dafuge's FM18 challenge

[PS-GamerNeil]

I am speechless So close to pulling off a major upset in the cup but we managed to get a 3-3 draw vs Spurs!!

Leading the game twice! but couldn't hang on to the win. Spurs played a very weak team and the only 2 players i Recognized was Lamela and Dost. they also played 4 Regens.

We are also now out of debt and with the replay we will be so ****ing rich !!!! Omg I am so elated hahaha Love this game Lets go Marine !!

[PS-GamerNeil]

Our FA Cup journey comes to an end as we are beat 1-0 away at spurs. 58,991 in attendance for the FA Cup 3rd Round Replay. The game wasnt on TV but we picked up around £1,000,000 in gate money!!! yes thats a cool Million!! we are rich now hah. Going to get a few cheeky board requests in and improve the club!

Full report of the season will be up at the weekend I hope and we are still on for Back to Back promotions!!

Loving it

 

Update: had a chat with the board and they are turning us Pro and sending me on my next course

[Warhawk]

Back after Thankgsiving dinner and a nap, we were up 1-0 at third place Dag & Red when Jordan Mills went off with an injury and left us at 10 men and nobody on the pitch who could play the position.  Fended off a bunch of scoring chances to take the win 1-0, as Crawley came back from a 1 goal deficit to win at Macclesfield.  Still tied and up by 2 in goal differential, 2 games to go.  Unfortunately Mills will be out 8-9 months.  Ligaments.  Don't have a ton of depth at the position but I've got a talented young center back who can play all 3 positions who I'm going to hope can hold down the fort for our last 3 games (we're in the Trophy final too).

[Warhawk]

Holy hell.

So after a draw in our second to last game, and a corresponding one from Crawley, we go into the half at Macclesfield up 1-0.  Problem is Crawley is leading at Dover 3-0, and they have scored more goals than us, meaning they were leading on the goals scored tiebreaker.  So Macclesfield tied it up in the 56th minute, meaning we'd need either two goals or a goal and a goal by Dover to take the league.  Well, Dover looked like they'd help us out, scoring in the 67th minute, meaning if their score held and we got a winner, we'd win the league.  We got our second goal in the 74th minute, when I noticed Crawley had scored again, putting us in the same position we were at the half, losing on goals scored.  Tried valiantly to score again but we failed to, and as I didn't see a notification, I thought we had lost it on the second tiebreaker.

Checked the updates tab.

Dover scored in the 91st minute.

We win.

[Warhawk]

Lancaster City

Vanarama National League 2020-2021

Year-End Update

Calendar

    

Competitions

Vanarama National League

We didn't add a ton of players to the squad in the offseason, but there were several notable additions.  First and foremost, we signed a 16 year old striker named Lee Sands, who had come through originally with Liverpool.  He was a very talented player, already cut out for a starting spot at this level, and with a good personality as well.  Second, we signed a replacement at goalkeeper for Chris Cheetham, who had done a valiant job given his relatively limited talent, bringing in Jake Eastwood.  The market for goalkeepers wasn't great, and Eastwood is not really a long-term solution as he's 24 and hasn't really developed to his potential, but he had an amazing season this year at least.  The third significant addition we made was a 16 year old midfielder named Jake Iles, who also came through with Liverpool (what is going on with those guys?) who looks like he could be just as talented as Sands and who was fairly competent in a rotational role this season.  At the beginning of the season we also brought in two loanees, center back Paudie O'Connor (who was fantastic for us) and right back Callum Johnson (who was fairly competent).

After a good preseason in which we only lost 2 games (to two Championship teams, Leeds who finished mid-table and Sheffield Wednesday who will be playing in the final of the playoff after overcoming a 2-0 home loss in the first leg of the semi-final against Hull) and also beat Rangers, League 2 Grimsby, and League 2 Gillingham, we got off to a decent but slightly bumpy 3-2-2 start before we really turned things on.  Starting with a 2-0 win against Southport on September 12 (then a 1-0 win at Crawley which actually put us ahead of Crawley at the time) we went on a 14-3-1 run in the league through the end of the year (the highlight being a 5-0 home demolition of eventual 3rd place finisher Dag & Red) - but Crawley's record in that span was 16-1-2 (including the loss to us) and we found ourselves in 2nd place.  We would take the lead in the league for the first time mid-way through January, the beginning of over a half-dozen lead changes over the second half of the season.  Also in January we added two more loanees, Josh Reed (a striker from Blackburn) and Billy Liang (a right winger from VNN squad FC Halifax, oddly, he's way too good for them).  Reed got off to a very hot start, though he slumped a bit toward the end of the season.  Both squads had a variety of exciting games and clutch comeback wins over that span.  In March alone we found ourselves down a goal in 5 straight matches, and pulled out a 2-2-1 record in that span.  We ultimately found ourselves tied on points and up by 2 in goal differential with Crawley with 3 matches remaining.  In the first set of matches, we came out playing like garbage at Dag & Red, but were able to make it to the half without conceding.  We weren't much better in the second half, but Richard Stimson, who came on as a halftime sub, scored in the 77th minute before Jordan Mills blew out his knee in the 80th, leaving us with 10 men and nobody on the pitch who could play left back.  We managed to fend off 3 or 4 good scoring chances and escaped with the victory, while Crawley had an exciting game of their own, trailing 1-0 at Macclesfield before tying in the 62nd minute and then hitting the winner in the 93rd minute.  In the second set of matches, we squandered a 4th minute 1-0 lead at home against Eastleigh and only managed a 1-1 draw after they scored in the 53d minute, but Crawley was perhaps even more disappointed, squandering a 1-0 7th minute lead by allowing an equalizer in the 89th minute.  That left us in the same position as we were with three matches remaining going into the last match of the season.  We honestly did not play very well at Macclesfield, but Alex Kitchen scored a second chance opportunity after our header from a free kick was saved, and we went into the half with a 1-0 lead.  The problem was that Crawley was demolishing a Dover team who had a (small) chance at relegation and were leading 3-0, meaning they were ahead of us on goals scored.  Things looked bleak for us when we allowed an equalizer in the 56th minute; we would need two goals from that point on unless we could get some help from Dover.  In the 67th minute, there was cause for a little optimism as Dover helped us by cutting their deficit to 3-1, but Crawley responded in the 72nd minute.  We promptly answered with a score in the 74th minute to take a 2-1 lead, but we still needed to score a goal ourselves or get some help from Dover in order to re-take our lead in goal differential.  We attacked, attacked, attacked, but we couldn't break through, and I kept an eye on the Crawley-Dover match, where nothing was happening.  As time ran out for us, I expected to find us preparing for the playoff, but when I looked at the scoreboard, Dover had answered our prayers and scored in stoppage time, denying Crawley the 3-goal win they needed to overtake us, and making us 2020-2021 Vanarama National League Champions.

Final Table

FA Cup

As we had two seasons ago, we again made the third round of the Cup.  We began with a 4-2 win at home against Nuneaton where we would have won 4-1 if not for a stoppage time goal, despite actually not playing that well and getting a bit lucky.  In a compelling matchup in the First Round against our arch-rivals Morecambe we dominated the match, though a late goal from them left us with only a 2-1 win.  We then hosted League One Bury in the Second Round in a bit of an odd game - they dominated the game in the first half but we somehow went into the break with a 2-0 lead, while we were probably the better team in a nonetheless scoreless second half.  In the Third Round at Brighton (who were relegated from the Premier League this season) we were unsurprisingly dominated but our defense was able to keep it respectable and we lost 1-0.

FA Trophy

We went into this season's FA Trophy hoping to avenge our finals loss from last season, and were promptly handed perhaps the most annoying First Round draw we could get, having to play away on Darlington's short, fat abomination they call a pitch.  They absolutely dominated in the first half, with 10 shots to only 1 for us, and we found ourselves trailing 1-0 at the half.  A change of strategy, playing a more aggressive game with long passes to our strikers, allowed us to play a much more even second half and we tied it up in the 57th minute, and we held it to that score after nothing much happened in extra time.  In the home replay we weren't exactly stellar but we trundled our way to a reasonably efficient 1-0 victory.  Our Second Round match was probably the most complete game in our three seasons, scoring twice in the first 3 minutes on our way to a 7-0 spanking of Wingate & Finchley.  We took a 2-0 lead at the half against Stalybridge to a 2-1 victory in the Third Round, and after going into the half against Solihull down 1-0 in the Fourth Round, we ran roughshod over them in the second half on our way to a 2-1 comeback victory.  At Ebbsfleet in the first leg of the semi-final, we thought we had pulled out a good result with an equalizer in the 87th minute, but they scored 1 minute later to take a 2-1 lead against us going into the second leg.  We were able to take a 2-0 first half lead in the second leg and fended them off to win 3-2 on aggregate.  In the final, we met York for the 6th time in 3 seasons; two seasons ago they had swept us on their way to promotion from the VNN, last season we had beaten them in the FA Trophy, and this season we had beaten them at home and drew away in the VNL.  It was a free-flowing game where the teams combined for 35 shots, but we nonetheless went into extra time scoreless.  In the end, it was Peter Burgess, a versatile young player who I normally play on the right wing but who I decided, for the first time all season, to put in at striker, who scored in the 114th minute to give us the 1-0 victory, making us 2020-2021 FA Trophy Champions.

Squad & Awards

Our 16 year old (now 17) striker Lee Sands was absolutely incredible for us, scoring 34 goals (including 26 in the league and 8 in the Trophy) and notching 12 assists, while Richard Stimson was decent though not as good as last season, adding 19 goals of his own.  Josh Reed added 11 goals and 8 assists after joining us on loan in January, while Alex Kitchen again led our defenders with 5 goals.  Jake Eastwood shut out our opponents 21 times in league play (leading the league in that category) and 5 times in cup competitions, and was also top 3 in saves held and saves parried.  Loanee Paudie O'Connor and Alex Kitchen were both in the top 16 in average rating in the league, demonstrating the strength of our defense when combined with Eastwood's strong play.  Sands finished 4th in league goals.  O'Connor and Kitchen also were in the top 14 in both headers won and key headers, and O'Connor had the second best headers won ratio.

I forgot to mention in the first season we had one promising player come through the youth system, a right winger with dual English/Nigerian citizenship named Blessing Ajayi (great name) who has gotten a little bit of action with the first team.  Last season was mostly junk, but we had a pretty good group this season, in particular a left winger named Richard Owen and a left back named Tom Hobbins.

Statistically, as a team, we scored the Statistically, as a team, we scored the 7th most goals with 80 (12 more than last season in 4 more matches), 5th if you don't count playoff goals.  We conceded just 36, only one more than last season despite the extra matches, and 17 fewer than the second best team, Crawley (13 fewer not counting playoff goals).  We were actually poor in a lot of offensive statistical categories, in particular passing, but put up a top 5 crossing percentage, 3rd in goals from corners, and 5th in goals from IFKs, scoring 18 times off set pieces.  On defense we only conceded 8 goals from set pieces, 5 from corners and 3 from free kicks, though we did concede 9 penalties (we only took 4 ourselves all season).

Our players (and myself as well) received a variety of awards, listed below.

Fans' & Manager's Player of the Season: Paudie O'Connor

Fans' & Manager's Signing of the Season: Lee Sands

Fans' Young Player of the Season: Paudie O'Connor

Manager's Young Player of the Season: Lee Sands

Runner-Up for Player of the Month (Lee Sands, September; Josh Reed, January)

Runner-Up for Young Player of the Month (Callum Wright, August; Lee Sands, September; Josh Reed, January)

Third Place for Young Player of the Month (Hayden Carter, November)

League Goal of the Month (Lee Sands, August; Callum Wright, April)

Runner-Up for League Goal of the Season: Lee Sands

Manager of the Month (September, December)

Runner-Up for Manager of the Month (April)

Third Place for Manager of the Month (October, November)

Manager of the Season

 

State of the Club

From a financial perspective, the club had a profit of approximately $468,000 last season, benefiting from strong gate receipts (bolstered by our away match at Brighton in the FA Cup) and prize money.  We increased our season ticket revenue by over 150%, from $38,000 to over $100,000.  We also made our first significant player sale, selling a talented young striker to Millwall (who narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship on goal differential) for $80,000 and 50% of his next transfer fee.  We have again been given an increased payroll budget of $11,576 per week (approximately $4,000 higher than last season), and we are currently spending approximately $7,300 per week.  For the first time we have been given a transfer budget, and a fairly substantial one at that at nearly $350,000, but I will likely move most of that into more flexibility in the wage budget.  I'll likely ask if we can go professional; it'll be difficult to manage in League 2 if we're not, and I have a few young players who might be worth something in the transfer market so we may be able to manage the cost.

I think that the planned new stadium I heard about a couple years ago must be dead in the water, but we did expand our current one in the last offseason.

I finished studying for my Continental C license, and am currently working on my Continental B license.

Our average attendance for the season was 833, third lowest in the league but nearly double last season's.  Our best attendance at a home game was our FA Cup second round game against Bury with over 2,100 attendees (we also attracted over 1,800 against arch-rivals Morecambe in the First Round) while nearly 20,000 saw us play at Wembley in the FA Trophy final, and nearly 13,000 saw us play at Brighton in the Third Round of the FA Cup.

My goals for the upcoming season are as follows:

• Avoid Relegation
• Reach the FA Cup 3rd Round
• Pretend the Checkatrade Trophy doesn't exist

 

Season	 League			Finish  Achievements
2018-19	 Vanarama North		7th     Playoffs
2019-20	 Vanarama North		1st     Champions; FA Trophy Finalist
2019-20	 Vanarama National	1st     Champions; FA Trophy Winners

 

[Warhawk]

Spoke too soon about the stadium, we're building a new 5,000 seat stadium, called Mark Thornley Arena, planned to be completed in June of 2022.  For the time being we'll be playing at Highbury Stadium (Fleetwood's stadium).

Forgot to mention we're also upgrading the youth facilities.

Also they agreed to go professional.

Of course we're now over 1 million in debt.

Should be interesting...

[Scab]

And it's not even April yet!

[13-gigi]

I’m in! Although the other five options (Billericay Town, Dulwich Hamlet, Kettering Town, Altrincham and Warrington) I had my mind made up, for my first Dafuge’s challenge ever, as soon as I saw Hereford FC available because I took the old Hereford Utd. from League 2 to Premier League back on FM11 and now I’ll give a try to their phoenix club.

 

 

“ HAVE HEREFORD’S BOARD GONE NUTS?”  Read the BBC.

 

“After a successful year getting the third promotion in a row from Midland Football League Premier (9th tier) for the club's first season to National League South, were they will compete next season. These exultant days seem to be vanished among the fan base from night to day within the first month after such a success. Why can the fans be so worried and mad at their board? Believed or not, a phoenix club that tries to get back to professional football and not to make the same or worse mistakes than their predecessors, not only they weren’t able to get Peter Beadle’s contract extended but also they hired a former semi-pro Spanish 6^thtier’s referee to manage The Bulls on the English 6^th tier.

 

It seems to this journalist, and some fans are laughing at this as well, that the chairman misread Gigi’s CV and he needs a new pair of glasses, also the most famous optician in town is offering his services to Ken Kinnersley. The other way to see it, it’s that the board were looking for a social media boost now that they’re looking for new sponsors for the new campaign. If so, we can’t deny them they’re burning in hot on social media due to The Bulls are trending topic all England around since the astonishing breaking news were confirmed and even Fàbregas took time to welcome his town’s fellow to the English Football and wish him the best of lucks as he seems to need.

 

It’s true that we shouldn’t judge before the season stars but the upcoming weeks don’t look like the most peaceful at Edgar St. and just the time will tell us if Ken Kinnersley nail it with this risky -if not crazy, out of place, whatever you want- move is a success or just a completely flop. To succeed, Gigi needs to get some consistence and aim high at top half, failure to that it’ll be seen as the team avoided the drop just for the quality of the players but not the manager’s and straight relegation would mean that fans were right to think, right now, that the board must’ve lost their heads.

 

We’ll see and let’s hope we’re before a new fairy tale but, as it stands and, also, it’s suppose to be some fans demonstrations against this move because mostly of the fans are afraid The Bulls are stepping backwards instead of forwards with this appointment, we wouldn’t bet neither for them nor their new manager will last all season long in charge.”

 

Let’s keep finger crossed and hope the media is wrong once again, if not will be a short ride on this challenge.

 

 

[XaW]

51 minutes ago, Scab said:

And it's not even April yet!

Holy hell! How many fines have you gotten from that?

[Scab]

4 minutes ago, XaW said:

Holy hell! How many fines have you gotten from that?

Not sure. I stopped counting!

[thomas_e]

I have a real strange issue in my save. Some of the players I have on loan are still playing U23 football for their parent club 

I can go into a game, having had 6-7 days off from my last game and then seeing two or three key players having 85-79 in condition. Looking at their "Form" tab, when i choose the possibility to see all games played, they have appeared for their parent club's U23 game a couple of days ago. But when i look at the match statistics for that particular game, they are nowhere to be found, but they are still fatigued from the game. Real strange, and this never happened in my previous two seasons. 

Obviously a bug, but has this happened to anyone else? 

[Swindon69]

Heartbreak in the FA Trophy Final - missed a penalty and got beaten by a goal in the 91st minute by Tranmere Rovers

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

I have a real strange issue in my save. Some of the players I have on loan are still playing U23 football for their parent club 

I can go into a game, having had 6-7 days off from my last game and then seeing two or three key players having 85-79 in condition. Looking at their "Form" tab, when i choose the possibility to see all games played, they have appeared for their parent club's U23 game a couple of days ago. But when i look at the match statistics for that particular game, they are nowhere to be found, but they are still fatigued from the game. Real strange, and this never happened in my previous two seasons. 

Obviously a bug, but has this happened to anyone else? 

Actually, that's not a bug, but a clause in the loan agreement. Try to loan another player and you will see it in the bottom left (with the default skin at least) along with "can be recalled" and such. I've started to remove the clause when loaning players...

2 minutes ago, Swindon69 said:

Heartbreak in the FA Trophy Final - missed a penalty and got beaten by a goal in the 91st minute by Tranmere Rovers

Ouch! Unlucky there!

[Warhawk]

Some good news going into the next season.  First, my highest rated player, Paudie O'Connor, who I had on loan from Chesterfield, had an expiring contract and agreed to join permanently.  Second, Lee Sands' agent originally required a release clause I wasn't happy with when I was going through offering full time deals (got about 15 promising youth players I offered deals too as well, hopefully will developing those guys more now).  Bristol City sent me an offer for Sands which I rejected, Sands' agent asked for a new contract and now allowed me to get rid of the release clause entirely.  I'm not opposed to selling him at some point but I think he's being undervalued right now.

[thomas_e]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

Actually, that's not a bug, but a clause in the loan agreement. Try to loan another player and you will see it in the bottom left (with the default skin at least) along with "can be recalled" and such. I've started to remove the clause when loaning players...

Ouch! Unlucky there!

Well, that was embarresing on my end... 

Thanks! 

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

Well, that was embarresing on my end... 

Thanks! 

No worries, I also got annoyed my "way to good for this level"-defender had 70% condition before every match. It took me a while to spot the clause.

[Swindon69]

Hereford United 

2019/20 Vanarama National League North : Winners

League Table

What a surprising season - after finishing 16th in the VNS Hereford found themselves moved over to the VNN for the 2019-20 season. We got off to a very strong start and only spent 6 games off the top of the table - things got a little tight with a poor run between the 15th Feb and the 28th March with the seven league games resulting in six draws and one defeat.

Fixtures

The top scorer for me was 

Lewis McNall

And topping the ratings 

Harry Clarke

He also won the fans player of the season

Signing of the season

Young Player of the Season

2019/20 FA Cup : 2nd lost 1-2 at home to Bolton Wanderers

2019/20 FA Trophy : Runners Up - lost 0-1 to Tranmere Rovers

FA Trophy Final

[13-gigi]

“DOUBTS ON GIGI ARE RISING” Fantastic headline after my first press conference as Hereford’s manager. I guess they don’t support me and they’ll will put the fans, even more, against me till I’m finally sacked. Dreamed background for all of you I guess, but I assure you they won’t take the best of me.

 

“If Gigi intended to calm the shaky waters at Hereford in his very first press conference, he didn’t. He, also, made the fans more affraid of that this is going to be a really long and tough year for them and are already fearing a massive break apart. When asked how he intended to get his side play he sounded out or place, lack of English football knowledge or in his dreamland as he looked convinced that playing an open attacking game plan will benefit his newly promoted side. He assured that his mirror is, of course, Pep’s Barça game plan but admitted that these are early stages and firstly he must have a look on his players and on he won’t assure a possession game for them because some players must not feel comfortable with the ball at their feet and he’ll have to adapt his football’s view to the players available but that for sure they’ll play an attacking game and they’ll try to dominate the game and their rivals as much as possible.

 

Even, he seemed very sure about this approach, he showed more doubts about formations and he looked like a chicken without head as his first options go from wide 433 (Barça style) to a 343’s Girona style (some of them tell as 5-4-1, some others 3-4-3. In fact both of them as they defend with a 541 and attack with a 343). Also he didn’t discarded a more traditional 352 of this last one and admitted they could adopt a 442 if players fails to adapt the new brand of systems. As you can see, and again in my opinion, it looks as he doesn’t know how to handle a semi-pro team which wants to get back to professionalism. To start with, he even doesn’t know whether to us two CB or three, one lonely striker or seek for a partnership an so. Therefore, we can imagine how his transfer policy would look like and I understand the concerns amongst the fan base.

 

Then we gave him a rest and asked for who he was looking up to as a manager and as long as we expected him to answer Johann Cruyff and Pep Guardiola’s legacy at Barça he added: As a person born in Arenys de Mar, I can’t and I won’t forget my neighbor fella Oriol Alsina. You might not know that he was the architect  of the most beautiful fairy tale in Catalunya and surely in modern days in the Spanish football. He took over a completely amateur U.E. Llagostera on season 04/05 in the old 2^nd Regional Catalan tier (8^thSpanish tier on those days)and took them to professionalism at the Spanish 2^nd tier on 13-14, six promotions in 9 years, just completely madness for everybody but even more for a town with a population of 8.000 people. They defied, again, all the odds playing against teams of the likes of Betis, Osasuna, Sporting Gijón, Girona, Valladolid, Zaragoza, Las Palmas... and not only avoided the drop but also the finished 9^th and they fell 4 points short of La Liga promotion play-off being the smallest town to have a professional team ever. Sadly, they couldn’t carry that momentum next year and they got relegated on 15/16. After failing to get back to the 2^nd tier on 16/17 he resigned and left the dugouts. You can tell how big was he’s achievement with them.

 

Sadly for us, we seem to have got the wrong end of Fàbregas and Alsina’s town as we got Gigi.

 

We’ll keep you update but before the preseason gets underway, we don’t bet he  survives Christmas.”

 

So, the dices are rolled from our local press in favor of the vast majority of town and I could tell I guess he’s not gonna be the president of my fan club any sooner.

 

Let’s see at the end who’s right. At this moment, I just can tell you that the press conferences back in Hereford look promising.

[Bradley21]

Starting this challenge this year with Barwell. I'm not really Dutch and that isn't my name, but i cling tightly to the persona i made for myself when i first started playing these games about...17 years ago. I won't change it now or ever!

 

http://prntscr.com/heuh25

[Swindon69]

Hmm so far almost every goal  is either magical or a wonder strike or pure genius.

[Kaiserwatman]

League - Squad - Dynamics - Transfers - Finances 

A debut season at league status which almost provided an undeserved playoff place as Altrincham entered the final day of the season knowing a victory at Moss Lane over Walsall would see them dislodge the opponents from a playoff - berth.  Two goals in the first 15 minutes ensured The Saddlers victory .  Overall i am pretty pleased with the campaign as funds are pretty tight with the club having to further invest  to comply with league restrictions though there were a couple of new additions made to the first XI with Tony Foy proving to be the best of the recruits coming in from the Irish First Division and Eddie Brown has looked a vast upgrade on Greenidge following his arrival from Bolton Wanderers.

The squad at this point is pretty thin as most of the old guard have now departed for pastures new so new additions to the squad are expected with full backs been labeled as priority number one. 

[Warhawk]

Hey, we dominated our first home match in League 2, out-shot Forest Green 17-3 and didn't allow a shot on goal.

We lost 3 players to injury and set the league record for lowest attendance, but I'm still calling this a win.

[Swindon69]

Well I've made my 1st cash sale - this defender wouldn't re-sign and so sadly I had to accept £100k plus a 40% of next sale offer.

Dean Dynan

[PS-GamerNeil]

Marine - End of Season 2 Review (19/20)

League Report:
It was another amazing season at Marine as we claimed our second promotion in a row and will now be playing in League Two next season after we finished top of the Vanarama National League. The season went down to the final few games and we managed to clinch promotion and the title by just 2 points ahead of second place Halifax Town. The success this season was once again down to the incredible form of our prolific strikers. Fan Favorite and Marine legend Matty Hamilton finished the season as top goal scorer in the league with 33 goals in 41 games. On load striker from Blackburn Rovers Marc Colclough scored 28 in 42 league games and our other loan striker Nick Okoro from Championship side Birmingham City scored 23 in 36 league appearances for the club. A Fantastic season for the club and one to remember for the fans.

Cup Report:
The story of the season was the amazing run we put together in the FA cup as we managed to reach the third round and get a home Tie against Tottenham. In a thrilling game we managed to get a 3-3 draw and force the game to a replay at White Hart Lane. Despite a good team performance in the replay we lost the game 1-0 but managed to pick up £1,000,000 for gate receipts that would secure the clubs future and give the board some money to improve facilities at the club. Some extra income was also brought into the club as our 2nd round win vs Doncaster and our home tie vs Tottenham was both shown on TV earning us an extra £200,000+ and helped the club get out of debt

We also had a great run in the FA Trophy as we managed to reach the Semi Final before losing to local team Tranmere Rovers 5-3 over the two legs.

Club Improvements:
After our new found wealth I had a little chat to the board and we agreed that we should spend the money to increase our facilities. They agreed to upgrade the Youth Facilities & the Data Analysis facilities as well as promising to turn the club status to professional at the end of the season. The also gave me new contract straight after the FA Cup defeat to Spurs. This was followed by the board sending me on my next coaching course to improve me as manager. Another stadium expansion will see our home ground extended to fit 5,685 fans when its finished in around 6 months.

Transfers and Loans:
As you can see there was a lot of players coming into the club this season and this seems to be a trend over the next few season as we clean out the dead wood each summer.

Key Stats and Records:
Top goal scorers: Matty Hamilton (37) - Marc Colclough - (35) Nick Okoro (30)
Most assists: Marc Colclough (26) - Nick Okoro (19) - Matty Hamilton (15)
Average Rating: Marc Colclough (7.53) - Will Taylor (7.48) - Nick Okoro (7.46)

Season 20/21 Targets:
- Stay up in league Two.
- Clean out the staff and build a completely new backroom team.
- Bring in some quality players to help us compete in the higher division.
 

Career History:

Season   |   League           Position       FA Cup         FA Trophy       League Cup       Europe      Note
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19  |   Vanarama North     2nd        3rd Qual Rd       2nd Rd            N/A            N/A        Playoff Winners
2019/20  |   Vanarama Premier   1st          3rd Rd        Semi-Final          N/A            N/A

Career Stats:

Played  |  W  |  D  |  L  |  For  |  Against  |  Win %  |  Time at club  |  Earnings  |  Trophies  | Total Transfers (£)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  108      67    19    22    281       163        62%        677 days         £42k          1               0

Club Information:

Season   |  Stadium  |  Av Attendance  |  Season Tickets  |  Training Facilities  | Youth Facilities  |  Youth Recruitment
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19  |   3,185          647                124             Poor Facilities       Poor Facilities         Limited
2019/20  |   4,435        1,093                191             Poor Facilities       Poor Facilities         Limited

 

 

[Swindon69]

Congrats and good luck in L2.

[Warhawk]

Seeing as HighFlyingDwarf hasn't been around lately, I'm playing around with building a website on Wix with a leaderboard if people are interested in that.  I don't have a post early in the thread but @dafuge could stick a link in the original post I suppose.

[Scab]

Season 2022/23 Review - Mickleover Sports in the Vanarama National League

League Table | Season Review

That's more like it! I finally got the right combination of players and tactical approach to make the team shine! Especially happy with the controlled and organized way in which we so often win; conceding more than a single goal per game has been a rarity. I hate to keep coming back to defending set pieces, but conceding just 7 feels like a world of difference to last year's 21. It's let us get away with draws and tight wins where we'd previously drop points. While I did make the tiniest of tweaks to defensive corners, it likely has more to do with spending the entire season on "defending set pieces" match prep. Good to see it makes a difference!

I suppose our cup performance is the one blemish on this season. I expect to struggle against Newport Co — they topped the league for the first few months and have much better players — but getting kicked out of the FA Cup by Bradford PA was a serious low point. They play in the VNN one tier below us! Heck, they even got relegated! The league may have been my priority, but that cup money would've helped us stay financially healthy.

Squad | Transfers

Getting Duggan in on loan prompted the move to 4-4-2; I couldn't ignore the scoring potential of him and Powell up front. That also made room for Odelusi on the left as an attacking IW cutting inside to overload the center, while Mafuta—Harrison—Bradley held things down with more conservative roles. It's not perfect — I always feel a bit naked without a true DM — but a pushed up d-line seems to shrink the space between stratas decently enough.

In less exciting news, I was sad to see Grayson go. I haven't forgotten he's a big reason we're in the VNN in the first place, but he wasn't satisfied rotating with the new boys and left of his own accord. That was months ago and he's still without a club, so I fear this may be the footballing end for our old hero. I wish I could say we have young players coming through as replacements, but my annoying and largely incompetent board decided to sell Adam Flint! The player I spent all last season giving playtime and getting tutored! Instead of actually playing or developing him, Preston also just stuck him in their U18 team! I'd loan him back, but we're apparently not a nice enough place to develop at. 

Finances

Not looking so hot. There's really no big income on the horizon, in fact we'll be looking at new expenses after going professional and getting the stadium up to snuff. I'm curious to see how the board will manage all this.

Aim for next season: Stay up. Stay professional. Stay a team no one likes to play.

Season    League              Finish   Notes
2022/23   Vanarama National   1st      League winners
2021/22   Vanarama National   2nd      Knocked out in Playoff 1st Rnd
2020/21   Vanarama National   5th      Knocked out in Playoff 1st Rnd
2019/20   Vanarama North      2nd      Promoted via Playoffs
2018/19   Vanarama North      16th     -

 

[Warhawk]

1 hour ago, Warhawk said:

Seeing as HighFlyingDwarf hasn't been around lately, I'm playing around with building a website on Wix with a leaderboard if people are interested in that.  I don't have a post early in the thread but @dafuge could stick a link in the original post I suppose.

Here's the website, in a pretty basic form:

https://warhawk137.wixsite.com/dafugechallenge

It's pulling from a Google sheet I set up.  You can sort and search the list.  If you want to go back to the default sorting just reload the page since none of the columns will sort it in the original manner.

May think of some other stuff to add, maybe a section to highlight people & their teams who have completed the challenge.

[Mr_Demus]

Officially joining. 12 matches in W2 D2 L8.

 

[dafuge]

3 hours ago, Warhawk said:

Here's the website, in a pretty basic form:

https://warhawk137.wixsite.com/dafugechallenge

It's pulling from a Google sheet I set up.  You can sort and search the list.  If you want to go back to the default sorting just reload the page since none of the columns will sort it in the original manner.

May think of some other stuff to add, maybe a section to highlight people & their teams who have completed the challenge.

Nice one, I've added that to the opening post

[Mr_Demus]

Hereford didn't work out, so I am restarting this at some point...

[PS-GamerNeil]

6 hours ago, Warhawk said:

Seeing as HighFlyingDwarf hasn't been around lately, I'm playing around with building a website on Wix with a leaderboard if people are interested in that.  I don't have a post early in the thread but @dafuge could stick a link in the original post I suppose.

great idea bud

[PS-GamerNeil]

Anyone found that they have got them self attached to a certain player?

I am still playing Matty Hamilton in League two. He was at the club when I took over but I cant drop him <3 (Even though he is a Everton Fan ) He has been amazing for me and has scored 69 Goals in all comps for me. He has been such an important player for the team that has helped me achieve back to back promotions. He looks absolutely awful on paper but he keep scoring goals for me and is also a club icon! There will come a point where he will be benched and become a back up player but I would love to keep him at the club. Maybe he could improve a little with training.

 

 

[XaW]

47 minutes ago, PS-GamerNeil said:

Anyone found that they have got them self attached to a certain player?

I am still playing Matty Hamilton in League two. He was at the club when I took over but I cant drop him <3 (Even though he is a Everton Fan ) He has been amazing for me and has scored 69 Goals in all comps for me. He has been such an important player for the team that has helped me achieve back to back promotions. He looks absolutely awful on paper but he keep scoring goals for me and is also a club icon! There will come a point where he will be benched and become a back up player but I would love to keep him at the club. Maybe he could improve a little with training.

I have the same. Matty Hamilton was great for me as well, and was with me until League Two, but then he was replaced since he was a duck out of water there.

The one I have the attachment to at the moment is Manesseh Koenraat. I picked him up when I was in Vanarama North and he is still my first choice now in the Championship as well as being vice-captain. Granted he is good enough to play here, but I am planning on using him for as long as I play. If I get into the Champions League I can guarantee he will start if he is fit.

Another player is Stavros Pechlivanidis. My current captain and team leader. He was also brought in back in the Vanarama North. Now he plays a bit for Greece and run our midfield. I keep rejecting bids of over £2M.

[dkouv]

King’s Lynn dafuge Challenge
 

Season 3 – 2020/21 – Vanarama National

First season up in Vanarama National, I felt a bit of pressure since so many others in this challenge have managed to get promoted straightaway, and this seemed quite, well, challenging.

Transfers: I started off doing the usual thing, shipping off most of my back-up players and replacing them with players who were first-team level but young, or experienced and better than my first teamers. But two things led to a somewhat higher turnover than intended. First, as the season progressed, around September – November, I kept getting scouting reports on good players who had been released for a while and suddenly wanted to join me. Second, I lined up a few players released by British clubs (a Dane and a Luxembourger), but because of Brexit I forgot about the work permit stuff, their transfers didn’t come through and I already sold the players they were going to replace… This ensured a bit of a scramble to fill some places in the squad. Still, we filled the team with a good blend of youth and experience, and most of my best players this season were new signings.

League: Again we started inconsistently, with one particularly infuriating last-minute 4-2 loss after being 2-0 up at half time. But we hit a great run of form as early as September, and eventually pulled away from the chasing pack in March, winning the title quite easily

FA Cup: Another great run saw us beating League 2 and League 1 teams to reach fourth round, where we lost to Swansea with some much-needed cash.

FA Trophy: Just the fourth round this time, with our journey ended by a somewhat embarrassing 3-0 loss to Harrogate.

Best players: I’m following the pack in playing an ultra-attacking “score one more than you” 4-3-3, so strikers are the ones that shine most. Regardless, Jozsef Keaveny (ST), who was released by Leicester, was an amazing signing, hitting 48 goals and assisting 25 in 47(3) games. I am loving the attacking bias of this FM, but it does seem a tad unrealistic at times… His strike partner experienced Ryan Bird (AMR/ST) also netted plenty, 31 in 35(5), and the youngster Callum Tshikuna (MC) has shone in midfield.

Facilities: youth facilities upgraded just because I could; and a much-needed training facility upgrade coming up this summer, alongside with a small stadium expansion to comply with league requirements.

Looking forward to next season, and congrats to @XaW and @Hypanimz for shooting up the leagues

Season  |  League   | Pos.  |  FA Cup  | FA Trophy |  CL      |   EL       |  Top scorer        |  Top assists        |    Top rating        | Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |  Van Nth  |  5    |  R3      |  R1       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Abioye (36)       |  Limb (17)          |    Limb (7.4)        | Lost in play-off final
2019/20 |  Van Nth  |  1    |  R3      |  won      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Obiero (34)       |  Hmami (18)         |    Doughty (7.8)     | Promoted
2020/21 |  Van Nat  |  1    |  R4      |  R4       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Keaveny (48)      |  Keaveny (25)       |    Keaveny (7.9)     | Promoted

Season  |  Finances  | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      | Coaching     |   Recruitment  | Stadium
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |   £82k     |  Poor          |  Poor           | Adequate     |   Limited      | 8200 
2019/20 |   £392k    |  Basic         |  Poor           | Average      |   Limited      | 8200 
2020/21 |   £193k    |  Basic         |  Basic          | Average      |   Limited      | 8200 

 

[jsar]

8 hours ago, Warhawk said:

Here's the website, in a pretty basic form:

https://warhawk137.wixsite.com/dafugechallenge

It's pulling from a Google sheet I set up.  You can sort and search the list.  If you want to go back to the default sorting just reload the page since none of the columns will sort it in the original manner.

May think of some other stuff to add, maybe a section to highlight people & their teams who have completed the challenge.

Awesome Job!!!

 

[Mr_Demus]

What do people do with players?

At the start of a season you have quite mediocre players in your squad. So I signed a lot of players, and they ate my wage budget. In november and december players of a far better quality become interested, but with no room for their wages.

 

Do you guys just play with what you got for the first couple of months and then go on a spending spree?

[XaW]

I just got a major talent through, and since we played one of the worst teams at home he could get his start. He scored two goals, so I might keep him in the first team the rest of the season. I think he could be the next big thing...

[Hypanimz]

2 minutes ago, XaW said:

I just got a major talent through, and since we played one of the worst teams at home he could get his start. He scored two goals, so I might keep him in the first team the rest of the season. I think he could be the next big thing...

Wow! he looks pretty special!

[XaW]

1 minute ago, Hypanimz said:

Wow! he looks pretty special!

Yeah, he seems very good. Also noticed he is dubbed the next Michael Owen. I can only hope!

[Hypanimz]

1 minute ago, XaW said:

Yeah, he seems very good. Also noticed he is dubbed the next Michael Owen. I can only hope!

I have only just began work on improving my youth. I should have probably began earlier like you and then I may have had a few gems come through!

[Warhawk]

2 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, he seems very good. Also noticed he is dubbed the next Michael Owen. I can only hope!

I've got the "next Michael Owen" on loan from Stoke, he's leading League Two in goals and average rating right now.  We're in 1st place mostly because of him.

[Hypanimz]

 

My best result of the season! I am now over the magical 40 point mark in the Premier League and with 6 games to go I am virtually assured survival!

[XaW]

Wow! Amazing result there @Hypanimz!

[Swindon69]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

I just got a major talent through, and since we played one of the worst teams at home he could get his start. He scored two goals, so I might keep him in the first team the rest of the season. I think he could be the next big thing...

Crikey

[Swindon69]

Early days in the National League and one of my biggest ever wins in FM

Hereford 8 Crawley 2

And the 4 goal man

Luca Navarro

[jsar]

WEYMOUTH 2020-2021

All in all a great season for us, our formation which i called a 3-4-3-0 on the last update but having looked is actually a 5-2-3-0 continues to deliver. I was trying to find out stats for possession across the season, as this tactic is giving over 50% most games and is a key reason for our success.  Despite spending pretty much the entire season in 1st place we decided to make promotion difficult for ourselves by drawing our last game to make us go joint top (2nd on Goal difference) and so had to go up via the Playoffs, again we managed to make this as difficult as possible, going to penalties in the semi finals  and a dramatic thriller Vs Tranmere in the final. After going 2-0 down by the 11th minute things where not looking good, a Luca De La Torre  goal in the 21st min gave us a bit of hope and and unfortunate own goal in the 52nd minute put us right back in the game. an 80th minute strike from James Alabi had Weymouth fans thinking it was all over but a 94th minute from star loanee Adam Freeman put us into extra time. Two Goals from Monty Patterson sealed the deal 5-3 and promotion to League 2.

Despite an appalling finishing of 5 (which was an improvement across the season) Ada

Top Scorer - Adam Freeman

Highest Average Rating - Adam Freeman

Signing of the Season - Adam Freeman

 

 

Squad

End of Season Confidence

 

League Table | League Overview

Season review

End of Season Awards

 

 

[Swindon69]

Congrats @jsar and good luck for next season.

[Swindon69]

My board have kindly agreed to fund my Continental B Licence.

[StevenStorm]

Lowestoft Town FC - End of Season 2021/22
1st in Vanarama National League
Final League Table | Squad | Transfers | Schedule 1+2 | Awards | Season Review |Finances
Best Eleven

Lookback:
    Finally managed to post after I finished this season last Sunday. I bought new defenders + goalkeeper as I assumed I would - but I couldn't fix my defense.
    Therefore I decided to just play for as much goals as possible. Ended up with one of the weakest defences and the best offense that got us the automatic promotion by finishing first.
    Cup performance however was extremely miserable ... didn't help my finances a lot. 
    
Transfers:
    Marcus Dinanga, Striker - don't know why nobody used him ... his stats looked good to me so I signed him. 39 apps, 25 goals, 17 assists - all good. He was last season in Vanarama South only playing 4 games ... god knows why.
    Daniel Griffiths, Striker - Loaned him the previous season ... and he looked good enough (20 goals) ... this season he was part of my amazing offense. 43 apps, 19 goals, 21 assists - The assists in the league (19) were a new record for the league.
    Neal Osborn, Goalkeeper - He actually declined over the season ... I'm thinking off offloading him - but his contract auto extended after the promotion.
    James Norman, Midfielder - His stats looked great, was meant to help organize in the midfield. He played a lot but was mostly under the radar due to my amazing strikers. (41 games, 1 goal, 4 assists)
    Ed Luer, Striker Loan - needed a backup up front mid season ... he came in and did a decent job. 32 apps, 18 goals, 11 assists 
    
    
Outlook:
    I guess I'll try the same tactic in the new season. Most of my players are still under contract and I'll try and replicate what we did this season. I hope for a good mid-table finish.
    But we need to advance in the cups as well ... money is very tight right now.    

 

Season       League         	 Position       FA Cup         FA Trophy       Top Scorer      		    Most Assists          Highest Rating
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19      Vanarama North    		19th       2nd Qual Rd       1st Rd       Jake Reed (18)     		Lewis Taaffe (11)    Eze Ebuzoeme (6.99)
2019/20      Vanarama North     	5th          1st Rd       3rd Qual Rd    Tom Hitchcock (34) 		Anthony Cook (15)    Bernardo Rosa (7.23)
2020/21      Vanarama National		19th		4th Rd			1st Rd		Daniel Griffiths (27)		Rachid Tiah (11)	 Lezion Cela (7.06)
2021/22      Vanarama National      1st         4th Qual Rd     1st Rd      Marcus Dinanga (25)         Daniel Griffiths (21) Marcus Dinanga (7.44)