[FM18] Billericay Town - Mo' Money No Problems

[Nottingham Forest]

FM18 Save Details

Having struggled to get into a save on this years FM despite it being one of the best imo, I decided to try and take Billericay Town all the way to the Premier League. The save is only a stop gap until an edited database is released where I can play as Clifton All Whites. The save initially come about from me wanting to complete the youth challenge from CSE and Billericay were an obvious choice with their quality squad already. However, after holiday the compulsory year, I found out that they had a wage budget of £36k per week, of which they were spending £26k. With that in mind, I reloaded FM up with some different league and nations to try and take them to the top.

Leagues & Nations Loaded

Belgium

England

France

Germany

Holland

Italy

Spain

Scotland

Portugal

Ireland

Wales

Northern Ireland

All players from Reunion

All players from Curaçao

Brief Info on Billericay Town

For those of you who don't know, Billericay are owned by a fairly rich owner who is willing to put his cash into the club. In the game, he's left as he was previously manager but I've been told the chairman status is set as one of the tycoon status'.

 

[Nottingham Forest]

Billericay Town

2018-19 Season

Vanarama National South

Backroom Staff Transfers - All Transfers - Youth Candidates - Transfer Out 2018 - Finances Start 

Pre-Season

Pre-season was a slow one as I tried to build a squad that could win the title. After trawling the free agents I finally built a squad I felt confident in. Our pre-season campaign was good as we remained unbeaten and picking up results against some good teams.

League Results

The media decided to predict us to finish between 1st and 3rd all season. Not that I pay much attention to it but I believed we could gain a second promotion in 2 seasons. We flew out of the traps as we won our first 9 league games. In those 9 games we scored 36 goals and new signing, Cedwyn Scott scored 19 goals in 9. A cup was sandwiched in between the 5-4 loss to Hemel Hempstead in which we were leading 4-3 with 10 to go. They nicked two late goals to win. We then picked up a few more wins before going on a bit of a bad run where we didn't win from the 27th October until the 29th December. During the second half of the season we managed to maintain enough good form to secure the title with about 3 games to go. We were helped by Hereford's poor form.

League Table

Cups

No point in discussing these as we didn't get much of a run in either.

Key Players

Cedwyn Scott - Signed on a free, Scott flew out of the traps with 19 in 9. He calmed down thereafter and finished the season with an impressive 36 league goals in 41 games and assisting 16 times. He also picked up the league's top scorer and player of the year awards.

Harvey Bradbury - Another free transfer and son of Lee. He wasn't quite as prolific but still finished with 32 league goals in 42 games with 17 assists. Also finished 3rd in the league scoring charts.

Erico Sousa - The former Accrington man chipped in with 10 goals and 14 assists from the wing.

Other News

We had to be bailed out by the board a few times as they invested about £2m into the club's coffers. They've also decided to look for an area to build a new modern 4,000 seater stadium. They've also agreed to some youth facilities improvements as this season's intake was rubbish. Our provisional budgets for next season are £43k per week wage budget and no transfer budget. The wage budget would be an increase of about £10k. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DazRTaylor]

Terrific first season.  

[Nottingham Forest]

It was yeah. However, we only broke away in the last 4 games. Probably need to work on the defence :D.

[Nottingham Forest]

Billericay Town

2019-20 Season

Vanarama National

Released Players 2019 - All Transfers - Youth Candidates - Finances End

Pre-Season

I'll be honest and admit that this pre-season was tough as I just couldn't attract the quality I was after from the start. So I took a long time assembling my squad. The results we had were tough as we didn't play overly well in some games but in others we looked a different class.

League Results

The start of this season was completely different to last. The media were still predicting us to do well but it seems as though the players didn't quite believe in themselves. We lost our first two games 4-2 and I thought that we'd then struggle. The game against Dagenham & Redbridge was a frustrating one as we found ourselves 4-2 up with not long left. Only to let them back into the game and secure a point. From there we secured another four wins and a draw. The most enjoyable game of FM I've had was the 9-2 win against Weston Super Mare. A defeat was sandwiched in between another 5 game winning streak before another 3-2 loss. Two wins and draw followed before we lost 7-3 to York City. I couldn't believe it as we'd not been playing badly. With about 15 minutes to go we'd pulled it back to 5-3 before they scored two more late goals. A 5 match unbeaten spell followed before two defeats rounded off our year. From the 1st January until the 14th March we managed to put together a 12 match unbeaten run before we lost to title rivals Ebbsfleet United. Another 5 match unbeaten run followed where going into game 45, we found ourselves 4 points clear of Tranmere Rovers. Unfortunately we lost to Gateshead which meant going into game 46, we needed to match Tranmere's result to secure the title. I had a shocking moment with the teamtalk and we eventually lost 4-2 against Barrow. I'll let you work out the rest.....

League Table

We were pretty much in the running from game 3 and with 2 games to go I thought we'd wrapped up the title. Unfortunately we failed to see it through and had to settle for the nervy play-offs. Thankfully we came through.

Cups

Again no point in discussing these as we didn't really do much damage again.

Key Players

Oladapo Afolayan - The former Solihull Moors man was released after the second season with them where he'd scored something like 25 in 87. I saw something in him and he repaid the faith as he smashed 31 league goals in 44 league games with 17 assists. He also picked up the league's top scorer and player of the year award.

Harvey Bradbury - Harvey keeps banging them in and along with Ola he was key to our success. Returned 30 from 39 in the league this season with 14 assists. Finished second behind Ola in the league top scorer's charts.

Cedwyn Scott - If having two quality strikers isn't enough, we had 3. Cedwyn wasn't quite as prolific as last season due to injuries and bench appearances but he still managed to put 27 in the back of the net from 36 league games with 11 assists.

Other News

Poor old Adam Bale picked up a second knee injury as he recovered from the first one. We had Brexit confirmed. I believe this is what brought about the new work permit rules. The chairman chucked another £3.5m into the club's coffers. This saw me request a shedload of improvements; junior coaching, training facilities, youth facilities, youth recruitment and youth category. I won manager of the year and we had some previous youth facility requests completed. The board also reduced the wage budget from £43k to about £35k due to our poor finances in January. The initial budgets have been set for next season and we've provisionally been given up to £48k per week on wages. I managed to get more scouts approved along with Middlesbrough replacing Portsmouth as our parent club. We also announced a feeder club in East Thurrock and renegotiated our deal with Great Wakering. The board announced a new stadium;

Along with the relocation to Southend's ground, Roots Hall

I also had a certain former England captain approach me asking to join us around February time. I decided to trial him and see if he was any good. Despite him not having no pace, I thought he'd be perfect for my central midfield role. He decided however, that he wanted about £4.8k per week which I couldn't afford at the time. I was considering making a move over the summer for him but he's since retired.

 

 

 

[DazRTaylor]

195 goals in your league games.  Utter boring dross.  I demand a refund.  😘

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 18/11/2017 at 09:29, Nottingham Forest said:

FM18 Save Details

Having struggled to get into a save on this years FM despite it being one of the best imo, I decided to try and take Billericay Town all the way to the Premier League.

 

You're over a decade behind me doing it, and that was way before they had all this money.

[Nottingham Forest]

On ‎19‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 20:30, DazRTaylor said:

195 goals in your league games.  Utter boring dross.  I demand a refund.  😘

Yeah, it's not fun when I could be 4-1 up and it turns into 4-3 with 5 to go. Not fun.

On ‎20‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 23:02, Nobby_McDonald said:

You're over a decade behind me doing it, and that was way before they had all this money.

It's fun with money though haha.

[JMA]

Great start pal.

Be interesting to see how far the money can take you. 

 

[Nottingham Forest]

It will. Technically 3 promotions in a row and the issue I feel I'm going to have is more based with rep. 

[Nottingham Forest]

Billericay Town

2020-21 Season

Sky Bet League Two

Released Players 2020 - All Transfers - Youth Candidates - Finances End

Pre-Season

Due to our inability not to concede goals, I decided to change our tactics slightly during pre-season so the defenders were more about hoofing the ball forward. It seemed to work as we scored lots of goals and didn't concede many in six games. The Boro game we ended up having 22 shots against them whilst they had about 8.

League Results

The media can't seem to make up their mind as to where they want us to finish. At the start of pre-season it was 17th but by the time we'd made all of our signings it had turned to 5th and then eventually down to 10th. By Christmas it was back down to 17th when we were top. Anywho, I wasn't sure what to expect in League Two. However, I felt confident of getting out of the league with the three automatic promotion spots. Our first game of the season was against eventual champions Wimbledon. Despite us not playing well, a 4-2 win flattered them as the ref decided to award them 3 penalties in this game. 5 wins followed as we found ourselves in the top 3 of the league after 6 but that was after I reverted back to our standard tactic. A small blip against Maidstone where they nicked a late winner. Another 6 game unbeaten run followed as we got 5 wins and a draw before another late loss to then title rivals, Swindon. Five more wins followed as we firmly cemented our place at the top of the pile. Our next six games produced three wins, two losses and a draw as we went into the new year merry. It seems we had much of a hangover from new year as a two match winless run was followed by three good wins. A loss, win, loss, draw, draw and loss signalled our worst run or what seemed like our worst run under my management as we surrendered top spot. 5 wins followed as we slowly stared clawing the points back on Wimbledon. Against Hartlepool we were 1 up at half-time and I decided not to give a teamtalk as the players seemed cool. How wrong I was, Hartlepool decided to put 8 past us in the second half which I thought had all but ended our title hopes. Two wins got my hopes up as Wimbledon, who had lost just 3 in 23 now decided they wanted to give us a chance. We got a win in the 45th game which meant we were a point behind. Unfortunately we could only manage a draw against Grimsby. Although it didn't matter much.

League Table

We were top of the table from about the 12th game until about the 36th game when we just crumbled. We gave up a 9 point lead at one stage to have a 7 point deficit. Just after we secured promotion, game week 43. We found ourselves 5 points behind Wimbledon and I really thought we'd do it. Going into the final game of the season and we were a point behind them. Wimbledon fell behind to Crawley but then came back to win 4-1 and secure the title meaning we had to settle for second.

Cups

We had some cup runs. In the FA Cup we needed a replay to beat 24th placed Rochdale to set up an away tie against Crystal Palace which was played on a Wednesday night at their place. We took a shock 2-0 lead and should have made it 3 just before half-time. I messed up on the teamtalk and Palace came out the blocks and nicked one back early on. They drew level and it was then an even game. As we pushed for a winner they scored 2 late goals to make it 4-2. In the Carabao Cup we drew Ipswich at Portman Road. They started the better side but we kept ourselves in it and became the better side. By the end of the game we'd had about 30 shots. Unfortunately we lost on penalties. In the Checkatrade we got to the 2nd round where we were comfortably beaten by Fulham Under 23s.

Youth Candidates

Our best intake to date with 4 players at this present moment in time having the potential in my opinion to possibly make the grade. They are Aidan Mander, George McNulty, Joe Holmes and Spencer McGeorge.

Key Players

Jordan Smith - The West Brom loaneee managed to smash 45 goals in 50 games in all comps with 15 assists. In the cups he only started one game and still managed 7 goals from 6 sub and 1 start appearance. In the league he scored 38 from 43 with 14 assists. He also won the League Two player of the year and top scorer.

Erico Sousa - This man just continues to improve as we progress up the leagues. He obviously fits my tactic well but he managed to assist 20 times across the course of the season.

Cedwyn Scott - Cedwyn has been with us since the South and he continues to scores goals. This season he managed to get 22 in 41 from all comps despite only starting 29 games. He's also managed to assist 11 times.

Other News

I've signed two new contracts, won manager of the year again. The board have decided to give me a £5k wage increase which means we have about £23k to spend on new players for our first in League One. The chairman invested another £2.2m into the coffers which meant I could get some facilities improvements and more staff. 

 

 

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 25/11/2017 at 09:46, Nottingham Forest said:

It's fun with money though haha.

It's more rewarding without it.

[Nottingham Forest]

2 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

It's more rewarding without it.

I’ve done that though. This is a nice change.

[Nottingham Forest]

Billericay Town

2021-22 Season

Sky Bet League One

Released Players 2021 - All Transfers - Youth Candidates - Finances End

Pre-Season

This was our toughest pre-season as we were no longer considered to be favourites for promotion as our media prediction fluctuated from 22nd to 14th. We also were mid-table in our wages budget which meant I found it difficult to attract the right quality. That meant we only played four pre-season games. Some cracking results in there and I felt confident going into the new season.

League Results

Like last season, we started off with a game against Wimbledon. Again, like last season the referee decided to award them a penalty. We struggled in this game and I was more than happy to take a draw. In front of the cameras we hammered Bristol Rovers before following that up with a draw and another victory. 9 points from the next 18 followed as we couldn't get any momentum going. That was followed up by three defeats in three games. An eight match unbeaten run followed which included six wins as we slowly started cementing ourselves in the play-off places. Against Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day we were in control until the 30th minute when Paul Digby got sent off for a second yellow. That Wednesday's striker Hirst slot 3 past us in about 10 minutes to put them well in control. We got 2 back before half-time before getting the equaliser a minute after the restart. Unfortunately we then felt the job was done and crumbled to a 5-3 defeat. We rounded off the year with a 3-2 win against Oldham where we needed a stoppage time winner to take all three points. Going into the new year we added another six games to make it 7 unbeaten and we were on the verge of the automatic promotion places. A defeat to play-off rivals Colchester brought us back down to earth before we went on another four game unbeaten run. The Bolton game was the turning point of our season as we'd managed to go ahead of them into second by one point going into our match and knowing a win would take us four clear didn't seem to motivate the players as we won just two games in ten matches. Gameweeks 45 and 46 were against Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth who sat 4th and 1st respectively. The latter having already secured the title. No one gave us a chance against Wednesday and as we were playing on the Sunday, we had now fallen out of the play-offs by two points. So we knew we'd need a win to put us back in control going into the final game. Wednesday scored after about 30 minutes and I decided to go overload as I thought we'd ruined our chances. We levelled pretty much straight away and I kept us on overload. We rode our luck at times before Scott and Sousa scored two late goals to secure us an unlikely victory and move us back upto 6th. The final game of the season saw us in 6th, Exeter in 5th along with Wednesday in 4th and Pompey in 3rd. Colchester needed to win to jump in from 7th. Against Plymouth we got a lucky break as a deflected strike went in before Oladapo Afolayan doubled our lead on 18. They got one back shortly afterwards but we managed to hold on and secure our play-off spot. Away in the play-off first leg, neither side wanted to lose and when we went one down I thought that was it. I went overload and we pulled level immediately before they then scored on 75. I thought it was over again but we levelled before snatching a late winner. The home tie was a nervy affair in which we took the lead before they scored two goals to level the aggregate scores. We levelled immediately again and on 74 we made sure to secure a trip to Wembley where we'd play Pompey. I wasn't sure what happened in the play-off final but it was probably our best performance in a season and a half. We took an early lead before they levelled. A goal from Michael Lawrence put us back in front before Jerome Sinclair grabbed the third on 41. We put a fourth away on 53 before Oladapo got our fifth just before the hour mark. I still wasn't confident we'd do it and expected a fightback but it didn't materialise and we comfortably saw out the remainder of the game to secure what is effectively a fifth promotion in five seasons.

League Table

At game week 34 we'd managed to sneak into second and our next game was against Bolton. Our season went downhill from there where in gameweeks 45 and 46 we had to play then 4th place Sheffield Wednesday and champions Plymouth. We won both and as you can see, the rest is history.

Cups

In the FA Cup we were the most pleasing as we went in until the 5th round before we lost comfortably to Stoke. The two memorable wins were against Boro and Hull where we were the better side in all three games. Nothing happened in the Carabao Cup and in the Checkatrade, despite me trying to use rotation/backup players, we still managed to get to the third round of the south division. The memorable win was against Arsenal under 23s where we found ourselves 4-1 down at half-time.

Key Players

Oladapo Afolayan - Ola broke the club's most goals in a season that was set by Jordan Smith last season as he scored 46 this. Including 40 in League One which saw him break a 63 year old record along with being the league's top scorer and player of the year.

Erico Sousa - The man just seems to get better as once again he chipped in with about 10 goals and 20 assists.

Cedwyn Scott - Another player who has come up through the ranks and once again he chipped in with some important goals as he notched about 20 in all comps with about 15 assists.

Other News

I rejected interviews over the course of the season from West Ham, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Luton, Colchester, MK Dons and Peterborough. We've had a 5 month delay moving into our new stadium which means we're staying at Roots Hall for the time being. We've had an increase to the club's training facilities and youth category. Shortly after the end of season finances, the chairman injected another £4.1m into the club's coffers. Whilst it was a welcome surprise, we'd actually done fairly well financially last season due to the FA Cup. The initial budgets for next season have been announced at £63k per week for wages and about £1.3m for transfers.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Billericay keep marching on.