the time?

My first season in League Two isn't going all to plan either Hypanimz. Board placed expectations of a playoff position on me mostly due to the strength of my loans. Having 5 loan player limit in league above meant I needed to bring in a lot of news faces. Hopefully they'll gel quickly.

 

[Hypanimz]

@Balahara I wish you the best of luck in League Two! I'm still recovering from my relegation back in the Conference National. 10 Games to go and 2 points outside the playoffs with a highly demotivated squad. Also no signs of a new contract on the horizon with only a couple of months to go and when I approached the board they didn't seem overly interested in offering one... the end could be near!

[Swindon69]

Fingers crossed for you.

[Quasar]

Wow the Premier League! That's great!

[XaW]

1 hour ago, Hypanimz said:

@XaW Great work on making the Premier League, shame about the owner withdrawing his finances but at least you made it to the Premier League before that happened. 

Thanks! I think I'll be alright. It should come in a lot of money in the Premier League.

58 minutes ago, Balahara said:

It doesn't seem like you used much money to get where you are Xaw. I guess it was just an underwriter type tycoon rather than one that pumped in money all the time?

Yeah. He pumped in a lot at the start, but then only kept us in even after that. I haven't gone wild with cash, since I'm more of a team builder than anything originally.

1 minute ago, Quasar said:

Wow the Premier League! That's great!

Thanks!

[Solo171013]

What is the TV money like in thr Premier league now? Have contracts spiralled out of control?

Congratulations on Premier League.

Can you post a screenshot of the current league?

[Hypanimz]

The dream is not dead! I have been handed a new contract. Whatever happens this season if we stay in the division or get promoted it will be a big summer with a massive revamp of the squad!

[XaW]

15 minutes ago, Solo171013 said:

What is the TV money like in thr Premier league now? Have contracts spiralled out of control?

Congratulations on Premier League.

Can you post a screenshot of the current league?

Just got the TV deal. Silly money..... This is the current table. If anyone want any other screenshots of how things have gone in my game, feel free to ask.

[TheMadMonk]

 

Season 1 - 2017/2018

Took a good while to get Staff on board, so was playing blind for a few weeks with minimal advice, however the start of the season was good losing just once in the opening 10 games. 

As the scouts I eventually got were useless and the amount of dross available as Free Agents, or Non-Contract players was too much to look through, I eventually allowed my Director of Football to do the hiring - although he again found very few to accept his wages and he only found me 4 freebies all season, but on the plus side he did find me a good loan player from Lincoln City in the shape of Andrew Wright - who went on to be player of the season.

The side I inherited had a few decent players, but very little depth - I peaked around 5th place around December - but when the injuries hit mid-season I began to struggle for goals and results. I eventually fell away to finish 15th but the board were very happy with that and the players were happy for my prediction of a Mid-Table finish next year. We went out early in both Cups.

I used 3 main formations 4-2-3-1 at home, and 4-1-2-3 / 4-4-2 away mainly playing for the most part with comprehensive highlights.

Player of the Year - Andrew Wright (Lincoln City Loanee) - 7.25 Avg Rating

Top Goalscorer - Antony O'Neil Dwyer - 23 goals (and injured for best part of 2 Month)

I've got a semi-decent 16yr old Striker in the U18's who hopefully will develop this year as I'm pretty short with someone to cover if O'Neil Dwyer gets injured again, I also need to bolster the defence and provide some depth to cover injuries.

With the likelihood of no funds for Transfers again this year, I need the Director of Football to pull his finger out a bit more !! - Another bit of a downer was the boards refusal to send me on a Coaching Course for the fear I'd go off somewhere else - they eventually succumbed after I begged for the third time, and I started the course just before the season end. I'm thinking I may have a bit of a backroom clear out - but not certain if will attract any better calibre even after a half decent season.

 

 

Season                    League            League Finish        Europe        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017-2018    Vanarama North           15th                      N/A

[oohlala111]

Sorry I haven't updated for a while guys, doing other saves/challenges and being busy has taken up most of my time! I'll try and play some more games tomorrow  

[Balahara]

Do you have Zubar still available Muttley84? Is a class player for VNN/S. I was very tempted to go with them due to the nice colour scheme. Not as good as Barwell though!

[Hypanimz]

Enfield Town FC - Vanarama Conference - 2025/26

This was without a doubt my most challenging season I have ever had in any FM or CM I have ever played (and I've played since CM2.) After relegation last season the team were in uproar and my stars wanted to leave. I also decided to buy players for a new wide 4123 system. After 8 games we hadn't won so I abandoned my original plan and went to a 4312 narrow formation which worked wonders. Throughout the season I had run-ins with the majority of my players over squad depth, squad strength and wanting crazy pay rises and we dealt with poor morale for the majority and losing our best midfielder for £500k mid-season whilst in a takeover process which eventually failed. We somehow managed to make the playoffs. We overcame Macclesfield 1-0 at home before a comfortable 3-0 away victory saw us face Newport in the final. We went 1-0 down before leveling with a penalty. We then conceded early in the 2nd half so I threw the kitchen sink at it and we scored on the hour. We stole promotion with the last kick of the game on 90 minutes as Alan Howe our sub came on to score and send us back into the Football League!!

The most challenging but ultimately this was possibly my most rewarding season ever. 

League Table

Past Positions
 

Cups - Early exits in both as the squad were still unhappy at this point. 

Squad - Needs a revamp as a few will be leaving and I need to sort out the squad balance. This will be an interesting pre-season. Brock who had wanted out all season came around in the end and signed a new deal. I hope Boateng does the same.
 

Finances - £344k In debt despite racking up £750k in player sales. 
 

Key Player Profiles:

Neil Brock - 30 goals in a season where he spent 95% of it at abysmal morale. Glad he came around in the end and signed a new deal.

Samuel Boateng - Been unhappy all season since we got relegated. still got 22 goals but wont discuss a new deal. He could very well leave.

Stuart Rooney  - Loanee who played as my AMC was a different class. We missed him massively when not playing.

Next Season

Hopefully we do much better in League 2 this time. I Hope we survive and I aim to make us better prepared. 

Career Overview

Season          League                      League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18         Vanarama South              9th                  
2018/19         Vanarama South              7th
2019/20         Vanarama South              8th
2020/21         Vanarama South              2nd               Playoff Winners
2021/22         Vanarama National           3rd               Playoff Finalist
2022/23         Vanarama National           7th               FA Trophy winners and FA Cup round 4
2023/24         Vanarama National           5th               Playoff Winner
2024/25         Sky Bet League 2            24th              Relegated
2025/26         Vanarama National           5th               Playoff Winner

 

[XaW]

Congrats on the promotion back up to League Two, @Hypanimz!

[Balahara]

And secured the final playoff place on GD too. What a finish to the season!

 

I've gone way overboard on signings now the European scout reports are coming back with some gems. Total difference to start of season where I couldn't fill subs bench. Going pretty well though even if I'm failing FFP.

[Hypanimz]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

Congrats on the promotion back up to League Two, @Hypanimz!

Hopefully I do better this time!

2 minutes ago, Balahara said:

And secured the final playoff place on GD too. What a finish to the season!

 

I've gone way overboard on signings now the European scout reports are coming back with some gems. Total difference to start of season where I couldn't fill subs bench. Going pretty well though even if I'm failing FFP.

 

That actually seems tighter than it was. I had already secured it on the penultimate game as I drew and had a 3 point lead into the final game with a healthy goal difference. Losing 5-1 in the final game still gave me a 7 goal difference so although it was on GD it was actually a lot safer than it looks. 

[XaW]

Not sure how we managed this, but I'll take it!

[Muttley84]

6 hours ago, Balahara said:

Do you have Zubar still available Muttley84? Is a class player for VNN/S. I was very tempted to go with them due to the nice colour scheme. Not as good as Barwell though!

Available and club captain for the first season :-) The color scheme got me going for them also, togheter with the nice city size and actually being one of the few teams that popped up that I heard of before.

[Warhawk]

Enfield Town FC

Sky Bet League Two 2020-2021

Year-End Update

Calendar

   

Competitions

Sky Bet League Two

While I was mostly pretty happy with my roster going into this season, I did want to look for some affordable upgrades.  Our payroll budget had a fair bit of room at around $25,000 p/w, but the problem was FFP, which required us to stay under approximately $16,500 p/w.  While 8 of our starters from last season either remained starters or saw substantial time in the rotation, we did make a number of key signings, and were again quite successful in identifying players who could make a positive contribution.  First, we signed a couple of right fullbacks to replace Parmar as the starter; ultimately I decided to keep Parmar on the roster as the backup and loan out the one who was less productive in the preseason.  That left us with 23-year-old Lewis Travis as the starter.  The start to his season was a bit rough, but he settled into the position and ultimately led all our defensive players in goals (with 4) and assists (with 5), and had an average rating only slightly lower than Max Melbourne, the starter on the other side.  New central defender Fraser Horsfall didn't have the best season, but he was serviceable.  Another player who started slowly was striker Ollie Bayliss, as I found more success early in the season with Joe Ward.  However, when Ward went down for several months with an injury, Ollie started to find his feet, and ended up leading the team with 17 goals.  By far the two most successful signings I made, however, were midfielders Callum Wright and Cassian Thomas.  The six players on my team with the highest ratings were my midfielders (which does include Pearse who only made 3 appearances), and Wright and Thomas were 1st and 3rd, respectively.  Wright played as a ball winning midfielder and proved excellent at ball handling, and created many offensive opportunities for us.  Thomas played both as a box-to-box midfielder and as either a deep lying playmaker or halfback in the DM position in relief of Edwards, racking up 9 goals and 8 assists.

We had the most successful preseason yet with the exception of a rather mystifying 4-1 loss to AFC Wimbledon; we went 4-2-1, with a 3-0 win over League 2 Coventry, a 0-0 draw against League 2 Barnet, and a 1-1 draw against Leeds, who ended up finishing 3rd in the Championship.  Our first league game was away at Mansfield, and frankly we didn't play all that well.  Ward came off the bench and scored to give us a 1-0 win despite having half as many shots as Mansfield, and we started the season in 8th place.  I had no idea at the time that that would be our lowest position all season.

We continued to play well, and found that despite the fact that we ought to be outmatched, our control mentality possession-based game that served us well in the National League was having even more success here.  We started 5-2-0, the most exciting game being a game at Gateshead where we went down by a goal in the third minute, took a 2-1 lead by halftime on goals by Ward and Hooper, and then fell behind 3-2 in the second half, before Hooper scored his second goal of the game off a free kick in the 83rd minute, and at the very end of stoppage time, had another free kick blocked by the keeper, but Ward jumped on the rebound and scored to win it for us 4-3.  Ward was hurt in our next game against Accrington, but Bayliss took the opportunity to score his first competitive goal for us in the 2-1 win.

We had a bit of a blip when Edwards got a straight red card against Exeter and Ward re-injured himself in a U23 match, which ultimately led to a bad 4-2 loss to Coventry, but we got back on track.  Though we were briefly at the top of the league early in the season, we spent most of the first few months bouncing around the various playoff and promotion spots.  We finally reached the top again after a 2-1 win to Luton, but gave it away to Doncaster after a loss to York.  That would only last one game, however, and we reclaimed the top spot following a strong showing in a 2-0 win against Scunthorpe.  That day also began Doncaster's long slide - they had started 10-3-5, and had finally reached the top, only to completely fall apart in the second half of the season.  They would go on a 2-3-11 run, and 5-8-13 for the remainder of the season, falling all the way to 14th.  Coincidentally, this was also around the start of Accrington's remarkable improvement, having started the season 2-9-10, and finishing the season on a 16-3-6 run.

Other notable games in the second half of the season included a game against a Mansfield team on a 12-game unbeaten streak that was 0-0 through 87 minutes which ended in a 2-1 victory for us, a 5-1 demolition job away at Oldham (which also saw Brittain score a penalty by banking it in off the post), what seemed like a re-run of our Gateshead victory against Exeter where in this case we scored just over a minute in, lost Ward to an injury in the 8th minute, extended our lead to 2 in the 16th minute, allowed two quick goals before the half and one just after the half to fall behind 3-0, and came back and scored twice to take it 4-3, and a strong 4-1 win against Lincoln which saw us overcome an early own goal by Mitchell.  Prior to our March 31st game against Chesterfield, we learned that a takeover bid from a local investor was brewing, and after our game against Lincoln, a transfer embargo was imposed.

We started getting scenarios to clinch promotion (and thereafter the league) with about 6 games to go, but we had to endure a bit of a blip first.  A poor performance against Luton was compounded by a pair of yellow cards for Edwards.  We finished the game up by 7 points with a game in hand, when we had begun the game up by 10 points, but a loss by York ensured we would need only 1 win to clinch promotion.  In our 5th to last game of the season, we thought we had promotion in our hands, forcing an own goal from a corner in the 54th minute to take a 2-1 lead.  But two goals by Newport Co. in the final 5 minutes snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and we would have to wait.  We managed to overcome an awful first half against Notts Co. in our 4th to last game and salvage a draw, putting us up by 7 points with 3 games to play.  Finally, things fell into place for us away at York, when a scoreless game at the half turned into a 2-0 victory, with goals by Ward and Mitchell, and we win the league, up 7 points with 2 games to go, making us 2020-2021 Sky Bet League Two Champions.

But there was one last surprise after we had clinched the league - two days before our second to last game Oxford, it was reported that the takeover bid was on the rocks, and just one day after that, it collapsed.  The embargo was lifted, hopefully allowing me to make the moves I would like over the summer.

Final Table

FA Cup

Another successful FA Cup run for us started with a 2-0 home victory against League One Wigan, in which Thomas scored on a free kick and Bayliss scored on a mistake by the opposition keeper in an otherwise fairly even game.  We followed that up with what appeared to be a pretty easy second round draw at Spennymoor, but they played us tough for 90 minutes, and we needed a goal by Bayliss midway through the 3 minutes of stoppage time to escape with a 1-0 victory.  In the third round we faced Championship side Bolton at home, and handled them surprisingly easily, with Thomas scoring 2 goals and Wright scoring 1, all in the first half, giving us a 3-0 victory in a game in which Bolton did not manage a single shot on target.  Finally, in the fourth round, we drew away to Everton, and managed to hold out for 80 minutes before allowing two late goals, losing in the fourth round.

EFL Cup

A tough draw at Fulham, a team who had just been relegated from the Premier League, in the first round led us to a 3-0 loss right off the bat.

Checkatrade Trophy

Not much was expected of us, drawing a group comprised of the Tottenham U23 squad along with League One sides Colchester and Southend.  First, against Tottenham, the game went to penalties after it was tied at 1-1 after 90 minutes, and we made all 5 of our penalty shots.  McCracken deflected their 4th penalty shot, and the ball scurried down the line before coming to rest against the post, but never crossed the line.  Brittain scored the clincher.  At home against Colchester in our second group game, each team scored off a free kick to make it 1-1 at the half, before Youngs scored in the 77th minute to give us a 2-1 win.  Finally, needing just a point away against Southend to advance, we dominated the game, out-shooting Southend 17 to 7 (and 8 to 1 on target) on our way to a 3-1 victory.

In the second round, a 1-1 draw without much offense besides the goals led us again to penalties, with Thomas scoring the game winner.  We would follow this up with a third round crushing of then-leaders of League One Millwall, with Bayliss scoring just 16 seconds into the match and again in the 12th minute off his own rebound, with goals by Ward and Brittain contributing to a 4-0 win.  In the quarter final at rivals Barnet, we dominated the first half but couldn't break through, but we did finally score in a much more even second half, with Ward coming off the bench to score a header in the 85th minute.  Then in the semi-final, we have our third game of the tournament finish 1-1 after 90 minutes and go to penalties; both teams hit 4 of their first 5, but Portsmouth misses their 6th, and Horsfall hits the game winner to send us to the final.

The final saw us matching up against the Everton U23s in a shockingly one-sided game.  We scored 2 quick goals in the 22nd and 23rd minutes, the second on a truly incredible shot by Bayliss from 35 yards that banked in off the post.  They scored before the break, but we add 3 more in the second half, two by Willbye, to lead us to an emphatic 5-1 victory and making us the well-deserved 2020-2021 Checkatrade Trophy Champions.

Squad & Awards

Aside from the success of the aforementioned new players, Callum Brittain also had a strong season, scoring 16 goals (good for second on the team) and contributing 12 assists (tied for first).  Edwards continued to be a rock at DM, and Mitchell played well too.  Willbye saw a lot less playing time this year, but was very effective when he did see the field.  Melbourne had another strong season, and Hooper contributed 9 goals and 12 assists of his own.  Joe Ward struggled with injuries at some points in the season and saw his playing time reduced as Bayliss improved, but nonetheless contributed 12 goals of his own.

As for a few interesting statistical notes, we finished tied for 4th in the league in goals scored and 2nd in goals conceded (though we were actually 2nd in goals scored before a few teams added to their number in the playoffs).  We completed the most passes and had the highest cross completion ratio, and were second in pass completion ratio, average possession, and shots on target ratio.  None of our players were in the top 20 in goals (Brittain scored the most league goals for us at 14, but it was a team effort), nor did we have a player in the top 10 in the Player of the Match standings (we had 5 different players win 3, but none won more than 4).  James Hooper did finish tied for 3rd in assists, while Wright had the fourth most dribbles per game.  McCracken tied for second with 15 shutouts.  Wright had the second highest average rating in the league, while Edwards and Thomas were both in the top 20.  Despite our team dominance in a variety of statistical areas, we didn't have many individual players very high up in the statistical charts, indicating that it was the team's cohesion and overall quality that made us successful, rather than reliance on any particular player(s).

Fans' and Manager's Player of the Season: Callum Wright

Fans' and Manager's Signing of the Season: Callum Wright

Fans' and Manager's Young Player of the Season: Callum Wright

Sky Bet League 2 Manager of the Month (August & March)

State of the Club

From a financial perspective, the club made a profit of approximatley $1,000,000 last season.  Shortly after the new financial year started, we scheduled another upgrade to our youth facilities, costing approximately $850,000, which has been partly offset by a new sponsor which provided us with income of approximatley $200,000 for this seaosn.  We sold no players last season, but had a substantial increase in attendance, as well as a profitable game away at Everton in the FA Cup.  Our payroll budget, which was at approximately $25,000 per week, has been increased to approximately $44,000 per week, and we have been given a transfer budget of approximately $200,000 (of which I've already spent about $15,000 of).  Fortunately, unlike last season, our FFP cap is basically in line with our payroll budget.  We have re-signed most players, though some may be relegated to backup roles depending on what is available on the market this offseason.  Our average attendance was 1,992, or 21% of capacity, an increase of over 330% of our average attendance last season of 602.

Additionally, Brexit plans were announced in October.  It will be a hard Brexit, and players currently in the UK will have to apply for work permits.

Goals for the upcoming season are as follows:

• Avoid Relegation
• Reach the FA Cup 3rd Round.
• Get out of the group stage in the Checkatrade Trophy.
• Look for potential upgrades at various positions.

[Sheep]

Workington A.F.C - Season 17/18 - Vanarama National League North - End of Season Update

League Table - Past Positions - Squad - Transfers - Finances - Season Review - Season Awards

Hello World

    Hello and welcome to my first ever entry to the dafuge Challenge. My name is Dan, you may call me either Dan or Sheep I don't mind :-). I've known about the dafuge Challenge for a number of years but never had the desire to commit to it and give it a good go before now. I've been playing FM since the 2006 iteration, never really been a big forum poster here but I've always enjoyed reading the FM content here so thought I'd try. So anyway, enough about me onto my season review with Workington.

The Beginning

    The media had me as deadwood, the butt of the league. 22nd. Media predicting me rock bottom, I thought that was harsh. Then I looked at my squad... I was inclined to agree. So I thought I had a major job on my hands and would need to totally change the squad I was given. I thought it would be maybe November/December time before the new squad would have gelled enough to knock up some results but this all changed. Pre-season went well, almost too well. 5 wins out of 6, with the only loss being against a very strong Carlisle side. This made me question my motives, did I really need to revamp the entire squad? Sure it was small so it needed additions but the core of the squad seemed to work really well together. My normal procedure is to make my tactics and then build my squad for the tactics I'd settled on. This time however; players first, tactics second. Initially I just went with a bog standard 4-4-2, nothing can go wrong with a 4-4-2. Never. So, I set my 4-4-2 up to focus on taking advantage of the best player in my squad: David Symington. In my eyes, he was far too good for this level. Very pacy winger, with a good work rate and some decent technicals. I was particularly impressed with his high Free Kick and Long Shot ability, somewhat of a commodity at this level.

    First game of the season rolls around, it's against Tamworth away at their ground. Media had them pegged at a 4th place finish, so I was expecting a tough game especially as they would be looking to win their opening home game of the season. The first half came and went just like that. 0-0 HT. Neither team getting a sniff at goal. I was happy to continue as is. A point would be a good result for me and as the game progressed Tamworth became more desperate in their play which became their undoing. In 5 mins of late second half play my two strikers had linked up twice and put me 2 to the good. They got a very late conciliation goal but we were 2-1 winners. I thought this managing malarkey was easy. I started the season with 4 wins out of 6 and I was praising myself for keeping faith in the players I'd inherited for a change, and then I got thumped, in what I'm calling My Moment to Forget, 4-1... by rock bottom Gloucester... at home. After this game I knew this tactic wouldn't work long term. You can not get smashed by such a poor side in that manner. Things had to change.

The Middle

    I will like to call this middle period: "The Period of Great Uncertainty and Change". Here I just keep changing the tactics, 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-1-2... the list goes on and on. You name it, I probably tried it. Something wasn't right with the team. One game we'd look like Barcelona at the Nou Camp playing some Spanish minnows the next moment we were Grimsby Town FC bottling it in the National League Playoff Semi Finals (Thank God I don't have to live through that anymore). During this period many players came and went. I signed veteran players, I signed young players. I signed fast players, I signed slow players. I signed small players, I signed tall players. Trials, trials, trials... trials for so many people. I signed a 16 year old Goalkeeper from Donny Rovers for £7,000 after a single scout report. I don't know why. He ended up being awful when he arrived at training and I got a good look at him. Still, I played him about 10 games telling myself that "He'll outplay his stats" plus his haircut was too crazy for him not be a good player. He didn't outplay his stats and spent much of the season with the U18s. We were at panic station one. I don't know why I was panicking so much. I was still comfortably mid table despite all of this uncertainty. I think it was more of a case of if we got into a rut I was worried we wouldn't get out of it.

   Late into this period I had settled on a flat 4-5-1 with sometimes switching out to a 4-4-2. Scoring goals was never a problem for the team this season. Not conceding or even defending well on the other hand seemed to be an impossible task for the team. It was like I had given them this huge burden of not conceding a goal and it was always on their brains and they'd just do utterly stupid things when trying to defend. I think my favourite was when one of the four keepers I used at this point in the season decided to punch the ball into his own goal off a cross. I mean how on God's green earth does that even happen. It still baffles me. I think I released him after that match. The period continued with continued fluctuations in the results department but still the team never fell from their mid table location and finished with a massive 3 clean sheets in 24 games during what I call the middle bit. Oh and we got knocked out of all cup competitions to teams in lower leagues than ourselves. That was fun.

The End

    So The End part starts with the signing of a Goalkeeper. Who would have thought? I signed Jay Lynch and although he didn't bring me the clean sheets that I desire so much he brought a much needed stability to my back line. When he played I felt as though my defenders played a lot better. So he stayed in goal until the end of the season. We continued being mid table all the way to the end of the season. We had a sniff of a playoff position but the lads didn't fancy it and bottled the last 3 games which left us in our favourite position of mid-table. There isn't much to say about the end of the season really. It was quite uneventful but I did have My Moment to Remember, a 3-1 win against Altrincham who were top of the league at the time. I've identified the people I want to keep and who I want to move on. Defensively I think there will be big changes, the midfield I'm really quite happy with other than left midfield and the strikers also okay with but will pick up anyone that looks like an improvement. My largest aim next season is to try and bring some stability to the finances. The squad is far too large right now and the finances look very sad with a chairman that shows little to no ambition to helping me.

Cheers

Thanks for reading my update, let me know your thoughts on my team, my writing or anything else.

Dan

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Season  |       League                      League Finish     Achievements
--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18 |       Vanarama North              11th              Didn't get sacked or relegated

 

[Scab]

Season 2024/25 Review - Burgess Hill Town in Sky Bet League One

League Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Season Review

Isn't it amazing when everything just clicks?

I couldn't tempt more than two players to sign on - and a backup solution on loan - but it turns out refined tactical instructions for a proven squad cohesive enough to "be willing to die for each other" from the get-go can make you a mighty tough nut to crack. We're not the most prolific, no, but restricting space and trusting the long ball has yet to disappoint. For a team predicted rock bottom I'd say it's served us well! (Though looking at that list in general makes me seriously question the in-game media!)

We did have a brief go at 1st as Carlisle was a mere point ahead for the final round with a heavy loss to Rochdale behind them, but while they indeed only managed a draw we lost uncharacteristically 0-2 to Newport Co. Heads in the Championship already, lads?

On the 50% exciting/50% scary front, plans for a new stadium are under way. We are filling 5000 capacity Leylands Park every week so it's certainly needed, but if this all works like in earlier FM's we'll be locked into this new place for the next 20 years and I'm not convinced the board has the finances for a big project. Fingers crossed planning takes forever?

Promotion-Winning Starting 11

GK - Mark Smith
DR - Derek Docherty
DC - Kristopher Da Graca
DC - Jack Winter
DL - Jordan Cranston
MR - Herson Alves
MC - Luke Moran
MC - Liam Smith
ML - Mathias Coureur
ST - David Mulhall
ST - Koray Çetinkaya

Aim for next season: Stay up!

Season    League               Finish   Achievements
2024/25   Sky Bet League One   2nd      Promoted!
2023/24   Sky Bet League One   9th      -
2022/23   Sky Bet League Two   1st      League winners
2021/22   Vanarama National    1st      League winners
2020/21   Vanarama National    8th      FA Trophy runner-ups
2019/20   Vanarama South       1st      League winners
2018/19   Vanarama South       4th      Playoff semi-finalists
2017/18   Vanarama South       6th      -

 

[Scab]

From scouting Europe this season I have learned the hard way that despite what the game will have me believe all European players do in fact require work permits.

An annoying bug to say the least, but until I reach the continental part of this challenge I suppose it's the same for all my competitors!

[Upside Down]

2017/18 Season Summary

Grays Athletic - 8th position

I entered the season expecting a struggle but we started off with a Shane Marshall lead start to be second early. Marshall my 16 turned 17 striker or left winger started with 7 goals in 7 games but was injured for a month in the 8th game. The season was up and down after that all mid-season I was in third. However scoring was always a struggle with lots of 0-0 draws which the team dominated play and chances without scoring. Marshall never returned to his early season form and was very wasteful in front of goals and ended up the season playing on the LW, still he did score 15 goals and is a huge player for the future. I eventually made the mistake of trying to go more attacking and was punished 5-3 (4-0 in the first half before coming back to 4-3 and conceding late) and 3-0 in consecutive games. I fixed the defence again to have three 0-0 games in a row but the chances of a play off spot were gone. The rest of the season saw mixed results with only a late flurry of goals from mid season recruit Tom Winter stopping us having the worst attack in the league. 

Nothing happened in the cups, FA Cup saw a terrible performance against Chippenham.

I played this season with a 4-1-4-1 but I am planning on trying 5-3-2 next season but I need to find some attacking full backs. I will keep the core of the squad, keeper Bogard, central defenders Fagbola and Lacey, midfielders Webb and Da Costa and striker Marshall. Some others will stay but more in back up roles if I can recruit the type of players I want. 

My Profile

Grays Competition results

[Upside Down]

XaW Congratulations on making the premier league.

Hypanimz  Well done on getting straight back to League Two despite a difficult season.

Warhawk Congratulations on the League win and promotion.

Scab congratulations on the promotion,.

So many people doing so well.